Episode Transcript
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Welcome to the I Can.
He Can podcast the podcastfor literally anyone.
However, if you are a woman, you'reprobably the person listening on the
other side of that speaker right now.
I'm your host Sarai, And you'llpretty much get to know everything
about me, including the things thatmake me say I can't, but also the
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things that remind me that he can.
So without further ado, let'sjump into today's episode.
I.
All right everyone, welcome back toepisode three of, I Can't, he Can,
like The Introduction said, I'mSara, and today we are going to be
discussing things that make being aChristian hard and I don't wanna do
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too much of the small talks today.
So let's dive in to today's episode.
first I wanna go over a fewthings that, in my opinion.
Describe a person who is Christian, andobviously it's being a follower of Jesus.
It is using prayer when things getdifficult in life, when you need
just that extra help from Jesus.
You staying in prayer, obviously, alsostaying in your word, reading the Bible.
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Um, forgiveness, mercy, lovingothers, dying to your flesh.
for example, trying to notsin, not being prideful.
Not being greedy, no sex before marriage.
Envy, gluttony, all these things.
also tithing and being a better servantis also something that describes,
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Christianity and one of the most importantthings, but I think that is also very
difficult for most people is obedience.
I'm not sure if I missed anythingand if I did feel free to.
And call me out.
Uh, you can always email me.
I can't, he can podcast@gmail.com.
now when we follow Jesus, weno longer follow the world.
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I forgot where I read that statement.
And it's, it's so true because themore we grow in our relationship.
Jesus, we feel even moreconvicted over time.
And if you don't know what the wordconvicted is, convicted is kind
of like when you feel guilty aboutdoing something But conviction has
more to do with sins and obviouslywith Christianity as a whole.
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However, if you start feelingconvicted about, I don't know,
let's say, I'll give you an example.
'cause I know that that's verycommon for a lot of people.
If you find yourself scrolling and lookingat other people's relationships and you're
like, oh, I wish my relationship was likethat, or this or that, that is a form of
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envy and you start feeling in your heart.
God, you put it here in my soulthat I need to stop doing this.
I need to stay away from these things.
So as we start following Jesus, wetend to grow in these areas and we
slowly start to like pull away from it.
And that is obviously very good.
but it is definitely astruggle for a lot of people.
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So, let's move on towhat are other struggles?
When things get tough, we tend to askourselves too, how can we continue
to be Christians in today's world?
this is the kind of doubt anduncertainty and the lack of
your strength in the faith.
That can eventually lead you to sinand to go back to your old ways.
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So yes, the world is tough.
Yes, there's a lot ofthings going on around you.
There's a lot of people who don'tbelieve in God or Jesus, and they
do continue to lead a life of sin.
And these are all things that youhave to be awake for and you have to
know, you need to have that boundary.
In order to grow if you really want to.
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but if you ever do feel that way,that being a Christian, like how
am I gonna continue to do thatI did wanna share John 1633.
it says, I have told you thesethings so that in me, you may have
peace in the world, you have troubleand suffering, but take courage.
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I have conquered the world.
with that scripture, Jesus prepared youfor what's to come in your walk with him.
He said it many, many times and hesaid it to his disciples as well.
He prepared them for everythingthat was going to come.
And it's also that you're not surprised.
Jesus conquered it all.
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If he can do that, everythingthat he went through.
Not just, not just with Pharisees andwith the people of his time, but also the
pain, the suffering, and he was broughtback to life and he rose and he came back.
He can do something as simple ashelping you overcome whatever doubt
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that you're having in the faith,
Now let's move on to thingsthat are the usual suspects.
I think that people tend to battlewith, swearing and saying bad words.
that for sure is still somethingthat I am battling with.
I just, you know, I love sayinga good curse word and as dumb as
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that sounds, sometimes it justfits and you just have to say it.
But now I feel more convicted everysingle time I do it, and sometimes
even as I'm texting before I say.
Af, and you know what that means?
I'm not, I'm not gonna say it, butif I say I'm tired af I even catch
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myself and I'm like, okay, no, no, no.
I'm tired and I just endup putting like I'm tired.
Um, do I do that always?
No, we're still, we're still human.
We're never going tobe as perfect as Jesus.
