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Welcome to OffScript, a conversation with no fakes, no filters, just real conversations about how faith and flesh meet in the everyday life, where we experience a God who made us on purpose for his purpose.
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This is Off Script.
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Let's talk.
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We're finally back with Avery in the room.
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She has not been here in a while, but don't worry, she is still with us.
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She's still kicking it.
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We're so back.
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And we have Finley with us today.
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So we're excited to have Finley.
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If y'all don't know Finley, she is in 10th grade.
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I just messed up her grade before this, and I feel really bad about it.
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So I had to make sure I got it right.
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But anyway, when I was thinking of like a student to have on here, Finley, I'm gonna brag on you for a minute.
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Finley is one of the ones that we feel like so mature for your age.
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You can carry a conversation, you can look people in the eye.
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And honestly, I feel like that is just so rare for your age.
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So when I was thinking who could carry a conversation in a podcast, Finlay was my girl.
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So I'm excited to have you.
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And so kind of what we want to talk about is a little bit of just stepping in faith in things.
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So, you know, whether that's something you're scared to do, but you know that the Lord's calling you to do it, and just letting fear tag along, you know.
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So I know we all probably have a little bit of an example of that.
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Like for me, I go back to when Caleb called me to come work here.
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I'd never thought that I would even like do ministry, do student ministry.
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I mean, I went to my student ministry, but I never thought like, oh, I'd be like working in it full time.
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And Caleb called me randomly.
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I thought he was calling me to babysit.
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And only Caleb Wade would only Caleb Wade would hire someone who knew nothing about this.
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But I knew that that opportunity wouldn't come out of nowhere if it wasn't from the Lord.
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And so here I am five years later.
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And I really didn't think that would happen.
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So I think we all kind of have an example of just walking in faith.
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What about y'all?
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What y'all got?
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I would say for me, mine plays into like a lot of my soccer stuff, like playing in college and then uh feeling the Lord call me into student ministry and just playing soccer, like that's something that I I worked for my whole life.
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And then being asked to like step away from that, to step into something I had no clue what it would look like.
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Like I just remember being like, I pushed it off for so long.
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And I just remember being like, Lord, like there's no way that you're asking me to do this.
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Like, there's no way that this is what you're wanting me to do right now when I've worked so hard for something for so long.
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And so I remember like I had no clue what it would look like next.
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And I literally just walked into my coach's office and I was like, hey, I'm not coming back my senior year.
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And so that was probably that's that's probably what I think of the most.
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I think about a time where like I had to step out and do something the Lord asked me to do, even when I was afraid.
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Yeah.
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What about you, Finley?
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I would probably say when I got asked to speak, see what the poll at my school, I would say that I was when the guy that like runs the whole thing, he like first asked me if I wanted to do it, and I was like, immediately I just wanted to say no.
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I was like, I'm not doing that.
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That is so out of my comfort zone, no way.
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And then he took just told me to like pray about it and just talk like think about it for a little bit.
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And so once I did, I was kind of like I prayed about it a little bit, and then I was like, maybe I should just give this a try because I thought about when I went to dent to lunch with you and Morgan and I we were talking about like what I wanted to do in the future, and you y'all said something about like maybe me going into the ministry, and I was like, that is like a chance of me to step into that role and kind of like give that a try.
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And so I decided to do it, and yeah, I think that was probably my first how did it go?
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It went very good, actually.
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Went like did it and I was like, let's do this again, like when's the next thing I can talk at?
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Because I wanted to do it like again and again.
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Yeah, I I am not the one that usually gets in front of people and speaks either.
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They're always trying to get me to go up on that stage, and I'm like, look, like put put me in a chair with a microphone, put me on a podcast with a microphone.
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I really don't want to go up there and stand up there with a microphone.
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And I have lots of thoughts like that too, where you know, you think to yourself, there's no way I can go up there and do it.
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But then the Lord kind of just gives you some peace with it, and you start to get a little bit more confidence, not in not in yourself, but more in in him.
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Yeah.
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I mean, Caleb's always encouraged me too.
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He's like, you know, let the things that be good at the things you're good at and the things you're insecure about, let the Lord handle that.
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Um, did you were you super nervous when you got up there?
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Did you feel like you calmed down once you were kind of or did the Lord give you some things to say?
