Jesus Sees Your Browser History

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Welcome to another episode of the Mindless of Podcast.
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It's your boy Isha.
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On this episode, we talk about a topic that a lot of churches shy away about talking, and some people feel shame about even bringing it up.
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The topic about pornography.
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On this episode, we are blessed with the presence of our older brother and mentor, Richard, where he gives us his insight and blesses us with his words.
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Stay tuned.
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So, with that being said, uh, we're gonna go straight into icebreakers.
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Um uh one question that I have well, uh I have four questions, but we're gonna do two of them.
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Okay, one of them says, Um, what's one biblical character you struggle to understand and why?
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Man, yeah, uh man.
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Um I'll go with the easy one, David.
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Um David exhibited um the qualities of a saved um human being, right?
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Like someone that has already experienced salvation.
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If you pay attention to his text um in Psalms, even Psalm 22, to where um he's speaking as if he is the one that is going through the death and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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But then things that he'll say in Psalm 51, uh created in me a clean heart and restore in me a right spirit, and restore in me the joy of salvation.
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Obviously, I'm paraphrasing, and um cast me not away from your presence.
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Don't take your holy spirit from me.
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He lived a life, or from his text, it looked like he lived the life of somebody that had been saved, even though Jesus Christ had yet to come.
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Um, so it's almost as if the prophetic revelation of who God intended to make us was his reality, even though he had yet to experience that, or anybody on this earth had yet to experience it.
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So he's a very confusing character for me.
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Like the level of intimacy that he adapted with God allowed him to encounter and experience a side of God that in all through the old testament you don't see it.
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So yeah, very interesting.
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Mine is not that like that in-depth.
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I felt like one person I like struggle to understand is Peter.
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Okay.
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Yeah.
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Especially like I constantly go back and think about how Jesus said that on this rock I will build my church.
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But then we see like how flawed he is as a person, how he has to be corrected multiple times.
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He denies Jesus, he's corrected with with like thoughts regarding the Israelites and then the versus the Gentiles, and how the Gentiles not keeping up with certain things of the law made them unclean in his mind.
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So I still kind of struggle because with all the correction, and I guess like we're all kind of the same as him in a sense where we like struggle with things so many times we keep failing over and over again.
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Someone has to correct us, the word has to correct us, and I don't know.
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I just struggled to understand because I felt like maybe reading it from like a kind of bird's eye view, everything is like obvious, but in like it just seemed like he was like flawed.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Most definitely.
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I agree with that.
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I was gonna go with the easy one, Judas.
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Because Judas literally walked with the card on earth, saw everything he did, everything he said.
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At the end of the day, you still betrayed him for some money.
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It doesn't make sense to me.
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That's why I picked Judas.
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Okay.
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For me, well, because I obviously obviously had time to think a little bit.
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That was gonna be my first answer.
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My second answer is Enoch.
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And the reason why I was thinking about Enoch is how like how can you be so close to God that you don't even have to like die?
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And to me, it's it's kind of like okay, how how how do we reach that point to where we're we're uh inseparable from God?
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So that's that's why I I would choose Enoch.
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The next icebreaker is um if God sent you one text right now, what do you hope it says?
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God sent you one text right now, what would you hope it says?
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I immediately thought of the um parable of the steward, which is like well done, good and faithful servant.
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That's like what I would hope it would say.
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Yeah, yeah.
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That's fair.
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I would hope that it said, here's a breakdown of the next five years of your life.
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You feel me?
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Like, and and yeah, like month to month, day to day, week to week, this is what you can expect.
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Uh, these are the traps, and this is how you can avoid them, you feel me?
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Um, you know, just a chat GBT kind of breakdown of the entire entire next five years, you feel me?
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Maybe 10, you know what I mean?
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But yeah, yeah, I wish you would say that.
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I feel like the way you would move move in that kind of like with that guidance is like say everything you touch is like gold.
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Yeah, obviously.
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You would move different, yeah.
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Like after having the gameplay, you're like, okay, no, yeah, I need that's it.
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You wouldn't even worry about the next step, bro.
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Like, even if your car crashed, you're like, we already know what's coming, you mean like do you think there's like it's like kind of like the railing, but do you think there's people who kind of operate in maybe like not five years, but in a shorter sense, maybe even a week, a day, a few hours.
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Yeah, I think anybody that is willing to wait on the Lord for the day is always advantaged to know what the day holds, right?
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Um, Jesus Christ knew the disciples that he should choose to become apostles because of the fact that he waited on the Lord all night, right?
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So, um, even I believe it's uh Ephesians chapter five, verse seventeen.
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Um it talks about you know, do not be ignorant, know the will of the Lord, right?
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So knowing the mind of God and the plans of God for your life is not supposed to be it's not supposed to be, you know, arbitrary, right?
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Like if you are willing to wait on the Lord, he is willing to speak to you about your day.
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I've experienced it at least, so can speak that up.
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So how would you say like that's different than like is it kind of like that kind of same feeling where everything you touch is like gold compared to like other days, or is it like assuredness in how like maybe not everything may go perfect in like a human sense, but it's an assuredness that you know like everything's gonna be like alright?
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Uh I think I'll preface it by saying that just because you know what's going to happen, it doesn't mean that it's the preferred thing for you or your preference per se, right?
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Um, so you know, just because you know your you and your boss are gonna get in an argument, maybe God is just telling you, like, hey, um, just have patience in this moment and don't let it derail you from the purposes that I sent you to the business, right?
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Because realistically speaking, you can crash out and you would be justified because maybe your boss is out of uh out of pocket, right?
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But the Lord revealed it to you so you can be of the right heart posture for when you encounter it.
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So in that moment, you don't feel like you're touching gold, right?
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But you feel prepared for what's about to come, you know what I mean?
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And that's interesting because something happened last year.
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You guys know what I'm talking about.
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I'll tell you how that can't get but but something happened, and so a prophetess in my church said, Someone is going to upset you this week.
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Don't fall into it.
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It took it, and when I told you, I've never been that mad in my life where where it's like I'm somebody that's calm, but that would have been a moment that I crashed out.
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Yeah, but because I I I've already been like ready for something to happen, I wasn't as mad as I should have been.
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Right, right, right, right, right, right.
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It prepares you.
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That literally happened last year.
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It's crazy.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Oh, I would um want a text to be um, this is your purpose, this is how you should go about getting to that purpose.
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Yeah, yeah, fair.
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That's a good one.
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It's crazy because I even forgot my own question.
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Uh, if God sent you one text right now, what do you hope it says?
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I just wanted to say that don't worry, you're good.
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I think after that, I don't need to know more.
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I just need to keep doing what I'm doing.
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Just know, okay, like you're good.
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Like how your moving is.
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Yeah, because then if I get that text, I know, okay, I'm doing probably not everything right, but I'm doing I'm kind of doing what I'm supposed to do, and everything else I shouldn't even have to like worry as much.
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Like all of the things that I'm worrying about in my heart, it's just okay, just relax, you're good.
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Would you say that that's the same thing that the text scripture in in general says though?
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I I agree, but hearing it like Yeah, no, I get it.
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Personally, yeah, is is even though yes, like this book is personal to us, but I think hearing it in that moment would mean not more to me, but the world to me, like in that specific moment.
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I'll explain it.
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That's beautiful.
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No, I get it.
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But yeah, I get it.
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I've been kind of thinking about like what you had mentioned, like in terms of like, even if you know like what's ahead of you is not necessarily like great, like there's still like kind of like a piece you have.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I thought of like Paul when he said that I forgot what verse, but he was he was saying that I know like I'm going to face persecution where I'm going.
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And it's like, how can like I feel like human mind, it's hard to wrap your head around that.
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A human would just say, Don't go.
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Yeah, but he knows that this is the will of God for me, I must go.
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Yeah, I mean, they literally told him, like, yo, like this is what's gonna you're gonna be like this, this is what's gonna happen to you.
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He's like, yo, this the spirit expressly says, however, I must go.
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Is it like a kind of nonchalance then in at that point, or is it like I already know the outcome?
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So it's it's a disposition to truly fulfill the will of God past yourself, right?
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Um, I was talking to someone about this earlier today.
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Um, you know, if if anyone seeks to be my disciples, he must first deny himself, take up his cross and follow after me, right?
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So even when you know there's trouble ahead for you on your outer man, because you know that the will of God is for you to be in that place, you deny yourself.
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You pick up your cross and you follow after him.
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What is the after him?
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The mind of God is that you be there, right?
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So even though it will cost you something, it will cost you your freedom, as a matter of fact, while it's costing you your freedom, I have you in jail writing letters that will actually establish the Gentiles hundreds of years from now, right?
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Because if you're always ministering from town to town to town, when do you get to write letters to reflect and break down the revelation to which we all get to enjoy right now?
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Right?
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So, like that's I believe that that's the highest form of following God's plans for your life.
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It might not necessarily always result in your comfort, but it always results in God's will being executed.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So kind of like Jesus on the cross.
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Yep.
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Yeah, perfect.
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That point, I feel like that point is that's crazy.
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Like it's like ultimately taking like do not fear those who can destroy the body, like to its like utmost limit.
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Like am I there yet?
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I don't know, but it's it I I think all of us have the checkpoint to where we're not there yet.
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Like we all, like, maybe all of us will be willing to sacrifice our life, but we will we all be willing to sacrifice the life of someone that we feel protective over, right?
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Let's just say for my wife, like I love my wife to death.
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I don't think that the ministry that God has placed on my life should be a consequence to her.
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You get me?
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So, like, if God asks me, okay, I want you to spend the next five days praying and fasting concerning this, don't you know entertain anything else.
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Sometimes I feel bad.
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Why?
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Because my wife is sitting on the couch by herself watching TV when she's actually looking for a companion.
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But realistically speaking, God said, Go lock in for five days, right?
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So it's it's it's a harder thing.
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Everybody has that one thing or those things where you know it's gonna really be expensive, and you have to cross that road of like, man, am I there yet?
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You feel me?
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Everybody has a am I there yet thing that they don't want to sacrifice?
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I always thought, like, is that a representation of something that is not a God before God in a sense, but it's something that you hold dearly that you're willing to kind of not listen to God for?
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Yeah, to an extent.
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I mean, even Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he was like, Nah, you know, if this cup can pass, let it.
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But nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.
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Okay, it's interesting because like I had like a small glimpse of something like that last year happened to me.
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Again, these guys know about it.
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But but people wronged me, right?
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And God had me go go and go and apologize to the people that wronged me when I didn't do anything.
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Right.
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And mind you, I was in my room and I was physically like shaking because I was like, I was talking to the guy, I was like, no, I'm not like I'm not doing this.
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I didn't, I know truthfully in my heart that I did nothing wrong.
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So why would you have me go and apologize that I did not wrong?
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Yeah, but whatever.
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Mind you, this took months for me to even do it.
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Yeah, but I did it, yeah, and I was met with no response.
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I said to God, this is this is why why would you have me do this if this was gonna be the end end result?
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But even with that, like going through that taught me a lot.
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Yeah, that okay, like when God needs you to do something, just do it.
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Like, I shouldn't have even waited three months to do it.
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I should have just did it then and just cleaned my hands off of it and just moved on, and that's it.
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Yeah, but I took a long time, but that was kind of the closest thing I've gotten to that, to something like that.
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And those are the steps that kill you on the inside.
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They kill your pride, they kill your ego, they kill yourself, the identity that you find outside of Christ, those are the things that will kill you.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, yeah, most definitely.
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Oh, okay.
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So now we're gonna do our dilemma portion of the podcast.
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So I have one dilemma.
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It's called the Missionary Son.
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A missionary couple spends decades overseas serving God.
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Their son grows up feeling neglected and eventually leaves the faith, believing ministry mattered more to his parents than he did.
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Were the parents faithful or did they fail their son?
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So the son feels that he's been neglected from his parents because they prioritized ministry over their relationship with him?
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Yeah, is that what it is?
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Were they faithful to God or were they did they fail their son?
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I feel like I don't have an answer now, but kind of like a immediate question I had was like, is isn't being a son like a father also a ministry?
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Or like I f yeah, I definitely would say so.
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But like when you have a calling that, like when you have a calling like that, I think Richard, you also brought up the point it was like a few months ago about was it Benny no Billy Graham?
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Tell the story and I'll be able to tell you.
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It was about like how Billy Graham's ministry got like so big, and like I think after he passed, his wife or his family like spoke about how like he wasn't like as present in the household.
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There was a cost to it, yeah, yeah.
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But you know, that's the power of you know raising a family as a a unit, right?
