Like Jesus II // Pastor Chuck Colegrove // August 10, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up?
Free Church.
Well, great to see you.
It's good to be at God's houseand good to be back after last
week.
And what a great weekend.
We watched online and had ourown little worship time with all
of you from our vacation spotand we appreciate your prayers

(00:24):
and your thoughts as we weretraveling.
But it's good to be back inGod's house.
Listen all the great things onnews.
I hope you pay attention to it.
It's not just something we do asa filler in service.
That's really to help you knowwhat's happening in church life.
And immediately followingservice today, if you're
interested in leading a smallgroup, many of you have already

(00:46):
signed up, but we are meetingwith small group leaders today
right after service, as we getready to kick off another season
of small groups.
And we're not just a churchwith small groups, we are a
church of small groups and it'sreally we believe.
Small groups lead to developinggreater relationships and
relationships lead todiscipleship, and so we want to

(01:09):
help you take those stepsthrough this fall season.
And if you want to be a part ofthose small groups, maybe you
have an idea to lead a group,maybe the Lord's been speaking
to you about it and maybe you'renot really sure what to do
about that.
Join us for this info andleadership session and we want
to help you get plugged in andlead groups.
It's going to be a great seasonof small groups.
Well, listen, I'm ready topreach God's word.

(01:30):
Are you ready to receive it?
Today?
The year was 1993, and Urshanand I had been married just for
a few weeks and I was fresh outof college with a marketing
degree, thought I was going tomake millions in research and

(01:53):
development and marketing newproducts, and every single door
that I was going through tointerview would be.
They were great interviews.
I think I'm pretty good atinterviewing.
I like to answer interviewing,I like to answer questions, I
like to talk, and if you've everdone an Enneagram, I'm a three,
which means I like to get stuffdone and I like to look good
doing it, and so I was prettygood in that process.

(02:17):
But none of those doors wereopening and so I was just still
working my college job.
I had two jobs in college.
During the summers I worked in afactory that made Lifesavers
and Bubble Yum.
That was a pretty cool flex allmy life.
That was a lot of fun.
I would go through the BubbleYum side of the factory and grab
just a big chunk of gum andtake it home.

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The freshest gum I ever had inmy life was during that time.
And the other job I had was Iworked in a department store.
So I had that job even after Igraduated and was working pretty
much full-time hours.
But you know, it was retail.
It didn't pay a lot, especiallyback then.
My God, my sons make more injust a few days at Chick-fil-A
than I did an entire week in adepartment store.

(03:02):
But I came home one day andRoshanna was like so you know,
any interview success, any jobsuccess and I was like no, it's
still the department store.
She said, well, you need to dosomething different because I
don't think that's going toprovide for our family.
She didn't say it quite likethat, but that's just how I
interpreted it and so she didn'tsay it like that.

(03:23):
It's just I just maybe that'swhat I was feeling inside, more
than what she said.
And so I went out on theinterview trail again and I took
a job as an insurance salesmanand primarily it was like it
wasn't.
It was kind of like it was.
It was kind of like accidentinsurance, so like if you were
to get in an accident or if youwere to not be able to work.

(03:45):
It was like extra insurancebeyond, like life insurance or
health insurance.
And so I took this job.
I thought, well, I could dothis, I can sell, and so it
won't be that big of a deal.
And I didn't know.
But it was just all cold, allcold calling, that's all it was.
It was literally to walkthrough a neighborhood and knock
on the door and try to sellinsurance to people that

(04:05):
probably either couldn't affordit anyways or didn't know they
needed it or whatever it mightbe.
But I just spent all these days.
So the first week I would knockon the door and it was terrible
.
I had zero success and I wentback in the office and I was
kind of complaining.
I'm like I don't know if I'mcut out for this.
This whole door knocking thing.
I'm not very good at it andI'll never forget the manager.
The guy that was running theoffice said here's the thing

(04:27):
You're going to have to changethe way you think about what
you're doing, because you thinkyou're selling something and you
think it's difficult to knockon the door of somebody you
don't know.
But if you can change yourthought process and begin to
think about you have somethingthat they need and maybe they
don't know it yet.
And you have something thatthey need and maybe they don't
know it yet.

