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There is Hope · Relish: a Christian podcast

• 0:03
  You're listening to thursday mornings with alex and don
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  team ad don is a pastor with 40
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  years experience and alex is just as curious as
• 0:12
  you are we look at the most important and interesting
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  questions about the bible and christian faith so
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  let's talk about it pastor don good morning
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  alex how are you doing pretty good for the shape
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  i'm in yeah yeah yeah blow fuzzy on top yep finally
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  got a break in the weather we're recording this on tuesday beautiful
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  if any of you're out there remember yesterday it was a little toasty but there'll
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  be more if you don't like the weather in iowa today just wait yeah tomorrow
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  it'll change yeah there'll be more sultry days ahead and rainy days hopefully
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  summer's not over yeah yep i'll tell you what though yeah we have you in um.
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  In the uh prayer requests and stuff last sunday
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  we talked about the like any farmers out there want to say anything about
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  rain and i thought that was like a a jab a
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  little bit i'm sorry begging for rain for so many years
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  and now well even in june right
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  there is oh boy we could use rain we know losing so
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  much every day i mean one had actually calculation of the bushels lost every
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  day for not having this much rain which i you know they know their business
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  right farmers know their business that's the big deal they know what they need
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  to get the job done that's right all All right. Well, everyone,
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  thank you for joining us.
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  I do have some important news to share today, this morning, whenever you're listening to it.
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  It's with a heavy heart that I decided to step away from the Thursday mornings
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  with Alex and Don podcast.
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  This wasn't an easy decision to make. And I thoroughly enjoy all the time spent
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  with this man, Don Patterson, and definitely Definitely enjoyed the Hillcrest Academy episodes.
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  Those were so much fun and brought so much joy to my heart, as well as interacting
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  with many of you guys, either online or in person.
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  And I just want you guys to let you know that I really appreciate you.
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  Likewise. Yeah. Well, thank you.
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  So, I mean, there's a ton more sentiment I could give out a little bit as far
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  as how I'm feeling about all of it.
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  But at the end of it, I still have a lot of questions here that I want to get done.
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  And there's going to be a few more episodes here, But I just want to make sure
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  to get this part out because if you are listening or someone you know wanted
• 2:23
  to come in and step into my spot here and do the hosting thing with Don, reach out, let us know.
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  Message on Facebook, get in touch with one of the pastors at Kelowna or at Westchester
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  or somebody to get in touch with me or Don and we'll start the talks then.
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  And we'd covet your prayers. Yes. Maybe this transition is not for a new time, a new change up.
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  We do feel like we're fitting a niche.
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  Yeah, definitely. And answering some things.
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  What does God want us to do in the future? That's basically what you and I are
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  talking about. Yeah. And yeah.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not, I'm not stepping away because it's not worth the effort.
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  That's definitely not the case. It's growing.
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  It is. It continues to grow each, you know, month, each episode on both video and podcast platforms.
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  So honestly, it's just a time thing. so
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  it's it's the amount you're putting into it isn't gonna be the amount
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  that it's gonna grow and it's already got a good base so if that's something that
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  you're passionate about you're interested in learning how to do let me
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  know and you you've made a great investment yeah and
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  you are a full-time farmer and you are a full-time dad and a full-time husband
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  that's right and you've gone a long ways to make this happen yes yes and invested
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  a great deal and i appreciate that well thank you i i really appreciate the
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  time here so yeah and it's good you're a good buddy oh well Well, you are too.
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  I'm glad. I'm glad that we're definitely not severing relationships or nothing
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  bad going on or anything like that. It's just, it's a time thing. It's rough.
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  It is a time thing. And you've made a really big investment.
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  Yeah. I think it's something kind of I've seen, you know, where you did when
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  you started pastoring here, you start, you say yes to everything.
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  And then you start realizing that you're just completely stretched.
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  And you're like, why am I so stressed all this? What's happening?
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  What's going on? Lo and behold.
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  Yeah. You don't have any time for. Right.
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  Relaxation or taking a breath and i could ask for a day
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  off it's a little hard to ask for a day off from being fully
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  employed and fully husband and fully dad and
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  yeah those are things that it's hard to ask off that's right okay so in light
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  of that all these questions we asked over the years what question should i be
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  asking you that i have not been asking oh man is there one thing here's It's
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  like, hmm, boy, I wish you'd ask about that.
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  After three years, what is the one question that hasn't been asked?
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  What must I do to be saved? Okay. I haven't answered that. I think we've got
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  into it several different times.
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  Okay. But in Romans 10, 9 and 10, it says, you need to confess with your mouth
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  that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
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  And those two elements look really simple on the outside.
