Latest / Karl and Crew / Love and Hope with Dr. Winfred Neely; Experiencing a Living Hope with Philip Miller; and Hope through Wheelchairs with Joni Eareckson Tada

Transcript

Love and Hope with Dr. Winfred Neely; Experiencing a Living Hope with Philip Miller; and Hope through Wheelchairs with Joni Eareckson Tada · Karl and Crew

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  S1: Broadcasting from Chicago, across North America and beyond. It's Carl
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  S1: and crew.
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  S2: Come as you are an experienced guide, overcome what seems
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  S2: impossible and live as you never imagined.
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  S1: Delivering the truth daily.
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  S3: Lord, we thank you that you are so much greater
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  S3: that there's no force, no person, no power that can
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  S3: stand against you, our great God.
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  S4: Satan has blinded the minds of the unbeliever, but Jesus
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  S4: gives sight to the blind.
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  S5: I came born with revenge, but then I became born again.
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  S5: And I want people to know God's love.
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  S2: I want you to get a vision for what it
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  S2: is to be a disciple of Christ, making your life
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  S2: not a cul de sac, but a conduit of truth
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  S2: and hope and love.
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  S1: Now, from the call of Hope Studios, this is Carl
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  S1: and crew.
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  S2: All right. This is for all the old souls. Good
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  S2: souls transform souls. Those that are boy feeling like there's
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  S2: a war. Okay, there is a war. Let me just
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  S2: quickly go through something and give you some great hope here.
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  S2: We're talking about hope. All week long we find in
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  S2: Ezekiel 28 we find what happened at the fall of Satan.
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  S2: Verse 15, you were blameless in your ways from the
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  S2: day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
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  S2: In the abundance of your trade you were filled with
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  S2: violence and you sinned. Now it goes on to say this.
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  S2: So I cast you as a profane thing from the
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  S2: mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
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  S2: from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart
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  S2: was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom
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  S2: for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to
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  S2: the ground. I exposed you before kings to feast their
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  S2: eyes on you. So here we find the fall of
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  S2: Satan and ultimate judgment that's going to happen. Okay? But
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  S2: the battle rages on. And here's what we find that's
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  S2: very fascinating in Ephesians six. Be strong in the Lord
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  S2: and in the strength of his might. Put on the
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  S2: whole armor of God, that you may be able to
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  S2: stand against the schemes of the devil. This is a
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  S2: Greek word, schemes from which we get the word methods. Now,
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  S2: if you look at the non fallen angels, these angelic
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  S2: forces that are ministering angels to us right now, there
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  S2: is structure, there is order, and there is method. Satan
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  S2: adopted those same methods that he had heard, learned, heard,
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  S2: and learned from God. And he employs them with these
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  S2: demonic forces. One third of angelic beings rebelled against God
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  S2: with Satan. Now, interestingly enough, he is in the backdrop
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  S2: orchestrating these schemes or methods. I love the word methods.
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  S2: Schemes almost has this little hands together, fingers tingling. You
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  S2: know what I'm saying?
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  S4: Methods is a cartoon villain type of thing.
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  S2: Yeah, cartoon villain methods is whiteboard strategy order. And you
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  S2: might say, is it that calculated? It is because we
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  S2: read on. This is what we find. For we do
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  S2: not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against
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  S2: the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,
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  S2: against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. There
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  S2: are four terms here for unique Greek words that are
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  S2: used to describe the methods of Satan. These demonic forces
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  S2: are real. So we put on the armor of God.
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  S2: And why is this so important? Any time the person
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  S2: of God is moving toward the plan of God. Or
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  S2: as Dickinson said in one of his great books, in fact,
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  S2: I've got it right here. Dangers of the Spirit world.
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  S2: As we're reading this about a week and a half ago,
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  S2: any time God's people move toward God's plan and he
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  S2: calls them program, which is basically great commandment, great commission.
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  S2: And Titus 211 and 12, anytime we move with God,
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  S2: we move into the bull's eye of Satan's methods. Isn't
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  S2: this fascinating?
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  S3: It's fascinating. It's I mean, it can be a little
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  S3: intimidating because you don't really want to move into the
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  S3: bull's eye of Satan's anything.
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  S2: No. You don't. Now, this is what you. You've got
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  S2: to know this boom crew. God is sovereign over Satan.
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  S2: We see this in job. Will he allow a measure
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  S2: of this affliction to come our way. Yes, but God
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  S2: is not unknowing, and he knows what we can handle.
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  S2: And he knows that there is a war afoot. And
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  S2: he gave us what we need. So he put on
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  S2: the armor of God. But this is what I want
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  S2: to tell you. I think the most underutilized implement in
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  S2: this spiritual war that we find ourselves in is the
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  S2: sword of the spirit, and take up the sword of
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  S2: the spirit, which is the. I'm going to go back
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  S2: to something from about two months, three months ago, which
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  S2: is the right rhema word of God. The word rhema
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  S2: is used 70 times in the New Testament. It was
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  S2: first introduced by Jesus himself. Man shall not live by
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  S2: bread alone, but by every regime. A word that proceeds
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  S2: from the mouth of God, the spoken word. Here's what's
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  S2: important when you move into the bull's eye. And we
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  S2: all should be moving into the bullseye, God's sovereign over that.
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  S2: But that's the only place to live. We move into
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  S2: it when we move into that. The affliction and the attacks.
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  S2: I do believe will increase God's sovereign over that. But
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  S2: he's given us a way of escape. What is that?
