Latest / The OneCry Podcast / #158 The Presence Centered Life (10 - Cleansing Our Hearts and Enjoying God’s Presence)

Transcript

#158 The Presence Centered Life (10 - Cleansing Our Hearts and Enjoying God’s Presence) · The OneCry Podcast

• 0:01
  His aim is not to hurt us, it's to heal us, and if we'll let Him,
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  He will show us those things.
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  Now, we've got, again, we've got to cooperate, and the cooperation is the confession
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  and the honesty and transparency that's willing to let Him deal with those things in our lives.
• 0:22
  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
• 0:39
  Well, welcome to the OneCry podcast. I'm Kyle Reno with Bill Eliff over there.
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  Bishop, how are you doing, brother?
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  Man, I am just, as we say in Arkansas, fine as frogs here.
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  And I don't even know, you know, frogs don't even have hair, really.
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  They do. I do. I've researched this because I heard it as an Alabama say in
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  my whole life that does a frog even have hair?
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  And my great grandfather was accurate. They do. Yeah.
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  Well, there you go. Well, that's how fine I am. I'm doing good.
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  You're doing well. You look good. And I'm excited about this just series.
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  Honestly, man, we've we've had a lot of fun talking about what it really means.
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  This last episode before this about communing with the Lord and looking at drawing
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  near. And today, I think there's this non-negotiable.
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  And if we're going to walk in the presence of God personally,
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  there's going to be moments where the Lord turns the light on.
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  And he's going to allow us to see. And I know today you're going to talk about
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  cleansing, which I'm excited about.
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  And we need to keep a close account of where we are. But it made me think of
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  a goofy story. So you want one real quick?
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  I've never heard you tell a goofy story. So this will be unusual. Yeah, right.
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  It's not about your kids is it I mean I've never heard anything about your kids
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  no you know my kids never do anything goofy so it's not no I remember as you
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  were talking just setting up this message beforehand,
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  I thought about you know Katie and I my wife,
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  I had a season where she was a cheerleader at the University of Mobile.
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  There you go. There you go. And, you know, four hours was not too far distance
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  for me to drive down just to have a date.
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  You know what I mean? Like I knew she was going to be my future bride.
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  So from Birmingham basically to Mobile, Alabama, it's an I-65 four-hour shot.
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  You know, and there is actually a couple times a year when these bugs are in
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  Alabama. I don't know if this is the accurate name, but we call them love bugs,
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  you know, and that they're just go with.
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  You know, you've called a lot of things in Alabama with names that nobody in
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  the world knows except that little kingdom of Alabama.
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  Yeah, I mean, just roll with it. So you call them love bugs?
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  They're called love bugs? Yeah. Why?
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  It's two bugs that are connected. So just I'll let you do what you want to do with that, you know.
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  There's probably some reproductive reasons behind all that.
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  But they would fill the air. And people from Alabama that listen know this,
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  and you probably have a different expression of that in different areas.
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  But it would get so bad in certain seasons.
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  This is widely known in that area, that on I-65, that you would drive for a
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  little while and that you would hit so many that you could no longer windshield
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  wipers or some spray in the spray.
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  It wouldn't work. You would have to pull off and literally go to a gas station,
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  And they would have in the windshield cleaners at a whole nother level to cleanse
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  the windshield because you could not see where you were going,
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  which is dangerous for you and for everybody.
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  It just is an illustration. I thought, man, you know, you got to have moments.
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  We desperately need moments where you have some cleansing because sin corrupts our view of God.
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  It corrupts our ability to move forward in our faith. I know that you're going
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  to walk us into that in light of enjoying God's presence.
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  That's right. And, you know, we've been talking about this.
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  God has pursued us to be in his presence. He longs for us to be in his presence.
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  It's his greatest delight. And we were designed for that.
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  And, you know, when we realize that, it just changes everything, that he wants us there.
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  And we're not an annoyance to him. We are a delight to him when we come.
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  And we can come in to his presence in any form.
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  I mean, we don't have to clean up before we get in, right? Because we can't.
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  Only Christ can help us do that. Only the Spirit of God can give us eyes to
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  see what needs to be dealt with.
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  But when he pursues us, we've got to pursue him.
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  And Kyle, we talked about the six ways of a presence-centered life.
