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Speaker 1: Hi, this is Joel and Victoria. Thanks for listening to

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Speaker 1: the podcast, and we want to tell you how much

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Speaker 1: we love you. Trusting you're going to have a blessed

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Speaker 1: Christmas season with you and your family. Know that we

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Speaker 1: pray for you every day. Just speak in God's blessings

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Speaker 1: and favor.

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Speaker 2: We love you, we are praying for you, and we

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Speaker 2: hope you have a very merry Christmas. Enjoy the podcast

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Speaker 2: today listen. I want to remind us to spend our

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Speaker 2: time investing in our future, don't invest in the past.

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Speaker 2: Investing in the past is when you relive your hurts,

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Speaker 2: your pains, your disappointments. See it's easy to focus on

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Speaker 2: who hurt you, what didn't work out, what mistake you've made.

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Speaker 2: But you know what that is is a big waste

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Speaker 2: of time and energy. We can't do anything about what

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Speaker 2: happened in our past. It's done, it's over with, it's finished.

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Speaker 2: But we can do something about today. And when you

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Speaker 2: begin to focus on what you can change and not

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Speaker 2: what you can't change, that is a good investment in

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Speaker 2: the future. You know, we weren't designed to carry around

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Speaker 2: a lot of unnecessary negative baggage, and sometimes we fill

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Speaker 2: our bags with bitterness, resentment, heartache. But can I tell

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Speaker 2: you that you've got to get up every day and

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Speaker 2: let that stuff go. Forgive the people who offended you,

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Speaker 2: release them, forgive yourself. You see, when you are waged

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Speaker 2: down with all of this junk, it's hard to see

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Speaker 2: where you're going. It's hard to even be ready to

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Speaker 2: get there. One time, Joel and I we had scheduled

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Speaker 2: back to back work trips. We really don't ever do this,

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Speaker 2: but this just happened to be an instance that we

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Speaker 2: did this. We had come home from a week out

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Speaker 2: and we came back in and we only had like

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Speaker 2: two hours to be at home, and then we'd have

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Speaker 2: to turn around head back to the airport. Well, on

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Speaker 2: the way home, all I could think about was those

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Speaker 2: dirty clothes in my suitcase. There was a week's worth

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Speaker 2: of dirty clothes in my suitcase. When I got home,

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Speaker 2: I'd dumped all those dirty clothes and I began to

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Speaker 2: refresh my suitcase. Something amazing happened. Where I was tired

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Speaker 2: and anxious on my way home just thinking about all

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Speaker 2: that in my suitcase, I became refreshed, and you know what,

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Speaker 2: I was prepared to go on my next trip because

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Speaker 2: I had exchanged that dirty clothes with fresh new clothes.

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Speaker 2: And do you know a lot of times we get

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Speaker 2: so weighed down with this emotional baggage of clutter that's

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Speaker 2: full of pain and heartache, that we lose our passion

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Speaker 2: and excitement for living. In fact, we're not even prepared

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Speaker 2: where God wants us to go. We're just too way

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Speaker 2: down and anxious. Can I tell you that you need

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Speaker 2: to refresh your emotional baggage every single day. You need

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Speaker 2: to learn to travel light because I can tell you this,

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Speaker 2: where you're going it's far more important than where you've been.

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Speaker 2: But you can't be way down from the past. You know,

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Speaker 2: too often people don't even enjoy what they're doing today.

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Speaker 2: They can't enjoy the opportunities that they're living in today

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Speaker 2: because they're too focused on yesterday. There was a woman

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Speaker 2: who had been divorced for a couple of years, and

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Speaker 2: one day she met this man and he was a

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Speaker 2: very nice man. He seemed to be very happy, he

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Speaker 2: was successful, he went to church. She was excited about

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Speaker 2: the possibilities, but she made a mistake when she went

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Speaker 2: into that relationship. She began to constantly talk about her

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Speaker 2: hurts and pains of the past. She would describe why

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Speaker 2: she acted certain ways or why she said certain things.