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Because like at the end of the day, there there has to be some trade-offs.
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You can't forget your home ministry because of your external ministry, and you can't forget your external ministry because of your home ministry, right?
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The real fact of the matter is being a husband is a ministry, right?
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But the purpose of that ministry is to fulfill God's mandate on you guys' life, right?
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A wife is a help meet to the husband, so you guys can accomplish, you know, tending to the field to where God has placed you guys, right?
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So discovering the ministry, understanding what the ministry is about.
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Sometimes you discover it prior to your spouse coming, sometimes you find out while your spouse is there, but it's your job as a man to communicate this is the vision, this is how we achieve it, and this is how we'll carry the family through it.
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Like, look at Noah, has an assignment from God, his wife is in it, and so are his children.
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So it's one of those things where like you when God places something on you, you have to be diligent to understand timing, you know, um systems, you have to understand the blueprint to how you achieve this.
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Because I don't believe it's God's will for you to lose your son to win a bunch of souls, right?
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So the question then becomes for me why wasn't your son with you?
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Right?
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Like, why didn't you take your son with you?
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Why didn't your wife stay home and you go and then you come home and sh and she goes, right?
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There's a better strategy than just oh, we both have to go at the same time.
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No, yeah, may perhaps sometimes, but again, who do you have at home that reinforces the parents' love to the child?
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Yeah, right.
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You feel me?
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Like where's grandma that will enforce it?
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Where's sister, brother, cousin, whatever you want to call it, that will reinforce the love for the child, right?
00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:46.559
Like, okay, hey, this thing I'm buying for you, your parents sent money for me to buy this thing for you, right?
00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:50.799
And then we speak frequently, hey son, why don't you come up during the summer times?
00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:51.920
You know what I mean?
00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:53.519
Maybe it's dangerous, okay.
00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:54.559
We gotta go home.
00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:54.960
Why?
00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:59.599
Because if somebody does not take care of his household, he's worse than an infidel, right?
00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:02.240
That's what that's what scripture says, right?
00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:05.680
So you have to be able to take care of your own, your household.
00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:10.559
Yeah, it's it it is the first requirement of ministry.
00:20:10.720 --> 00:20:23.279
Like any like when when Paul speaks to Timothy in Tim 1 Timothy chapter 2, it talks about if you want to be a deacon, if you want to be an elder, a bishop, or whatever you want to call it, you have to rule your house well.
00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:34.000
So you're trying to attend to the bride of Christ, but the aspect of the bride of Christ that you are actually fully responsible for, you're not handling it.
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:35.359
Doesn't make sense.
00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:46.160
So, how I would answer the question is they've been faithful to an aspect of their ministry, but they've neglected neglected another aspect of their ministry.
00:20:46.480 --> 00:20:52.240
Do you think in that situation, God would give you the wisdom and how to navigate that situation and balance everything?
00:20:52.480 --> 00:21:07.599
Most definitely I was gonna say, like, the first like big mistake was that like the son doesn't understand their ministry, doesn't understand their ministry, and I would also say though, so so in terms of what he said, he said as a result of that the son left the faith, right?
00:21:08.240 --> 00:21:12.960
So then who like who's to blame for the son leaving the faith?
00:21:13.119 --> 00:21:19.759
Is it the fact that he didn't have examples of what of love?
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:30.880
Because it seems as though they're kind of just saying, okay, this is more important than you, so you kind of have to just wait on the sideline for now, even though you're my son, this is more important than you.
00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:46.960
But then I also think that maybe the parents didn't show him Christ in the family, but they're showing uh Christ to other people outside of the family, if that makes sense.
00:21:47.279 --> 00:21:51.119
Yeah, I would even question if the son really was part of the faith in the first place.
00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:59.759
Because realistically speaking, if you come to know Jesus and you say, Jesus, I am leaving you because of what.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.400
They did.
00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:02.400
They have not come to know Jesus.
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.200
Simple fact of the matter.
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:06.880
So maybe the son left the church.
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:07.200
Yeah.
00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:07.599
Right?
00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:07.920
Yeah.
00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:20.400
But realistically speaking, to renounce the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his lordship for the sake of the fact that my parents weren't diligent to loving me.
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:23.200
Nah, you haven't met Jesus yet.
00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:24.160
You haven't met Jesus.
00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:25.759
So what it's like.
00:22:25.839 --> 00:22:30.079
I was thinking like that would be on the parents then for not leaving the right structure.
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:37.279
In the end, the the the thing says he left the faith because of them, right?
00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:46.240
At the end of the day, like even if his parents were not his primary disciplers, he came to the faith because he encountered the Lord Jesus.
00:22:46.400 --> 00:22:50.240
He believed that Jesus is real, right?
00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:53.599
That he is alive and well, even in this day.
00:22:54.720 --> 00:23:04.720
And in leaving the faith, he says, I know Jesus is real, alive and well, but I choose to turn my back on Jesus because of people.
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:17.839
No matter how much somebody fails, right, to properly foster you in the faith.
00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:20.880
Now I understand we have babes in the faith, right?
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:23.200
That haven't really seen Christ, right?
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:26.160
That's why Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:33.359
Babes need a physical example to then see who Christ is, right?
00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:35.440
So they need a physical example.
00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:40.480
That's why we have leaders of the church, that's why we have teachers of the word and all of that.
00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:46.720
Babes need to be fed the milk, just like a natural baby needs to be fed milk.
00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:47.680
Right.
00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:58.720
So I'm not trying to dispute the fact that there wasn't um there wasn't any need for the presence of the parents in that in in in regard to building their faith.
00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:01.759
And that's where I think what the that the failure is.
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:13.599
The parents should have introduced a presence in his life, maybe they did, that would take it upon themselves as a responsibility to build the child in their absence, right?
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:15.279
To build the child in their faith.
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:23.599
If mommy and daddy have an international global ministry and they're all all over the place, you must have find somebody that can pastor your children.
00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:25.839
Simple fact of the matter.
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:34.480
But in the end, when he stands before God, he will not be able to say, I left you because of my parents.
00:24:34.640 --> 00:24:34.960
Yeah.
00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:44.720
Would you like equate that to those people that say that, oh, because I've been hurt by the church, I left Christianity because of that.
00:24:45.119 --> 00:25:00.480
Because then I feel like, yes, those elders and people that may have caused you to leave the faith, they are an authority and they represent are supposed to represent Christ to you.
00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:10.480
But I also think that you leaving because maybe that day they just did something that was wrong or something that may have been hypocritical.
00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:14.640
And then as a result, you'd say, Oh wow, I don't want to be a Christian anymore.
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:24.079
I don't want to undermine undermine anybody because realistically speaking, everybody's case is different.
00:25:24.640 --> 00:25:29.119
My this response would be very different to somebody that was molested in the church.
00:25:29.359 --> 00:25:29.920
Yeah, for sure.
00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:30.559
You feel me?
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:31.279
Makes sense.
00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:44.960
And it would be very different for somebody that had to witness maybe the church, profess love, but then act in hatred towards a family member, towards their family, or whatever the case may be.
00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:52.720
So I completely understand people that step away from the church, but in the end, when all this dust settles, there's only one question to answer.
00:25:53.119 --> 00:25:56.400
Do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior?
00:25:56.960 --> 00:25:58.240
Simple fact of the matter.
00:25:58.559 --> 00:25:59.839
Yes, you left the church.
00:26:00.079 --> 00:26:01.279
Yes, you are hurt.
00:26:01.519 --> 00:26:10.079
But even your emotions, even your emotions can speak to the carnality of the faith that you are practicing, right?
00:26:10.400 --> 00:26:27.519
Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 2, and 3, he talks to those, um, the people in the in Corinth, and he says, I want to give you strong meat, but seeing that you are still backbiting, going back and forth, choosing sides and all of that, I can't give you strong meat.
00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:28.640
You're still a babe.
00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:31.359
You're still carnal in your ways, right?
00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:38.720
So, realistically speaking, when your emotions get in the way of your practice in the faith, then that means two things.
00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:42.240
Number one, that you are a carnal Christian, right?
00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:47.440
Like you can't seem to get over how they treated you, how they made you feel.
00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:50.960
So therefore, you cannot express your faith well.
00:26:51.279 --> 00:27:01.039
But even worst of all, number two, there is a deity in your heart that far exceeds God's command in your life, which is even more dangerous.
00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:20.559
However, to the people that are have been church hurt and have gone through all these things, I always entreat people like you have to sit down with yourself, sit down with a therapist, sit down with a person in the faith that you trust, and we have to unpack everything that happened.
00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:24.480
Because this is one through one side one psychological truth.
00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:30.000
You may not remember what somebody did to you, but you always remember how you feel.
00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:57.839
So until we unpack everything that happened, right, in the context of your mature self now, what ends up happening is you've been walking around with this feeling your entire life, this anger your entire life, this betrayal your entire life, and we never really unpacked how to get that little girl, that little boy out of that trap, out of that room, and bring them to a healthy place where they can accept the faith and let go of the pain.
00:27:58.480 --> 00:27:59.119
Yeah.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:00.480
So that's good.
00:28:00.799 --> 00:28:01.359
Yeah.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:08.720
It's like it's not even like fully related to the question, but it was related to what you were speaking.
00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:16.960
Like, so is forgiveness always like I feel like when we speak about forgiveness, we it seems like it's a thing that happens like instantly.
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:25.200
Like as a Christian, like when people speak about or just forgive, it's something that people seem like to take that it should be instant.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:27.920
No, not at all.
00:28:28.079 --> 00:28:29.039
No, no, not at all.
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:30.640
That's the expectation, yeah.
00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:32.000
That's the desire.
00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:41.440
Um, it's it's like everything else that we find in Christ, because sometimes when we introduce God, we we want to introduce God in the magical sense, right?
00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:50.160
Like that Disney God that we we we were introduced to, like that b-be-di bobbity boo, yeah, I turn you into a princess over at night type thing.
00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:54.720
And it's not it's it's very it's it's a raw faith.
00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.759
Yeah, like look at look at a let's look at the Bible.
00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:02.240
We see Joseph in Genesis, he meets his brothers.
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:10.079
The moment he meets his brothers, and he had finally has a time to be vulnerable with them, he breaks down and he cries, and he's like, It's me, Joseph.
00:29:10.160 --> 00:29:12.000
You sold me into slavery.
00:29:12.559 --> 00:29:28.640
But then when their father dies, and his brothers are expecting that he's gonna turn on them, they're like, you know, they're coming all um benevolent towards him, and he says, Don't even worry about it, because I know what the enemy meant for evil, God has turned it for our good.
00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:29.839
Right?
00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:37.599
So, realistically speaking, the man is resolved in understanding, hey, not all of this was actually you.
00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:51.519
However, I can also acknowledge the fact that I'm still hurt enough over the fact that I can only recognize you based off of the fact that I we have similarity, we look the same.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:57.680
There, there's common traits in us, but I don't know you past the fact that we look the same.
00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:01.839
And it's because you hated me so much that you will sell your own brother.
00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:10.240
What Joseph does what we can acknowledge past that point is that they wanted to kill him.
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:14.559
My life is the way that it is.
00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:19.519
The pain that I went through is the way that it is because of the fact that you wanted to kill me.
00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:21.920
Because my father liked me.
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:24.079
I didn't even choose.
00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:26.000
I didn't choose it.
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:28.240
Okay, I bet.
00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:30.240
Let's look at David.
00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:32.880
He's supposed to be king.
00:30:33.519 --> 00:30:35.920
His father didn't even recognize him as a son.
00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:41.359
I bet.
00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:42.960
Let's look at Jacob.
00:30:44.319 --> 00:30:49.599
Esau comes back to the father and he says, Didn't you have any blessing left for me?
00:30:50.160 --> 00:30:57.200
And his father had to conjure up some type of um clause for the sake of his favorite son.
00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:04.000
Because every intent of his father was to release every blessing over his firstborn son.
00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:05.839
What happens to the second one?
00:31:09.440 --> 00:31:11.599
We can go on and on and on.
00:31:14.319 --> 00:31:29.920
Paul talks about the fact that he's been betrayed by a certain set of disciples later on in his faith, after they have seen all these miracles that he's done, after he has broken down all the mysteries in the gospel.
00:31:30.240 --> 00:31:31.759
He still talks about betrayal.
00:31:35.200 --> 00:31:36.000
You feel me?
00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:47.519
We can keep going about the the nuanced aspect of betrayal and how we are still supposed to forgive from the perspective that we were forgiven.
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:49.200
It's not easy.
00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:51.920
It's never simple, it's never tomorrow.
