Latest / Off The Kirb Ministries / When the Battle Is in Your Mind: 8 Types People Who Can’t Seem to Win This Struggle

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When the Battle Is in Your Mind: 8 Types People Who Can’t Seem to Win This Struggle · Off The Kirb Ministries

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When I was at university, I went to a very small church.
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There was about 15 in the church, maybe 20 on a good day.
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But at that church, there was some real diamonds.
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One of them was actually one of the elves at the church.
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And I'm going to go as far to say I truly believe this.
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He is one of the godliest men I've ever met.
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Even to this day, he hands down is one of the godliest men and I
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remember something he said to me that had a tremendous impact
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upon my life. He said, Joe, one thing you need
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to remember is the Christian life is really just one big
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battle. It's really just a battle of the
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mind. My dear friend, that's what I
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want to talk to you about today. I want to talk to you about this
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battle which is in the mind. But here's the big question, who
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we battling against? Well, it's the devil.
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You see, the devil will use your mind as a battleground.
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And his goal is to control your thought life.
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His goal is to enter into your mind because he knows if you can
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get your mind, you can get the rest of your body, the rest of
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your vessel. So there's two things really I
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want to share with you today. There's two ways that you can do
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this. The first way is this, he can
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somehow plant sinful seeds into your mind.
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And then the second way you can do this is by putting a
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heaviness, heavy thoughts, a wrestling inside of the mind.
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So we're going to talk about these two factors and how the
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enemy does this. But before we do that, if you
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are new to this channel, this is my coffee channel where we just
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drink coffee. We drink coffee, we have a hot
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drink. So please, if this is your first
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time now, if you're already a veteran of this channel, you
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know what to do. The kettle should be on by now.
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You should be making yourself a nice cup of tea.
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Maybe you've gone to the the fridge freezer and you've got
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yourself a nice a nice cold drink, or you've got yourself a
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nice a nice cup of Joe. But we just literally have
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coffee and we talk about the Bible.
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All right, the first way that the devil seeks to take control
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of your mind is by planting sinful seeds into your mind.
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Now, what you need to remember is your mind is like a garden.
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And just like in a garden, there are many different plants, there
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are many different things growing.
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Well, your mind has got many different thoughts.
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You think about your family, you think about your job, you think
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about your pets. Perhaps there's all these
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different things growing there and each one is a seed that
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started. Anything that is planted, it
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will one day grow. And if you allow wrong things,
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wrong thoughts, sins enter into your mind, it will grow you.
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Mark my words. Some people the devil has
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planted the thought of I want to get more money.
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If I get more wealth, more success, then I'll feel like a
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somebody. Then I'll feel happier.
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I just need to get these possessions, a bigger house, a
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better car. Some people it's I need more
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respect, I need more admiration. I want to be great.
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I want everyone to know who I am.
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I'm tired of people looking down on me and the devil plants that
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into your mind. Some people it's it's a jealousy
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that he plants there or it's a seed of gossip and you've just
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got to know this information or, or perhaps there's division
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there and you want to see someone you know that's hurt you
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in the past. You want to see them outage.
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You want to see the whole world to know.
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You want everyone to know just how bad this person is.
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Or maybe you've been dwelling on another person, someone who
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you're strongly attracted to, but you're married and the devil
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has has put that thought into your mind.
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Oh, you dream of them. You dream of what it would be
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like to be with that person and, and over time you think about
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it. My dear friend, do not be
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deceived. It's not just a thought.
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If you are thinking about this as a scenario, if you're, if
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you're just dwelling on this as a scenario over in your mind
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over and over, any of these thoughts, it will affect your
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behaviour. If you think you can stand, be
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careful lest you fall. Because these things, they get
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into us, they mess us up. And that is the devil's goal, to
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plant a little seed here, a little seed there and to make
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you lose control of your mind. One of the Puritans I don't
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want, let's put a name to it in case I'm wrong, but he once said
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we can't stop the birds from flying around our heads, but we
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can stop them from planting a nest in our hair.
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Now, some of us haven't got much hair.
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There isn't a lot to work with for some of those birds.
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But you get the idea, don't you? We can't stop these things
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flying around. We can't stop the temptations
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being there. But if we dwell on it, if, as I
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said, we play these things over as a scenario, if we start to
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dream about these things, that's where the problem arises because
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very soon it can become a reality in a moment's time.
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I'm going to share some Bible verses with you on this
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particular thought. But first, I think it's really
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important I ask you this question.
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As I've been speaking right now, I believe the Holy Spirit, for
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some of you at least, He's been laying His finger on an area of
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your life and you know exactly what seed has been planted in
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your heart. So I'm going to ask you very
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plainly, what is this seed? What is this thing that is
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growing inside of you that's in your mind that the devil is is
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battling with you every single day?
