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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Build Different is a production of the American Association of

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Speaker 2: Christian Counselors. To support this podcast and learn how you

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Speaker 2: people everywhere, just go to aaccfoundation dot org. Again, that's

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Speaker 2: Aaccfoundation dot org. Welcome to Built Different. I'm Zach Clinton,

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Speaker 2: your host, and each week I come to you exclusively

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Speaker 2: on the Life Audio podcast Network.

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Speaker 3: I'm proud to partner with Life.

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Speaker 2: Audio and bring you entertaining, life changing, family friendly podcasts

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Speaker 2: for a new generation.

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Speaker 1: I Built Different.

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Speaker 2: Our mission is to provide encouragement, hope and challenge to

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Speaker 2: help push you past your limits and.

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Speaker 3: Reach goals you never thought possible.

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Speaker 2: Colossians two, verse six says, So, then, just as you

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Speaker 2: received Christ Jesus's Lord, continue to live your lives in Him,

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Speaker 2: rooted and built up in him.

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Speaker 3: Amen. Now let's roll.

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Speaker 2: Hello everybody and welcome back into the Built Different Podcast.

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Speaker 2: As always, I'll be your host today, doctor Zach Clinton,

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Speaker 2: and today I'm thrilled to have a conversation with a

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Speaker 2: guy who I have admired. I've watched his work, his sermons,

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Speaker 2: everything from across the entire country, and I believe God's

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Speaker 2: doing something mighty and in throughout his life and his leadership.

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Speaker 2: But before we dive in, before I introduce our very

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Speaker 2: special guests, you know, there's a kind of faith that's

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Speaker 2: easy when it costs you nothing. Then there's a kind

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Speaker 2: of faith that you start to see begins to cost

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Speaker 2: you everything. You get the threats, and maybe you get targeted,

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Speaker 2: maybe are misunderstood, and there's a lot that comes with that.

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Speaker 3: There's a cost to the faith.

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Speaker 2: And your faith isn't costing you something, then maybe you

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Speaker 2: might have to question it's worth today. The man that

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Speaker 2: we get the opportunity and privilege of sitting with and

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Speaker 2: hearing from is a guy who understands the cost, understands

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Speaker 2: that salvation is free, but following Jesus will literally cost

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Speaker 2: you everything, security, and so much more. Our friend joining

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Speaker 2: his pastor Russell Johnson, lead pastor of Pursuit Church in

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Speaker 2: the Pacific Northwest, out there near Seattle, Washington. It's a

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Speaker 2: non denominational, spiritful church that has made it clear this

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Speaker 2: house will stand on biblical truth no matter the cultural consequences.

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Speaker 3: Russell, my friend, thank you so much for joining us today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having mes honor to be here.

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Speaker 2: I know that last night you brought a word to

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Speaker 2: the people here at this Unleashed event in Orlando, Florida

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Speaker 2: at Story Life Church. I'd love for you just to

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Speaker 2: take us into the moment the worth that you feel

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Speaker 2: like God placed on your heart for such a time

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Speaker 2: as this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I shared out of the Book of Acts in chapter ten,

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Speaker 4: the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the house of Cornelius,

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Speaker 4: and just the idea that you know, what God has

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Speaker 4: done before is a really good indicator of the things

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Speaker 4: that God wants to do in the present. You know,

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Speaker 4: one of the chief characteristics of God is that He's immutable,

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Speaker 4: the same yesterday, today, and forever.

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Speaker 1: And so.

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Speaker 4: We still live under that invitation of all who call

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Speaker 4: upon the name of the Lord will be saved. John seven,

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Speaker 4: Jesus says, all those who believe will receive out of

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Speaker 4: their innermost being will flow rivers of living water. For

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Speaker 4: these things Jesus spoke concerning his Holy Spirit. And I

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Speaker 4: kind of operate with the belief that number one, you

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Speaker 4: can get more of God, and then number two, you

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Speaker 4: have as much of God as you currently want.

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Speaker 1: And so those two truths. I think in many.

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Speaker 4: Ways frame in the way that I preach the hermeneutic

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Speaker 4: by which I understand scripture, this idea that God invites

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Speaker 4: us to more of Him, less of us, more of

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Speaker 4: his spirit, more of His work in our life, more opportunity,

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Speaker 4: more open doors, more sanctification. And I think it becomes

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Speaker 4: an anti out against like having boredom set into your Christianity.

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Speaker 4: You know, just like we would talk about in the

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Speaker 4: educational world or the professional world, there's always a path

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Speaker 4: for more.

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Speaker 1: There's a way to upgrade, there's a way to go.

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Speaker 4: On for continuing education, get another degree, write another book,

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Speaker 4: get more credentialing. Well, I think the same is true

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Speaker 4: in our relationship with the Lord. It's not like the

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Speaker 4: moment you got saved, that was all of God you

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Speaker 4: would ever get for the rest of your life. That

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Speaker 4: was the beginning of your journey, not the end of it.

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Speaker 4: And so just felt like, you know, sharing on that

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Speaker 4: concept out of Acts ten and you know, encouraging people

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Speaker 4: to stay hungry for the things of God and stay

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Speaker 4: expectant that you know, my best days are not behind me,

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Speaker 4: they're ahead of me. There is more in my future

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Speaker 4: than there is in my past, and all I've got

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Speaker 4: to do is stay in that heart posture, like Jesus says,

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Speaker 4: of asking, seeking and knocking, and the door will be

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Speaker 4: opened unto us.

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Speaker 2: This I of having the vision and the mission and

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Speaker 2: living life on purpose, clinging to hope.

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Speaker 3: Because let's be real.

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Speaker 2: The more you get of Jesus sometimes the more criticism, right,

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Speaker 2: more threats, the more fire that you will be up against.

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Speaker 3: And man, we live in a culture society.

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Speaker 2: Let's be real, where there is religious liberty infringement, there

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Speaker 2: is a throwdown over the church, over people of faith.

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Speaker 2: And I would just love to hear from you because

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Speaker 2: we were just talking before we even press record.

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Speaker 3: It's been a tough six months.

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Speaker 2: It's been a tough go help our audience understand Russell,

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Speaker 2: just how deep and dark and difficult.

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Speaker 3: Maybe the last little bit spent.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, in the Pacific Northwest, being like a

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Speaker 4: spirit filled believer in many ways feels like you're an

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Speaker 4: endangered species.

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Speaker 1: I think the Northwest is.

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Speaker 4: A place statistically which has some of like the lowest

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Speaker 4: percentages of spirit filled leavers in the nation. Obviously, it's

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Speaker 4: a very progressive, liberal area, and it's also the place

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Speaker 4: where I was born and raised, and so I didn't

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Speaker 4: want to operate with the methodology of you know, well

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Speaker 4: the last Christian in Seattle turn off the lights on

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Speaker 4: the way out.

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Speaker 1: Like I felt when we.

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Speaker 4: Planted the church eleven years ago that we'd have an

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Speaker 4: opportunity to be a light set on a hill for

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Speaker 4: all the sea, and that the Northwest was worth saving.

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Speaker 4: You know, I often say, like Seattle is known as

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Speaker 4: the Emerald City, So you know, I would say that

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Speaker 4: the Emerald City has lost its shine, but the Church

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Speaker 4: hasn't lost her hope. And so you know, kind of

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Speaker 4: operating with that mandate to to be a part of

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Speaker 4: what God desires to do in that region and and

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Speaker 4: and just just be available for you know, how the

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Speaker 4: Lord would how the Lord would use us. But yeah,

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Speaker 4: you know, when I when I talk to ministry leaders

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Speaker 4: who are serving in different geographic environments, sometimes words fail

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Speaker 4: to like adequately communicate the chasm of difference between what

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Speaker 4: it's like to pioneer a church work in the Northwest

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Speaker 4: versus maybe like the DFW metroplex. And each area has

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Speaker 4: its own difficulties, has its own joys, has its own drawbacks.

