August 13, 2024 • 45 mins
Hey, guys! Thanks for listening to this weeks episode of A Worship Warrior's Podcast. I hope you all grew closer to God through this episode. Remember to share with someone you love.
Links for this episode:
- Jerry Bridges quote: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/564098-the-joy-of-fearing-god#:~:text=We%20cannot%20separate%20trust%20in,stand%20in%20awe%20of%20Him. "We cannot separate trust in God from the fear of God. We will trust Him only to the extent that we genuinely stand in awe of Him."
- Helen Hummel’s Blog Post: https://thedailygraceco.com/blogs/the-daily-grace-blog/what-does-it-mean-to-fear-god
Go check out my
Website: www.worshipwarriorlifestyle.com
Social Media: IG: https://www.instagram.com/worship_warrior_lifestyle?igsh=ZTRybDd5MXRqYTB4&utm_source=qr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
God, thank you so much for this day. I
(00:03):
Thank you for every single blessing that you've given me and everyone who's listening to this
Even the ones that we don't realize our blessings even the ones that we don't even see
God, I just thank you so much for this podcast and how it's reached
the as many people as it has and
how much it's impacted me and
Help keep me accountable and all the things God. I
(00:25):
I pray that every single person who's listening to this God
that you would plant seeds in their heart and that they would
if they haven't already started a relationship with you God that I pray that above anything else that they would and then
would further their relationship with you by being obedient to you and going out and talking to others about what you've done for them and
(00:48):
That they would just encourage others to go towards you also God
I pray that if
If it's your will that this podcast would reach so many people
And that they truly would see only you through this God
But they would see my love for you and that this whole podcast is just basically to show others and to remind myself that we are
(01:11):
sinners in
Need of a Savior and you are the Savior and I pray that if nothing else happens today from this episode
That at least one person would see that that they would have a desire to know you better
To see you more clearly
In Jesus's name, I pray
Amen
(01:33):
Hey guys, welcome back to our worship warriors podcast
Well, welcome back y'all
To our sports podcast is currently when I'm recording this
630 in the morning
That's lovely
Some of you who are listening to this probably got up a few hours later than I did maybe some of you before actually
(01:54):
And if it was before
630 while I'm sorry
I also got up early and I feel you because I am not someone who likes to get up early in the morning
As always I have a couple disclaimers you might hear whining in the background. That is my dog
He's on the struggle bus this week
He just got fixed and he also heard his little paw paws
(02:17):
His little paw paws have
Sores and burns on them the front two paws have like sores and burns on them because well long story short
He basically
Hopped up his front two paws onto this metal fence and
It was hot enough outside where the metal fence was hot and it literally left burns on his
(02:39):
Paws and it's really sad. He's been limping for like right now. He's walking. He's limping and like he'll stare at our bed
And he's just staring at it because he wants up there, but it's uncomfortable for him to jump up there
And so he still does just not very often
It's really sad because then he'll like just lay on the floor sometimes instead of jumping up on the bed
But anyway, he's staring at me right now or I guess not really staring at me, but he's wanting up here
(03:03):
Again, and we've helped him up here, but also we don't every time because it's like
Non-stop he gets down and then he wants back up, but he doesn't want to do it on his own, but it is really sad
Anyway, so he's whining
often
So that's what you're gonna be hearing. I'm sorry
Anyway
So not that anyone really cared about that, but I do so I was sharing with you
(03:28):
Anyway, so we're gonna just move on we're gonna as always just jump right into it
We're not really gonna beat around the bush a whole lot today's topic is fear of God versus fear of man
Now quick little backstory here. This has been something that God has just been and I mean
Constant he has been constantly revealing to me showing to me reminding me of and it's probably because it's something that from my whole life
(03:55):
I have struggled with probably and I feel like most people do so I know I'm not alone
But then you also know or see know of if you don't know personally, you know, you see these
strong
Christians out there who
Are just like
So grounded in their faith so grounded so close and intimately close to God
(04:20):
That they have no fear of man. It's like you can't you can't touch them and
I envy that and it's not like an unhealthy envy
It's just like a goal of mine that I want that but I know that that is a hard and long process to get to
That point so this is and this is essential. This is so essential
(04:41):
So we're gonna talk about what it actually means to fear God and we're gonna talk a little bit in depth about that today
so what does
What does fear mean in this sense? Like what whenever I say you need to fear God?
What does that mean? Because fear when I was a kid and this is a very common misunderstanding that I
Believe is just not
(05:03):
Taught enough. I think I think it's I mean, it's taught for sure. Like I've heard sermons
I've heard people talk about it on different things like whether it be a podcast or an article like a blog post or whatever
Like people do talk about it
But it's still just so
Misunderstood by many people often non-christians
(05:24):
But there are a lot of Christians who do misunderstand this or just like know that they want to live a life for God
They love God, but they just kind of ignore the term or the phrase
Fearing fear God or fear of God because they don't understand it
So they just don't talk about it because they don't want to talk about something they don't understand
But then they also don't research it and so I know I'm calling out somebody there because that was me for a while, too
(05:47):
So anyway fear of God does not mean
Dread or terror it's like it's not like oh my gosh
I'm terrified of God and I'm so scared that he's gonna hurt me or whatever
It is that I'm just gonna follow him so that he doesn't hurt me
It's not that like I don't fear God in that way. In fact, I don't believe God would ever harm me everything
(06:08):
he does is for his glory and for my benefit and
So sometimes I might go through struggles that is definitely an assured thing like I'm going to struggle
I'm going to have trials like that's in Scripture. We're going to come across trials, but that doesn't mean that it's God being like
Oh Sarah, I
(06:29):
I'm going to make you struggle
I'm going to send this trial so that you're so scared of me that you're not going to leave
It's not like he's an abuser, you know, he's not holding a gun to my head so that I don't leave his side
It it's nothing like that
fear in this sense is
Not anything negative. In fact fear can be synonymous to
(06:53):
Living in awe of God you you are in awe of God you
Glorify him you have you know, you love him. You have hope because of him
You're acting out of reverence to God. That is what that is
So take all of your understandings of what fear is according to the world like being scared of
(07:14):
You know getting swept up by a tornado getting scared of you know getting walking down the street and getting shot or kidnapped
You know take all of those negative
Fears throw them out the window pretend like you've never heard the word fear
Okay, get in that mindset get in those shoes of I've never heard this term and now I'm looking it up and saying okay
What is this term? What is this term? I've never seen these four letters together. What is fear?