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What is it that's in your mind right now as I speak?
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What are you thinking of and what is it that you know you
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need to repent of? Because I really want you to
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dwell on this and I really want by the end of this video for you
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to truly be able to fight against this and to be wiser and
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stronger and to put on the full armour of God to know that you
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will have victory over this and the devil will not win the
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battle for your mind. OK, so if you've got a Bible
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there, please turn to Proverbs chapter 23 and verse 7.
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Proverbs 23 and verse 7. The Bible says, for as he thinks
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in his heart, so is he. When I was at school, there was
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a popular phrase that sort of went viral back then, and it was
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you are what you eat. There was a lady used to come on
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television and she used to be telling all the school children
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who are my age that you need to eat well because then you'll be
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well. Where did this idea come from?
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Well, it came from the Bible because the Bible is very clear.
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You are what you think. Whatever you allow into those
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gates, you've got gates over your your mind.
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Whatever you open the gate to and say you can enter in, that's
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eventually what you become. That's what the Bible is saying
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here. So how do we stop this?
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That's what I want to know. How do we stop having these
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thoughts? How do we stop these seeds that
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have started to grow? Dare I say?
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Well, some of you listening, you're avid gardeners and you
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know what it is to put on a pair of gardening gloves and to get
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your hands dirty. That's exactly what you have to
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do. You need to go and you start up
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rooting these thoughts. You need to sort of remind
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yourself, why is this thought evil?
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You know, why is it wrong to want lots of money?
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You know, why is it wrong to obsess with having lots of
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money? As you know, it's not wrong to
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be rich, but but why is it wrong to to let that be your God?
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Because the love of money is the root of all evil.
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You have a verse there and you attack it.
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Why is it wrong to to go off with another person if if you
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know they're even not a believer or if you know you're married?
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Why is that wrong? Because the Bible in the book of
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Galatians, I think it's chapter 5, it gives a whole list of
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people who will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
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And it's those who are not pure. It is those who have ran around
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and done wrong things. You know that the Bible says
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that the person who goes out and has this kind of affair, well,
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it says that same person will destroy his own soul.
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He'll destroy his own life. You need to remind yourself, you
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need to teach your mind that this thought that you're
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dreaming about, thinking it's going to be great, everything's
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going to be wonderful. You need to tell yourself, no,
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this is ugly, this is dark. The word of God, which is wise,
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so much wiser than me. It's alive, it's living.
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That is the truth. And every time you know, in your
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own life, when you've gone your own way, you've done your own
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thing and you've thought it would be OK in your mindset.
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And then when it's happened, the reality you realise.
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Oh yeah, the word of God was right.
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Or, Oh yeah, the way my parents brought me up all along, that
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was the truth. So you, you start with that, you
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start to uproot them. And then the next thing you need
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to do in a garden, if if you've been uprooting everything,
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what's going to happen to your garden?
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It's going to be bad. There's going to be nothing in
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there. So you need to start planting
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new. You need to start planting new
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seeds in there. Good seeds, reminding yourself
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the Lord is good. Remind yourself that verse in
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the Proverbs again, I'm not going to quote it correctly, but
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where he says, he says, just give me just what I need.
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You know, don't make me so rich that I forget you, but don't
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make me so poor that I end up stealing.
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Just give me enough to be content, you know, remind
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yourself of the the Lord. God is great, He is holy, He is
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true. I don't need to be great.
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He must increase and I must decrease.
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As as John the Baptist said, plant in these good words, these
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good fruit into your life. Get that planted in and let the
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fruits of the Spirit not only grow in your heart, but grow in
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your mind too. And then the really big thing is
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this. You need to spend lots and lots
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of time in the word of God. I actually believe one of the
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reasons the church, if we're honest, it's a bit of a mess.
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I believe myself as a Christian. I'm not the same Christian I was
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10 years ago. Yes, some things have been
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positive and the Lord has done wonderful things.
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But when I look back as well, at the same time, I think, Joe, you
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seem like you were so much more on fire.
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And when I think what is the big cause of it?
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For me, it's social media. All this time we're spending on
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the Internet. So if we're spending three hours
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a day, 2 hours a day on the Internet, but then only 1015
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minutes reading the word of God, is it any wonder that our garden
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is a mess? Is it any wonder that our our
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mind is filled with all kinds of things and we don't have the
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good stuff inside of us? So what am I saying?
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Read your Bible for longer, spend longer in the Word because
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the Word of God has a balancing effect on your life.
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We're going to come to this in a moment when we talk about having
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heavy thoughts, having dark thoughts.
