Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #48 - Are You Being Called to Step Out of the Boat?

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#48 - Are You Being Called to Step Out of the Boat? · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  Are you being called to step out of the boat in faith in your life?
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  Are there things in your life that are tugging at your heartstrings,
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  that are pulling you in some way that you know you should be doing,
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  you know you should be stepping out and doing something unheard of,
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  doing something that only you could do and God is calling you to,
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  whatever that is? Do you feel that?
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  Today we're going to talk about that and stepping out in faith and stepping
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  out onto the waters. And that's what it really is. It's all about stepping out onto the waters.
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  So before I go any further, I wanted to mention that this video is sponsored by HelloFresh.
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  as long as you have the subscription.
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  So, well, today we are getting into, so I don't know if you all are seeing,
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  is your, is your world kind of crazy right now?
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  Is your world up and down? Is your day uncertain each day to the next?
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  I mean, if you looked at the stock market, if you based your peace on the stock
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  market, you might feel a little uneasy at times. And I know a lot of people do.
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  Do you base your, whatever your day, how your day at work is going to go?
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  What you, maybe the stress and anxiety of life, is that what's controlling your
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  mind, is what's giving you peace or not?
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  You know, for everybody, it's different.
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  For everybody, it's different. I know for me, whenever I actually sit back and
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  reflect, sometimes I have to think about,
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  why am I so, why is my heart so just not at peace?
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  Do you ever wake up with a heart full of anxiety? You get out of bed,
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  the first thing you open your eyes and you feel anxiety, maybe something that
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  you, that was weighing on your mind the day before,
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  like that's the first thing you think of when you wake up and you don't have any peace in it.
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  Like, cause I think peace has to be the foundation before really joy can come into the picture.
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  You know, it's hard to have joy in what you're going through if you don't have peace.
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  And sometimes these are things that are outside forces that are just thrust
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  upon us. We can't control what the market's going to do.
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  You know, the market's going to go down. The market's going to go up.
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  You know, political upheaval is going to happen all the time.
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  Whoever you want to be maybe in power might not be in power right now.
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  Whoever might be kind of your boss right now might not be who you want to be your boss.
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  You know it's different for everyone and there
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  are things that we obviously can't control you
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  know i think of if it there are things that only like a god can has a hand on
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  you know like you think of a major storm like it's and they an act they call
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  it an act of god you know like and that's the only thing that can describe it
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  you know and like on insurance you know it's an act of god You know,
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  I think everybody realizes that whether you have a Christian worldview or whether you just have a,
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  you know, we just got here by chance, or you're agnostic, you might not even
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  have any personal leanings one way or the other. You might not be settled on the matter.
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  Because I think a lot of people really, when we come down to it,
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  I've wrestled with this a lot.
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  Whether people, like, can people really be atheists? And I think I've always
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  leaned towards, no, you can't really be an atheist because, I mean,
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  like, how can we explain all this?
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  We can't explain all this. You have to at least be an agnostic.
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  But then I'm thinking, I think a majority of the time people are just indifferent.
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  You know, I don't think people really are even putting much thought into it
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  because I have the benefit.
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  For me, I became a Christian later in life.
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  So I had all that time, 20 years of my life of understanding what it was like
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  to not think like a Christian, to not think,
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  have God in my, as somebody that I recognize is an audience of my life.
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  I have that perspective or have that benefit to look at, like,
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  see, how did I think back then?
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  And I think a lot of people, it's just that they don't think about that one way or the other.
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  You got so many other things in life to worry about.
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  So it's like putting more energy into what could or could possibly be out there
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  is not always top priority, you know?
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  And I think you don't really put two and two together. You don't really dwell
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  too much on it, whether he's there or not.
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  But I do know that later on when I became a Christian, I completely saw the
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  shift and I became aware.
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  He is here, you know?
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  And I do have to say this. When I did become a Christian, like I understood,
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  like I immediately felt tugged back into going to revert and reversing course
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  and going back to, you know, and going back to my regular life.
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  I can't, I can't live in this because I, this thought process that he's always there.
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  Every decision I'm making is an ethical decision or a moral decision,
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  whatever you want to call it.
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  And he's either, you know, and you just feel that, that presence of him,
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  like, and it was, it was tough. And I had to like battle through that,
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  you know, I had to, but it was, it wasn't even like a living out of fear.
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  I think I, I, I know I'm just kind of giving my testimonial up front.
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  It's just whenever I did become a Christian, I had to understand that he's there
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  and I lived out of joy so much.
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  It was like, as I progressed and understood, man, I'm doing a lot of things
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  that the Bible was saying is not the best thing to do.
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  And I started feeling conviction and I, and I started feeling that and I,
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  and I had to just battle through that because it was always tempting to reverse
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  course and jump back into my life without God, you know?
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  And I had to really pushed through that. I think I had to fix my mind on he's
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  there and I can live for him.