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  S2: Primarily the Word of God. This is why God's Word
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  S2: is something that needs to not only be in your
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  S2: heart and your head, but coming off the lips of
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  S2: your mouth, because Satan cannot handle the truth. And that's
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  S2: hope filled because some of you find yourself in a
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  S2: battle today, I would encourage you get the Word of
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  S2: God in your heart, in your mind, and on your lips.
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  S2: Speak it out and God will give you victory. We're
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  S2: in a war, there's no doubt about it. Right, Ali?
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  S3: Yeah. And the question is, are we going to fight?
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  S3: And if we're going to fight, we're going to fight
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  S3: with the Word of God, because that's the only way
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  S3: to win the war.
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  S2: Yeah. Get that sword of the spirit. Use it, speak it.
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  S2: God will give you victory.
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  S1: She lives in the city, but wouldn't mind a little
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  S1: House on the prairie. Allie is in the crew. You're
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  S1: listening to Carl and crew.
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  S2: Let's go a little deeper on this thing. We are
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  S2: in a spiritual war, for sure. And we know that
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  S2: Satan is a deceiver. And we do not have to fear.
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  S2: God is sovereign over all these fallen angels. Satan again rebelled,
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  S2: found in Ezekiel 28, took a third of and didn't
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  S2: take a third of God's created angelic beings rebelled with
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  S2: Satan and they are aligned with methodologies to attempt to
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  S2: take us down today. Now, you might say, is there
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  S2: anywhere in Scripture where Satan uses inanimate objects for his
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  S2: tools in a tool chest? Specifically, I'm referring to AI
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  S2: because Young Thunder's got a story here today that some
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  S2: of you have heard. Maybe you haven't, but give us
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  S2: the recap on that one really quickly here.
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  S4: Yeah. So a safety researcher who works at anthropic, so,
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  S4: you know, he works for a leading AI company, has
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  S4: said that the chance that AI kills all humans within
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  S4: the next decade is greater than 10%. And he made
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  S4: those comments after a coworker, another researcher at anthropic, resigned,
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  S4: saying that these leading AI companies are steaming towards superintelligence
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  S4: without any safeguards, and they're putting human lives at risk
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  S4: by doing it.
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  S2: So the question we have is, how does Satan use this? Well,
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  S2: another reference here is in Second Corinthians 1114, Satan disguises
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  S2: himself as an angel of light. And that's all I'm
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  S2: going to say quickly. Satan is a counterfeiter. What he
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  S2: does is he is constantly making what is false appear true.
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  S2: That's what Satan does. He. He attempts to take a vehicle,
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  S2: any vehicle, even the mouths of people to create counterfeits.
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  S2: Making what is false appear true. And this is the
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  S2: the power of AI. Used negatively. Can AI be used positively? Yeah.
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  S2: My goodness. We've got Doctor Drew Dickens comes on here
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  S2: and we get tools galore.
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  S3: Leveraging AI spiritual gifts assessment.
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  S4: I replaced my car battery this weekend with the help
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  S4: of AI.
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  S6: That's right. Yeah. So that's helpful.
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  S2: There's super helpful things, but I feel like AI is
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  S2: more prime for the polar extremes than any other technology
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  S2: or kind of vehicle that has been used. I don't
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  S2: think there's any way to argue against that.
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  S4: I think that's fair.
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  S2: I mean, it's either.
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  S6: Because of it's it's right.
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  S2: Here or way.
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  S6: Out here.
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  S4: It's reach, it's ability, it's intelligence. You know, it's artificial,
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  S4: but it is it is intelligent. And so. Yeah, I
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  S4: think so.
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  S2: It's fascinating. My bride was talking to me about this
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  S2: very thing that we see this phenomenon in our world today.
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  S2: We've got people that don't claim Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord,
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  S2: and who knows if they even believe in God, who
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  S2: are are saying things like some of the stuff that's
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  S2: in our world today is unsurvivable. You can't make it
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  S2: through it. And we just need to be alert. We
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  S2: don't need to be afraid. God is sovereign over all
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  S2: of these methods of Satan. And that's clearly what the
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  S2: word schemes means in Ephesians six. It's it. It could
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  S2: be unnerving except for the sovereignty, the protection, the providence,
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  S2: the God is our strong tower. The righteous run in
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  S2: and find shelter. Wow, what a promise. So we've got God.
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  S2: He is sovereign over all things, even fallen angels, these
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  S2: demonic forces that are aligned against us with methodologies we
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  S2: need not fear, but we need to be alert. This
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  S2: is why Paul calls us to be alert in Ephesians six.
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  S2: It's it's an important discussion. We probably need to spend
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  S2: soon a whole week on this spiritual war that we're in.
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  S2: You know what I mean?
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  S3: Oh, yeah. I mean, yes, let's do it. Let's mark
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  S3: it down. I'll leave it there.
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  S2: Yeah, we got to do that. Be encouraged guys. Yes,
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  S2: it is true. The more we align our life with God,
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  S2: the more we align our life with God's plan and
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  S2: his programs, as Dickerson calls it. Great. Prof. Here for
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  S2: a number of years and spoke and wrote prolifically on
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  S2: spiritual war. The more we align, the closer we are
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  S2: to the bull's eye. And so the. The firestorm of
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  S2: attack will increase. But God is able. God is providential.
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  S2: God is sovereign. He is good. So we cling to
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  S2: him while we move toward his calling on our life.
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  S2: And there's great hope in that.
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  S1: From the oil rig to the pulpit, Karl is in
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  S1: the crew. You're listening to Karl and crew with.