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But the word of God, if you read it, it'll make you rational,
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it'll give you wisdom. It will sort of stabilize
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everything where you, you know you're leaning one way or you
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lean on another. The Word of God will just make
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it all straight and he'll lead you to those paths of, of
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righteousness. He'll lead you to drink of those
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still waters and bring a stillness in your life which we
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we all need, don't we at times? And then something else to my
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gardening friends. What have I missed now?
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So OK, we've, we've uprooted all of the weeds, we've taken out
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all of those dark thoughts. We've, we've started to plant
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good thoughts now good plants into our garden.
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But what could happen now? Do you have dandelions in your
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country? You know those those plants and
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they have like 1000, not quite 1000, but I don't know about 100
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little seeds. And when the wind blows, they
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just go flying everywhere and that's it.
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Your whole garden is covered in dandelions.
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Now dandelions, if you are a hot drink fan, I know where you can
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have dandelion tea and it can be quite delicious.
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But overall, they're a nuisance. So what do you need to protect
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yourself from these weeds that spread?
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So in other words, when the, the thought, when, when you can see
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it and it's and it's and it's the seed's been planted and it's
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in its infancy, shall I say, you need to take that thought
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captive, as the Bible says. See, you have to really be quite
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aware as, as I said, it's a battle every day.
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You've got to be awake. Can any of you in a battle just
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lie down and have a rest, Lie down and have a siesta?
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No, you're constantly watching. And when you're not watching,
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someone else is watching. You're back.
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Aren't they in in a war? So you've got to be vigilant
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with your mind. And so sometimes one might say
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something, they might be a Christian.
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It might even be a Christian YouTube video.
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And it it sounds appetizing. It sounds great.
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Oh, I'd love to do that. It sounds OK.
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So he believes that and he's a Christian.
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So maybe I can. But you know yourself and you
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know what the word of God says. Just be aware.
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Take that thought captive. No, I won't let that happen.
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You and I, we've got to be so careful with what we watch on
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television, what we listen to as music.
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We might see something. I'll give you an example.
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I'm going to be very transparent now.
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I find it really hard to watch old films.
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Well, films that have got great actors in and British actors
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particularly. Why?
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Because as many of you know, my dream was to become an actor,
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but I gave it up when I became a Christian because I knew that I
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couldn't really. This is for me personally, but I
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knew personally I couldn't live it out and be full out for the
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Lord Jesus Christ when so many movies, so many plays are full
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of bad words, are full of bad scenes.
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And I don't know how I would make a living by saying I can't
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do this scene, I can't act that part, I can't say this.
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And so I pulled away from it. But I find it so tremendously
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hard sometimes when I'll watch actors and the British and
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they're about my age and I'll start to dwell and start
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thinking could have could have done some movies, could have
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been in the theatre. And a jealousy will get into my
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heart and I have to take captive of captive of that thought.
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The worst I can do is go on the Internet movie database the next
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day, start looking at what drama school did they go to, where are
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they from? And that's what I'll often do.
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But I need to take it captive. No, the Lord has called me to
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something else. The Lord has called me to do off
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the curb ministries to to do these cup of Joe podcasts, which
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let's be honest, you watch your film and it might, you know,
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inspire you. It might make you happy, it
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might make you sad, it might move you.
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But when you get the word of God, you convert a soul.
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The Bible says those who win souls are wise.
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Those who win souls for the Lord Jesus Christ, it says will, will
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shine like the stars forever and ever says that in the book of
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Daniel. So just one soul, if one of you
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becomes a Christian through one of these videos, who cares if I
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was wasn't, you know, an actor or, or in the movies, It doesn't
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matter anyway, that's my personal story.
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Maybe you've got, maybe you know, your own thing where
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something can come into your mind and you've just got to
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watch it. But there is a verse, another
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verse that I would like to share with you really just off the
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back of that. And it's in Philippians 4 verse
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8, Philippians 4 verse 8. Finally, brethren, whatever
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things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are
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just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
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whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue
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and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditates on these
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things. So what's the Bible trying to
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say here? Well, it's really just what
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we've been saying it it. Can you honestly say, let's go
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to this verse, that film that you watched or that Netflix
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television show. Can you honestly say that it's
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it's pure? Can you say that it's it's
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noble? Can you say it's, it's lovely?
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It's of a good rapport? Can you say that that that
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person you watch on TikTok or on social media, are they
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praiseworthy? Do do they do they meditate on
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good things? Are they pure?
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Are they lovely? If so, watch it, enjoy it.
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That's great. That's that's what we should be
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filling our minds with. So you know, a wildlife
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documentary, that's an obvious example, but you know that
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that's a wonderful thing to do. You're looking at God's
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creation. It's lovely to see these things.
