Latest / Calvary Chapel Devine, Texas Podcast / Addressing Emotional Health Issues in Church "Equip Conference 2024 Session 1." (Part 3 of 3) with Pastor Michael Petit

Transcript

Addressing Emotional Health Issues in Church "Equip Conference 2024 Session 1." (Part 3 of 3) with Pastor Michael Petit · Calvary Chapel Devine, Texas Podcast

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  Music.
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  Welcome to today's broadcast of Sun, Salt, and Light.
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  Sun, Salt, and Light, S-O-N, knowing and growing in your daily relationship with Jesus Christ,
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  but also be in the salt and the light in your marriage, in your family,
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  at your place of work, at your church, and even in the community you're in.
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  I'm Pastor Michael Petit. This is a radio ministry of our church,
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  Calvary Chapel Divine, Divine here in Divine, Texas.
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  We are so glad that you joined us for today's broadcast.
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  We are a Calvary Chapel, so we simply teach the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter.
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  We believe that God uses His Word to transform, restore, and to change lives one verse at a time.
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  If you're visiting our area, you'd like to get information about our church
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  or church service times, maybe even track down some of the other teachings that
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  we have available through podcasts, whether it's through Audible or Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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  You can do all of that at our church website at calvarydivine.org.
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  That's calvarydivine.org.
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  Hey, this is Pastor Michael Petit.
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  Question for you. How do you disciple somebody with emotional health coming into the church?
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  Imagine this. Imagine having a family of five kids, a husband and wife with a broken marriage.
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  Two of the kids have tried to commit suicide. One has been actually placed into
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  Lower Ridge, which is a place for mental health.
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  And here we come into the church.
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  This is my family. How do you disciple them?
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  And that's not including the stuff I was dealing with. I had no clue what it
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  was to be a father, no clue what it was to be a husband.
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  And I was struggling with my own emotional health, which was through post-traumatic
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  stress disorder, from being in combat.
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  And here we are, and we need discipleship.
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  What do you do as a church?
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  Well, that's what this study is. We were able to, I had the blessing of being
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  able to go to the Equip Conference here in Divine, Texas and teach.
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  I had two sessions and this will actually be broken up probably into four teachings
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  because they gave us two full hour sessions.
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  And so you'll hear some of my testimony in this.
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  You'll hear some of the things that our church did as I came and our family came into the church.
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  Church some of the things that were suggested to us
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  to do which was biblical counseling for our marriage
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  and so it's i hope this helps
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  you if you have your bible will be actually in psalm 23 and then we'll also
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  be in joshua chapter 1 and so we'll go through this bit by bit piece by piece
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  through the scripture as well so this is a teaching just fyi we will go verse
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  by verse through the book of Joshua,
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  chapter 1, I think it's chapter 1, verses 1 through 9, if I remember right.
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  But I hope that you enjoy this. So the beginning of it, again,
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  is me sharing a little bit about my testimony,
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  our family's testimony, and as we're coming into the church,
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  and just the reality of what people are dealing with,
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  not only in the church, but also as they become new believers in coming to the
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  church and how does the church disciple within that.
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  And so that's what these teachings are. I hope that you enjoy them.
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  This is the third half of this four part study, because when we had our first session, we,
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  I'm 39 years old. And the first session, my wife goes, when he was 17,
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  I was like, oh, this is going to be, let's not do it at all.
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  She went back to when we were 17. We've known each other since high school.
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  She sat behind me in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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  Her dad and my dad were both Air Force. And I was like, Lord,
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  I was a mess at 17. So this is going to be a while. Wow.
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  And can I tell you, one of the things that we started doing was just practically
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  applying the word of God in our life. Was it hard? Yes.
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  Were there tears? Yes. Were there moments like, well, why does God do this like this? Yes.
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  But there was somebody to walk us through that for
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  me it was pastor louis delgado and many
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  others and and they would i i
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  can remember they would let me talk and then they would say well look mike let's
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  go to the word of god and see what god's word says no i want to keep talking
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  i want to be in my feelings no we got it's time to get to the word of god it
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  it's it's understanding like and you have to understand i I was going through,
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  when I came back from Iraq,
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  I couldn't understand.