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  And then finding actually him being there is that presence in the boat of my
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  life, you know, and I was able to find extraordinary peace when actually the
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  storms came because it's easy to push God to the side whenever things going good.
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  It's easy to not even think about him when things are going wonderful.
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  And I think a lot of life is, it's just, there's so much busyness.
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  There's so much craziness.
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  He's something we can put on the back burner. We can think about Him when we want to.
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  And when actually, when we're in our foxhole, that's when actually,
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  let's call on the name of the Lord, you know?
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  But I did have to just completely train myself to recognize His presence,
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  dwelling before His face and understanding He is right there.
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  You know, He's with me, you know, he's and it's not it's not a scary thing it's
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  a wonderful thing but i i do know that like just just in general the the upheaval
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  of of everything in our life you know we can feel a.
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  We can feel it tossed to and fro in so many different directions with whatever we're going through.
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  And whether you're a Christian or not, I mean, this applies to anyone.
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  Are you called to step out in faith in whatever is happening in your life?
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  Is there something that you know you feel hesitant, but you know,
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  I should be doing that. I can do that or I can visualize myself doing that.
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  I can visualize myself stepping out and doing that. And, and.
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  But it's like, it's actually, it's that first step, which is the very hardest,
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  you know, that first step is the most hard, you know, it's, and that's what
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  the, where the real faith comes in.
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  And this is a, I'm actually from a, a story in the Bible,
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  the apostle Peter, you know, who we see as like the guy of the group who was
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  the most vocal when everyone,
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  like he was the one, the disciples, they got together and they talked about
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  things, but the one who really said things a lot of the times,
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  you know, and was kind of the voice of everyone else and what everyone was thinking was Peter.
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  And just picture this. Peter's out on a lake with his friends, and it's night.
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  And they see this figure walking towards them on the lake.
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  And they think it's a ghost at first. They think it's a spirit.
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  But then it's revealed that it's actually Jesus himself walking to them.
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  And the one who is bold enough is Peter.
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  He, it's like, you might be Peter. You might be Peter. You might be the one
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  that like, I know I can do this.
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  And I, I just almost need a little push in my heart to actually a little faith
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  in my heart to just step out, you know, and maybe God grant me that faith,
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  you know, but even that, that first initiative, you know, that might be,
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  that might be you, that might be you, or it might be God, like,
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  kind of like tugging you and like kind of like.
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  Is drawing you. And it just, it does take that effort of you stepping out and
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  actually stepping out and saying, and so what Peter does, he says.
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  Lord, if you can command me to come out, I will come out and I'll step out on the lake.
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  And then Jesus says, come out and step on a lake, on the water.
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  I mean, just picture you're out on a lake.
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  Are you going to be, have that faith to, to first of all, ask God,
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  can I, can I step out? Can I do this?
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  Because I think that's, that's part of it. But then actually following through
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  when the Lord says, yes, do it. And he puts it on your mind, do it.
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  And then so Peter steps out and everything's going great. He's walking on water with Jesus.
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  And you might find this. You've stepped out on faith in whatever you're being called to do.
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  And you're walking on water. You're walking on water.
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  Things are like better than you could ever imagined. It's happening.
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  It's happening. But then the stresses and anxieties of life,
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  the acts of God that happen, you know, that we cannot plan for, they'll happen.
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  And you got to, those are the winds and the waves happening all around you.
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  And you have to almost re-fix your eyes on Jesus.
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  You have to re-settle your mind and your heart on God and saying,
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  I'm not the one who is allowing me to stand on the water in the first place.
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  I'm not the one who's doing this out of my own power because natural...
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  Physics would describe that I would sink. I would immediately drop into the
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  water. I would not be upheld by water, you know?
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  So recognizing that there's a supernatural force that is even allowing you,
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  that got you out and stepping on faith, and who is also continually to uphold you.
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  So when those waves come, when those uncertainties come, when those like kind
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  of, man, maybe I shouldn't have done this, you know?
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  Maybe I shouldn't have actually stepped out and done something bold like this.
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  This was a bad idea. This was a bad idea.
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  I think I question myself at least a hundred times a day that what am I doing?
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  What am I doing? Why am I doing the things that I'm doing?
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  Like, I can't do this. I'm not going to be good enough to be what I want to be.
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  I'm not going to be make a difference in this world.
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  Nobody cares about what I say or think.
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  Everybody's got enough things to worry about. Everybody's got enough things
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  going on in their life to actually have any interest in what I'm doing.
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  And I'm going to be turned down in any way, which way that I step out.
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  I'm not going to accomplish what I'm wanting to.
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  What I feel like God has put on
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  my heart and I feel like God has made it clear to me to step out and do.
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  But it's like, now things are going terrible. So it's like, was he really calling me to do this?
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  Or did I just create this myself?
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  Did I just create this myself? And should I go back?