(04:47):
And you have a product thatyou're offering you're not
trying to sell it to them,you're trying to provide
something for them, a service tothem.
And then if you can get pastthe thought of, hey, it's really
hard to knock on doors and juststart saying, like I'm really
good at knocking doors, I can.
I really enjoy meeting newpeople.
I enjoy the challenge of likeseeing if they'll open the first
of all and then seeing ifthey'll let me in.
And, by the way, a little trickis, if you introduce yourself,

(05:08):
say why you're here and pointdown, when they look back at
what you're pointing at, theystep back and you can just step
right in.
So if a salesman knocks on yourdoor and points down, don't
move, just a little inside, helpthere.
But I realized it was my wholethought process changed after

(05:31):
that meeting and when I wentback out I realized the idea was
, if I knocked a certain amountof doors, a certain amount of
doors were going to open.
A certain amount of those opendoors would be appointments and
a certain amount of thoseappointments would be sales.
And I changed the way I thoughtabout it and that changed the
outcome entirely.
It's the year I learned if youchange the way you think your

(05:52):
thinking, can be the key tovictory.
So why don't you turn to yourneighbor and just say, if I can
think like Jesus?
And to the one you just ignoredall service, say I can be like
Jesus.

(06:12):
So we began this series LikeJesus a couple of weeks ago.
Last week, pastor Robbie waswith us.
What a powerful message.
I'm leading right, leading likeJesus.
I'm leading right, leading likeJesus.
We were amening and clappingour hands in the living room as
we watched service and such apowerful word.

(06:32):
I love Pastor Robbie, I lovehis heart to lead.
He's a great leader, he's agreat preacher and, as one of
the communicators of this house,he is a great asset and a
blessing to this house.
Amen, church.
By the way, you don't have tolike Michigan football just
because he comes and preaches,but it'll help.

(06:53):
So we talked a little bit aboutthis idea of being like Jesus
and we began this series withthinking like Jesus and we gave
you just a few passages ofscripture as keys and I did not
finish that message before Ileft and I wanted to come back
and finish it.
There's ten things that I think, if you can think like Jesus,

(07:13):
it will transform your life inthese ten areas and I'm going to
try to get through a few moretoday.
I really don't feel like I'llget through all of them and
we'll come back and close outthis Think Like Jesus part of
this series next week.
And then, as you heard on news,there's student takeover coming
for all of our students.
We're going to pray for everystudent, every child, every

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junior, high, high schoolstudent, college student.
If you're an adult and you'regoing back to school, we're
going to pray over you.
If you're a teacher, facultymember, you work on campus,
we're going to pray for you.
It's going to be a powerfulservice.
So you want to mark that onyour calendar in two weeks not
to miss that service.
And then we'll have a smallgroup Sunday coming up so

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powerful time in the season, butif you'll remember the passage
of scripture that we gave you,we'll pull it up.
This idea, the first things wegave you last week, let's do
this.
Let's do this.
Thank you for pulling that up.
Let's do the things we gave youtwo weeks ago.
If I think like Jesus, I know mytrue identity.
Like you, don't have toquestion your identity when you

(08:20):
begin to think like Jesus,because you know who you were
created to be, why you'recreated to be here, and you
understand that you are who Godsays you are.
Then we talked about if I thinklike Jesus, I will know God's
purpose for my life.
Jesus came with one purpose inmind.
It was to seek and to save thatwhich was lost.
He came to give his life as aransom for many.

(08:41):
He knew God's purpose and ifyou'll get to think like Jesus,
you'll know the purpose God hasfor your life.
And then the third thing I'malways aware that God is with me
.
You'll realize when you thinklike Jesus, you'll realize
you're never alone.
And if you'll spend time awaywith God, you'll realize God is
always speaking to you, he'salways with you and you're never

(09:04):
by yourself.
So look at what the scripturesays about thinking in this
passage.
This is why it's so importantfor us to get this into our mind
so we can renew our thoughts.
Watch this Isaiah writes whohas known the mind of the Lord?
Who has been able to give theLord advice?
Who has known the mind of theLord?

(09:24):
We can't, we can't possibly getto a level where we can think
like God.
God says my ways are higherthan your ways.
My thoughts are higher thanyour thoughts.
So how do we get there?
Well, look at Paul, says Paul,says.
He quotes Isaiah.
He says who can know the Lord'sthoughts?
Who knows enough to teach them?
Watch this.
But we understand these things,for we have the mind of Christ.