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  But what they do is reflect our heart. And what God really wants is our heart.
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  He really wants a heart connection to us. and if
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  we're really honest we need that heart connection as
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  well and so what god is
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  saying you confess if you can't say jesus is lord
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  across your lips then there's probably something spiritually
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  wrong and we know we've studied that in spiritual warfare and so if you can
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  confess jesus is lord across your lips and believe in your heart that god raised
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  him from the dead That second piece then is a barometer on how deep is our faith.
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  Faith in Hebrews 11 verse 1 is, faith is being sure of what you hope for and
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  certain of what you do not see.
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  And faith is needed to have that salvation in God.
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  The third thing I'd say is this is not a commitment to be taken lightly because
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  it does change who we are and it changes how we live into not only our own life,
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  but the lives of those around us.
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  And so it has waves.
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  As God continues to work in us, the waves go out from our lives And I really
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  think this is needed right now.
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  I think renewal is needed right now.
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  One commodity that is desperately lacking in our culture is hope.
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  And we need Christians to grab a hold of their faith once again and realize
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  that critical element is hope.
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  So it's being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, Hebrews 11.1.
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  So if I hadn't made it plain before, I want to make sure we make that plain.
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  Yeah, yeah. There's definitely resources too online or just like reach out to
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  someone that you know that is a Christian. Right.
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  If you're not sure where to start as far as like your faith journey,
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  you know, start with a first finding of someone, you know, that is a Christian, loves Jesus.
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  And you kind of laid out some of the things that how you can tell, right?
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  You can say if they can say that across their lips, if they proclaim those things,
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  there's there's one little bit of evidence there.
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  Primary. Now, you can't know that second part that's in the heart.
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  And that's kind of a special thing between you and God, which is fun.
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  Because that's not something for us to judge on other people.
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  We don't know what's in that heart, but we can see by the actions what fruit
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  are they bringing, what does their life look like, you know?
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  And sometimes we can be harsh on those judgments too, which we're told not to,
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  but we are. Find those people. Find that person.
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  Talk to them about it. Second would be find a church that preaches out of the Bible.
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  The whole Bible. The whole Bible. That's important.
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  You know you can figure out why that's important by asking that
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  christian because there are a lot of people that look good
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  on the outside and choose to
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  say you know what jesus is just love there's nothing else there you're like
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  what does that mean though can you show me in scripture where that what that
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  means yeah anything else to add on that no i think you got it yeah that's yeah
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  i just want to make sure we didn't that is so important i just want to make
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  sure we didn't dismiss it you know That's the point, you guys.
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  I don't know if we've ever been like, how do we get saved if we're not a Christian?
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  We don't love Jesus. We don't know about him.
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  And I want to make sure that somebody who's coming across this broadcast in
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  the middle of maybe a hard time realizes there is hope.
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  I mean, we have testimonies of how God has walked us through the hardest of times.
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  And those things really get us prepared to find hope. And that's good stuff. Yeah.
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  Yes, it is. I'm just writing it down. There's hope because that's what I'm going
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  to title the episode. Okay, there you go. That's hard to come up with titles sometimes.
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  Next question would be, and this is kind of along the same lines,
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  what should Christians ask of each other?
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  This is a specific request asking. Right. And so out of that relationship that
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  we have, we need to find our identity in Christ.
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  That needs to produce as these people who all know and walk with the lord and identify with christ,
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  as they become communities we become
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  heart focused communities yeah and so when
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  i walk with you as a brother and i say
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  boy i i sense an aching you
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  know is there something we need to talk about is it something
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  i've done and and we need
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  to talk about it and take care of it so we in a
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  sense understand and identify and
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  empathize with each other yeah and then
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  we also counter and strengthen each other
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  right and so the the church marcus warner and the deeper walk talk about a heart
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  focus community yeah so that we're not just all walking into the pool of pews
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  together and we all sit down together but when we sit down we say how you doing
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  brother right just like you do when I come in and,
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  and, and I do when you come in, we, we want to know how each other's doing and.
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  Open ourselves to the possibility.
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  Maybe I have something I can minister to you and you have something that you
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  can minister to me and together we're better than if we were apart. Yeah.
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  And that's, that's where the church has suffered so much, especially in the
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  last three, four years is because we allowed the situation at the time to take
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  so much out of the church.
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  Oh, yeah. And it was already going even before that. Yeah. We allowed it to.
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  The one expert that I work with often says that basically all COVID did was
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  accelerate the decline of the church seven years. Mm-hmm.
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  Yeah. Yeah, I remember I was reading a book that our adult Sunday school class
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  had looked at, and they thought it was so good that they passed it out.