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  Should I reverse course and head back?
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  And what happens in the story with Peter is he says to Jesus, Lord, I'm seeking help.
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  He actually says, save me, save me, Save me, Jesus.
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  So it's like, are you ever in a crisis moment? And like, you're like,
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  maybe you just lost your job.
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  Maybe you're not going to be able to pay your bills.
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  Maybe you, maybe you've lost someone in your life, you know,
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  like, and you feel like, I can't do this.
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  God, save me.
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  Somehow save me. You know, like, I think that is an also an act,
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  even though like it's a desperate call. God, you're there. I know you're there.
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  And Peter does that. He says that.
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  He has the mind in the midst of the storm, in the craziness of the water,
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  in the winds all over, and his disciples.
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  The disciples are still in the boat. His friends are still in the boat. Do you ever find that?
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  You're out in faith, and you're out on an island. You're on an island.
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  Nobody's there with you. You are doing it by yourself, in your own thoughts.
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  I mean, you think you're doing it by myself you in the back of your mind and
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  that unseen force god is still there he's always there he's always there so
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  even though you might feel on an island and even though you might feel like like do i need to,
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  give up? Do I need to give up? No one is with me.
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  No one understands what I am going through.
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  Everybody else that I walk into, walk in and encounter, whether it's in work,
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  my family life, friends, a social setting,
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  no, everyone is putting their, their happiest face on, their happiest face on.
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  And I am just going through hell. No one understands.
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  And you just want to give up, you know? And I think instead of giving up,
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  Peter does the only thing that I think he can do.
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  And he says, Jesus, save me.
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  And then Jesus says, you have little faith.
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  And he reaches down and pulls Peter up. He says, why did you lack that?
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  Why did you have little faith, you know?
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  And you had enough faith, that little bit of faith to step out and what God
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  has called you to do. He's there.
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  He's going to be that constant, you know, presence that's going to be there.
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  No matter who's off to the offset, you know, who's out of the picture and you
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  feel like no one else is there. You're alone.
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  God is still there. Even though you don't see him, he's still there.
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  And Peter, he's like, I don't know why I doubted.
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  Jesus, you're standing right before me. You're the one who's upholding me and
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  carrying me through this.
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  Why would I doubt? Like, I mean, it's never how strong your faith is.
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  It's never how strong your faith is. You might have the most amazing,
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  incredible faith whatsoever.
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  It's never how strong your faith is, ever. It's 100% how strong the object that your faith is in.
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  That's what matters. That's all that matters, you know?
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  So it's understanding, like, because you could hope beyond hope that this.
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  Like I jump off a building and I'm going to just try to like this floss is that
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  I found is so I just, I found some floss and I know it can hold me if I jump
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  off a building and it can be kind of the rope.
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  No matter how much I want to believe that this floss is going to be able to
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  hold me up, it's probably going to break natural.
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  Everything natural would say floss is not going to be able to support your weight.
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  It's so it's, it's all about the object that you're putting in it.
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  But if you jump off and maybe it's an actual rope or maybe it's a chain or something,
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  it is that object that you're putting your faith in that it can actually support my weight.
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  God can support your weight. When you have stepped out on faith and also when
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  you are out in the waters, when you're out there right now, whatever you're
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  going through, God can support your weight.
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  So he's like, it's not just a blind faith, a blind trust, because really you
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  can believe all you want, but it comes down to what's truth, you know?
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  It's what's truth. So don't like put your faith and your hope and just your
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  circumstances and how good things are going and how much I can do to keep things
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  going pretty good, you know?
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  But it's understanding that God is the one who is with you. He's with you, you know?
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  You're driving to work right now. You're in a car. You're listening to this.
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  He's with you. You know, that's why I like to say to people, go with God.
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  I love that. I love that phrase because I'm a teacher of mine in school would
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  say that whenever we would leave, when we were done for the day,
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  he would say, go with God.
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  Because no matter, like if I'm talking, whoever's listening to this right now,
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  when we're done, when this is over, go with God, because he's with you right now.
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  He's the one who's upholding you. So whether you're at the beginning of like,
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  I need to step on, on faith. I know God is calling me to this.
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  If you have that desire in your heart in the first place, he's the one that's probably put it there.
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  I would say almost a hundred percent. He's the one who's put it there,
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  you know, and then do it and do it.
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  Have that. I think we have to just, we have to just go, just go,
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  you know, even though everything would tell you different, everything that out
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  there would tell you different, just go and do it.
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  Just do whatever he's calling you to do, whatever you feel in your heart you need to do.
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  And then when you get out there and the chaos happens, you know,
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  understand he's there and he's the one who's going to support you through the whole thing.
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  So I will, Hey, so we'll leave it at that.
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  I hope you all have an amazing day and whatever you're going through,
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  know that the Lord is with you so you can have peace in that.
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  So we'll leave it at that. Have a good one. See y'all.