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  I can still remember walking to the mall in Louisville. We were stationed in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
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  I think it was a Saturday after I got back on Friday or something like that.
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  And everybody was just going on with their lives.
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  And I couldn't understand it. My wife tried to wake me up, almost choked her.
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  I i was on the 50 cow mount you know it was crazy and this is just the lord is is.
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  Lavelle my the driver that i had reached
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  out to me this past week and i haven't talked to lavelle in over 30 years he
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  has ms all of us are sick i told him he asked me how you doing i said i'm all
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  right man i they diagnosed me with porphyria which is what the vietnam vets have,
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  That's what happens when you get exposed to chemical.
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  They said, well, I don't trust my government that much. Yeah.
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  I'm very hesitant when they ask me to do things. And so what happens with my
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  body is my blood will actually, when it gets through my liver,
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  it pushes too much oxygen through.
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  And it's painful, but that's just one of the things.
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  The original thing that they found out I had was autoimmune disease called Sjogren's.
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  And so I wake up in pain and I go to bed in pain. I deal with it all the time.
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  And I was struggling with that as I was coming back from the war.
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  And then we got stationed in Hawaii.
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  And I'm going to tell you this, and I'm not going to sit here and try to glorify
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  the sin that I was in, but I was a very sinful man in Hawaii.
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  Suicidal. And many times, coming down the mountains, driving over 90 miles an
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  hour, ready to go off the side at any moment, because I was done. done.
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  See, in the army at that time, there was no PTSD.
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  We were told when we out-processed in Egypt, if you want to go home tonight, you can go home tonight.
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  If you want to talk to the psychologist or the psychiatrist,
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  you'll be here another three to four days or however many days they want to
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  hold you. What do you want to do?
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  Everybody went home. Then when we got home, home, what do they tell us to do? Put that stuff away.
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  Tuck it away. And let me tell you something, you can't tuck it away.
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  And could I tell you something else? Location doesn't change it.
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  We moved from Hawaii to San Antonio to Georgia to San Antonio back to Georgia,
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  and every time it followed me.
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  And every time I thought I had a handle on it, it'd come back up.
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  Until I got to to a point in 2008 when my wife was like, that's it. You need help.
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  So I went to the VA and the first thing the VA wanted to do was medicate me.
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  And so I, my, my thought was, is like, I, I told him, I said,
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  let me just talk to somebody first.
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  And then we can, we can look at whatever y'all think we need to do.
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  Now in 2008, the same time I'm talking to the VA gay guy, I started going to church.
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  And then by 2009, things started changing.
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  And the therapist at the VA was like, what's going on? And I told him I'm going
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  to church. I gave my life to Christ.
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  And over the next six months, he's like, well, Mike, you don't need this anymore.
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  You're good. And I can tell you it had nothing to do with that therapist. It was God.
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  God. And so when Lavelle, we talked and I just told him, I was like,
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  and, and, you know, the, the moment the conversation comes to a hold is like,
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  Hey, what do you do? I'm a pastor.
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  And he said something that I said many years ago, which is if I walked into
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  the church, the church would fall down upon me.
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  And I said, Lavelle, I said the same thing, the exact same thing.
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  We were very simple people.
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  And, and I had a guy that was trying to, to preach the gospel to me while we were in Iraq,
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  but he did it by beating us over the head over and over and over to the point
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  where I pulled a gun on him and put it to his head and said,
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  if you say another word, I will kill you.
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  And it was Lavelle and Kelsey Moore that pulled me off of him.
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  Because in my mind, I couldn't understand how a God who says, do not murder,
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  and here I'm on a 50-caliber mount getting ready to do the same thing he's telling
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  me not to do that's what i was processing through my head but that kid cared
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  more about my faith and more more about my soul than i did and i asked labelle
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  you don't have you ever heard from him because i want to tell him thank you and i'm sorry,
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  we saw things we shouldn't have seen you want to
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  see the worst out of men go to war that's true
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  you don't understand what it's like when
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  you're when you're at a gas station and you
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  smell diesel fuel and the gas
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  station's no longer there and you're looking at the desert are you here or something
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  those are things that people will go through but you have to understand that
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  people who go through sexual abuse or physical abuse or loneliness or anxiety
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  they're all dealing with with the same stuff.
