Leaning Wrong

WEBVTT

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Looking at our world from a theological
perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast

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making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Sunday, July the seventh,

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twenty twenty four. It is currently
four thirty seven pm Central Central Time.

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Man, I mess that all up. Let's just do that all again.

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I hate when I mess up the
intro. I hate, hate,

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hate, hate it right because when
I'm live, I can't. Like,

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if I'm just recording, I'll be
like, well just start over, right,

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But I'm live, There's no you
can't correct it. That makes me

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so say I want to just stop
the broadcast and start over. Let's try

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it again. Good afternoon everyone.
It is Sunday, July the seventh,

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twenty twenty four. It is currently
four thirty seven pm Central Time, and

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I am coming to you live from
the Theology Central studio located right here in

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Abilene, Texas. Why why how
can I mess that? Why? Why

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could I? Why would I ever
mess up an intro? I mean I've

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said the intro a million times?
Why how come? Why can't I just

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decide to say it correctly? Like? Can I just decide I'm gonna say

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the intro correctly and then every single
time, I will say it correctly,

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Like and theory you think, just
say you're good, this is what you

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say, You're just gonna do it
correctly. But things happen right sometimes beyond

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your control for whatever reason you you're
I don't know, something goes wrong,

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and I'm going to assume it's outside
of my control or is it in my

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control? Can I always say everything
perfectly? Now? Sometimes? Well?

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No, not even that would be
in my control? Right? I mean,

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if I don't say something correctly and
it's because I don't know how to

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pronounce a certain word or say it
correctly, that's on me, right,

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because I I didn't do enough prep
or I didn't do enough practice, that

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would be be on me. But
aren't there other times when you're just publicly

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speaking, you just get your words
messed up or you get your pacing wrong?

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I mean, is that is that
something you can control? Or maybe

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maybe it's simple if you'll slow down. But I think even people who isn't

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there something out of my control?
There? Is it? Is it all

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in my control? Or is it
not in my control? How much can

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I control? Okay, maybe maybe
you're not catching on all right, let

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me let me just try to be
Let's try to be more more specific,

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right, let's be more direct in
your Christian life? How perfect, how

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practically speaking, how righteous can you
be? How holy can you be?

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How godly you can be simply by
you deciding I'm going to do this and

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then you do it? Like how
much control do you have? Like literally,

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how much control do you have?
And how godly you are? Now,

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we all know there's a limit,
right, because we all say we

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cannot be perfect. So that means
you can't just decide to be perfect,

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because nobody can be perfect. You
cannot be holy as God is holy,

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because well there's just no way.
So like, where is that limit?

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How how much can you just simply
say I decided? And how much of

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it is out of your control?
And why would it be out of your

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control? Because you possess a sinful
nature? Now, I know Christianity,

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and I've talked about this a lot
recently, and I mentioned a lot of

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this earlier today. If you listen
to our two messages I posted from this

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morning on Psalm eighty three, I
think it's part seven and eight. If

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you go listen to those I mentioned, I kind of talked about some of

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these same things. But as a
Christian, I know, I will put

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it this way, much of evangelicalism
and fundamentalism has kind of disintegrated into simply

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moralism. It's about moralism. Do
this, do this, don't do this,

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do this, don't do this,
do this. But it's always preached

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with such like the The underlying assumption, the presupposition built into it is I'm

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going to tell you do this,
do this, do this, don't do

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this, do this, don't do
this, do this, don't do this,

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don't do this, and you can
do it. You can do that,

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and you can stop that. You
can do it just by deciding.

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Now you may have to be on
the lookout for this, or be on

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the lookout for this, because there's
these things that are going to try to

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encourage you to do the wrong thing
or encourage you, you know, not

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to do the right thing, whatever
the case may be. The underlying assumption

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almost is you can just decide to
do it. But we all have to

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admit, well, there's a limit
to that. Now when we take into

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consideration. Now, I know some
Christians will disagree with this, but if

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we take into consideration, we still
possess an old, sinful nature. We

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still possess the sinful flesh. We
still have that that is not eradicated in

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salvation. And if it's not eradicated
in salvation, then how can you just

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decide how like how good you can
be? Are you limited? And how

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much are you limited? Paul and
Roman seven, we know the famous passage

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the things I want to do,
the things he wants to do, he

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knows to do them, desires to
do them. Yet those the things he

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desires to do he does not do. And those things he does not want

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to do, those are the very
things he does. So that seems to

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indicate. Now, I know some
Christians will say, well that was Paul

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talking about when he was a lost
person, But then we can you know,

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I don't think that. I think
that falls apart. So well,

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then what is the answer. What
is the when it comes to your Christian

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life? How much can you just
decide I'm going to do this and I'm

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not going to do this. And
even if you decide I'm not going to

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do this or I'm going to do
this, how much can you really accomplish?