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:59.839
Even personally, I realize that one secret to forgiveness is to dedicate yourself to wanting the best for the one that hurts you.
00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:02.480
It hurts.
00:32:04.079 --> 00:32:07.759
And this is how you dedicate yourself to wanting the best for someone that hurts you.
00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:10.160
You pray for them, you pray for their wellness.
00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:13.519
You don't you don't just like cast the thought off.
00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:14.400
No, no, no.
00:32:14.480 --> 00:32:22.000
When the thought comes, you literally say, devil, I will continue to bless this person until this thing leaves my heart.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:26.160
You are literally conditioning yourself to love the one that hated you.
00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:29.039
It's not easy.
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:30.160
It's not easy.
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:35.920
Funnier enough actually brought that out because that was something that I was doing last week.
00:32:36.240 --> 00:32:36.480
Right?
00:32:36.640 --> 00:32:56.799
I was praying that I was like, okay, God, despite the fact that these people did hurt me truly, truly, and you know it, and you had me go and say and apologize to people, I pray that they come to the faith, the same faith that I've come to, the same knowledge that I've come to, the same understanding about things that I've come to, I hope the same thing is released upon them.
00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:04.960
And it's and and I never really uh expected myself to go and pray that kind of prayer for those people.
00:33:05.759 --> 00:33:14.079
But I think because now that I understand that, okay, like it literally says that if if you don't forgive, your heavenly father will not forgive you.
00:33:14.319 --> 00:33:14.720
Forgive you.
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:27.039
So it's kind of like if it if I'm withholding my forgiveness from them, how much more is God going to do for me when I I I do things I'm not supposed to do every day?
00:33:27.440 --> 00:33:30.400
Yet this one thing happens and I can't forgive.
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:31.920
So yeah.
00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:42.480
And you know, when you know when when scripture talks about you know uh Matthew chapter 7, judge now lest you be judged, for in the same measure that you judge, you too shall be judged.
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:43.680
Now think about it.
00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:52.880
If you're saying no, this isn't excusable, what they did isn't excusable, then does that mean that now God looks at what you did and makes it an excusable?
00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:55.359
You feel me?
00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:02.559
So forgiveness is almost impossible if you have nothing else to live for but yourself.
00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:07.039
If you can't live past yourself, you cannot forgive, bro.
00:34:07.599 --> 00:34:13.119
If you don't have somebody on the other side of you that you answer to, you won't be able to forgive.
00:34:13.519 --> 00:34:14.559
How can you forgive?
00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:16.800
Can't.
00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:18.400
Yeah.
00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:19.679
It's like interesting.
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:28.000
I even thought of Isha's example with the forgiveness, how like oftentimes I've I've seen that it's it's not always for them too.
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:34.480
It's always it can be for you too, but in a sense, too, when you're forgiving, I feel like you kind of feel a sense of pity.
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:42.239
Because I was not, I'm not directly Isha that was wronged, but I still kind of felt like like wow, this is crazy.
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:50.559
But even some of the stuff that after even Isha apologized, some of the stuff that was done after, it showed me that I just felt pity for them.
00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:58.639
Because it's like we're here, we've we're healing, we've been healed, but it seems like there's still a hurt on their side.
00:34:58.800 --> 00:34:59.280
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:00.559
Yeah, they still have to.
00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:04.159
Even when you know that the person hasn't done anything to you.
00:35:05.119 --> 00:35:08.880
But it's almost like a lie that you have to keep telling yourself to feel justified.
00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:09.199
Yeah.
00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:21.599
And I've seen it like so many times where we had we had like, I'm not gonna bring it up, but it was someone that I know that we had like a kind of like a round table talk about like the past.
00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:37.360
Some of the stuff they were bringing up was stuff that it was, it was just so like out of like the ordinary that it was like they have a feeling, but they can't find anything to justify that feeling other than looking to find something that they can latch on to.
00:35:38.639 --> 00:35:41.199
And it was like grasping at straws.
00:35:42.320 --> 00:35:43.679
They still live there.
00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:45.119
I mean, think about it.
00:35:45.280 --> 00:35:56.960
A lot of people that can't like think about how you walk past a liquor store, and that 50-year-old guy is still talking about how he used to be the man back in high school.
00:35:57.519 --> 00:35:58.559
He used to play basketball.
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:00.400
Yeah, and then he got in.
00:36:02.239 --> 00:36:02.880
Frozen in time.
00:36:03.199 --> 00:36:03.920
Frozen in time.
00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:04.239
Why?
00:36:04.400 --> 00:36:06.000
Because his soul is stuck there.
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:08.960
What is the soul?
00:36:09.039 --> 00:36:14.079
And and you know, it's part of the conversation for today, but the soul is the place of the thoughts, right?
00:36:14.239 --> 00:36:18.880
The place of the feelings, the emotions, and the place of the action, right?
00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:26.880
So that place can literally be stuck on the last time it had an encounter of any sort.
00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:36.559
Any type of euphoria, any type of fear, any type of experience that marked them, your soul can be stuck there for the rest of your life.
00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:38.559
Still living the high school days, still living.
00:36:39.199 --> 00:36:41.760
You are 70 years old, brother.
00:36:42.079 --> 00:36:43.840
What else have you done with your life?
00:36:44.159 --> 00:36:50.159
Because if every free moment you're always referring back to something that happened 50 years ago, that means that you still live 50 years ago.
00:36:50.320 --> 00:36:52.079
That's scary, that's scary.
00:36:53.440 --> 00:36:56.000
Yeah, I'm just thinking that's so calm, it's common.
00:36:56.639 --> 00:36:57.440
So common.
00:36:57.599 --> 00:36:58.320
It's crazy.
00:36:59.760 --> 00:37:00.480
So scary.
00:37:01.519 --> 00:37:02.400
Very scary.
00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:04.239
All right.
00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:07.039
With that being said, we've already spent like an hour talking about.
00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:07.760
Oh, wow.
00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:10.079
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
00:37:10.320 --> 00:37:10.880
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:16.000
So I'm just gonna introduce uh the main topic for today.
00:37:16.159 --> 00:37:19.440
So the main topic of today is pornography, right?
00:37:19.599 --> 00:37:44.400
And it's not only pornography use in the sense of Christians, but even outside of Christianity, like just everyday youth, um, adults, married men, married women, and one thing I realize as well, too, and I'm not sure why that is, but a lot of people attribute the use of pornography to only men, but it's things that women also deal with.
00:37:44.480 --> 00:37:50.320
Like I've spoken to a lot of females as well, and they also deal with this as well, too.
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:54.719
And I was surprised because I'm like usually when I hear about that, I always hear about men.
00:37:55.440 --> 00:37:59.440
But um, I I had sent three anchor verses.
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:04.320
Um, the first one is First Corinthians six, eighteen to twenty.
00:38:04.960 --> 00:38:13.119
It says, flee from sexual immorality, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God.
00:38:13.280 --> 00:38:18.639
You are not your own, for you are bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.
00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:39.840
The second one I have is First Thessalonians four, three to five, for this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of Alust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.
00:38:40.079 --> 00:38:42.480
And then Galatians 5, 16.
00:38:42.639 --> 00:38:48.079
But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
00:38:50.320 --> 00:38:54.079
So yeah, let's open up the topic.
00:38:56.559 --> 00:39:14.480
It's crazy because I even I was looking at numbers while like kind of like looking into the topic, also, and it was on a study from Barna and Pure Desire, and it it said that over three and five Christians tell Barna that they agree a person can regularly view pornography and live a sexually healthy life.
00:39:15.199 --> 00:39:17.440
And I'll just like how did we kind of get here?
00:39:18.159 --> 00:39:25.920
Like, where like the world is so perverse that even Christians are kind of living in that, like, well, the world's reality.
00:39:26.159 --> 00:39:27.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:31.119
Man, um, let's use scripture.
00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:41.760
Let's go um let's start from 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3 to 5.
00:39:42.559 --> 00:39:48.000
And let's couple it with 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2.
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:55.840
Um so 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 3 to 5 says, For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:40:04.159
So God wants you to be sanctified, He wants you to be washed, cleansed, um inside of your heart, right?
00:40:04.320 --> 00:40:12.079
If we look at um uh Ezekiel chapter 11, verse 19, it talks about I will put a new heart in them and a new spirit in them, right?
00:40:12.559 --> 00:40:23.199
So God's one of the purposes that God wanted to achieve in the heart of everybody that is in Christ is the sanctification of their heart, right?
00:40:23.360 --> 00:40:27.119
And it goes on to say that you should be abstain from sexual morality.
00:40:27.199 --> 00:40:39.039
This is very specific why, because it was written to a very specific people, specific group of people, that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, right?
00:40:39.199 --> 00:40:45.199
So this speaks to the responsibility of every believer to keep themselves in sanctification, right?
00:40:45.760 --> 00:40:51.280
Holding two things in view, sanctification, right?
00:40:51.599 --> 00:41:01.920
My heart separated from what is defiled and honor, my heart reverencing who I am in Christ, right?
00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:06.320
To this effect, not in passion of lust, right?
00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:10.320
Like the Gentiles who do not know God.
00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:18.239
It is the absence of knowledge of God that allows the Gentiles to move in that capacity.
00:41:18.800 --> 00:41:22.559
The Bible will say this awaken to righteousness and sin not.
00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:27.519
It is your awareness of your righteousness that allows you to stay away from sin.
00:41:27.760 --> 00:41:33.039
It is your awareness of who you have become in Christ that allows you to evade sin, right?
00:41:33.679 --> 00:41:37.840
If you had a white suit, the way that you will walk around would be very careful.
00:41:39.119 --> 00:41:47.920
But it's our inability to see who we are in Christ as the primary way that we are that allows us to fall into certain things.
00:41:48.079 --> 00:41:57.199
But I want to focus on one thing: the absence of knowledge of God, the understanding of who God is that allows the Gentiles to roam about wild and free.
00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:00.000
It says in Romans chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3.
00:42:00.320 --> 00:42:01.519
Now, watch this.
00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:04.000
1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2.
00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:06.800
It talks about, and I can start from the first one.
00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:18.719
It says, Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, envy, and evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
00:42:18.960 --> 00:42:25.360
It is the pure milk of the word that allows you to grow from infancy state, right?
00:42:26.079 --> 00:42:31.920
To where you are not won over by your flesh, right?
00:42:32.239 --> 00:42:35.039
But you are won over by your nature in Christ.
00:42:35.360 --> 00:42:37.760
It is the word that changes you, right?
00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:39.119
Again, what is the word?
00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:41.199
It's the revelation of God.
00:42:41.920 --> 00:42:44.400
It is the revelation of Christ, right?
00:42:44.639 --> 00:42:46.639
I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.
00:42:46.719 --> 00:42:48.400
No one can get to the Father except through me.
00:42:48.480 --> 00:42:56.719
So if a Gentile will know God, the Father, is because they have known the Word through Jesus Christ that allows them to know the Father.
00:42:57.119 --> 00:43:00.480
Now let's go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 4.
00:43:04.159 --> 00:43:15.199
That each of you should possess your own should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:27.119
So the absence of the knowledge of God will always lead you to walk around frivolous, like a Gentile who does not necessarily have any laws to keep them.
00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:31.840
Anyone that is not in Christ does not feel bad about sinning.
00:43:32.239 --> 00:43:34.320
And that's what I was gonna say as well.
00:43:34.480 --> 00:43:45.760
Like when I started watching uh pornography, um I was in the church, but like you said, right?
00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:49.360
You can be in the presence of God and not know God, right?
00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:51.760
So I feel like that was me.
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:58.800
Like I didn't know God, grew up in the church, dad's a pastor, but yeah, I was still doing this thing that I wasn't supposed to be watching, right?
00:43:59.519 --> 00:44:00.880
And I didn't feel bad.
00:44:00.960 --> 00:44:01.840
I just thought it was normal.
00:44:01.920 --> 00:44:02.639
I just thought it was regular.
00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:04.079
I just thought it was whatever.
00:44:04.320 --> 00:44:12.079
Then when I got saved and actually started reading my Bible and and and and now I have access to the Holy Spirit.
00:44:13.519 --> 00:44:20.159
Like when I try to watch it or like do anything that I'm supposed to do, now I'm like, oh, I feel like terrible.
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:24.559
Like I feel like, oh, like I just I just did the worst thing ever.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:35.679
So with that, I I I think anyway that that's that's what happens when you you would now have the knowledge of God and you now have the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
00:44:35.760 --> 00:44:41.760
Now you're like, okay, I can no longer live that certain way anymore because it just doesn't even feel right.
