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

Transcript

Addressing Emotional Health Issues in Church "Equip Conference 2024 Session 1." (Part 1 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
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  a broken marriage. marriage.
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  Two of the kids have tried to commit suicide. One has been actually placed into,
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  Laurel Ridge, which is a place for mental health.
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  And here we come into the church.
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  This was 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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  Some of the things that were suggested to us to do, which was biblical counseling for our marriage.
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  And so it's, I hope this helps you.
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  If you have your Bible, we'll be actually in Psalm 23, and then we'll also be in Joshua chapter 1.
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  And so we'll go through this bit by bit, piece by piece through the scripture as well.
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  So this is a teaching, just FYI. We will go verse by verse through the book
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  of Joshua chapter 1 verses 1.
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  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
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  of it again is me sharing a little bit about my testimony our
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  family's testimony and as we're coming into the church and
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  and just the reality of what people are dealing with not only in the church
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  but also as they become new believers and come into the church and how does
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  the church disciple within that and so that's what these teachings are i hope that you enjoy them.
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  This is the first half of this four-part study.
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  We're from a small church plant here at Calvary Chapel Divine.
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  How many of y'all saw the movie Jesus Revolution? Okay, that's Calvary Chapel.
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  Okay, that's the movement that came out of that. So my pastor,
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  Pastor Joe Marquez, is actually out of San Antonio, and he came out of Pastor
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  Skip's church, who came out of Pastor Chuck's church.
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  And so we simply just teach the word of God verse by verse.
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  I have been blessed to be part of the extended family here at First Baptist Divine.
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  And what I mean by that is we have always been welcomed and loved on.
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  And that starts with your senior pastor, Dan Newberg.
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  Y'all are very blessed to have him, as well as Johnny and Carlos.
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  We, you know, for us, as we planned it in the middle of COVID.
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  Which why not right and so i when they asked me to do this i was blessed to
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  be able to teach last year i was really happy i got to teach before dr spivey
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  because i would have been really,
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  not ready to teach after dr spivey because he could teach he is a truly a man
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  of god and great wisdom that he imparts as well y'all are very blessed and and
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  i have been humbled to be be able to come back and teach again.
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  If you're expecting, I'm going to give you a little disclaimer because we have
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  problems in the church with certain things.
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  Now, when it comes to medication, when it comes to psychiatrists or psychologists,
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  you cannot put your conviction on somebody else if that's something that you can't do.
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  Like I can't take, like if I have a a conviction for medicine.
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  I can't put that conviction on somebody else not to take it.
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  And I've seen it done from the pulpit, and that's not right.
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  And if you don't understand what that example is, just simply think about not
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  to be drunk with what, wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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  I have a conviction of alcohol, big time.
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  I grew up with a bunch of alcoholics.
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  My grandfather my father my uncles if they weren't addicted to alcohol they
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  were addicted to cocaine.
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  And other drugs so i i don't drink i've never drunk in my life but if we were
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  to sit at black creek i give my state no conviction there hopefully right.
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  And you decide to get a glass of wine, I can't tell you, wait a minute,
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  you can't have that in front of me.
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  I can't put my conviction on you, okay? That's what God has given me.
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  So when we talk about these things today, it's very important that we understand,
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  like, I am not going to tell you.
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  The thing I'm trying to do with discipleship is how do you disciple those that
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  are coming in with emotional health issues.
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  And how do you do that? That's really all we can do.
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  I mean, at the end of the day, there are going to be, and I would pray,
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  I would pray that if you believe you're in over your head, you are.
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  And you need to raise a white flag, and that's what your pastoral staff is for.
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  And if they believe that it's over their head, that's why we have Stitch and
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  we have those things, I think Max Licato is another wonderful resource that
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  we have. They have free biblical counseling as well.
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  Sometimes we have to send families out. We're a small church,
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  so we have to depend on these things because we can't do intensive counseling.
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  And so those things are, you know, one of the things I believe sometimes Christians
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  believe that they have to fix the person. That's a huge problem. problem.
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  So let's pray, and we'll go ahead and get started.
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  Father God, we thank you so much for today. We ask that you be with us as we
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  dive into emotional health and realistically,
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  how do we disciple those that are coming into the church that may be dealing
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  with this, or maybe it's even somebody in the church that has been overwhelmed
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  by panic attacks or by anxiety.
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  Society, we have seen it just in 2020, just how quickly many were struggling with these things.
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  Lord, I pray. I pray for this church. I pray, Lord, that you would just continue
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  to bring blessings for the church, the congregation.
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  I ask, Lord, that you give, continue. This is your church.
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  And I just pray. I thank you for the Equip Conference.
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  This is my third year being able able to attend, and I've always been blessed and learned.