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Because in some cases you may decide
not to do something externally, but

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in some ways you can talk about
the value of it. But from a

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philological perspective, is there any value
because you still may be committing the sin

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internally. I don't know if I
have a good answer here, but I'm

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thinking about it because right in front
of me, Oh, everyone who listens

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to this podcast, you know what
this is. You're all supposed to have

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one of these last summer, last
July July, I told everyone to get

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a subscription sort of the Lord newspaper
right here, hot off the press.

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Well, this is really not that
hot off the press. This is May

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twenty second, twenty twenty four,
so it's not hot off the press.

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It's now very cold off the press. But I was sitting here going,

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you know, have a limited amount
of time. What can I do this

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evening? What should I do?
So I sat down in front of the

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microphone, like, okay, let's
see here. We did Psalm eighty three.

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We did a lot of work on
that. Okay, don't want to

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do I need to go. I
need to get the other sort of the

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Lord newspaper and finish that thing on
revival. Okay, we need to do

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that. Okay, we're doing the
live webcast, but that takes a lot

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of time, right, Like,
if I was to do something with a

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live webcast right now, I'd have
to sit here, watch an entire live

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webcast, take notes, then go
live, then talk about it, and

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that's between That can be like between
two and three hours of my time.

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Okay, I need to do that. We got one more week of that.

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So what do I do? What
do I do? Oh? I

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got this. I got an audio
clip here of some politicians speaking out a

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church and he's talking about some people
just need to be killed. And You're

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like, what in the world is
going on there? And the people in

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the church are ap plotting. It's
insane. I've got well, I don't

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really necessarily want to do that.
That's too politics and the political hijacking of

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the church. I've dealt that with
that a million times. So I'm just

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sitting here trying to decide, and
I'll look down and I see these words

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leaning wrong, leaning wrong. Now. When I first saw it, I

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thought, I said learning wrong,
learning wrong, And I was like,

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oh, okay, I wonder if
they're going to talk about how we learn

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the Bible incorrectly? Oh, this
could be like a hermeneutical discussion. But

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then when I realized no, it
doesn't say learning wrong. It says leaning

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wrong, leaning wrong. I'm like, okay, okay, leaning wrong?

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What all right? Then I noticed
the scripture. They have the scriptures from

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the Book of Proverbs. I'm like, oh, oh, we've been working

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on Proverbs this summer. All right, okay, this could go to the

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Proverb series. Okay, So I
opened up my Bible. I knew the

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scripture, but I wanted to read
it anyway. Proverbs chapter three, verse

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five. I'm going to be reading
from the New King James, since that's

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the Bible sitting in front of me. Trust in the Lord with all your

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heart, all right? Trust in
the Lord with all your heart. That's

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right there. Okay, we can
have a long discussion there, can Do

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you think you can just decide to
trust in the Lord with all your heart?

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Do you think you can ever truly
trust God with all of your heart?

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Considering we still have a sinful nature? I don't know, So okay,

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all right, next part, And
lean not on your own understanding,

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lean not on your own understanding?
All right? Now? Can I just

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decide, Hey, you know what, I'm not going to lean on my

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own understanding anymore? And you name
the situation. I'm not going to lean

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on my own understanding. What I'm
going to do is take that situation,

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go to God's word, and God's
word tells me to do abcdef and I'm

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going to go that direction and not
my direction. Now, I know we

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can at least accomplish this, all
right. I don't know if I can

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just decide this, but I think
we can all accomplish this. If I

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know I can do this, lean
not on my own understanding, right,

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lean not on my own understanding,
don't do that. I know I can

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do this whatever the situation is.
Whatever the situation is, I can lean

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not on my own understanding. By
doing this, I can judge the situation

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and determine right and wrong based off
what God's word said. Now that doesn't

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mean I'm going to do right,
doesn't mean I'm going to avoid wrong.

