The following program
discusses sensitive issues
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related to addictive behavior.
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Parents are
cautioned that some material
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may be too candid
for younger children.
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You know for some of
us we have believe lies
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from the very
beginning, our entire life,
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not sure who is
safe and who is not safe.
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Our guest today
Connie, that's true for her.
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But when she heard the
truth, it changed everything,
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so welcome to
Celebrating Life in Recovery.
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My name is Cheri.
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Please join us
on the cafe today.
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You are gonna be wowed.
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Welcome to
Celebrating Life in Recovery.
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You know today we're gonna
be talking about lies and truth
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and how do we get free
and what's amazing to me
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is our whole season right now
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is going to be
covered in a book called
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Victory in Jesus
by Bill Liversidge.
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And the book is amazing
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'cause the whole
thing is about grace.
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How do we come out
from lies that we believed
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maybe from the time we've come
out of the womb to the truth
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and I'm serious,
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we have an enemy
that strategically says,
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I'm gonna set
you up for every lie.
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If you think you got
strong on your feet right now,
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tomorrow I'm gonna
knock your feet out
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from underneath you,
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and God says, don't
believe him anymore,
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you've got to
keep looking at me.
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And when I say
that for some of us,
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the lies that we're
being told become our truth.
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We start acting out,
we're using, you know,
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people lost in
addiction all the way
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from not only lost
in addiction drugs,
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alcohol,
workaholism, spending, lying,
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religious addictions,
all of that kind of stuff,
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we get lost in that
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so when the enemy
comes over to tell us lies,
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man, we can check off.
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Yeah, I did that, did
that, did that and God says stop
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'cause the truth
is, you are redeemed.
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The truth is you're loved.
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The truth is I've got your
back and we're gonna make it.
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And so the scripture for today
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which I think is an
amazing scripture is Romans 2:4,
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and it says do you not,
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like don't you
have that regard for...
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I'm gonna say
it in my own words,
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I'm just not good at this.
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I'm just gonna say
that it's like you know,
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somebody says do you
despise the kindness of God,
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the goodness of God,
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the fact that God in
the midst of our junk
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and our craziness and acting out
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as soon as I
literally say "help"
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he's gonna walk with me,
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and he's gonna walk
with me until I get it.
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And I want to tell you,
I went to Alaska one time
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and it was just a crazy trip.
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It was the first time
somebody ever asked me
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to come and talk
and I'm new with this
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and I'm just
barely, you know, out of,
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you know, 10
years on the street,
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heroin addictions and
all that kind of stuff
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and somebody asked me
to come do Alaska and talk,
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and I was so
excited, I was so excited.
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I thought are you kidding me?
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You want me to talk about
God and who I am in Christ
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and what he's done in my life?
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Could you
imagine, Connie, I'm like,
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I'm jumping up and
down and then they said,
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well how much do you charge?
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And I'm like shut
up! Are you gonna pay me?
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And I couldn't
even get over myself,
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I said like a 100 bucks,
you know, and somebody said,
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well how much you
can talk for 100 bucks?
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I said I never shut up.
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It's always like,
it was like they said
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we got to sign
something, you know,
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so I went to Alaska 16
presentations in four days,
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ridiculous, but I get
to this small village,
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a small village
and I'm in a school
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and presenting in a school
and this little kid comes up,
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she's tiny,
malnourished, she looked nine,
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she was actually 12, and
she came up when she said,
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"you know what my
life is just like yours"
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and I thought what?
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Your life is just like
mine? And she said yeah.
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And I'm talking
about early molest
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and drug addiction
and being on the street,
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I was funneled into
a $32 million industry
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at 13 years old, and
this little kid is saying,
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"Yeah, I get it."
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And so I didn't
know what to say to her,
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I couldn't breathe.
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And finally I said
to her, you know what,
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I don't have an assistant,
would you be my assistant?
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And she said, "What?"
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I said I don't know
anybody, would you help me?
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And she said, "Yeah."
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You know, and she's so cocky,
you know, I love damaged kids,
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they're like, "Yeah, I
can do that" no problem,
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and so she became my assistant
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which meant that
we could hang out,
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that we could be friends,
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that we could talk
about those personal things
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that she doesn't
have to stay damaged,
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that would ever
God is gonna give me
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to say to her I'm saying it,
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and by the end of
the time I was there,
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I could see her healing,
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I could see her start
to relax in her own skin
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and sort to have
hope that maybe someday
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I'm gonna
actually be out of that
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and she's a molested
kid, her parents are on rehab,
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grandparents have Alzheimer's.
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She's a lost a ton of people
in her family with alcoholism
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and liver disease and
all that kind of stuff.
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She's trying to stay in school
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by sleeping with
everybody in the village,
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I mean just crazy.
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And so now, I'm
getting ready to leave
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and I think I don't
want to leave this kid.
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I don't want to leave this
kid, I don't want to walk away,
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what do you say
'cause you know what?
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Nobody's coming on a white horse
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and saving us.