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  S2: Us right now. One of our favorites, truly. Doctor Winfred Nealy,
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  S2: how you doing, young man? How are things going?
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  S7: Well, things are going very, very well. But I had
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  S7: to come to terms with an issue. A problem that
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  S7: has been a part of my life ever since I
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  S7: was a little boy.
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  S2: Okay.
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  S7: It was my love for ice cream. I love this stuff.
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  S7: And someone asked someone asked Steve Jobs, you know, sometime
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  S7: before his passing. If he had to do anything different
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  S7: in his life, what would it be? He said I
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  S7: would eat more ice cream.
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  S3: Sounds good to me.
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  S2: And do you have a particular flavor, Doctor Winifred Neely,
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  S2: that you enjoy?
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  S7: I love, I love French vanilla, I love vanilla bean,
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  S7: I love vanilla, I love chocolate.
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  S3: Okay, now I'm with you. Now I'm with you.
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  S7: Cookie dough. Now why is this?
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  S2: Why is this a problem? You're doing well. But this
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  S2: one thing.
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  S7: Well, well, well. See, something happens the longer you live.
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  S7: We call it metabolism or something.
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  S2: Oh, okay.
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  S7: Kind of kind of slows down. And as a consequence,
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  S7: the intake of ice cream begins to express itself in
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  S7: the abdomen and suits become too tight. Shirts are, you know,
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  S7: and and and here is the problem. Oh, recently I
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  S7: was I don't know what got into me, but I
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  S7: was eating ice cream every evening. It was a lot
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  S7: of fun.
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  S8: This is a full confessional.
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  S7: Getting fat is fun.
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  S2: Oh that's.
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  S8: Hilarious. Oh, Doctor Neely.
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  S7: I lamented. I lamented to my bride. I got a problem.
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  S7: I'm gaining weight. And so I had to literally get
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  S7: the ice cream out of the house.
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  S8: Oh.
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  S2: Doctor Neely.
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  S7: Uh, I've lost £7.
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  S8: Wow. Well, I.
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  S2: Am proud of you. That means you've probably removed at
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  S2: least £20 of ice cream, so that's a big feat there, doc.
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  S7: Yeah. You know.
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  S8: Well.
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  S7: See, we live in a fallen world, you see? And
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  S7: I say that kind of tongue Dunkin cheap. The stuff
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  S7: that you ingested when you were young and in your 20s.
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  S7: I look at I look at some of these undergrad kids,
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  S7: and they're eating the ice cream and the French fries
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  S7: and having a ball. I said, well, enjoy it while
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  S7: it lasts.
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  S8: Yeah, that's exactly right.
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  S7: Time will come when you're going to have to slow
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  S7: that piece down.
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  S8: Oh that's funny.
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  S3: Oh boy.
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  S2: Okay. We are going to do one of the most
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  S2: awkward shifts in radio history on Carl and crew, and
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  S2: we're going to shift gears for the topic at hand.
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  S2: A love to live by. Now, maybe that is a
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  S2: topic you know, we're tackling hope today, Winfred and it's
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  S2: such a joy to have you here. And thanks for
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  S2: being a real guy, by the way. Thanks for being real.
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  S2: We appreciate that. So how is love joined to Hope?
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  S2: How is that joined.
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  S7: Often in Scripture? They are joined together. Our faith, hope
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  S7: and love are linked together. Faith. We take God at
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  S7: His word. hope. We know that there is a future. Yes,
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  S7: and love is really kind of the outworking of faith
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  S7: and hope, not only in this life, but once faith
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  S7: is become sight and hope is realized, our love will
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  S7: agape love, the love of God and the redeemed experience
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  S7: of our spirit and our love will continue for all eternity.
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  S8: Amen.
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  S7: So they are particularly connected in this life, the three
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  S7: marks of vibrant Christian living or faith, hope and love.
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  S7: And we need all three in order for us to
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  S7: live biblically. Well, some believers emphasize faith. That's really, really important.
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  S7: Others want to focus on hope. That's really, really important too.
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  S7: And but sometimes we leave love out if we leave
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  S7: love out. I am I'm under the persuasion Carl Ali
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  S7: crew that we are not walking with God, and that
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  S7: we're not living in the biblical sense of what it
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  S7: means to walk with God.
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  S8: Amen.
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  S3: Doctor Winfred Neeley, he's a retired vice president and dean
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  S3: from Moody Theological Seminary. He's an author. He's a former pastor.
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  S3: Let's talk about where do you feel like we are
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  S3: tempted as a church to lag a little bit on
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  S3: love or to leave love behind?
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  S7: Well, first of all, it seems to me that the church,
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  S7: and I'm speaking in broad strokes here. Now, I know
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  S7: there are always exceptions to these generalizations, but the church,
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  S7: by and large, has lost sight of the central place
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  S7: of love in the plan of God for the church.
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  S7: The Scripture says that everything you do be done in love.
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  S7: Ephesians says, speaking the truth in love, meaning that love
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  S7: is that all encompassing spirit and powered environment and sphere
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  S7: in which everything we do is Christians is to be done.
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  S7: I am persuaded that the church has lost sight of that,
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  S7: and we are paying a big price in terms of
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  S7: our testimony for that. Like.
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  S2: You know, Doctor Winifred Neely, our guest here. I couldn't
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  S2: agree more. My take on love is pretty simplistic, but
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  S2: I think it's solidly biblical. When we really love, there
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  S2: is no agenda in that except for the good of
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  S2: the other, the good of the other person, the good
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  S2: of the other group of people, the good of the
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  S2: other people that we don't agree with. That's a powerful love,
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  S2: isn't it? Prof.