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Speaker 4: So this is not to say that you know, what

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Speaker 4: we're doing in the Northwest is harder than what other

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Speaker 4: people are doing around the nation. It's just different. It's

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Speaker 4: a different ministry context.

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Speaker 1: And.

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Speaker 4: For sure it they're you know, like I tell people,

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Speaker 4: nobody has a three star opinion about what we do

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Speaker 4: in Seattle.

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Speaker 1: It's either one star or five star.

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Speaker 4: People either are really excited and really believe in the

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Speaker 4: Northwest having a move of God and people coming to

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Speaker 4: Christ and folks turning around, or they vociferously oppose it.

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Speaker 4: There's there's no middle ground, and you know, we have

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Speaker 4: we have seen both sides of that equation. We've got

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Speaker 4: a group of people who are very passionate for the

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Speaker 4: things of God. The church is growing. We just opened

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Speaker 4: our fourth campus last week. God is is doing way

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Speaker 4: above and beyond anything I could hope, ask, dream or imagine.

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Speaker 4: On Sundays, I've got to pinch myself to make sure

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Speaker 4: it's not a dream. Like. What God has done is incredible.

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Speaker 4: And there's also been the most fierce blowback that you

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Speaker 4: could imagine, from getting protested and picketed on Sundays to

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Speaker 4: having a shooting occur at our church at at our

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Speaker 4: Seattle campus where a man was murdered at church in

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Speaker 4: front of his wife and young child. To the death

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Speaker 4: threats that have come against myself and my family, to

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Speaker 4: having to be moved out of our house, you know,

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Speaker 4: three different times over the last six months, pulling our

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Speaker 4: kids out of school, the FBI being involved because the

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Speaker 4: death threats were coming in at such a level that

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Speaker 4: it drew federal law enforcement attention. I mean, these are

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Speaker 4: some of the things that you know, I don't like

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Speaker 4: regularly talk about, but it is the reality of pastoring

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Speaker 4: like we do in the region that we're in. And yeah,

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Speaker 4: it's been a.

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Speaker 1: It's like the Tale of Two Cities.

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Speaker 4: It's the best of times in the worst of times,

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Speaker 4: and they all happen at the same time. It's the

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Speaker 4: dueling revivals that the Bible speaks about, the revival of

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Speaker 4: righteousness and the revival of iniquity, and both of those

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Speaker 4: grow together until the return of Christ. It's the weat

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Speaker 4: and the tears. And so, you know, one of the

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Speaker 4: axioms that I often refer back to that I think

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Speaker 4: helps me stay sane is the idea that you only

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Speaker 4: catch flack with you're over the target. And so when

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Speaker 4: you're catching blowback, when the battle feels fiercest. It simply

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Speaker 4: speaks to the idea that the breakthrough is closest, and

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Speaker 4: that's been an important mindset for me to keep as

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Speaker 4: we pastor in the Northwest else. You know, I caution

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Speaker 4: people don't learn the wrong lesson from your pain, because

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Speaker 4: pain is always teaching, and you've got to learn the

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Speaker 4: right lesson. If the lesson you learn is that I'm

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Speaker 4: a victim, I can't ever overcome this. I guess I'm

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Speaker 4: just you know, a martyr, I'm just persecuted, you begin

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Speaker 4: to develop a kind of woe is Me complex, and

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Speaker 4: I try to train people in the opposite. Hey, when

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Speaker 4: you're catching flack, it's a sign that you're right over

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Speaker 4: the enemy's target. You're doing something that counts. You're irritating

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Speaker 4: the forces of darkness, and that's when it's time to

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Speaker 4: double down, pressing with everything that you have, because it's

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Speaker 4: it's a it's a birth pain. It speaks to something

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Speaker 4: that is coming, that is greater. And uh, you know,

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Speaker 4: my conviction is that a lot of people end up

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Speaker 4: stopping about two to three percent short of their breakthrough.

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Speaker 4: And I don't I don't want to live life that

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Speaker 4: way of just only able to grow to the threshold

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Speaker 4: of of of of my pain. You know, doctor chand

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Speaker 4: In in his book Leadership Pain talks about the idea

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Speaker 4: on how you know, growth equals change, change equals loss, loss,

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Speaker 4: loss equals pain. Therefore growth equals pain. And unless you

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Speaker 4: grow your threshold to be able to properly contextualize pain,

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Speaker 4: you'll always hit your growth ceiling and bounce right back down.

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Speaker 1: And so I try to encourage.

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Speaker 4: People like we we You know, you've got more fight

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Speaker 4: in you than you first considered. You've got more tenacity,

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Speaker 4: you've got more elasticity, you've got more bounce back.

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Speaker 1: Ability, you've got more courage.

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Speaker 4: You've got you've got more of a mandate on your

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Speaker 4: life than you first considered. Learning the art of pressing

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Speaker 4: through when everything in your flesh is telling you to

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Speaker 4: do the opposite is to me where the real spiritual

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Speaker 4: growth begins to kick in in a person's life.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna stop this right there and jump into say

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Speaker 2: you're listening to build different. I'm Zach Clinton. We need

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Speaker 2: to break for a brief message from our sponsors. I'll

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Speaker 2: be back with our guests to keep the conversation flowing.

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Speaker 2: Right after this, You're listening to life Audio Russell, the

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Speaker 2: idea of resilience positive adaptation in the presence of adversity.

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Speaker 2: Like you said, growth leads to pain.

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Speaker 3: And what I think I've.

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Speaker 2: Watched from you over the last several months of leadership,

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Speaker 2: in the midst of all this chaos, even from across

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Speaker 2: the country, I remember the statement that you made a pursuit.

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Speaker 2: When you're sitting down, I'll be honest, there's probably a

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Speaker 2: lot of fear. Like you said, there was open opposition.

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Speaker 2: There were people literally dying. Blood was being shed over faith,

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Speaker 2: over truth, over righteousness. And I remember the statement that

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Speaker 2: you made. You made three promises to your church. He said,

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Speaker 2: number one, that this church will be a safe place.

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Speaker 2: Number two that this church will remain.

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Speaker 3: A safe place.

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Speaker 2: He talked about the protocols and taking necessary precautions just

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Speaker 2: to ensure that very thing. But then number three, that

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Speaker 2: this would be a church that would not back down.

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Speaker 2: Speak to just man, in the midst of all of this,

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Speaker 2: what has God revealed to you about himself? My dad

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Speaker 2: taught me at a very young age. It's moments of

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Speaker 2: powerlessness or job God reveals more of the character of

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Speaker 2: his heart than we could have ever seen. Apart from

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Speaker 2: the pain in the first place, What has God revealed

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Speaker 2: to you over the last three or four months since

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Speaker 2: that comment, since that confidence, my God is able. I

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Speaker 2: believe he will deliver, but even if he doesn't, we

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Speaker 2: will not bow the knee.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.