But I do find myself sometimesstruggling still with swearing.
Um, but back to things that alot of people tend to battle.
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Swearing, anger, laziness, sexbefore marriage is a big one, a big
one, especially in this generation.
just lust in general.
Uh, pride.
Well, gluttony also, I mean, I guessfor me, gluttony, if you listen to
episode one of food addiction, that'sdefinitely one of the things that
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can lead you down to food addiction.
You just want more and more and more.
but like I said, I'm not perfect.
No one's perfect.
We will never be as perfect as Jesus.
But anyway, so these are just somecommon things that I think a lot of
people really do tend to struggle with.
I just wanted to share thosebecause I know for sure that
we are not alone in that.
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I wanna move on to one of the biggest,biggest things that is making it
harder for people to continue tobelieve in Jesus and stay strong in
the faith, and that is the spiritualwarfare that people deal with.
Now, when I say spiritual warfare,it sounds so intense, and there can
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be spiritual warfare in your life.
when it comes to food addiction and,people just wanting to have sex with
multiple partners and that, that'sa sort of spiritual attack, that
you have a spirit of lust, a spiritthat you have in your life that you
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need to learn how to combat because.
Those things will eventuallygrow and fester within you
and grow to different things.
So it's really importantto try and tackle that.
And I wanted to share some scriptures,not just to, make you aware, that they
are in the Bible, but so that you cankeep them in your arsenal and be aware
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that there is a spiritual enemy out there
To just grab at our souls and constantlyentice us and tempt us with all of
these things that are going to bepulling you further away from Jesus.
So it's important that youdon't allow that to happen.
and now to jump into those scriptures,the first one is second Corinthians to 11.
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It says, so that we may not beexploited by Satan for we are
not ignorant of his schemes.
we need to be aware.
That basically says we needto be aware so that we are not
taken advantage of by Satan.
Now the second one is Ephesians six 12.
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For our struggle is not against fleshand blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers against the world,rulers of the darkness against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
Now, I'm not too privyto how Satan came to be.
Satan.
I know that he was a fallen angel.
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He was rebellious, and he's skimming.
And the earth now.
So please do not, you know,rip me apart for that.
Don't quote me on that.
But I do know that he rebelled againstGod and he is now trying to do his
ways here on Earth, and he wants topull you away from God and from Jesus.
So just know that your struggleis not always against yourself,
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but against these spirits.
the enemy.
so now I want to jump into.
First John chapter three,verses 19 through 21.
And by this, we will know that we are thetruth and will convince our conscience
and his presence, that if our consciencecondemns us, that God is greater than
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our conscience and knows all things.
Dear friends, if our consciencedoes not condemn us, we have
confidence in the presence of God.
Now I wanna break that down becausethere was a lot of words in that one.
But, what this scripture, first Johnchapter three, 19 through 21 means
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we need to know that our conscience.
Can condemn us, and sometimes it'sjust us being human, we need to have
faith that God is greater we needto be very, very aware of what's
going on around us so that we can ahundred percent stay in the faith.
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And just in all honesty, if you stayin your Bible and you read the word,
you're gonna know the differencebetween things of the world.
And what's going on aroundyou versus spiritual attacks.
so again, I say all of thesethings because I want you to
know that you're not alone.
the Bible says it won't be easy.
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Many of the people that arenamed in the Holy Book also
dealt with their own struggles.
we all deal with our own struggles, butyou can go back and just see so many of
the people mentioned in the Bible andall of the things that they went through.
And it wasn't just for afew months, a few weeks, no.
These people endured attacks frompeople and their time and even.
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People that they lovedbut they always had faith.
And as long as they had thefaith, they were rewarded.
Or they were rewarded when they wentto heaven and they were with Jesus and
with God, which is the ultimate reward.
God can transform and he cantransform even after we struggle
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and we can't forget that becausewhen we are struggling with things.
we are being prepared, we are beingmade different in that struggle so
that we can come through it evenbetter, and we can only do that if
we continue to have faith in him.
So the first person that I wanted to.
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Talk about briefly is Paul, whosename was then changed to Saul.
So I looked into him a little bit andhe's a curious person in the Bible
because he actually persecuted Christians.
At first he was against Jesus,he was against all of them.
And then.