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  S7: It is. And that understanding of love. Carl comes from
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  S7: God himself because it's God. It's the Triune God. It
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  S7: is only from the Triune God that we know what
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  S7: love is. And think about this for a moment. We
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  S7: cannot add anything to him. He does not need us. Yeah,
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  S7: he could have continued for all eternity in absolute, glorious,
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  S7: thrilling fellowship with himself, father, son, and the Holy Spirit.
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  S7: But he decides to share himself and love with others,
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  S7: not so that he can acquire anything. We cannot add
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  S7: anything to him who has already completed himself. And so
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  S7: this is where this idea of Christian love, spirit and
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  S7: power love is moving out without an agenda other than
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  S7: the highest good in the kingdom, flourishing of the other.
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  S7: And that is the model of God Himself.
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  S3: Doctor Winifred Neely, our guest right now. No question, the
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  S3: church has experienced quite a bit of division over the
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  S3: last couple years around all different kinds of things. I
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  S3: became aware of a pastor that had to publicly address
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  S3: his congregation about a lot of things, that there was
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  S3: a lot of arguing that was happening online on Facebook.
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  S3: And you could, I mean, where people were seriously separating
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  S3: from one another because of politics, because of positions, because
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  S3: of posts, things that people were saying, so much so
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  S3: that he felt it needed to be addressed. How do
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  S3: we start to change the course where the enemy has
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  S3: almost become the person across the, across the pew from
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  S3: me who doesn't see things as I do? How do
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  S3: we change course.
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  S7: I think, and at the end of the last chapter
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  S7: of Love to Live By is something of a faith
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  S7: based steps that individuals and local churches can take. And
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  S7: it seems to me that the first thing we have
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  S7: to say to ourselves, honestly, that the fundamental problem is
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  S7: not the other person, not fundamentally, not when it comes
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  S7: to my heart. The fundamental problem is me.
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  S8: Yes.
• 20:52
  S7: You will recall that G.K. Chesterton, uh, somebody wrote him
• 20:57
  S7: a note once asking him what's wrong with the world?
• 21:00
  S7: I guess they were expecting this long dissertation. He simply said,
• 21:04
  S7: I am. I'm the problem. And this is not to
• 21:07
  S7: say that people are not living in sin and people
• 21:09
  S7: are not disobeying God. The fundamental posture that keeps me
• 21:14
  S7: from loving another person is not the other person. It's
• 21:17
  S7: my own heart. So I maintain that we first and
• 21:23
  S7: foremost have to come to terms with our own hearts
• 21:26
  S7: before the Lord. We have not loved others the way
• 21:31
  S7: we should. I was in a church. I was pastoring
• 21:37
  S7: a church. The Sunday after the election was quite contentious.
• 21:43
  S7: And I said to my congregation, in this congregation, there
• 21:47
  S7: are people who voted on this side, and there are
• 21:52
  S7: people who voted on that side, and we still have
• 21:55
  S7: to love one another, and love will listen. That's just
• 22:00
  S7: another thing. Love will listen. Help me to understand. Those
• 22:05
  S7: are the kinds of conversations that we need to start having. Also,
• 22:08
  S7: we need to listen to one another across the generations.
• 22:12
  S7: I think that's going to be helpful to Christians. You know,
• 22:15
  S7: for example, some of my my friends in their 40s,
• 22:19
  S7: God bless them, they still don't realize how young they are.
• 22:23
  S7: I'm 71. Oh, they're young as far as I'm concerned.
• 22:27
  S7: And so they were kind of shook up about some
• 22:30
  S7: things that happened in 2016. And they kind of shook
• 22:33
  S7: up about that. And I, as a baby boomer, I
• 22:38
  S7: was not shook up. But see, we're not in conversation
• 22:40
  S7: in love about why Neely is not really, really shook up. Well,
• 22:44
  S7: number one, I was alive when MLK gave the speech
• 22:48
  S7: in Washington in 86 days later, JFK was assassinated. Think
• 22:53
  S7: about that. I was alive when, in 1964, the deep
• 22:58
  S7: political tension that was in the country with Lyndon Baines
• 23:03
  S7: Johnson and Barry Goldwater, I lived through that. I was
• 23:06
  S7: alive when MLK was assassinated, and a few months later,
• 23:10
  S7: Robert Kennedy. I was alive when we went through Watergate.
• 23:13
  S7: I was alive when they tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan.
• 23:15
  S7: I was alive, and I was at Moody Bible Institute
• 23:18
  S7: in the Commons when we saw both of the Twin
• 23:21
  S7: Towers literally implode. Right? Yeah. And so, so what I'm
• 23:26
  S7: trying to say, if we listen to one another in love,
• 23:29
  S7: we can also help one another understand that these events
• 23:33
  S7: that are happening in real time are not the end game.
• 23:38
  S7: God is still in control. The Lord is sovereign, and
• 23:42
  S7: we have to fiercely be committed to one another in love,
• 23:47
  S7: so that we can maintain our testimony before the lost
• 23:50
  S7: and dying world.
• 23:51
  S2: Here's what's dawned on me. Doctor Winfred Neely, our guest.
• 23:54
  S2: I don't find bravado, anger, Snarkiness name calling. I don't
• 24:02
  S2: find victimhood that's boisterous. I don't find that persuasive. I
• 24:08
  S2: find love persuasive. Do you know what I'm saying, doc?