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Speaker 4: For me, I'm often reminded of what David says in

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Speaker 4: in Psalm's twenty three. He says, the Lord makes a

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Speaker 4: table for me in front of my enemies, and he

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Speaker 4: annoints my head with fresh oil. And I think the

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Speaker 4: nearness of God is most felt on the battlefield of life,

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Speaker 4: when your only option is to break through or to

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Speaker 4: back down. And it's like in those moments you catch

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Speaker 4: a glimpse of God that in other environments you wouldn't

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Speaker 4: be able to see, you know. And I love the

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Speaker 4: changing topography in Psalms twenty three. David is like I've

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Speaker 4: known God in the green pastures, I've known God in

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Speaker 4: the still waters. I've known God in the highs and

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Speaker 4: in the lows. And although, like my elevation changes in

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Speaker 4: life from season to season, the faithfulness of God stays

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Speaker 4: as the constant. And there is something you learn about

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Speaker 4: the nature and the character of God in the valley

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Speaker 4: that you never learn on the mountaintop. And it doesn't

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Speaker 4: mean that you camp there, it doesn't mean that you

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Speaker 4: build your house there. But if I've got to walk

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Speaker 4: through that season, then I've got a God who walks

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Speaker 4: with me and he makes even tables for me. And

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Speaker 4: I think sometimes the temptation of life and the way

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Speaker 4: that we think about it is like I'd love to

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Speaker 4: hit fast forward on every difficult season. But there are

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Speaker 4: things that you learn about God and then inversely, things

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Speaker 4: that you learn about you in valley type seasons that

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Speaker 4: I think you don't learn in maybe any other season

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Speaker 4: of life. And you know, when I read scripture, like

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Speaker 4: the way that you see God is the way that

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Speaker 4: you reveal God. And so the context or the lens

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Speaker 4: by which you understand who this God is, it'll come

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Speaker 4: out in the way you preach, It'll come out in

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Speaker 4: the way you live, It'll come out in the way

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Speaker 4: that you teach. And so you know, when I read

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Speaker 4: these stories, both Old Testament and New when you read

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Speaker 4: of Church history and the Church Fathers and the second,

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Speaker 4: third and fourth century, you know, like one of the overwhelming.

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Speaker 1: Narratives is that.

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Speaker 4: There is a supernatural reward that is related to having

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Speaker 4: the courage to not back down, even once you get

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Speaker 4: to the last book of the New Testament, the Book

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Speaker 4: of Revelation. You know, over and over and over again,

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Speaker 4: it talks about the crown of life being reserved for

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Speaker 4: those who endure and overcome. And so I think about

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Speaker 4: that in the context of how I lead and how

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Speaker 4: I pastor this idea of like, it doesn't matter how

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Speaker 4: well you start, matters how you finish, and and all

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Speaker 4: of the moments that happened in between. You know, I

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Speaker 4: don't get to hit the end of my life and

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Speaker 4: then hit rewind and relitigate or relive experiences that I

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Speaker 4: wish I would have managed better in that season. All

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Speaker 4: I have is the present, and I just feel like

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Speaker 4: there is a spiritual principle related to courage, related to boldness.

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Speaker 4: You know, my conviction is not that we've always gone right,

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Speaker 4: but you know, more often than not, we live in

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Speaker 4: a way where it's like I'm leaving it on the field.

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Speaker 4: I'm given everything that I have to this moment. I've

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Speaker 4: never been here before. Maybe in hindsight, i'd manage it

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Speaker 4: a little differently. And I'm a lot of things, but

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Speaker 4: I'm not a coward, and so I want to I

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Speaker 4: want to represent like boldness in the face of opposition

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Speaker 4: because I think, you know, frankly, especially in the place

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Speaker 4: like the Northwest, but maybe more broadly in our nation,

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Speaker 4: the enemy has gotten use to giving a little bit

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Speaker 4: of pushback, a little bit of blowback, and then having

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Speaker 4: Christians just roll over and play dead. Yea, And I

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Speaker 4: just go like it was like aw Towzer who said

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Speaker 4: a scared world needs a fearless church. And it's like

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Speaker 4: easy to quote those things or read those books, but

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Speaker 4: then when everything is on the line, you've got to

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Speaker 4: make a determination.

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Speaker 1: What do I want to be known for? Who am

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Speaker 1: I going to live for?

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Speaker 4: You know, I like to tell our church the greatest

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Speaker 4: argument against death is an unfinished assignment. And so if

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Speaker 4: I'm operating with the belief that I've got ann finished assignment,

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Speaker 4: then it's like the safest place is in the center

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Speaker 4: of God's will.

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Speaker 1: God's got this. You know.

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Speaker 4: My hand is not my own source, my own supply.

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Speaker 4: If God can't give it to me, I don't want it.

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Speaker 4: I am dependent on God to be God so that

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Speaker 4: I can fulfill the assignment that He's placed on my life.

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Speaker 4: You know, what we're already doing in the Northwest is impossible.

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Speaker 4: It's you know, in an area that's oftentimes diametrically opposed

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Speaker 4: to our values. It's extremely expensive, it's an area where

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Speaker 4: it's super highly concentrated academic and educational. And you would

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Speaker 4: think that being like a conservative charismatic church would just

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Speaker 4: you know, run in the opposite direction of the spirit

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Speaker 4: of that region. But in the midst of it, we're

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Speaker 4: seeing God do really incredible things. I think that there

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Speaker 4: is something about the presence and the reward of the

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Speaker 4: Lord that rests on the foundation of courage and boldness.

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Speaker 4: When Jesus teaches the disciples to pray the Lord's prayer,

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Speaker 4: he immediately follows it up with this odd like parable

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Speaker 4: about a man who goes to his neighbor at midnight

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Speaker 4: to ask for bread, and the neighbor tells him it's midnight.

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Speaker 1: You got to go back to bed. I'm not getting up.

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Speaker 4: But the man keeps knocking on the door until finally

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Speaker 4: the neighbor will arise from his slumber, go to the kitchen,

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Speaker 4: get bread, and give the man that which he is requesting.

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Speaker 4: And then Jesus follows it up. Now, this is in

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Speaker 4: the context of prayer. Jesus follows it up and says,

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Speaker 4: not because of friendship, but because of audacious boldness, the

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Speaker 4: neighbor will rise from his slumber to give this man

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Speaker 4: bread in his hour of need. Therefore, keep asking, keep seeking,

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Speaker 4: keep knocking, and the door will be opened under you.

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Speaker 4: The Holy Spirit will be given to you. And I

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Speaker 4: think about that in the context of going. It is

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Speaker 4: midnight in America again for the church, and there is

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Speaker 4: something about the reward of the Lord that rests on

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Speaker 4: the audacious boldness to keep knocking, to keep and it's

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Speaker 4: like it's midnight, it's messy, it doesn't make sense.

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Speaker 1: Come back in the morning.

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Speaker 4: All of the exterior evidence would point towards the idea

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Speaker 4: that the man who's asleep in his house is in

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Speaker 4: the right and the man who's knocking on his door

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Speaker 4: is the one who is nuts. But there is something

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Speaker 4: about that audacious boldness that pulls resource out of heaven

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Speaker 4: and applies it to your contextual circumstance. And so you know,

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Speaker 4: for me, when I look at the church and I

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Speaker 4: look at the team that we've built, you know, you

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Speaker 4: end up building a team of people around you who

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Speaker 4: reflect your irreducible minimums, your constitutional values. We've got a

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Speaker 4: diverse team of people with a lot of different life experiences,

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Speaker 4: young and old, a lot of different types of church backgrounds.

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Speaker 4: But what unites us all is that when like stuff

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Speaker 4: is on the line, they want to roll. It's like,

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Speaker 4: we're not backing down. I didn't burn the ships and

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Speaker 4: give up everything in my life to plant a.

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Speaker 1: Church of people who will just observe.

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Speaker 4: What's happening around them and then make social commentary on it,

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Speaker 4: like we're either in the game or we're not. We're

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Speaker 4: either in the fight or we're not. And I think

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Speaker 4: that has become one of the compelling characteristics of pursuit

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Speaker 4: around the nation, is that like, and you know, some

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Speaker 4: of the feedback that I appreciate most honestly is people

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Speaker 4: who will go, hey, I'm not sure I agree with

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Speaker 4: all your theology. I'm not sure I'm as Pentecostal as you.