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  It's just different, yes. It's different afflictions.
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  As a church, how do we disciple? How do we reach them?
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  How do we walk with them? That's where it gets difficult.
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  When I read that and I think about that Psalm and I think about how one of the
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  beauties is, is when you look at Psalm 23, David was a shepherd.
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  If you ever want to get a good book, it's W. Philip Keller. Most of y'all probably
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  know that a shepherd looks at Psalm 23.
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  David Philip Keller was actually a shepherd before he became a pastor.
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  As a young man, he had sheep and a shepherd and he would take them down into
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  the valley and take them up to the table to eat on the other side.
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  But he says in the book, one of the things that the shepherd does is he actually
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  walks the path before you ever go down the path of that affliction.
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  He's already walked it. He already knows where the thieves are.
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  He already knows where the predators are. He already knows where you could drown
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  because the water's too high.
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  He's done all that because he's your shepherd. And it's important for us to
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  know that he is with us, that he walks with us.
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  So even as you're walking with somebody through that discipleship, he's with you.
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  Turn to Joshua chapter one.
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  Joshua chapter one. I can tell you, out of those five kids, all five of them have come to faith.
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  All kinds do we have ups and downs that
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  parents you have ups and downs as parents can
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  i tell you what it's like to have five kids it's like surfing you get all five
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  on the boards and eventually one of them's crashing you have to help that one
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  back up and get them surfing again it's basically that and i can tell you that
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  from and this is very important some of y'all have met Matthew,
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  my youngest, the five-year-old is doing much better than the ones that were
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  14, 15, 16, or 13, 14, 15, and 17.
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  His foundation is a lot stronger because he grew up in the church.
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  He grew up being a disciple. As a matter of fact, one of his teachers,
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  Miss Diane, is right here.
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  You know, my son was telling me the other day, he remembers,
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  and what grade did y'all do in Revelation?
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  Imagine that, a children's church teaching Revelation.
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  My son said he came home, had nightmares all over. We wouldn't, what's going on?
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  What are y'all doing? When did y'all take us?
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  Grade third grade learning the book of revelation verse by verse that's important
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  kids aren't there just to to be daycare they're there to learn the word of god
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  word of god and so that's important,
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  but they're all doing good i mean but the one that has that foundation a little
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  longer he's man he's gonna be he's gonna be fire like when he finally steps
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  into what god has given him He taught on Wednesday night, and I'm like,
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  man, that kid can teach, teach.
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  He's better than his pops, and that's good.
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  But Joshua chapter 1 says this. After the death of the servant of the Lord,
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  said Joshua to the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, Moses, my servant, is dead.
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  So what we're looking at is we're looking at Joshua has lost his mentor,
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  the person that discipled him. and God is speaking to him and going to encourage him.
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  And I love that because it really ties into Psalm 23, verse 4.
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  This verse, he will not leave you or forsake you. That's one thing you have
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  to believe if you're going to disciple somebody.
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  It's like, man, the Lord will never leave you or forsake you.
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  And it says, and Moses is my servant and says, now therefore arise and go over
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  this Jordan, you and all this people into the land that I have given him to the people of Israel.
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  Every place that the sole of your foot will tread, I have given to you,
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  just as I promised to Moses.
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  From the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river,
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  the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the great sea,
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  towards the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
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  No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life,
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  just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
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  I will not leave you or forsake you.
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  So what we see is that when we look at the Bible, one of the big things that
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  you have in the Bible is you have people like Elijah.
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  Elijah was like Lord takes me in 1 Kings. He was done.
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  But you don't realize what he did. He went to God. He went to God.
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  You have Joshua here who lost his mid-born.
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  And he has to lead He has to lead 2 million young Jewish nation of Israel because
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  the old generation died.
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  Can you imagine a bunch of young adults, 2 million of them?
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  You got to lead them. So imagine if you had 2 million Generation Z.