• 24:13
  S2: I think the most powerful thing about love is that
• 24:16
  S2: it doesn't surrender convictions. It probably communicates them in the
• 24:21
  S2: most effective manner. What do you think?
• 24:24
  S7: You know, the Lord Jesus Christ does say in John 1335,
• 24:30
  S7: by all this, all people will know that you are
• 24:32
  S7: my disciples if you have love for one another.
• 24:36
  S8: Yeah.
• 24:36
  S7: So the great apologetic of the church is is love. Now,
• 24:41
  S7: one of the things that I would tell preaching students,
• 24:45
  S7: it is one thing to love, to preach God's word.
• 24:50
  S7: It is another thing to love the people to whom
• 24:54
  S7: you are preaching. Someone said recently that you can tell
• 24:58
  S7: when a pastor or ministry leader or a preacher has
• 25:01
  S7: stopped loving his people because he starts denigrating them or
• 25:06
  S7: speak ill of them. They should start disrespecting the people
• 25:10
  S7: from the pulpit, which is an indicator in the heart
• 25:12
  S7: of this communicator in terms of love. Also, if I
• 25:17
  S7: love you dearly and deeply, I will make a case
• 25:23
  S7: for an issue that you may not embrace. God does
• 25:29
  S7: call us to persuade people. There's a lot about persuasion
• 25:35
  S7: in the ethical and biblical and spirit and power sense
• 25:38
  S7: in Scripture, but in order to do that, we make
• 25:41
  S7: a case for it. Romans is a classic example.
• 25:44
  S8: Yes.
• 25:45
  S7: First Corinthians is is another example where Paul, under the
• 25:50
  S7: power of the spirit, reasons and argues in the good
• 25:55
  S7: sense to make a case. And after the argumentation, then
• 25:59
  S7: he says to us, I beseech you, brethren, by the
• 26:02
  S7: mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
• 26:05
  S7: or at the end the first Corinthians. Therefore, beloved brothers,
• 26:10
  S7: be steadfast, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
• 26:13
  S7: For that you know that your labor is not in
• 26:15
  S7: vain in the Lord. And so. But before he gets
• 26:18
  S7: to those commandments and imperatives, he has made a case
• 26:24
  S7: so that by the time he says that, by and
• 26:27
  S7: large Listeners are ready to say yes to God. And
• 26:31
  S7: so we live in what I consider to be one
• 26:34
  S7: of the most rhetorically incompetent ages in the history of
• 26:38
  S7: the church. I know that's a big statement. Listen, and
• 26:40
  S7: this is not to say that I'm not concerned about
• 26:43
  S7: biblical justice, I am. I know biblically that everything has
• 26:48
  S7: to be done in love. What I say has to
• 26:51
  S7: be done in love. And you're right. Called that. Love
• 26:54
  S7: is the ingredient in the persuasion process that gives persuasion
• 27:01
  S7: its taste and its power. And if we like that,
• 27:05
  S7: we're not communicating in ways that God would have us
• 27:07
  S7: to boom.
• 27:08
  S2: Brother, I believe that 100%. Pretty good conversation here, Alan.
• 27:13
  S3: Powerful doctor Winfred Nealy, we mentioned the book A Love
• 27:17
  S3: to Live By Rediscovering Agape Love in Scripture. We've also
• 27:21
  S3: greatly benefited from his other resource how to overcome worry.
• 27:24
  S3: Just text worry. You'll get links to both books. Worry
• 27:27
  S3: to (800) 555-7898. Text worry to (800) 555-7898.
• 27:36
  S1: Whether it's in the pool or on the stage. She's
• 27:40
  S1: making a splash. Super D is in the crew. You're
• 27:44
  S1: listening to Carl and crew.
• 27:46
  S2: There's a couple universal truths. We all have to breathe.
• 27:50
  S2: If you're going to stay alive.
• 27:51
  S3: Breathing is required.
• 27:52
  S8: Yeah.
• 27:54
  S2: And we're all putting our hope in something. That's something.
• 27:58
  S8: Yes.
• 27:59
  S2: Philip Miller with us right now. It's really something else,
• 28:01
  S2: isn't it, Philip? Everybody's putting their hope in something or someone.
• 28:06
  S9: We can't live without hope, can we?
• 28:08
  S2: No we can't, Philip Miller. Yeah, he is with us
• 28:11
  S2: right now, senior pastor of Moody Church here in Chicago. And, uh,
• 28:15
  S2: quite a guy. I love the first time we brought
• 28:18
  S2: you on, man. We aren't even going to duck into it.
• 28:19
  S2: But you're teaching on that. You're teaching on those temptations
• 28:23
  S2: of Jesus coming out of the wilderness. That was like,
• 28:25
  S2: both Ali and I are like, kaboom! That was killer.
• 28:29
  S2: So let's talk hope. Let's talk hope here for a moment.
• 28:32
  S2: I know you've preached on it. You've taught on it,
• 28:34
  S2: you've thought about it. Where do we get hope wrong?
• 28:37
  S2: Where do we get wrong? Philip?
• 28:39
  S9: Well, you know, I think we end up hoping in
• 28:41
  S9: the wrong things. You know, we we hope our circumstances
• 28:44
  S9: will change. We hope for, you know, a happily ever after.
• 28:48
  S9: This sort of a cheap sort of like everything will
• 28:51
  S9: just get, you know, fixed and go back to just
• 28:54
  S9: perfect or we can't live without hope. So we tend
• 28:57
  S9: to manufacture our own sort of cheap imitations of hope.