(07:38):
And it's this it's love hope glory awe of God. You're acting out of reverence to God. That's what it is
This is for Christians though. You have to remember that if you are a non-christian
Your fear of God is actually going to look different and it's not the
He's holding a gun to my head. It's more so of
If I'm if I'm not a Christian me Sarah say I'm not a Christian
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I'm going to be scared if I if I actually see the power of God and see how powerful he is
Because he's literally the creator of all he literally can control anything
I'm going to be scared of him in the sense that if I die, I'm gonna suffer for all eternity and that's terrifying
If I'm a non-christian, I'm also scared because he's so powerful that if I'm not living for him
(08:22):
He can just choose to take me out of this world anytime. He can choose to send
Punishment anytime he sees fit like he literally can do whatever he wants. He's God and that's scary
But if you're living for God if you have a relationship with him and you're just living a life out of love for him
You're obeying him out of love for him because you just you just love him and you don't want to be a Christian
(08:43):
I'm not scared for him because you just you just love him and you don't want to do anything but love him
And when you're living that it's not scary because you're like even though trials come I've got God on my side
And he's gonna help me through this. He's gonna pull me out of my pits
He's going to help me have a self-discipline and strength that I need to do these things. I'm going to have peace because of him
(09:05):
It's not you're scared of his power
It is you're in awe of his power you're in awe of who he is and what he can do and what he has done and what he will
do for you and for others and for the world in general and
So let's talk about some examples to kind of just really
Write this into our minds so that we can really see what it means and these are gonna be pretty relatable for some people
(09:31):
I have three examples two of them are kind of similar though
So I may not do both of them, but one is a really
Relatable one for Christians when you first become a Christian and you first truly start to live a life for God
You're in your word. You're learning more about God and who he is and what he's done in the past what he's doing for you
(09:52):
You're recognizing these things of what he's done for you and what he can do for you. You see his promises you
Start talking to him. You know, you break down all of the walls in between you guys you repent daily
You know you're getting away from these things because you see how beneficial it is to get away from these sinful things
And you're doing that with the strength and self-discipline God is giving you, you know all these things
(10:14):
Okay, you're doing them
You're gonna start to see that some of these friends that you've had are not
promoting
God's story God's
His principles, he's they're not promoting anything that glorifies God and
Sometimes unfortunately God tells us
(10:37):
Hey, you need to break off this friendship
You need to respectfully say hey, I don't think we can be doing these things together anymore because
The life I want to live
Well, it just doesn't include these things and every person has the free will to do
What they want to do and so with my free will I'm choosing to go this way
(11:01):
And it just unfortunately doesn't include getting drunk all the time. It unfortunately doesn't include
Having sex outside of marriage all the time it unfortunately doesn't include all these things and well you say unfortunately
It's not unfortunate. So don't actually say that word. I guess sorry
I shouldn't have said that because it's not unfortunate for you. It's fortunate for you, but you're saying that because
(11:23):
or you're saying you're telling your friend these things and it might completely ruin your friendship and
That's unfortunate for sure
But it's it's better for them and it's better for you and it really is better for them
And you may not see that in the moment
They may see it as wow that person like Sarah's a snob
But that first of all you need to have the Holy Spirit guide you in how you say these things because you don't want to hurt that person
(11:48):
In fact, you want to encourage them closer to grow closer to God in this
So you do definitely need to be aware be aware of how you're speaking to them whenever you're having conversations like this
but
Anyway, so there's that but really
Let's just say a smaller scale thing instead of I guess breaking off friendships sounds
(12:11):
Kind of harsh, but I don't really know how to word it right now in this moment. But instead of that
Let's just talk about say another example of
Say like, you know same type of situation where you're growing closer to God and you see like say your friend
Texts you and he or she let's just say she because a lot of the people listening to me are probably girls
(12:32):
As far as I know
But so say your friend texts you and it's like hey
I really want to go bar hopping and we can just totally get drunk and call an uber and it'll be super fun like those
Super, you know be super laid-back relaxed. We're just gonna chill. We're gonna have do whatever we want to do. Have fun
Let's not worry about the responsibilities of this world. I just got drunk and have fun together, you know
(12:56):
Here's the thing folks that is not of God and let me tell you why I should have put this scripture in here
We are to be sober minded and sober minded doesn't necessarily in my opinion does not always literally mean don't get drunk
It's not just about alcohol. This is anything that's taking over your mind where it's altering your thoughts to where you're not thinking
Solely about God or maybe you are thinking irrationally
(13:19):
Irrational thoughts like that is not being sober sober is being rational and you are just not letting anything overtake you other than
God filling up your mind. So but that does include alcohol because
One drink is not gonna get you drunk a couple drinks may not get you drunk
But a few beers is going you know a few beers a few shots that's gonna get you drunk and that is not being like literally
(13:43):
Actually not being sober minded
but also you're allowing something a substance to take over your mind to where you can't think clearly enough to
be rational about your intentions and glorifying God and
So that's what you know, it was just an example because it's also a relatable one a very common and relatable and that's why I chose it
So you need to be sober minded literally and with everything else that being said your friend texts you
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Is like hey, let's totally not be sober minded
let's be irrational and put ourselves in danger and all these things just for the you know to have the time of our life over here and
You know, we can call an uber we can do all these things
You're like no, I can't do that anymore. So you text them back
And you just have to this is where the fear of God comes in ready
You're gonna be afraid more than likely of what your friend is going to think of you
(14:35):
You're gonna be afraid that you're gonna put walls in between you and your friend
You're gonna be afraid they're gonna reject you that you're gonna be afraid that they're not gonna want to hang around you
You might be afraid that they're gonna start gossiping about you around your other friends and then it could cause problems with them
You don't want anyone you don't want anyone to have a tainted opinion of you
and that's that is scary that is a real
(14:56):
scary thing
That is a real fear
but it's not biblical to have that fear and
So in this scenario specifically in order to have fear of God over fear of man
You have to realize in that moment as you're texting that person back or maybe right before or whatever you have to realize in your heart
like
(15:17):
God's got me and here's what's gonna happen
God's got me
God is way better than going to the bar and getting drunk
What like there's literally no comparison like I feel terrible for even putting that as a comparison
Because there's no comparison at the end of the day if you die what what's gonna happen?
You're either gonna go to heaven or hell, right?
(15:39):
At the end of the day, what's gonna happen?
Your friends could all leave you your friends could all
You know go off and do their own thing and leave you just like that
Do their own thing and leave you just drop you like you're nothing
But guess what you have the God the creator
Literally who is like don't worry Sarah. Don't worry bro. Don't worry. John. I've got you
(16:02):
And I want to be with you and I'm never leaving and you have to look here's the here's the essential thing
That helps me
More than anything else and I'm saying this
Fearing God helps me more than anything else in my walk with him and in my obedience to him
And it's this this reason alone. You have to see the court. You have to see the bigger picture
(16:23):
We're going to go back to this analogy in a moment
But i'm going to kind of step off to the side for a minute and tell you a different analogy
Whether you like basketball or not whether you are completely like sports
It's repulsive to you or maybe you like it is your life. Don't make it your life a side note
Make God your life, but you know what I mean like you're addicted or you're not or maybe you're somewhere in between
(16:46):
You're going down the court. You're the point guard right? You're dribbling you have your team
Even if you don't like sports, you can understand this. Okay, i'm going to make this very simple terms. Okay
You are dribbling down the court
Your goal is to make a shot and make it somebody on your team needs to do that
So you look over to your right and you see one of your teammates and they look wide open when you're looking
(17:09):
Directly at them to where you can throw them the ball
They're going to catch it and something great is going to happen something grand and they're going to make a shot, right?
At least that's your hope
You're looking directly at them
You throw them the ball suddenly someone from the other team comes out of the way knocks the ball out of their path out of your
Teammate's pathway and grabs it and goes down the other side of the court and makes a shot and makes it and they score
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Okay, here's what you got to do to prevent that you have to look at the whole
Court what is in front of you? You look at everything. You don't just look at that one person you're looking at
everyone on the court every person you are glancing you are
Skimming over that whole court so you can see every person on their team and on your team that way you can see
(17:55):
Oh, I see my teammates in my right here
I see that they look wide open
But when I look at every other person I see that there's one person just a few feet away toward their left side
Who can jump over there and possibly get the ball? So here's the thing
You have to look at the whole court so that you don't make a mistake by throwing the ball to the wrong person
(18:16):
You have to look at the whole court so you can see
Who is open? What way is open? You have to look at everything to see all possible opportunities as best you can
rationally
So go back to your situation with your friend
In order to look at the whole court in this scenario
This is what it looks like you take a step back in your mind and you say what is the big picture here?
(18:39):
If I go to this bar and I get drunk with my friend or I enable her to get drunk with um
Even if I don't get drunk, you know
Then this is what's happening
Or this is what could happen is what you're going to say and you're going to run through all the scenarios
My friend could get so drunk and then she goes home with some guy and they go do something that they don't need to be
(19:00):
Doing and maybe she gets pregnant like literally let's be real here. Another thing is
Your friend gets drunk and she gets hit by a car
Another thing is you get drunk and your friend get drunk and both bad things happen to both of you
You could get kidnapped you get hit by a car. Also, you could get into the to an uber. That's really not an uber
Or you could fall asleep on the side of the street and who knows what the heck is going to happen to you then
(19:25):
You could make it home safely and soundly
But here's the other thing that could happen after that happens
Your friend is going to be further away from god than she was before
You also will not be as close to god as you were before and you're going to feel guilty about that
and then what if
Something happens to your friend and they die and go to hell because you did not stand up for your beliefs in god
(19:47):
You did not stand up for god in that situation. And so they were not brought closer to god
But instead they were they were pushed further away from him
And then in turn not only are you discouraging your friend from growing closer to god?
But you are also in turn going to discourage others through that friend because when they get
Further away from god, they're going to influence others further away from god also, but if you in that moment in that moment
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You say hey friend
I'm really sorry. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings or make you feel any type of way. I just
Am now a christian and
I personally believe that I don't need to be getting drunk anymore and I just
Don't really
Want to anymore. It's just not a desire because it's not a desire of gods
(20:35):
and
So I am really sorry if that offends you or if that upsets you
But I personally just don't want to do that anymore. So I think i'm going to pass on this
on this hangout time and
Then maybe wish her a good day and say please be safe and I love you
Um, yeah, and you know be respectful about it and when you do that
(20:58):
Let's step back and look at the whole court again
Okay
You step back and you look the situation after you've said those things
Guess what you just did you planted a seed in her heart and you may not see the benefits of the seed
You may not see a you're not going to see a tree come from the seed
Immediately, right a tree takes time to grow time. It takes water. It takes sun. It takes time
(21:20):
The roots really have to grow up
And out and so what you're doing is you're planting seeds and then as time goes on
The the reactions you have toward your friends actions and toward the way they speak to you and
The topics you guys are now going to no longer be talking about because of your relationship with god those are those
(21:41):
Um conversations that you're going to have in the future from now on are just going to be planting more seeds and watering those seeds
You're watering it rain is coming down on that tree
Sun is coming down on that tree years of you know aging for that tree. It's coming down and
That tree is going to grow and if that tree doesn't grow and it dies
(22:02):
It's not because you didn't do your job of sharing the gospel with that friend
It's because that friend unfortunately decided to not follow god the way you chose to and at that point
Like I said, it's not your fault, but you have to fear god over that situation. You have to say I don't care
I mean you're gonna care but just hear me out. Like I don't mean you're not not gonna care
(22:24):
You're not gonna be a cold stone person but
Um, you're not gonna care if you get rejected by people
You're not gonna care what they think about you
You're not gonna care if they go gossip to other people because you don't fear them
You fear god you are in awe of god and you love him so much
You want to honor him so much you want to glorify him so much because he is just that amazing to you
(22:47):
That you have peace knowing that no matter who rejects you you have god and that's all that really matters to you
That is what fearing god over fearing man is
My other example that kind of had some similarities with the other example
Similarities to this and out to this example. I just gave you is
I won't go into big detail because it's got some of the same ideas to it
(23:09):
It's like say you're at the store and the holy spirit is telling you to go talk to someone or pray for them or just
Ask them how their day's going or whatever it is
Um, but you are nervous of the reaction. Maybe you have a bit of social anxiety
Um or whatever, you know, you're and you are just afraid of
Anything that could happen whether it be confrontation from that person
(23:29):
Whether it be you're just nervous to go talk to a new person that you don't know be outgoing, you know
Maybe that's just scary to you
And that's understandable
A lot of people struggle with that you are and I know you probably know this because this is something that people
Talk about pretty often. I feel like is social anxiety
Um, and it is a real thing, but let me tell you friend. It's it's not from god. Do you think jesus had social anxiety?
