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September 17 – A Greater Freedom · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  I'm Paris. I have Corey with me and I have Mike with me.
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  And this is the Daily Ripples. September 17th.
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  A greater freedom.
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  The song. The greatest freedom God offers is not freedom from hardship, but freedom from fear.
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  Ripper 1, practical. Today I will not measure my life by what I poses or what I lack.
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  Fear loses its grip when I trust God to provide what I truly need.
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  Real security is found in faith, not in circumstances.
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  Repertive, spiritual. As I place my trust in the Father, the Holy Spirit replaces
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  fear with confidence and peace.
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  Following Christ's examples of complete dependency upon God or on God,
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  I discovered a freedom that no earthly possessions can ever provide.
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  You know, I was, I like how it says greater freedom, you know.
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  And that's what this is. I mean, that's what this worked out.
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  And I really, I see today, like, the stuff that I've been doing.
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  Every morning I wake up, you know, on awakening, with the every tired night.
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  But doing this stuff, the daily principles of the spiritual growth,
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  you know, that's where that freedom comes about.
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  I know I was going to go to a page that I normally go to in the big book,
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  Rebecca Alvarez Anonymous, and it talks about it on page 101, Working With Others.
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  It says, therefore, ask yourself, on each occasion, have I any good social business
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  or personal reason for going to this place?
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  Or am I expecting to still love Baraka's pleasure from the atmosphere?
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  You know, the reason I said that, because I can go to places and I have that desire to jerk.
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  That's the freedom. That's the freedom. Yeah, yeah. You know,
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  a freedom of, I can go to my cousin's house who smokes a lot of pot,
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  you know, and drinks a lot of tequila.
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  I could do that and not eat tempted.
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  You know, that's that freedom I have today. I was talking with a guy and they
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  was kind of nervous about going somewhere and spending time somewhere.
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  And because they're shook up on, oh, I can't do that yet. I don't know how I
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  react, you know. And I remember I had a friend of mine.
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  We went to the hospital one time.
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  And they're at it, you know what I mean? They used to shoot up,
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  you know what I mean? And the doctors, they had to go in and try to get some blood.
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  And she had a nervous breakdown, you know, about, you know, needles.
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  You know, that's the, you know, that's the fear, you know, of going back into your time, you know.
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  And that's the, but it's like, what do, how do you get freedom from that part of your trauma?
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  You know what I mean? That's the part that I'm still looking at,
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  you know, because, I mean, I can get freedom from doing the stuff that I used to do.
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  But some people still struggle with that, you know, and that's the part that, you know, we have to.
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  Yeah, I mean, I think actual, like, trauma that people have has to be worked
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  out with a therapist or professional, you know.
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  Like, I don't know that necessarily a, you know, sponsor-sponsee relationship,
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  you know, within the AA program is, and it's not designed to address,
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  you know, underlying trauma. and things of that nature.
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  It's designed to address the common, like we've been talking about all week,
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  the common problem that we have and provide that common solution.
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  I can't, even as a pastor, I can't pray someone all the way through a PTSD episode, right?
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  They might need professional help and techniques and skills that I don't possess
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  to be able to give or share with them.
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  But what I can do is I can give the gift of presence and prayer and help them
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  as they try to determine and discern what best avenue to go down for that.
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  But anyway, Corey, what do you have for us? I was thinking about the freedom and the fear.
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  Wow. You know, it's interesting. I've been structurally as the book goes.
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  When I go tell somebody all myself, right? I'm with the fifth step.
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  There's a promise on page 75, and it says, fear falls from us.
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  And probably the fear, you know, not probably. Man, I'm trying to get out of that, Samuel.
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  We all do. I do the same thing, the like, you know, the couching language.
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  Yeah, I felt like, you know, sometimes, well, I've been told,
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  you know, people are, you know, you come off really like, you know, stern.
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  And, you know, so I try to be like nicer about it. So in some way,
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  instead of being said like, but I used to, Ben, I'll tell you what, I used to talk to people.
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  People that tell you that, are they people that you care about their opinion?
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  No, or I do not. Oh, okay. Then they'll change you. But no, so like,
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  I used to say, oh, I used to say, oh, in y'all's book, this is what it says. Yeah.
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  You know, I mean, but anyways, but the reason it says our fears fall from us, right?
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  The reason our fears fall from us is brought to the page right before this.
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  It says more than most people, the alcohol leads a double life.
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  Right. So I'm trying to be cool with you and be cool with you and be cool with
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  this person and lead all these double lives.
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  And then the other side of that is you're pissing me off about this and you're
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  making me mad about this because I'm getting because of these different people. Right. I'm lit.
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  I don't just live, live a double life.
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  I have four or five or six different people I'm trying to be to the whole world.
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  And so one of those fears fall from me. I tell you about, I tell one person
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  that's why, you know, some people can get this a little mixed up,
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  but it's one person because if I go tell you some stuff that I did,
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  about some criminal stuff and
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  I go you tell you some stuff I did that was like you know that might be,
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  something else right that might be more around your background because like
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  now I'm still appeasing two people right I'm not calling you that but I mean
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  you know what I'm saying but like I'm still appeasing multiple people when I
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  tell one person everything you,
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  get it all out there to one person it doesn't matter with their background or anything.