00:44:43.920 --> 00:44:44.320
Completely.
00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:46.000
And this is the thing.
00:44:46.400 --> 00:44:48.159
This is the tricky thing, bro.
00:44:48.239 --> 00:44:49.599
It's tricky, right?
00:44:49.760 --> 00:44:57.599
Because like we we go from being called, being saved, and we jump straight into like purpose, purpose, purpose.
00:44:57.840 --> 00:45:01.679
When realistically speaking, there has to be a formation inside of you, right?
00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:17.440
Like I think uh uh Pastor Ralph and Pastor Kofe um were sitting down and they talk about how people go from salvation to manifestation and they completely skip formation, right?
00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:23.840
Salvation, yes, you have received Jesus Christ, but the formation is what we see in 4 verse 4, right?
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:29.440
That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel, bro.
00:45:30.559 --> 00:45:37.280
If IG is a trigger to you, now that you found yourself in the faith, don't go on IG.
00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:40.480
That's that's what we've been talking about.
00:45:40.559 --> 00:45:44.559
Like I've been off of uh Instagram, Twitter a lot for two years.
00:45:44.719 --> 00:45:47.039
You gotta be dang, that's a long time, brother.
00:45:50.639 --> 00:45:54.719
It was that I was just seeing the stuff that I'm not even following these things.
00:45:55.039 --> 00:45:57.360
Yeah, so like why am I still seeing this?
00:45:57.599 --> 00:45:58.239
Yeah, you know what?
00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:00.079
Let me just cut it off, cut everything off.
00:46:00.239 --> 00:46:00.559
That's it.
00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:05.039
But you gained power over that struggle once you did.
00:46:06.079 --> 00:46:08.880
That's why I asked, like, how do we even like get here?
00:46:08.960 --> 00:46:15.760
Because I feel like the way the world is now, like, in especially in pornography, you'll get caught at a young age.
00:46:15.920 --> 00:46:20.239
Yeah, but I remember getting like our first computer, it was like 10, 11.
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:24.159
And next thing you know, you're clicking, playing games, clicking around, playing games, pop-ups.
00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:30.320
Um, I wasn't even the first time you see you're like, oh, this is gross.
00:46:30.480 --> 00:46:31.199
Let me click out.
00:46:31.360 --> 00:46:32.480
Next time it comes, oh wait.
00:46:34.480 --> 00:46:35.119
Let's investigate.
00:46:35.519 --> 00:46:40.400
Next thing you know, you're just sitting in the family room looking at watching how if parents are coming.
00:46:40.639 --> 00:46:44.079
The only like conviction I had was the conviction of getting caught.
00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:45.280
It wasn't anything else.
00:46:45.679 --> 00:46:46.400
That's it, that's it.
00:46:46.559 --> 00:46:47.119
That's it.
00:46:47.360 --> 00:47:02.400
And you know, I I think even before, like, because the interesting thing about the these three verses is verse 5, not not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God, right?
00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:14.239
The interesting thing about the Gentiles who do not know God is the fact that realistically speaking, the the Gentiles were birthed out of Adam and Eve, right?
00:47:14.559 --> 00:47:29.360
The reason why we have Israelites, the Jews, and and the you know, that practice is because God set a Gentile man aside, Abram, a moon worshiper, and says, Hey, go to a land that I will show you, I will make you a great nation.
00:47:29.599 --> 00:47:38.239
God said, I need to start or I need to continue this, I need to bring this seed from my promise to my come to completion.
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:38.800
Right?
00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:45.440
But realistically speaking, the state of the world at large, at large, was gentile state.
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:45.920
Why?
00:47:46.079 --> 00:47:49.840
When we go back to Adam and Eve, let's go there.
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:50.719
Let me show you something.
00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:52.480
Genesis chapter 3, verse 7.
00:47:58.719 --> 00:48:07.199
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
00:48:07.440 --> 00:48:08.239
At the eight.
00:48:08.400 --> 00:48:13.119
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:18.880
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:19.920
Go all the way to ten.
00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:25.519
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said uh to him, Where are you?
00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:31.519
So he said, I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
00:48:31.840 --> 00:48:32.480
Beautiful.
00:48:32.719 --> 00:48:37.440
Now, when the Bible says that in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, right?
00:48:37.519 --> 00:48:40.880
That when God breathed into man, he became a living soul.
00:48:41.199 --> 00:48:41.760
Right.
00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:50.880
The state of Adam was such that the life of God had partnered with his soul to make him a living soul, right?
00:48:51.119 --> 00:48:52.079
You understand me?
00:48:52.400 --> 00:49:07.360
That was the the life of God connected to the soul of man and made man able to operate in two places in the fellowship with God, and then because he had flesh, he was able to operate in the earth.
00:49:07.519 --> 00:49:08.639
You understand me?
00:49:08.880 --> 00:49:10.239
Now, what is the soul?
00:49:10.400 --> 00:49:15.599
The soul is the place of the thoughts, the emotions, the action, right?
00:49:16.159 --> 00:49:21.039
Now, watch what happens to Adam when he falls, right?
00:49:21.199 --> 00:49:25.519
The first and foremost, the verse seven says this in Genesis chapter three.
00:49:25.599 --> 00:49:28.800
It says, Then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew.
00:49:29.360 --> 00:49:31.440
Weird wording, right?
00:49:31.679 --> 00:49:32.880
How's your eyes open?
00:49:33.039 --> 00:49:36.159
Number one, how were you eating the fruit with your eyes closed?
00:49:36.400 --> 00:49:37.280
Like you feel me?
00:49:37.360 --> 00:49:43.440
Yeah, so we're we know we're speaking about a different set of eyes, the eyes of their understanding, right?
00:49:43.679 --> 00:49:46.960
It was open and they knew that they were naked.
00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:52.559
So their understanding brought them to a knowledge, a mental awareness, right?
00:49:52.800 --> 00:49:56.559
That wasn't supposed to be there, that was not supposed to be there, right?
00:49:56.719 --> 00:50:12.079
But if you jump down to what he says to God in the verse 10, it says, So I heard your voice in the garden, I was afraid, a feeling because I was naked, and I hid myself.
00:50:12.239 --> 00:50:14.880
In there, you see the operation of a fallen soul.
00:50:15.679 --> 00:50:23.360
I knew that I was naked, I was afraid, I felt an emotion, and I hid myself, the action.
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:24.400
What is the soul?
00:50:24.559 --> 00:50:28.480
The place of the thoughts, the place of the emotions, the place of the actions.
00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:35.360
So the fallen soul knows nothing but to run away from God and to do what is contrary to the will of God.
00:50:36.400 --> 00:50:50.960
So the state of the world, once Adam and Eve entered the unrighteous nature, once they entered that place of the fallen nature, essentially, where they had fallen from the place of glory that God had put them, right?
00:50:51.280 --> 00:50:56.880
Was a natural nature to which would do everything contrary to the will of God, right?
00:50:57.519 --> 00:51:02.079
So naturally, the soul is disposition to reject God's righteousness.
00:51:02.639 --> 00:51:09.679
Anyone that is a gentile naturally rejects the righteousness of God, naturally, it's their nature.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:13.039
That's why they're called children of rach uh of wrath.
00:51:13.199 --> 00:51:22.559
Sorry, they're called children of wrath because naturally they reject everything that is God, so they must encounter wrath.
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:24.400
It's the reality of the matter.
00:51:24.639 --> 00:51:36.159
So when it comes to like these children of wrath, and like what I noticed like in the chapter three, like I was reading it before, and what I noticed was that like up until now, God is like omnipresent.
00:51:36.320 --> 00:51:43.840
Well, he is omnipresent, but it's as if like the way it's written here, it's as if he appeared out of nowhere, like he snuck up on them.
00:51:44.320 --> 00:51:51.599
And is that like kind of like a testament to how closed their eyes were to the presence of God at that point?
00:51:52.400 --> 00:51:54.079
Ask that in a different way.
00:51:54.320 --> 00:52:00.320
Like, were they so unaware of the presence of God now that it almost seemed like he snuck on them?
00:52:00.559 --> 00:52:02.960
He snuck up on them after they had sinned.
00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:09.280
What had changed about them is the perceptions to which they were using to relate with God.
00:52:10.239 --> 00:52:11.199
You get me?
00:52:11.599 --> 00:52:15.199
Because the Bible says that their eyes were open and they knew, right?
00:52:15.519 --> 00:52:22.320
So now they started off with the perception in their soul fully on God, fully on God.
00:52:22.960 --> 00:52:30.880
Now they their perceptions had changed from fully on God to an awareness that it was fully on their flesh.
00:52:31.440 --> 00:52:33.280
I mean, look at the text.
00:52:33.360 --> 00:52:35.039
Sorry, let me just go back to it real quick.
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:35.840
Look at the text.
00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:40.719
It says that then the eyes of both of them were open and they knew they were naked.
00:52:41.599 --> 00:52:46.400
Their perception went from being aware, they never knew that they were naked before that point.
00:52:46.639 --> 00:52:57.760
It's kind of like a TV interference, like where like now there's so much noise like between them and God, where it's like it's almost as if God isn't there in their mind.
00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:58.639
At all.
00:52:58.880 --> 00:53:00.800
And this is this is the crazy thing.
00:53:00.960 --> 00:53:16.159
This is our experiences every single time we were introduced to something else that was going to ruin our life, whether it's pornography, whether it's drugs, whether it's um bad toxic relationships, whatever the case may be.
00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:31.440
Whenever we are introduced to a new element in our life, first we reject it, but next we investigate it at some point we identify with it.
00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:35.920
It always happened that way.
00:53:36.400 --> 00:53:43.119
So coming back to pornography, you have to understand that for Gentiles, it's no skin off their back.
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:43.519
Why?
00:53:43.679 --> 00:53:48.079
Because their soul doesn't even align with the convictions of God.
00:53:48.239 --> 00:53:48.480
Why?
00:53:48.639 --> 00:53:59.599
Their soul is separated from the life of God, so their soul naturally just does not like have an awareness of wrong.
00:54:01.519 --> 00:54:05.280
Somebody that's not a believer, see, and this is the this is the sound downside.
00:54:05.440 --> 00:54:07.440
We I think most of us grew up in the church.
00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:11.119
So we always got a sense of light.
00:54:11.280 --> 00:54:12.639
We always got hit with light.
00:54:12.719 --> 00:54:13.039
Yeah.
00:54:13.280 --> 00:54:17.199
So we always had this sense of like true north.
00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:21.599
But somebody that didn't grow up in the church, somebody that is unchurched, right?
00:54:22.239 --> 00:54:26.480
There are a lot of things that were not problematic to them.
00:54:27.039 --> 00:54:30.880
That's why Peter can grab a sword and cut somebody's ear off.
00:54:31.280 --> 00:54:38.880
That's why Peter can switch up because realistically he was introduced to a new faith to where he was never taught it.
00:54:38.960 --> 00:54:40.480
Like he was never worked in it.
00:54:40.559 --> 00:54:46.800
And when Jesus walked on this earth, he walked, Jesus walked in the pursuit of the Jews.
00:54:47.360 --> 00:54:47.840
Right?
00:54:48.079 --> 00:54:50.960
When he died, he made it available to the Gentiles.
00:54:51.519 --> 00:54:52.079
You get me?
00:54:52.239 --> 00:54:53.119
Yeah, I understand that.
00:54:53.360 --> 00:55:08.960
So nobody ever taught him how to walk the walk that is fully encompassing of every creed, every tribe, regardless of where you were found in the Jewish Israel, Gentile line, right?
00:55:09.119 --> 00:55:22.239
But to get back to it, it's it's the complexity to which now coming into the faith, your spirit is renewed.
00:55:23.679 --> 00:55:25.840
You're a believer, alright.
00:55:26.480 --> 00:55:32.559
But your soul has been slave to your flesh for a very long time.
00:55:34.960 --> 00:55:38.400
That's why the Bible, now you'll understand why the Bible says renew your mind.
00:55:39.920 --> 00:55:42.400
So you can offer your body as a living sacrifice.
00:55:42.880 --> 00:55:44.960
If you don't renew your mind, forget it.
00:55:45.599 --> 00:55:47.119
You'll just be a carnal Christian.
00:55:47.280 --> 00:55:48.559
Oh, you'll be a carnal Christian.
00:55:48.800 --> 00:55:49.920
Everything will bother you.
00:55:50.880 --> 00:55:57.360
If you if you can't bring your mind to love him most, you'll never be able to deny yourself.
00:55:59.440 --> 00:56:00.000
Never.