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It's lovely to go to the bottom of the ocean and see all of
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these incredible fish. Like the Bible says that the
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oceans are teeming with life, these things.
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It's good to do that. But then a film or a movie that
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everyone's talking about, all of your friends at work, all of
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your friends at school, everyone's talking about it.
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It might have a lot of excitement, a lot of thrill
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around it, but it's dark. It's, it's, it's wrong.
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It's, you know, it's, it's not right.
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The Bible says avoid that. Get that away.
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And for some of you, for some of you, my dear friends, this might
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be this video might be a prompt to go on a massive season of
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uprooting. You might have to be getting rid
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of some films that you've got, throwing out some DVDs.
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You might have to cancel your subscription to some YouTube
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channels or even to one of these streaming services because you
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know what you're doing, what you're watching this stuff and
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it's and it's rubbish and it's and it's messing with your mind.
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Maybe even friends, my dear friend, our friends can be such
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a big hindrance to us as Christians.
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The four people you spend the most time with is the person
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you'll become in a few years time.
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And if you're spending time with people who share crude jokes,
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who don't care about God, who blasphemy, who use bad language,
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who you know do wrong things, don't have respect for
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authority, that will that is who you're going to become one day.
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Gossips. You'll become a gossip.
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If if someone loves money, you will become that same person.
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So you may have to go into a season of uprooting friends and
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maybe trying to seek and find new friends, maybe at a local
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church or an evangelism that's going on in your local town.
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Try and surround yourself with the person that you want to
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become. So that's how we deal with those
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sinful seeds that the devil plants in our mind.
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But what about the second part to this video?
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And I do wonder if this is the part that a lot of you are going
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to benefit from the most. And it's heavy thoughts in the
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mind. The devil wants your mind to
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have no peace. It wants it to be full of
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unrest, uncertainty. He wants you to be wrestling all
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the time and and having dark thoughts and and sadness.
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He doesn't want you to be joyful.
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He doesn't want you to be rational because when you're
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joyful, rational and, and you love the Lord Jesus Christ,
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you're a problem. You're a threat to his Kingdom
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because you're going to win other people to the to the
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Kingdom of Christ. And that's a real threat to the
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Kingdom of darkness. Let me give you an example of
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this. You remember in the Bible,
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Moses, the Moses got the Israelites out of Egypt.
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They were promised by the Lord that they would have a promised
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land, Canaan. And when they got to the very
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edge of the promised land, what did Moses do?
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He sent 12 spies out into Canaan to look at the land to see what,
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what, what the land was like. Are the big fortresses there?
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What's the fruit like? Is it good fruit food there?
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What are the people like? Are are they a problem or, or
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can we take them? So he sent these, these 12 spies
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to to go back to go into the promised land.
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Now, as they came back, what did ten of these spies say?
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Well, they first they came back with this big cluster of grapes,
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all of these grapes. And they said, yes, it's a land
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flowing of milk and honey. It's a it's a beautiful land,
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but they said the people there are massive.
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They're giants. And we felt like grasshoppers
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compared to them. They were so huge.
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So that's really interesting. He says that we felt like
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grasshoppers compared to them. Now let's hear the full verse in
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its context. Just get your Bible and turn to
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Numbers 13, Numbers 13, and verse 33.
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Because when I heard a pastor say this just today, it really
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made me think. I think it's going to make you
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think. Also.
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Numbers 13, verse 33. So this is the report the spies
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gave back to Moses. There we saw giants.
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The descendants of Anak came from giants, and we were like
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grasshoppers in our own sight. So in other words, these guys
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seemed so big. They felt so small.
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You can understand that. They felt like grasshoppers.
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But then they say this, and so were we in their sights?
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And so were we in their sight. And in other versions it says.
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And so we were like grasshoppers in in their own sight.
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Well, how did they know this? How did these spies know this?
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Did they go up to the giants and say, hey, do you want to compare
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sides? Do you think we look like
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grasshoppers to you? They didn't know it.
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They didn't have a conversation with them.
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In other words, they've been deceived.
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In their minds, they had a limiting belief.
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They believed because these guys were so, so big and they were
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small, that automatically these giants would see them as
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grasshoppers. But that wasn't the case.
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And my dear friend, that's what the devil does with us.
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He makes us believe false things about ourselves.
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He makes us believe things that aren't necessarily true and we
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create false narratives in our mind.
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And we're going to come to some of these very specifically, and
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maybe I'm going to cover what how you particularly think at
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times. But Joe, tell us, why is this
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such a big deal? Well, because because of this
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this, this false narrative, this fear that overtook them, they
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then wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
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They never entered the promised land because they were so afraid
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because they believed the giants saw them as grasshoppers.
