Latest / Generations Church / Sacred | Vinod Laxmikanth

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Sacred | Vinod Laxmikanth · Generations Church

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Hey, you welcome to the Generation's Church podcast. We pray you will be
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blessed by this message. Today I made a word of God both encouraged and
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challenge you to be all God purpose you to be. Now, let's dive
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right in. Okay, I'm an anesthesiologist, a specialist in anesthesia and intensive
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care, so I warn you it can get a bit intense. Okay,
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that's just me. That's just me. About a month and a half ago,
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month and a half ago, I was critically ill. Okay, and
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coming take my word for it. I'm professionally trained in this area. So
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when I say I was critically ill, I literally mean I was critically ill,
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struggling to breed, not enough oxygen. I was admitted to the ICU.
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Ironic, the ICU specialist being admitted into the ICU. I know life
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can be ironic, isn't it. You think it won't happen to you,
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happens to everyone else. I'm forty one years old this year. I have
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no known medical illnesses. While I sound like a doctor, don't I now?
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I have no come morbidities. I don't smoke, I exercise, I'm
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fairly fit. My wife would beg to differ um, never been admitted for
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the longest time, and here I am being admitted to the ICU on high
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levels of oxygen. My consultants and my fellow specialists were all grim with the
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notion that we may have to incubate Venot and put him on artificial ventilation.
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So as I lay down there in the ICU, tears streaming down my face
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because I was thinking about my wife and my children. I don't know how
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to quite explain this, but God spoke. Okay, God spoke, and
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I can't really articulate everything that he said, and we'll talk about it as
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we go along. What that means, I can't quite put it into words,
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but I'm going to try my best to explain. I realize at that
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point where it could be life and death, quite literally, I realize it's
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down to not what my achievements were, not how much money I had in
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the bank, not how many songs I've sung, not how many ministries I've
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been serving in, not how much money I gave, not all the different
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accolades, achievements, not even my experience. I realized God at that point
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was saying, you know, it's just me and you, and you're faced
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with death, He's just you and him. There's no one else, surrounded
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by all the monitors that I'm familiar with, surrounded by all these faces that
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I work with, surrounded by all the nurses that I know so well that
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we're hoping for the best. Nothing anybody could do. In that sense,
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as I'm breathing, trying to get that oxygen in, all I could feel
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and sense God saying, you know, you know what, don't worry,
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It's just me and you, just me and you. Man, It's back
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to me and you. Then I really something this whole sense of like how
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this relationship that we have with God is sacred, sacred, sacred, sacred
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meaning not that it's like oh holy, and and you know you can't touch
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it and you know you you you you gotta be pure and totally spotless and
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totally without mistake and error. No, no, no, sacred meaning that
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it's just you and him. It's just you and him. It's sacred.
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It's because when it comes to death, really, take it from a person
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that has seen death almost every other day and has gone through an experience where
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death was at my door, it really comes down to just you and your
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maker. And then that made me realize death is sacred, and therefore so
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is life. It's not really oh, at death, it comes back to,
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oh, it's just me and God and no one else, nothing else.
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Actually, all the while, it has always been me and God,
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no one and nothing else. It's just that we only come to a realization
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when there really is nothing and no one else. And then you realize,
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oh, yeah, you catch my drift. It's really about you and God,
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no one, nothing else. It's sacred. It's sacred. And what
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I mean by this, what I'm trying to convey to us, each and
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every one of us, is that this relationship that we have, that this
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relationship that God has with us, whether you acknowledge it or not, whether
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you recognize it or not, let me say I tell you right now that
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God has a relationship with you. Really he does. It's just that you
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may not realize it. You may not acknowledge it, you may not identify
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with it, you may not think about it. But that does not change
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the fact that God has a relationship with you. Example example, my father
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will always be my father. If I don't seem today, if I don't
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seem tomorrow, if I don't see him for ten years. If he doesn't
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talk to me or I don't talk to him, it doesn't change the fact
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that he is my father. You understand what I'm trying to say, So
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sacred and this relationship that we have with God to not be mistaken. He
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is all about the individual. The individual. When he looks upon us right
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now, he does not see generations. He does not see us in categories
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and labels and demographics and age groups and ethnicity, race. He knows all
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that. He sees all that, but he sees it how individually personally.