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  The first one is we've got to draw near.
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  We have got to deliberately draw near on a regular basis.
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  We can be completely oblivious to God's presence and not experiencing it unless
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  we humbly draw near to the Lord. And here's the promise.
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  He'll draw near to us. And then once we draw near, we've got to learn how to
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  commune on a regular basis, set times, running times all throughout the day,
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  set apart times where we take a season to get away with the Lord.
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  We just got to commune with him through the word of God and prayer.
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  But as we get into his presence and we're talking to him, there's something
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  that's going to come up pretty quick. and that's our sin.
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  He doesn't do that because he hates us. He does that because he loves us and
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  he wants to conform us more and more into the image of his son.
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  And so the Holy Spirit is constantly convicting. That word means convince.
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  We think we're doing fine. We don't think there's too many bugs on the mirror, right?
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  And then the Holy Spirit says, oh, you don't realize what you're not seeing.
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  You don't realize how dangerous this is. You don't realize where this is heading.
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  And he convinces us, and we get honest and clear about that.
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  I love this passage in Psalm 32.
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  Two, David had committed grievous sin and it comes and he talks about the blessing
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  and the joy of being clean in the presence of God.
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  And listen how he says this, Psalm 32, one, how blessed is he whose transgression
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  is forgiven, whose sin is covered by the mercy of the grace of God.
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  How blessed is a man whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there's no deceit.
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  In other words, he's not lying anymore. He's not being dishonest about his sin.
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  And then he gives this little personal testimony.
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  He said, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.
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  Day and night your hand was upon heavy
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  upon me and my vitality was drained away
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  as with the fever heat of summer but then he
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  said i acknowledged my sin to
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  you and my iniquity i did not hide and i said i'll confess my transgressions
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  to the lord and guess what happened you forgave the guilt of my sin therefore
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  let everyone who's godly pray to you in a time when he may be found. Now.
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  The Christian life, as one man said, is not a matter of sinless perfection.
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  Nobody can expect that. God doesn't expect that.
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  He knows our frame. He understands what we're like. He was tempted in all points like we are.
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  And that's why we have a high priest that's sympathetic with our weaknesses.
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  And we can come boldly into the throne of grace to receive mercy and help.
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  So it's not a matter of sinless perfection, but it is a matter of immediate confession.
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  Here's what happens. We all sin. We get confused or we get tempted or we just
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  choose, deliberately choose something we know we shouldn't do.
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  We say something we shouldn't say.
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  We think something we shouldn't think.
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  We watch something we shouldn't watch. And if you're a follower of Christ,
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  you immediately begin to sense something's wrong, right?
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  And what's happened is you just pulled away from Christ.
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  You just pulled away. You just said, now, I know, Lord, we're right here together
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  and you're on the throne and I'm listening to you.
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  But right now, I want to ascend the throne.
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  I want to be in charge. church and we push you away, right?
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  We couldn't do that without pushing him away. And so we lose the awareness of
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  the presence of God in our life and everything flows from God's presence.
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  His presence is our greatest need and his greatest delight.
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  So sin is the most grievous thing that could happen.
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  And when that happens, everything starts going south.
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  I mean, just if I had time to study with you Psalm 32, I hope maybe you'll do it later.
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  Notice that there was emotional deterioration in David's life when he kept silent about his sin.
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  He said, I just groaned all day long. There was physical deterioration.
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  My vitality was drained like the fever heat of summer, he said,
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  and your hand was heavy upon me.
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  You know, Spurgeon said, better a world on your shoulders like Atlas than the
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  hand of God upon you like David.
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  So there's emotional and and physical and spiritual deterioration that happens
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  when we hide and cover our sin.
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  Proverbs 28, 13 says, he who covers his sin will never prosper.
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  Now, you may have some money, you may get a job somewhere, but you won't spiritually prosper, right?
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  He who covers his sin will never prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes
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  his sin will always find mercy with God.
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  So a person who wants to live in God's presence, if you don't want to live in
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  God's presence, fine, just keep sinning.
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  Keep ignoring the conviction of God. His voice to you about those things will
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  get more and more distant because your soul gets more and more calloused,
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  and you keep doing worse and worse things as you get away from the presence
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  and keep hurting more and more people.