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Isn't that crazy? I used to listen to a band
21:34
called Green Day. Let me know if anyone in the
21:36
comments section has ever listened to Green Day before.
21:39
I'm not sure what the music are like now, so I'm not that this
21:42
isn't a recommendation by any chance by any means, especially
21:47
after what I've just read to you in Philippians, but they sung
21:50
one of the lines of one of their songs.
21:52
I think the song was called Basket Case.
21:53
They used to sing. Sometimes my mind plays tricks
21:58
on me. I wonder, does your mind ever
22:02
play tricks on you? You know what it is to think
22:05
rationally, but sometimes you don't think rationally.
22:11
Sometimes you think in ways that aren't usual, and you know when
22:16
you're spiraling out of control. You know, when, when, when the,
22:19
if you like the strings of your mind have been strained or
22:23
unhinged and your mind is playing tricks on you.
22:30
It is worth noting that hundreds of years ago, people didn't
22:34
think how we think today. You see, back then, if someone's
22:38
mind was, you know, not the best, or they weren't thinking
22:43
straight, or, yeah, they were going through a hard season,
22:46
what would always happen is you'd be sent to the church,
22:50
you'd be sent to the minister, and the minister would help you
22:53
get through this. Now, we know today that that
22:56
isn't helpful to just say you just some people.
22:59
I mean, there will be some people, I imagine even in this
23:02
comment section, you say you don't need any help, you just
23:04
need church. You just need God, You just need
23:06
the Bible. But I would really strongly warn
23:09
against that. But now the sad thing is the
23:13
pendulum has gone the complete other way where as soon as you
23:17
know your your mind on hinges, it's no, you just need to go to
23:21
the doctor. Just go to the doctor and and
23:22
take his advice only. Well, I think we need both.
23:27
I really do believe if there's someone, and as we're going to
23:30
talk about some of these things just in a second, If you are
23:33
really struggling and it's it's affecting your daily life, you
23:37
do need to get some professional help you.
23:40
You do need to do that. But at the same time, and This
23:42
is why I so strongly say, get in a local church, go to your
23:46
pastor, get some help, get get some people around you in the
23:50
church who love you and you and can walk you through this
23:53
difficult time. Because the sad reality is, even
23:57
in this day and age, even with all this education, we look at
24:00
someone and they're limping or we look at someone and we can
24:04
see visibly that they're not a well person and our heart goes
24:08
out to them. We feel a sense of pity as as
24:11
human beings. And yet if someone's acting a
24:13
little bit odd, a little bit strange, maybe they're they're,
24:17
they're frantic or they're rearranging something, we just
24:20
say, oh, that person's weird or I need to keep away from that
24:23
person. But we don't realise that
24:26
actually, if we could see inside of their mind, we'd see a
24:30
completely different story. And perhaps then we'd feel a
24:33
level of pity for them. So as I said, the word of God,
24:37
particularly if you're struggling like this, you need
24:40
to be spending more time in the Word of God to get that balance
24:43
in effect upon your life. Listen to good teachers online,
24:47
read good Christian books. But there's a verse in the Bible
24:50
that believe it or not, so remember, I, I opened by telling
24:54
you about this really godly man, this elder at the church he used
24:57
to go to. Well, his wife shared this very
25:00
verse with us after she got a very bad diagnosis, the worst
25:05
kind of diagnosis. And she said, this is the verse
25:09
that kept her sane. This is the verse that kept her
25:11
going through this, this dark season that she was in.
25:14
And it's Isaiah 26 verse verse 3.
25:24
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
25:32
you, because he trusts in you. I'll just read it again.
25:39
You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
25:44
you because he trusts in you. Isn't that just such a
25:49
beautiful, precious verse? We are going to like Peter.
25:54
We are going to sink beneath the water the moment we take our
25:57
eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we fix our eyes on
26:01
Christ, when we fix our eyes on God, we'll be in that perfect
26:06
peace, no matter what might come, no matter what might be
26:09
going on, no matter what seeds the evil one has planted in our
26:12
mind. If we've got our mind fixed on
26:16
Christ, he'll keep us in that perfect peace, a piece that that
26:20
the rest of the world looks and thinks, how on earth is she so
26:24
calm in this storm? How on earth is that man able
26:27
to, to, to trust God when, when he's lost everything, everyone's
26:31
turned away from him and yet he's got this perfect peace
26:35
because he's keeping his mind daily on the Lord.
26:38
He's he's in prayer. She's in prayer, she's studying
26:41
the word, she's with God. And that is really the, the
26:44
strongest thing I could say to any of you.