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But I can at least lean not
on my understanding and admit that from the

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word of God, this is wrong, this is right. I can at

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least acknowledge that right. That's lean. If I'm leaning to my own understanding,

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then I'm gonna justify it. I'm
gonna I'm gonna deny the wrong.

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If I'm leaning. If I'm not
leaning to my own understanding, then I

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can at least acknowledge this is right
and this is wrong. Now that does

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not guarantee. See that's Paul,
Hey. The things I don't want to

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do I do, and the things
I want to do I don't do.

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See, he's not leaning to his
own understanding because he's acknowledging there's some things

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he should not do and there's some
things he should do. The things he

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don't want to do are the things
he's doing, and the things he wants

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to do those are the things he's
not doing. He's acknowledging that, so

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I can at least accomplish that.
See it's one thing to say lean not

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to my own understanding with the implication
that we will always do right. But

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we will not always do right.
I mean that we're never going to always

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do right. We're never even gonna
come close. Now, the article kind

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of took a different approach. You
ready lean not unto thine own understanding Proverbs

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three five B. So they're only
quoting part of Proverbs chapter three, verse

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five. If we have any leaning
toward anything, we are sure to fall

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to the thing towards which we lean
if we have any leaning towards anything,

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we are sure to fall to the
thing towards which we lean. That's an

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interesting concept. Hey, if you
lean towards anything, you're sure to fall

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to the thing towards which you lean. Now I gotta stop here and ask

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this, quite Is this something I
can just Okay, just decide I am

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not going to lean in any way
other than towards the direction of God's work.

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Can you just decide that? Now
this goes back to kind of like

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what I did at the beginning of
my intro. Right. I wish I

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could just decide that I'm always gonna
do my intros perfectly. I'm never going

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to mess up. But I mess
them up all the time. I mess

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up lots of things now in some
ways. How much of it is my

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fault. How many things are outside
of my control. But when it comes

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to Christianity, this is the weird
part. Can I just decide that I'm

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not going to lean towards the wrong
thing? Now? The pass says lean

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not to your own understanding. I
think the goal here as I can decide

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look at whenever I look at a
situation, I'm not going to lean to

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the way I think or the way
I feel I'm going to look to God's

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word doesn't mean I'm going to do
the right thing, but I can at

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least acknowledge what the right thing is. Right, I think that's a we

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can all accomplish that. We can
all accomplish that. I think we can

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do that. But here's the thing. If we have any leaning towards anything,

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we are sure to fall towards the
thing that are We are sure to

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fall to the thing towards which we
lean. Now that sounds very practical,

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but here's where I struggle from a
thiological perspective. We have a built in

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lean. Okay, we're like the
leaning tower. We have a built in

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lean. Right, there's something in
you and in fact there in fact,

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I don't even know if it's fair
to call it a lean. All right,

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So I'm holding a pencil directly up. If I lean it a little

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to the right, Well, that
doesn't really describe what's going on inside of

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me, because I don't have something
that's leaning. I have something that's completely

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fallen. It's not leaning, it's
completely collapsed. And that is my nature.

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My nature doesn't just lean towards sin. My nature is sin full so

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I'm already I'm not just leaning towards
sin fullness. I am a sinner.

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So then can I just decide,
well, I'm going to lean the other

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direction. Well, I can try
to decide I can lean the other direction,

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but the nature inside of me can't. I can't decide that my nature

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will lean the other direction. And
again you go back to Paul. Paul

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may have decided, hey, I'm
going to lean towards the things that I

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should do, but I end up
doing the things that I shouldn't do.

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Right, Why why is that happening? They provide seven seven biblical examples in

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which they believe someone was leaning the
wrong direction. Now, I am not

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going to go through all seven of
these right now, I'll put to say,

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I'm not gonna look at each seven
in any detail. I'm gonna give

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these seven to you because this could
be something we can look at in this

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coming week. First, Abraham leaned
toward Egypt in unbelief and soon found himself

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crippled by it. Now, is
this just a situation where hey, here's

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Abraham, here's Egypt, and he
starts leaning towards Egypt even though he knows

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he knows he should not do so
he's what's causing him to lean to Is

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that a decision where he can just
say, I'm not going to lean,

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I'm going to follow God. Can
you just make that decision? Or what?

