well good morning everybody wherever you are if you're at the Marion campus Bluefield Bristol anywhere online uh
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welcome Happy Father's Day I am my name is James I'm so glad to be here with you guys I know uh whenever they asked me to
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speak I'm standing on the shoulders of a lot of people who have gone before me so it's an honor to speak here I grew up in
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Abingdon some of you guys probably changed my diaper uh when I was little and today I get to speak on Father's Day
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which I'm really excited about because my wife and I just shared our two-year wedding anniversary and uh one of the
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best and biggest blessings in our life is we had our first kid so I wanted to bring them up and introduce you all to
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them uh this is Anna and Coulter I don't know if culture is sleeping right now luckily he's not crying usually during
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the day he is fighting sleep very hard um this is Anna and Coulter and I wanted all of you guys to meet them
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um it was really cool getting to experience having a baby as part of a
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church family usually being on Church staff staff we are serving and pouring out and and giving and giving all the
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time and we love doing that that's what we feel called to do but when we had culture uh the the amount of messages
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that we received the amount of people who called and checked the the like so many people from here they just gave
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gifts that we've never met before um it really made me see how much
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Highlands is home that when you walk in these doors if you walked in here because you don't know your father and
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you just didn't know where to go on this Sunday or maybe you're here with your family that when you see the signs out
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there like this we don't just have it on signs and man seeing the receiving end
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of that from how much the congregation loves people and how much you serve people and how much you care about
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people and give to people I mean it was amazing and and being on that end of
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that and seeing what kind of home that Highlands is man it's amazing so if you're here today and this is your first
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time at Highlands I want you to know it's not just signs it's not just Billboards or wherever you may have
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heard it or seen it this place is family that you can come with all of your hurts and all of your struggles and all of
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your past and you can fit in no matter where your background has been or what you've been through to this is home and
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I've never known that more than after the past few months with culture so I'm going to pray and I'm just so thankful
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for all of you that have given to us and helped us and prayed for us it's been awesome so we all just pray with me real
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quick man God we are so in love with you we want
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to seek you thank you for a church family that is more than just a building or a group of people that gets together
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on Sunday but it's a group of people that loves each other that Embraces each
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other that encourages and pushes each other well I pray that if someone is in here today that they don't have that in
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their life that they can know this is a place where they can come and they can be at home
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or it's such a blessing to be part of a church that is home and that is family Lord thank you so much for loving us
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Lord please speak through me today that this is not James's words Lord but these
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are yours Lord thank you so much for loving us and we love you too amen hey
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uh it's a great joy being a dad um right before Coulter we found out we were expecting culture I was so against
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being a dad or becoming a dad anytime soon I was I wanted to have all my money right I wanted to have housing right I
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wanted to have everything right in my mind and then we went on a trip to Peru
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we were on a missions trip and the way people talked about babies and kids
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there was so different in the United States here it's it is almost viewed as a burden of well you have to have this
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much stuff and you have to have this much preparation and everything prepared and we went there and that was really my
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mindset and we saw these people who just kept coming up even though we were been married a year uh saying when you have a
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baby when are you gonna have a baby when are you gonna have a baby over and over and over again and me being James not
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Anna was like five years from now like as long as we can wait but the people
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there talked about like no no you're missing like a kid is a blessing it's a
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plan if you're a parent here you know that and if you're wanting to be a parent you can understand that or maybe
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you are the one that's like me and like I don't want to be a parent for a long long time I want to encourage you that
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don't buy into what the world tries to sell is it's a burden being a dad or a mom is the greatest blessing it's the
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greatest blessing so today I'm lucky enough to continue the series that we're in in the Book of Psalms and I wanted to
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give some kind of context so when I read this you can remind yourself of this is that the book of Psalms was created
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during the Old Testament for the nation of Israel and it's almost like a prayer book okay that whatever season in life
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they were going through just like with the video said in the opener no matter what season people were going through it
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was there to guide them to help them to show them even when like they believe that God was only in the temple that God
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was still there in every season of life in the desert in the best places in life
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in the worst places so as you read through psalms it's a book also intended
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for you that in every season of Life whatever you're going through it's a reminder hey
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here's how I pray here's how I can remember God when everything seems destroyed and I seem lost in the desert
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like we're going to read today I can remember God that he is good that he's my father so we're going to be in Psalm
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63 today and the author of this is David you guys know David the sling with the
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giant you guys ever heard that story he's a king of Israel done all these amazing things and most scholars believe
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when this Psalm was written he had actually fleed from his kingdom that his own son had raised a little tiny Army
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against him and they were coming to throw him out so David has ran away Into
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the Wilderness and that's where most scholars believe this was written so I'm going to read through Psalm 63 and we're
