Podcasts about 16i

Habakkuk 3:1-19 1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth. 2Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. 3God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran.His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.4 His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.5Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps.6He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble.The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed but he marches on forever.7I saw the tents of Cushan in distress, the dwellings of Midian in anguish. 8Were you angry with the rivers, Lord? Was your wrath against the streams?Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory?9You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows.You split the earth with rivers;10 the mountains saw you and writhed.Torrents of water swept by; the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. 11Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear.12In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations.13You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one.You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot.14With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.15You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters. 16I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound;decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.17Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,18yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.

Daniel 7:1-28 Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts 7In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.2Daniel declared,I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.3And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.4The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it.5And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, Arise, devour much flesh.6After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it.7After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.8I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. The Ancient of Days Reigns 9As I looked, thrones were placed,and the Ancient of Days took his seat;his clothing was white as snow,and the hair of his head like pure wool;his throne was fiery flames;its wheels were burning fire.10A stream of fire issuedand came out from before him;a thousand thousands served him,and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;the court sat in judgment,and the books were opened. 11I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.12As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. The Son of Man Is Given Dominion 13I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaventhere came one like a son of man,and he came to the Ancient of Daysand was presented before him.14And to him was given dominionand glory and a kingdom,that all peoples, nations, and languagesshould serve him;his dominion is an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass away,and his kingdom onethat shall not be destroyed. Daniel's Vision Interpreted 15As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me.16I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things.17These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth.18But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. 19Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying, with its teeth of iron and claws of bronze, and which devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet,20and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions.21As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them,22until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. 23Thus he said: As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth,which shall be different from all the kingdoms,and it shall devour the whole earth,and trample it down, and break it to pieces.24As for the ten horns,out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise,and another shall arise after them;he shall be different from the former ones,and shall put down three kings.25He shall speak words against the Most High,and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,and shall think to change the times and the law;and they shall be given into his handfor a time, times, and half a time.26But the court shall sit in judgment,and his dominion shall be taken away,to be consumed and destroyed to the end.27And the kingdom and the dominionand the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavenshall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High;his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom,and all dominions shall serve and obey him. 28Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts greatly alarmed me, and my color changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.

Life Lessons from Jeremiah Pt. 6: My Deceitful Heart By Louie Marsh, 6-7-2026   1) I must LEARN to trust in God alone.   "5Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. (Jeremiah 17:5–6, ESV)   The person whose "heart turns aside from Yahweh" is "cursed." In ancient Israel's theocratic monarchy, turning away from God was considered rebellion and treason, crimes still punishable by death in most countries of the world today. Such a rebel Jeremiah compared to the, "juniper," of the "wilderness, a land of salt and not inhabited" (17:6). This description leads to the identification of the with the Sodom apple of the Dead Sea region. This tree has broad leaves that appear to be upturned in prayer. It bears a fruit about the size and shape of a lemon and is attractive in appearance. But when opened, this fruit reveals only dry, silky, threadlike fibers that carry the seeds on the wind, much as the milkweed. A person who makes his home in the barren wilderness of the soul and orders his life so as to produce only desiccated, disappointing "fruit" "will not see when good comes." - Gregory A. Lint, ed., Jeremiah–Lamentations, The Complete Biblical Library: Study Bible (World Library Press, 2000), Je 17:5–8.   · When I trust myself, I get NOTHING!   2) My life will be STABLE & FRUITFUL if I do.    7"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." (Jeremiah 17:7–8, ESV)   "9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)," (Ephesians 5:9, ESV)   3) My big problem – My Heart has a TERMINAL disease.    9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10"I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."  (Jeremiah 17:9–10, ESV)   "26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26, ESV)   4) If I follow my heart alone I will end up a FOOL.   11Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. 12A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. 13O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.  (Jeremiah 17:11–13, ESV)   5) Only God can HEAL my heart.    14Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.  (Jeremiah 17:14, ESV)   "28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."" (Matthew 11:28–30, ESV)   6) So I will follow God's CALL thru good times & bad.   15Behold, they say to me, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come!" 16I have not run away from being your shepherd, nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips; it was before your face. 17Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.  (Jeremiah 17:5–15-17, ESV)   7) I will TRUST  God & let Him deal with my enemies   18Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction!" (Jeremiah 17:18, ESV)    

Dr. Deb Muth 00:08What if the toxins in your food and water weren’t just harming our bodies, but rewriting the very code of human health? My guest today, MIT scientist Dr. Stephanie Sineff, has spent over a decade connecting the dots between environmental toxins, metabolic chaos, and neurological decline. You’ll want to hear every word of this conversation. You guys can put our, Serenity ad in here, and then I’ll do the standard intro.Welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, the show where we uncover the root causes of chronic illness, explore cutting-edge regenerative medicine, and empower you with the tools to heal. I’m Dr. Deb, your medical detective.And today, we’re diving into how environmental toxins and nutritional imbalances are silently shaping chronic disease patterns, from autoimmune disorders to neurodegenerative decline. And how we can take back control of our health. So, as usual, grab your cup of coffee, tea, or whatever helps you unwind, settle in, and let’s get started on your journey to deeper healing. So, Dr. Sunif, so glad to have you here. I can’t wait to have this conversation with you. We were just chatting off-camera a few seconds ago about what we’re going to chat about, but tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into this field of looking at toxins and mitochondria. Seneff 01:50Okay, yeah, my background is a bit eclectic, so it starts out with biology. I have an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT. My PhD is in electrical engineering and computer science, so that’s quite a switchover. And most of my career, I was writing computer code to train computers to talk to humans in a natural conversation… conversational interaction with computers. We were pioneers in that space. You can see that it has really taken off now. And actually, by 2006, 2007, I started to realize that the kind of work I did already then was getting compromised by the, by the emergence of AI. And I got concerned that, I wouldn’t be able to sustain the path I was on. And it’s happening now, of course, to the young… many people, young people today, are facing a crisis in computer science, because it used to be if you had skills in hacking code, you were good to go, you know, and that’s just not true anymore, so that’s another whole story, but anyway, I decided I needed to do something different, and I pivoted in a big way in 2007. managed to get the company that had been funding me, a Taiwanese company called Quanta Computers, And they,We’re willing to switch over to funding me to do research on health and toxic chemical exposures. Which was a miracle that they let… they let me switch over to that, and that was fantastic, 2007. So it’s been almost 20 years. that I’ve been looking for toxic chemical exposures and their association with human disease. And I focused initially on autism and heart disease, kind of for personal reasons, because I knew people who had, you know, who had those issues.But it led into a much, much bigger story, and I’m super excited about what’s happened over the last 20 years. It’s been a continual learning experience for me, and I’ve just kept broadening my space in biology, furiously reading papers as I discovered new concepts and trying to explore those. opening up new windows, and it’s just been a profusion of learning over the past 20 years, and I’ve published many papers at this point. Peer-reviewed papers on the topics of toxic chemical exposures and disease. Particularly, glyphosate is the one I really focused on, and I wrote the book, Toxic Legacy, how the weed killer glyphosate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment.That was published in 2021. So. Dr. Deb Muth 04:18So I’m sure you have a few thoughts about the administration wanting to bring that back to be made at home instead of China, right? Seneff 04:26I know, that’s so interesting. And actually, you know, he makes a point that I agree with, which is that we are relying on China. for importing a whole bunch of stuff that’s really toxic, and we’re pouring it all over our food supply, so China’s probably very happy to poison us, you