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Morning Devotion from Hebrews: Time to Mature · The BLAZE (Bible Study)

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, family. Good morning. God bless you. Welcome back
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  Speaker 1: to the Morning Devos. Your bro, Sam Lopez, a.k.a. DJ
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  Speaker 1: Sam Rock. SoWinnersWithAZ.org. Live.SoWinnersWithAZ.org. The two websites that are highly
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  Speaker 1: recommended by me for these Morning Devos. Try to be
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  Speaker 1: in the studio, 5.30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Try to
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  Speaker 1: get here and just move with the Spirit of God, man.
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  Speaker 1: Allow the Spirit of God to move. Amen. And just
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  Speaker 1: continue to move on forward. knowing that he's able and
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  Speaker 1: he's willing. Just checking the audio, making sure we're good.
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  Speaker 1: So we're in the book of Hebrews, right? And we're
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  Speaker 1: in chapter number six. And I read verse number one.
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  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, that's where we're at. Because
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  Speaker 1: the theme yesterday was to know the difference between good
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  Speaker 1: from evil. And that takes maturity, right? It takes maturity. Maturity.
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  Speaker 1: in the spirit because people right now are mature because
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  Speaker 1: they're older, right? They're growing into an older age and
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  Speaker 1: they have life experience. But when it comes to spiritual maturity,
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  Speaker 1: you could see what people are going through and what
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  Speaker 1: stages they are pretty much. But it's time to mature.
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  Speaker 1: God is speaking to me and I'm hopefully, hopefully he
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  Speaker 1: will use this message to speak to you as well
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  Speaker 1: by way of his Holy Spirit. Hebrews chapter one, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: excuse me, Hebrews chapter 6, verse number 1, I should say,
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  Speaker 1: on this one time of mature. So let's pray. Share
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  Speaker 1: this out to as many people as possible. Amen. The
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  Speaker 1: goal is for us to stay focused, right, on our faith,
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of God, and we're doing it one morning
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  Speaker 1: at a time, right? So it's God's word. We pray.
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  Speaker 1: We have faith, and we try to mature in our faith,
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  Speaker 1: and we grow, right? So it's a good place to
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  Speaker 1: be encouraged and to be transformed. So Father, I thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Lord God, for your encouragement, for your strength, for your transformation.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord God, for helping us and keeping us
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  Speaker 1: day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour. You
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  Speaker 1: are with us. Thank you, Lord God, for your love,
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  Speaker 1: your grace, your forgiveness, your mercy, your justice for your people.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord God, that you never leave us alone,
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  Speaker 1: that you are with us even to the end of
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  Speaker 1: the age. I pray, Lord God, a hedge of protection spiritually, emotionally,
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  Speaker 1: physically over myself, my wife, our children, both daughters, my
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  Speaker 1: son and his family, his children, his wife, our grandchildren,
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  Speaker 1: our whole entire bloodline, Lord God. I pray peace, protection.
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  Speaker 1: I speak Psalm 91 over all the efforts of my
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  Speaker 1: family that you will continue to show who you are,
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  Speaker 1: the Lion of Judah Prince of Peace, wonderful counselor, almighty God,
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  Speaker 1: that you would show and reveal yourself to every single
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  Speaker 1: person that's listening or watching right now. I pray I
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  Speaker 1: have your protection over their lives as well. We step
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  Speaker 1: forth right now, Lord Jesus, our queen angels, to annihilate
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  Speaker 1: the tactics of the deceiving one, Satan, his system, the
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  Speaker 1: people who follow him, the people who are deceived by him.
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  Speaker 1: We pray them out of that deception in the powerful
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  Speaker 1: name of Jesus. And also pray, Lord God, that you
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  Speaker 1: will have your way during this morning devotions. that we
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  Speaker 1: will continue to know that your word is true and
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  Speaker 1: your word is power. Pray this by faith, knowing that
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  Speaker 1: you hear our prayers and you answer them according to
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  Speaker 1: your will, which is perfect, and your plan, which is
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  Speaker 1: perfect for each and every one of us. In the
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  Speaker 1: powerful name of Jesus, I pray this by faith. And
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  Speaker 1: those who agree, we say amen to the amen. Powerful
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  Speaker 1: God that we serve, man, that we could literally approach
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  Speaker 1: his throne of grace with boldness because we're covered by
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  Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus and we know That God is
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  Speaker 1: worthy and he's able. Amen. Recognize that. At least I
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  Speaker 1: recognize that. Amen. That he's worthy and able. So let's focus.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get into God's word. Amen. And let's grow. It's
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  Speaker 1: time to mature, ladies and gentlemen. It's time to mature.