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going to go back portion through portion and what does this mean for us today so Psalm 63 a Psalm of David when he was in
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the desert of Judah here it is he says you God are my God earnestly I see seek
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you I thirst for you my whole being Longs for you in a dry and parched land
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where there is no water I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power
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and your glory because your love is better than life my lips will glorify
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you I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I lift up my hands I
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will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods with singing Lips my
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mouth will praise you on my bed I remember you I think of you through the watches of the night because you are my
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help I sing in the shadow of your wings I cling to you your right hand upholds
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me those who want to kill me will be destroyed they will go down to the depths of the earth they will be given
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over to the sword and become food for jackals but the king will rejoice in God
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all who swear by God will glory in him while the man why the mouths of liars
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will be silenced so we're going to walk through that Psalm and just piece by piece and I hope you can see in this
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that whatever Walk of Life you are in as the book of Psalms is you can see this and you can say hey this is my God this
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is where I can find rest so we're going to start out verse one you God are my
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God earnestly I Seek You I thirst for you my whole being Longs for you in a
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dry and parched land where there is no water I talked to my team I volunteer team and
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I encourage them that man we gotta search for God like he's oxygen that we need to stay alive with
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and every day when we came it's a desperation God I need you I want to earnestly seek for you and so my
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question for you is this is what are you earnestly seeking and I'm go back to Peru when I read this book and it's
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awesome to come to a church that has all these awesome lights and and equipment and amazing worship teams and things
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like that I get spoiled even though when I started in Bluefield you know we met in a double-wide trailer for a while we
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met and the student we we didn't have a lot but we had people in relationships and over the past year I'd kind of
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forgotten that well we went to Peru and we were invited to speak in all these little churches down there and uh I got
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to go to one and where we were at the Amazon River Rises and lowers every
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single year and they build their Huts above the river because they get out of taxes if they do that well this man who
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was the pastor had donated his own house to the church to be a church and I
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walked in and I'm coming from you know here where we have all this amazing stuff and microphones and sound equipment and I walk into this place and
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I see I mean the floor is literally falling in the the walls are are coming
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down they have poster boards over the wall to cover the holes the the tin roof you can see straight through it into the
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sky and I'm just like this is a church oh what what happens here but then they
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started worship I mean I've never seen that kind of worship in my life the the people it
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didn't matter there was a lady there who was celebrating her 80th or 80th birthday and she was jumping up and down
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on the floors that had holes in it she was worshiping and singing and with nothing it seemed like they had
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everything and I look at my life and I think about earnestly seeking God
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I'm like man I'm so lucky I'm so blessed I could wake up I have electricity I can I can read the Bible
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whenever I want I'm in a free country if I look at those people with nothing with holes in the floor
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jumping with joy for the Lord worshiping when they can see the sky there's no ceiling above them Alec and
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Mal is so humbled I was so so humbled earnestly seeking the Lord and you guys
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have probably met someone who will remind you of this have you ever have you ever met someone that whatever
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happens in life it doesn't matter because they're so in love with Jesus you probably all know somebody there's a
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volunteer in Bristol that reminds me of this her name is Michelle Michelle over the past year had a tumor
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inside of her head I don't know if it's officially a brain tumor or what but she had a tumor in her head a life-changing
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situation come up and I just felt for her but then week in after weekend Sunday
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after Sunday Michelle kept showing up she kept coming and serving the kids with joy and loving people when it was
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one of the hardest situations in her life and I I just had I was like what is different about you
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because man if that was me with with a baby so she has daughters and a husband I'd be upset what what is so different
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about you how do you how do you get that when everything in life seems like it's going wrong
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how did how does that make any sense Michelle and she came back and she says not about
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me I could die today and and I'm happy I'm okay with it and she still is
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serving in Bristol student Ministry serving she leads our kitchen team serving food every single Sunday and
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every week showing up with joy and love for the students that I we rarely I mean ever see
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what are you earnestly seeking David is writing this from a place where he's been removed by his own son from
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Power he was a great king he had all this territory and he's in the desert riding from a place where it would seem
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like everything is wrong but he says you God are my God still everything in me
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Longs for you as he understands where that worth is
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when uh when culture grows up this is what I care most about him seeing about me
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is it whether Ministry is going great whether finances are amazing whether I
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lose everything or gain everything I have my health I lose my health this is what I want culture to see
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is it in everything I'm going to earnestly seek God in a dry and parched
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land he's my water he's my everything and then the the question that I would
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ask is well why because that doesn't make sense especially here in America we want to have like I said at the beginning I want