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You you some twenty three verse one one verse and humor me. I don't
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usually do this, but those of you who are comfortable with it, can
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we just say this together? The Lord is my shepherd. You may think
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nobody knows you here, and in a way it doesn't matter. But God
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is your shepherd, yours, yours, yours. Oh, we always use
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it, you know the cliche. Oh he knows you by name, he
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knows the hairs on our head. We understand the verses. We may have
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heard it before. Yeah, yeah, I get it. I get it.
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No, No, no, I don't think you get it. My
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friend, he is yours, You are his personally. You know, I
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am a father of three beautiful, wonderful Okay, my eldest might want me
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to say handsome, right, sounds a bit to say beautiful and wonderful and
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godeous and cute. Right, So I am a father. Let me give
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you an example. Analogy okay, analogy example. Sometimes it helps to have
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some examples. Huh. So I'm a father to my children category children.
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But do you ever once think that when I think of them, I think
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of them as a group. How many parents do that? Yeah? Yeah,
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I'm a father to my children, my children children. No, no,
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no, no no. And I'll give you proof. I'll give you
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proof. And some of you know this. Those of you have siblings,
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You realize that your father, if it's like me, treats every one different.
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Some of you might even complain. Yeah, how come he can?
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I cannot. How come he gets to do that? I don't. How
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come he gets to eat ice cream? I don't. How come he gets
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to sleep at night late night? I don't. How come she gets to
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sit on your lap? I don't. How come you always giving him the
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hugs? I don't. How come you're taking him out for dinner? Just
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the two of you, not me, why Kah It is personal, personal
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individual? Do you know? Let me put it this, say the flip
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side of the coin. Imagine what it must be like. How weird it
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sounds, How weird it sounds, Isaiah, I don't mind if I use
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your example. How weird it sounds. If Isaiah tells his friends, you
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better know what if Isaiah tells his friends, yeah, yeah, yeah,
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doctor V. Doctor V is our father. How yeah, okay, I
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get it. It's quite right. Worse still worse, still, worse still
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is say? I says, yeah, yeah yeah, doctor V is easy
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killed dead. We laugh, but some of us are doing that. Jesus
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is not your Jesus. The Lord is my dad shepherd. I'm just following.
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The Lord is my wife's shepherd. I'm just accompanying. The Lord is
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my husband's shepherd. The Lord is my son's my daughter. The Lord is
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my grandfather. Do you know? Do you know you don't know what you're
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talking about? A doctor? We do you know? Not? My grandfather
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was an evangelist, you know, grandfather? Say bro good on your grandfather?
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How about you? You know what I'm trying to say? So sacred
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means that what I'm trying to get at is that he's personally in this relationship
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between you and him, and it's something that is unique. Unique. Yes,
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when we read in the Bible, I'm sure you notice this, don't
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you. Don't you notice it? And you might raise some questions. First
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of all, don't you notice that God, although he addresses an entire creation
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of people and a tribe of people, but don't you notice he always interacts
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with one individual. I want to tell you why it's so unique and what
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I want to why I feel so passionate about this because God feels so passionate
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about this, because He wants a unique personal story with each and every one
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of you, not generic, not oh I heard, oh yeah my friend
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had this testimony. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah yeah yeah.
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No, No, no, he you you, you, you.
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You have that opportunity of having something totally unique that no one else has ever
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done, seen her, no I has seen, no year has heard,
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nor has conceived in the mind of man, what God can do that kind
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of unique and personal. So wanted to share a quick story. I was
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out of medicine, or at least out of the ministry or health for a
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long time, and then God spoke and then said, you know your true
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calling is to medicine. Get back there. Okay, long testimony, long
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story shot. I actually ended up back there, and I was back there,
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and I was training in Universtimulaya as a specialist in anesthesia at the time.
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And get this, I was training, I was working, I was
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on call all that without a salary, no salary zero. My wife,
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who has been the thought of our family. I owe it all to her
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and God providing through her. But it came after two and a half years,
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after my exams and all that. I'm like, okay, I think
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I need to ask for a job. And a lot of you don't know
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the situation, or you do know the situation. That contract we have all
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these issues with contract doctors, we have all these issues, were not in
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a space in the ministry or the list goes on. I want to cut
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the long story short. I went and met my head of department, my
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head of department, who's a wonderful Malay Muslim lady. And I specifically say
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that because you may think, oh, I know a Christian boss. No
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I don't. I do not have Christian boss. Wonderful Malay Muslim lady.