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  And it was like the autopsy of a deceased church or dying church or something like that.
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  And that was well before COVID. And I read it, and I honestly can't think of
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  anything that really stuck with me,
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  but just the dire importance of pouring time into the church and efforts into
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  the church to that community was on me, Because that's always how my gift,
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  I guess, has been, has been to serving the church and that community.
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  And it's always been important to me. So seeing COVID, it was.
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  And part of it is we, the church, didn't fully understand and maybe still don't
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  fully understand who we are called to be by the word. Mm-hmm.
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  And I'm studying Acts for this coming, this sort of plug for this coming week, Acts chapter nine.
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  And after Paul's conversion, Peter has some situations that make me realize,
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  wait a minute, is this what the church is today?
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  Ah, maybe this is what the church should be today. Right.
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  And talking about that community, that community of peace, that drawing,
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  that healing community, that giving life community.
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  Oh, sure. And that comes out of chapter nine of Acts. So I'm excited to talk,
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  excited about the church and what the word is saying about it. Yeah. Yeah.
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  I think there's a tremendous amount of hope from other churches I've seen and
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  the growth and the, just the, you know, you didn't see all the desire to find
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  a good church before, I didn't think.
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  There wasn't that passion to be like this, I need, you know, it was more of a routine.
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  It's fine. And then these things happen, and then you just see this outpouring
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  of the almost desperation to find a good church, a good community to be a part of.
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  And I find, I think, what, a couple of new churches are starting in the community.
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  And that's not a bad thing, because we're going to need all those pews and all those preachers.
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  But my heart is with the church that's been there and established for 150 years.
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  And all of a sudden, you know, we got in the route of doing things,
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  and we forgot this is why we do things.
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  And so the renewing of the solid church is attractive to me.
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  I think it needs to happen.
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  And so, well, I guess that's why I'm here. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
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  Because we can't shut churches to just open new churches so that we don't have the agenda.
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  I think we need to learn to live in the agenda because every church plant will
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  have agenda within eight and a half years.
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  That's just all it just doesn't take very long right yeah there's gonna be people
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  wanting to move forward people wanting to do these things and then you're gonna
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  have a mission and well and the church becomes a platform well to do it my way
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  and that's either the the leader or the.
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  Supposed leader you know right and so who who's really leading right there's
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  always a little bit of quarrel in there there's a little bit of quarrel there
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  because i want my way yeah funny
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  story about that when we were choosing a new name for the church they're like
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  you know send in your recommendations and i'm trying to throw myself under the bus here and.
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  Oh it's totally self-deprecating i was i sent
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  an email like you know i got some ideas for this new church name we could totally
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  go with something boring like westchester community church yeah not which we
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  actually went i think that would be kind of silly let's go with one of these
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  things and then at the meeting finding out that they did westchester community
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  i was like i'm kind of sad Dad, I didn't upset that I didn't get it my way.
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  I had all these great times. I put all this effort into, and here just the first
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  one was perfect. There were, what, 25 different titles? Oh, yeah.
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  I think there was a lot of different. There was quite a few.
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  And the good submissions. Yeah. A lot of thought. Yeah.
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  And, uh, yeah, but yeah, you kind of, I saw a little bit of that,
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  that wanting it my way kind of thing, but yeah, that's okay. But we all do.
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  Yeah. I think that the goal, the gold standard of the church then is when we
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  all pray into a certain, certain thing and say, well, this is how I want it,
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  but not my will be done, but thy will be done.
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  And when we ask the Lord to be a part of the mix, then it's not my way. It's God's way. Right.
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  And that's, I'm all right with that. Yeah. I remember talking about,
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  in fact, this didn't happen very far away.
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  They were putting an addition on the church and there was this old tree that
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  this man in the church did not want to have taken down.
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  And the church voted and they voted that they go ahead with the addition and
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  going ahead with the addition meant the tree had to come down.
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  So the very first day that they were going to work on getting this tree down,
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  there he He was, and he had the biggest chainsaw and took it down.
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  Wow. He said, well, if it's God's will that this tree comes down,
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  I'm going to be the one that takes it down. Look at that.
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  So that kind of attitude says, okay, we've all allowed the Lord to lead.
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  Let's listen to what the Lord's led us to do. Yeah. And let's lean in together.
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  Yeah. And that's what the church ought to be. Yeah.
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  I agree. Yeah. Yeah, I think that, yeah, that self-sacrifice,
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  that giving to each other is just awesome. Yeah, it is.
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  Another question, is it important to identify each other's gifts within a church community?
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  It is. Okay. How do you go about doing that? And that really needs to come from
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  two different directions. One is personal.
