Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Claude Stauffer: ‘Your Greatest Patriotic Duty’ Under God

Transcript

Claude Stauffer: ‘Your Greatest Patriotic Duty’ Under God · Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo

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Should we even care about America?
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I mean, aren't we all going to go to heaven?
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Aren't we all citizens of heaven?
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If we're citizens of heaven,
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should we even care to be citizens
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of a country like the United States of America?
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Welcome to World View Matters,
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discussing controversial issues,
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discerning current events,
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defending biblical Christianity,
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no topic off limits.
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And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
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Thank you so much for tuning into this episode of World View Matters.
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You heard a little bit from the trailer of a brand new book.
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The book is right here in my hand your greatest patriotic duty
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from our brother, Claude Stoffer.
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And making America truly great.
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The subtitles almost as important as the title itself,
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because it begs the question,
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how do we make America truly great?
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And what does that mean?
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So we're going to bring in our brother.
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And if you want to go to his website,
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calverchappelvhope.org.
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His blog site is shepherdofhope.org.
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And his book is available on Amazon,
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your greatest patriotic duty.
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Brother, Claude, good to see you again.
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Thanks for the book.
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Good to see you, David.
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Always a blessing.
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And it's a privilege to be on your program.
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Well, thanks for your time.
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And thanks for putting this out.
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You mentioned, in fact, I want to go back to an email you sent me if I could share.
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And then I want you to elaborate on how you really believe that this
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God put this on your heart.
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You said, my heart was poured out into the book.
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I have such a burden for our nation.
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And you said, I believe this is heaven sent.
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Please keep it in prayer.
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We have such a great opportunity before us.
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I'm praying we go beyond political revival to a spiritual gospel revival.
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So please just expound on that a little bit.
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Well, the impetus for the book or the situation
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that the book grew out of was the night that President Trump
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was declared the victor in the presidential election.
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The night, the day after my daughter-in-law sent me a video clip
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of a group of Trump followers who spontaneously broke out
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in a singing acapella, how great that art.
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And I just, you know, I thought to myself, I was very pleased
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with the outcome of the election, but I was struck to the heart
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with the possibility that maybe this political revival,
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this political movement that we see happening in our nation
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maybe it would go to something deeper and more eternal
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and worth maybe spreading to a real spiritual revival.
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And that's really what we need.
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As we were mentioning earlier, David, in our conversation
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leading up to the interview, you know, you commented 80 percent
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of Christians are really not involved
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or at least not extensively involved or is involved
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as they should be in the public square.
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And that's really tragic because, for instance,
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Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers,
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you wouldn't call him a paragon of Christianity,
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but he said that only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.
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Who better than to assure or move the populace
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towards virtue than Christians, right?
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And that's what I'm praying for, that we go beyond
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mere horizontal political advancements
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and victories that we're experiencing to a more vertical
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and eternal revival, heaven sent revival for our nation.
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So you wrote chapter four
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on the Jeremiah 18 hope for America.
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I think the last time we had you on,
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we touched on that a little bit because you wrote a blog on that,
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if I remember correctly.
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So for those that didn't see that,
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read the blog or see that episode with you.
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Explain what that is. That's chapter four in your book.
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Well, oftentimes people will refer to
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second Chronicles 714 as a basis for hope for our nation.
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But really, when you look at the historical context of that verse,
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it was at the dedication of the temple
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and words prayed by King Solomon,
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particularly for Israel.
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Now, in principle, we might have some hope there.
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So probably a more valid basis for hope for our nation
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would be in Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 5 through 11,
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where in the Jeremiah's wording,
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he says that if a nation or a kingdom
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that has been targeted by God for judgment
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because of their sinfulness,
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if they turn from their sin,
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that the Lord would relent and hold back his judgment.
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And the converse is also true.
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If a nation that is blessed turns away from the Lord,
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the Lord will withhold his blessings.
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So really, that verse I think is much more applicable for our nation
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and really what we're seeing now is our nation is really in the balance.
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Which way is it going to go?
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We just recently had a few individual elections,
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one in Wisconsin.