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She looks to me and she simply says this, And I want to summarize
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this is what it meant. She told me, quote quote impossible. We're
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not impossible. No way, our system, our structure can accommodate you full
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stop. I said, okay, didn't think too much about it. Two
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weeks later, suddenly a while later, sadly, she's the one who meets
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me, and then she tells me, out of the blue, she says,
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if you don't next week, you come for interview. I say,
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one interview. I didn't apply for anything, I didn't write in anything,
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I didn't speak to anyone, as God is my witness. And then he
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said, you come for interview. I said for what. Well, possibly
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it's still impossible. I don't know how that makes sense. But possibly we'll
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give you a job. Possibly. So I go, and this is how,
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this is how, this is how I want to tell you how unique
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and how personal and how interested God is in your life. So I went
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for the interview, and I walk in and the director of the hospital is
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there. There's this whole big panel of you know, big guns in the
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administration and the clinical side of all that seaterd and just to paint the picture
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so that it's clear for you, all of them Malay Muslim, Okay,
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clear enough, clear enough, you can imagine. Okay, So I sit
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down, want to cut the long story short, right. So suddenly the
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director of the hospital says, oh, we know on as if she knows
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me. It is my first time meeting her. I have never seen her
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before. She tells me, I know so much about you. I've heard
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so much about you. We like you very much. I have never said
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hi to her in my life. Sit down, you know, just it's
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breezing through the interview right then my head of department, who's perplexed and confused
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and rather frustrated right looking at all this is happening. And then suddenly that
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suddenly they go through my my, my, resume, my whatever, and
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then suddenly it is it is noticed, Oh we know you're color blinder.
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I'm color blind, by the way, And immediately my head of department screams
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in aghast. I'm dramatizing it a bit, but she was. She was
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totally like, you know, caught off god and made her shock and horror
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very obvious to everyone, including the director of the hospital. And she said,
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we know, how come your color blind. How come you color blind?
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Essentially trying to paint the picture that no way we can hire you know,
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his color blind, which is not the case, by the way,
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But yeah, now this is the way I want to tell you. Only
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God can do this. The director of the hospital, also Malay Muslim lady,
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turns to her immediately and says, no, no, no, no,
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you cannot say that. So when she said that, I'm like,
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oh, okay, I get it. At least she is more informed,
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because being color blind does not negate you from being a doctor. Ra da
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da da da. The list goes on. You can do your own research.
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So I thought, okay, normal one. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
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at least, so thank God, at least she's more informed than my
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hero department. Right, But this is where I knew. I always knew
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God was in the picture. But this is when God was telling me.
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You know, you don't realize how much I'm involved in this. The director
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of the hospital says, I get goosebumps every time I say it. My
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son is color blind. The director of the hospital says, my own son
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is color blind. You cannot be biased against them. You cannot be dude.
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I don't know how you can orchestrate yourself, even if you wanted to
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to find the director of the hospital that you are working to have a child
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who is color blind, just like you. You want to try, you
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want to call, you want to bribe, you want to give money.
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No way you can create this kind of situation. But God did? God
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did? I have not to. But I'm just telling you the truth.
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I have had many instances in my life where I am the exception to the
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rule. Unique. You are wonderfully and uniquely made, my friend. Stop
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thinking in common denominated terms. I'm Christian. Everybody's Christian. You just get
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the general Christian blessing whatever. I don't know what that means. I just
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e conilla. No, brother, sister, what is God doing personally in
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your life? Because he wants to do something personal and unique? Why?
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Why? Why? I believe to prove to you that He is real.
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This relationship is real. It's not an organizational thing. It's not an administrative
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thing. It's not a whatever you may call it, sociological thing. It's
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not. It's relationship. We say it all the time, right, Oh,
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not religion relationship. Not religion relationship, you really understand what that means?
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Non unique, Let me give you a clincher to the story before I
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move on clincher to the story. So I told you right, exception to
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the rule. Let me prove my point in case you think, hey,
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this guy like to exaggerate, Let me prove my point. I'm not exaggerating.
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One month later, I think about the ELLA because they have to drop
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a contract, right, they have to draw some kind of agreement. Right.
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The Human resource department calls me personally, and this is their words.