00:56:01.199 --> 00:56:01.760
Never.
00:56:02.159 --> 00:56:03.280
I don't think, at least.
00:56:08.639 --> 00:56:14.800
I was kind of just thinking like you don't think like it's just the way like the world is now.
00:56:15.039 --> 00:56:21.119
It's almost as if like even as a Christian, there's constantly like lust creeping at the door.
00:56:22.079 --> 00:56:26.960
Like you had mentioned to cut off like Instagram, so socials, everything.
00:56:27.519 --> 00:56:34.719
Then it's TV we consume, or then it's how people have been influenced to dress because of these things.
00:56:35.199 --> 00:56:38.400
So it's almost as if lust is creeping at the door everywhere you turn.
00:56:38.719 --> 00:56:39.519
Everywhere you turn.
00:56:39.920 --> 00:56:41.440
Yeah, definitely.
00:56:41.679 --> 00:56:46.880
And that's why Jesus would prescribe fasting.
00:56:47.840 --> 00:56:54.639
Fasting is a practice to which you get in the space to where you silence the flesh.
00:56:55.280 --> 00:57:01.280
A lot of people will make fasting about like social media fast, but you're eating three square meals a day.
00:57:01.599 --> 00:57:08.320
Bro, the thing that is informing your mind, your heart, and your will is still full intact.
00:57:08.880 --> 00:57:10.639
No, fast the flesh.
00:57:10.960 --> 00:57:18.880
If if if one one times a one time a week is not doing it for your flesh, fast until it triggers the flesh to shut up.
00:57:20.639 --> 00:57:21.039
Why?
00:57:21.199 --> 00:57:26.400
Because you're completely committed to possessing your body and honor and sanctification.
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:28.320
So you suffer small.
00:57:28.559 --> 00:57:29.440
Suffer small.
00:57:29.599 --> 00:57:30.000
Small.
00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:35.280
And it's also interesting as well, too, because for me, when I was going through it, right?
00:57:35.840 --> 00:57:43.199
It's is I was trying my best to not um watch it, right?
00:57:44.320 --> 00:57:51.599
But because I was more so focused on not trying to do it, I was still falling into doing it, right?
00:57:52.239 --> 00:58:14.320
But when I kind of took my eyes off of it and just said, okay, honestly, God just helped me be more into the world and stop those uh distractions, uh, whether it's music, whether it's this, whether it's that, and not really even like focus on walking on eggshells all the time.
00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:19.039
I found it that it became easier to kind of cut that part out.
00:58:20.239 --> 00:58:28.559
I did follow time and time again, but it was it was easier to not constantly think about not watching porn.
00:58:29.440 --> 00:58:35.199
When I I I kind of focused my eyes toward toward toward God.
00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:37.519
Yeah, completely.
00:58:37.679 --> 00:58:39.119
That's the only way you get out.
00:58:39.360 --> 00:58:39.840
Right.
00:58:40.159 --> 00:58:55.199
I think the thing that annoys me is when we paint a picture of you came to Jesus, so therefore you have no room for mistakes, and there's no room for stumbling, or whatever the case may be.
00:58:55.519 --> 00:58:58.559
Because it's not in line with what scripture says, right?
00:58:59.119 --> 00:59:06.320
Bible says uh righteous man falls seven times and gets back up again, but uh wicked man falls and stays down, right?
00:59:07.119 --> 00:59:14.239
There is some level of conviction for you to want to get back up after you've fallen.
00:59:15.119 --> 00:59:15.920
You feel me?
00:59:16.480 --> 00:59:22.079
A wicked person saying, like, I'm gonna stay down, like you really don't care about the reason why you should stand up.
00:59:23.440 --> 00:59:24.320
You get me?
00:59:25.360 --> 00:59:30.880
You see Jesus Christ and his hard posture towards Peter, you're gonna deny me three times, brother.
00:59:31.280 --> 00:59:32.719
But I pray for you.
00:59:33.360 --> 00:59:38.480
The Bible says that he's constantly making intercessions on our behalf, right?
00:59:39.440 --> 00:59:48.480
There is this commitment to God to see you get it, to see you understand it.
00:59:49.199 --> 00:59:57.679
I mean everything in scripture reflects the idea that we know the truth.
00:59:58.000 --> 01:00:00.639
When we know the truth, the truth sets us free.
01:00:01.440 --> 01:00:09.360
But the Spirit of God is sent to reveal this truth to us, to teach us the word.
01:00:10.480 --> 01:00:11.599
You get me?
01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:40.079
So one thing that I I want to say to the audience and to our us that is that like regardless of what you're struggling with, you have to make sure that your heart posture is at a place where you see yourself, how God sees you, and you work diligently at living your life from that perspective, regardless of where you make a mistake.
01:00:42.159 --> 01:00:56.239
And living your life from that perspective means that you feed your soul with so much of what God thinks about you until you break out of that place of what you used to think about yourself.
01:00:57.119 --> 01:01:16.719
Like there was a time to where like masturbation, pornography, even like take a past pornography, womanizing, hitting up that that that side check, whatever the case may be, and just doing things was literally easy, like even as a believer, right?
01:01:17.280 --> 01:01:23.360
I would always feel bad, but I would also know that like I can ask for forgiveness.
01:01:23.679 --> 01:01:29.760
But then at some point, the light went off in my in my heart, in my head.
01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:32.559
It was like, no, someone really died for you.
01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:40.480
Like he really died for us, bro.
01:01:41.920 --> 01:01:46.159
Like it's no joke, like he really died.
01:01:47.360 --> 01:01:52.800
See, movies make Jesus like they put a little cloth on him.
01:01:53.760 --> 01:01:54.639
Nah, bro.
01:01:55.840 --> 01:01:58.800
No cloth, unrecognizable.
01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:04.079
And even on that cross, he says, forgive them for they know not what they do.
01:02:04.800 --> 01:02:09.360
The reason why they're doing that is because they don't know what they're doing.
01:02:09.840 --> 01:02:13.280
If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn't be doing it.
01:02:13.599 --> 01:02:16.239
Somebody really died for us.
01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:19.679
It's not a fairy tale, bro.
01:02:20.639 --> 01:02:24.480
Our sin was going to ruin our marriages.
01:02:25.280 --> 01:02:28.159
Our sin was gonna ruin our life.
01:02:28.559 --> 01:02:32.000
My temper would have gotten me killed a long time ago.
01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:38.639
But because he died for me, I can have his spirit in my heart.
01:02:39.440 --> 01:02:42.639
And when I say help, he helps.
01:02:42.800 --> 01:02:43.280
Why?
01:02:43.599 --> 01:02:48.559
Because he sits on the throne of mercy, he grants us grace.
01:02:50.480 --> 01:02:51.760
It's a real thing.
01:02:51.920 --> 01:02:56.159
The more you meditate on these things, how could you not want to change?
01:02:56.800 --> 01:03:01.119
You may struggle, but just keep focusing on the reality that he died for you.
01:03:01.440 --> 01:03:02.639
He's locked in.
01:03:03.599 --> 01:03:04.880
It's gonna change.
01:03:05.119 --> 01:03:05.920
You get me?
01:03:06.400 --> 01:03:06.960
So yeah.
01:03:07.199 --> 01:03:15.840
I say that even aligns with like, because I was speaking to um, there's someone at my church right now who's like going through a battle with cancer, and he's very sick.
01:03:16.079 --> 01:03:16.320
Wow.
01:03:16.480 --> 01:03:20.719
But like, one thing about him, like, he always find a way to preach to you.
01:03:21.360 --> 01:03:36.079
And like, I don't know why he was urged to say this, but I called to check on him about two, three weeks ago, and he was like, Michael, that battle that you're having, whether it's your weight or whatever it is, strengthen your spirit, man, and everything will work out.
01:03:36.320 --> 01:03:36.960
Wow.
01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:38.559
That's what he told me.
01:03:38.719 --> 01:03:47.280
And it it literally brought me to what Isha was saying about the like um oh like counting the days of like, oh, I haven't done this, I haven't done that.
01:03:47.519 --> 01:03:51.360
And for me, it was like, oh, day one, oh, I've been eating healthy.
01:03:51.440 --> 01:03:53.039
It's been 10 days I've ate healthy.
01:03:53.199 --> 01:03:55.280
Oh, it's been a month, I haven't watched porn.
01:03:55.920 --> 01:03:58.880
And it's like almost like you're focusing on the wrong thing.
01:03:59.039 --> 01:03:59.199
Yeah.
01:03:59.760 --> 01:04:04.800
So to the point where when you slip up, it's like a slippery slope from there.
01:04:04.880 --> 01:04:09.679
It's like you've given all up, and then you become that wicked man who's down and just sitting there.
01:04:10.320 --> 01:04:14.960
Sitting there to a point where oh, I was counting down the days that I'm now masturbating.
01:04:15.119 --> 01:04:18.159
Now you're masturbating every day, and now you're eating crazy every day.
01:04:18.800 --> 01:04:22.320
And it's because, like you said, your heart posture is on the wrong thing.
01:04:22.480 --> 01:04:23.119
Yeah, yeah.
01:04:29.599 --> 01:04:32.639
Looking at the fact that he's actually walking on water.
01:04:32.719 --> 01:04:33.679
He's looking at self.
01:04:33.840 --> 01:04:35.760
But you can't save yourself, bro.
01:04:35.840 --> 01:04:40.960
We're talking about salvation, the act of walking in the righteousness of God.
01:04:41.360 --> 01:04:47.199
You don't know what that like none of us really know what that encapsulates.
01:04:47.840 --> 01:04:52.800
Like, we know the little things that scripture like talks about in Galatians chapter 5.
01:04:52.960 --> 01:04:53.199
Yeah.
01:04:54.800 --> 01:05:00.639
But then Paul will end off that scripture and say, and anything of the sort.
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:02.880
Like, think about it.
01:05:03.119 --> 01:05:17.440
Like he he who like he talks about the fact that let's see if I can uh uh okay, let's start from the verse 16.
01:05:17.519 --> 01:05:29.440
It says, I say then walk in the spirit, and you you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the lust of the flesh against the um for the flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
01:05:29.679 --> 01:05:38.400
And these contr these are contrary contrary, wow, English, to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
01:05:38.559 --> 01:05:41.599
But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
01:05:41.760 --> 01:06:04.079
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are actual which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, uh sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wraths, selfish uh ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, Murders, drunkenness, revelies, and the like.
01:06:06.000 --> 01:06:14.639
So he lists out a list of things, but then he says, and the like, meaning anything else that falls falls into this category.
01:06:14.960 --> 01:06:20.079
No one no one outside of God can claim they they don't fall in this category.
01:06:21.280 --> 01:06:21.920
You feel me?
01:06:22.079 --> 01:06:28.480
So, like, realistically speaking, in order to walk this righteous life, you need the Spirit of God to help you.
01:06:29.599 --> 01:06:32.559
Because the like, he doesn't say TikTok in here.
01:06:33.440 --> 01:06:39.840
But if TikTok is where you're getting your porn, your soft porn, that's the like.
01:06:40.559 --> 01:06:48.159
Literally, what one thing that I was gonna talk about is the fact that fornication is actually the Greek word for that is pornea.
01:06:50.639 --> 01:06:54.239
Literally, that's where where that's the word porn comes from.
01:06:55.119 --> 01:06:56.239
Pornia.
01:06:57.199 --> 01:07:02.239
Pornography is literally pornography.
01:07:02.880 --> 01:07:08.159
Like the capturing of graph, like the writing down of porn or porno.
01:07:08.719 --> 01:07:10.000
Pornography.
01:07:11.360 --> 01:07:14.239
So that word for fornication is pornea.
01:07:17.760 --> 01:07:20.159
Let's give it a further breakdown.
01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:24.639
Well, you know, once you got Isaiah saying, wow, you you're doing something right.
01:07:25.039 --> 01:07:36.800
So it's like so pornea in the Greek means harlotry, including adultery and incest, figuratively, idolatry, fornication.
01:07:37.199 --> 01:07:40.639
Even pornea encapsulates idolatry.
01:07:40.800 --> 01:07:41.280
Why?
01:07:41.519 --> 01:07:49.199
Because you're lauding a naked body, and you are literally serving yourself the satisfaction you need.
01:07:50.480 --> 01:07:52.559
This this double idolatry.
01:07:52.800 --> 01:07:56.159
You're appreciating what you're seeing, you're satisfying yourself.
01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:02.400
Yeah, that's all I wanted to share.