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews 6.1 says, Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings
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  Speaker 1: about Christ and go on to maturity. Not laying, again,
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  Speaker 1: a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith
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  Speaker 1: in God. So listen, I see that we shouldn't be
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  Speaker 1: going back to the law, right? We're saved by grace.
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  Speaker 1: Now we're in the grace era, right? The law was
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  Speaker 1: shown and the law basically shows us that we need God, right?
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  Speaker 1: We can't follow the law to the letter, to the T.
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  Speaker 1: Only Jesus completed the law. and followed the law to
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  Speaker 1: its seat. And he did not break not one law
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  Speaker 1: in his life. But that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect,
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  Speaker 1: sinless God-man. Amen? That's not us. We're being perfected. We're
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  Speaker 1: being matured. We're being useful for the kingdom of God.
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  Speaker 1: And you could tell by the fruits of the people
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  Speaker 1: of God. Amen? We're bearing bad fruit. That means we're
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  Speaker 1: not really lining up to what God has for us.
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  Speaker 1: Because God has the perfect plan for us. We have
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  Speaker 1: to be just available and willing to allow God to
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  Speaker 1: do what God wants to do in our hearts and
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  Speaker 1: in our lives. Amen? So it's not like we're forced
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  Speaker 1: to do anything. You know how I am about that.
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  Speaker 1: I can't force nobody to believe. You can't force me
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  Speaker 1: to believe. I can't force you to believe. God himself
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  Speaker 1: doesn't force anything on us either. Our willingness to serve
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  Speaker 1: him is amazing. His grace is amazing. Amen? His faithfulness
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  Speaker 1: is next level amazing. He's able to forgive us, to
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  Speaker 1: forgive us of our sin and to move us in
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  Speaker 1: a direction that he wants us to go if we're willing, right?
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes God will say, okay, you don't want my will
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  Speaker 1: to be done in your life. Go ahead and have
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  Speaker 1: your will be done in your life and see how
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  Speaker 1: that works out and he'll step away. But he's still
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  Speaker 1: with us, amen, watching. He wants to embrace us. He
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  Speaker 1: wants us to know that he's there and available at
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  Speaker 1: any moment in your life. Some people say, well, I
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  Speaker 1: did too much. I can't, there's no way. You know,
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  Speaker 1: people literally think they did too much and there's no
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  Speaker 1: way for God to do a work in their hearts
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  Speaker 1: and minds. Well, snap out of that. That's a lie
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  Speaker 1: from the enemy. The word of God says that God
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  Speaker 1: is with us even to the end of the age.
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  Speaker 1: The only hurdle with that scripture is that we have
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  Speaker 1: to be willing to follow Jesus, believe in him and follow.
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  Speaker 1: If you're not willing to believe and follow, then you're right.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe this doesn't apply to your life. You know, Maybe
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't just, it's not making sense because you're not
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  Speaker 1: looking for truth. Maybe you're just looking for convenience, comfort.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of people like that. I used to
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  Speaker 1: be like that before too. I was just looking for
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  Speaker 1: convenience and comfort. I wanted my life to be easy
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  Speaker 1: and smooth. So I was doing everything the world system
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  Speaker 1: offered to see, just to try it out, to see
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  Speaker 1: if I could fit into the world system and be
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  Speaker 1: useful for the world system. And it was a lie.