(23:51):
Like no, like i'm almost laughing at that like he literally did not look at scripture
Look at the gospels where he's literally going around talking to anybody and every day everybody, you know
He's not afraid to talk to people social anxiety is not of god, but it is a real struggle
Um, I struggle with this
This is actually I put this example in here because I personally struggle with this with a lot of things not everything but quite a few things
(24:15):
And so it is a real struggle
So fearing god over fearing man in this situation would look similar to the texting your friend back situation
But it's just a completely different situation
So fearing god over man in this situation would be your nervous of their reaction their rejection their confrontation potential confrontation
Their hatred their judgment whatever it is insert thing here, but because you fear god more you realize
(24:39):
That at the end of the day what matters most is that souls are going to be saved
At the end of the day what matters most is seeds will be planted through you so that god can be glorified
And his kingdom can be grown by you going to talk to that person
So many things could happen
If you go talk to that person and just say hey, I just really feel led to ask you how your day's going
(25:00):
Or hey, I just really wanted to come over here and say I really love your bag or I really love those shoes
Where did you get those and they could open an opportunity just being simply kind to that person could open an opportunity of them to mention
Something like even if it's not a full conversation they would they maybe they say oh, yeah
I got this bag because I just was really having a hard day the other day and I wanted to go
(25:23):
Just walk around and look at some things just to get my mind off of what I was going through
And so I went to a thrift store and I found this for four bucks
And I loved it and then you should be like, oh man. I'm really sorry you were having a hard day
Is there anything I could pray for you over?
Like can I pray for your hard day whether I know what it is or not?
Do you mind and maybe they're gonna be like wow, no one's asked me if they can pray for me
(25:46):
Yes, please or maybe they say no. I really don't want you to pray for me and you could be like, okay
That's totally fine. I just was wondering if I could you know pray for you, but it's totally fine
Well, I'm really sorry you had a hard day
But I really do love your bag what thrift store did you get it from and then you could just move on and maybe close
Up the conversation and then you could still pray for that person just not to them and in front of their face you could
(26:08):
Quietly and secretly pray for them that way where they don't know and they don't feel uncomfortable
But you're still praying such powerful prayers to a powerful god who can do powerful things in their life
you know
So go talk to that person and if you didn't ever talk to that person
You wouldn't have known that they were struggling with something in the first place to pray for
So a lot of things can happen and then they could come to know god
(26:31):
Maybe you'll never find out that they did but maybe they did because you prayed for them
Or maybe because they saw that people are kind and the people that were really kind to me that day
Were the ones who asked they can pray for me. Why would they pray for me? What does that mean?
and then they start asking questions literally things can happen just from you being kind to someone and opening, you know allowing god to
Show you that door that he just opened for you to go talk to that person and walking through it
(26:54):
So many things and that would have never happened if you didn't go talk to that person
Wow, i'm literally speaking to myself right now because that is one of my biggest struggles I can
Tell my friends know about things a lot, but when it comes to
When it comes to talking to random people I struggle with that I really struggle with that
So that was really for me more than anyone else
This is not really fear of man specifically
(27:16):
But it is fear of situation man-made situations
So and it's one that a lot of people struggle with
And i'm going to share it because it's something that my husband and I have actually struggled with
Really very quick like few sentences backstory my husband and I
um have one son and
(27:36):
When toward the end of my pregnancy, I stopped working completely
I went from working full-time for several years to no income at all in fact when I
Got out of high school. I had a part very part-time job. It was very part-time like once or twice a week
That was it when I graduated high school. I went to full-time. Let me tell you this girl was a workaholic
(27:59):
Some of you can definitely relate to me. I'm sure
But I was working all the time triple or doubles occasionally triples like all the time
Went to a different job still working over 40 hours a week. Like I was working a lot
So there's that went to no income on my part
For a short time and then I went back to
Part-time but it was very flexible so that I could be home with my son. So there's the backstory for you
(28:24):
Now I do work from home. I watch a little boy full-time
But I still make significantly less than I used to
So here's here's what I'm going to talk about fearing God over fearing man-made situations
And also fearing man because we're going to get to that in a second
(28:45):
I'm going to talk about this analogy
Because I'm going to talk about this analogy
Because it's something not a lot a lot of people can relate to fear of poverty
Leads to greed. Let's just be real here
My husband and I have struggled with this sin
(29:06):
We may not be greedy on the surface to some people
But we do struggle with this and it might be subtle but it's very real and it affects
Your whole life when you're very
Whole life when you're greedy even in the slightest way fear of being broke and poverty
(29:27):
Leads to greed
Greed leads a man or woman to a life full of evil
leads to destruction anxiety depression and death but death not meaning like
I'm not meaning death like you're literally like if you if i'm greedy
Then god's just going to strike me dead. No, it's not like that
I mean if that were the case, then I would be dead
(29:47):
I would not be on this podcast right now death in this sense means you're not living a life worth living for anymore
It's you know, the the phrase like it sucks the life out of you. It's it's that kind of death
but
Man when you begin, oh my gosh when you begin to fear god above your financial status and your financial comfortability
(30:08):
Then it means that you realize
That god's will no no, let me rephrase that
It means that you realize that god will always provide what you need if it's important to god for you to have it
Then trust me. You're gonna have it scripture says that god is your provider and your protector
and so
Fearing god over the situation means that you believe that that god is going to provide what you need
(30:30):
He is going to protect you he you know
You and so all you know what you need to do is just do your part
Which means you need to manage your money wisely steward your money wisely
Have the self-discipline to do the things you need to do to steward your money wisely
You know and then god's going to do the rest
You just need to have self-discipline and strength and god's going to do everything else for you
He's going to line up all your ducks in a row perfectly
(30:53):
They're going to be perfectly lined up because god's lining them up and you're not you're not lining them up
Your line would not look like line. It's going to be zigzag in a circle. Like it's not it's not going to be a line
a straight line
But god's will be saying no to hanging out with someone else
No to hanging out with someone because it isn't in the budget
They may not understand
(31:14):
Why you're saying no they may not get like oh just use a credit card or whatever, you know, whatever it is
They may not understand but your faithfulness in that situation to god and his principles of not spending money frivolously
Will make a lasting impression on that friend even if you don't see the impression that it made right away
Fearing god brings peace
(31:34):
Knowing and believing that god is your hope god is in control god is your provider your healer your helper your protector
And the guy who just knows the very best timing for literally everything and that's what's going to bring you peace
Which will lead to fear of god above fear of man and fear of circumstances
So have we should we ever fear man? No
(31:56):
Literally fear in this sense is only assigned to our actions toward god as his children
No man
Listen to this. No man is powerful enough to deserve our fear in this way
We should respect others and love them, but this is not the same as adoring them in a worshipful way
there
Um, there's a quote jerry bridges said the one who kneels before god can stand before men
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The fear of god always displaces the fear of man
We cannot separate trust in god from the fear of god
We will trust him only to the extent that we genuinely stand in awe of him
You got to trust that god is who he really says he is and the closer you get to him
It's going to be so easy for you to see he really is who he says he is
(32:42):
And then you're not going to want to fear anyone else over him because he's god and he's amazing
There's a blog post that i'm actually going to link
um
Below this episode so I recommend you go read it just because it's someone else's perspective of the world
perspective of what fear of god is over fear of man and they use the
(33:02):
example of exodus 14
And exodus 14 is whenever god
rescues israel from egypt
and
It there is a passage that says i'll just read this very small part of her blog post it says
Yet the lord oh, yeah, here we go
The israelites became terrified when they saw the egyptians approaching
(33:24):
Well, you would have to know a little bit of the context of this, but just we're going to read the reaction
Um exodus 14 10 through 12 yet the lord reassured them through their leader moses and then miraculously delivered them. That's not scripture. That's her
Paraphrasing what is happening?