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What? What do you think caused
Abraham to lean towards Egypt? What

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was the cause? Was it external
causes? Was it an internal what?

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What? What? What do you
think caused it? That's Genesis twelve ten

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through twenty So right down, right
down, Abraham leaned towards Egypt. Abraham

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leaned towards Egypt. Genesis twelve ten
through twenty. Genesis twelve ten through twenty

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number two. Lot leaned towards Sodom
and compromised and lost all he had gained?

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What caused Lot to lean towards Sodom? Genesis thirteen ten and Genesis nineteen

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seventeen. So Abraham leaned towards Egypt
Genesis twelve ten through twenty. Lot leaned

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towards Sodom Genesis thirteen ten and Genesis
nineteen seventeen. Right now again, can

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you is this just something like hey, lean not onto your own understanding?

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See they leaned and they should have
just stopped leaning. Is it? I

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just know I know the moralistic form
of Christianity always just makes it like it's

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just this simple choices. In some
ways, I want to believe that,

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and maybe sometimes I'm making excuses for
my own frailty, my own weakness,

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and my own sin. Maybe I
could be better if I would just choose,

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if I would just decide. Now, the thing is, I do

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know maybe I could be better.
But at the same time, I just

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know that no matter how better I
am, I'm not really better because I'm

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still going to be a sinner.
So I I but in this case,

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we just want to know, okay. So Abraham leaned towards Egypt Genesis twelve

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ten through twenty, number two,
Lot leaned towards Sodom Genesis thirteen ten and

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Genesis nineteen seventeen, number three.
David lean towards oh unholy desire and laziness.

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And his name has been smirched ever
since. Second Samuel eleven two through

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four. Second Samuel eleven to through
four. So Abraham leaned, Lot leaned,

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David leaned. I think we're getting
We're see this is where I know

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the way this article is presenting it, because the article is just presenting it.

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Stop leaning lean not. If you
don't lean, you won't fall.

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But my thing is if everyone in
the Bible leaned, then was it just

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as simple as saying lean? Not
right? So Abraham leaned, Lot leaned,

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David leaned again Abraham, Genesis twelve
ten through twenty. I want you

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to look up these references. You
can just make it a This week,

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we're gonna look at leaning. I
know we got the live webcast, but

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we're gonna be throwing in some leaning
discussion. I think all right. So

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Genesis twelve ten through twenty. Number
two is Lot. Genesis thirteen ten.

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In Genesis nineteen seventeen, number three, David leaned towards unholy desire. Second

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Samuel eleven two through four, Number
four, jehosah Fat leaned towards worldly ast

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association with Ahab and nearly lost his
life. First Kings twenty two twenty nine

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through thirty two. So we have
Abraham, we have Lot, we have

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David, and we have Jehosephat one
Kings twenty two twenty nine through thirty two.

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Number five, King Saul leaned towards
his own inclination and sparing the Amalekites

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and lost his kingdom and consequences and
consequence. First Samuel fifteen ten through twenty

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three. So we have Abraham,
we have Lot, we have David,

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we have Jehosephat. We have King
Saul, who leaned towards his own inclination

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and sparing the Amalekites, and lost
his kingdom in consequence. First Samuel fifteen

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ten through twenty three. Next,
Hezekiah leaned towards pride when he displayed his

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richest to the representatives of Babylon and
brought distress to his posterity Isaiah thirty nine.