26:46
It doesn't get any more simple than this.
26:49
Spend much time with the Lord in your devotion and you can't go
26:53
far wrong. So what are the kinds of things
26:56
that some of us might be struggling with?
26:58
I'm one or two of these things. And I wonder if if you've got
27:00
any of these also in your life, maybe you're someone and you
27:09
don't feel clean at times. Something might come near you
27:13
and you feel suddenly unclean. Or you might look at something
27:17
and it's out of order and you've ordered it in a certain way and,
27:20
and it really bothers you and you have to go through rituals
27:23
to either get yourself clean or to order or structure
27:26
everything. And this kind of behaviour, it's
27:29
exhausting. It's tiring.
27:31
What would I say to you? Well, I would say you need to
27:34
trust in the sovereign shepherd. The Bible says the Lord is my
27:40
shepherd and a shepherd. He is the one who gives us just
27:43
what we need. That's why you can say the Lord
27:45
is my shepherd. I shall not want.
27:48
You need to trust that He's sovereign over all things.
27:51
He won't put too much on your plate and He won't give you too
27:54
little. My times are in His hands.
27:57
Whatever it is that's that's causing that unrest or that need
28:01
to do these rituals, just trust that God's got everything in
28:05
control and he'll just give you the right amount of grace to get
28:09
through each day. That's what you need to remind
28:12
yourself of that there is one who's sovereign, who's in
28:15
control, and you don't always have to be in control because He
28:18
has ordered all of your steps and He'll watch over you even
28:22
when you slumber. The Lord God watches over us.
28:26
Perhaps you're someone who struggles with idealization, so
28:30
you might see someone and because you've had pain in your
28:34
past, you know someone's left you or they've abandoned you.
28:37
Someone who who should have been a caregiver, who should have
28:40
been so close to you. You idolize this per a new
28:43
person in your life, maybe a relationship, and you become
28:46
attached to that person and you dwell on them.
28:50
But then when you get closer and close to that person, a bit like
28:53
when you see one of those beautiful statues in a museum,
28:56
you look at it and it looks so beautiful.
28:58
But you get a bit closer and you start to see the cracks, you
29:01
start to see the imperfections. And suddenly this person who
29:05
seems so great to you, suddenly you're almost repulsed by them
29:09
and you feel let down. And, and this, this fear of
29:12
abandonment, it just creeps in. They're going to leave me.
29:15
I'm going to be left and, and it and it and it ruins your life.
29:18
If that's you, what would I say to you?
29:21
You need to remember that the Lord God, it says about Him, he
29:25
will never leave you nor forsake you.
29:28
Though every boyfriend, though every man, though every woman,
29:32
though every person who was once close to you may have left you
29:36
and you built such strong attachments, maybe even a pet
29:39
that you loved. It's gone though, it's all gone.
29:42
There is one who is firm rock solid.
29:45
There is a firm rock that you can stand on who will never
29:48
leave you, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
29:50
So put all of your investments into him.
29:53
Put all of your eggs into that basket, because that is the one
29:56
who will never let you down. And when all of your eyes are
29:59
fixed on Jesus, suddenly it won't matter as much if these
30:03
people who you once trusted have let you down.
30:06
And you'll actually be able to see people in the correct light
30:09
that they're just a Sinner just like you are, and you should
30:12
never put any person on a pedestal.
30:14
What about if you're someone who struggles with delusions or
30:19
false beliefs and they they take control of you and you can't see
30:23
things rationally. You think people maybe are
30:27
against you and you're always looking over your shoulder.
30:30
You're always concerned and you think that maybe there's a big
30:34
scheme that's going on and, and you start to it's always on your
30:37
mind all the time and you don't know what's true.
30:40
What would I say to you? Remember that the Lord Jesus
30:43
Christ said I am the way, the truth and the life.
30:47
He is truth, He is truth. Just fix your mind on him.
30:51
Stop letting your mind be concerned with these other
30:53
things. And every time you're fearful of
30:55
all of these things, go back to the truth.
30:57
Go back to Jesus. Jesus, I'm struggling now.
31:00
I'm struggling with these thoughts.
31:01
I don't know how to think. I don't know how to process
31:04
this, but I know you are true. So I'm going to dwell on you.
31:07
I'm going to think about your life.
31:09
I'm going to think about you. Maybe you're someone who just
31:12
lacks any kind of motivation. You feel really, really low
31:17
while while it's just like a simple task, like getting out of
31:21
bed is just so, so difficult. You have no energy.
31:26
Or maybe you're like that at times.
31:28
And then other times you're you're on top of the world and
31:31
you feel so happy and you're impulsive and you do all of
31:33
these different things and you go from this extreme to the
31:35
other extreme and it's exhausting.