He led them through the red sea on dry land while pharaoh's army was swallowed up in defeat
(33:44):
This is the part you need to hear
What did the israelites do in response to this amazing miracle scripture tells us in exodus 14 31?
When israel saw the great power that the lord used against the egyptians the people
Feared the lord and believed on him in him and in his servant moses. They literally saw god's power
They saw how amazing it was not that it was scary
(34:06):
But how amazing it was and instead of reacting out of dread and terror because of how powerful he is
They said wow, I love that god right there
I love him because he is so powerful and that is amazing what he just said so
they literally
started believing in him living for god because
(34:28):
Of who he is in response to god's great power glory and deliverance the israelites feared him
They feared god because of what they'd seen him do
Because of who they knew him to be and how he had saved them in the face of the impossible
That's part of the blog post. So i'm going to link that
I suggest you just read that she gives a little bit of her backstory of what she used to think
Um what fear was and how it was scary to her and yada yada yada. It's not a super long blog post either
(34:50):
So it's not a long read
Very good. Just so you have someone else's perspective on it. I'll link it down in the description below or whatever in the notes below
so
The very last thing and it is very last and very quick
How do we get to this point of fearing god above fearing man where it almost gets to be second nature?
(35:12):
I'm saying this is someone who is not there. It is not second nature for me to fear god above every man
Like above all situations and above all men. I struggle with this
This is something that god has been pointing out to me because i've been struggling with this so i'm still here
It's not like i'm preaching to you from a pulpit of I used to be
I used to struggle with fear of god. No, I fear of man
(35:36):
No, I still struggle with fear of man. So just hear me from that perspective
There are three steps that I have here
To living with and for god that are the three
Necessities necessities these are necessities. They're not optional three steps to living with and for god that are the three necessities to true christianity
(35:57):
Hear that term true true christianity meaning you are truly following god. You're not just saved and then you go live a life on your own
No, you're living life with and for god and these are three essentials three necessities
one
Talking to god
There are so many of us myself included from time to time
Where we do not talk to god enough. We don't talk to him about the good things and the bad things
(36:21):
We don't talk to him every day some weeks
We might be really good about just hanging out with god throughout the day like just randomly talking to him while we're doing whatever and anything
and everything
And then there are weeks where we just are like dry. We do not talk to god hardly at all except for
Once a day, maybe if even that sometimes
You've got to talk to him y'all
(36:41):
You just got to vomit your thoughts to god like literally that's what I say to people a lot and like you just have to throw your thoughts up
Like when you're vomiting no one has to think about this when you're vomiting
You're not thinking about making sure that you're looking pretty or sounding nice or whatever
No, you literally are just trying to like you can't even help us. Sometimes you just throw it all up
Okay, that's the same thing whenever you're talking to god. It doesn't have to be coherent to other people unless well
(37:07):
There's a time for that. There is a time for that
but like whenever you're just sitting with god or doing the dishes or driving in the car or
I don't know you're sitting at your desk at work. Whatever the heck you're doing
You're not gonna be worried it's just you and god you're gonna be worried about other people think about you because it's just you and god
So just talk to him just say
(37:28):
God, I hate doing these dishes. Why why the heck do you want me to do these dishes? How is this glorifying you?
God talk to him about
Your misunderstandings and your questions your confusions talk to him about the good things too. Maybe you just
Went through five lights and they were all greening and you got to work in five minutes instead of ten
That's great. Wow. Thanks. God. Did you see that? Like I had five lights that were green
(37:52):
Heck yeah, like you just talk about it. Even if it doesn't even make sense talk to him
about it, even if it doesn't even make sense talk about it like
And then the other thing with talking to god and this is essential also it just kind of goes underneath this
step um
And repentance, um, we're gonna do eventually at some point a put or a episode about um
(38:16):
Repentance because it is so hard but it is necessary and it's also literally
Literally one of the most beautiful things in the entire world
And i've come to realize this not even that long ago and it's so amazing and I absolutely love repentance
I hate it sometimes in the moment, but also I it's it's amazing. I love it and
Whenever you're talking to god, you also need to be repenting daily weekly like it needs to be a regular thing whenever you have
(38:42):
Nasty thoughts whenever you are rude to someone whenever you
I don't know insert thing here, you know big things little things
All the things when you're talking to god you need to repent of those things and repentance is not just saying god
I did this and
I feel guilty, but then you don't say i'm sorry and you don't turn away from those things. That's not repentance repentance is
(39:03):
Um when you're talking to god
You tell him god
I had a nasty thought earlier and I know that did not glorify you and I know if I keep having those finished
Just going to lead me down a life of destruction and it's going to actually pull me away from you
And I'm really sorry and you know, I know I'm supposed to have self-discipline in those moments, but I don't really know how that's really hard for me
(39:24):
Um, you know tell him those things and then tell him it's like god, please show me give me a tool. Give me a resource
give me
Um something show me in the moment somehow where I can have that self-discipline
Give me the strength I need to have that self-discipline in that moment and you know talk to him just and whenever you
Repent like that. You're literally obliterating like all walls in between you and god are
(39:49):
Obliterated they are gone. They do not exist anymore so that you can just be
Yourself in front of god hug him because you can't hug him
Intimate like you can't hug him if there's walls between you guys. There's a wall there. How you gonna hug him if there's a wall there
You can't hug him
Obliterate those walls so that you can hug your father hug your god hug your friend hug your companion
(40:10):
dude
Get rid of those walls
The next thing is being in his word
there
You know, i'm i'm not coming on here and saying you have to get up at this time every day and read one chapter
No, you just open your word when you have time and make time. That's the other thing though make time
Open his word talk to him for a few minutes. However long you want
(40:35):
and
Then you open his word
And read a few verses go through a book of the bible go to john and open it and
Read, I don't know this i'm not looking at john
So I don't really know what verses 1 through 10 of chapter 1 are but start there read the first 10 verses or whatever
first section that flows together well and
(40:56):
jot a few notes of few observations about it and then figure out okay
What is the context of this? Who is he speaking to here and?
How could I apply this to my daily christian life my relationship with god?
How do I apply this to my struggles? Whatever it is? How do I see god in this?
Where is god in this passage and what is he doing?
And are there any characters about god, you know
(41:18):
Just learn all the things about god and about you and about all the things that you need to know about your life
And when you do that, it's literally god's word. It's literally god's word. Okay
This is how you listen to god you talk to god through prayer and then you listen to him through reading his word
Can he talk to you in other ways? Absolutely, but the main way that he talks to us is through his word guys. It's his word
(41:42):
There are words coming out of my mouth
So you were listening to my words and in order to listen to god's words you have to open his word and listen to it
Okay, that's all I want to say about that oh
The last thing and the the thing there's a reason I said the other two steps before this
But this is the thing
(42:05):
That you do this is the action you do in order to get over your fear of man to where you only fear god
ready
It's a grand thing
obedience
obedience
To god your obedience
To god you're obeying him
(42:26):
But it's not like you feel like you have to
It is an I mean you do have to in a way, but you don't it's not a job to you. It's not a dreadful thing
You're obeying him out of love scripture literally says
Look up obedience out of love for god verses on google and you're gonna find them. There's a few there's quite a few
(42:47):
Obedience out of love for him
Obedience is the key
the key to fearing god
above man
practice
practicing obedience
Practice in this step will build and it will boost your confidence to the point where you won't fear man over god anymore
(43:08):
You just have to do it. It's gonna be scary the first few times might be scary the first 20 times that you
Um have to step out in obedience
Um, but because you love god do it
Again preaching waza. I'm literally feeling convicted. I'm no joke
Um
And you won't be able to hear and see god's commands clearly you won't be able to see what he wants you to obey him about
(43:32):
Um, you know at all if you're not talking to him and listening to him
obedience comes from
It's the step that comes from
Hearing his word like hearing him speak to you and talking to him
So you got to do the other two things. That's why I said those things
obedience though is
Active obedience practicing obedience out of love for god is what is going to ultimately
(43:56):
Get you to fear god above fearing man
And you need strength and self-discipline to be able to obey him in that
It also seeps into your sin cycles in order to obey god obey the holy spirit's promptings
If you need to put this sin away in this moment
You have to have self-discipline and strength to do that and then obey god out of love and say you know what?