01:08:04.800 --> 01:08:20.800
So I was just gonna say, so would you say like participating, like watching pornography is kind of like not the end go, but it's the like culmination of everything around us.
01:08:21.199 --> 01:08:29.600
Like it's kind of all like it all push pushes you towards lust and it's acted out in one way or another.
01:08:29.760 --> 01:08:31.199
Yeah, yeah, most definitely.
01:08:31.359 --> 01:08:34.479
Um what what does First John two fifteen say?
01:08:34.800 --> 01:08:36.560
Um if we can go there.
01:08:39.119 --> 01:08:40.560
Thank you, Jesus.
01:08:42.399 --> 01:08:48.000
Uh John 2 15.
01:08:48.479 --> 01:08:53.920
It says, Do not love the the world or the things in the world.
01:08:54.159 --> 01:08:58.239
If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.
01:08:58.720 --> 01:09:11.600
16 says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, what your flesh desires, the lust of the eyes, what your eyes feast their eyes on, and then the pride of life, right?
01:09:11.840 --> 01:09:15.119
What you boast about in yourself, right?
01:09:15.760 --> 01:09:18.720
Is not of the father, but of the world.
01:09:18.960 --> 01:09:28.720
So every single time you were conditioned prior to Christ as a Gentile in your walk, in your life, you were conditioned by one of these three things.
01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:43.279
See, I feel like even like especially like I remember before, like when I was like cooked, like I would be like, I would be like, oh, like, especially like tick, like you were talking about soft porn, like TikTok.
01:09:44.479 --> 01:09:51.920
I don't know why in my mind I was like, oh, as long as I don't like act it out, as long as I don't watch porn and somebody like these things are fine.
01:09:52.000 --> 01:09:57.039
Like, oh, you scroll, you see a girl, you like it, you like you like the post, I'll come back to that later.
01:09:57.439 --> 01:10:06.239
You keep you scrolling, your now your Instagram, now your socials are filled with these things, but it's like, oh, I'm not acting it out, so it's fine.
01:10:06.960 --> 01:10:08.239
That's like what I used to think.
01:10:08.399 --> 01:10:09.359
Oh, yeah, most definitely.
01:10:09.439 --> 01:10:19.920
I mean, action is there, but action is not only in like if you look at someone a certain type of way, it's an action.
01:10:20.960 --> 01:10:21.359
Right?
01:10:21.520 --> 01:10:34.159
If and we've all done that at one point or another, like you look at a girl and you make eye contact, but what you're really can communicating is attraction, right?
01:10:34.640 --> 01:10:42.079
Like you didn't do anything, but in your heart, you've done something, you know, you got the point across, right?
01:10:42.319 --> 01:10:45.760
And that's what one thing that I want to say about honor.
01:10:46.079 --> 01:10:49.680
Honor isn't even outward sometimes, right?
01:10:49.920 --> 01:11:07.680
Like if I'm on IG and my wife is not home, and I'm over here going on a girl's page and enjoying what I'm seeing and lauding what I'm seeing and coveting what I'm seeing, I haven't left my house, I haven't even touched the girl, I haven't reached out to the girl, but I have dishonored my wife.
01:11:08.880 --> 01:11:09.359
Why?
01:11:09.520 --> 01:11:14.399
Because honor is how you esteem someone in your heart.
01:11:15.199 --> 01:11:16.399
So go ahead.
01:11:16.640 --> 01:11:33.199
And like even with that, uh for for a long time I didn't understand that verse in Matthew when Jesus says that if you even look at a woman um in your heart, you've already uh committed adultery with her.
01:11:33.439 --> 01:11:40.159
And I'm just like how is that possible?
01:11:40.319 --> 01:11:40.560
Yeah, yeah.
01:11:41.119 --> 01:11:44.720
But I think with what we're talking about, that's that's exactly what it is.
01:11:44.880 --> 01:11:45.119
Yeah.
01:11:45.600 --> 01:11:52.079
So yeah, yeah, the the the partnership can be on so many different levels, right?
01:11:52.399 --> 01:12:06.319
Like the agreement to sin can be on so many different levels, can be in your flash when you physically do it, it can be with your eyes, what you see, because those are the windows to your soul as well, right?
01:12:06.479 --> 01:12:14.319
And then it can be in your in your in the pride, like pride is not external, you could be very proud and act very humble.
01:12:15.680 --> 01:12:16.399
You feel me?
01:12:16.560 --> 01:12:18.880
But God sees the heart and he's like, nah.
01:12:20.560 --> 01:12:31.279
You know, the interesting thing about God is when he wanted to create a new people, he really the two things he attacked.
01:12:31.439 --> 01:12:33.279
I need to give him a new heart.
01:12:33.600 --> 01:12:35.199
I need to give him a new spirit.
01:12:35.760 --> 01:12:47.600
Meaning that God searching and looking at our heart is one of the deepest senses or the the quickest ways he judges where we are in our life.
01:12:48.800 --> 01:12:49.920
Where's your heart at?
01:12:51.600 --> 01:12:52.479
That's it.
01:12:56.319 --> 01:13:04.800
So in terms of the heart posture, can like someone even be deceived of their own heart, like posture?
01:13:04.880 --> 01:13:10.560
Because I even think of those who come to Jesus talking about he prophesied in his name, they did this and this thing.
01:13:11.039 --> 01:13:22.159
Were these people who were truly deceived, who deceived themselves into thinking they were doing the right thing, but in the in their hearts, maybe not even known to themselves they were doing it for the wrong reason.
01:13:22.399 --> 01:13:24.319
It depends on how they were discipled.
01:13:25.359 --> 01:13:26.239
Like him.
01:13:27.520 --> 01:13:56.239
The reason why I say that is because you know, you can um be in a certain faith system to where you come to believe because you know somebody's discipling you that perhaps like um you know, doing things like XYZ is actually a matter of like obeying God and not obeying yourself, right?
01:13:56.479 --> 01:14:01.520
Or obeying God, like not obeying people or serving people or whatever the case may be.
01:14:01.760 --> 01:14:06.800
But when you open up scripture, can you see what they've discipled you in in scripture?
01:14:07.119 --> 01:14:07.359
Right?
01:14:07.520 --> 01:14:16.319
And sometimes people can be deceived because they pray the loudest in tongues, or they play, they they pray the longest, they they can pray for 12 hours.
01:14:16.479 --> 01:14:18.800
Shout out to my people that pray for 12 hours.
01:14:19.199 --> 01:14:36.079
Um, they can they read this the Bible at least twice a year, or whatever the case may be, and they've developed a form of godliness in that, but realistically speaking, in their heart, they think they are justified because of their actions.
01:14:37.039 --> 01:14:43.920
But you're not justified because of your actions, you're justified because Christ came and died for you, right?
01:14:44.479 --> 01:14:48.159
So, you know, when Jesus Christ is saying, Depart from me, I never knew you.
01:14:48.319 --> 01:14:55.439
I believe it's uh Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 for a reference for the people that are speaking or listening.
01:14:55.760 --> 01:15:08.800
He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven, he was speaking to a people that were unsaved, that would have the opportunity to be saved.
01:15:08.960 --> 01:15:14.800
And the first desire of the father is that they would receive him as a personal savior, right?
01:15:15.199 --> 01:15:16.239
That's the first thing.
01:15:16.319 --> 01:15:25.199
So I I I believe that um many people would come to God saying, Hey, look at what we did as the conglomerate, right?
01:15:25.439 --> 01:15:30.479
But the question would become, Well, did you do what I desired of you?
01:15:30.720 --> 01:15:34.479
Yeah, right, which is number one salvation, and then what carries after.
01:15:34.560 --> 01:15:37.680
But people could be very deceived, yeah, bro.
01:15:38.079 --> 01:15:45.039
Like, I used to think that becoming a pastor would mean that I'm going to have a first class ticket straight.
01:15:45.920 --> 01:15:50.479
Just get there, and then I realize that some pastors cheat on their wives.
01:15:50.640 --> 01:15:50.960
Yeah.
01:15:51.199 --> 01:15:51.920
You feel me?
01:15:52.079 --> 01:15:56.880
Like, not to say that this is the norm, it's not the norm in the kingdom, but some do.
01:15:56.960 --> 01:15:57.279
Yeah.
01:15:57.439 --> 01:15:57.680
Right?
01:15:57.840 --> 01:16:02.159
That some men of God and women of God are really sketchy in in their behavior.
01:16:02.399 --> 01:16:10.800
It's marrying it for like the money and for money, and can still do miracles, especially back home in Ghana.
01:16:10.880 --> 01:16:12.159
It's a job, it's a job.
01:16:12.800 --> 01:16:14.239
It's a job, it's crazy.
01:16:14.560 --> 01:16:16.000
Shout out to Ghana, yeah.
01:16:16.880 --> 01:16:18.720
I believe in you guys.
01:16:21.920 --> 01:16:32.079
But yeah, man, it's it's a it's a very it's it's a very tricky thing because sometimes people think that character is charisma.
01:16:32.560 --> 01:16:37.840
But character is as a result of being exposed to another character, Jesus Christ.
01:16:38.159 --> 01:16:43.279
Charisma is as a result of Jesus coming to give you something to use, the gift.
01:16:43.760 --> 01:16:44.560
You feel me?
01:16:45.439 --> 01:16:45.920
Yeah.
01:16:46.399 --> 01:16:54.640
And one thing that I have a lot of like beefs with with the church sometimes, right?
01:16:55.119 --> 01:17:14.319
And one of my primary ones is, for example, for a topic like this, why why is it that sometimes churches kind of shy away from from speaking to youth about going through pornography, uh uh sex and things like that?
01:17:14.479 --> 01:17:36.079
Like we feel as though, like, yes, it is filthy, I agree, but why why don't we speak to the youth that may be going through it, or or even the adults, the elders who are going through it, why do we feel the need to kind of shy away from it or or just kind of close our eyes and act like it's not happening?
01:17:36.399 --> 01:17:44.159
I was even gonna say, like, to your point, it creates like an or like kind of like an aura of like perfection amongst leaders.
01:17:45.199 --> 01:18:01.680
Like, I went to um one of Alan's youth camp camps last year, and like it was actually one of the first times that I've seen like leaders actually be like, oh, like one of the pastors was saying, Oh, he used to like down fifths of honey and link with women link with women in the dorms room.
01:18:02.079 --> 01:18:05.279
Powerful I've no powerful men of God.
01:18:05.520 --> 01:18:10.800
I've never heard I've never heard people like be so open like of their past before they came to Christ.
01:18:11.359 --> 01:18:12.880
They were all in like fraternities too.
01:18:13.039 --> 01:18:15.279
Oh they went through all then they'll tell us about their story and all that.
01:18:15.600 --> 01:18:16.880
I might visit your church, bro.
01:18:16.960 --> 01:18:18.479
I need I need that transparency out here.
01:18:18.640 --> 01:18:24.000
And it made it so like almost I like even like with like our moms and our dads, right?
01:18:24.159 --> 01:18:35.840
Like like some well my dad he's pretty open, but like a lot of like dads and moms that I hear, oh at your age I didn't smoke, at your age I didn't drink, at your age I didn't fornicate, I didn't do this.
01:18:36.159 --> 01:18:42.960
But you were pregnant at 16 and you you you did things.
01:18:45.600 --> 01:18:46.399
I did the math.
01:18:48.079 --> 01:19:06.399
It's kind of like like like why why are we trying to put on this show as if we're perfect when I'm somebody that I would want to put out the things that I I went through so that I can help somebody else out that might be going through the same thing.
01:19:06.560 --> 01:19:17.199
But I feel like in the church that doesn't happen as often as it should that okay, at your age, here's what happened, stay away from that instead of acting as though, oh, it's just not happening.
01:19:17.359 --> 01:19:32.640
And then when somebody else falls in in the same trap that you fell in 25 years ago, it's it's frowned upon when you could have used your the fact that you were saved from that thing to kind of help that person out.
01:19:33.279 --> 01:19:34.880
Like why why is that?
01:19:35.439 --> 01:19:38.159
That's one of my beefs with the church heavy.
01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:40.000
Uh shame.
01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:49.520
I think I think to an extent there's some shame surrounding it because you almost have to acknowledge that you actually did that, right?
01:19:50.319 --> 01:19:52.960
Um, some some for some people it's fear.
01:19:53.359 --> 01:19:57.199
Like if I reminisce long enough, will I become that person?
01:19:57.359 --> 01:19:58.479
Will I miss those things?
01:19:58.720 --> 01:20:02.640
Will I want to redo those things?
01:20:03.520 --> 01:20:16.079
But I think sometimes it's fear that talking about it is almost endorsement to the person that's listened to you to go do it.