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  I mean, this is the progression that happens when we say, when we move out of God's presence.
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  But if in you there's a desire to live a presence-centered life and to enjoy
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  the presence where the fullness of joy is and the power is and the purposes of God are,
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  then you must be regular and consistent about your cleansing.
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  Now, Paul made a great statement about this.
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  He said, in view of this, this is Acts 24, 16, I do my best. The word is gymnasio.
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  I exercise myself, he said, to always maintain a clear conscience,
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  both before God and before man.
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  Norman Grubb, in one of his little books, Continuous Revival,
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  who was a missionary in Rwanda in a 20-year revival, a movement of God that lasted for 20 years.
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  They asked him how it was sustained.
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  And he said this, we kept the roof off and the walls down.
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  The roof off and the walls down. Nothing between me and God.
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  And as soon as we detected there was something that had gotten in the way between
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  us and God, we would deal with it. We'd get honest about it.
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  We'd say, Lord, what is it?
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  And we would come before the Lord with honesty and confession.
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  Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Please cleanse me.
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  And I recognize my sin. I acknowledge it to thee.
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  And there's another direction before me and anybody else.
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  I mean, Jesus said one time, if you come to pray and lay your offering on the
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  altar and realize that your brother has something against you,
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  whether you've done something legitimately or not,
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  I mean, it's just something between you and your brother.
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  God is so interested in his children being unified because that's one of the
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  great pictures of true Christianity and of him to the world.
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  He says, leave the altar and go be reconciled to your brother and then come
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  back and bring your offering.
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  So we have to do our best, it says.
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  We exercise ourselves to maintain a clear conscience before God and man.
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  Years ago, when I first came back to the Lord, I was a believer.
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  But in high school, I had wandered away, and I just really made a mess of things.
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  And I finally got so sick and tired of being sick and tired.
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  Maybe you're there right now.
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  I just came back and I gave up. I said, Lord, if you're going to do anything
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  with my life, you'll have to do it. I can't.
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  And it's almost as if the Lord just said to me, that's what I've been waiting to hear.
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  And the Lord began to show me that he lived inside of me and that I could live in his power.
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  That was a whole new thing that I didn't know. And he could live through me.
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  If I would just surrender my life to him.
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  And I went home and confessed to my parents because I'd been doing a lot of
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  stuff behind their back.
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  And my dad very wisely took out a legal pad, yellow pad, I remember I can see it.
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  And he said, Billy, he said, write the word sin list on top and put a number one.
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  And you spend time before the Lord and just ask him, Lord, Lord,
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  is there anything between me and you and between me and anybody else that's
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  not right? Don't argue with him.
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  Don't blame anybody. Don't make excuses. Just write it down.
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  And then come back and I'll tell you what to do with it. And he said,
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  by the way, if there's something that you've done towards somebody or with somebody
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  else that you need to get right, circle those.
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  And I did. I went through. Well, I came back. It was a long legal pad,
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  seven pages front and back.
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  I mean, no wonder I felt distant from God, right?
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  I had a wall of sin that was those bugs that Kyle Reno talked about that was
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  hindering my relationship and my intimacy with the Father.
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  And one by one, I walked through and sought the Lord's cleansing and forgiveness.
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  Listen, just acknowledging it.
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  Got me there. That's what got me there.
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  And the willingness to turn from it. When I saw all of that,
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  I thought, oh Lord, don't let me leave your presence.
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  And so we've been talking about the six ways of a presence-centered life.
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  So much so that a man develops these, A woman develops these in her life that
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  people say, man, that's just the way she is.
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  That's just the way she is. That's her way.
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  The way of a presence-centered life is they're always drawing near.
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  When they get the slightest, when they walk away from the presence of God, they draw near.
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  They turn around and they draw near into his presence.
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  And they're constantly communing with God. And in that communing,
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  God is revealing in his grace their sin and their need,
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  and they're constantly admitting their sin and acknowledging their need,
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  both before God and before men.
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  I can't tell you how many thousands of times I've had to go to people and say,
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  you know, what I did was wrong, or what I did may have been the right thing,
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  but I did it the wrong way.
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  Would you please forgive me? You know, people are gracious to forgive,
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  and even if they don't, that's on them.