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  Speaker 1: So there comes a time in everyone's life, in every
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  Speaker 1: believer's life, I should say, when we have to stop
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  Speaker 1: living on just spiritual milk. Spiritual milk is great for
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  Speaker 1: the newbie, for the beginner in Christ, amen? But you're
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  Speaker 1: going to have this hunger in you to want more
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  Speaker 1: of God's Word. When you first get saved, God opens
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  Speaker 1: our eyes, right? He opens our ears. We start reading
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  Speaker 1: His Word, and the Word starts making sense because now
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  Speaker 1: we have Holy Spirit God. You're going to want more
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  Speaker 1: than spiritual milk. You're going to want to start growing
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  Speaker 1: into spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity. Knowing that God is able
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  Speaker 1: to teach us and grow us by way of His
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. The Bible says, Holy Spirit God, that's what
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  Speaker 1: the Bible says, leads us into all truth. And that
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  Speaker 1: leading is teaching. There's lessons that we need to learn, right?
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  Speaker 1: Of life, Scripture, teachings of the Scripture, Holy Spirit God
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  Speaker 1: leading us, guiding us. We're stepping one step at a
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  Speaker 1: time by faith. into our victory, right? So when we
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  Speaker 1: first came to Christ, right, we learned the basics of
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  Speaker 1: the faith, right? Jesus, his life, his death, his burial,
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  Speaker 1: and most importantly, his resurrection. We learned that we're created
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  Speaker 1: in the image of God. We know that there's an origin.
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  Speaker 1: We know there's a meaning to our life now that
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  Speaker 1: we know that we are created by God, right? We
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  Speaker 1: start learning about morality according to God's standards. And then
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  Speaker 1: we know we have a destiny, right? Our destiny is
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom of God. Heaven, amen, is our destiny. The
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  Speaker 1: basics of our faith. Of course, repentance. Without repentance, there
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  Speaker 1: is no salvation. In other words, repentance means turning from
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  Speaker 1: our wicked ways and turning to the holy ways of God.
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  Speaker 1: And we need to do that often. I know I
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  Speaker 1: need to do that often. I need to repent often.
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  Speaker 1: When I call for repentance, people get angry and they
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  Speaker 1: start saying that's judgmental. I don't know why. I'm still
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  Speaker 1: trying to figure out why. When someone calls for repentance,
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  Speaker 1: I think that's a good thing, especially when they point
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  Speaker 1: out the area that they see that needs to be
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  Speaker 1: shined upon, right? Because God would use us to expose
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  Speaker 1: darkness for us to go back into the light of God.
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  Speaker 1: We should no longer be walking in the dark as believers.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know why people get mad at the word repentance.
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  Speaker 1: Or when someone calls repentance, they say, oh, you're not
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  Speaker 1: supposed to judge. It's amazing to me. That's almost like
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  Speaker 1: people who are supposed to be further in their faith,
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  Speaker 1: that shows that they're still drinking milk, spiritual milk. Amen?
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  Speaker 1: When I hear the word repentance, it doesn't really, it
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  Speaker 1: makes me look around at myself and be like, do
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  Speaker 1: I need to repent for anything specific? Amen? Besides my
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  Speaker 1: normal repenting, amen, areas. So it helps me. It grows me.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but it helps me. So
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  Speaker 1: when we first come to Christ, we learn the basics
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  Speaker 1: of faith, repentance, forgiveness, which is really powerful. There's nothing
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  Speaker 1: good about unforgiveness, ladies and gentlemen. If you're holding resentment
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  Speaker 1: and unforgiveness in your heart, it's only going to hurt you.
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  Speaker 1: It's only going to make you sick. There's no benefits
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  Speaker 1: to being unforgiving, right? The basic of our faith, the
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  Speaker 1: basic lesson of our faith is repentance, forgiveness, and most importantly, salvation, right?
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  Speaker 1: There's no salvation if Jesus didn't die and raise from
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  Speaker 1: the grave. The Bible says if that never happened, the
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  Speaker 1: apostles said if that doesn't happen, if that never happened,
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus rose from the grave, then we're to be
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  Speaker 1: the most pitied people of all, thinking that there is
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  Speaker 1: a God, right? Because as Christians, we believe that Christ
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  Speaker 1: rose from the grave. He proved it. We believe it.