(09:47):
So when you're saved, youactually can be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, sothat you have the mind of Christ
, you literally can think likeJesus because you have the mind
of Jesus.
When you're saved and you haveto transform your mindset the

(10:07):
way you used to think, you can'tthink like that anymore.
I heard in our team rally thismorning.
I had to step out and take acall and when I took that call I
could hear Julian lead in thefinal chant.
But before he did, he saideverybody do this with me.
I'm alive, I'm awake and I feelgreat.

(10:28):
It's a phrase that I've beenscreaming over our kids since
they were little and I wouldmake them say it.
If they got up whining andcomplaining about being tired or
they didn't want to go toschool, I'd be like, get ready
for it.
Here it comes.
And they'd be like, oh, theyroll their eyes.
But we understand that if wecan change the way I think, I
can speak my way into something.
If I can think it, I can speakit and I can be it.

(10:50):
And so Julian led them in thatI think it's so powerful.
We literally can transform ourmind with the mind of Christ by
thinking these thoughts.
Let's lean in, let's lean inyou.
Ready, number four.
When I think, like Jesus, I letGod help me choose my words.

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It's a game changer.
This is a game changer.
Look at John 12, 49.
This is a game changer.
Look at John 12, 49.
This is what Jesus says.
I don't speak on my ownauthority.
The Father who sent me hascommanded me.
Look at this what to say andhow to say it.
It would be a game changer foryou if you would start your day

(11:35):
off by spending a few momentswith your heavenly father and to
pray.
Lord, why don't you tell me whatto say and how to say it today?
I told you I start that wholedeal of saying I'm alive, I'm
awake and I feel great.
I say that over and over againin the morning just so I can
kind of wake myself up and getmyself going.
And then the other power ofpositive thoughts that I speak

(11:59):
into his instance.
I say today I will meet theright people, I will say the
right things, I will influencepeople towards the gospel of
Jesus Christ, I will lead myfamily well, I will make better
decisions.
Today I speak those things over.
And when you ask God, whatshould I speak today and how
should I say it?
It will change your world.
And let me just say this letevery word that proceeds from my

(12:27):
mouth be a testimony today.
Let it exhort, let it encourage, let it elevate someone's life,
let it build his church and letit be for the glory of the Lord
.
How different would it be if weallowed all of our words to
bring glory to the kingdom ofGod, instead of tearing things

(12:49):
down, tearing people down.
Be life-giving in our speechand to speak the truth.
By the way, just because you'respeaking the truth doesn't mean
you can be mean about it.
Oh, the truth hurts.
Well, it doesn't have to.
You can speak the truth in loveand a lot of times we sometimes

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get the idea of when we speakthe truth, it means we have a
superior idea or a superiormotive, or we're better than
everybody else.
That is not it.
We humble ourselves and comebefore you with the truth of
God's word Because it's going tomake your life better.
So when you think like Jesus,you say God can help me with my

(13:37):
words, god help me choose mywords.
The next one is this when Ithink like Jesus, I don't seek
the approval of others.
I don't seek the approval ofothers.
I'm going to tell you, a lot ofthe problems we face in our own
lives is because we're livingfor the wrong audience.

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We like the comments and thelikes and the emoji cons, we
like the thumbs up, we like allthe followers, we like all the
trends.
We post a picture of ourselvesso people will tell us how good

(14:19):
we look.
And the thing is we're livingfor the wrong audience.
What separated Jesus fromothers?
He understood the audience hewas living for, and it was not
the people around him.
He came to seek and to savethat which was lost, but his
audience was his heavenly father.

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Look at Luke 16 and 13, it saysno one can serve two masters.
Now, traditionally people takethis and and they use it in
terms of the pursuit of money,and that's a valid point.
But you put anything on thesame level of God and it becomes

(15:03):
an idol.
There is no other God besidesour God.
I'm reading right now inscriptures, in my daily reading
through the book of.
I've been in Isaiah and I'm inJeremiah and, and it's
incredible to me how often God'speople walked away from the
Word of God and began to buildtheir own idols.

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And God, over and over again inScripture, says look at, I
don't.
You're building things withyour own hands and you worship
them like they care so.
So Jesus says this no one canserve two masters.
You hate the one and love theother, or you'll be devoted one
and despise the other.
And he does say you cannotserve both God and money.