One day he was walking down a roadto Damascus and he actually came
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across, or so they say he came acrossthe risen Jesus Christ, and after
that encounter he believed so much.
His faith grew so, so much that hebecame an apostle and he started sharing
the gospel and the word of Jesus, andhe essentially became an apostle for
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the very early church at that time.
So even though some peoplewould argue that it didn't
happen I don't believe that.
I believe that something as a crazyencounter with him walking down that road.
Is enough to change a person'sperspective that much.
And it's real because I know thatit has been so real in my life, the
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change that I have experienced thathow can that have not been real?
But, the other person that I wantedto touch on, I actually thought was
so interesting because I've seenso many things like this nowadays.
and it's Samson and Delilah.
Now, this happened a few days agowhere that CEO, I think his name was
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Byron, or uh, last name was Byron.
But anyway, they were at the Coldplayconcert and he was cheating on his
wife with the HR manager, director,whatever, of his company, and.
When they called him out onthe big screen, they hid and
Because now that went viral.
his wife found out, the entire worldknows it's literally everywhere.
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this man was brought down by this woman.
I mean, in her life too, isalso coming down in shambles
because of, of that relationship.
But if I'm comparing it to Samsonand Delilah from the Bible,
it's very similar to me because.
Samson was brought down by Delilahand just like that guy, Byron, or
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whatever his name is, uh, sorry, Idon't have the name handy with me.
I just thought about it on the spot, but.
He was brought down bythat woman and that affair.
And Samson is similar in the sensehe was born, an Nazarite his hair
gave him great strength and whenhe was younger, he needed to take a
vow to abstain from certain things.
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and it was going to be asign or devotion to God.
He was granted supernaturalstrength by God.
and he famously used that to fightagainst the Philistines, which
were Israel's enemies at the time.
Now, Samson and Delilah somehowgot intertwined and Delilah was
part of the, uh, Philistines.
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So obviously they couldnot get caught, but.
When the Philistine, ruler saw thatDelilah was having a relationship with
this great, powerful, strong man, hewanted to take that as an opportunity to
discover the source of Samson's strength.
They bribed Delilah in order todo that, to discover his secret.
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And Samson unfortunately fell.
Into what Delilah was doing and whetherit was through lust or they had sex.
I don't know what that was.
they had a relationship and hefell into that temptation instead
of continuing what he knew hispurpose was as a born nazarite.
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sorry if I'm butchering that NA, right.
but instead of continuing in thatpath that he was given from God,
which was to fight for the Israelites.
He fell into that temptation and hishead was shaved or his hair, was cut
off, while he slept he became powerless.
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He was captured, he was blindedand He fell to his temptations.
that's why I wanted to compare thatto the story of that, CEO and his
HR director, lady, whatever she was,because people give into this lifestyle
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and at the end, because it's not.
The proper way that God had set out forus to do things, it's not gonna end well.
And we need to understand thatwe need to follow as much of
a righteous path as possible.
And of course, I go back and I saythat I am not perfect in any way.
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In any way, but I amrecognizing now my flaws.
I am being convicted.
Enough to know that I need to dobetter, and that's because I continue
to have my relationship with Jesus.
But it's still hard.
It's still so hard every day.
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It's a fight.
Every day.
It's a fight, and it's going to continueto be a fight, and we are going to
continue to deal with these things.
So we just need to alwaysgo back to the beginning.
We need to pray.
We need to stay in our Word, and weneed to just continue to seek Jesus.
in my walk with Jesus, one of the thingsthat first hurt me the most was how people
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turned away I say that because you aregoing to be shocked how many people roll
their eyes whenever you talk about church.
Roll their eyes.
Whenever you talk about reading the Bible.
Roll their eyes wheneveryou talk about Jesus.
Or even say that you're a Christian.
And I did feel that inmy family for a while.
Um, my own mom, you know, one day inour family group chat just kind of
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said, in Spanish, oh, and essentiallywhat that means is as if I had taken
the church life so seriously thatI'm making it such a big deal and.
They don't know this version of me.
So they are shocked.
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Well, they were shocked.
Now they, now they see that I'm seriousslowly but surely, becoming a different
person and in my opinion a better person.