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I'm trying to quote word forward. The Human Resource department calls me personally and
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you know what they say. You know what what The lady on the other
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side says, a wonderful Malay Muslim lady. She says doctor V. She
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doesn't call me doctor V. Doctor. We don't. Very sorry, I'm
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translating into English. Very sorry. We took so long to draw up this
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contract for you because and this is her words, I would say in Bahasa
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and then I'll translate. Dalam Sadjara Hospital, University, Malaya, Key.
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In the history of the hospital, we have never done something like this for
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someone like you ever. Essentially, let me break it down. What does
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you mean she said? We had to create Now you see how God,
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God is the creator? Right, you always want something God? Where's the
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opening, Where's the open door, Where's the closed door, Where's the window?
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Who say God can create something when it's not there? All you see
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is a war? Who say God can create something when all you see is
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a wall. They said, we created an entire administrative structure just for you.
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You know, under the entire structure? How many peover doctor? You
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know? Do you know how difficult impossible that is? In the government of
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Malaysia. It's sacred, this relationship because it is meant to be intimate,
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intimate Song of Solomon six six three. I am my beloved, and my
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beloved is mine. Not your neighbor, not your friend, not your brother's,
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sister, uncle, auntie, father, pastor mine mine intimate, private,
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private, It is something private between you and him and something exclusive.
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Is that the relationship that you have with God, because that's the relationship that
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He's seeking with you. We live in an age where everything is public.
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I'm an Instagram frian everything, so I put on Instagram, But there's a
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lot that I don't you think that is my life. It's not. But
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what I'm trying to say is that have we lost the capacity and the ability
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to be private. Means to say, I don't have a story to tell
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about this. You know why? You know why I don't have a story
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to tell because it's private. It's something that God and I only know,
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and God and I only understand that. Even if I were to tell you,
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you will not get it. Because why you won't get it? Not
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because you're not smart, not because you're not experienced, not because you haven't
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walked with God long enough. No, you won't get it because you were
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never meant to get it. Men, it was meant for was me?
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Are you and I satisfied or even seeking this kind of relationship with God?
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Because that's the relationship he's seeking with you. He's not interested in everything he
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tells you, everything he does in your life, Everything is meant for a
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public display. No, what is my example? If you don't, how
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can you say that we are supposed to be We overcome you know, we
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overcome the evil one by the blood of the lamb and the word about destiny.
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Where's where's your reference? My reference is Jesus. How many times has
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Jesus healed someone and told the person to not tell anyone? How many times
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you think, right, he's done this tremendous miracle. He's made this guy
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walk, and then he go and tells the guy, don't tell anyone,
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don't tell anyone. How many people were there when God spoke to Moses through
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the burning? No one he was between him and Moses. How many people
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were there? In fact? How did God speak to that man of God
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that said, let me see your face? And then there was the thunder
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and the lightning and the wind and the storm and paraphrasing, But in the
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end, how did God speak? Still small voice? Because it's not meant
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for everybody else, It's meant for you. It's meant for you. It's
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meant for you. Marriage is the analogy I can give. There's a lot
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of things that happened between me and my wife that only me and my wife
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will understand. How are you going to explain? In my case, Lobb,
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you're still quite junior, fifteen years of marriage to somebody else. How
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are you going to explain that? How are you going to explain the relationship
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that God has with you? You think from the moment that you accept the
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Christ, but actually God shuted that relationship when way before, when you were
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created in your mother's womb, when you were still in his mind. That's
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when he created that relationship with you. How are you supposed to explain that
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to someone else? I can't. There are things in our life. Yes,
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he does it so that you can share, but I would say most
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of it, most of it, he's just you and him secret. Have
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we lost that? The ability to keep things private? Even in community?
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Private quiet? It's supposed to be internal, this relationship, this thing that
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God is seeking. God is really not interested. Well, I should qualify
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that his target is internal. We live in a very exteriorized world. There's
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no such word. I just created it. We live in a very exteriorized
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you know what I mean? Everything is on outside, even in Christianity.
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Sorry to say, maybe not Christianity, I should say in church, churchy,
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church, church thingy, I don't know what you call it, everything
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on outside. I jump high so that people know I really am passionate about
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God. I scream my loudest scream, because so that people can hear.