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Kind of what did you talk about?
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I remember stepping up there and I was holding my phone and I could see my phone shaking from where I was like so nervous.
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But I talked about Peter walking on water, on on the water, and like how Jesus guided him to walk on the water and what he said to him during that time.
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Yeah.
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What is a little bit of just your kind of testimony, like how you, you know, came to know the Lord and maybe like what has that looked like?
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What is he teaching you right now in this season?
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I would say I so like every time I would go to like in the past, every time I would go to like the weekend or beach week, I would just kind of get on that Jesus high and then come Monday morning at school, I would just kind of go back to the normal way of living, like how I used to be.
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But I would say this past summer I have really like pressed into the Lord and like cho choosing like this is what I'm gonna do, like nothing else will satisfy me but the Lord.
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So I would say that is probably my testimony a little bit.
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But sorry, what was your next no, you're good.
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A little bit of just like talking about Peter walking on water.
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I think sometimes when we're doing some things, you know, we were just talking about you get super nervous to like step out and whatever it is the Lord's calling you to do, you want to be obedient, but sometimes those nerves and that fear can be very paralyzing.
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And I think it there's a little little bit there with like when Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink.
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And the minute he put his eyes back on the Lord was when he didn't.
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And so I think there's some truth there with like stepping out in faith.
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We have to continue to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
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Yeah, no, and I think one of the biggest lies that our generation believes is that when you are a believer, when you walk with Christ, it's gonna be comfortable.
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Like I think that's an issue with our generation and something that we like to believe.
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I think it's a lot to do with everything for us is comfortable.
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Like, if you want an answer, Chat GPT can literally finish your degree for you, not saying I did that and not saying you should do that, but you know, like it's it's at our hands.
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And so, like, you look at the life of Jesus, you look at his ministry, what he accomplished on earth, and like that wasn't comfortable.
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Like you you look at the way that he lived, he ate with tax collectors, he hung out with sinners, like what he came to do, die on a cross, nothing about any of that was comfortable.
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Like what he came to accomplish wasn't comfortable.
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But I think there's comfort in the uncomfortable because of who God is.
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And so I think like uh that's just what I was thinking about when I read this story is that like Peter was probably very comfortable in the boat.
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Like you look at what was going on around him, like the most comfortable space in that moment was the boat.
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Like, and Jesus is asking him to step out of it.
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Like, and I think that's just something that our society just believes happened, like is that when you're a believer walking through life, like when Jesus is gonna ask you to do comfortable things.
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Like, I don't think I can name uh one comfortable thing that I've been asked to do.
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Like, I think being a believer, it's gonna stretch you.
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Like it's supposed to make you uncomfortable.
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If Jesus always called you to do things that were easy, like where would faith come in?
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Yeah, if he always asked you to think to do things that made you comfortable, like why would we need him?
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Yeah, yeah, that's good.
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I I've been doing a little bit of a like a scripture memorization thing because I've realized like I'll read something, nothing sticks.
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And so I was actually going through this is my older Bible and it has a lot of notes in it, but I was going through looking at some stuff I've just highlighted and writing some stuff down, and I had highlighted this verse, and I think it's one that probably gets skipped over, but it's Joshua 3, 4, and basically what's happening is they're about to cross the, they're about to make the journey to cross the Jordan, and Israelites are commanded to follow behind the Ark of the Covenant.
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Well, the Ark of the Covenant like held the presence of God.
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And the verse says, You will know the way you should go even though you've never traveled this way before.
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And I think it's interesting that like they will know the way because they were following the presence of God, even though they had never walked that way before.
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So I think there's a lot of things in life too where we we don't know where we're headed, but we know if we're following the presence of God and we have the Holy Spirit in our lives and we're our lives and we're following the Holy Spirit, it's like you don't have to know which way, like you don't have to know where you're going or or how you're gonna get there, but you know what you're following.
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Yeah.
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And I think that's a little bit of that like stepping out in faith.
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Because then you look at like he gets to the Jordan.
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Well, the Jordan, when I think of that, I think of it's just this like nice flowing river, or like you walk up to the lake and you know it's just kind of crashing on the little bitty waves.
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Like, no, it was like apparently in its overflowing state, and Joshua was told he had to actually put his foot in the water, whereas like Moses with the Red Sea, he had to lift up his hands, but Joshua had to actually like take a step of faith.