31:38
You've got no energy. What would I say to you?
31:42
I'd say, remember the Christ who said come to me, all you who are
31:47
weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
31:51
Some of you do need rest. You need to be kind to yourself
31:54
and the Lord Jesus Christ is telling you to be kind to
31:57
yourself. But remember who who you go to
31:59
when you need that rest, you go to him.
32:01
You don't pull out the phone and start scrolling away and just
32:04
doing all kinds of different things.
32:05
No, come to him and let him give you the rest that you need.
32:09
His his yoke is light. It's easy.
32:15
What do you do if you're someone who struggles with excessive
32:19
worry? You, you just have no peace and
32:21
you're always, always on, on egg shells just, you know, just
32:26
can't ever seem to relax. You need to remember again, very
32:30
similar to the first one we were talking about, that there is one
32:33
who is in control. There is one who clothes the
32:36
lilies of the field. There is one who who who feeds
32:39
the sparrows of the air, and you're of more value than than
32:42
sparrows. You're of more value than than
32:45
lilies. Will will he not look after you?
32:47
Will he not care for you? You need to remind yourself that
32:50
which of you by worrying can add 1 cubit to his stature.
32:53
It won't do you any good to keep concerning yourself with these
32:56
things and you need to just just go to the Lord Jesus Christ.
33:00
But at the same time, remember, it's not always the worst thing
33:03
in the world to be worried. For instance, you know, we can,
33:06
you know, there's, I think it's become quite unhelpful actually
33:09
in the church where we say worrying is a sin sometimes,
33:14
yeah, is worrying is a sin. For instance, you know, going
33:17
back to the beginning, a man who's doing wrong behind his
33:20
wife's back and he's worried about getting caught.
33:23
That man is sinning. That worry is a sin.
33:25
You know, it's it's linked to his sin.
33:27
But when, when the Lord Jesus Christ, remember when the Lord
33:33
Jesus Christ was born and the angels came and saw the
33:37
shepherds and here they are, they're just working away in the
33:40
field. It's pitch black outside.
33:41
And suddenly they see a myriad hundreds, maybe even thousands
33:45
of angels light up the sky. And what do the angels say?
33:48
Do not be afraid. I mean, what kind of a thing is
33:52
that to say to to these shepherds who are just seeing
33:54
these, these angelic beings? How can they not be afraid?
33:57
What was it? Would it be sinful to be afraid
33:59
in that moment? Of course not.
34:02
So again, do try to be kind to yourself and if you aren't able
34:06
to function again, please go and talk to someone.
34:10
But remember again there is one who can cast all of your cares
34:13
upon free carer for you. Maybe you're someone who has
34:18
flashbacks, nightmares, you struggle to sleep because you
34:22
went through a really bad event once in your life and you keep
34:27
seeing it and, and it's just there all the time.
34:30
All the time it's there and you can't stop dwelling on it.
34:33
In fact, on a little diversion, my wife's sister is actually a
34:38
therapist. She's quite high up.
34:40
And when we were talking about all these different people with
34:44
inner struggles, she told me this kind that I'm talking about
34:47
right now. This is the worst kind to have
34:50
out of all of them because it's just so stressful.
34:53
It's just constant. It doesn't stop.
34:56
So if you've got this, what would I say to you?
34:59
Well, think about the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only saw this
35:05
terrible event, but he went through it.
35:07
Is there anything more agonising than the cross to be nailed
35:11
there in front of all these people laughing at you, mocking
35:16
you that the pain of the physical pain, But then the,
35:20
the, the spiritual suffering of, of God, scooping up all of the
35:24
sins of the world and, and, and throwing it upon Christ.
35:28
And Christ is then punished in our place for our sin.
35:33
He went through that and the Bible says that we don't worship
35:36
a God. He's just on some distant cloud.
35:38
It says this Christ, he, he can sympathize with our suffering.
35:43
He can empathize with it because he knows what it is.
35:48
So just dwell on that. I'm not saying it's going to go
35:50
away any of these. I'm not saying any of them will
35:52
just magically disappear. That's probably the wrong word
35:55
to use. But I'm saying do try to to
35:59
adjust your mind to remember these things because perhaps it
36:02
might just help you. Maybe you're someone who needs
36:08
admiration. You need constant attention.
36:12
You think very highly of yourself and sometimes in
36:15
relationships you're very selfish, very self-centered.
36:20
Well, what would I say to you? I would say you really do need
36:23
to humble yourself. Remember that the Lord God says
36:26
he who exalts himself will be humbled.