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Speaker 4: I'm not sure I have the same eschatology. I'm not

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Speaker 4: sure I have the same perspective on like public policy

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Speaker 4: or social engagement in the public square. However, what I

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Speaker 4: can't deny is that there is an audacious boldness on

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Speaker 4: your life that seems to pull things out of heaven

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Speaker 4: and bring them into the earth, and it's impacting the

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Speaker 4: Pacific Northwest, And I go, yeah, that's the parable of

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Speaker 4: the man who goes to his neighbor at midnight. Hey,

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Speaker 4: I don't know if I agree with your protocol. I

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Speaker 4: don't know if I agree with the timing. I don't

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Speaker 4: know if I would do it the same way if

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Speaker 4: I were you. But there is something about that boldness

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Speaker 4: that like God responds to. And so you know, when

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Speaker 4: we face you know, conflict and death threats, and you know,

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Speaker 4: all of the things that the world engineers to throw

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Speaker 4: in your direction that really just serve as distractions from

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Speaker 4: the broader mission. It's like my default is to double

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Speaker 4: down on what we're doing. Anything the devil tells you

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Speaker 4: you can't do once, you should do twice. Anywhere that

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Speaker 4: you feel pressure from the enemy on or culture on

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Speaker 4: not speaking up or not talking to issues should immediately

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Speaker 4: become the invitation.

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Speaker 1: For you to speak even louder.

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Speaker 4: And I've had to develop kind of that inverse reaction.

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Speaker 1: I often with our staff.

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Speaker 4: I use the analogy of being on a roller coaster.

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Speaker 4: When a roller coaster is going around a corner, you

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Speaker 4: know you're safe and secure. You know the bar is

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Speaker 4: on your lap, it's keeping you locked in. You're not

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Speaker 4: gonna fly off. But when you ride a roller coaster,

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Speaker 4: even when you're turning a corner, and you can feel

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Speaker 4: the weight in the inertia of your body shifting in

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Speaker 4: one direction, intuitively you lean in the opposite direction, and

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Speaker 4: like developing that type of muscle memory as it pertains

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Speaker 4: to leadership, especially spiritual leadership, doing the opposite of where

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Speaker 4: you feel like your flesh is pulling you. Your flesh

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Speaker 4: wants to pull you into the cave like Elijah and

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Speaker 4: live a small life. Your flesh wants to pull you

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Speaker 4: into fear. Your flesh wants to pull you into the

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Speaker 4: wine press like Gideon. Your flesh wants to pull you

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Speaker 4: into the direction of it's not worth it, or existential

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Speaker 4: depression or crisis, or are we even making a difference?

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Speaker 1: You know those types of things, and you've.

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Speaker 4: Got to develop that intuitive spiritual muscle memory to lean

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Speaker 4: in the opposite direction of where your flesh is being pulled,

437
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 4: because I think that's where you know leadership is on

438
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,639
Speaker 4: the line, that's where it counts. Anybody can hold the

439
00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:02,760
Speaker 4: wheel when the waves are calm, but only an intuitive

440
00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 4: spiritual leader can hold the wheel when when the storm

441
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:09,000
Speaker 4: comes and the waves are rough. Leadership was created as

442
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 4: a context for when the waves are rough, and I

443
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:14,760
Speaker 4: think that's where it counts.

444
00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 1: That's where you cut your teeth. That's where it matters.

445
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 4: It's not making the ninety eight percent of decisions that

446
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 4: any normative person could make when the conditions are ideal.

447
00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:27,359
Speaker 1: It's what you do at.

448
00:24:27,240 --> 00:24:30,719
Speaker 4: Midnight when the family is starving. It's whose door you

449
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,840
Speaker 4: decide to knock on. It's the ability to keep knocking

450
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 4: even after you've been told no two or three times

451
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 4: in a row. That is the difference maker in leadership

452
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 4: and in kind of like spiritually intuitive living where I

453
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 4: think the Lord has really helped us over the last decade.

454
00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 2: You know, Russell, and I hear you speak with such passion,

455
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,440
Speaker 2: and you're talking about this practice of remembrance, remembering who

456
00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 2: our God was, Our God has done it before, so

457
00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 2: our God will do again, and believing with that boldness and.

458
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 3: With that courage. There's people that are probably.

459
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 2: Listening today that maybe have been following Jesus from a

460
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,240
Speaker 2: distance close enough to say they believe in him, far

461
00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 2: enough away to not receive the backlash that might just

462
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:15,960
Speaker 2: be like, how does a man who's experienced such suppression,

463
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 2: such oppression, all of these types of things, how does

464
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:23,920
Speaker 2: he continually live in this constant state of victory. Recently

465
00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:26,040
Speaker 2: I heard you share that message where you brought up

466
00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:30,720
Speaker 2: that term Nike in this idea of constantly living victoriously,

467
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,679
Speaker 2: this idea of having costly worship. I'm looking at you

468
00:25:33,760 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 2: and I'm like, dude, I want some of that. I

469
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 2: want that spirit filled, that anointed, that appointed life. I

470
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 2: want to ask you, how have you continued to make

471
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 2: those choices to be that leader, to be courageous, to

472
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:49,640
Speaker 2: be bold, to worship, to live in victory every day

473
00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:50,960
Speaker 2: in the midst of this battle.

474
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:57,800
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think about this concept of victory has a vocabulary,

475
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,880
Speaker 4: and your life moves in the direction of your strongest thought.

476
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 4: And all over scripture we have these commands of like

477
00:26:04,560 --> 00:26:06,959
Speaker 4: setting your mind on things above, not on things below,

478
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,560
Speaker 4: pulling into captivity every vain imagination that would try to.

479
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:12,000
Speaker 1: Exalt itself over Christ.

480
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 4: And you know, I think especially about the apostle Paul,

481
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:20,080
Speaker 4: who you know, some of his most impactful letters written

482
00:26:20,119 --> 00:26:23,960
Speaker 4: to churches and leaders are being written from a prison cell,

483
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:27,000
Speaker 4: and he'll say things like, outwardly I am wasting away,

484
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:30,120
Speaker 4: but inwardly I am being renewed day after day, thanks

485
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,320
Speaker 4: being to our Lord and the Savior, Jesus Christ, who

486
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:37,160
Speaker 4: always leads us in victory. And I think about that

487
00:26:38,800 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 4: going like the amount of cognitive disconnect in one sense

488
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:47,360
Speaker 4: between his social setting, his physical setting, and then his

489
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 4: spiritual life, like reveals to us, like these revelatory principles

490
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,439
Speaker 4: on what it looks like to live on a different

491
00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:00,720
Speaker 4: plane of existence to you know, like tells the Church,

492
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,760
Speaker 4: you have the mind of Christ. You can think like

493
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 4: God thinks about your circumstances, about your life, about your calling,

494
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,480
Speaker 4: about your mission, and how important it is to to

495
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:16,479
Speaker 4: control that that that inner dialogue. I've heard it said before,

496
00:27:17,480 --> 00:27:20,120
Speaker 4: you got to be careful what you say, because you're listening.

497
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 4: Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your interior dialogue.

498
00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:28,880
Speaker 4: And uh, you know. And so for me, I've had

499
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:35,439
Speaker 4: to really become forensic and and and and clinical about

500
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:42,239
Speaker 4: ensuring that the vocabulary of my life, the words of

501
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,320
Speaker 4: my mouth, the meditation of my heart, as a man

502
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:48,160
Speaker 4: thinks in his heart, so he is uh that they

503
00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 4: match and honor what God is saying to be true

504
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 4: about about my circumstances. And so there's there's a way

505
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 4: that things look on the outside, and then.

506
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,600
Speaker 1: There is a greater truth, uh, that is that is

507
00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: on the inside.

508
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,439
Speaker 4: All of your feelings are real, but not all of

509
00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:06,959
Speaker 4: your feelings are true, and being able to splice that

510
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 4: into going like i might feel persecuted, but I'm not abandoned.