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  Speaker 1: And we walk in our resurrection power. Without that, there
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  Speaker 1: is no salvation. There is no hope. But we have
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  Speaker 1: the hope of glory. Jesus the Christ living inside of
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  Speaker 1: us by way of his Holy Spirit. So the foundations,
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  Speaker 1: these are essential foundations. You know, when you look up
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  Speaker 1: some music in iTunes or Apple Music, right? You could
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  Speaker 1: look up the essentials. So if you want to listen
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  Speaker 1: to 70s, 80s, 90s music, you look up 80s essential music.
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  Speaker 1: Then it will have the list of all the essential songs,
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  Speaker 1: the songs that were making it happen during that time,
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  Speaker 1: during those decades, right? How much more is the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God essential for our daily lives? Look it up.
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  Speaker 1: Look through it. Read it. Apply it. Because the Word
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  Speaker 1: of God is essential for our day-to-day and all our
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  Speaker 1: decades of life. These are the essential foundations, but God
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  Speaker 1: never intended for us to remain spiritual babes forever. Think
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  Speaker 1: about it. He doesn't want us to stay in the
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  Speaker 1: same mold we were 15, 20 years ago as believers.
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  Speaker 1: He wants us to grow in our grace, grow in
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge of who he is, grow in our faith. Amen?
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  Speaker 1: It's a beautiful thing when you see somebody maturing in
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  Speaker 1: their faith. Some say I've matured. I know you've matured. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: So let's grow, continue to grow in our faith. It
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  Speaker 1: will help your whole life. And others will be helped
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  Speaker 1: out too. Once they see how is he going to
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  Speaker 1: respond when this person keeps on doing XYZ online on
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  Speaker 1: social media to him and his family, right? They want
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  Speaker 1: to see how I respond, right? So if I was immature,
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  Speaker 1: the response would be bad. But because I'm maturing the faith,
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  Speaker 1: I'm relying on God to take care of the situation,
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  Speaker 1: keep me at peace, and keep it moving. Amen? That's
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  Speaker 1: spiritual maturity. God is calling you and he's calling me
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  Speaker 1: to grow, to grow. Spiritual maturity means learning to trust
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  Speaker 1: God even when life gets harder and harder, even when
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  Speaker 1: there's difficulties in your life. Obeying his word even when
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  Speaker 1: it challenges you us, forgiving others even when they hurt you,
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  Speaker 1: and choosing his will over our own will, over our
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  Speaker 1: own desires. Amen? The forgiving part is not as easy
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  Speaker 1: as you might think, at least for me. People do
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  Speaker 1: you dirty, they hurt you, slander you, gossip about you.
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  Speaker 1: It's not easy just to, all right, I forgive you
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  Speaker 1: and keep moving, at least for me. But by way
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  Speaker 1: of Holy Spirit and because of Holy Spirit, God, we're
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  Speaker 1: able to do this. We're able to forgive and move on.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to say forget, but I don't know
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  Speaker 1: about you, but it's hard to forget hurt and pain.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know if God wants us to forget
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  Speaker 1: how he got us through some things, right? Because God
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  Speaker 1: gets you through that, through the hurt and the pain
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  Speaker 1: and the slander and the betrayal. God gets us through that.
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  Speaker 1: It's not our own effort that gets us, even though
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  Speaker 1: some people, they'll read a self-help book and they They
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  Speaker 1: believe that that'll help them more than any kind of
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  Speaker 1: religion or any kind of biblical principle. They believe that
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  Speaker 1: we could do this ourselves, self-help all the way through.
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  Speaker 1: So remember, you can't grow spiritually if you keep repeating
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  Speaker 1: the same lessons, right? Without applying what God has already
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  Speaker 1: taught you. So if you want to move to the
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  Speaker 1: next level, I hear this all the time and I'm
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  Speaker 1: starting to agree with it. I used to not agree
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  Speaker 1: with this. You can't get to the next level until
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  Speaker 1: you deal with your first level that God has given you.
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  Speaker 1: So in other words, you can't have all these assignments.
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  Speaker 1: I see people on social media, they're doing too much. First,
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  Speaker 1: they're doing one thing last week, then they do the
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  Speaker 1: next thing another week. They're not focusing on the first
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  Speaker 1: thing that God gave them or the first thing that
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  Speaker 1: even they're giving themselves. They're doing too much, jumping from
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  Speaker 1: business to business, offer to offer, and all. No, stay
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  Speaker 1: on track. Stay on point. It's okay. Patience is part
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  Speaker 1: of spiritual maturity. It's part of the spiritual gifts. Amen. Patience.