• 29:01
  S9: But biblical hope is way deeper. You know, it's grounded
• 29:06
  S9: in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, right? The only person
• 29:09
  S9: who went into the grave and blasted out the other
• 29:12
  S9: side in into resurrection life, and that same power that
• 29:16
  S9: raised Jesus from the dead, that power is alive in us,
• 29:21
  S9: in the Holy Spirit who is indwelling us, who's right now.
• 29:25
  S9: Renewing our lives and changing us. You know, first Peter
• 29:29
  S9: chapter one, one of my favorite verses, verse three says,
• 29:32
  S9: we've been born again into a living hope. Not a
• 29:36
  S9: dead hope, not a manufactured hope, not a hope against
• 29:40
  S9: all hopes and just a wish in the dark.
• 29:43
  S8: Yeah.
• 29:44
  S9: A living, abiding, enduring, substantive, heart beating hope that's alive, that's,
• 29:53
  S9: that's forevermore coming into reality through Jesus Christ. And if
• 29:57
  S9: our lives are tethered to him, if we're in Christ
• 30:00
  S9: and Christ in us, then that's the hope of glory,
• 30:03
  S9: and that's ours. And that's that is a hope beyond
• 30:07
  S9: just I hope I can get through this next quarter
• 30:10
  S9: or this next week, or I hope just everything will
• 30:13
  S9: magically come back again and all my circumstances will change.
• 30:17
  S9: Now that's something deeper in something that can't be shaken.
• 30:21
  S9: And that's the kind of hope I need.
• 30:23
  S3: Yeah. Philip Miller with us, senior pastor of Moody Church
• 30:26
  S3: right here in Chicago. You know, it's interesting because even
• 30:29
  S3: when we hope in Christ, and I'm going to get
• 30:31
  S3: kind of philosophical here, it can still very easily shift
• 30:35
  S3: to a hope in Christ for a specific outcome. How
• 30:39
  S3: do we have that kind of, I guess that.
• 30:41
  S8: Line of, you know.
• 30:42
  S2: What? You're right on about that, Ali.
• 30:45
  S3: How do we have that? I guess stay up on
• 30:47
  S3: that high ridge where it's we don't presume upon the
• 30:50
  S3: Lord for a certain outcome.
• 30:52
  S8: You are so.
• 30:53
  S2: Right on this one. Hold on. We got a mosh pit.
• 30:56
  S2: This one a second. Just time.
• 30:57
  S8: Out. Okay.
• 30:58
  S2: This is so true, Philip. Let's get real honest. Sometimes
• 31:02
  S2: we conjure a hope in this living hope that we
• 31:05
  S2: have this risen Christ because we want outcomes to be different.
• 31:09
  S2: Way to go.
• 31:10
  S8: Ali, what.
• 31:11
  S3: Do you say on that, Philip?
• 31:12
  S9: Well, you know, I think it's easy for us to
• 31:15
  S9: fall in love with the gifts rather than the giver.
• 31:18
  S9: Like where we actually we want God not for himself,
• 31:22
  S9: but for the stuff he can offer us. You know,
• 31:25
  S9: it's kind of like a we start to think of
• 31:27
  S9: God almost like a genie in a in a bottle.
• 31:29
  S9: You know, like if we just. He's just going to
• 31:31
  S9: give us all our wishes and just map this over
• 31:35
  S9: human relationships for a moment. Let's say there's a young
• 31:38
  S9: lady and she falls in love with this guy, and
• 31:41
  S9: she's from a really rich family. And daddy's got a
• 31:44
  S9: lot of money and there's money in a trust and
• 31:47
  S9: all this. And this guy loves her. She thinks he
• 31:49
  S9: loves her. And all of a sudden he finds out
• 31:51
  S9: that the way the the family's money is structured, he'll
• 31:54
  S9: never gain gain access to that money if he marries her.
• 31:58
  S9: It's all protected or whatever. And so he splits and
• 32:01
  S9: he leaves her and jilts her. Right. If you're that
• 32:04
  S9: young lady, you would be heartbroken because you would realize
• 32:07
  S9: in that moment that he didn't love you. He didn't
• 32:10
  S9: love me for me. He just wanted my stuff.
• 32:12
  S8: Yeah.
• 32:13
  S9: You know, he's he's a gold digger. And he was
• 32:15
  S9: just after the things that she had and not actually
• 32:19
  S9: after her. And I think it's easy for us to
• 32:23
  S9: slip into a little bit of that kind of relationship
• 32:26
  S9: with God where we we want his stuff and we
• 32:29
  S9: want what he offers us, but we actually don't want
• 32:32
  S9: him so much. And it just shows the subtle shift,
• 32:36
  S9: you know, because there's so much goodness that comes in,
• 32:39
  S9: is promised us in Christ, you know, eternal life and reconciliation.
• 32:44
  S9: We get to see people in heaven that we miss.
• 32:47
  S9: And there's reunion and glory and health, and no more
• 32:51
  S9: crying or pain or tears anymore. And all that's good.
• 32:55
  S9: But but that's all on the fringe, the blazing center
• 32:58
  S9: of our hope of what we get in the gospel
• 33:01
  S9: is God himself. Yeah, the one we're made for. The
• 33:04
  S9: love that created us and redeemed us. And the love
• 33:09
  S9: we were meant for. The love that makes us ourselves
• 33:11
  S9: and is the truest and greatest fulfillment of our lives.
• 33:15
  S9: And so it is. It's a subtle shift, but our
• 33:17
  S9: living hope is actually God himself.