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to have the house before I have a kid I want to have the finances I want to have everything planned out but why and David
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answers that in this next thing right here verse 3 because your love God your
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love is better than life
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I I want you guys to understand that on this Father's Day and oftentimes we view God how we view our own fathers if you
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had a very loving and caring father it's easy to look at God and say okay God loves me and he cares for me with
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everything and it's easy to get that but man if you come from somewhere where you don't know your dad
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or your dad hurt you or your family or maybe you just tried to live up to your expectations of your father whatever
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that was it's hard to look at God and get that but David says your love is better than
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life my lips will glorify I want you to take a moment I want you guys to think about this uh I want you guys to think
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of the most intelligent person you've ever met in your life I think of a girl
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that I was in high school with uh super smart her name was Fatima um she was so smart and then you know
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there was me so I asked her to help tutor me for my saat studying because I
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went in I took the SAT and I made one score and it was average I was happy
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with it but Fatima smart so I went to Fatima and I said Fatima will you help me study so for two months I went over
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to Fatima's house and I'm terrible at math she took me through math for two months and said this is how this works
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and how this works and how everything and I went back to take that sat and I made the same exact score after all that
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hard work um and so Fatima of course had an amazing School score she got a
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scholarship to go to college but I think of that and I think of the most intelligent person that I've ever met and then I think of God and how much
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immensely more intelligent he is how much more he knows and understands
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think of the strongest person you've ever met I think of a guy I used to lift with in Abingdon he was built like a
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brick house I mean he's huge you know he was the song Brick House he was gigantic I think he could push any weight he
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could throw anything as far as he wanted to all of these things like you guys probably have met someone like that just an absolute Ox of a person
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now I think of God and I think how much more immensely stronger that God is
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and here's the question that all of us struggle with I want you to think of who loves you the most
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is it your parent is it you for how you love your kid is it a grandparent is it a foster
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parent is it an adoptive parent and then I want you to think if God's your father how much more immensely and
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immeasurably he loves you it's easy to think of the strongest and
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the smartest when we think of that love it's what Dave is writing about God your love is greater than my life
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so that when things happen it's okay I don't remember I know where my worth
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is when he's thrown out of his kingdom it's okay I know my God
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I know who he is we'll come back to that at the end I don't want to jump ahead of myself
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verse 4 says this I will praise you as long as I live and in your name I will
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lift up my hands if you see people worshiping that's where it is right there they say hey God I'm going to give
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you everything that's just where that comes from that's a side track sorry it says I will be fully satisfied with the
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richest of foods for me that's like Golden Corral my wife would punch me for saying that but I love me some Golden
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Corral I don't know about you maybe a steak hey my life is like I'm fully satisfied in who you are it's like the
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richest of foods it's like everything I could ever want guy that you already have it your love is better than life
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your your everything is better it's like all the richest of foods and with
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singing Lips my mouth will praise you this reminds me there's a little boy at the Bristol campus
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um uh he can't be taller than this he's a little little cowboy his dad is a cowboy too where's cowboy hat
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um and we sit on the opposite side of the sanctuary from him and when the worship team starts man it is on for him
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I can hear him screaming The Worship lyrics from the other side and it's not
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annoying it's I want what that kid has I want to worship like him
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I want to I want this I want my my lips and my mouth will praise you because you're better than what I can give
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myself I want to scream like the little he gets it man that kid gets it when you sing
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and when you worship it's not about how you sound no I mean if you come up here and you're like
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screaming in front of the stage at the worship leaders certain words then we probably will have an issue but
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it's about hey God's better than everything if I get sick and I lose everything I
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want to be the person that my son looks at and says there's something different about him
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all my friends or what I see in the world they don't have that there's something different about him because his love is better than life it
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says on my bed I remember you I think of you through the watches of the night and
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I want you to kind of take his peek back because the Psalms all read together is Psalm 23 Alan talked about it at the
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start of this it's it's a look back on what David wrote that day it's a look back even though I walk through the
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valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil where does that come from thinking of God
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and in all the times remembering the blessings that you didn't think you were going to get before
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when you thought it was over you weren't going to make it God got me through that when when I did he says I think of you
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on my bed I remember you I think of you through the watches of the night when everything is dark and he's kicked out
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of his kingdom by his own family what does he think about not Revenge
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not how to get back kind of think of you on my bed and the watches of the night
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because you are my help I sing in the shadow of your wings I cling to you your
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right hand upholds me it's another look back to Psalm 23 Your Rod and your staff they comfort me
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God you're the one who upholds me as hard as I work and I think dads struggle with this the most on Father's