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  That's their issue before the Lord. but I'm responsible to seek to maintain
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  a clear conscience before God and man.
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  And it may be as you're listening.
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  You need to pull out a legal pad. If you were to ask me, Bill,
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  when did you last do that?
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  I would tell you, oh, about a week ago.
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  It's been the regular habit of my life for really almost 40, 50 years,
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  to just regularly look at my sin and to say, God, search me.
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  Here's the psalmist's prayer.
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  Search me, O God, and know my heart.
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  The last guy that sees the tear in his jacket, in the back of his jacket,
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  is the guy that's wearing it.
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  Search me and know my heart. Try me and know my ways and see if there's any
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  wicked or hurtful way in me. Show me, Lord.
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  And then, as I acknowledge it, lead me in the everlasting way. This is the way.
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  Constant, regular cleansing. Now, there are moments where you may have a seven-page list,
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  but that's not often because a presence-centered man, are you listening,
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  keeps short accounts.
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  He just keeps short accounts. He doesn't let it go very long until he's quickly dealing.
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  He can't sin against his wife and just let it sit there for days and months
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  and build up and accrue and become a wall.
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  That really damages their relationship. The roof off and the wall down,
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  Kyle, I think is one of the great keys to the ways of a present-centered life
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  and into the fullness of God.
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  Yeah, man, I'm sitting here thinking, you know, nobody wakes up one morning
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  and says, I would like to ruin my life.
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  You know, nobody puts a price on their five year plan.
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  Let me make a series of decisions that end up leading to the destruction of
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  my family or my ministry or my whatever it may be.
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  You know, and I think we live in an age now where those things are often highlighted.
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  Somebody's fall and demise.
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  And we're constantly hearing these stories. Well, the truth is,
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  yeah, we're living in the consequence.
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  It started way back here, though. Way back here. We're living,
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  we're watching the man fall, the big fall.
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  But there was decisions that were made years before that. You know, that.
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  Yeah and satan knows that doesn't he i mean he's got
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  schemes and his schemes is
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  let me tempt them on a little area that they
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  don't think is that big of a deal and then the next day
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  a little more a little more a little more and don't let him take the time to
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  go back and clean that up you know and rectify that or reconcile with his brother
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  and because he knows that sin you know godliness is cumulative.
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  There's something about a man, you know, I've thought about this many times,
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  Kyle, something about a preacher who just lives like the devil through the week.
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  And then on Saturday night, he says, Lord, give me a message for,
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  and you know what? The Lord may graciously speak to him because the Lord loves his people.
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  Right. But there's something very different about a man who's pursuing the presence of God all week.
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  And there's this cumulative holiness In the same way, there's a cumulative nature to ungodliness.
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  That is just bills and bills. The truth is sin that's not put to death,
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  it's not truly repentant of, it only grows.
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  And the consequences grow. That's right. And the invitation of God to be cleansed,
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  to cleanse your hands, purify your heart, is not to hurt you per se.
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  It's to help you. It's to heal you. God's not mad at us.
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  He's quite aware of our sinfulness. Hence why he sent his son to die.
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  But the invitation is, come here, boy, let me clean you up.
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  Let me, I want to remove this in the right way and how you respond between me
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  and you and between you and people so that you can live free.
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  You can live free so you can live it. There's few things that's more freeing than to feel clean.
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  Oh, man. Yeah. And to be cleansed by God. Yeah. The only way you can do that.
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  Yeah. And you talk about liberated. Like if you're not that,
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  because shame is heavy, you know, like that.
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  And regardless of how deeply, you know, we deceive ourselves,
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  you still know what's in there. Right.
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  You're still aware to some level.
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  You might have a calloused heart to it, but ultimately it's coming with a huge
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  price tag. You know, so that the invitation of God into his presence and come
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  in here and let's do something with this.
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  Yeah, I had one of my twenty seven grandkids and we were with him and he got
• 24:02
  something in his eye and it was it was really and it was there.
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  We found it. And it was I mean, he was screaming like a wild man and he's good
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  at it. I mean, he can really let it fly.
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  And so he was and everybody was trying to help him.
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  And and finally, his his aunt Jenny grabbed him and held him close.
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  And for some reason, mom was somewhere else. And and his mom was somewhere else.