01:20:16.720 --> 01:20:18.239
Um and that's what I've seen.
01:20:18.319 --> 01:20:25.279
I I come from uh church to where um shout out church pentecost, um, PLWC, what's there?
01:20:25.600 --> 01:20:57.039
Um, you know, sometimes the fear in um talking about it is really just simply like if I talk about it and they find out that this elder, this pastor that is in front of them right now turned out okay, even with a bad past like he had or she had or whatever the case may be, it would encourage the youth to you know tread the same line and then come to God.
01:20:57.279 --> 01:20:58.560
I got time to the same thing.
01:20:58.960 --> 01:20:59.600
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
01:20:59.840 --> 01:21:00.800
I got time to lock in.
01:21:01.199 --> 01:21:03.119
Yeah, I got time to lock in essentially.
01:21:03.680 --> 01:21:07.680
And I I think sometimes naturally, right?
01:21:07.760 --> 01:21:13.039
Uh I I'm I'm exposed a lot to African-centric church, Afrocentric churches, right?
01:21:13.840 --> 01:21:27.439
Naturally, parents don't like to tread in places to where it almost gives their children authority to go and try the same thing that the parents did because oh, you did it too, right?
01:21:27.600 --> 01:21:29.359
So, like, you know what I mean?
01:21:29.439 --> 01:21:39.359
If they did it, then they almost don't have the authority to tell them, tell their kids not to do it, which is cut quite like contrary.
01:21:39.600 --> 01:21:42.880
And I think that was something that we talked about this week, right?
01:21:43.039 --> 01:21:48.880
About how I was speaking to you guys, like obviously, like in my church, I I uh teach the kids, right?
01:21:49.520 --> 01:21:56.800
But there's certain things that I don't want to teach them because of the fact that I don't want their moms and dads to think that I'm saying it's okay, yeah.
01:21:57.279 --> 01:21:59.680
But however, these kids are learning these things in school.
01:22:00.159 --> 01:22:00.720
School already.
01:22:01.039 --> 01:22:02.000
Yep, you might be able to do that.
01:22:02.079 --> 01:22:04.479
I think that your kid is innocent, but I'm sorry to tell you.
01:22:05.359 --> 01:22:05.680
Likely not.
01:22:09.920 --> 01:22:12.560
Yeah, but I do understand that thought part of that.
01:22:12.640 --> 01:22:13.359
Yeah, okay.
01:22:13.600 --> 01:22:20.800
Like, and I don't want to be blamed for them hearing that I'm teaching their kids this thing that they already know.
01:22:20.960 --> 01:22:23.199
Yeah, so yeah, that's that's a good point, too.
01:22:23.680 --> 01:22:26.880
It's it's proper exposure, right?
01:22:26.960 --> 01:22:30.399
Like, I I let's take an example from Jesus Christ.
01:22:30.560 --> 01:22:34.319
He told them, like, hey, from now on, carry this sword with you.
01:22:34.960 --> 01:22:37.680
Because you're probably gonna need it, right?
01:22:38.960 --> 01:23:00.319
There there's there's a sense of letting some like a proper orientation, like, hey, this is what the Bible says about this, this is how it stands on it, this is the probable impact of what's going to happen, but then you give them the practical.
01:23:00.479 --> 01:23:06.399
I know when I ignored this scripture, what happened to my life?
01:23:08.000 --> 01:23:12.319
And that's why I'm asking you guys to please listen to the scripture.
01:23:13.600 --> 01:23:21.439
What you have just done is you have equipped them with the ability to decide when that temptation comes, because it will come.
01:23:22.960 --> 01:23:41.359
If you avoid telling them what they can choose to do and why they should do it based off of scripture and your personal experience, then you have robbed them of the tools they need in order to say no when that situation comes.
01:23:41.680 --> 01:23:48.319
And now we run the risk of the fact that they ate of the fruit and their eyes were open.
01:23:48.560 --> 01:23:50.000
It's so tough though, right?
01:23:50.079 --> 01:23:54.880
But I feel like people just don't listen, right?
01:23:55.680 --> 01:24:00.880
But because like I had an experience, like this was last year, right?
01:24:01.039 --> 01:24:09.279
So I was telling not kids, but because I'm probably like three years older than them, so I'm not like too much older than them, right?
01:24:09.520 --> 01:24:15.520
But I was telling them not to drink, not to smoke, not to fornicate, this, that, and the third.
01:24:15.840 --> 01:24:21.199
And mind you, they know me before I like I am what I am now, right?
01:24:21.760 --> 01:24:27.199
So their response was, oh, so why are you trying to stop us from having the fun that you had?
01:24:27.920 --> 01:24:31.680
And I'm like, yo, valid point, valid point, eh?
01:24:35.680 --> 01:24:45.760
This was like if I had the same knowledge that I have now when I was two, three, four, five, six years ago, I would have moved completely different.
01:24:46.079 --> 01:24:46.800
You know what I'm saying?
01:24:47.039 --> 01:24:53.359
Now it's kind of like I'm playing like we all started in a race, right?
01:24:53.520 --> 01:24:56.720
And I'm still back here and I'm trying to catch up.
01:24:57.279 --> 01:25:03.439
When five years ago, I could have just locked in and avoided a lot of the game that I went through.
01:25:03.680 --> 01:25:08.960
But they don't understand that because they're at that age and God bless them, right?
01:25:09.520 --> 01:25:13.840
But it it pains me because I'm like, yo, I don't want you guys to go through this.
01:25:13.920 --> 01:25:17.439
Like, bro, like I actually just don't don't want you guys to go through this.
01:25:17.600 --> 01:25:20.960
But unfortunately, I feel like people have to learn sometimes, right?
01:25:21.039 --> 01:25:29.119
Like our Muhammad and our dads have taught us don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, and we've done it and we've saw the repercussions of doing it.
01:25:29.439 --> 01:25:29.760
Yeah.
01:25:29.920 --> 01:25:33.039
So I feel like I sometimes that needs to happen.
01:25:33.279 --> 01:25:37.920
It's like you can't like you can't afford to be like naive when like kind of leading people.
01:25:38.640 --> 01:25:43.920
Especially because like I feel like times are going getting to points where it's gonna be even harder.
01:25:44.159 --> 01:25:59.439
Like not to sound pessimistic, but like the way like technology would advance the way the world is already how it is, it may be even harder to like um like lust may be even like every like it's like times 10 what it is now.
01:26:00.000 --> 01:26:02.079
We're using VRs nowadays, bro.
01:26:02.159 --> 01:26:08.000
Like it might be like in the meta glasses, it might be it's gonna get like I feel like it's gonna get even worse.
01:26:08.960 --> 01:26:12.319
So like they kind of have to be equipped even earlier now.
01:26:12.560 --> 01:26:13.680
Yeah, most definitely.
01:26:13.760 --> 01:26:22.000
I think um so I I got a question for Ishay, and then I'll come back to what uh Mike was saying, but how how did you handle it though?
01:26:22.159 --> 01:26:24.800
Like how how did you respond to them when they said that?
01:26:24.960 --> 01:26:34.880
I just kept pressed, I was like, oh, like I don't want you guys to to to struggle with certain things that I struggled with, and I will have to at that.
01:26:36.159 --> 01:26:40.960
Because at that point, I could tell that they weren't trying to hear nothing, nothing else, yeah.
01:26:41.279 --> 01:26:44.159
But but but I just ended it with that and that was it.
01:26:44.399 --> 01:26:46.960
Yeah, that's fair, that's fair.
01:26:47.119 --> 01:26:56.800
I think what I'm starting to realize now is that the method of telling people what to do doesn't really work.
01:26:57.039 --> 01:26:58.960
I mean, look at God, he tried it.
01:26:59.039 --> 01:27:06.560
He gave like got God tried it, like he literally gave us the law or gave the Jews the law.
01:27:07.680 --> 01:27:12.239
Gave him 600 and however many laws, 634 or 600.
01:27:12.399 --> 01:27:14.880
Don't quote me on it, don't quote me on the internet.
01:27:15.199 --> 01:27:18.000
Um, he gave them roughly 600, right?
01:27:18.159 --> 01:27:23.439
Like, and they ain't listened to not no not not even one, bro.
01:27:23.600 --> 01:27:29.279
Like that they had to kill goat, cow, sheep, whatever, over and over.
01:27:29.760 --> 01:27:33.199
Then Jesus comes and he's like, I got a model for you, discipleship.
01:27:34.399 --> 01:27:46.000
See, we have made the church, I personally believe, that the system of the church is not the way God would have intended it.
01:27:47.199 --> 01:27:56.880
Because we bought a building, we told people to show up for different services to come and receive the word from the set woman, a man of God, right?
01:27:57.119 --> 01:27:59.680
And to go home and to review their.
01:28:00.239 --> 01:28:04.880
Notes and then you know come back for more teaching later on.
01:28:05.119 --> 01:28:07.199
There's a place for that, right?
01:28:08.079 --> 01:28:13.520
But I think discipleship is where we do life together where you see me bleed.
01:28:13.760 --> 01:28:24.079
Now, if they had seen you at that time and how you struggled with liquor, that statement would have been a lot more different.
01:28:25.279 --> 01:28:32.720
Because the goal of Jesus Christ was not go and make churches, it says go make disciples.
01:28:33.520 --> 01:28:35.680
He showed us how he made disciples.
01:28:36.640 --> 01:28:40.720
Jesus ate at Peter's house.
01:28:42.560 --> 01:28:44.560
He washed their feet.
01:28:47.680 --> 01:28:50.560
He walked with them like he was at home with them.
01:28:52.319 --> 01:28:54.560
He like he did life with them.
01:28:55.279 --> 01:28:59.760
To the point where Judas knew where to find Jesus when it was time to betray him.
01:29:01.279 --> 01:29:10.239
To the point where the the disciples were shocked that Jesus was talking to a woman in John chapter 4.
01:29:10.800 --> 01:29:11.199
Why?
01:29:11.439 --> 01:29:15.359
Because they knew his cadence, they knew his lifestyle.
01:29:18.319 --> 01:29:19.119
You feel me?
01:29:19.199 --> 01:29:19.439
Yeah.
01:29:19.600 --> 01:29:32.560
I I think nowadays and even in times past, we have been so used to just telling people the right thing, giving them scripture.
01:29:33.039 --> 01:29:36.000
But you don't even know what drives the person that you're speaking to.
01:29:36.239 --> 01:29:36.640
True.
01:29:36.960 --> 01:29:38.079
Don't know anything.
01:29:38.640 --> 01:29:39.520
We have no clue.
01:29:39.680 --> 01:29:57.760
Like you, like to your point, like it's like in today's like day and age of church, it's like, especially like a lot of the youth that I've like spoken to, it's like a lot of times, the only time I'm speaking to like this uncle or auntie in church is like, oh, oh, my daughter, you're on the program this week, and that's it.
01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:02.079
Yeah, I haven't spoken to you or see how your day's doing, nothing.
01:30:02.159 --> 01:30:05.920
I don't know anything about you, and that's what you're speaking to me about.
01:30:06.159 --> 01:30:10.880
But peep scheme, that best friend is at their house all the time.
01:30:11.520 --> 01:30:17.039
That best friend knows the fights that are going on in the house.
01:30:17.760 --> 01:30:22.640
So, of course, if that best friend says, Let's go to a party, you're going.
01:30:22.960 --> 01:30:24.159
Yeah, for sure.
01:30:24.479 --> 01:30:25.680
You feel me?
01:30:26.000 --> 01:30:37.279
I think the idea of amassing so many followers has robbed us of accomplishing God's this desire, which is discipleship.
01:30:37.760 --> 01:30:57.680
It's so much easier for your voice to go far in somebody's life, even like from a prophetic point of view, you have more prophetic impact in somebody that actually values your word, the word that you spoke to them, than somebody that just heard you at a service.
01:31:00.159 --> 01:31:12.239
The faith that they align with, or the faith that they they project to meet the word that was spoken, is what brings about the results.
01:31:12.479 --> 01:31:23.199
But if there's no respect, there is no honor, there is no relationship, that prophetic word might fall to the ground.
01:31:24.479 --> 01:31:27.279
It's the same thing with like impact.
01:31:28.399 --> 01:31:32.560
Jesus was only able they only live for Jesus because they walked with him.
01:31:33.039 --> 01:31:34.479
Look at how Peter talks about it.
01:31:34.560 --> 01:31:37.359
Look at how John talks about that which we saw.
01:31:37.600 --> 01:31:39.359
That's we that let's go there.