• 33:20
  S2: Philip Miller. Our guest right now. Really quick one hot
• 33:23
  S2: take on this one. Hope, according to Romans five, is
• 33:27
  S2: both given to us through the living Christ, and then
• 33:29
  S2: it grows. Now, you did a whole message on this.
• 33:32
  S2: Hope is the only thing that's going to get us
• 33:34
  S2: trucking through adversity, essentially. Right, Phillip? And what give us
• 33:39
  S2: a couple of nuances on that just quickly.
• 33:41
  S9: So I love Romans and I love how Paul just
• 33:44
  S9: calls us back to this beautiful hope of the gospel.
• 33:47
  S9: And one of my favorite verses is actually in Romans
• 33:50
  S9: chapter eight, where, you know, it says, we're groaning, we're
• 33:53
  S9: groaning in the brokenness of this world. There's a lot
• 33:56
  S9: of hardship and sorrow and grief that we carry. You know,
• 34:01
  S9: when I was young, I always thought, oh, life's just
• 34:03
  S9: full of dreams and making things happen. And, and the
• 34:07
  S9: older I get, the more I realize that life is
• 34:09
  S9: full of carrying griefs that I never expected I'd have
• 34:12
  S9: to carry. And so there's a lot of groaning. And
• 34:15
  S9: the Holy Spirit, he's interceding with us as with groans
• 34:18
  S9: that words cannot express. And so. So the Holy Spirit's
• 34:22
  S9: groaning with us in the midst of that. And one
• 34:24
  S9: of the things he's reminding us is who we are.
• 34:26
  S9: He's crying out, ABBA, father, which means we have a
• 34:30
  S9: good father and he's with us. And that means we're
• 34:33
  S9: children of God. And Paul says this in Romans eight,
• 34:36
  S9: if we're children of God, then we're heirs with Christ.
• 34:39
  S9: That means we're going to inherit with him all the
• 34:41
  S9: glories that Christ inherits. And then he says this if
• 34:45
  S9: we're fellow heirs with Christ, that means we're going to
• 34:47
  S9: be glorified him if we suffer with him. And so
• 34:51
  S9: we're suffering with Christ now, and there's glory as we're
• 34:54
  S9: going to share with Christ to come. And then he
• 34:56
  S9: says this in verse 18, for I consider that the
• 34:59
  S9: sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with
• 35:02
  S9: the glory that will be revealed to us. And what
• 35:06
  S9: he's saying is, it's worth it. Everything we go.
• 35:09
  S2: Through.
• 35:09
  S9: All the groaning is worth it because of the hope
• 35:12
  S9: that's coming, and that's the endurance we need if we've
• 35:15
  S9: got hope and that hope is being watered by the
• 35:19
  S9: gospel in our souls and our lives. We know that
• 35:22
  S9: God is with us and God is for us, and
• 35:25
  S9: there's glory coming. And whatever suffering we're called to Jesus
• 35:29
  S9: is enough because there's glory on the horizon that gives
• 35:32
  S9: us enormous hope.
• 35:34
  S8: Yeah it.
• 35:34
  S3: Does. Pastor, what situation in your own life and you
• 35:38
  S3: can keep it general, but has most challenged you in
• 35:41
  S3: this area? Because we all have those things where we
• 35:44
  S3: we know the right. We know the Word of God.
• 35:46
  S3: We know the right thing to think and feel. And
• 35:49
  S3: yet we all have these things that we deal with.
• 35:52
  S3: Call it a thorn in the flesh. Whatever it is,
• 35:54
  S3: you've got circumstances, the stuff of life. What for you
• 35:58
  S3: has most challenged your hope?
• 36:00
  S9: For me, it's always the brokenness of relationships in the world.
• 36:04
  S9: You know, the people that you that you love that
• 36:08
  S9: goes sideways or, you know they backslide in their faith or.
• 36:13
  S8: They.
• 36:13
  S2: Back stab you in the back. pastor?
• 36:16
  S9: Yes. Anybody in any kind of leadership knows that that
• 36:19
  S9: betrayal as well. And so it just wears on you
• 36:22
  S9: over time. And I think it's wearying. But the reality
• 36:26
  S9: is those are features of a of a broken, cursed,
• 36:31
  S9: messed up world that Jesus, Jesus is redeeming. And we've
• 36:35
  S9: got we've got a foretaste of it in the resurrection.
• 36:38
  S9: And the power of the Holy Spirit is renewing and redeeming.
• 36:41
  S9: You know that verse in second Corinthians four? You know,
• 36:44
  S9: we don't lose heart. Our outer selves are wasting away,
• 36:48
  S9: but our inner selves are being renewed day by day.
• 36:51
  S9: And these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us
• 36:54
  S9: an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. And, and
• 36:58
  S9: if that's true, and it is, if that's true, then
• 37:03
  S9: that means all that brokenness and all that pain is
• 37:05
  S9: just it's a temporary thing. It doesn't feel light and momentary,
• 37:10
  S9: but compared to the eternal glories that are coming, we
• 37:13
  S9: won't hardly remember them.
• 37:15
  S8: Yeah.
• 37:15
  S3: Philip Miller. Good word. Senior pastor of Moody Church in Chicago.
• 37:20
  S3: For more on the program living just text living to
• 37:23
  S3: 805 557898. Text. Living.
• 37:28
  S1: Youngest and age. Oldest at heart. Young Thunder is in
• 37:32
  S1: the crew. You're listening to Carl and crew.
• 37:36
  S3: Well, it is 830 central time, the bottom of the
• 37:38
  S3: hour on a Thursday, which means we get to put
• 37:41
  S3: Jonathan on the spot, give him a story that he
• 37:44
  S3: has never heard before until this moment when you're about
• 37:47
  S3: to hear it and he has the challenge, use your gift.