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  Speaker 1: If God gave you something to do, amen, I've been
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  Speaker 1: doing this for a while because he gave me this
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  Speaker 1: to do. I've been doing this for a long time
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  Speaker 1: because he gave me something to do. And I'm like, wow, God,
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  Speaker 1: you want me to do that? And I'm privileged to
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  Speaker 1: work for you and your kingdom for your purpose, for
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  Speaker 1: your plan. I'm not into the numbers. People say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: nobody's watching, nobody's listening. Well, you are, and I am.
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  Speaker 1: But most importantly, God is. Like, what's going on? Why
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  Speaker 1: do I have to have millions and millions of people
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  Speaker 1: listening if they're not going to be affected or apply
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  Speaker 1: anything that they learned from the scriptures? So God's looking
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  Speaker 1: for the one. Amen? That one could be you. He
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  Speaker 1: wants you to grow in your grace, prosper. He wants
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  Speaker 1: you to share the faith, the gospel message with somebody else.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm looking for the one because God's looking for
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  Speaker 1: the one. Because he searched the earth, right? The Bible
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  Speaker 1: says he searched to and fro. He don't find nobody
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  Speaker 1: that's good. That's why we have to be willing to
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  Speaker 1: learn from the Lord. Amen. However he wants to teach us.
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  Speaker 1: He wants to use a podcast. He wants to use
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  Speaker 1: a live stream. However it comes, take it, grab hold
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  Speaker 1: to his word and apply his word and see what happens.
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  Speaker 1: We're not supposed to stay spiritual babes forever. We're not
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  Speaker 1: supposed to get saved and then 20 years later, not
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  Speaker 1: know the basics or still just know the basics of scripture.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe because, you know, you don't want to grow yourself
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  Speaker 1: or maybe you don't, you didn't want to apply, but
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  Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know about that because once you
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  Speaker 1: taste and see the goodness of God, amen, you're going
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  Speaker 1: to want more. At least I want more of who
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  Speaker 1: God is. Amen. Because this is great. This is a
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  Speaker 1: living testimony of God's life-giving transformative word, right? When you
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  Speaker 1: apply that, it's crazy. Sister Joanne, you said you're not
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  Speaker 1: getting the notifications when you go live. Check your settings
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  Speaker 1: on your Facebook. But I'm here Mondays through Fridays, 5.30 a.m.
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  Speaker 1: Eastern Standard Time. Amen. I'll try to be here for
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  Speaker 1: you and for everybody else here. Amen. Good morning. God
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  Speaker 1: bless you, my sister, my friend. So God has already
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  Speaker 1: taught us lessons, right, in the past. If we apply
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  Speaker 1: those lessons or we think about those lessons, when we
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  Speaker 1: go through something similar, We could go back and remind ourselves, well,
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  Speaker 1: God got me through this last time this way. And
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  Speaker 1: most of the time, he'll want you to do that again.
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  Speaker 1: Because life is going to keep on happening. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know about you. I'm getting older. I know life's going
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  Speaker 1: to keep on happening. CeeLo, brother Carlos, God bless, bro.
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  Speaker 1: DJ LeBron, good morning, man. It's good to see you
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  Speaker 1: on the Morning Devo. God bless you, my bro and
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  Speaker 1: my friend. So maturity is a thing, right? Not only
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  Speaker 1: in life. I see, I meet a lot of mature
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  Speaker 1: people and that's great. A lot of mature people, they
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of life experience and that's great. And
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  Speaker 1: they could teach you a couple of things. They could
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  Speaker 1: teach me a couple of things, right? They've been here,
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  Speaker 1: they further along in their business, in their career, with
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: their life, with their family, in their marriage, right? I
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: love to see a marriage that's working, amen? It encourages
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: me to see my marriage could be a little better, right?