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  Yeah. So we sort of say, well, I enjoy doing this. I have this kind of gift.
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  But the other is on the outside. people who know us well enough to say,
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  hey, have you ever thought of doing this?
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  I see these attributes in you that would lend towards this gift.
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  And so in the community of faith, it's identifying in each other gifts as well
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  as identifying our own gifts and then coming together as a group and affirming
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  each other in those gifts.
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  And so then it becomes a network, work not only of
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  getting the job done because you got better gifts
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  than i have in this area and i've got better gifts than you are
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  in this area but we're both doing it because we're
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  trying to achieve the same goal yeah god has for our community and then we we
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  appreciate each other yeah i mean respect and appreciation go an awful long
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  way in a church yeah to make it function well yes Yes, definitely does.
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  Yeah, that being firm for the effort you're putting in or for something,
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  you know, that kind of goes unnoticed. Now, sometimes, you know.
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  I feel like I don't want to be noticed for something I'm doing because if I
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  get a thank you, then that's the payment.
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  Whereas if I don't, then I feel like that's more of a blessing to the church
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  or something like that. But it sure feels nice.
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  And it's not necessarily that way. It's not always that equation, is it?
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  If I'm doing it for the thank you, for the appreciation, for the attention,
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  that's why you're doing it. That's your payment.
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  If you're just doing it selflessly, sometimes those gifts and those blessings
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  come along on their own. I'm trying to remember which letter Paul talks about that.
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  But if you do it for the recognition, you've already got your payment.
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  Right. Right. Yeah, yeah. Oh, Jesus says it in Matthew chapter 6.
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  I was going to say, yeah. Yeah. Jesus says it in Matthew chapter 6. Yep.
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  It talks about prayer. That's right. Tooting horns. Mm-hmm. That's where we
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  get the statement, tooting your own horn. That's right. Yep. Yep.
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  The last question, because we kind of talked about this in a church meeting
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  a while ago, go is the church leadership,
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  essentially the belief that we're kind of lacking, and not only some people
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  that will step up for leading, but also for pastors.
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  Why are there so few willing to heed that call, do you think?
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  This would be like your opinion. What do you think what's going on there?
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  Two pieces going on there. One is, I don't think we've reared leaders.
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  I think we've sort of chastised individuals who have that goal and that push
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  and, you know, they're hard to maintain and they're hard to take care of and
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  they're sort of disruptive at times.
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  And so we've quelled that natural ability to lead and done it from a young age in our school system.
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  School school system can't hardly handle it because those kind
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  of individuals who have that gut desire to
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  move ahead and they up they disrupt the
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  order of things and so we in our education system we've sort of packed them
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  down the second piece is then when somebody does have it and they see somebody
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  else who has it like our leaders in our nation our leaders in our communities
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  they just get bashed all the time. Oh, yeah.
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  And so that doesn't look like a very appealing process to be a part of. Right.
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  And so it doesn't look good.
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  And even if they've got the drive to do it, why on earth would I ever do that? Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:31
  And so go sell insurance. Yeah. It's easy. Stay quiet and you're fine. Yeah.
• 20:37
  And I really want to point out, if you're looking at our political situation
• 20:42
  right now, Now, just remember, we're at where we're at because we put ourselves there.
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  And so if we could call out the caliber of leadership that we need to lead,
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  we wouldn't be where we're at right now.
• 20:58
  Yeah, I agree with that. And so that's neither Democrat or Republican or anything else.
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  I think that's an important point. It's part of the system. And every time we
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  have a coffee shop conversation and kick somebody under the table,
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  we basically help create that.
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  Yeah. Yeah. And it's it's in the system is not made to let me say this way.
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  Recently, I've switched from political conversations about, you know,
• 21:28
  policy and stuff like that to in the, you know, topics that just never get resolved
• 21:34
  with the person I'm talking to.
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  It's just we're not gonna see we're not
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  gonna come to agreement on any of these things because we've already been told what to
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  do we've already been it's already been
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  impressed upon us what the right course of action is to do
• 21:47
  because we heard like how are they so good
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  at this division that's what i'm starting to go towards
• 21:52
  like how is it now that we can't agree on
• 21:56
  things ah it's and it's not
• 21:59
  so much that we have to agree but there's no place for
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  common ground exactly the crafting of how to do that is it's not i'm just like
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  so i'm so shocked every day how how easily we are to be manipulated you know
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  it's it's so simple anymore it seems very easy and to be able to open your eyes
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  to see that i don't know what what you get for a minute or where you can do with it but.