(44:16):
I love you god so much that I don't even have I don't want to do this anymore. I feel gross doing this
So you do you obey him in that way and you have to have strength from god
Philippians 4 13 I could do all things through christ who strengthens me. That's what that verse is saying
It's not saying i'm going to go jump off a cliff and god is going to save me
Could he yeah, he could but it's not that it'd be foolish to go jump off a cliff don't do that
(44:38):
What i'm what it's saying is
I can do all things through christ who strengthens me. I can turn away from this sin
Because god is giving me strength that I don't have on my own
But I have it through the holy spirit inside of me and I have to self-discipline from god because i'm close to him
To say no to this thing
And that's obedience out of love for god also
(45:01):
So all right, that's all I got for you guys. I hope you guys have an amazing weekend or a great day
This is supposed to come out on friday. We'll see if it comes out tomorrow or not, but because this is thursday
Okay, but if it doesn't hopefully you have a great day and a great rest of your week or whatever day it is
God, thank you so much for this day. I
(00:03):
Thank you for every single blessing that you've given me and everyone who's listening to this
Even the ones that we don't realize our blessings even the ones that we don't even see
God, I just thank you so much for this podcast and how it's reached
the as many people as it has and
how much it's impacted me and
Help keep me accountable and all the things God. I
(00:25):
I pray that every single person who's listening to this God
that you would plant seeds in their heart and that they would
if they haven't already started a relationship with you God that I pray that above anything else that they would and then
would further their relationship with you by being obedient to you and going out and talking to others about what you've done for them and
(00:48):
That they would just encourage others to go towards you also God
I pray that if
If it's your will that this podcast would reach so many people
And that they truly would see only you through this God
But they would see my love for you and that this whole podcast is just basically to show others and to remind myself that we are
(01:11):
sinners in
Need of a Savior and you are the Savior and I pray that if nothing else happens today from this episode
That at least one person would see that that they would have a desire to know you better
To see you more clearly
In Jesus's name, I pray
Amen
(01:33):
Hey guys, welcome back to our worship warriors podcast
Well, welcome back y'all
To our sports podcast is currently when I'm recording this
630 in the morning
That's lovely
Some of you who are listening to this probably got up a few hours later than I did maybe some of you before actually
(01:54):
And if it was before
630 while I'm sorry
I also got up early and I feel you because I am not someone who likes to get up early in the morning
As always I have a couple disclaimers you might hear whining in the background. That is my dog
He's on the struggle bus this week
He just got fixed and he also heard his little paw paws
(02:17):
His little paw paws have
Sores and burns on them the front two paws have like sores and burns on them because well long story short
He basically
Hopped up his front two paws onto this metal fence and
It was hot enough outside where the metal fence was hot and it literally left burns on his
(02:39):
Paws and it's really sad. He's been limping for like right now. He's walking. He's limping and like he'll stare at our bed
And he's just staring at it because he wants up there, but it's uncomfortable for him to jump up there
And so he still does just not very often
It's really sad because then he'll like just lay on the floor sometimes instead of jumping up on the bed
But anyway, he's staring at me right now or I guess not really staring at me, but he's wanting up here
(03:03):
Again, and we've helped him up here, but also we don't every time because it's like
Non-stop he gets down and then he wants back up, but he doesn't want to do it on his own, but it is really sad
Anyway, so he's whining
often
So that's what you're gonna be hearing. I'm sorry
Anyway
So not that anyone really cared about that, but I do so I was sharing with you
(03:28):
Anyway, so we're gonna just move on we're gonna as always just jump right into it
We're not really gonna beat around the bush a whole lot today's topic is fear of God versus fear of man
Now quick little backstory here. This has been something that God has just been and I mean
Constant he has been constantly revealing to me showing to me reminding me of and it's probably because it's something that from my whole life
(03:55):
I have struggled with probably and I feel like most people do so I know I'm not alone
But then you also know or see know of if you don't know personally, you know, you see these
strong
Christians out there who
Are just like
So grounded in their faith so grounded so close and intimately close to God
(04:20):
That they have no fear of man. It's like you can't you can't touch them and
I envy that and it's not like an unhealthy envy
It's just like a goal of mine that I want that but I know that that is a hard and long process to get to
That point so this is and this is essential. This is so essential
(04:41):
So we're gonna talk about what it actually means to fear God and we're gonna talk a little bit in depth about that today
so what does
What does fear mean in this sense? Like what whenever I say you need to fear God?
What does that mean? Because fear when I was a kid and this is a very common misunderstanding that I
Believe is just not
(05:03):
Taught enough. I think I think it's I mean, it's taught for sure. Like I've heard sermons
I've heard people talk about it on different things like whether it be a podcast or an article like a blog post or whatever
Like people do talk about it
But it's still just so
Misunderstood by many people often non-christians
(05:24):
But there are a lot of Christians who do misunderstand this or just like know that they want to live a life for God
They love God, but they just kind of ignore the term or the phrase
Fearing fear God or fear of God because they don't understand it
So they just don't talk about it because they don't want to talk about something they don't understand
But then they also don't research it and so I know I'm calling out somebody there because that was me for a while, too
(05:47):
So anyway fear of God does not mean
Dread or terror it's like it's not like oh my gosh
I'm terrified of God and I'm so scared that he's gonna hurt me or whatever
It is that I'm just gonna follow him so that he doesn't hurt me
It's not that like I don't fear God in that way. In fact, I don't believe God would ever harm me everything
(06:08):
he does is for his glory and for my benefit and
So sometimes I might go through struggles that is definitely an assured thing like I'm going to struggle
I'm going to have trials like that's in Scripture. We're going to come across trials, but that doesn't mean that it's God being like
Oh Sarah, I
(06:29):
I'm going to make you struggle
I'm going to send this trial so that you're so scared of me that you're not going to leave
It's not like he's an abuser, you know, he's not holding a gun to my head so that I don't leave his side
It it's nothing like that
fear in this sense is
Not anything negative. In fact fear can be synonymous to
(06:53):
Living in awe of God you you are in awe of God you
Glorify him you have you know, you love him. You have hope because of him
You're acting out of reverence to God. That is what that is
So take all of your understandings of what fear is according to the world like being scared of
(07:14):
You know getting swept up by a tornado getting scared of you know getting walking down the street and getting shot or kidnapped
You know take all of those negative
Fears throw them out the window pretend like you've never heard the word fear
Okay, get in that mindset get in those shoes of I've never heard this term and now I'm looking it up and saying okay
What is this term? What is this term? I've never seen these four letters together. What is fear?