But anyway, um, but they were shockedand people will be shocked because
people will know that version of youfor so long that it is impossible
for them to understand how.
You have become this way.
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And I will say that I know the difference.
I can see the difference andfeel the difference in myself
with Jesus and without Jesus.
And they will too.
And it's gonna be very difficultfor some people to accept that.
And that might just be the mostdifficult part of your journey
because the doors will shut,those relationships will crumble.
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And if they have to let them, friendsare gonna say, you've changed.
And of course, of course I've changed.
God transforms.
You need to die to your flesh ifyou don't make any changes, if you
don't try to be more like Jesus.
And what are you doing?
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Like Pastor Anthony Mitchell from 2019Church, he says, you're playing church.
You're not here to play church.
You are here to not go to hell.
You're here for the ultimate gift fromJesus, and that is living a life with
him, an eternity with him in paradise.
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But you could only do that if youcontinue to die to your flesh day to day.
And with that, I wanna share.
Additional scriptures, becausethese are just, they're just so,
so well woven into this topic.
but I'll let you listen The firstone, Romans chapter 12, verse two.
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Don't be conformed to this world, but betransformed by the renewing of your mind.
So that you may prove what is the good,well pleasing and perfect will of God.
Now, just like I said, you haveto not conform to the world.
You have to be so transformed by whatJesus can do for you so that the world can
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see that he is real, and he is so true inhis words that look what he did for you.
Look how he changed.
You.
Make it so big that people can't deny him.
The other scripture, twoCorinthians chapter five, verse 17.
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Therefore, if anyone is inChrist, he is a new creation.
The old things have passed away.
Behold, all things havebecome new and man, oh wow.
Um, I'm getting a little emotional.
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Oh gosh.
If my best friend here says she's gonna belike, oh, Sariah, you're such a cry baby.
You cry all the time.
And honestly, in this moment, Ireally do feel like it's the Holy
Spirit because I'm sharing this word,
and this is such an important wordbecause this walk is not easy.
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Life is hard enough as it is.
Without God,
I just can't imagine howpeople do life without him.
Anyway.
Okay, moving on.
again, that was Romans 12 two and twoCorinthians five 17, so please keep those.
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Close to your heart if youare on this walk with Christ,
because you are going to need it.
Maybe not from your friends and familyall the time, but you will need it.
And before I continuetalking and rambling,
Guys, at the end of the day, beingChristian is difficult, but Jesus did
not promise that it would be easy.
Like I said before, he did notpromise it was going to be easy.
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He did, however, say and promise thatif you believe, if you have faith
and declare he is Lord, that you willhave eternal life with the Father.
And one beautiful example of His loveand grace also showing this promise
to you guys, that while no matter.
No matter how hard life gets,he still comes through for you.
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Right before Jesus's death, before he wascrucified with the two other men, one of
them mocks him and then he's crucified.
But the other man repented and hedisagreed with the man that was
mocking Jesus and the scripture.
Um.
uh, gosh, I'm getting like so emotionalthat I can't even talk, but that
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scripture is Luke 29, verse 39 through43, and I just wanted to share it because
what Jesus can do for you is goingto be so big in your life that
you cannot turn away from him.
'cause when you truly feel whathe does for you in your heart.
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And As much as the world tries tochange your view, you shouldn't do it.
And Jesus shows his love in this moment,right here as he was being crucified.
So Luke 2339 through 43.
One of the criminals who was hanged,insulted him saying, if you are
the Christ, save yourself and us.
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But the other answered and rebuking himsaid, don't you ever fear God seeing
you are under the same condemnation.
And we indeed justly for we receivethe do reward for our deeds.
But this man has done nothing wrong.
He said to Jesus, Lord, rememberme when you come into the kingdom.
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And Jesus said to him.
Assuredly, I tell you today,you will be with me in Paradise.
So yes, my friends, life is hard.
The world is harsh.
Our purpose may not be clear to us whatJesus and God have in store for us, but as
long as we have faith, we remain steadfastin Christ, our reward will be great.
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So do not fear.
Do not fear this modern day persecution,that we constantly have to endure.
Don't fear it.
Stay strong in it because one day you willno longer need to fear what comes after.
And paradise awaits.
I hope this has blessed you.
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I thank you for listening until thenext episode, my friends take care.