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  Every time I come, it's just getting more tools that we can use in our toolbox,
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  Lord, to see you be glorified.
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  Father God, I thank you so much for each person here. I pray for them.
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  I ask that you be with them.
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  Realistically, all we can do is spiritually counsel through the Word of God.
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  It's God's Word that transforms life, not us.
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  And I pray that we would remember that. We thank you and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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  Amen. So part of the reason I was asked to do this is I am a combat veteran.
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  And so through that, I spent nine years in the army until I destroyed my left
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  ankle and could have no other experimental surgeries, as the army would say.
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  And spent some time in Iraq, lost two friends there.
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  And I can tell you everything not to do because I didn't know Christ.
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  So I didn't come to faith until I was 39 years old. I
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  had no my grandmother grandfather never
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  went to church never talked about God ever mom
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  and dad divorced when we were six and then
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  my dad left on a Friday night my my
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  new stepfather walked in the house when I
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  woke up Saturday morning here he was and in his
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  shorts with no shirt on and my mom decided
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  that the best thing for her to do was to we
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  talk about idols she she made that man into an idol and and so she went from
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  a you know an alcoholic to a drug addict so i have dealt with sexual abuse and
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  physical abuse and i have five kids my wife theresa's right there.
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  She'll wave her hand up, and she's very shy. She don't like attention at all.
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  When we came into the church, it was because we were, she had had enough of
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  Mike. We were separated.
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  So she decided to go to church with her sister, and I decided to follow.
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  And I didn't go for God. I went because I knew if I went, she would come back.
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  And so I went to church for that reason.
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  She came back. This happened over Thanksgiving through Christmas.
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  She came back by January 2nd and she was gone again. She left.
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  She had got fed up with me again.
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  And I knew at this point, this was Mike. Mike could fix everything.
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  Mike was always trying to fix everything. I never depended on anybody but Mike.
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  But Mike couldn't fix this.
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  She was smart enough to leave me with my five kids.
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  You laugh, but the reality was I would have left.
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  And she, I don't know if that's what God, I don't know, but I would have been
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  gone. I would have taken off and not went back.
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  The reality of that is, is that, that through that, I went back to church and somebody,
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  either Louie Delgado, I can't remember, it was either Louie or Pastor Louie
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  or Pastor Joe, Somebody had shared with me, you need to watch this movie, Fireproof.
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  And I knew who Kirk Cameron was. I was like, I used to watch Growing Pains as a kid. I know that guy.
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  So I can watch this, right? I got this. You know, this should be fun.
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  That movie broke my heart.
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  My five-year-old, Matthew now, who's 21, he started teaching at age 16.
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  He started doing the youth retreats.
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  That five-year-old, the only thing I can remember is that was about the same
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  age I was with my mom. and dad divorced.
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  And I did not want them to go through what I went through.
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  And some of y'all have been through divorce or some of y'all understand what that is.
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  And you understand the pull and the strain and it doesn't matter what age it is.
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  Doesn't matter the age. Your kids can be 20. You'd be like, oh,
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  they'll get over it. No, it still creates a divide.
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  And so that night on January 11th, 2009, I gave my life to Christ.
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  It wasn't the war that brought me to God.
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  It wasn't the illness that I got when I was 28 that brought me to God.
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  God used the one thing that from my childhood and the Holy Spirit convicted me and God saved me.
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  When we think about emotional health, I think one of the things I love is Dan
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  had shared in in Psalm 23, and I'll just read the whole Psalm again for us,
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  because I think it's important for us to get this.
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  When you're discipling somebody, the first thing that has to happen is in verse
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  1, the Lord is my shepherd.
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  They need to know that, right? You need to believe that.
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  And I will tell you this, and I mean this as a pastor, if you are not walking
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  with God, I better go ahead and tell you this disclaimer.
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  I get a little passionate when I teach, okay? I'm sorry.
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  If you are not walking with God, do not disciple anybody, okay?
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  I'm serious. If you're not spending time in God's Word, if you're not spending
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  time in His presence and meditating on His Word and praying and serving, stop. Don't do it.
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  You're just going to create a bigger mess in the church that we already have.
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  See, when we look at this, it says the Lord is my shepherd. He has to become
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  my shepherd personally.
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  I will not be in need. He lets me lie down in green pastures.
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  He leads me besides quiet waters.
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  He restores my soul. He restores my soul.
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  He guides my paths of righteousness for his namesake.
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  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
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  I fear no evil, for you are with me.
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  Your rod and your staff, they will comfort me. You prepare a table before me
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  in the presence of my enemies.
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  You have anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows surely.
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  Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life,
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  and my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever.
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  Pastor Chuck used to have a guy by the name of Pastor Romaine.
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  Pastor Romaine never wanted to be a lead pastor. He was always Chuck's number
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  two. He was known as the bulldog.