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But insert anything there, notjust finances, it can be
anything.
Anything you elevate to God'slove or beyond Becomes an idol
in your life, and whether that'saffirmation, whether that's the
accolades of people around you,the applause that you get when

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you make those posts, whateverit might be, anything you
elevate, it could be your job,it could be your friends, it
could be your relationship, itcould be your hobbies.
It could be your friends, itcould be your relationship, it
could be your hobbies.
It could be anything.
Anything that gets in the wayof the one true God becomes an
idol.
And if you'll start to thinklike Jesus, you'll realize

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nothing compares with God.
And I know it's easy to say,but we don't live it.
We don't live it as easy as wesay it.
I thought about this.
If you and I wrote this down,if you live for others' approval
, you'll die by their rejection.
How many times do we findourselves getting in trouble

(16:53):
because we just want somebody?
The Jonas Brothers wrote a songa few years ago and it just
says this I want somebody wholoves me.
And so many times we make somany decisions about that just
will you like me?
Maybe if I do this you'll likeme.
Maybe if I wear this you'lllike me.
Maybe if I try this you'll likeme.

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Listen, you only have to livefor the audience of one.
If you try to please all people, you'll end up pleasing no one.
Jesus says this in John,chapter 5, verse 41.
Your approval means nothing tome.
No wonder you can't believe foryou gladly honor each other,

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but you don't care about thehonor that comes from the one
who alone is God.
Jesus is like listen, I'm notliving for your approval, I'm
not living for you to pat me onthe back.
I am living for the audience ofone.
The only affirmation I need isthe affirmation that comes from
God.
The only accolades I want arethe accolades that come from God

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, because, listen, if Godrewards it, man does not have to
.
So we have to live for theaudience of one.
When I think like Jesus, Idon't seek the approval from
others.
And then another one.
Let's do another one.
If I live like, when I thinklike Jesus, number six, I depend

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on God's power.
Amen.
Now, jesus, we told you in theseries before this Jesus is 100%
man and he's 100% God.
John 1, 1,.
He was God in the beginning.
He was the word.
The word was with us and theword became flesh and dwelt

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among us.
He's 100% God, 100% man, andeven though he's 100% God, he
still has to depend on God'spower.
All the things he did, he didby God's power.
John 5, 19.
Then Jesus answered and said tothem most assuredly, I say unto
you the son can do nothing ofhimself, but what he sees the

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father do, for whatever he does,the Son also does in like
manner.
Jesus is like I can do nothingon my own power.
There's nothing I can do on myown.
I've seen the Father do it andI trust in his power.
So I have to ask you today areyou tired?
Are you lacking joy?

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Do you currently hate people?
I mean, are you living on edge?
Listen, I just was on 10 daysof vacation.
I love everybody, I love all ofyou, but the reality is, if
you're tired, you're worn out,you're lacking joy.

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People get on your nerves.
It's probably because you'retrying to do everything on your
own power.
And if you can think like Jesus,then you can depend on God's
power to sustain you througheverything, to take you even to
the toughest moments of yourlife.
God's power is able.
God's power is able to provideand to sustain you and to lift

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you up.
I mean, we used to sing thesong he's got the whole world in
his hands and, as powerful asthat is, he still cares enough
about you to hold you rightwhere you need to be.
He still cares enough about youto hold you right where you
need to be so we stop living byour own strength and start

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depending on God.
Let's do one more.
When I think like Jesus, Iforgive my enemies and this is
one of the areas thatdistinguishes a Christ follower
from all others is the abilityto forgive, even in the very

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worst of situations.
Jesus, as he's going to thecross, as he's facing death and
defeat, jesus forgives.
In Luke 23 and 34, I think wegot the wrong scripture up there
.
You can pull that one off thescreen.

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Luke 23, 34 says this.
Jesus said Father, forgive them, for they don't know what
they're doing.
He's on the cross, people.
He's already gone through thetrial.
He's been spit on, he's beenbeat up, he's been whipped 39

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times, he's been ridiculed.
Even his own closest followershave left him.
Then he's on the cross.
They're gambling for hisclothes, they're giving him
vinegar to drink.
All of these things arehappening.
In his first words on the crossFather, forgive them.
We need to think like Jesus sowe can forgive like Jesus, not

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because people have earned it,not because people have deserved
it, but because he forgave usof so much, we can forgive
others as well.
Listen, you didn't earn it andyou don't deserve it and he
still forgave you.
And if we can think like Jesus,we can look at the people who
are hurting us the most and sayI forgive you.