511
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,119
Speaker 4: I might feel struck down, but I'm not destroyed. I mean,

512
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,399
Speaker 4: you see Paul like nuancing this in his in his

513
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 4: apostolic literature, this idea of like, hey, I can have

514
00:28:20,400 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 4: victory even in the midst of sitting in a Roman prison,

515
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,440
Speaker 4: because I know who I am, I know where I'm going,

516
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:28,200
Speaker 4: I know the mission and the call of God upon

517
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 4: my life. And you know, my particular setting might look

518
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 4: like I'm enclosed and I'm forgotten and I'm you know,

519
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,600
Speaker 4: on the back side of the wilderness, but that's not

520
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 4: the perspective I have of the.

521
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: God that I serve.

522
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 4: And so you know you brought up the the the

523
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 4: act of remembrance. I think about this as it pertains

524
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 4: to communion, where Christ institutes at the Last Supper. But

525
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 4: you know, in communion. We are always looking in three

526
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:05,120
Speaker 4: directions simultaneously. We're looking back because Jesus says, do this.

527
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:06,000
Speaker 1: In remembrance of me.

528
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 4: We're looking inward because the apostle Paul says, let a

529
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 4: man examine himself before the Lord prior to the taking

530
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 4: of the communion elements. But then we also look forward,

531
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:19,960
Speaker 4: because the Bible says we prophesied the Lord's death until

532
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 4: he comes through the receiving of communion. So like in

533
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 4: the world people drink to forget, in the Church we

534
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:28,840
Speaker 4: drink to remember.

535
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 1: So we we we we we.

536
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 4: We drink the wine, and we eat the broken bread

537
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:38,880
Speaker 4: symbolizing his spilt blood and his broken body. And in

538
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 4: doing so we we remember with great gratitude the immutable,

539
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 4: unchangeable God, the Lamb, who was slain from the foundations

540
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 4: of the earth, whose blood is.

541
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,000
Speaker 1: Still efficacious for us today.

542
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:49,719
Speaker 2: Uh.

543
00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:52,560
Speaker 4: And we also look inward, and we go, how has

544
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 4: this transformative power been at work in my life?

545
00:29:56,160 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 1: And in what.

546
00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 4: Ways does it need to be more at work than

547
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:03,000
Speaker 4: it has previously been? And then and then we look forward,

548
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 4: declaring that you know, in the same manner that he ascended,

549
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 4: he will soon descend. And He's coming back for a

550
00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:13,560
Speaker 4: people that have victory. So victory is a decision that

551
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 4: you make about the type of life that you're gonna live,

552
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,680
Speaker 4: not a decision that God makes about your life.

553
00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:20,520
Speaker 1: And by that I mean this.

554
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 4: You know, some people's view of God is almost like

555
00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:24,719
Speaker 4: he has a magic eight ball in heaven and he's

556
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,680
Speaker 4: shaking it up, and it's like, well, I'm gonna, I'm

557
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 4: gonna I'm gonna bless this guy, but I'm I'm not

558
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,600
Speaker 4: gonna bless that guy. This person's gonna have victory, but

559
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:35,880
Speaker 4: that person's not. This person is gonna have blessing. This

560
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 4: person is gonna have cursing, and uh, it's the luck

561
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:44,760
Speaker 4: of the draw. Well that that's not the way that

562
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 4: I understand the Atonement. That's not the way that I

563
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 4: understand the New Testament.

564
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:49,680
Speaker 1: Uh.

565
00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:52,239
Speaker 4: You know, when the apostle Paul writes the church, he's

566
00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 4: not saying, Hey, there's a lucky few of us who

567
00:30:54,600 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 4: are really special to God who have victory and go

568
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 4: from glory under even greater glory, And you know, sorry

569
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 4: for the rest of y'all, but that's my lot in life.

570
00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 4: The rest of you are probably signed up to miserable

571
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:13,400
Speaker 4: failure from here on out. No, you know, like Peter

572
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,240
Speaker 4: preaches An Acts ten, he says, God is no respector

573
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,280
Speaker 4: of persons. What he has done for one, he will

574
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 4: do for all. And so when I hear Paul saying,

575
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 4: you know, thanks be under our Lord and savior Jesus Christ,

576
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 4: who always leads us in victory, I go, that's a key,

577
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 4: that's a mindset, that's a determination that an individual makes

578
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 4: about the type of life.

579
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: That they're going to live.

580
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 4: I think about this in the context of seed time

581
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 4: and harvest.

582
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,000
Speaker 1: God's not in control of the size of my harvest.

583
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 4: I am, because the Bible says whatever a man sows,

584
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,680
Speaker 4: he will reap. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly.

585
00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 4: If you sow generously, you reap generously. So God's not

586
00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 4: determining the size of my harvest. I am by.

587
00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:56,960
Speaker 1: Virtue of what I sew.

588
00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:00,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think about that in the context, you know,

589
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,200
Speaker 4: more broadly, taking a step back and looking at having

590
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 4: a victorious life and a victorious mindset. You know that

591
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,400
Speaker 4: that is a decision I get to make every day,

592
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 4: and sometimes multiple times a day. It's a decision that

593
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,240
Speaker 4: impacts the thoughts that I'm gonna dwell on. I forget

594
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:17,680
Speaker 4: who said it, but you know that that famous axiom

595
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 4: of you know, you can't stop a bird from flying

596
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 4: over your head, but you can prevent a bird from

597
00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 4: building a nest in your hair. What you decide to

598
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 4: dwell on, what you decide to put your mind to,

599
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:34,400
Speaker 4: how you determine the interior dialogue of your life is

600
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 4: going to be the nature of your prayer, the nature

601
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 4: of your walk with the Lord. This is not like

602
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 4: gnostic secret knowledge for a couple really spectacularly anointed individuals

603
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,080
Speaker 4: and a generation who can be outliers. This is the

604
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,280
Speaker 4: invitation to come to the river and to drink, to buy,

605
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:55,320
Speaker 4: to buy and receive wine without even having money like

606
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 4: this is the all who call upon the name of

607
00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 4: the Lord can and will be saved. It is an

608
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 4: open invitation under heaven to live a victorious life. Now

609
00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:06,840
Speaker 4: does that mean with a victorious life?

610
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:07,000
Speaker 2: You know?

611
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 4: And this is where people from you know, my theological

612
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 4: tradition often get criticized. Does that mean do you wont

613
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 4: ever have a struggle? You won't ever have something that

614
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 4: you walk through that isn't pleasant.

615
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 1: Or that is difficult.

616
00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 4: No, of course, you know, we all walk through seasons

617
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 4: of life where you got rain that falls on the

618
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 4: just and then rain that falls on the unjust. You know,

619
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 4: the topography shifts and changes, the elevation of your life

620
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 4: shifts and changes based on different seasons. But I can

621
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 4: have just as much victory in the valley of the

622
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 4: shadow as I can on the mountaintop, because victory is

623
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 4: a decision that I make on the inside about what

624
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 4: I'm going to give the mental real estate of my

625
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 4: mind towards. You know, like faith doesn't deny that a

626
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:54,080
Speaker 4: problem exists, it denies that problem an undue place of influence.

627
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 1: In my life.

628
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 4: And so you know, when I preach faith and when

629
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 4: I talk about victory, it's not it's not like if

630
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 4: you just believe what I'm going to believe, then you'll

631
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 4: never walk through something difficult. No, it means that that

632
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,920
Speaker 4: you can have a difficulty without difficulty having you. You

633
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 4: can experience sickness without developing a spirit of infirmity. You

634
00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,720
Speaker 4: can walk through stuff that is unpleasant without that becoming

635
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 4: the final designation.

636
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: Of your life.

637
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:29,600
Speaker 4: Because Christ has given us victory over this world. And

638
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:31,760
Speaker 4: what is that victory are faith?

639
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 1: And so.