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You know, and I want to say that
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'cause people think that
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there are
everybody's gonna doing that
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and they're not doing that,
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so I knew that nobody's
gonna be on this white horse,
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nobody's gonna be
able to rescue this kid.
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We're not gonna be able
to just call social services
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and all that kind of stuff
that it is really a big deal,
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and so I'm leaving
and my heart is breaking.
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My heart is
breaking like, you know,
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I want to take
her home, you know,
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and I know that
that's not a possibility
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and so I start to
leave and we're praying in
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and she says, Cheri,
don't worry about me,
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you know these,
we're so cocky as kids.
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We're just like
don't worry about me,
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I'm good and I'm
thinking in my mind,
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I'm thinking this is
not what good looks like,
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and she said, when I
first read your book,
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and I thought what?
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What do you mean read my book?
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She said, "This
old guy" and he was,
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he's a 1000 years old,
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he picked me up
from the airport,
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this was a old
guy, been doing ministry
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in the outback in
Alaska his whole life,
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and this guy has
just changed everything.
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But anyhow this old guy
gave me your book and I read it.
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I read it all the way
through in one sitting,
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I've never read a book
like that all the way through.
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And she said,
but when I was done,
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I said God, if you're real,
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someday I want to
meet someone like this.
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And I believe the
entire Alaska trip
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was for that moment.
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The entire trip
that we think we know God
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and the kindness of God,
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we think we
know what he's doing.
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We think it's about the
gig that I got at the hospital
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or that church or whatever.
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It was about a girl
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in the midst of
nowhere that said "help."
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And so when we talk
about the kindness of God,
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the fact that God says,
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I am literally gonna
turn everything around
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because I love
you, because I love you.
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And I would like to say,
you know what, that moment,
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she was changed forever.
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Never acted out,
never did anything
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but you know what?
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I didn't see a
real change in her life
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till she is 21 years old
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but the kindness of God
bore with her every single day,
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every single day.
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And in Romans it says,
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you despise God
for being that kind.
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Do you hate Him for overlooking
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or for burying over our sins?
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Do you despise Him
every time somebody stumbles
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and God says, you know
what, I'm gonna help them up.
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Do we hate God for that?
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Because what we
have to know about that
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is every single time I stumble
and He stands me back up.
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I actually because of His
love want to be different.
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Man, I want to get it.
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I don't want to stumble, I
don't want to hurt someone,
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I don't want to manipulate,
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I don't want to do
all that kind of stuff,
00:08:23.30\00:08:25.00
but God says
until your last breath,
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I'm gonna get you
home, and I love you,
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so don't despise His kindness,
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His kindness
leads to repentance,
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and repentance is a gift.
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I can't muster up, I
can't be sorry enough.
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The only thing
that makes me see my sin
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and be sorry is His love
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and I'm not sorry
'cause I'm ashamed,
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I'm sorry because I want
to be what He sees in me.
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I just want to be that.
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And so today, I'm gonna
introduce you to a woman
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that I fell in
love with right way.
00:08:54.93\00:08:56.67
I mean, I like who
she is, I feel like
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when she started talking,
I thought you know what,
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I'm looking at
myself, you know, I get her
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and I can't say
hate when someone says
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I know where you're at.
00:09:07.14\00:09:08.48
I mean that's so crazy
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'cause we don't know
we're each others out,
00:09:09.88\00:09:11.21
we're so uniquely
different, but you know what,
00:09:11.25\00:09:13.01
I get about her as
I get her beginning
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and where she
came from and all that.
00:09:15.98\00:09:17.82
So we're gonna take a
break, we're gonna come back.
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I want to introduce to my guest,
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but I want you to know
that if you're out there,
00:09:21.49\00:09:23.69
and you're feeling like
you're on this yo-yo thing
00:09:23.73\00:09:25.79
and you're trying to figure out,
00:09:25.83\00:09:27.16
am I enough for God?
00:09:27.20\00:09:28.53
Does He actually see me?
Can He get me through this?
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I'm gonna say "yes" in
every way that I can yes.
00:09:31.50\00:09:36.30
I don't care who you are.
00:09:36.34\00:09:37.87
I don't care and I know
somebody's gonna get mad at me.
00:09:37.91\00:09:41.08
We've had got
sexual stuff we're doing,
00:09:41.11\00:09:43.11
same sex identity
issues, we've got drugs,
00:09:43.14\00:09:45.55
we've got spending,
we've got workaholism,
00:09:45.58\00:09:49.48
we're lost in
addictions of all kinds
00:09:49.52\00:09:51.95
and God says, "I
will not let you go."
00:09:51.99\00:09:55.39
There's nowhere that I,
that you can hide from me,
00:09:55.42\00:09:59.23
not because He's
trying to shame us
00:09:59.26\00:10:00.96
'cause He's trying to free us.
00:10:01.00\00:10:02.66
And then the
freedom of God is so good.
00:10:02.70\00:10:06.67
Stay with us,
we'll be right back.
00:10:06.70\00:10:08.24