• 37:51
  S3: Listen to the Lord and make it a metaphor.
• 37:54
  S1: Finding nuggets of truth in everyday life.
• 37:58
  S10: It's a metaphor. It's just a metaphor, dude.
• 38:00
  S11: That's a metaphor.
• 38:01
  S10: It's a metaphor.
• 38:02
  S12: I know it's a metaphor.
• 38:03
  S1: It's time for making a metaphor with young thunder.
• 38:08
  S2: Okay. Young thunder has not heard this story. It is
• 38:11
  S2: a story, but it is very obscure, very different kind
• 38:15
  S2: of story. Yep. My blaze, my little. Nearly one year
• 38:18
  S2: old husky pup. He's getting out of pup. He's into
• 38:21
  S2: full adult dumb now. So he's growing up and he's
• 38:25
  S2: got the funniest idiosyncrasy. So he loves dogs. And if
• 38:30
  S2: he sees a dog out on a walk, he's like,
• 38:32
  S2: we gotta get him. I gotta get him, gotta get him,
• 38:34
  S2: gotta get him. And I mean behind fences. He'll stop
• 38:37
  S2: and he'll sniff and he'll play. And dogs usually go
• 38:40
  S2: crazy and he's just kind of chill. But he loves it.
• 38:43
  S2: He loves it. There's one thing that freaks him out.
• 38:47
  S2: And it's not big old dogs that can take him down.
• 38:52
  S2: Two things that I've seen in our neighborhood that freak
• 38:55
  S2: him out. One is there's a cutout of a black
• 38:57
  S2: cat that somebody put in their yard.
• 39:01
  S8: Just.
• 39:01
  S2: To cut out of a black cat. So he loves
• 39:04
  S2: the live cats in our home, our rescue cats. But
• 39:07
  S2: this black cat, that's a cutout. Every time we come
• 39:10
  S2: around the corner, he's like. And he jumps back and
• 39:12
  S2: he's looking at me like, is this okay? I'm like,
• 39:15
  S2: it's the same black cat. The little steel black cat
• 39:18
  S2: that's cut out forever. And then just a few days ago,
• 39:23
  S2: this younger woman has this. And I don't know why
• 39:27
  S2: she has it, but she has a mechanical dog.
• 39:31
  S6: Okay, a yeah, a mechanical dog, probably to scare away.
• 39:34
  S4: Birds or something like that. And that's usually what it is.
• 39:36
  S2: She took this mechanical dog out for a walk.
• 39:39
  S6: Oh.
• 39:40
  S4: Oh, never mind.
• 39:41
  S2: It's walking along toward us. And I have never seen
• 39:45
  S2: this dog more freaked out in his life. So I thought, man,
• 39:50
  S2: we can't let him just live freaked out. So I
• 39:52
  S2: walk him up to this mechanical dog and he's like,
• 39:55
  S2: this thing is scary, man. So he leans down, gives
• 40:01
  S2: it a sniff. He looks back at me like, what?
• 40:04
  S2: The cat hairs going on here?
• 40:07
  S8: Cute. This is not a dog.
• 40:10
  S2: This is a mechanical dog, so he's more freaked out
• 40:14
  S2: over things that are far less harmful than the real McCoy.
• 40:19
  S2: Make that a metaphor. Young thunder.
• 40:22
  S4: Okay. Was this mechanical dog a small thing?
• 40:24
  S6: Oh, yeah. Very small.
• 40:26
  S4: So cats, small mechanical dogs, things that that he wouldn't
• 40:30
  S4: normally seem to be afraid of. But. But is. You
• 40:33
  S4: know what? I actually think that blaze has got some
• 40:37
  S4: wisdom that we should hang on to, because we're always
• 40:42
  S4: watchful when we think of sin in life. The big things, oh, man. Adultery, addiction, uh,
• 40:50
  S4: running rampant in life, running so far away from God
• 40:53
  S4: very outwardly and openly. But James tells us about quite
• 40:57
  S4: a small thing that all of us have that we
• 41:00
  S4: should all be very wary of, even though it doesn't
• 41:02
  S4: seem very dangerous. James three five. He says so also,
• 41:06
  S4: the tongue is a small member, Yet it boasts of
• 41:10
  S4: great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by
• 41:13
  S4: such a small fire. A seemingly small word causes massive damage.
• 41:19
  S4: Sometimes the small things, the things that we don't pay
• 41:23
  S4: a lot of attention to, the things we don't think
• 41:25
  S4: we need to be afraid of are the things we
• 41:27
  S4: need to be most wary of. Because if we're not
• 41:30
  S4: paying attention, they could come around to get us. So, blaze. Yeah,
• 41:34
  S4: he's jumping around scared of these little cats and these
• 41:37
  S4: little mechanical dogs. But I think blaze has got a
• 41:39
  S4: lot of wisdom of being wary of the small things,
• 41:42
  S4: just like we should be.
• 41:44
  S8: That's I like cool. Yeah.
• 41:48
  S2: Make it a metaphor with young thunder. Uh, yeah. And
• 41:52
  S2: you know what's funny about that is that he is
• 41:56
  S2: on alert for most things, but stuff that's unfamiliar, he's
• 42:01
  S2: super alert.
• 42:02
  S4: Oh, yeah.
• 42:03
  S2: 100% really interesting stuff. Look out for the small things
• 42:07
  S2: in life. Two guys.