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And had he not, like, who knows what would have happened from there.
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So sometimes it's like, you know, Finley, for you, you were talking about that thought of maybe doing something in ministry.
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Well, and then you get this opportunity and it's like just say yes, because sometimes there's this divine appointment that the Lord has put somebody in your life to say, like, hey, I have this opportunity for you or have this for you.
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And a lot of times it's let me pray about it, let me seek the Lord on it.
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And then it's just, hey, Lord, I don't know, I don't know what I'm gonna do and I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I know that you're with me as I'm doing it.
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And so, and a lot of that I think is just knowing God's word and knowing what he promises at the end of the day, too.
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So yeah, no, and I think people think that just having desire is enough.
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Like they think, like, hey, I want to share the gospel or oh, I I want to be a light in my school.
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And they think that just having that desire is enough.
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Like, but just having the desire to do something doesn't mean that it's gonna get done.
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Like just saying that you want to live sin or you want the Lord to call you and shut you, like just having that desire isn't enough on its own.
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So, like, Finley, at what point, like, okay, you're talking about how you got this opportunity to go speak.
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At what point were you just like, I mean, this is uncomfortable, but Lord, I'm gonna do it?
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Like, how how did you get to that point?
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Like, if there's a student that's kind of in the middle in between, like, man, do I do I just do this because it's uncomfortable or do I sit where I'm at, kind of what would you encourage them with?
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I remember the like two, like the first two nights before I went and spoke, just remember thinking, like, if this is what I am like being led to do, then you are just gonna be with me the entire way through it.
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Like, I remember being like, if I run out of things to say or I get off script, I just know that you will tell me what to say and you will lead me into what I need to speak about next.
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So I would just say, like, knowing that he will always be with you, even if it's like if it's the right thing to do, he will be with you.
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Whether that could be walking in ministry or it could be being a teacher, like you he will always be with you if it's the right thing to do.
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Yeah.
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How do you feel like this passage really came to life?
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Because I think sometimes when you're studying something, you learn way more studying it to go and speak it than if you were just studying it in general.
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What do you how do you feel like this passage has really like maybe come to life in your walk with the Lord?
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Or I don't know, what do you know?
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Does that make sense?
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Yeah, I would say the verse where it says, Command me to come to you on the water.
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Well, Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him, command me to come to you on the water.
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I uh one of my points was to keep your eyes on Jesus.
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So I uh told myself to look at the waves and the wind that was around Peter as the worldly things like people, sports, school, and stress, like you could fill in the blank on whatever you are get distracted by easily.
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And when Peter looked at the wind or the waves and he got distracted, he started to sink or drowned and he uh didn't focus on the Lord, he started to sink.
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So I would say that probably was one of the main points that stuck out to me was like like that was a turning, like not a turning point, but like that made me think of like how like a main takeaway.
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Yes, yeah.
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And like I that just kind of put into perspective like how like now if we look at otherworldly things that can cause us to sink and turn away from Jesus.
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So yeah, it's like a a symbolism of that.
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That's really good.
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What were some things that you felt like just kind of a random funny did you get any feedback from your uh from it?
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Did like did any of your the other students say anything?
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I remember I had some teachers come up to me throughout the day and like you have such a good talent.
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Like I remember um my fifth period teacher, he was like, Finley, this is like what God has called you to do.
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Like that was so good this morning, like you need to keep on doing it.
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And then I had one student, he is like the leader of um our FCA, and he was like, Finley, I need you to come speak at our FTA FCA like meetings in the mornings because that was so good this morning.
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So yeah.
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That made you feel good.
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Yes, it did.
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I think there's some spiritual warfare behind getting up and speaking in front of people, and I think that's why I've always been like terrified to do it.
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And then I'm thinking the very thing you're talking about defeats the very thing that you're scared of.
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Like you're over here scared of how like the enemy is gonna get inside your head, and what are people gonna think?
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And it's like, well, there's kind of an identity issue there then.
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Yeah, you know, if you're so worried about what everyone else is gonna think, at the end of the day, say you say something wrong or you mess up, like the Lord's gonna love you anyway.
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And so kind of getting to that place is difficult.