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How sincere I am and dedicated I am to the Lord Jesus Christ. I
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wear a certain kind of gob I do a certain kind of movement because I
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saw that I do it. It looks cool, it looks powerful, and
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I'm like, man, I want to do it too. What did Jesus
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say to the Pharisees, Minu to the Pharisees, you know, he said,
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what, you're very interested in how the outside of the cup is,
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right, You're so interested in how clean, how what the design is like,
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how how pristine the outside of the cup. But who would drink from
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a cup like that when the inside is all dusty and dirty? Who would
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drink? He asked the question said better is the cup clean on the inside
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that you may drink from it? He called the pharisees wor white washed tombs,
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you know, Maxonia on the outside of me wh by shining bride wow,
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but inside bit a copse. I know I'm being strong, but then
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I'm using Jesus words, so I don't know. Am I being strong?
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Jesus? Are you being strong? Which is it? I don't know.
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But what I'm trying to say is that friends, brothers and sisters, those
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of you that don't know that God is interested in this relationship with you,
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don't be mistaken and don't be carried away by what goes on on the outside.
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Don't be mistaken by all this inside Philippines one six that he which began
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a good work in you were perfected until the day of Jesus Christ. What
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does he say? A good work in you? A good work Demander Delore
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de claring the talam thedlam in New in New But I want to quickly share
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with you a story, is it? Okay? Story? Okay? This
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is not so much a testimony as as much as I'm trying to tell you
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what it may look like someone that has something going on internally and someone that's
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just interested in the external. Are you okay? Real story from my life?
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Okay, real story. So let me bring you back to when I
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was sixteen years old, and believe it or not, when I was sixteen,
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I was a competitive discus thrower, you know discuss you know, discuss
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Olympic event discus, right, yeah, I was a discuss thrower. So
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fast forward. I'm trying to keep this long story short. The top favorite
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athlete that everybody fell, everybody knew, everybody perceived is going to win the
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gold medal was from a rival school or rival college at the time, and
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he came and I'm not exaggerating, huh, try my best not to exaggerate.
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Came with brand sponsored gear, Nike sweatsuit, Nike shoes, Nike socks,
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Nike jersey name or printed right. And this is what he did before
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his first throw, not everything before he went in. He even he hasn't
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even touched anything. He screamed, hasn't done anything yet. Finally he picks
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up the discuss. Right, everybody's watching, you know, everybody crowds around
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the cage, watching, watching, even the even my fellow competitors, all
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watching, watching, watching, because he's the one. He is the one.
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Just look at him. He must be the one. And he gives
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a big, big sign breath. This is sound he's making. And then
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the best one he throws. He takes a turn, full turn, throws
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and he has already the biscus has already left his hand already, but he
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is still screaming ah. The discuss has already fell to the ground. He
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is still screaming ah. And everybody claps your hands like whoa oa, fellow
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competitors, you know, all clapping their hands. My ten, I don't
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look the part. First of all, I'm other thing at that time,
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now not so much right, And my coach always told me this. You
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know you need to be more expressive love you know? Oh so quiet,
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I said, cannot, I just can't. So I go in quietly,
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no sound. Everybody has left the surrounding area of the cage, gone right,
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and then I pick up the discuss. Nobody's watching me because I'm not
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so quiet, and because I've been doing hockey most of the time, hockey,
34:36
I represented the competitive hockey. I couldn't do the turn because they will
34:42
go everywhere. You'll be foul. Please qualify. Heay long, sorry,
34:45
so long, sorry, sere, I go go go, So I cannot
34:49
right, So what I did? Guess what I did? I stood there?
34:57
No sound, so no sound film. My coat is making sound.
35:04
If you don't make sound, I don't know. The discuss goes true.
35:15
Sorry breaks the national record. Suddenly everybody noticed and they couldn't understand. How
35:28
did this guy no sound, no movement, no kaya, not sponsored beats
35:40
the other guy flat flat. I didn't just win. I broke the record?
35:47
Do you understand not? My mom is admitted to the stroke unit as
35:55
we speak right now. She collapsed yesterday. She collapsed yesterday, massive stroke.
36:09
The prognosis looks grim. Yet I am here. Why that is sacred,
36:23
but so is life. Your life is secret, my friend. You
36:30
may not recognize it now, my friend, but then will come one day
36:35
when you too will realize this is sacred. I gotta stop playing games,
36:42
got to stop fooling around, stop just all nonsense, and really come to
36:47
terms with what life is about. Thank you for joining us. We trust
36:53
you have been blessed by the word of God. If you like what if
36:57
you experience, please subscribe and share with your friends on social media. Do
37:00
taggers at generations My. For more information, check us out on bit dot
37:05
lee, slash, Generation's My