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Speaker 2: It was because she was so hurt by her first husband.

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Speaker 2: You know. After a while, that man told one of

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Speaker 2: her friends, he said, you know, she's so focused on

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Speaker 2: what happened to her. She can't move forward. We're not

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Speaker 2: making any kind of connection here, and I really don't

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Speaker 2: feel like the relationship is right. So he decided that

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Speaker 2: he was just going to quit seeing her because she

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Speaker 2: made the mistake of living in the past. She failed

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Speaker 2: at an opportunity that she had for her future. See,

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Speaker 2: when you carry negative baggage into your relationships, you can

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Speaker 2: ruin many relationships. See, we've got to decide that it's

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Speaker 2: time to let it go. It's time to put it

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Speaker 2: in the past, to shut the door to it. One time,

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Speaker 2: Joel and I were going to this highly secure government building,

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Speaker 2: and so there was two sets of double doors. So

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Speaker 2: we stood in front of the first set of doors

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Speaker 2: and it opened up and we began to walk past

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Speaker 2: those doors to go through the second set. But we

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Speaker 2: noticed the second set would not open until the first

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Speaker 2: set closed. And do you know, in life, you're not

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Speaker 2: going to be able to walk through open doors until

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Speaker 2: you close the doors that are behind you. When you're

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Speaker 2: holding on to bitterness, regret the mistakes you've made, it

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Speaker 2: gets you stuck. It's like a trap you can't get

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Speaker 2: out of. Years ago, that the way hunters used to

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Speaker 2: trap monkeys was they would take a big barrel and

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Speaker 2: they would fill it full of bananas, and at the

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Speaker 2: end of that barrel they would cut a very small hole,

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Speaker 2: just big enough for the monkey to get its hand

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Speaker 2: and arm through. Now, the monkey, unaware that this was

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Speaker 2: a trap, would stick his hand in there and grab

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Speaker 2: a fistful of bananas. But the problem was, as long

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Speaker 2: as he was holding on to those bananas, he couldn't

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Speaker 2: get his hand out of the barrel. You see, he

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Speaker 2: could have just simply let the bananas go, taken his

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Speaker 2: hand out of the barrel, and gone on his way.

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Speaker 2: But see, because he was holding on to the barrel,

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Speaker 2: he was trapped and he couldn't get away. See, we

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Speaker 2: can't let yesterday trap us. We cannot be trapped in

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Speaker 2: the past when God has a bright future. Unfair things

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Speaker 2: happen to all of us. We experience loss, we all

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Speaker 2: make mistakes. People hurt us, we become offended, but we

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Speaker 2: have to make a decision that we're not going to

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Speaker 2: invest in those things. You see, we'll have negative seasons.

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Speaker 2: The Bible says that trouble will come. We will have

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Speaker 2: seasons of disappointment, seasons that we don't always care for.

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Speaker 2: But we can't allow that season to define our life.

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Speaker 2: We can't wear the labels of that season. You see.

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Speaker 2: We've got to put our foot down and say no more.

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Speaker 2: God wants to give you beauty for ashes, the scripture says,

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Speaker 2: but you cannot receive the beauty if you don't give

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Speaker 2: God your ashes. The best way is to give God

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Speaker 2: your hurts, your pains, and then open up wide so

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Speaker 2: that you can receive the beauty that He has in

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Speaker 2: store for you. The Scripture says, this, think on these things,

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Speaker 2: things that are good, things that are pure, things that

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Speaker 2: are trustworthy of a good report. See, these are the

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Speaker 2: things we are supposed to set our mind on. When

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Speaker 2: we set our mind on the good things that God

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Speaker 2: has for us, When we begin to set our mind

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Speaker 2: on what God says about us, when we begin to

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Speaker 2: count our blessings, that is investing in our future. That

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Speaker 2: is the best investment that we can make. I want

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Speaker 2: to say it one more time. Let it go, Just

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Speaker 2: let it go. If there's anything holding you back today,

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Speaker 2: it's too high of a price to pay. Let it go.