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We have Isaiah thirty nine. So
we have Abraham, we have Lot,

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we have David, we have Jehosephat, we have King Saul, we

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have Hezekiah. And then one more
Peter leaned towards self sufficiency in his boasted

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allegiance to Christ and lost his courage
at the taunt of a servant made Luke

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twenty two, verse thirty three,
fifty six, and fifty seven. So

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we have seven examples of what they
refer as someone leaning. Abraham leaned towards

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Egypt, leaned towards Sodom. David
leaned towards unholy desire. Jehosaphat leaned towards

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worldly association. King Saul leaned towards
his own inclination, Hezekiah leaned towards pride,

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and Peter leaned towards self sufficiency.
And that last reference if you want

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it JUSTI of case you need it. Luke twenty two, thirty three,

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fifty six, and fifty seven lean
not to your own understanding. We are

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not to do that. Now Again, I'm going to put my hypotheses is

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we should not lean to our own
understanding. We should definitely lean to God's

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word. But this in no way
guarantees that we're going to do the right

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thing. I think all this can
guarantee is if I lean not to my

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understanding, then I am not judging
or determining right wrong anything based off my

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own understanding. I'm going to determine
what is right and wrong based off what

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God's word said. I may not
like it, I may not follow it,

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I may not do it, but
at least I can't admit this is

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what God says, even though I'm
doing it the wrong way. He said,

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well, what does that really accomplish? Well, at least I'm not

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leaning to my own understanding. Now, in theory, we would like to

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say, well, if I lean
not to my own understanding and I lean

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to God's word, then I'll do
the right thing. But I'm saying that

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it's not. We can't just decide
to do the right thing because there's a

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limit and how much right we can
do. But could we do better?

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I guess we could, But again
it's set doing better externally internally. That

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raises lots of questions. But the
leaning part, especially the way the article

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puts forth, I call into question. Let's think of it this way.

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Any external leaning. Is it my
external leaning that leads me to the fall?

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Or is it my internal fall,
my internal fall, my internal sinfulness,

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my internal failure that leads to the
external leaning. Is it the external

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leaning that leads to my demise,
my fall? Or is it my already

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sinful, fallen nature that manifests the
leaning. I think the leaning is simply

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a manifestation of the sinful nature that
has fallen inside of me. I would

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not lean towards Egypt. I would
not lean towards compromise. I would not

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lean towards unholy desires. I would
not lean towards worldly association. I would

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not lean to my own inclination.
I would not lean to pride, I

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would not lean to self sufficiency if
I wasn't already completely fallen in my nature.

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Now, I say, I can
use that as an excuse, But

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how much can you just decide?
How much of the Christian life is just

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based on you making a decision and
being disciplined in your decision? Now,

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on one hand, I think we
could probably do better, But on the

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other hand, are better. From
a philological perspective, is really not that

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good. But from a human perspective, it can really be pretty good.

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There you have it. That's very
simple, very straightforward, right to the

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point. I want you to look
at those examples. Genesis twelve, ten

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through twenty, Genesis thirteen, verse
ten, chapter nineteen, verse seventeen,

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Tewod Samuel eleven two through four one, Kings twenty two, twenty nine through

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thirty two, Verse Samuel fifteen,
ten through twenty three. I don't know

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if I gave you that one.
I think I did. That's King Saul,

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and then Isaiah thirty nine, ers
has Zekaiyah, and then Luke twenty

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two, thirty three, fifty six, and fifty seven. That's Peter.

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Now what I find interesting whether you're
in the Old Testament, whether in your

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New Testament you have people leaning the
wrong direction. And I don't think you

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can just go to all of them
lean not. Come on, stand up

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straight? Can we ever stand up
straight when we're already in a sense fallen

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on the inside. Love to get
your thoughts all right, kind of a

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little Bible study exercise handed to you
on a Sunday afternoon, plenty for you

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to consider. Look at all seven
of those examples, and just gather what

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you can learn from those seven examples. Love to get your thoughts News.

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00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:06.839
I F at yahoo dot com.
That's news. I F at Yahoo died.

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00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:11.599
Thanks for listening, everyone, Have
a great rest of your Sunday,

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a great rest of your holiday weekend. For some of you, it's been

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a great holiday weekend. Hopefully you've
had a great time. And well we'll

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see what this new week has in
store for us. I don't know what

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it'll be, but we'll figure something
out. Okay, all right, Well

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we'll have plenty to discuss this week. We will do that, all right.

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You can email me news if at
yahoo dot com. That's news.

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I F at yahoo dot com.
May God bless you as you look up

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all those scriptures. If you need
those scriptures again, repeat it or something.

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Well, you can just you know, go back and listen to this,

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or you can email me if you
need to NEWSI F at yahoo dot

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00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:52.079
com. Everyone have a great day, great evening. God bless