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  Boy it it bob it's it's troubling it is
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  troubling there's one commodity that's needed in
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  those conversations and that's respect right and
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  so i i have a a certain teacher
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  who's about my age and definitely a
• 22:39
  liberal okay and we have good conversations and usually over the coffee and
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  and and and i respect him he's he's lived into the community he's he's he's
• 22:49
  smart but he's liberal right and and and i i'm i might as well confess i'm pretty
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  conservative okay and we have good
• 22:58
  conversations because at the end of the day, we respect each other. Right.
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  And we don't batter each other or bang each other or put each other down as
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  much as say, so how, how, how do you get where you're at?
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  And so how, how can you accept that position and this position as well?
• 23:18
  Right. More questions, less attributing opinion or malice or something to someone
• 23:24
  else's opinion. Right. And then we get, then we get more answers of,
• 23:27
  well, I came at it from this and this and this and this. Right.
• 23:30
  And I said, well, at this point, is that still logical?
• 23:33
  And you know we can back her out
• 23:36
  and then he'll do the same thing to me right right you have
• 23:38
  everyone has beliefs tell me where the you know the root of that
• 23:41
  belief is why you think it should be this way and not this way that's interesting
• 23:45
  learning about how people are developing those things within their head is so
• 23:48
  yeah it's not only fascinating i think i'm very passionate about seeing that
• 23:53
  that thought process to understand it but also i'd long to be understood the
• 23:58
  same way So if you can give to someone in that way,
• 24:01
  that's just, you're just heaping respect upon them and seeing it their way.
• 24:04
  And it's, you still run into people that, you know, they're not going to feel
• 24:07
  respected unless you agree with them. And that's. Well, that's being taught.
• 24:12
  And the respect in conversation is not.
• 24:16
  I mean, basically the news every evening is teaching us polarization.
• 24:23
  And that's why instead of listening to one newscast, I do three or four.
• 24:30
  Right because and both sides because I need the facts yeah I don't need the
• 24:38
  bias I get enough bias but I need the facts yeah and so I find that,
• 24:45
  The way the news media is presenting right now is meant to divide.
• 24:50
  Right. Of course it is. That seems to be its sole purpose.
• 24:54
  Oh, yeah. I mean, there's news programs, media programs that are all about just
• 24:58
  looking what the other media says.
• 25:00
  Exactly. So there seems to be an incentive to attack each other so that you
• 25:04
  always have to be like, not only is it the issue at hand, but it's actually the media are doing it.
• 25:09
  So if one person on each side lies a little bit or gets some
• 25:11
  facts wrong a little bit then that incentivizes the evening
• 25:14
  like oh look what they said and drives more views right
• 25:17
  it's our righteousness coming out it's that worldly sin
• 25:21
  about you know pointing out someone else's flaws while remaining we're perfectly
• 25:25
  fine right yeah yeah and i it just happened this last week so blatantly that
• 25:32
  it just ah well yeah those times i have to step back drink a coffee yeah that'll help.
• 25:39
  Well don we're at 26 minutes and i know that you were kind of hinting towards a little bit of,
• 25:44
  talking about what the culture what the media is kind of
• 25:46
  addressing or trying to impose upon us that it's not okay to
• 25:49
  have opposing opinions that's something
• 25:53
  i think we're going to talk about next week oh and then next week so basically
• 25:57
  it'll be two more episodes after this so if you are someone who wants to come
• 26:00
  in fill in for me and or give it a try or just interested in it or maybe you
• 26:06
  want to throw someone else's name under the bus out there and have me contact them, do it.
• 26:12
  Let's see where this goes. This could be good. Will you pray us out?
• 26:16
  Yeah. Okay. Lord, we pray. Pray for us, Lord. Yes.
• 26:21
  Thank you for this privilege to be together. Thank you for this ministry.
• 26:25
  Thank you for those who are listening. And we pray your blessing.
• 26:29
  We pray your blessing upon those who are hearing. We pray your blessing upon
• 26:32
  what the future might be for this ministry. I pray a blessing upon Alex and all that he's invested.
• 26:39
  Heavenly Father, we seek to be your people, led in your ways for your kingdom's sake.
• 26:45
  Guide us every step of the way. In Jesus' name, amen.
• 26:50
  Amen. All right, everyone. Well, thanks for sitting through 25, six minutes of this.
• 26:55
  We're sure happy you enjoyed or joined us today. And we will see you all next week.
• 27:01
  Lord willing. Bye.
• 27:04
  Thanks again for joining us for this week's episode we are both having a ton
• 27:09
  of fun making these videos and episodes and if you're having fun too please
• 27:14
  tell a friend about this and help us to grow this mission thank you and God bless.