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Speaker 2: Because God's got bigger and greater things in your future,

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Speaker 2: and where you're going is way more important than where

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Speaker 2: you've been. Amen. I just want to take an opportunity

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Speaker 2: right now for every one of us to let go

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Speaker 2: of the ashes, to release them to God. You know,

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Speaker 2: we can hear a sermon and we can say we're

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Speaker 2: going to do it, but I just want to take

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Speaker 2: this time right now because how important it is for

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Speaker 2: us to just give God these hurts and pains, to

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Speaker 2: release them so we can receive our bright future. So

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Speaker 2: right now, just through your eyes of faith, let's just pray. Father,

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Speaker 2: I thank you. Right now we've heard this message, we

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Speaker 2: know it to be true. God. We've experienced this phenomenon

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Speaker 2: of living in our past and how it holds us back,

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Speaker 2: and Father, we don't want that anymore. We want to

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Speaker 2: close the door to our past, so Father, you can

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Speaker 2: open the door to fresh new opportunity. God, you said

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Speaker 2: that your mercies are fresh and new every single day,

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Speaker 2: So Father, we want to pick up those fresh new mercies.

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Speaker 2: We want to unload that emotional baggage, those things that

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Speaker 2: didn't work out. And God, we want to refresh our

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Speaker 2: mental aspect and our mental life. Father, we want to

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Speaker 2: know that you are for us and not against us.

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Speaker 2: So we declare right now Father, as we let go

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Speaker 2: of the ashes, we are receiving your beauty. Thank you

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Speaker 2: Father for good opportunity. Thank you for great families, wonderful relationships.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Father that everything we've put our hand to

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Speaker 2: a prosperous succeed because God, we've got a fresh new

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Speaker 2: mental attitude. Thank you Father that you're blessing far out

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Speaker 2: seats anything we've ever done in the past. Thank you

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Speaker 2: for everything that you're doing and everything that you're going

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Speaker 2: to do. In Jesus' name, And everyone said a man, Hey.

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Speaker 3: Do you have a dream that's waiting to happen? But

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Speaker 3: it often feels like you'll never get there? Is your

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Speaker 3: dream to start a business, to see a loved one

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Speaker 3: come to the Lord? Are you asking God will it

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Speaker 3: ever happen?

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it feels like our dream is so far off.

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Speaker 1: But I believe you're closer than you think.

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Speaker 2: You're on the verge of seeing things change in your favor.

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Speaker 2: New doors opening the right people showing up.

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Speaker 1: I'd love to send you our new Hopes and Dreams

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Planner. It's not only a calendar, but

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Speaker 1: it has scriptures and inspiration, a place to journal.

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Speaker 2: It'll help you stay focused and encouraged so you can

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Speaker 2: see your dreams come to pass.

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Speaker 3: As you support Ministry this month with a special end

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Speaker 3: of year gift of any amount, we would like to

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Speaker 3: bless you with the Hopes and Dreams twenty twenty four Planner.

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Speaker 3: With the New Planner, you will start the new year

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Speaker 3: with fresh ideas, fresh hope, and endless possibilities. You'll find

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Speaker 3: monthly calendars and plenty of space to plan for a

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Speaker 3: better day ahead. Plus there are inspiring scriptures and thoughts

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Speaker 3: that will encourage you to believe for your dreams.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your prayer and support your

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Speaker 1: year in giving, you're making a difference around the world.

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Speaker 1: A special thank you to our Champion of Hope partners

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Speaker 1: for your monthly gift. If you're not a partner, I

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Speaker 1: hope you'll consider becoming one. Remember you can watch the

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Speaker 1: services online every Sunday morning, see all the music and ministry,

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Speaker 1: and you can download our daily podcast We hope you.

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Speaker 2: And your family have a very blessed Christmas season and

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Speaker 2: a healthy, productive favor Field twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 3: Be sure to request your copy of The Hopes and

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Speaker 3: Dream James twenty twenty four Planner Today. Visit Joelostein dot

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Speaker 3: com or call us toll free