36:29
You need to remember that there is one who is truly worthy of
36:33
honour and praise. And if you fix your mind on him,
36:35
suddenly you're not going to have these same massive thoughts
36:39
about yourself, these same thoughts that you're so special
36:41
because you're a member. Right now in heaven, the Lord
36:44
Jesus Christ, there are angels that are covering their face
36:47
saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
36:52
They can't look because he's so righteous, He's so holy.
36:56
Dwell on on on the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
37:00
And then you'll remember you're no king.
37:02
You're just dust and ashes and do your best.
37:06
Because again, just like these, we might look down on this
37:08
person and they get a lot of negative light.
37:11
But just like these other people, it's because their mind
37:15
isn't what it should be. And that's how that why they're
37:17
thinking that way. And then lastly, if you struggle
37:20
with body image, perhaps you look in the mirror and you fix
37:25
your eyes on one part of yourself and it just really
37:29
bothers you. And you, you, it's like you've
37:31
got a magnifying glass on that one part and everyone else looks
37:34
at you and doesn't notice it, but you notice it.
37:36
Or maybe you look in the mirror and you see something completely
37:38
different and it's LED you to have unhealthy relationships
37:42
with certain things and, and you just, you just feel hideous.
37:46
Basically, you feel ugly. You feel like you're striving
37:51
for perfection, but you'll never get it.
37:54
And so you somehow try to get control back through other areas
37:57
of, of your life. What would I say to you?
38:00
I would just remind you, where did you come from?
38:04
You were knitted together perfectly in the womb.
38:08
Who made you? God made you the very hands that
38:12
flung stars into space, the very hands that moulded this, this
38:15
earth that that, that made this beautiful world.
38:19
And he made you. And you want to tell yourself
38:22
that you're ugly. You want to tell yourself that
38:25
just because there's a, a certain beauty that's put on the
38:28
Internet or put on, on the movie screens, that that's what beauty
38:32
is. And because you don't compare to
38:34
that, you're not beautiful. Come on.
38:37
We all know that there's people that were, you know, attracted
38:40
to or that other people don't like.
38:42
When you're at school as a, as a, as a young man, you know that
38:45
as well as I do. Your mate fancied this girl and
38:48
then another one fancied that one and they were completely
38:50
opposite in looks. We all know that, don't we?
38:53
And the same with with ladies. That's why sometimes you'll see
38:56
a drop dead gorgeous lady with a man who looks like he's got a
39:01
face like a barrel full of bashed crab shells, you know.
39:05
But to her he's beautiful. But to other people, they say,
39:08
why would you? Why would you go out with him?
39:10
You know, you get what I'm trying to say here.
39:14
I'm trying to tell you that every single one of us is
39:17
beautiful in God's eyes. You're precious.
39:20
You're made in the image of God. So don't worry, even if people
39:24
have said things to you, they're not telling the truth.
39:27
You're a glorious creation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
39:30
And I don't want you to forget that.
39:33
Now, I would be a fool if I didn't think that some of this
39:37
is, I don't know, open some things in people's lives.
39:43
It's maybe it's maybe been a bit sensitive.
39:45
Maybe I've touched a few nerves here.
39:48
And I just wonder if we all need to pray for one another.
39:52
If you are going through something, maybe sinful seeds,
39:56
maybe there is a temptation. And if you're feeling brave
39:59
enough, would you write that in the comments section and ask for
40:02
prayer? If you are struggling with one
40:04
of these things, I've talked about one of these ways where
40:07
you have got heavy thoughts. Which you again, just just leave
40:11
a prayer request in in in the comments section.
40:14
And then I'm going to ask those of you who are watching this
40:16
video now and you're very loyal to this channel and your prayer
40:21
warriors and you do pray. Would you just go through and
40:24
just, you know, pick out some people and just write If you
40:28
truly will do this, I'm praying for you right now and just pray
40:31
for a few people in the comments section.
40:33
Let's all pray for one another. Please pray for me too.
40:36
I'm in this battle. It's not easy.
40:38
We've all got a battle of our mind, but we need one another.
40:41
And that's why I love this this, this cup of Joe family here
40:45
because it's just so precious that we love each other.
40:49
Big thank you also to everyone who helps me to do this
40:51
practically for everyone who donates through our website,
40:55
from everyone who's a channel member on here, from everyone
40:58
who supports in prayer. I honestly, I cannot do this
41:02
without you. And if I'm not always able to
41:04
stay in touch, just know I am so, so grateful.
41:08
We've just got a lot of plates in the air, doing St. preaching,
41:12
running 4 YouTube channels, family church, all kinds of
41:16
things. But God is good and we're here
41:18
to to work for him. We're here to redeem the time.
41:21
God bless you all. Thank you for watching and
41:24
please do leave your thoughts in the comments section.