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Day to be honest if we can be honest is we want to provide and we want to give our families the the best life possible
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we I want my kid to grow up and not have any fear okay he's got dad's got me hey
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I don't know what's going on I don't know what finances look like but dad's got it that's what I want to give my kids
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but more than that I want them to look and see the why does Dad have me it's because Dad doesn't have himself
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God's got him your your right hand upholds me no matter how hard I want work how much
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money I earn all that can be lost in a day I could go to the hospital and they could tell you James you have six months to live
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I just got the privilege uh to have a friend he had cancer for a long time and he
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just passed away and uh I had lots of meetings and and time with him to think about life and it's a really different
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perspective when you meet someone who knows they're dying because all of us are slowly I mean but someone who's a
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doctor has told them hey man you got a few months this is it to talk to him and to hear how he talked about God is
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totally different from how I've ever thought about God the closeness that he felt with him
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the the even though he had cancer and everything was diminishing Health was going away
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it's the most comfortable I've ever seen anybody with that rest and he had moments he had fears of death like we all do
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but he was comfortable God your right hand upholds me when I can't even when I feel like I can it's not me
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it's not what I've done what I've earned it's not any of that it's yours Paul in the New Testament it says I consider
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everything garbage compared to the love of knowing Christ it's not about me it's not what I
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current fathers in this room mothers in this room listen it's not about what you can earn for your son or your daughter
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well all that's great it's about knowing the love of the father because his love is better
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than life I'll continue now this last part gets a little weird so you got to hang with me
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those who want to kill me will be destroyed don't go to your neighbor who made you mad this week and said you're
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gonna just be destroyed God's coming for you James did not say that those who want to kill me will be
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destroyed they will go down to the depths of the earth they will be given over to the sword and become food for
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jackals but the king will rejoice in God all who swear by God will glory in him
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while the mouths of liars will be silenced David writes this again kicked
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out of his own kingdom by his own son removed from his comfortable life as king he says this and what I want you to see
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is the end of it but the king will what rejoice in God
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in the darkest Valley in the Valley of the shadow of death when you removed from your own house by
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your own son I'm going to rejoicing God we have lots of families who struggle with kids with
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addictions and struggling that man that's a tough one that's a tough conversation
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David is going through a moment when he feels like he's probably lost his son he's thrown him out of his own kingdom
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what does he do he says I'm going to rejoice in you all who swear by God by God will glory in him while the mouths
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of liars will be silenced I want to wrap up and with a couple stories but this is
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the question I have for you I work in youth ministry so I see students come and go and share their struggles and
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their hurts and I ask the leadership team of the students what do you guys want to talk about this year what's the
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number one thing if you can think of students across the area are struggling with what's the one thing I sent them
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some options not one did not say this so every single student said anxiety
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I struggle like I have a group of 20. 20 students all of them said anxiety is my
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number one I want you to talk about that I want you to help me with that how do I deal with
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that and then when I look at our lives because I mean you guys all know the country song I've been watching you like
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the little boy who says the cuss word in the truck and the dad's like what am I doing and he sees him praying the next
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night because he saw his dad praying is what example are you setting Allen's talked about it all through this series
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about busyness and hurriedness and I look at the Next Generation and that's what they see
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okay my schedule has to be full to accomplish the love of my parents or I
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have to accomplish this many things too and maybe it's it's not like you're telling them that but it's man
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everything else is hurried and full and busy my question to you as parents once
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one day you're going to be parents you might as well start now starting later is much more difficult one example are
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you setting what example are you setting that when you're lost
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in the in the Valley of the shadow of death when you're kicked out what example are you setting here's what
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I've learned is that it's not your high points where people learn everything about you it's at your lowest when
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people see that's their character that's who they are and the number one people who see that are your kids
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when you come home exhausted from working man it's hard come home exhausted from work or a fight or
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something didn't go your way you didn't get the promotion that's hard but what example are we setting in our
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schedules in our life how we serve how we give what examples are we setting and why do
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we set those examples is back to verse three because your love is greater than life
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um culture came to Milwaukee with me a couple weeks ago and Anna had an appointment and I could not get him to
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go to sleep he was screaming and crying and I put him in the nursery I tried shaking the bed I mean I did all the
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tricks and everything and so I said well I know I can put people to sleep with and that's telling Bible stories
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going through all the time so I put him in my arms and I started walking around the sanctuary in Bristol and I was
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trying to figure out what do I talk about and I just said well I know the gospel pretty well I'll start with the
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Old Testament and I'll work my way through it so I told him about the garden and Adam and Eve and how one of
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them fell short and both of them fell short and now sins introduced I told him about Noah's Ark and all the animals and