640
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:36,279
Speaker 4: You know, when I preach faith. And when I talk

641
00:34:36,320 --> 00:34:39,320
Speaker 4: about overcoming, and when I talk about enduring and and

642
00:34:39,320 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 4: and living a life of going from glory on the

643
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,279
Speaker 4: greater glory, that is not the denial of suffering or

644
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:51,240
Speaker 4: the denial of difficulty. That is the elevation of God's

645
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,359
Speaker 4: best in your life in the midst of all of it,

646
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:57,560
Speaker 4: you know. And when I look at Scripture and I

647
00:34:57,600 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 4: see suffering in the life of the believer, I see

648
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 4: it as scriptive, not prescriptive. It is it is the

649
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,520
Speaker 4: describing of a season that they're walking through. It is

650
00:35:07,560 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 4: not the prescribing of a context or of a construct

651
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,719
Speaker 4: for how You've got to understand all of life through

652
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 4: the Bible teaches victory for the believer. And I'm you

653
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 4: know you mentioned it. I am the proof case for this.

654
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:28,040
Speaker 4: The last six months has been some of the hardest

655
00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 4: stuff I've ever walked through in life, leadership, family, ministry, personal, professional,

656
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 4: you name it. And in the midst of it, we've

657
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,359
Speaker 4: had record growth, record salvations. The church is growing, people

658
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:43,919
Speaker 4: are prospering. God is doing great work. But we had

659
00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 4: to make those decisions kind of in the dark night

660
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:50,960
Speaker 4: of the soul of like, no, we're gonna have victory

661
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,600
Speaker 4: because God said it's possible, even when other people from

662
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 4: the outside and are looking in at our circumstances, going

663
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 4: are you nuts?

664
00:35:58,400 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: You know?

665
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,160
Speaker 4: Why are you still there? Or how are you still

666
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 4: hanging on? Or how is your head still above water? Well,

667
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,239
Speaker 4: because victory is the decision I get to make when

668
00:36:05,239 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 4: I wake up in the morning.

669
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:07,719
Speaker 1: What am I going to walk in? What do I have?

670
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,279
Speaker 4: Am I who the Bible says I am? Do I

671
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:13,799
Speaker 4: have what the Bible says I have? Because as long

672
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 4: as you take the Bible as good advice, the enemy

673
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 4: is not threatened by the type of life you live.

674
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:22,279
Speaker 4: But as soon as you determine that the Bible is

675
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,359
Speaker 4: chalk full of promises that can become the foundation of

676
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,600
Speaker 4: what I build upon the type of Christian life I have,

677
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,120
Speaker 4: you become an existential threat to the kingdoms of darkness.

678
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,240
Speaker 4: And I've just made the determination the Bible is true.

679
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,760
Speaker 4: It is not good advice from a Middle Eastern life coach.

680
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,879
Speaker 4: It is promises that are covenental nature that I can

681
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,560
Speaker 4: take to the bank. And so I'm going to build

682
00:36:43,560 --> 00:36:48,280
Speaker 4: my life off of those promises and renew my mind

683
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:50,600
Speaker 4: day after day, and to I believe it with every

684
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,600
Speaker 4: cell of my body that this is what Christ has

685
00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:59,120
Speaker 4: invited me into, and I can live a life of overcoming.

686
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:01,120
Speaker 4: I'm not on the wrong side of history. I'm not

687
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,040
Speaker 4: on the losing side of eternity. Every day is a

688
00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 4: good day when you've been raised from the dead.

689
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,239
Speaker 1: I I've got a.

690
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:11,840
Speaker 4: Reason to rejoice in every circumstance of life because the

691
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,920
Speaker 4: God that I serve has already overcome death, hell, and

692
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 4: the grave, and He's given me victory on this side

693
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,399
Speaker 4: of eternity. And so it's a decision that you make

694
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 4: to walk in that impacts the thoughts that you think

695
00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 4: and the words that you say. And so, just like

696
00:37:27,239 --> 00:37:30,160
Speaker 4: faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word, fear

697
00:37:30,239 --> 00:37:32,960
Speaker 4: comes the same way it comes by hearing and hearing

698
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 4: by the wrong words. Your life gravitates in the direction

699
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,960
Speaker 4: of what you dwell on, your strongest thought, the words

700
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:43,880
Speaker 4: and the meditations of your heart. And so I just

701
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 4: try to be like particular and forensic about going. I'm

702
00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:55,640
Speaker 4: not going to allow the vocabulary of the world to

703
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 4: frame in the life of faith. I want the vocabulary

704
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,160
Speaker 4: of faith, the promises of Scripture, the revelation of who

705
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:04,920
Speaker 4: God is, and the person of Christ, Jesus, the promises

706
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:07,400
Speaker 4: out of scripture, you know. Faith takes back what the

707
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:11,319
Speaker 4: devil has stolen. Faith plants the flag firmly in the

708
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,200
Speaker 4: promise of God and makes the determination, I'm not going

709
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 4: to settle for anything less. I'm not going to live

710
00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:19,919
Speaker 4: life below my level of invitation. If God has said

711
00:38:19,960 --> 00:38:23,160
Speaker 4: that I can have victory, then then that is going

712
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 4: to be the thing that I ultimately pursue and not

713
00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 4: settle for anything less, because if God said it's possible,

714
00:38:30,640 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 4: then then it's not a life well worth living if

715
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:37,919
Speaker 4: you settle below what God's invited you into.

716
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 2: Huh Russell, I'm going back and I'm listening to this

717
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,760
Speaker 2: a couple more times because this is this is gold

718
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,400
Speaker 2: for somebody that's out there, that's weary, that feels discouraged.

719
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:49,000
Speaker 2: Because what I'm really hearing you say. I've heard it

720
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:51,080
Speaker 2: said that faith and fear have one thing in common.

721
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:54,160
Speaker 2: They both believe in the future that has not yet happened.

722
00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 2: Here believes in a negative one. Faith believes in a

723
00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:58,440
Speaker 2: positive one. What you just said, well, I took away

724
00:38:58,920 --> 00:39:03,000
Speaker 2: victory has a vote vocabulary, and hear me, your prosperity

725
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 2: is your responsibility. Every single day, we have to show

726
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 2: up and we have to claim the victory that God

727
00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 2: has already received for us. How I want to end

728
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 2: this conversation, my friend, I could literally listen to you.

729
00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,319
Speaker 1: All day long. I wish I could.

730
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:18,919
Speaker 2: I wish I could just be literally in a room

731
00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 2: and just hear what the Spirit is putting in and

732
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,400
Speaker 2: through your soul and in and through your being.

733
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:25,320
Speaker 3: But how I want to close.

734
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,360
Speaker 2: I always have our guests just share pressing where the

735
00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:30,520
Speaker 2: God is placed on their heart for a specific people group,

736
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:32,359
Speaker 2: and I'll describe that people group here in a second.

737
00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:33,919
Speaker 2: But one thing I love about you is you don't

738
00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 2: just live a life of victory. You live a life

739
00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:38,480
Speaker 2: of humility as a leader. I remember hearing you say

740
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:40,400
Speaker 2: in a statement that at the end of the day,

741
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:42,239
Speaker 2: I don't even need to be on the stage, I

742
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 2: don't need the platform, But God, would you just allow me.

743
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:46,440
Speaker 3: To be in the room when your glory falls.

744
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 2: I mean that humility, I think, is how God is

745
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,480
Speaker 2: going to continue to use you moving forward. So from

746
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,880
Speaker 2: friend to friend, brother to brother, thank you for exuding

747
00:39:54,880 --> 00:39:58,080
Speaker 2: that and for showing what it means to truly walk

748
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 2: out this thing called faith filled leadership. The pure person

749
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 2: I want to speak into today is just the person

750
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 2: out there Russell, who is discouraged, who is disappointed, who

751
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,799
Speaker 2: feels deflated, feels like they're in a season or a

752
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 2: pit of despair. Nothing in their life seems to be

753
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 2: going well. But one thing that I pulled away. You

754
00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:21,879
Speaker 2: posted recently forty lessons you learned in your forty years

755
00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:23,600
Speaker 2: of life, and the one that stood out to me

756
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 2: is that God does his best work in the dark.