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But I remember dealing with some of that, and I'm glad you got like some good feedback and you felt really good about it.
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Well, and then I feel like a lot of people like kind of dog on Peter a little bit, like, man, like he didn't look at Jesus the whole time, but he stepped out of the boat.
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And so I think for me, when I answer that question, is like, at what point did I realize that I'm just gonna have to step out and be uncomfortable?
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I think it comes down to do you love Jesus and want him more than anything else?
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Because if that's what you want, then like living scent is gonna mean a whole lot more to you than your comfort will.
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And like if I love Jesus and if I want him more than anything in this world, then that means whatever he calls me to do, I'm gonna do it because he means more to me than my comfort.
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And so I think that's what I had to get over.
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It was like, like, Lord, if I say that I love you and I say that you're my savior and I'm gonna follow you, like whatever you ask me to do, I have no other choice.
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Like there's no other response because like I, if I'm gonna live sin, if I'm gonna do what you've asked me to do, like my comfort means nothing to me if I if I gain you.
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Like it all I want is you.
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So, like, I think for me, that's kind of when I came to a point where I realized that like he was what I wanted and nothing else mattered.
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I didn't it didn't at that point, it did not matter what I wanted to do.
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It did not matter if I was uncomfortable, like all I wanted was all that he was asking me to do.
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That's like a sobering thought, too, to think like, okay, what do you want more?
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You want your comfort or do you want Jesus?
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And it's like you really do have to think about it.
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Cause I think initially you think you're not gonna be like Peter.
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You think like, oh, if Jesus is in front of me, I'm stepping out in that water.
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And I'm like, okay, but we we give the Israelites a hard time too.
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If we're like, why didn't they just obey God?
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And I'm like, we're the same, we're just like them.
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And I think it's funny, so hypocritical.
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I'm just kidding.
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Well, Finley, we are very proud of you, and I think that it's very neat that you, you know, you've had a lot of confirmation of like maybe whatever the Lord's calling you to do.
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And I would say just continue to press into that and continue to lean into that.
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Um, and we're behind you every step of the way.
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So we love you, girl.
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Welcome to OffScript, a conversation with no fakes, no filters, just real conversations about how faith and flesh meet in the everyday life, where we experience a God who made us on purpose for his purpose.
00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:16.239
This is Off Script.
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Let's talk.
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We're finally back with Avery in the room.
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She has not been here in a while, but don't worry, she is still with us.
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She's still kicking it.
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We're so back.
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And we have Finley with us today.
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So we're excited to have Finley.
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If y'all don't know Finley, she is in 10th grade.
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I just messed up her grade before this, and I feel really bad about it.
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So I had to make sure I got it right.
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But anyway, when I was thinking of like a student to have on here, Finley, I'm gonna brag on you for a minute.
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Finley is one of the ones that we feel like so mature for your age.
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You can carry a conversation, you can look people in the eye.
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And honestly, I feel like that is just so rare for your age.
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So when I was thinking who could carry a conversation in a podcast, Finlay was my girl.
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So I'm excited to have you.
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And so kind of what we want to talk about is a little bit of just stepping in faith in things.
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So, you know, whether that's something you're scared to do, but you know that the Lord's calling you to do it, and just letting fear tag along, you know.
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So I know we all probably have a little bit of an example of that.
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Like for me, I go back to when Caleb called me to come work here.
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I'd never thought that I would even like do ministry, do student ministry.
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I mean, I went to my student ministry, but I never thought like, oh, I'd be like working in it full time.
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And Caleb called me randomly.
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I thought he was calling me to babysit.
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And only Caleb Wade would only Caleb Wade would hire someone who knew nothing about this.
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But I knew that that opportunity wouldn't come out of nowhere if it wasn't from the Lord.
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And so here I am five years later.
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And I really didn't think that would happen.
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So I think we all kind of have an example of just walking in faith.
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What about y'all?
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What y'all got?
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I would say for me, mine plays into like a lot of my soccer stuff, like playing in college and then uh feeling the Lord call me into student ministry and just playing soccer, like that's something that I I worked for my whole life.
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And then being asked to like step away from that, to step into something I had no clue what it would look like.
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Like I just remember being like, I pushed it off for so long.
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And I just remember being like, Lord, like there's no way that you're asking me to do this.