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And again, turnout was not what it ought to have been.
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As Christians, we need to be consistent
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and we need to get up and go a little bit
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and get involved in the political process
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so that we can move this nation towards virtuousness,
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towards righteousness to be salt and light.
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That's really what loving your neighbor as yourself,
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this all falls under that umbrella,
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the second greatest commandment.
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That's right.
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And voting, people have to make this connection.
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Friends, I know most people in our audience probably do.
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That voting, you're voting for someone that's going to represent your community,
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your state, your district, your state, and your country.
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And that includes legislation and laws
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that you're going to abide by that are going to be
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in your public schools right down the street from your house and everywhere else.
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So yeah, if you do love your neighbor,
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you will care about what kind of morality is legislated.
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Now in that chapter four of your book,
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I want to read a quote from someone I hadn't heard of,
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and explain who Martha Gellhorn is.
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You said she's one of the first female war correspondence.
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She was a novelist and I want to quote her
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from your book your greatest patriotic duty on page 68.
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She said,
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people often say with pride, I'm not interested in politics.
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They might as well say, I'm not interested in my standard of living,
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in my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms,
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or any future.
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If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives,
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we must be interested in politics.
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So brother, I know you we've talked about this before,
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but again, a lot of the church is just not up to speed and formed,
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discerning and engaged. Go ahead.
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Many people are under the mistake of notion that our country is just a pure democracy.
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An inaccurate, an inaccurate appraisal of the governmental system of our nation.
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Our nation is a federal republic that has three branches of government
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that are meant to keep checks and balances.
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But the power in our nation is not vested in a president or a king
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or even in our legislators as much as it is in the voting of the people.
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The people who are in power, the people who are in positions of authority
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are supposed to be public servants.
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Because of the lack of term limits,
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we have career politicians,
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which were never really the intent of the founding fathers.
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And as a result, we see what's happened with that.
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We see politicians that are enriching themselves
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at the expense of the citizen who is supposed to be in control
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or the main influence in our nation.
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We're a federal republic.
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So when you don't vote and you complain,
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you really don't have any basis for complaint,
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because you're not assuming the responsibility that you have been given.
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I truly believe.
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I love our Constitution.
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I love our Declaration of Independence.
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I love our system of government.
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It's a wonderful thing.
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And I believe it's happened since.
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I don't believe it's inspired.
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But I do believe that it's a gift from God.
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And especially we, as Christians,
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living in this nation,
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we have such a responsibility.
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And we have such an opportunity
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to tremendously influence society
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for righteousness.
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And in the process,
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bring glory to our Lord.
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Amen.
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And in the second half of the podcast today,
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we are going to talk a little bit more about revival.
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And I've got a great quote from R.A. Tory.
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Because that's where we're headed, friends.
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We're headed to church to get revived.
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But back on page 58,
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you mentioned a quote,
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and I thought, Claude Brother,
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I thought it was me.
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I've said this,
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or something almost exactly.
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You said,
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you read this on social media recently.
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If Christians are not engaged with politics,
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decisions will be made
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by people who think God is irrelevant
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or doesn't exist.
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And the truth of God's word does not exist,
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or doesn't matter.
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And that is absolutely true.
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But that's what we're seeing in our country.
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And before we go on,
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and again, how to make America truly great,
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I'm going to ask you, what does that mean?
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Because that word truly,
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because you ask a Christian,
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a conservative, a Republican,
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and independent,
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you ask someone in our government,
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maybe in Trump's cabinet,
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what does that mean to make America great?
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Truly great from a biblical world view perspective.
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You have some bullet points
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I want to share on page 58,
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59 briefly.
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I'll try to skim through these.
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You said, I will vote for the most pro-life candidate
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because God hates the shedding of innocent blood.
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And we are all fearfully
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and wonderfully made.
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Now, for every one of these bullet points,
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you provide scriptures.
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This is excellent.
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Because people make the points.
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And then if you can back it up with scripture,
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then Christians who are kind of so, so,
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or non-committal,
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or maybe not engaged,
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they'll look at, maybe they'll be convicted.