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the fuzzy creatures and everything like the rabbits that we have in our backyard got on this big giant boat and they
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sailed I talked to him about Moses and there's this nation of Israel who needed freedom
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and they brought them out of Egypt now I told them about David and a giant coming
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up against him with everything and and slinging a rock at him and conquering this immeasurable object that they were
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so afraid of I told him all those stories and I get to the New Testament and there's a cross hanging up on the
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wall in Bristol and I said and Buddy because of all these mess-ups we're the
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same way all the sin but that thing right there sets you free
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with all the history with everything you've done that sets you free it's not
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how hard you work and the whole time he was squirming and he was trying to get comfortable and all these things and I
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mentioned the cross and we're right there below it and he just looks up at me in my eyes he takes a deep breath
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and he rests he looked up and he saw his father and he finally stopped squirming he
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stopped trying to get comfortable himself make it himself and he finally rested and he went to sleep there's a
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lot of people especially dads who think I have to earn my way I have to square my way through and get
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comfortable enough and and I once I do that then I can finally rest
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but man I want to encourage you it's not about that it's not about earning it it's not about doing or being or
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anything like that instead it's about looking at the father and saying God I've been squirming for
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too long I've been trying to make my own way for too long you're where the rest is David
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knows this your right hand upholds me even when I'm in a dry land you're the
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water that fulfills me when I lose everything it doesn't matter because because you're
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really my everything for those of you with kids you can probably relate to that for those of you who
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don't know God as the father I want to read you this it's First John 3 1 it says this see what great love the father
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has lavished on us that we should be called children of God and what that is
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that we are the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him
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it's it's this reminder hey you're a child of God that with everything and in the same way
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that I held Coulter and he looked at me in my eyes and he finally rested God
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looks at you he says child not because of what you've done or what you've earned
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but instead because of what he gave for you because in the same way that I looked at Coulter in my arms God looked
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at his son who went to a cross his own one and only son if you can imagine I can't even imagine that who
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went to a cross was nailed to it humiliated by a crown of thorns because he was a king he was a king of the Jews
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above his head in mockery and all of that God looked at his son and he says yes for right now I know that's going on
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because one day James dick is going to be in Southwest Virginia and he needs it in the same way we all need it to look
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up at God and say I don't have to square him anymore I don't have to be good enough anymore you gave your son for me on the cross
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for Gods who loved the world he gave his one and only son so that whoever believed in him shall not perish but
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have eternal life he did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save it I mean there's a lot of
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people who try to live up to their father's expectations and they felt like they never could I could never be good enough for my dad I
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could never earn my way to my dad's love or his respect maybe he didn't feel like maybe he had a great father
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for all of us fall short of the glory of God and we can look at scripture and
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know I don't got to work for it when you're looking for rest you don't you don't have to look any further
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when when you're looking for fulfillment you don't have to look any further God's there saying child I gave everything
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I think if we just crash that God your love is better than my life why because you gave your sons for mine
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if you're here today and you don't know that and you've never accepted Christ into your heart I want to lead you
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through that it's it's nothing crazy you don't gotta jump up and do circles unless you want to it's just saying God
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I know I'm a sinner I know I've fallen short I know that I
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don't deserve it but for some reason you gave your son to Die For Me on the cross God I want to turn away from my past I
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want to repent from my sins I want to chase after you so I'm gonna pray and if you want to
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make that decision today knowing there's a father who looks at you and says child son or daughter with everything even
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while you were still a sinner he says I love you enough to give my son for you if you want to make that decision will you pray
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with me right now just say God I know I'm messed up I know I've fallen short of your glory
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but I just want to ask you to come into my life I want to ask you to help me seek after
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you Lord I want to repent I want to turn away from my sins I want to search for
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you I want to serve you in everything because your love is greater than life
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your love is greater than my mistakes it's like an ocean
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Lord your love is so vast it's so immense that it's greater than anyone
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who's ever loved me Lord thank you so much for loving us and we love you too
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amen hey real quick uh before you guys get up and leave or the campus pastors come out and talk
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um just a reminder about the example you're setting because it's easy to leave and say that was good maybe it was
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good maybe you thought I sucked that's okay too what example are you setting in your
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family are you reading scripture with your kids are you reading scripture on your own is
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your schedule so full that you can't feel like you have a breath what example are you setting
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when your kids look at you do they say he or she is earnestly seeking god with
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everything they have hey thank you all very much hope you guys have a great day and you will hear from your campus pastors or someone at your campus
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shortly