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  You have to lead them. You're the church. That's what you've been called to do.
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  That's what we're supposed to do. And the first thing he tells Joshua is,
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  I will not leave you or forsake you.
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  And we need to hang on to that.
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  The rest of this, and then we'll get into this when y'all get back.
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  I'm going to give y'all y'all's break because y'all got that coming up.
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  Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause the people to inherit the land
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  I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous.
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  Be careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you.
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  Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good
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  success wherever you go.
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  The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate
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  on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.
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  For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
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  Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous?
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  Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed.
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  For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
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  If you had a highlighter, if you had your pen, you would undermine how many
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  times does he tell you to be strong and courageous?
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  And the world that you're in right now as a follower of Christ,
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  you need to hear that today.
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  Day be strong and courageous he has not left you he has not forsaken you i i truly believe,
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  and and we have to do to get this is that there is we are on the the edge of
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  seeing a revival but the church has to be revived if we get back to those basic
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  things that we talked about the the word of God, the koinia, the fellowship,
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  the breaking of bread and prayer.
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  And then next comes the great spiritual way.
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  We have to turn from our sins as a nation. Now, you may go, I didn't sin.
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  I didn't do none of this stuff.
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  But we need to ask the Lord, God, forgive us. Look at Nehemiah.
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  Nehemiah repented. First chapter of Nehemiah, the first thing he does is repent
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  for the nation of Israel.
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  It's important for us to understand that we as
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  a as a church we have to get back to the basis of
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  discipleship which is those four things and i'm
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  gonna spend a little bit of time when we come back to go over the main
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  thing which is the word of god because when you're when you're discipling somebody
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  i'm gonna be honest with you you're gonna there's gonna be time to stimulate
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  your heart when you see a family that's hurting what you see or hear what's
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  going on with the family member and or they're struggling with addiction or something.
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  How many of y'all knew about the little girl in Lockhart?
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  Little girl in Lockhart, Texas.
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  He's a pastor in Lockhart and the little girl went from, she was at high school.
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  She had her lunch break and she needed to get something from the house.
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  She never made it back to school. She was head on. She died that day.
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  Can you imagine having to walk life with that family right now?
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  But that's what the church is supposed to do.
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  Right? That's what the church is supposed to do. We, this is what we were called to do.
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  Like for me being in the army that's the
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  easy thing to go serve like for me now i'm in the army
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  of god and within that i'm like lord
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  put my hands to the plow let me go forward let me
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  do my thing like what what did dr spivey
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  say he said have the one thing right he
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  said you need to focus on the one thing and the
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  main thing is jesus christ that should
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  be your your focus us what happens is
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  we we get busy with stuff that
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  has nothing nothing to do with what the mission is that
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  we can go on living and then we we complicate it you know people will tell me
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  well you you need to do a discipleship class why like you want to do an eight-week
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  let's go through a book of discipleship they have books on it and they have
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  man there's books that you could fill fill this whole room with on discipleship.
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  You have the discipleship book. It's this.
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  That's all you need is the word of God. Do what Jesus did.
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  Bring that person alongside of you and live life with that person. That's discipleship.
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  It's that simple, but we overcomplicate it.
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  When he teach you an 18-week course, just come walk life with me.
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  Your pastor needs that. I can can tell you your pastors need that.
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  I can't imagine having this many people.
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  We're a little church and I'm like, man, I don't know how Dan does it.
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  He does it with men and women that are willing to do what God has called them.
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  So anyway, the church functions, you walk life alongside the people that come through those doors.
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  They need to be, man, I tell you what, we're 245.
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  Y'all go I'm back and I won't get offended. I love y'all.
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  I know there's other sessions going on, but I'm going to get into the Word of God as we get into it.
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  Well, that concludes today's broadcast of Sun, Salt, and Light Radio.
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  We hope that you enjoyed it. If you'd like to submit a prayer request or get
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  in contact with us or find out service times, you can do all of that at our
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  website, as well as get our podcast at Spotify,
• 21:12
  Audible, TuneIn Radio, pretty much wherever you can find a podcast.
• 21:15
  You can just type in sun salt and light and you'll find it.
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  Music.