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And I'll just go through these briefly.
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I will vote for the most pro-Israel candidate.
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I will vote for the most pro-det reduction candidate.
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I will vote for the most pro-work candidate.
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I will vote for the most pro-marriage candidate.
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I will vote for the candidate
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who mostly believes the role of government
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is to reward the good
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and punish evil.
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And then I will vote for the candidate
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that most closely aligns
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with these areas and
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the word of God.
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Please share a little bit more on any one of these
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or just some of these ideas.
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Well, ultimately as a Christian,
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as far as I can see,
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at least the brand of Christian that I believe in,
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God's word is our prime authority.
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Amen.
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Our authority is not vested in any person,
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other than Jesus Christ,
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who is the head of his church.
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And we know that he's the head of the church
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based on what he has revealed to us in scripture.
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So it's very important for us
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as Christians
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to live out God's word.
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Now many Christians have fallen prey
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to the bogus claim
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of the separation of church and state.
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That's not something
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that's written into our constitution.
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It's not in our declaration of independence.
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It was merely a letter that
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it was really a phrase
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excerpt that are taken out of
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a letter by Thomas Jefferson
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and in the letter that
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the gist of the letter
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was to protect the church
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from the state.
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And it was totally taken and manipulated
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that phrase separation of church and state
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to justify
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or to excuse Christians
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from being involved
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in the political process.
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And I think that that's part
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of our last day's deception.
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There's no such thing as
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separation of church and state.
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As a Christian, you can't separate
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your Christianity from who you are.
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In the power of the Holy Spirit,
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we should be infiltrating
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and influencing our nation
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for the glory of God.
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And I don't think we should be
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at all bashful or shy
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in a couple of weeks.
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We're going to be celebrating
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a resurrection of Jesus Christ,
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which distinguishes Jesus
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from every other religious
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leader of any other religion.
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No one else rose from the dead.
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We have that kind of truth.
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We have the power of the resurrection
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at our disposal.
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We need to be using it.
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Amen, brother.
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And we've strayed so far
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from how we were founded
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in an influence from the public square.
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That's just,
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it's insane, but our founding fathers
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would be thinking, what,
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what kind of country do you want then?
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If you don't want God,
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his righteousness, the Bible,
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ten commandments, you know,
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holiness, you know,
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the people that believe
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and try to live that out
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make society better.
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But it's the idea that you mentioned,
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the idea is the separation
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that's what the left has been working at.
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That's what they've been successful at doing.
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And for the last several decades,
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we've lost a lot of ground.
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So we've got a good administration.
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I don't care what you think
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about President Trump's personality
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at the moment.
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And I wouldn't even call this a reprieve.
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I don't like to use that word.
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We've got a lot of work to do,
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because the evil has been entrenched
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for many decades.
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We've got a lot to do,
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but that's why I wanted to bring cloud on to talk about this book. What?
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Answer the question. What does he mean
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by making America truly great?
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We'll break back.
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Now with promo code David.
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What is it? World View Matters.
16:06
David Fiorazo.
16:08
And if you missed any of the episodes
16:10
with your favorite guest,
16:12
or you want to look back and watch past episodes,
16:14
go to worldviewmatters.tv.
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And in the search,
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just type in your favorite pastor or guest
16:22
and then you'll see all of their podcasts.
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Okay?
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Cloudstaffer, we asked a question.
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What interpret this for us?
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What does that mean to truly,
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to make America truly great?
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Because everybody has a different definition
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of greatness as a nation?
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Well, you know, I'm not willing as a Christian to settle for merely
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a horizontal political movement
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or a revival,
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so to speak.
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I want something that's of lasting impact.
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I want something that's eternal.
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I want something that's going to truly
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make America great
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in a sense that it becomes
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an example to the world
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of what happens when a nation returns to God.
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What happens when the Lord takes over?
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Now, I wouldn't classify myself as a Christian nationalist.
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I love my nation, but if my nation is
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doing something wrong, I'll call our nation on it.
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But I won't destroy the nation.
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I won't blow it up because I disagree
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with something it's doing.