(22:24):
Look what Jesus says in Matthew5, 44.
He says this but I say to youlove your enemies, bless those
who curse you, do good to thosewho hate you and pray for those
who spitefully use you andpersecute you.
Look if you've got a Bible withyou or if you're taking a

(22:44):
picture with your phone.
These are the verbs you need tocircle Love, bless, do good,
pray.
You want to change your world,learn how to think like Jesus
and do these four things to thepeople that hurt you the most.
I always know where I stand onthe journey of forgiving the

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people who have been rude andhurtful to me by how I feel when
I see them or hear from them.
It's like I have a bad thought.
When I see somebody, I'm like,oh, maybe I've not forgiven them
the way I should.
Maybe I need to make Lord, holySpirit, maybe you need to help
me forgive them more, because Ijust had a feeling of like er,

(23:34):
can you believe it stirs it up?
If it stirs it up, I know I'venot forgiven them.
Yet, and I'm not saying youcan't have that stirred up
feeling, because we're human andit's our nature.
The Bible says be angry and sinnot.
So when I feel that, err,instead of talking about that
person, I need to step back andsay Holy Spirit, I really

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thought I handled this back here, but please help me to forgive
them.
In fact, I'm going to releaseright now Whatever power they
had over me, whatever controlhas been placed on my mind to
think that way.
I release that in the name ofJesus and listen when I begin to
think like Jesus, I can look atthe people who are putting me

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on the cross and say Father,forgive them.
Father, forgive them.
Father, forgive them because,honestly, me holding on to it is
gonna.
They don't even know.
They just walked past andthey're living their best life

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and you're over there steamingand like reek, like you
literally like crumbled up thewater bottle you were carrying
and you're like, ah, and theydon't even know, and if they
don't know about it, then justlet it go.

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It's a higher standard that hecalls us to.
He's like I don't just want youto say I forgive you, I release
you, I'm sorry.
He's like no, don't justforgive them, love them.
Don't just forgive them, blessthem.
And it's not one of those ohbless God If I see that person

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again.
It's not one of those oh blessGod, if I see that person again,
it's bless them.
It's not just forgive them,it's love them, it's bless them.
It's do good, do something good, boy, that will test you, that
will test you, and then pray forthem.

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And I always feel like, if Ibegin to really sincerely pray
for the people that have wrongedme, I suddenly don't have those
same feelings that I had a fewminutes ago, because the reality
is they're just as human as Iam and that's what people do.

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And the reality is hurt peoplehurt people.
So I can't hold a standard oversomeone else that I'm not
willing to hold myself to.
So if I can forgive them, I canmove on.
Who knows what's on the otherside, what's on the other side

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of me forgiving somebody?
Let's close there.
I think it's so powerful for usto get into this process of
transformed and renewed mindsand I wanna just lean into this
for a minute because it'ssomething that I say a lot

(26:48):
around here and so sometimes, ifI say it a lot, you might think
it doesn't carry as much weight, but it actually is.
I say it a lot because I wantit to be in your spirit that the
reason why it's so powerful forus to think like Jesus is
because everything begins with athought.
Everything, everything beginswith a thought.

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Everything, every situation youget yourself into, began with a
thought, because the choicesyou make are yours and the
results are the world that youlive in.
And so what I always say andI've said this to my boys or
Sean and I have rehearsed thisin our life is that everything
begins with a thought.

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And if you sow a thought, you'llreap a word.
And if you sow that word,you'll reap an action.
And when you sow that actionover and over again, you'll reap
a habit.
And when you sow that habitover and over again, you'll reap
a habit.
And when you sow that habitover and over again, you'll reap
a character.
And when you sow that character, you'll reap your destiny.
And it all began with a thought.

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So if we can transform our mind, we transform our lives.
If we transform our mind, wefind the destiny God has for our
life.
If we get into the process ofthinking like Jesus, we arrive
at the destination God hadplanned and ordained for us from
the very beginning.
It's that powerful church, andso I want to just challenge you

(28:18):
this week Get into these notes,live out these scriptures, like
really begin your day, lord.
Help me know what to say andhow to say it.
Begin your day, god.
I'm gonna depend on you, mylife depends on me, depending on
you.
And then, god, I am going toforgive those people in my life

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the way you forgave everyone whoput you on that cross.
I'm gonna forgive you, thepeople, the way God forgave me
of my sins.
And when we begin to think thatway, we speak that into
existence, we put it into action, it becomes a habit of our
lives, it sows the characterthat we wanna live by and it

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sends us to the destiny God hasordained for our life.
Can you receive that word today?