(07:38):
And it's this it's love hope glory awe of God. You're acting out of reverence to God. That's what it is
This is for Christians though. You have to remember that if you are a non-christian
Your fear of God is actually going to look different and it's not the
He's holding a gun to my head. It's more so of
If I'm if I'm not a Christian me Sarah say I'm not a Christian
(08:01):
I'm going to be scared if I if I actually see the power of God and see how powerful he is
Because he's literally the creator of all he literally can control anything
I'm going to be scared of him in the sense that if I die, I'm gonna suffer for all eternity and that's terrifying
If I'm a non-christian, I'm also scared because he's so powerful that if I'm not living for him
(08:22):
He can just choose to take me out of this world anytime. He can choose to send
Punishment anytime he sees fit like he literally can do whatever he wants. He's God and that's scary
But if you're living for God if you have a relationship with him and you're just living a life out of love for him
You're obeying him out of love for him because you just you just love him and you don't want to be a Christian
(08:43):
I'm not scared for him because you just you just love him and you don't want to do anything but love him
And when you're living that it's not scary because you're like even though trials come I've got God on my side
And he's gonna help me through this. He's gonna pull me out of my pits
He's going to help me have a self-discipline and strength that I need to do these things. I'm going to have peace because of him
(09:05):
It's not you're scared of his power
It is you're in awe of his power you're in awe of who he is and what he can do and what he has done and what he will
do for you and for others and for the world in general and
So let's talk about some examples to kind of just really
Write this into our minds so that we can really see what it means and these are gonna be pretty relatable for some people
(09:31):
I have three examples two of them are kind of similar though
So I may not do both of them, but one is a really
Relatable one for Christians when you first become a Christian and you first truly start to live a life for God
You're in your word. You're learning more about God and who he is and what he's done in the past what he's doing for you
(09:52):
You're recognizing these things of what he's done for you and what he can do for you. You see his promises you
Start talking to him. You know, you break down all of the walls in between you guys you repent daily
You know you're getting away from these things because you see how beneficial it is to get away from these sinful things
And you're doing that with the strength and self-discipline God is giving you, you know all these things
(10:14):
Okay, you're doing them
You're gonna start to see that some of these friends that you've had are not
promoting
God's story God's
His principles, he's they're not promoting anything that glorifies God and
Sometimes unfortunately God tells us
(10:37):
Hey, you need to break off this friendship
You need to respectfully say hey, I don't think we can be doing these things together anymore because
The life I want to live
Well, it just doesn't include these things and every person has the free will to do
What they want to do and so with my free will I'm choosing to go this way
(11:01):
And it just unfortunately doesn't include getting drunk all the time. It unfortunately doesn't include
Having sex outside of marriage all the time it unfortunately doesn't include all these things and well you say unfortunately
It's not unfortunate. So don't actually say that word. I guess sorry
I shouldn't have said that because it's not unfortunate for you. It's fortunate for you, but you're saying that because
(11:23):
or you're saying you're telling your friend these things and it might completely ruin your friendship and
That's unfortunate for sure
But it's it's better for them and it's better for you and it really is better for them
And you may not see that in the moment
They may see it as wow that person like Sarah's a snob
But that first of all you need to have the Holy Spirit guide you in how you say these things because you don't want to hurt that person
(11:48):
In fact, you want to encourage them closer to grow closer to God in this
So you do definitely need to be aware be aware of how you're speaking to them whenever you're having conversations like this
but
Anyway, so there's that but really
Let's just say a smaller scale thing instead of I guess breaking off friendships sounds
(12:11):
Kind of harsh, but I don't really know how to word it right now in this moment. But instead of that
Let's just talk about say another example of
Say like, you know same type of situation where you're growing closer to God and you see like say your friend
Texts you and he or she let's just say she because a lot of the people listening to me are probably girls
(12:32):
As far as I know
But so say your friend texts you and it's like hey
I really want to go bar hopping and we can just totally get drunk and call an uber and it'll be super fun like those
Super, you know be super laid-back relaxed. We're just gonna chill. We're gonna have do whatever we want to do. Have fun
Let's not worry about the responsibilities of this world. I just got drunk and have fun together, you know
(12:56):
Here's the thing folks that is not of God and let me tell you why I should have put this scripture in here
We are to be sober minded and sober minded doesn't necessarily in my opinion does not always literally mean don't get drunk
It's not just about alcohol. This is anything that's taking over your mind where it's altering your thoughts to where you're not thinking
Solely about God or maybe you are thinking irrationally
(13:19):
Irrational thoughts like that is not being sober sober is being rational and you are just not letting anything overtake you other than
God filling up your mind. So but that does include alcohol because
One drink is not gonna get you drunk a couple drinks may not get you drunk
But a few beers is going you know a few beers a few shots that's gonna get you drunk and that is not being like literally
(13:43):
Actually not being sober minded
but also you're allowing something a substance to take over your mind to where you can't think clearly enough to
be rational about your intentions and glorifying God and
So that's what you know, it was just an example because it's also a relatable one a very common and relatable and that's why I chose it
So you need to be sober minded literally and with everything else that being said your friend texts you
(14:11):
Is like hey, let's totally not be sober minded
let's be irrational and put ourselves in danger and all these things just for the you know to have the time of our life over here and
You know, we can call an uber we can do all these things
You're like no, I can't do that anymore. So you text them back
And you just have to this is where the fear of God comes in ready
You're gonna be afraid more than likely of what your friend is going to think of you
(14:35):
You're gonna be afraid that you're gonna put walls in between you and your friend
You're gonna be afraid they're gonna reject you that you're gonna be afraid that they're not gonna want to hang around you
You might be afraid that they're gonna start gossiping about you around your other friends and then it could cause problems with them
You don't want anyone you don't want anyone to have a tainted opinion of you
and that's that is scary that is a real
(14:56):
scary thing
That is a real fear
but it's not biblical to have that fear and
So in this scenario specifically in order to have fear of God over fear of man
You have to realize in that moment as you're texting that person back or maybe right before or whatever you have to realize in your heart
like
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God's got me and here's what's gonna happen
God's got me
God is way better than going to the bar and getting drunk
What like there's literally no comparison like I feel terrible for even putting that as a comparison
Because there's no comparison at the end of the day if you die what what's gonna happen?
You're either gonna go to heaven or hell, right?
(15:39):
At the end of the day, what's gonna happen?
Your friends could all leave you your friends could all
You know go off and do their own thing and leave you just like that
Do their own thing and leave you just drop you like you're nothing
But guess what you have the God the creator
Literally who is like don't worry Sarah. Don't worry bro. Don't worry. John. I've got you
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And I want to be with you and I'm never leaving and you have to look here's the here's the essential thing
That helps me
More than anything else and I'm saying this
Fearing God helps me more than anything else in my walk with him and in my obedience to him
And it's this this reason alone. You have to see the court. You have to see the bigger picture
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We're going to go back to this analogy in a moment
But i'm going to kind of step off to the side for a minute and tell you a different analogy
Whether you like basketball or not whether you are completely like sports
It's repulsive to you or maybe you like it is your life. Don't make it your life a side note
Make God your life, but you know what I mean like you're addicted or you're not or maybe you're somewhere in between
(16:46):
You're going down the court. You're the point guard right? You're dribbling you have your team
Even if you don't like sports, you can understand this. Okay, i'm going to make this very simple terms. Okay
You are dribbling down the court
Your goal is to make a shot and make it somebody on your team needs to do that
So you look over to your right and you see one of your teammates and they look wide open when you're looking
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Directly at them to where you can throw them the ball
They're going to catch it and something great is going to happen something grand and they're going to make a shot, right?
At least that's your hope
You're looking directly at them
You throw them the ball suddenly someone from the other team comes out of the way knocks the ball out of their path out of your
Teammate's pathway and grabs it and goes down the other side of the court and makes a shot and makes it and they score
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Okay, here's what you got to do to prevent that you have to look at the whole
Court what is in front of you? You look at everything. You don't just look at that one person you're looking at
everyone on the court every person you are glancing you are
Skimming over that whole court so you can see every person on their team and on your team that way you can see
(17:55):
Oh, I see my teammates in my right here
I see that they look wide open
But when I look at every other person I see that there's one person just a few feet away toward their left side
Who can jump over there and possibly get the ball? So here's the thing
You have to look at the whole court so that you don't make a mistake by throwing the ball to the wrong person
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You have to look at the whole court so you can see
Who is open? What way is open? You have to look at everything to see all possible opportunities as best you can
rationally
So go back to your situation with your friend
In order to look at the whole court in this scenario
This is what it looks like you take a step back in your mind and you say what is the big picture here?
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If I go to this bar and I get drunk with my friend or I enable her to get drunk with um
Even if I don't get drunk, you know
Then this is what's happening
Or this is what could happen is what you're going to say and you're going to run through all the scenarios
My friend could get so drunk and then she goes home with some guy and they go do something that they don't need to be
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Doing and maybe she gets pregnant like literally let's be real here. Another thing is
Your friend gets drunk and she gets hit by a car
Another thing is you get drunk and your friend get drunk and both bad things happen to both of you
You could get kidnapped you get hit by a car. Also, you could get into the to an uber. That's really not an uber
Or you could fall asleep on the side of the street and who knows what the heck is going to happen to you then
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You could make it home safely and soundly
But here's the other thing that could happen after that happens
Your friend is going to be further away from god than she was before
You also will not be as close to god as you were before and you're going to feel guilty about that
and then what if
Something happens to your friend and they die and go to hell because you did not stand up for your beliefs in god
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You did not stand up for god in that situation. And so they were not brought closer to god
But instead they were they were pushed further away from him
And then in turn not only are you discouraging your friend from growing closer to god?
But you are also in turn going to discourage others through that friend because when they get
Further away from god, they're going to influence others further away from god also, but if you in that moment in that moment
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You say hey friend
I'm really sorry. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings or make you feel any type of way. I just
Am now a christian and
I personally believe that I don't need to be getting drunk anymore and I just
Don't really
Want to anymore. It's just not a desire because it's not a desire of gods
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and
So I am really sorry if that offends you or if that upsets you
But I personally just don't want to do that anymore. So I think i'm going to pass on this
on this hangout time and
Then maybe wish her a good day and say please be safe and I love you
Um, yeah, and you know be respectful about it and when you do that
(20:58):
Let's step back and look at the whole court again
Okay
You step back and you look the situation after you've said those things
Guess what you just did you planted a seed in her heart and you may not see the benefits of the seed
You may not see a you're not going to see a tree come from the seed
Immediately, right a tree takes time to grow time. It takes water. It takes sun. It takes time
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The roots really have to grow up
And out and so what you're doing is you're planting seeds and then as time goes on
The the reactions you have toward your friends actions and toward the way they speak to you and
The topics you guys are now going to no longer be talking about because of your relationship with god those are those
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Um conversations that you're going to have in the future from now on are just going to be planting more seeds and watering those seeds
You're watering it rain is coming down on that tree
Sun is coming down on that tree years of you know aging for that tree. It's coming down and
That tree is going to grow and if that tree doesn't grow and it dies
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It's not because you didn't do your job of sharing the gospel with that friend
It's because that friend unfortunately decided to not follow god the way you chose to and at that point
Like I said, it's not your fault, but you have to fear god over that situation. You have to say I don't care
I mean you're gonna care but just hear me out. Like I don't mean you're not not gonna care
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You're not gonna be a cold stone person but
Um, you're not gonna care if you get rejected by people
You're not gonna care what they think about you
You're not gonna care if they go gossip to other people because you don't fear them
You fear god you are in awe of god and you love him so much
You want to honor him so much you want to glorify him so much because he is just that amazing to you
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That you have peace knowing that no matter who rejects you you have god and that's all that really matters to you
That is what fearing god over fearing man is
My other example that kind of had some similarities with the other example
Similarities to this and out to this example. I just gave you is
I won't go into big detail because it's got some of the same ideas to it
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It's like say you're at the store and the holy spirit is telling you to go talk to someone or pray for them or just
Ask them how their day's going or whatever it is
Um, but you are nervous of the reaction. Maybe you have a bit of social anxiety
Um or whatever, you know, you're and you are just afraid of
Anything that could happen whether it be confrontation from that person
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Whether it be you're just nervous to go talk to a new person that you don't know be outgoing, you know
Maybe that's just scary to you
And that's understandable
A lot of people struggle with that you are and I know you probably know this because this is something that people
Talk about pretty often. I feel like is social anxiety
Um, and it is a real thing, but let me tell you friend. It's it's not from god. Do you think jesus had social anxiety?