757
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:29,799
Speaker 3: Close this out with the final word of hope.

758
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:32,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great.

759
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 4: It's a real honor to be here and to have

760
00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:42,399
Speaker 4: this conversation with you. I've heard it said before that

761
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 4: the way to know that you are truly old is

762
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 4: when your memories become more powerful than your dreams. Doctor

763
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,319
Speaker 4: Maidan says it like this. You know your heart is

764
00:40:55,400 --> 00:41:01,479
Speaker 4: healthy again when you begin to dream. And like Peter

765
00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:05,399
Speaker 4: preaching on the Day of Pentecost, he tells people both

766
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,200
Speaker 4: old and young, when the spirit of God gets poured

767
00:41:08,239 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 4: out on your life, one of the primary evidences of

768
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 4: that experience is that you have the ability to have

769
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,600
Speaker 4: new vision and new dreams. And so you know, speaking

770
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:23,280
Speaker 4: to that type of person that you described, I would

771
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 4: implore you to understand. You know this truth that it's

772
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:32,240
Speaker 4: never too late to begin again, that there's nothing that

773
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 4: you will ever give to the Lord that he won't

774
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 4: give back in a better, more redeemed fashion in a

775
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 4: later season of your life.

776
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 1: And that's why I'm always.

777
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:46,520
Speaker 4: Struck by the first miracle of Christ's ministry, turning water

778
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 4: into wine at the wedding of Cana And the Master

779
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 4: of Ceremonies says to Jesus, you know, normally they bring

780
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:57,320
Speaker 4: out the best wine at first.

781
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,440
Speaker 1: But you have saved the best for last.

782
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 4: And living a life of of of place in your

783
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:05,760
Speaker 4: your your your hope, your.

784
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:07,720
Speaker 1: Your time, talent and treasure in the hands of the Lord.

785
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:11,080
Speaker 4: Uh is is a life where you get to wake

786
00:42:11,160 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 4: up every day with a fresh expectation that uh as

787
00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:17,840
Speaker 4: as as long as I still got breath in my

788
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,520
Speaker 4: lungs and a pulse in my body, I have signed

789
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 4: up for the wildest adventure on this side of eternity,

790
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,880
Speaker 4: with a God who doesn't just tolerate me, but celebrates

791
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:29,919
Speaker 4: me as the Father of lights, who delights.

792
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 1: In his children.

793
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:32,480
Speaker 4: Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.

794
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:44,200
Speaker 4: And you know the enemy works through the avenue of shame, condemnation, fear, depression, stress, anxiety.

795
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 4: He works over time in our minds to get us

796
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 4: to come into agreement with stuff that has already been disempowered.

797
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,440
Speaker 4: Price captures the keys to death, hell and the grave renders.

798
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:02,879
Speaker 4: The enemy's power broken at the Cross on Calvary's Hill,

799
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,120
Speaker 4: Yet the enemy still seems to operate in some semblance

800
00:43:07,280 --> 00:43:11,240
Speaker 4: of power or authority today. So how can that be true? Well,

801
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:15,279
Speaker 4: what you agree within your spirit, you'll manifest in your life.

802
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 4: And I would encourage folks who are listening to this

803
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:21,360
Speaker 4: podcast today like today is as good a day as

804
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:24,400
Speaker 4: any to make the conscious decision that I am breaking

805
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 4: agreement with what the enemy says about my future, and

806
00:43:30,160 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 4: I'm going to trust that It's never too late to

807
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 4: begin again. It's never too late for the drought to end,

808
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 4: for the rains to come. It's never too late, Like

809
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 4: Caleb at the age of eighty, who says, God, give

810
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:44,439
Speaker 4: me another mountain, It's never too late to shift your

811
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:49,200
Speaker 4: life into the purposes of God and find that existential

812
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,440
Speaker 4: sense of fulfillment, of living on the front edge, on

813
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 4: the bleeding line of what God has already marked out

814
00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 4: for your life, for your calling for your anoinancing, which

815
00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:03,799
Speaker 4: says in Romans is both irrevocable and without repentance. And

816
00:44:06,800 --> 00:44:10,719
Speaker 4: you know, people through I think the circumstances of life,

817
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 4: end up finding themselves in in in places or conditions

818
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 4: in their mind where it's like the walls have closed in,

819
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 4: the parameters have been set, and it's like, this is

820
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 4: my lot in life. I'm divorced, I have the scarlet letter.

821
00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:28,799
Speaker 4: This is just this is just my life. This is

822
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:32,840
Speaker 4: just how I'm gonna live. You know, my parents struggle

823
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,120
Speaker 4: with this, My grandparents struggle with this, with my great

824
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:37,479
Speaker 4: grandparents struggle with it. This is just how my life

825
00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 4: is gonna look because I'm a part of this family,

826
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 4: or I'm a part of this culture, or I'm a

827
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:43,920
Speaker 4: part of this generation. I like to tell people you

828
00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:46,080
Speaker 4: were born looking like your parents, but you're gonna die

829
00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 4: looking like your decisions. You can choose this day whom

830
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 4: you're gonna serve and make a determination that I'm not

831
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,200
Speaker 4: gonna live the normal religious version of Christianity.

832
00:44:55,560 --> 00:44:56,960
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have victory.

833
00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:59,960
Speaker 4: Because Christ said that I could. And I would just

834
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:05,720
Speaker 4: like encourage people that today's a great day to believe

835
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 4: God at his word for your life and make the

836
00:45:09,080 --> 00:45:11,240
Speaker 4: determination that there is no other option.

837
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,759
Speaker 1: I don't have a plan B. I don't have a plan.

838
00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,760
Speaker 4: See, I don't have a backup if what God said

839
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:18,799
Speaker 4: to be true about my life ends up not being

840
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:19,800
Speaker 4: true about my life.

841
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 1: I'm all in on.

842
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 4: This idea that what God says is possible becomes the

843
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:29,360
Speaker 4: only permission slip that I need to be signed to

844
00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 4: live the type of life that the Bible says that

845
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 4: that I can live. And so folks who are watching

846
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:36,720
Speaker 4: this today who might feel like I'm in the cave,

847
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:41,319
Speaker 4: I'm in the cave of isolation or depression, or the

848
00:45:41,360 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 4: cave of feeling like my lot in life has already

849
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 4: been determined and there's no way.

850
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: Out of this mess. God does his best work in

851
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: places that.

852
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 4: People cannot see. Man looks on the outward, God looks

853
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:58,239
Speaker 4: at the heart. It's like the Iceberg analogy. What you

854
00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 4: see on the top of the surface pales in comparison

855
00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:07,319
Speaker 4: to what's happening in places that people can't adjudicate. And

856
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,880
Speaker 4: you ought to resist the temptation to make a lifelong

857
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 4: determination off of one particular moment of frustration or disappointment

858
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:17,719
Speaker 4: in your life. The Bible says, all who put their

859
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:21,359
Speaker 4: hope in the Lord will not be set to disappointment.

860
00:46:21,719 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 4: The idea of that will not be the eternal, the

861
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 4: eternal designation of your life, or your spiritual temperature. You've

862
00:46:28,719 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 4: got the ability to believe again, dream again, hope again,

863
00:46:31,360 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 4: rise on wings like eagles and sore. Have your strength

864
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 4: renewed like the youth, to be encouraged, To encourage yourself

865
00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:41,120
Speaker 4: in the Lord, to set your mind on things above,

866
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:45,920
Speaker 4: To shift out of perpetual dysfunction or despair into a

867
00:46:46,000 --> 00:46:49,360
Speaker 4: life of having victory, where your eyes are set on Jesus,

868
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:53,120
Speaker 4: the Author and the finisher of your faith. There has

869
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 4: never been a better time to be involved in what

870
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 4: God is doing in the earth than right now. Your

871
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,800
Speaker 4: life is not an accident. Were born on purpose, with purpose.