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: It could be more than what we expect. It could
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: be more than what we're currently going through. Amen? Good morning, Jason.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: It's good to see you on the Morning Devo. God
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: bless you. So God has more for us. So remember,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: maturity isn't about how long you've been saved. I've been
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: saved since 2001. That doesn't necessarily mean that I'm mature
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: in my faith. I know people that have been saved.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: They say they've been saved for a long time and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: you know, it's suspect because you'd be like, and you're
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: still doing what? And you're still hanging out with who?
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: And you're still not understanding this, the basics? So that's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: between them and the Lord. I'm just saying, by observation,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: you can see people's maturity, right? Maturity isn't about how
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: long you've been saved, how many Bible verses you know.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: I don't know a lot of Bible verses by heart.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I do know some, not a lot, but it's not
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: about that. We don't measure Maturity by, hey, how many
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: scriptures did you learn? How many scriptures did you memorize?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: How many times you went to church in your life?
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: We don't measure maturity like that. Not according to the scriptures, right?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: It's about how much your life reflects Christ Jesus. And
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you're going to know how much your life is reflecting
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Christ when people start acting different towards you. They kind
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: of like look at you and be like, oh, you
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: think you're better than that. All these words and all
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: these things start coming out of them because you're just
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: trying to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And a lot
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: of people don't like that because when I was in
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a believer and I was out there in the streets,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: when people from church used to come up to the
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: block and come up to us, we'd be like, no,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: we're good. We don't want to be hypocrites. We don't
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: want to go to your church and mess everything up
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: because we're out here. We'd rather just be out here,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: clean ourselves up, and then go. That's how we were thinking.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: That's how I was thinking. Amen? Amen. And a lot
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: of people are still thinking that way. And I understand.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Trust me, I understand. And even though it bothers me
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm like saddened sometimes by, you know, people rejecting
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: this word that gives you life. Amen. They're really not
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: rejecting me. They're rejecting the word of God that God
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: is pushing through me. Right. So it saddens me, but
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I understand. Can't force anybody to believe what we believe. Right.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: So today, ask yourself, are you growing in your faith?
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Or are you stuck in the same place spiritually that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: you were when you first believed? And that's a reality check, right?
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I think about it often. I'm like, hey, is this
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: too elementary for me, for you? Then I think about
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: it and say, no, this is just part of what
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: we do. We devote our time to God's word. And
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: however God wants to use the word in your life
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and my life, the outcome belongs to him. And I
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: know it's going to be a good outcome. I say,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: all right, Lord, this is your word. You're telling us
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: to go on to maturity. So I'm going to go
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: on to maturity. To me, it's plain and simple. I'm
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: not going to lay down a foundation of repentance, the law, right?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Good works, dead works. But I want to increase my
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: faith in God. Very important, right? So ask yourself, are
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: you growing in your faith? And be honest with yourself.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: God knows. People around you know if you're growing in
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: faith too. They're looking and watching. They're like, man, Sam
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: is still doing X, Y, Z. Whatever they see me
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: doing that they see, and I've been told plenty of times,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I think they had good intentions about telling me, you
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: should be further along in your ministry. You should have
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: a building. You should have this, that, and the third.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. Amen. Thank you for thinking I should
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: have more. Do you want to help me get to
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: that place? Because they'll tell you a lot of people
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: won't help you to get to that place. Because a
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: lot of people feel like it's only going to benefit
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: him and his ministry is not going to benefit me.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I want to help you. I want to help ministries.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I want to help families. And I've been doing that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: for years. Oh, glory to God. Been helping people's families financially, prayerfully, spiritually, biblically. Amen.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Don't take credit for it. But I've been doing that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: because I know if someone needs help and I'm available,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: God is always available. But if I'm in the vicinity
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and I can help, I'll help out the best way
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I can. Amen. I'm not worrying about, oh, that's not
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: going to prosper me or that's not going to help
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: my ministry or whatever. I don't say, I don't talk
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: about it because nobody's really, nobody's business unless the family
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: or the person or the individual wants me to make
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the claim or the statement that I helped them. I will.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: But other than that, nothing. The temptation though is to