01:31:39.600 --> 01:31:40.239
First John.
01:31:48.159 --> 01:31:51.039
Chapter one, verse one, two, and three.
01:31:56.720 --> 01:31:58.640
Chapter one, verse one, two, and three.
01:31:58.720 --> 01:31:58.880
Yep.
01:32:00.079 --> 01:32:00.239
Okay.
01:32:01.199 --> 01:32:11.359
Uh that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the world of life.
01:32:11.520 --> 01:32:22.239
The life was made manifest and we have seen it, and testify to it to proclaim you eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
01:32:22.399 --> 01:32:22.960
Three.
01:32:23.279 --> 01:32:30.159
That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.
01:32:30.399 --> 01:32:38.159
And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father, uh, and with this and with his son Jesus Christ.
01:32:38.319 --> 01:32:38.880
Beautiful.
01:32:39.039 --> 01:32:41.920
That word for fellowship, right, is Koinonia.
01:32:42.159 --> 01:32:43.039
You guys have heard it before.
01:32:43.119 --> 01:32:44.239
Yeah, is partnership.
01:32:44.319 --> 01:32:55.920
That is literally participation or social intercourse or pecuniary benefaction to communicate or communication, commune, uh, distribution, fellowship.
01:32:56.079 --> 01:33:02.640
Now, this guy is saying that what we heard, we saw it with our own eyes.
01:33:02.960 --> 01:33:06.560
We looked upon it, our hands literally handled.
01:33:07.840 --> 01:33:11.279
Thomas put his hand in that, in his hands.
01:33:13.039 --> 01:33:15.359
That's who we are talking about.
01:33:15.760 --> 01:33:21.199
We are talking about him from the perspective of what we encountered for ourselves.
01:33:21.520 --> 01:33:28.880
And the reason why it happened like that is that when we write about him and you read about him, you can have the same fellowship that we had.
01:33:30.640 --> 01:33:35.119
So when you're reading scripture and you feel him close, it's because somebody was close to him.
01:33:37.359 --> 01:33:45.600
When you're reading 1 Peter and is talking about you will do well to pay attention to this word as a shining light, a light that shines in the darkness, right?
01:33:46.079 --> 01:33:57.840
And you are gaining faith within yourself, your faith is going from glory to glory, is because of somebody that literally sat down and ate with him and was able to write about him.
01:33:58.479 --> 01:34:08.159
And because they wrote about him based off of the fact that they walked with him, now you get to have a deeper sense of relationship and fellowship with the Lord Himself.
01:34:09.199 --> 01:34:18.319
So this thing called discipleship is the primary, most singular way of God being able to sustain his church on earth.
01:34:20.800 --> 01:34:23.680
Peter, who do you who do they say that I am?
01:34:23.920 --> 01:34:28.640
Some say Elijah, some say Isaiah, some say the prophet, all these things.
01:34:28.800 --> 01:34:30.880
Oh, who do you say that I am?
01:34:31.119 --> 01:34:33.359
You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
01:34:33.680 --> 01:34:36.319
You can't make that type of statement from afar.
01:34:37.439 --> 01:34:39.119
Nah, I've been walking with you.
01:34:40.000 --> 01:34:43.520
There's only one thing that you could possibly be.
01:34:43.840 --> 01:34:44.640
You're the Christ.
01:34:44.880 --> 01:34:50.720
Blessed are you, Simon Barjonh, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my father who are in heaven.
01:34:52.399 --> 01:34:57.119
You are so close to the Son of God that the Father can speak to you.
01:35:01.439 --> 01:35:02.399
Like it's personal.
01:35:02.560 --> 01:35:03.199
Yeah.
01:35:04.720 --> 01:35:05.039
Oh.
01:35:06.319 --> 01:35:27.920
So I I think even in in looking to overcome things like pornography, uh, things like any type of addiction, if you find yourself struggling, I think one of the first things I know, not I think one of the first things we need is exposure to the hidden sin.
01:35:28.399 --> 01:35:30.000
You need communion.
01:35:30.479 --> 01:35:38.159
You need somebody to tell, you need somebody to pray with you, you need somebody to teach you the word to help them get out of it.
01:35:39.039 --> 01:35:44.800
We need that as men, we need that as a woman, we need that as or they need that as women.
01:35:44.880 --> 01:35:49.600
I'm not a woman, but we need that as a community, especially in the faith.
01:35:49.840 --> 01:35:55.760
Pornography is sinful, it is affecting our soul.
01:35:56.399 --> 01:36:02.159
If we partake in it, it will affect our destiny, right?
01:36:03.039 --> 01:36:26.720
Because at the end of the day, if your conscience, Hebrews chapter 9, verse 14, the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse your conscience from dead works, that you may serve a living God, and you are created for good works, then that means that we need to confront the soul and extract whatever is in the soul, what whatever is wicked in the soul out of you.
01:36:27.119 --> 01:36:28.479
So it needs to be confronted.
01:36:28.560 --> 01:36:37.439
You need community for that, you need the word, you need prayer, you need fasting, all of that, but we need to address it, or else it's gonna ruin things.
01:36:38.319 --> 01:36:46.399
Imagine looking at your wife and just seeing a sex figure, and you can't, you can't look past that.
01:36:47.359 --> 01:37:02.960
You can't, you can't like you want to, but you can't stand her when it's not sex, yeah.
01:37:04.000 --> 01:37:05.359
Alan, you haven't spoken, bro.
01:37:05.520 --> 01:37:06.880
Talk to me, talk to me, talk to me, say something.
01:37:07.279 --> 01:37:10.079
I'm just I'm just listening, I'm just I'm learning right now.
01:37:10.239 --> 01:37:11.920
Yeah, yeah, I'm learning a lot right now.
01:37:12.079 --> 01:37:13.920
But yeah.
01:37:15.439 --> 01:37:20.000
Alright, so with that being said, I know we're running out of time.
01:37:20.159 --> 01:37:26.560
Yeah, we're probably gonna have a part two, honestly, because yeah, this it's been two hours and it's f and it literally flew by.
01:37:27.279 --> 01:37:42.800
I was even gonna ask, like, lastly, like so at what point do you know like you're being sanctified, you're like becoming closer with Christ when it comes to specifically like battling like lust.
01:37:42.960 --> 01:38:01.279
Is it just being able to cut off things that will like easily push lust towards you, or is it like not necessarily a point where like you don't feel lust, but like you're able to like recognize it and kind of like stop it at the source before yeah.
01:38:01.600 --> 01:38:13.199
See the cutoff and even the resistance that you build against any sin um is uh uh honestly towards the end stages of your deliverance.
01:38:13.920 --> 01:38:23.439
The preliminary stages have nothing to do with how you feel or what you think, it has everything to do with exposing your mind to what the word of God says.
01:38:23.600 --> 01:38:26.479
That's that's when the dissentification process begins.
01:38:26.560 --> 01:38:40.479
I just want to give one scripture um Ephesians chapter 5, um Ephesians chapter 5, verse um 26.
01:38:42.079 --> 01:38:48.479
Um, and for the sake of time, um, it says that he might let me start from the verse 25.
01:38:48.560 --> 01:39:01.920
It says, Husband, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.
01:39:02.720 --> 01:39:06.319
The moment you engage the word, the sanctification process has already started.
01:39:07.920 --> 01:39:13.199
Now, the end of the word is the manifestation of the word in your life.
01:39:13.520 --> 01:39:16.960
That's when we can say, like, I bet I probably shouldn't do this.
01:39:17.199 --> 01:39:20.479
You might stumble, or I bet I'm not going to do this.
01:39:20.640 --> 01:39:21.119
Why?
01:39:21.279 --> 01:39:24.720
Because now the word is finishing up the cleansing process.
01:39:24.960 --> 01:39:29.039
But the moment you engage the word, the sanctification process has already started.
01:39:29.279 --> 01:39:29.920
Yeah.
01:39:30.720 --> 01:39:31.600
Thank you for that.
01:39:31.760 --> 01:39:33.119
Yeah, always.
01:39:34.079 --> 01:39:34.960
Alright.
01:39:37.119 --> 01:39:41.840
With that being said, um we're we're we're 100% gonna have a part two.
01:39:42.000 --> 01:39:45.279
We just have to see when he's free next to the busy man.
01:39:45.600 --> 01:39:49.600
But yeah, I I don't think we even got through half of the things that I actually wanted us to talk about as well.
01:39:49.680 --> 01:39:51.520
So we're we're gonna have a part two.
01:39:53.520 --> 01:39:58.880
So um, with that being said, uh where's your head at for the next two weeks?
01:39:59.600 --> 01:40:01.279
Start with Allen that we'll go wrong.
01:40:01.680 --> 01:40:02.319
Um mine.
01:40:03.199 --> 01:40:05.600
My birthday is coming up in two weeks.
01:40:06.159 --> 01:40:06.960
How old are you turning?
01:40:07.439 --> 01:40:08.239
I don't want to say it.
01:40:08.319 --> 01:40:10.239
No, because I'll be you don't want to say it.
01:40:12.880 --> 01:40:13.439
You don't want to say it.
01:40:13.680 --> 01:40:14.399
2025.
01:40:14.560 --> 01:40:15.760
So I'll be pushing 30.
01:40:16.000 --> 01:40:17.439
My friend, my friend, my friend, my friend.
01:40:19.680 --> 01:40:21.199
I'll finally be pushing 30.
01:40:21.600 --> 01:40:24.159
I've been saying to these guys for the past few years, so that's up.
01:40:24.319 --> 01:40:33.439
And then I'm also having a program at my church that I'm actually the one planning kind of a youth um prayer and worship night for two days.
01:40:33.680 --> 01:40:35.439
You gotta shout it out so they know what to come.
01:40:35.920 --> 01:40:41.680
Yeah, it's gonna be um at CPIC, Christ Pentecostal International Church, on June 19th and 20th.
01:40:41.760 --> 01:40:41.920
Wow.
01:40:42.079 --> 01:40:45.840
The first night would be prayer and deliverance, and the second night would be worship and praise.
01:40:46.159 --> 01:40:50.399
So if you can't make both days, at least come Saturday and just come worship with us.
01:40:50.800 --> 01:40:51.840
Yeah, cool.
01:40:54.159 --> 01:41:06.560
For me, um my head is just continuing to like improve every day, whether it's getting in my word, um, whether it comes to fitness, have a little more free time because school is over for now.
01:41:06.720 --> 01:41:12.479
So just taking the summer to taking advantage of the summer while I have some more time.
01:41:12.640 --> 01:41:13.439
Yeah, yeah.
01:41:13.680 --> 01:41:14.239
Right.
01:41:14.720 --> 01:41:17.359
Um, I'm looking forward to hanging out with my wife.
01:41:17.439 --> 01:41:24.159
I feel like she's been the sacrificial lamb for uh for the past month or so, you know, just engagement after engagement.
01:41:24.319 --> 01:41:33.600
So hanging out with her, and then also uh there's some projects that I'm starting, and I'm excited to see what you know the next two weeks develop into.
01:41:33.760 --> 01:41:35.359
So yeah, I'm excited.
01:41:35.520 --> 01:41:36.960
Thank you for having me, you guys, by the way.
01:41:37.199 --> 01:41:37.920
Thank you for coming, man.
01:41:38.159 --> 01:41:39.119
Thank you, and Igi, for coming.
01:41:40.079 --> 01:41:41.840
Always, always, always mummy e.
01:41:42.319 --> 01:41:43.199
Shout out, babe.
01:41:44.159 --> 01:41:48.399
Uh I'd say for me, it's kind of more the same as Mike.
01:41:48.560 --> 01:41:51.359
Um, except I just started school again.
01:41:51.520 --> 01:41:56.479
Yeah, so um, yeah, it is a lot less free time now.
01:41:56.640 --> 01:41:58.560
There's a lot of things I'm working on.
01:41:58.720 --> 01:42:03.760
But yeah, at the end of the day, just thank God that we even have the time to do the things that we need to do.
01:42:03.920 --> 01:42:06.479
Um, so with that being said, my name is Isha.
01:42:06.640 --> 01:42:07.439
It's your boy Mike.
01:42:07.520 --> 01:42:08.159
I'm Allen.
01:42:08.399 --> 01:42:09.039
I'm Rich.
01:42:09.359 --> 01:42:10.319
And we'll see you guys.
01:42:10.640 --> 01:42:12.880
Thank you for tuning in and watching this episode.
01:42:13.119 --> 01:42:16.479
Don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, and share.
01:42:16.800 --> 01:42:17.439
Bye.