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I will constructively work to bring change.
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That's what we as Christians are to do.
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We're to be salt.
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We're to be light.
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We're to infiltrate and influence this nation.
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I want to go now to the idea of revival.
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We talk a lot about it.
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Probably not enough because
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there are a lot of podcasts out there.
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There are a lot of pastors online
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on YouTube and their church services are streamed.
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I don't hear a lot or enough in my opinion about
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true revival and what that looks like.
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You quoted R.A. Tory on page 77 of your book.
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I just want to share part of it and just have you
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share your heart on it even more.
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He said the greatest need of the church today
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is a general widespread, deep, thorough,
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genuine revival.
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That is also the greatest need of business,
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the greatest need of human society,
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the greatest need of human government,
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the greatest need of international relations,
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the greatest need of missions.
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In every department of life today,
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he writes, business,
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social relations, politics,
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international relations, education,
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and the church.
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We are facing the most menacing problems
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and the most important crises
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that have confronted the human race
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in centuries, in fact in human history.
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Since the incarnation of God
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and the person of his son Jesus Christ
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and the birth of the church,
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the outcome of that incarnation,
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the only hope of the church
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is a great revival or revolution
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throughout the civilized world.
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Share more on that, Claude.
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Well, it's interesting that when you look at R.A. Tory even back then,
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early in the 20th century,
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he recognized the danger of communism,
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of a godless government.
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And he knew he was a contemporary of D.L. Moody.
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And these are great men of the Lord who really truly
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prayed for, received,
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experienced, and ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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And he did not put restrictions on
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where we as Christians should be involved.
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And I walk, I'm following right after R.A. Tory
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in that regard, I think we should be involved in everything,
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in everything in our society.
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You know, when you look at our nation historically
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and what was going on when our nation was birthed
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back in the 18th century, in the 1700s,
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from the early 1700s to the mid 1700s,
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the colonies experienced
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part of what was called the great awakening,
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the first great awakening.
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And if you go back and you read about the first great awakening,
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it was an incredible move of the Holy Spirit,
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born by people who saw the decadence and the depravity
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and the sinfulness and the despair of colonists
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and began to pray.
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And the Lord just poured out his spirit
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incredibly.
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And the fruit of that revival was
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the Declaration of Independence and the birth
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of the United States of America.
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And we need to get back to our roots,
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periodically throughout history, you know,
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the second great awakening,
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other different awakenings have taken place.
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But in the time that we're living now,
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and right now in the present,
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we need another revival.
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And we need, as a church, first,
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we begin with prayer,
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we seek the Lord, and then we begin to ask the Lord
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to open doors of opportunity for us to minister
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wherever we are.
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We don't all, we can't all be a pastor,
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but whether you're a policeman or a teacher or a doctor
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or an automobile worker,
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or a mother or a father,
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whoever you are,
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to begin to function
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as a vibrant spirit-filled Christians.
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That's what need as a nation.
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You know, the quote that I gave
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from Benjamin Franklin
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at the beginning of our interview
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about only a virtuous people,
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is capable of freedom.
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And the reason why,
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in the last 50 years or so,
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or 100 years or so,
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we've seen this incredible
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decadence,
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like a flood coming in upon us,
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attacking the family,
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attacking marriage,
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attacking morals, left and right,
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just perversion, everything.
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Why is that? It's because of what the truth
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of what Franklin said.
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Only a virtuous people
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is capable of freedom.
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Incredible freedom.
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The sons of liberty
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blessed us in an incredible way.
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The Lord blessed us through them.
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And the only way we can lose it
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is if we stray too far
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from the virtues that God would have us living.
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That's right.
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And we have, but we've got to get back to that.
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So I just want to ask you a chapter eight briefly.
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Leveling mountains.
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That means that in my idea,
22:32
I just read that, and I go, wow,
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I work for the church to do.
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To level mountains. What kind of mountains?
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And what's that chapter about?
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Well, the Apostle Peter in his epistle,
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epistle, say, spoke, speaks about judgment begins
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in the house of the Lord. And I think one of the first mountains that have to be moved.