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  And I like how it says in here, because I've done this recently.
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  It says others, or hold on.
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  It says, we often find such a person quick to see, where does it say that, Paris?
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  An understanding person or persons. That's what it says. Rightly and naturally
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  think well before we choose the person or persons.
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  So man, I did that not too long ago. With two dudes.
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  I did a fifth step with one dude as he was doing his fist up,
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  and I did a fist up with him, right?
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  So, but when I do that, you know, it's interesting in the, what's that Scientology?
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  That Scientology? Nice. Anyways.
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  It is a, I guess, a denomination or form of religion. Right.
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  But one thing they do that's very interesting that I thought was interesting
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  when I read their book years and years ago, is when you go do your.
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  With your confession, right? You're sitting in a room with a dude.
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  He's got a lot of tetrapecs there, right?
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  So he puts this thing on you. And so say that you've done something really bad.
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  Let's just say one of the worst things that a person could ever have done is
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  murder, right? That's probably one of the worst stuff there.
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  So when you say that to somebody for the first time, you're going to get a feeling flipping, right?
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  Well, that little barometer thing goes up.
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  Well they have you say it more more than one time so if you after you say it
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  over and over and over it goes down and down and down because you've got it
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  more out right so that's you know i'm not saying like anyway but i think the thought of that is great,
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  because the more i talk about something to people and go make things right the more that,
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  whatever it is goes down because i have to get it out because it's deep down
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  within me just where god is we found you know what says we found the great reality deep down with him,
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  but when it says fears fall from us that's because i'm not trying to impress
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  anybody i'm just going to be who god needs me to be friend at that point and
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  i'm not playing a double life,
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  that's important to this the whole structure of being free because after that right the freedom,
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  we talk about is on page 58 it's not freedom but it's humility page 58 of what book the 12 of 12.
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  So I think this is the perfect example of freedom, but the word with humility, right?
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  Because on page 58, it gives me the definition of humility. A word often misunderstood
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  to those who have made promise in AA.
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  It amounts to a clear recognition of what and who we really are,
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  followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be.
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  Because I've gotten out who I am, right? And I know who I could be.
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  I could be a child of God and help God's kids. And after I get all that stuff
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  on the floor, man, I don't know what else.
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  You know, it said that, and I think we just talked about it not too long ago. What else am I to do?
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  But pick up this simple spiritual toolkit and go on about this work.
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  I don't know, to me, I was thinking about that, how humility can align with
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  that freedom part, mainly who I really am.
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  There's a freedom in there, and not in being stuck in self-delusion.
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  Well, I was thinking about something before. I think about it as,
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  like, it's a story in the 12 and 12, right? It's on page 1, 22.
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  And it talks about, like, as a baby, as a child, we have a dream.
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  Normally, it's a boy's dream. You know, he wants to be a president or something, right?
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  But what happens is, as he gets older, he sees how impossible that it is to become a president.
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  So, you know, that freedom now to go back into the little boys,
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  oh, since I can't do this work, since I can't be the president,
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  he's now having freedom of just enjoying life and being whatever he can be,
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  you know, just by coming back.
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  And here's a verse also that I thought about was speaking on the spiritual principle of this.
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  Because I know we probably going over. But there's a verse that says.
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  And the Spirit just said, the Holy Spirit bring clarity in his time rather than
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  mine, following Christ's examples of trusting the Father's will.
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  And it came to me with Proverbs.
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  Proverbs, what was it, 3, 5, and 6? That's one of the favorite verse.
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  Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
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  And do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways and not assure.
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  And he will direct the fair.
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  See, that verse right there, Because when I put my trust in him and that's the
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  type of freedom that I get when I, you know, when I can actually just believe
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  and just put it, get surrender to him. Yeah.
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  Well, and that's, it's the difference between whenever I stopped just trying
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  to serve myself and I started trying to serve my higher power.
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  Right. And that's what makes all the difference in the world.
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  So, and that, you know, because, you know, all the things that we're talking
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  about, all the fears that I have, you know, that drove me for so long.
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  Is that the right word? Drove? Drove me for so long? Yeah. All the fears that drove me for so long.
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  Were fears that manifested because I was just serving myself.
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  You know, I was trying to get things that weren't necessarily mine to get.
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  I was just serving myself in however many ways that comes up.
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  And I had to learn, you know, the hard way that from Jesus's own,
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  you know, Sermon on the Mount, we talked about that a little bit already,
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  I think this week, but in Matthew 6, verse 24 starts and he says,
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  no one can serve two masters.
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  For you'll either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and
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  despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
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  And you can replace the word wealth with self even.
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  And then it says, therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life,
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  what you'll eat or what you'll drink or about your body or what you will wear.
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  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air.
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  They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father
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  feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
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  So that's telling me, I just got to keep taking this a day at a time,
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  placing my life and my care into my higher powers' hands, and letting Him,
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  as you said, direct my paths.
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  Sir. Will you close this out with our prayer? Yes, I will.
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  Father God, free me from the fears that keep me from trusting the completeness.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, fill my heart with peace and confidence.
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  Shake me through the example of Jesus. Amen. Amen.