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Like, there's no way that this is what you're wanting me to do right now when I've worked so hard for something for so long.
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And so I remember like I had no clue what it would look like next.
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And I literally just walked into my coach's office and I was like, hey, I'm not coming back my senior year.
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And so that was probably that's that's probably what I think of the most.
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I think about a time where like I had to step out and do something the Lord asked me to do, even when I was afraid.
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Yeah.
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What about you, Finley?
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I would probably say when I got asked to speak, see what the poll at my school, I would say that I was when the guy that like runs the whole thing, he like first asked me if I wanted to do it, and I was like, immediately I just wanted to say no.
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I was like, I'm not doing that.
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That is so out of my comfort zone, no way.
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And then he took just told me to like pray about it and just talk like think about it for a little bit.
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And so once I did, I was kind of like I prayed about it a little bit, and then I was like, maybe I should just give this a try because I thought about when I went to dent to lunch with you and Morgan and I we were talking about like what I wanted to do in the future, and you y'all said something about like maybe me going into the ministry, and I was like, that is like a chance of me to step into that role and kind of like give that a try.
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And so I decided to do it, and yeah, I think that was probably my first how did it go?
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It went very good, actually.
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Went like did it and I was like, let's do this again, like when's the next thing I can talk at?
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Because I wanted to do it like again and again.
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Yeah, I I am not the one that usually gets in front of people and speaks either.
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They're always trying to get me to go up on that stage, and I'm like, look, like put put me in a chair with a microphone, put me on a podcast with a microphone.
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I really don't want to go up there and stand up there with a microphone.
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And I have lots of thoughts like that too, where you know, you think to yourself, there's no way I can go up there and do it.
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But then the Lord kind of just gives you some peace with it, and you start to get a little bit more confidence, not in not in yourself, but more in in him.
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Yeah.
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I mean, Caleb's always encouraged me too.
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He's like, you know, let the things that be good at the things you're good at and the things you're insecure about, let the Lord handle that.
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Um, did you were you super nervous when you got up there?
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Did you feel like you calmed down once you were kind of or did the Lord give you some things to say?
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Kind of what did you talk about?
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I remember stepping up there and I was holding my phone and I could see my phone shaking from where I was like so nervous.
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But I talked about Peter walking on water, on on the water, and like how Jesus guided him to walk on the water and what he said to him during that time.
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Yeah.
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What is a little bit of just your kind of testimony, like how you, you know, came to know the Lord and maybe like what has that looked like?
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What is he teaching you right now in this season?
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I would say I so like every time I would go to like in the past, every time I would go to like the weekend or beach week, I would just kind of get on that Jesus high and then come Monday morning at school, I would just kind of go back to the normal way of living, like how I used to be.
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But I would say this past summer I have really like pressed into the Lord and like cho choosing like this is what I'm gonna do, like nothing else will satisfy me but the Lord.
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So I would say that is probably my testimony a little bit.
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But sorry, what was your next no, you're good.
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A little bit of just like talking about Peter walking on water.
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I think sometimes when we're doing some things, you know, we were just talking about you get super nervous to like step out and whatever it is the Lord's calling you to do, you want to be obedient, but sometimes those nerves and that fear can be very paralyzing.
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And I think it there's a little little bit there with like when Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink.
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And the minute he put his eyes back on the Lord was when he didn't.
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And so I think there's some truth there with like stepping out in faith.
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We have to continue to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
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Yeah, no, and I think one of the biggest lies that our generation believes is that when you are a believer, when you walk with Christ, it's gonna be comfortable.
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Like I think that's an issue with our generation and something that we like to believe.
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I think it's a lot to do with everything for us is comfortable.
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Like, if you want an answer, Chat GPT can literally finish your degree for you, not saying I did that and not saying you should do that, but you know, like it's it's at our hands.
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And so, like, you look at the life of Jesus, you look at his ministry, what he accomplished on earth, and like that wasn't comfortable.
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Like you you look at the way that he lived, he ate with tax collectors, he hung out with sinners, like what he came to do, die on a cross, nothing about any of that was comfortable.
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Like what he came to accomplish wasn't comfortable.
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But I think there's comfort in the uncomfortable because of who God is.
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And so I think like uh that's just what I was thinking about when I read this story is that like Peter was probably very comfortable in the boat.