872
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,799
Speaker 4: God and eternities past saw this moment. You're not a

873
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:10,920
Speaker 4: mistake God. God has a set apart plan and and purpose.

874
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 4: You know, And even what the prophet Jeremiah says to

875
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:16,759
Speaker 4: the people of Israel in the midst of their captivity,

876
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 4: You know, I think about the things that God says

877
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:23,880
Speaker 4: over us while we were fearfully and wonderfully being made

878
00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 4: even in our mother's womb that God shouted over your

879
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:29,720
Speaker 4: soul at the moment of conception. I know the plans

880
00:47:29,719 --> 00:47:32,120
Speaker 4: and purposes I have for you, says the Lord. Plans

881
00:47:32,160 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 4: to prosper you, to give you a good purpose, to

882
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:38,560
Speaker 4: give you a good vision, to give you a victorious life.

883
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:40,840
Speaker 1: I know what I have marked out for you.

884
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:43,839
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter how long it's been, or how far

885
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,600
Speaker 4: you've run, or how much of a mess you feel

886
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 4: like you've.

887
00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:48,640
Speaker 1: Made of your life.

888
00:47:49,239 --> 00:47:51,680
Speaker 4: God still knows the plan and the purpose that he

889
00:47:51,760 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 4: shouted over you when nobody else could see. God saw,

890
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:59,479
Speaker 4: And I just I just think God.

891
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:00,279
Speaker 1: God is.

892
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:04,359
Speaker 4: God gives second chances because that's all he knows how

893
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:08,479
Speaker 4: to give. God doesn't use perfect people because there's none

894
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,719
Speaker 4: of those left. God is willing to partner with you

895
00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 4: right where you're at. Because even though the righteous fall

896
00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:15,480
Speaker 4: seven times, they get back up.

897
00:48:15,520 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 1: So today would be a great.

898
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,879
Speaker 4: Day to make the determination I'm getting back up. I'm

899
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:23,680
Speaker 4: not wallowing in the pit of self despair or of

900
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:30,399
Speaker 4: self sabotage one day longer. I'm making the determination that

901
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 4: my victory, you know, begins today. And and like that

902
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:35,320
Speaker 4: old axiom, you know, the best time to plant a

903
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 4: tree is yesterday. But the second time, second best time

904
00:48:38,320 --> 00:48:40,719
Speaker 4: to plant plant a tree is today. And trees don't

905
00:48:40,719 --> 00:48:43,600
Speaker 4: grow in moments of passion. They grow as a result

906
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:50,320
Speaker 4: of being planted, nurtured, fed, watered, receiving sunshine. But trees

907
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 4: that are planted always have an origin story. It's it's

908
00:48:53,680 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 4: the determination of a farmer to dig a hole, plant

909
00:48:56,239 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 4: a seed, and with faith in vision what that future

910
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 4: growth can look like. And for people who feel like

911
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:08,760
Speaker 4: my tree is withered or my fig tree isn't producing fruit,

912
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:12,719
Speaker 4: today would be a good day to replant and to

913
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 4: allow those roots to grow strong. The Bible says, at

914
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 4: the scent of water, the roots of a tree shoot forth.

915
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:20,680
Speaker 4: And what I hope your listeners are hearing is like

916
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,719
Speaker 4: that there is a reason to have great hope and

917
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:28,320
Speaker 4: great joy for what's ahead.

918
00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 1: In your life.

919
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:30,799
Speaker 4: You don't have to approach the future with a sense

920
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:35,520
Speaker 4: of dread and oh no, and you know it's always

921
00:49:35,600 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 4: one step forward and two steps back, and oh man,

922
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 4: did you hear the news or see what the economy

923
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 4: is doing? So on and so forth. You don't have

924
00:49:43,120 --> 00:49:45,839
Speaker 4: to live life that way. There is a river that

925
00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:49,440
Speaker 4: proceeds from the throne that makes a city. Rejoice and

926
00:49:49,520 --> 00:49:51,560
Speaker 4: at the scent of that river, the roots of your

927
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:55,160
Speaker 4: tree will shoot forth. It'll connect to something that's life giving.

928
00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:57,320
Speaker 4: Your life will produce. You'll bear fruit in the season

929
00:49:57,320 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 4: and out of season. The leaves of your tree will

930
00:49:59,160 --> 00:50:01,799
Speaker 4: be for the healing of the nations. You can live

931
00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:04,000
Speaker 4: that type of life. And it's never too late to

932
00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:08,759
Speaker 4: begin again. And when people when people make that determination

933
00:50:09,360 --> 00:50:11,719
Speaker 4: in their heart and in their mind, things begin to

934
00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:12,399
Speaker 4: shift for the better.

935
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:17,480
Speaker 3: It is never too late to begin again.

936
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 2: Russell Johnson, my friend, this has been a gift to

937
00:50:20,719 --> 00:50:24,239
Speaker 2: my heart, to my spirit, to my mind, reminding me

938
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:27,759
Speaker 2: of so many truths, opening my eyes to so many

939
00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:30,320
Speaker 2: things that I know the Holy Spirit was just producing

940
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:32,160
Speaker 2: in and through you in our today's conversation.

941
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:34,840
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for you, man, I'm grateful for your leadership.

942
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:35,720
Speaker 3: I know our audience.

943
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:38,200
Speaker 2: If I hadn't heard of you before, I'm sure so

944
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:40,000
Speaker 2: many of them have already heard of you, have probably

945
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:40,960
Speaker 2: listened to several sermons.

946
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:43,600
Speaker 3: But if they haven't working, they go to find out more.

947
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, our church website is the Pursuit in

948
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:51,520
Speaker 4: w dot com in w for Northwest, and that's where

949
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,359
Speaker 4: we host a majority of our content, and yeah, I'm

950
00:50:55,360 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 4: just excited to see what God's doing in the Pacific Northwest.

951
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:04,759
Speaker 2: Russell again, I know leadership can be lonely. I know

952
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 2: sometimes when you're walking through a wilderness or through a valley,

953
00:51:08,920 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 2: it can feel like you're wandering.

954
00:51:11,080 --> 00:51:13,560
Speaker 3: It can feel like you're alone. But brother, you are

955
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 3: not alone.

956
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,000
Speaker 2: You've got friends over here on the East Coast in

957
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:20,000
Speaker 2: Virginia at the AACC. My dad, doctor Tim Clinton, and myself. Man,

958
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 2: we are in your corner. We will be the first

959
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:23,840
Speaker 2: to show up and the last to hang with you

960
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:26,479
Speaker 2: in a fight. I look forward to seeing the ways

961
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:28,840
Speaker 2: that God continues to move it into your life and leadership.

962
00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:29,920
Speaker 3: Thank you for joining me today.

963
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:32,799
Speaker 2: Thanks moos so all of our build different audience. I'll

964
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:37,760
Speaker 2: say this victory is available. I don't know what season

965
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 2: you're going through. I don't know how hard, how difficult

966
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 2: life may be. But I hope you were reminded today,

967
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 2: just as I was from Pastor Russell, that victory is available.

968
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:50,080
Speaker 2: It's yours for the taking. So today make the decision

969
00:51:50,120 --> 00:51:55,640
Speaker 2: to choose it and to claim it. Victory has a vocabulary,

970
00:51:55,880 --> 00:51:57,480
Speaker 2: my friend, thank you so much for joining us.

971
00:51:57,640 --> 00:51:58,919
Speaker 3: We love being a part of your life,