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  And he and he she pulled him close into her presence and she and he was still screaming.
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  But she stayed at it just relentlessly.
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  And she got that out of his eye. Right.
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  And, you know, when he did, he looked up, he was so happy.
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  And and that's the way it is in the presence of God.
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  God may look and find something in our eyes that's that's hurting us, you know. Yeah.
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  But his aim is not to hurt us. It's to heal us.
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  Right. And we'll let him he will show us those things.
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  Now, we've got again, we've got to cooperate. Yeah, we've got to cooperate with him.
• 25:17
  And the cooperation is the confession and the honesty and transparency that's
• 25:24
  willing to let him deal with those things in our lives.
• 25:27
  And I would just challenge Kyle, our listeners, don't dare let this podcast go and not deal with it.
• 25:36
  Because I guarantee you, all of us right now probably could slip off somewhere
• 25:42
  and get in the presence of the Lord and get a notebook out and get to work.
• 25:48
  And it would be for our good. And it ought to be a regular daily exercise and
• 25:54
  an immediate exercise all during the day if we want to experience the presence of God. Yeah.
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  And we'll end with this way. way, ask the Holy Spirit to do that.
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  And I think, Bill, every follower of Christ has got to find his way of pursuing
• 26:10
  God in personal holiness.
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  Yeah. You know, like that sin list, man, for you and which I've used as well,
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  you know, and for me, it's God awakened a cry in my heart early in my faith.
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  And this is how simple it is for me to say, Lord, just turn the light on.
• 26:29
  Yeah. I just I just I embrace the lot of God in my life. And because when the
• 26:36
  light comes, I see the corners.
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  I see the places that I might not. Man, I don't really want that to be known.
• 26:44
  But that light is also healing. You know, and so I'd encourage our listeners
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  today, man, in light of these truths that Bill just shared about cleansing and
• 26:53
  pursuing God's presence in ways that bring cleansing.
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  Let him turn the light on. Let him turn the light on because he loves you.
• 27:03
  I'll do this, Bill. I'll pray for us real quick.
• 27:08
  Yeah. And then you close us up. Father, man, it's just reminded of how much
• 27:13
  you love us. And so this is what I pray.
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  I pray right now for all of us, for Bill and I, and for every listener and for
• 27:21
  everyone that will share this with somebody else.
• 27:23
  Lord, I pray the embrace of the Father.
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  I pray that you would come close. You've already promised you would.
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  And that would not be a scary thought, Lord, to us.
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  But, Lord, we would be more afraid of, Lord, running or trying to exist as if
• 27:43
  these areas don't need to be addressed.
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  And instead, we'd be more rightly fearful of what would happen if these things
• 27:53
  go unrepentant of, Lord God, if these things go without sanctification.
• 28:01
  And so, Lord, turn that light on.
• 28:04
  Bring your cleansing work in our lives right now.
• 28:08
  Lord, I pray from a moment of great repentance, you would save marriages and
• 28:13
  ministries. You would save future generational lines.
• 28:20
  Lord, ultimately, Lord, you would save us from things that would not glorify you.
• 28:27
  Lord God, so I ask Holy Spirit for your help in tangible ways, Lord.
• 28:33
  And I pray that in being cleansed, Lord, that we would be more alive than ever,
• 28:38
  more free to glorify you, Lord, and to enjoy your presence. And I pray the enemy
• 28:44
  wouldn't rob us any longer in these areas.
• 28:47
  And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.
• 28:49
  Amen. Amen. Well, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast.
• 28:54
  We know you have a lot of choices. There's a gazillion podcasts out there.
• 28:59
  And we're really grateful that you watch the One Crime podcast.
• 29:06
  And Hey, listen, uh, if it's, if it's helping you, uh, one of the ways you could
• 29:12
  help somebody else is just tell them about the podcast and send it out to 10
• 29:16
  of your friends and send them a link and say, Hey man, uh,
• 29:20
  watch this with me and, and let's get together for coffee and talk about it, you know?
• 29:25
  And, uh, so we hope you'll join us.
• 29:28
  And, uh, right in this series, we're We're halfway through some of these teachings
• 29:34
  about the ways of a presence-centered life.
• 29:37
  And we hope you'll join us next time.
• 29:40
  Music.