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Like you look at what was going on around him, like the most comfortable space in that moment was the boat.
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Like, and Jesus is asking him to step out of it.
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Like, and I think that's just something that our society just believes happened, like is that when you're a believer walking through life, like when Jesus is gonna ask you to do comfortable things.
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Like, I don't think I can name uh one comfortable thing that I've been asked to do.
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Like, I think being a believer, it's gonna stretch you.
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Like it's supposed to make you uncomfortable.
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If Jesus always called you to do things that were easy, like where would faith come in?
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Yeah, if he always asked you to think to do things that made you comfortable, like why would we need him?
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Yeah, yeah, that's good.
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I I've been doing a little bit of a like a scripture memorization thing because I've realized like I'll read something, nothing sticks.
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And so I was actually going through this is my older Bible and it has a lot of notes in it, but I was going through looking at some stuff I've just highlighted and writing some stuff down, and I had highlighted this verse, and I think it's one that probably gets skipped over, but it's Joshua 3, 4, and basically what's happening is they're about to cross the, they're about to make the journey to cross the Jordan, and Israelites are commanded to follow behind the Ark of the Covenant.
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Well, the Ark of the Covenant like held the presence of God.
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And the verse says, You will know the way you should go even though you've never traveled this way before.
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And I think it's interesting that like they will know the way because they were following the presence of God, even though they had never walked that way before.
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So I think there's a lot of things in life too where we we don't know where we're headed, but we know if we're following the presence of God and we have the Holy Spirit in our lives and we're our lives and we're following the Holy Spirit, it's like you don't have to know which way, like you don't have to know where you're going or or how you're gonna get there, but you know what you're following.
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Yeah.
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And I think that's a little bit of that like stepping out in faith.
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Because then you look at like he gets to the Jordan.
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Well, the Jordan, when I think of that, I think of it's just this like nice flowing river, or like you walk up to the lake and you know it's just kind of crashing on the little bitty waves.
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Like, no, it was like apparently in its overflowing state, and Joshua was told he had to actually put his foot in the water, whereas like Moses with the Red Sea, he had to lift up his hands, but Joshua had to actually like take a step of faith.
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And had he not, like, who knows what would have happened from there.
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So sometimes it's like, you know, Finley, for you, you were talking about that thought of maybe doing something in ministry.
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Well, and then you get this opportunity and it's like just say yes, because sometimes there's this divine appointment that the Lord has put somebody in your life to say, like, hey, I have this opportunity for you or have this for you.
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And a lot of times it's let me pray about it, let me seek the Lord on it.
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And then it's just, hey, Lord, I don't know, I don't know what I'm gonna do and I don't know how I'm gonna do it, but I know that you're with me as I'm doing it.
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And so, and a lot of that I think is just knowing God's word and knowing what he promises at the end of the day, too.
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So yeah, no, and I think people think that just having desire is enough.
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Like they think, like, hey, I want to share the gospel or oh, I I want to be a light in my school.
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And they think that just having that desire is enough.
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Like, but just having the desire to do something doesn't mean that it's gonna get done.
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Like just saying that you want to live sin or you want the Lord to call you and shut you, like just having that desire isn't enough on its own.
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So, like, Finley, at what point, like, okay, you're talking about how you got this opportunity to go speak.
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At what point were you just like, I mean, this is uncomfortable, but Lord, I'm gonna do it?
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Like, how how did you get to that point?
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Like, if there's a student that's kind of in the middle in between, like, man, do I do I just do this because it's uncomfortable or do I sit where I'm at, kind of what would you encourage them with?
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I remember the like two, like the first two nights before I went and spoke, just remember thinking, like, if this is what I am like being led to do, then you are just gonna be with me the entire way through it.
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Like, I remember being like, if I run out of things to say or I get off script, I just know that you will tell me what to say and you will lead me into what I need to speak about next.
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So I would just say, like, knowing that he will always be with you, even if it's like if it's the right thing to do, he will be with you.
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Whether that could be walking in ministry or it could be being a teacher, like you he will always be with you if it's the right thing to do.
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Yeah.
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How do you feel like this passage really came to life?
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Because I think sometimes when you're studying something, you learn way more studying it to go and speak it than if you were just studying it in general.