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Like no, like i'm almost laughing at that like he literally did not look at scripture
Look at the gospels where he's literally going around talking to anybody and every day everybody, you know
He's not afraid to talk to people social anxiety is not of god, but it is a real struggle
Um, I struggle with this
This is actually I put this example in here because I personally struggle with this with a lot of things not everything but quite a few things
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And so it is a real struggle
So fearing god over fearing man in this situation would look similar to the texting your friend back situation
But it's just a completely different situation
So fearing god over man in this situation would be your nervous of their reaction their rejection their confrontation potential confrontation
Their hatred their judgment whatever it is insert thing here, but because you fear god more you realize
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That at the end of the day what matters most is that souls are going to be saved
At the end of the day what matters most is seeds will be planted through you so that god can be glorified
And his kingdom can be grown by you going to talk to that person
So many things could happen
If you go talk to that person and just say hey, I just really feel led to ask you how your day's going
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Or hey, I just really wanted to come over here and say I really love your bag or I really love those shoes
Where did you get those and they could open an opportunity just being simply kind to that person could open an opportunity of them to mention
Something like even if it's not a full conversation they would they maybe they say oh, yeah
I got this bag because I just was really having a hard day the other day and I wanted to go
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Just walk around and look at some things just to get my mind off of what I was going through
And so I went to a thrift store and I found this for four bucks
And I loved it and then you should be like, oh man. I'm really sorry you were having a hard day
Is there anything I could pray for you over?
Like can I pray for your hard day whether I know what it is or not?
Do you mind and maybe they're gonna be like wow, no one's asked me if they can pray for me
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Yes, please or maybe they say no. I really don't want you to pray for me and you could be like, okay
That's totally fine. I just was wondering if I could you know pray for you, but it's totally fine
Well, I'm really sorry you had a hard day
But I really do love your bag what thrift store did you get it from and then you could just move on and maybe close
Up the conversation and then you could still pray for that person just not to them and in front of their face you could
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Quietly and secretly pray for them that way where they don't know and they don't feel uncomfortable
But you're still praying such powerful prayers to a powerful god who can do powerful things in their life
you know
So go talk to that person and if you didn't ever talk to that person
You wouldn't have known that they were struggling with something in the first place to pray for
So a lot of things can happen and then they could come to know god
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Maybe you'll never find out that they did but maybe they did because you prayed for them
Or maybe because they saw that people are kind and the people that were really kind to me that day
Were the ones who asked they can pray for me. Why would they pray for me? What does that mean?
and then they start asking questions literally things can happen just from you being kind to someone and opening, you know allowing god to
Show you that door that he just opened for you to go talk to that person and walking through it
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So many things and that would have never happened if you didn't go talk to that person
Wow, i'm literally speaking to myself right now because that is one of my biggest struggles I can
Tell my friends know about things a lot, but when it comes to
When it comes to talking to random people I struggle with that I really struggle with that
So that was really for me more than anyone else
This is not really fear of man specifically
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But it is fear of situation man-made situations
So and it's one that a lot of people struggle with
And i'm going to share it because it's something that my husband and I have actually struggled with
Really very quick like few sentences backstory my husband and I
um have one son and
(27:36):
When toward the end of my pregnancy, I stopped working completely
I went from working full-time for several years to no income at all in fact when I
Got out of high school. I had a part very part-time job. It was very part-time like once or twice a week
That was it when I graduated high school. I went to full-time. Let me tell you this girl was a workaholic
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Some of you can definitely relate to me. I'm sure
But I was working all the time triple or doubles occasionally triples like all the time
Went to a different job still working over 40 hours a week. Like I was working a lot
So there's that went to no income on my part
For a short time and then I went back to
Part-time but it was very flexible so that I could be home with my son. So there's the backstory for you
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Now I do work from home. I watch a little boy full-time
But I still make significantly less than I used to
So here's here's what I'm going to talk about fearing God over fearing man-made situations
And also fearing man because we're going to get to that in a second
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I'm going to talk about this analogy
Because I'm going to talk about this analogy
Because it's something not a lot a lot of people can relate to fear of poverty
Leads to greed. Let's just be real here
My husband and I have struggled with this sin
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We may not be greedy on the surface to some people
But we do struggle with this and it might be subtle but it's very real and it affects
Your whole life when you're very
Whole life when you're greedy even in the slightest way fear of being broke and poverty
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Leads to greed
Greed leads a man or woman to a life full of evil
leads to destruction anxiety depression and death but death not meaning like
I'm not meaning death like you're literally like if you if i'm greedy
Then god's just going to strike me dead. No, it's not like that
I mean if that were the case, then I would be dead
(29:47):
I would not be on this podcast right now death in this sense means you're not living a life worth living for anymore
It's you know, the the phrase like it sucks the life out of you. It's it's that kind of death
but
Man when you begin, oh my gosh when you begin to fear god above your financial status and your financial comfortability
(30:08):
Then it means that you realize
That god's will no no, let me rephrase that
It means that you realize that god will always provide what you need if it's important to god for you to have it
Then trust me. You're gonna have it scripture says that god is your provider and your protector
and so
Fearing god over the situation means that you believe that that god is going to provide what you need
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He is going to protect you he you know
You and so all you know what you need to do is just do your part
Which means you need to manage your money wisely steward your money wisely
Have the self-discipline to do the things you need to do to steward your money wisely
You know and then god's going to do the rest
You just need to have self-discipline and strength and god's going to do everything else for you
He's going to line up all your ducks in a row perfectly
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They're going to be perfectly lined up because god's lining them up and you're not you're not lining them up
Your line would not look like line. It's going to be zigzag in a circle. Like it's not it's not going to be a line
a straight line
But god's will be saying no to hanging out with someone else
No to hanging out with someone because it isn't in the budget
They may not understand
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Why you're saying no they may not get like oh just use a credit card or whatever, you know, whatever it is
They may not understand but your faithfulness in that situation to god and his principles of not spending money frivolously
Will make a lasting impression on that friend even if you don't see the impression that it made right away
Fearing god brings peace
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Knowing and believing that god is your hope god is in control god is your provider your healer your helper your protector
And the guy who just knows the very best timing for literally everything and that's what's going to bring you peace
Which will lead to fear of god above fear of man and fear of circumstances
So have we should we ever fear man? No
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Literally fear in this sense is only assigned to our actions toward god as his children
No man
Listen to this. No man is powerful enough to deserve our fear in this way
We should respect others and love them, but this is not the same as adoring them in a worshipful way
there
Um, there's a quote jerry bridges said the one who kneels before god can stand before men
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The fear of god always displaces the fear of man
We cannot separate trust in god from the fear of god
We will trust him only to the extent that we genuinely stand in awe of him
You got to trust that god is who he really says he is and the closer you get to him
It's going to be so easy for you to see he really is who he says he is
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And then you're not going to want to fear anyone else over him because he's god and he's amazing
There's a blog post that i'm actually going to link
um
Below this episode so I recommend you go read it just because it's someone else's perspective of the world
perspective of what fear of god is over fear of man and they use the
(33:02):
example of exodus 14
And exodus 14 is whenever god
rescues israel from egypt
and
It there is a passage that says i'll just read this very small part of her blog post it says
Yet the lord oh, yeah, here we go
The israelites became terrified when they saw the egyptians approaching
(33:24):
Well, you would have to know a little bit of the context of this, but just we're going to read the reaction
Um exodus 14 10 through 12 yet the lord reassured them through their leader moses and then miraculously delivered them. That's not scripture. That's her
Paraphrasing what is happening?
He led them through the red sea on dry land while pharaoh's army was swallowed up in defeat
(33:44):
This is the part you need to hear
What did the israelites do in response to this amazing miracle scripture tells us in exodus 14 31?