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: be like, oh yeah, I did this for X, Y, Z.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: But you know, that's selfish pride. And you know, I'm
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: done with that. I'm maturing. Amen. God has more for us.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Keep moving forward. Keep learning. Keep obeying, right? Keep trusting.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Keep allowing God, the Holy Spirit, to transform your heart
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: and your mind. He's going to give you great ideas,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: new ideas. Apply his word to your ideas. Apply his
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: word to your business. Apply his word to your marriage.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Apply his word to your family. Apply his word to
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: your schooling, to your learning. It's amazing when you do that.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: So it's time to stop. just knowing about Jesus. And
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: it's time to start becoming more like Jesus. Think about it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: That's maturity. But with that, there's going to be some rejection.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: With that, there's going to be some hatred. They hated
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Jesus first, right? So they're going to hate you and
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: me as we have allegiance. We're children to the living, holy, righteous,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: loving God. The Father in heaven is our Father. Amen.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: People don't like that. But whatever reason, they have their
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: own reasons. but I know for sure people don't like this.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: They don't like the gospel. They don't like God. They
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: don't like Jesus. They don't like, they call it religion.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: They don't, they hate the church. They, for whatever reason.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: And I was one of those people. I wasn't so
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: vigilant about it, so violent about it, but I knew
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: before Christ saved my life, right? I knew that I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: was his enemy. I knew it. I was just moving different.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: My life was totally going the wrong way, the opposite way.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't want no parts until I came to the
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: conclusion that there had to be a God because I
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: did everything the world said to do, and I was
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: still empty, and I was still not satisfied, and I
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: was still angry, and I was still feeling lonely. So
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: what is it? So I said, wait, there's one thing
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I never tried, truthfully tried, or honestly tried, and that
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: was God. And so I called out to him. Actually,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I called him out. I was drunk and high. It's
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the year 2001 in the month of December. Calling him
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: out as if I thought I was a tougher guy
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I thought I was tough, but Jesus had grace and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: mercy upon my life, and he rescued me and saved
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: me and transformed my life forever. Amen? That's my testimony.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I'm sticking to it. You can't tell me nothing different.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: God is real. Amen? He's real in my life, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: he'll be real in your life. Just trust him and
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: be honest with him, right? Don't just know about God.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Don't just know about the Lord Jesus. Start becoming more
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: like him, right? Spiritual growth, it requires a little bit
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: more than just hearing God's word. Hearing God's word is amazing,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: but applying his word, right? Applying his truth to your
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: day-to-day life, then you'll see that God is real. To
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: his word, he's faithful, and to you and me, he's faithful.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And that will grow your faith. It will develop and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: shape our faith, right? And we're going to allow Jesus
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the Lord, the Christ, to shape our character day by day,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: morning by morning, verse by verse, right? Life by life. Right?
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to live life according to who we trust in.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: You're going to worship who you believe in. I'm going
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: to worship who I believe in. Right? You're going to
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: spend more time on what really matters to you. And
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: you'll start noticing. What really matters to me? Scrolling through
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: social media or scrolling through the scripture. What really matters?
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Your time tells on you. My time, the more time
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I spend on other things, tells on me. Amen? Amen.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: And my maturity started telling me, listen, you need to refocus, man.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Get away from this. I used to play video games
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: back in the day. I stopped that. No shade to
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: all those people who are still gaming. You know, you're
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: playing video games. PlayStation, Xbox. I don't even know what
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the things are anymore out there. But I used to
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: devote a lot of time to that. I stopped that
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: years ago just because of time, man. First and foremost, time.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I have children, family, ministry, businesses. I don't have time
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: to just... Veg out and play. Some people have that time.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. But be careful with that. See where
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: you're spending most of your time and you're going to
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: see where you need to mature in. Amen. Spiritually. So
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: are you ready to go beyond where you are now
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: through the word, the basics and mature in Christ? Are
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you ready? I'm ready, man. Share this out. People need this.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I know I needed this. Amen. I'm out of time though.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: We want Hebrews chapter six, verse number one. I suggest
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: you take Hebrews chapter six today and read the whole chapter.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: So we could get the full context. So God bless
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: you all. Thank you so much for hanging out with me.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: It's a pleasure, honor, amen, to be here hanging out
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: with you. Thank you so much for coming through. God
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: bless you all. God keep you all. And remember always,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: always remember this. In your maturity, you're going to know
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for sure that God is good. Peace.