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What do you how do you feel like this passage has really like maybe come to life in your walk with the Lord?
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Or I don't know, what do you know?
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Does that make sense?
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Yeah, I would say the verse where it says, Command me to come to you on the water.
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Well, Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him, command me to come to you on the water.
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I uh one of my points was to keep your eyes on Jesus.
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So I uh told myself to look at the waves and the wind that was around Peter as the worldly things like people, sports, school, and stress, like you could fill in the blank on whatever you are get distracted by easily.
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And when Peter looked at the wind or the waves and he got distracted, he started to sink or drowned and he uh didn't focus on the Lord, he started to sink.
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So I would say that probably was one of the main points that stuck out to me was like like that was a turning, like not a turning point, but like that made me think of like how like a main takeaway.
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Yes, yeah.
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And like I that just kind of put into perspective like how like now if we look at otherworldly things that can cause us to sink and turn away from Jesus.
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So yeah, it's like a a symbolism of that.
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That's really good.
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What were some things that you felt like just kind of a random funny did you get any feedback from your uh from it?
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Did like did any of your the other students say anything?
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I remember I had some teachers come up to me throughout the day and like you have such a good talent.
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Like I remember um my fifth period teacher, he was like, Finley, this is like what God has called you to do.
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Like that was so good this morning, like you need to keep on doing it.
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And then I had one student, he is like the leader of um our FCA, and he was like, Finley, I need you to come speak at our FTA FCA like meetings in the mornings because that was so good this morning.
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So yeah.
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That made you feel good.
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Yes, it did.
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I think there's some spiritual warfare behind getting up and speaking in front of people, and I think that's why I've always been like terrified to do it.
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And then I'm thinking the very thing you're talking about defeats the very thing that you're scared of.
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Like you're over here scared of how like the enemy is gonna get inside your head, and what are people gonna think?
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And it's like, well, there's kind of an identity issue there then.
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Yeah, you know, if you're so worried about what everyone else is gonna think, at the end of the day, say you say something wrong or you mess up, like the Lord's gonna love you anyway.
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And so kind of getting to that place is difficult.
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But I remember dealing with some of that, and I'm glad you got like some good feedback and you felt really good about it.
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Well, and then I feel like a lot of people like kind of dog on Peter a little bit, like, man, like he didn't look at Jesus the whole time, but he stepped out of the boat.
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And so I think for me, when I answer that question, is like, at what point did I realize that I'm just gonna have to step out and be uncomfortable?
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I think it comes down to do you love Jesus and want him more than anything else?
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Because if that's what you want, then like living scent is gonna mean a whole lot more to you than your comfort will.
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And like if I love Jesus and if I want him more than anything in this world, then that means whatever he calls me to do, I'm gonna do it because he means more to me than my comfort.
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And so I think that's what I had to get over.
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It was like, like, Lord, if I say that I love you and I say that you're my savior and I'm gonna follow you, like whatever you ask me to do, I have no other choice.
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Like there's no other response because like I, if I'm gonna live sin, if I'm gonna do what you've asked me to do, like my comfort means nothing to me if I if I gain you.
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Like it all I want is you.
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So, like, I think for me, that's kind of when I came to a point where I realized that like he was what I wanted and nothing else mattered.
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I didn't it didn't at that point, it did not matter what I wanted to do.
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It did not matter if I was uncomfortable, like all I wanted was all that he was asking me to do.
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That's like a sobering thought, too, to think like, okay, what do you want more?
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You want your comfort or do you want Jesus?
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And it's like you really do have to think about it.
00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:01.200
Cause I think initially you think you're not gonna be like Peter.
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You think like, oh, if Jesus is in front of me, I'm stepping out in that water.
00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:08.480
And I'm like, okay, but we we give the Israelites a hard time too.
00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:10.799
If we're like, why didn't they just obey God?
00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.840
And I'm like, we're the same, we're just like them.
00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:16.559
And I think it's funny, so hypocritical.
00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:17.679
I'm just kidding.
00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:28.559
Well, Finley, we are very proud of you, and I think that it's very neat that you, you know, you've had a lot of confirmation of like maybe whatever the Lord's calling you to do.
00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:32.320
And I would say just continue to press into that and continue to lean into that.
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Um, and we're behind you every step of the way.
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So we love you, girl.