When israel saw the great power that the lord used against the egyptians the people
Feared the lord and believed on him in him and in his servant moses. They literally saw god's power
They saw how amazing it was not that it was scary
(34:06):
But how amazing it was and instead of reacting out of dread and terror because of how powerful he is
They said wow, I love that god right there
I love him because he is so powerful and that is amazing what he just said so
they literally
started believing in him living for god because
(34:28):
Of who he is in response to god's great power glory and deliverance the israelites feared him
They feared god because of what they'd seen him do
Because of who they knew him to be and how he had saved them in the face of the impossible
That's part of the blog post. So i'm going to link that
I suggest you just read that she gives a little bit of her backstory of what she used to think
Um what fear was and how it was scary to her and yada yada yada. It's not a super long blog post either
(34:50):
So it's not a long read
Very good. Just so you have someone else's perspective on it. I'll link it down in the description below or whatever in the notes below
so
The very last thing and it is very last and very quick
How do we get to this point of fearing god above fearing man where it almost gets to be second nature?
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I'm saying this is someone who is not there. It is not second nature for me to fear god above every man
Like above all situations and above all men. I struggle with this
This is something that god has been pointing out to me because i've been struggling with this so i'm still here
It's not like i'm preaching to you from a pulpit of I used to be
I used to struggle with fear of god. No, I fear of man
(35:36):
No, I still struggle with fear of man. So just hear me from that perspective
There are three steps that I have here
To living with and for god that are the three
Necessities necessities these are necessities. They're not optional three steps to living with and for god that are the three necessities to true christianity
(35:57):
Hear that term true true christianity meaning you are truly following god. You're not just saved and then you go live a life on your own
No, you're living life with and for god and these are three essentials three necessities
one
Talking to god
There are so many of us myself included from time to time
Where we do not talk to god enough. We don't talk to him about the good things and the bad things
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We don't talk to him every day some weeks
We might be really good about just hanging out with god throughout the day like just randomly talking to him while we're doing whatever and anything
and everything
And then there are weeks where we just are like dry. We do not talk to god hardly at all except for
Once a day, maybe if even that sometimes
You've got to talk to him y'all
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You just got to vomit your thoughts to god like literally that's what I say to people a lot and like you just have to throw your thoughts up
Like when you're vomiting no one has to think about this when you're vomiting
You're not thinking about making sure that you're looking pretty or sounding nice or whatever
No, you literally are just trying to like you can't even help us. Sometimes you just throw it all up
Okay, that's the same thing whenever you're talking to god. It doesn't have to be coherent to other people unless well
(37:07):
There's a time for that. There is a time for that
but like whenever you're just sitting with god or doing the dishes or driving in the car or
I don't know you're sitting at your desk at work. Whatever the heck you're doing
You're not gonna be worried it's just you and god you're gonna be worried about other people think about you because it's just you and god
So just talk to him just say
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God, I hate doing these dishes. Why why the heck do you want me to do these dishes? How is this glorifying you?
God talk to him about
Your misunderstandings and your questions your confusions talk to him about the good things too. Maybe you just
Went through five lights and they were all greening and you got to work in five minutes instead of ten
That's great. Wow. Thanks. God. Did you see that? Like I had five lights that were green
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Heck yeah, like you just talk about it. Even if it doesn't even make sense talk to him
about it, even if it doesn't even make sense talk about it like
And then the other thing with talking to god and this is essential also it just kind of goes underneath this
step um
And repentance, um, we're gonna do eventually at some point a put or a episode about um
(38:16):
Repentance because it is so hard but it is necessary and it's also literally
Literally one of the most beautiful things in the entire world
And i've come to realize this not even that long ago and it's so amazing and I absolutely love repentance
I hate it sometimes in the moment, but also I it's it's amazing. I love it and
Whenever you're talking to god, you also need to be repenting daily weekly like it needs to be a regular thing whenever you have
(38:42):
Nasty thoughts whenever you are rude to someone whenever you
I don't know insert thing here, you know big things little things
All the things when you're talking to god you need to repent of those things and repentance is not just saying god
I did this and
I feel guilty, but then you don't say i'm sorry and you don't turn away from those things. That's not repentance repentance is
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Um when you're talking to god
You tell him god
I had a nasty thought earlier and I know that did not glorify you and I know if I keep having those finished
Just going to lead me down a life of destruction and it's going to actually pull me away from you
And I'm really sorry and you know, I know I'm supposed to have self-discipline in those moments, but I don't really know how that's really hard for me
(39:24):
Um, you know tell him those things and then tell him it's like god, please show me give me a tool. Give me a resource
give me
Um something show me in the moment somehow where I can have that self-discipline
Give me the strength I need to have that self-discipline in that moment and you know talk to him just and whenever you
Repent like that. You're literally obliterating like all walls in between you and god are
(39:49):
Obliterated they are gone. They do not exist anymore so that you can just be
Yourself in front of god hug him because you can't hug him
Intimate like you can't hug him if there's walls between you guys. There's a wall there. How you gonna hug him if there's a wall there
You can't hug him
Obliterate those walls so that you can hug your father hug your god hug your friend hug your companion
(40:10):
dude
Get rid of those walls
The next thing is being in his word
there
You know, i'm i'm not coming on here and saying you have to get up at this time every day and read one chapter
No, you just open your word when you have time and make time. That's the other thing though make time
Open his word talk to him for a few minutes. However long you want
(40:35):
and
Then you open his word
And read a few verses go through a book of the bible go to john and open it and
Read, I don't know this i'm not looking at john
So I don't really know what verses 1 through 10 of chapter 1 are but start there read the first 10 verses or whatever
first section that flows together well and
(40:56):
jot a few notes of few observations about it and then figure out okay
What is the context of this? Who is he speaking to here and?
How could I apply this to my daily christian life my relationship with god?
How do I apply this to my struggles? Whatever it is? How do I see god in this?
Where is god in this passage and what is he doing?
And are there any characters about god, you know
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Just learn all the things about god and about you and about all the things that you need to know about your life
And when you do that, it's literally god's word. It's literally god's word. Okay
This is how you listen to god you talk to god through prayer and then you listen to him through reading his word
Can he talk to you in other ways? Absolutely, but the main way that he talks to us is through his word guys. It's his word
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There are words coming out of my mouth
So you were listening to my words and in order to listen to god's words you have to open his word and listen to it
Okay, that's all I want to say about that oh
The last thing and the the thing there's a reason I said the other two steps before this
But this is the thing
(42:05):
That you do this is the action you do in order to get over your fear of man to where you only fear god
ready
It's a grand thing
obedience
obedience
To god your obedience
To god you're obeying him
(42:26):
But it's not like you feel like you have to
It is an I mean you do have to in a way, but you don't it's not a job to you. It's not a dreadful thing
You're obeying him out of love scripture literally says
Look up obedience out of love for god verses on google and you're gonna find them. There's a few there's quite a few
(42:47):
Obedience out of love for him
Obedience is the key
the key to fearing god
above man
practice
practicing obedience
Practice in this step will build and it will boost your confidence to the point where you won't fear man over god anymore
(43:08):
You just have to do it. It's gonna be scary the first few times might be scary the first 20 times that you
Um have to step out in obedience
Um, but because you love god do it
Again preaching waza. I'm literally feeling convicted. I'm no joke
Um
And you won't be able to hear and see god's commands clearly you won't be able to see what he wants you to obey him about
(43:32):
Um, you know at all if you're not talking to him and listening to him
obedience comes from
It's the step that comes from
Hearing his word like hearing him speak to you and talking to him
So you got to do the other two things. That's why I said those things
obedience though is
Active obedience practicing obedience out of love for god is what is going to ultimately
(43:56):
Get you to fear god above fearing man
And you need strength and self-discipline to be able to obey him in that
It also seeps into your sin cycles in order to obey god obey the holy spirit's promptings
If you need to put this sin away in this moment
You have to have self-discipline and strength to do that and then obey god out of love and say you know what?
(44:16):
I love you god so much that I don't even have I don't want to do this anymore. I feel gross doing this
So you do you obey him in that way and you have to have strength from god
Philippians 4 13 I could do all things through christ who strengthens me. That's what that verse is saying
It's not saying i'm going to go jump off a cliff and god is going to save me
Could he yeah, he could but it's not that it'd be foolish to go jump off a cliff don't do that
(44:38):
What i'm what it's saying is
I can do all things through christ who strengthens me. I can turn away from this sin
Because god is giving me strength that I don't have on my own
But I have it through the holy spirit inside of me and I have to self-discipline from god because i'm close to him
To say no to this thing
And that's obedience out of love for god also
(45:01):
So all right, that's all I got for you guys. I hope you guys have an amazing weekend or a great day
This is supposed to come out on friday. We'll see if it comes out tomorrow or not, but because this is thursday
Okay, but if it doesn't hopefully you have a great day and a great rest of your week or whatever day it is
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