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  When you would go to counseling with Pastor Romaine, Pastor Romaine would ask you one basic question.
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  Are you reading the word of God? This is how the counseling session would begin.
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  The person would normally say no. He'd say, okay, okay, start reading this, come back.
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  They come back the next week, are you reading the word of God?
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  No, you need to go back and read the word of God. They would never get to the
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  point where they would share their feelings and all that stuff because we can't
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  disciple somebody if they're not going to be in the word of God.
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  They have to be in God's word because it's God's word that transforms them.
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  And feelings, but I have said this, and I will keep saying this,
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  feelings is the F word in the church.
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  Don't live your life in Christ based on your feelings. You do it out of obedience.
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  We do it out of obedience. And so step one for anybody, whenever you're discipling
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  anybody, is you have to get them into the presence of God.
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  Draw them into the presence of God to be in the Word of God.
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  Now, there will be those circumstances, and there are very few in between where
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  the person cannot be be in God's Word because their emotional state is that
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  bad, and you have to walk them through that.
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  But eventually, when you get to the point where you can talk with them and have
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  to get them into God's presence and into the Word of God, when we look at that verse in verse 4,
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  there's not a person in this room that has not been through the valley of the shadow of death.
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  In our little church, we lost two people in less than six weeks, five to six weeks.
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  Tony, one of our leaders of the church, 49 years old, went to work,
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  dropped dead on a Monday.
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  Bob, we knew. Robert, we knew was going to. He had pancreatic cancer,
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  and he died a couple weeks later.
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  See, the thing with the valley of the shadow of death, it tells you that you're
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  going to get to the valley of the shadow of death, but it may be heaven is on the other side of it.
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  And we're walking a little church through hurt and affliction.
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  And it's important for us to understand as we have widows that are hurting,
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  that every person goes through that type of pain in their own way, the mourning process.
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  And old Christians, they'll throw that scriptures out there.
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  It hadn't even been a week or a day. And they're like, oh, God will work it out for his good.
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  And like, you just want to like, what are you doing?
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  That person is hurting. They just lost their husband. Yes, that will happen,
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  but it's going to take time for them to actually grasp, you know,
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  to grasp that scripture.
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  For you are with me. That is one of the things that we need to make sure that
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  we share with those that are walking,
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  that are walking with the Lord is that they know that they are not, they will not be.
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  Let me get this thing working here. and I knew that thing was up that down. Look at me.
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  The important thing is to understand that there are going to be people that
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  are going to be struggling when they come into the church.
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  When our family came into the church, okay, we're a big family.
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  And our church is about the size of First Baptist Church Divine.
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  It's about that size, about the number of people.
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  Now, we're a family of five kids and broken marriage.
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  And here we come into the church. church. We come into a church with a teenager
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  who's tried to kill himself, a daughter who's tried to kill herself,
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  and here we come into the church, and we need discipleship.
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  We need somebody to actually come and walk life with us because that's what
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  discipleship is, and discipleship is messy, and this is where the church has stumbled.
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  I want to make sure you catch this.
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  There was a A Barner survey that was done recently, only 5% of the church today is being discipled.
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  That's the problem with the church. That's why the church is not reaching the community at all.
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  Because you're staying within the walls of the church.
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  Now, I'm not saying that's happening here. I'm talking about the Western church. Okay.
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  The Western church, 56% of all Christians believe their faith is private.
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  Private. How do we share the gospel? How do we disciple people?
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  We're missing the command that was given to us.
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  This is something that Jesus had commanded us to do, is to go and share the
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  gospel, make disciples, and baptize them in the name of the Father,
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  Son, and the Holy Spirit. But your faith is private.
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  You don't tell nobody about Jesus. Jesus.
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  I'm discipled by somebody and I disciple others. That's how this works.
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  When.
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  A pastor. When that pain happened, I called my pastor. My pastor,
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  man, he's like a wall sometimes.
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  I love him, but sometimes he's like, you need to toughen up.
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  And I'm telling him, man, I'm hurting, man. Tony was one of my leaders.
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  And he's like, hey, people die in the church.
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  It's not what I needed to hear.
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  You know who comforted me? Your pastor.
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  Pastor Dan Newberg and Carlos, I called them. I said, hey, do you got five minutes?
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  They opened their doors, and I came in. I cried like a baby. I was hurting.
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  That's discipleship. They prayed for me.
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  They gave me words of comfort from the Bible, and then I was able to go comfort
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  the church because I can't be a bumbling, crying baby maybe when I'm trying
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  to be there for the church.
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  See, even pastors need it. 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
• 21:59
  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,
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  Audible, TuneIn Radio, pretty much wherever you can find a podcast.
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  You can just type in sunsalt in my.
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  Music.