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Is we have to move Christians
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off of their couches.
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You know, there is the
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familiar phrase to be a Christian couch potato.
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Christians, we cannot afford to be Christian couch potatoes.
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We need to get up.
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And we need to be active.
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We need to be seeking the Lord.
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And we need to be seeking the salvation of the lost.
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We need to be sharing the gospel.
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And if we're unfamiliar with how to do that,
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then we need to be seeking and training.
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Right? And praying.
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And lying in the Holy Spirit
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to use us in whatever way
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that he sees fit.
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There's a lot of scripture throughout your book.
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Thank you. I mean, there's plenty.
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And I like that because the points that you make
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and then you share scripture,
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the word of God can speak to people's hearts
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and maybe bring some conviction.
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But before we run out of time,
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is there anything else you want to share?
23:46
Your book is on Amazon.
23:48
Your greatest patriotic duty.
23:50
Is that the best place for people to pick it up, Claude?
23:54
Yeah. And Amazon,
23:56
it's available in hard,
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paperback,
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Kindle, as well as audio.
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So if you'd like to listen to something in the card,
24:04
pick up a copy,
24:06
an audio copy of the book.
24:08
But in terms of what I would say,
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I would just, you know,
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I just have a burden on my heart
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for us in the time in which you live.
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I believe, personally,
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I believe we're living in the last days.
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I believe Jesus could break through those clouds
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at any moment
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and he would remove his church.
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I truly and genuinely believe that.
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So the time,
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I believe the time is short.
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And we've had this recent political victory
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and there's such a tremendous opportunity here for us as Christians
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to begin to get involved and be engaged.
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And, you know, in my book,
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I talk about revival.
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In my book, I talk about the importance of voting.
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And everything, as you mentioned,
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everything that I speak,
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is trying to give a scriptural basis for whatever I do.
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I want to be a man of the word.
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You know, John Wesley said,
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he was a man of one book,
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the Bible. And I think as Christians,
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we need to be men and women
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of one book, the Bible.
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In our churches,
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we need to get back to teaching the word of God
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expositionally.
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And everything we do should be guided
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by the word of God.
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If we do that,
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God is the language of the Holy Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit inspired the word of God.
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Amen. This, friends,
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good point. This, the Bible has to be our final authority.
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We have to be living by this book.
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The word is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
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So with that cloud in the last two minutes,
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you closed the book with a prayer.
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I thought that was a great way to end.
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And I would love to ask right now
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for you to pray
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for our viewers, for our nation,
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whatever you prayed,
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for the United States, for revival.
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You can even read that,
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that prayer at the end of the book,
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or just pray whatever is on your heart right now, please.
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I'll do that. I'll read the final prayer
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that I concluded the book with.
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Amen.
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Father, we come to you in Jesus' name
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on behalf of our nation,
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the United States of America.
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Father, we confess our nation
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is sinful in many ways.
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Help us to repent and turn from our wickedness.
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Our hope and prayer are that you continue
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to be long-suffering and merciful to us.
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Father, you have shed your grace on us.
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Help us to be forever thankful for that.
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We pray for the lost souls of our nation,
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that you would save them.
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We pray the gospel of Jesus Christ
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would be the power of salvation throughout our land.
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We pray you would make your presence known to us
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and through us.
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Please make us strong in you.
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Father, in your son Jesus' name
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and in the leading of the Holy Spirit,
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we pray you would make us what we need to be.
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To do what you call us to do for your glory
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until your son Jesus returns.
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Father, any greatness we have comes from you.
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Please revive us, heal us, enlighten us,
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help us to do your will.
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We ask in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Heartful prayer.
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That is my heartful prayer.
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And I pray, if this book does anything,
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I just pray with light of fire
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in our heart for our nation and for our Lord.
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Amen, brother.
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God save America and revive the church.
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Friends, thank you for watching,
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listening to his website,
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ShepardofHope.org.
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The book, hardcover,
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your greatest patriotic duty.
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Brother, thanks for your time.
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Always good to have you.
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Friends, God bless you
27:46
and as always, keep speaking the truth about things that matter.