know? Oh, absolutely. It’s kind of ironic that we’re doing that, and he makes a good point that we shouldn’t be relying on China for these chemicals that are poisoning us, but where he misses the point is he says, well, we just need to poison ourselves, you know? Rather than getting rid of that chemical, we need to really change the way we grow food.I think it’s the number one most important thing right now. in America is to change the way we grow food, and it has to be certified organic, regenerative. We need to focus on healing the soil, just as we have to heal the gut. I mean, we’ve really messed up the microbes in both the soil and the gut, and the consequences, as you can see, are a huge problem with human disease. Dr. Deb Muth 05:20They’re devastating. I mean, we have so much chronic illness and so much neurological disease these days, and just the rise of autism, it should be telling us that we’re doing something wrong, right? Seneff 05:31Absolutely. Dr. Deb Muth 05:32We have a problem. For those people who are listening that don’t understand what the term glyphosate is, can you explain that a little bit to them? Seneff 05:39Yeah, so it’s one of the many herbicides that we use. We use herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides in agriculture, all these poisons, and it kind of seems crazy to me that we would think it’s okay to pour poisons all over our food supply. I don’t understand why we think that’s fine.Yeah. You know, categorically. Glyphosate is supposed to be a wonderful chemical, because it’s an herbicide that kills all plants except for those that have been engineered to resist it. And supposedly is completely harmless to humans. And that’s what gets to be, you know, disbelief, because how can something so toxic to plants be harmless to humans? Just, how can it be? Dr. Deb Muth 06:14We haven’t been re-engineered like the seeds that they use from Monsanto, so how can it not affect us if it only affects everything but their seeds that they’ve modified to make grow beautifully under that condition? It doesn’t make any sense. Seneff 06:32Right, and of course, the critical thing they missed is that our gut microbes do have that pathway. It’s the chicken mate pathway that it disrupts. Really critical in all the plants, and in most of the microbes. In the soil and in the gut, and so it kills off the microbes as well as the plants, and when it kills off your gut microbes, you gotta watch out, because gut dysbiosis is a huge thing. And we’ve had so many papers coming out lately that Talking about the relationship between gut dysbiosis and all kinds of different diseases. Dr. Deb Muth 07:01Do you think that’s why we see so much gut dysbiosis these days? Seneff 07:04Oh, absolutely. I think it’s not just glyphosate, because we have lots of poisons that are messing up our gut microbes, but glyphosate is a really big one, because the shikimate pathway is essential for many of the microbes, and they use it to make essential nutrients for the host. So we get compromised as well, just because they can’t make those nutrients in that. Dr. Deb Muth 07:22It’s so… Seneff 07:22lies. Dr. Deb Muth 07:23so much harder today to treat people with gut issues than it was 25 years ago when I started. It was so much easier. And now, it’s, like, nearly impossible sometimes to get some of these people back to a good, healthy gut microbiome, no matter what you do, no matter how well they eat, and all the things that they do. It’s a struggle, for sure, compared to what it was 20 years ago. Seneff 07:44It’s interesting that you have that personal experience, because I think people like you really can see what’s happening. Dr. Deb Muth 07:49and appreciate. Seneff 07:50the difference between then and now. I, of course, as a child, autism was not something I knew about at all. Really, when I was a child. It didn’t exist, basically. I mean, it was so rare. And now, you know, everyone knows someone with autism, you know, pretty much. Dr. Deb Muth 08:08Autism and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s seems to be just so much commonplace. Everybody knows somebody in their family that is affected by one of those disorders, if not multiples, and We tend to say it’s genetic, right? Well, there’s got to be a genetic… why wasn’t it genetic 50 years ago, or 100 years ago? But now, all of a sudden, it’s so prevalent in our environment that we’ve just become acceptable of it, and I think that’s wrong for us to do that. We shouldn’t be doing that. Seneff 08:38I know. I find it very interesting how quickly it appears that humans adapt to the new normal, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 08:44Yeah. Seneff 08:45It’s normal that you have, you know. 3% of the kids have autism, that’s normal, you know? It’s just like, no, it’s not. And also, of course, all the Alzheimer’s and dementia and Parkinson’s, as you mentioned, in the elderly, those are connected, because they’re all related to brain problems that are being caused by chemicals that are destroying the brain. Dr. Deb Muth 09:03Yeah. So, how does glyphosphate interact with our body’s ability to absorb those essential nutrients, like sulfur? Seneff 09:12Yeah, well, it’s… that’s a big… that’s a big question. I don’t know where to begin with that one. Glyphosate, you know, it’s a train wreck for the gut microbes, and then that causes the gut dysbiosis. The microbes are unable to produce adequate amounts of nutrients that are essential for the host. And as a consequence, the host cells get sick, you know, so the colonocytes get sick because they’re not getting adequate nutrition. Because the microbes can’t produce the nutrition they normally would produce. I think that’s a good summary of what’s going on. You get inflammation in the gut.And then the inflammation causes immune reactions, so you get the immune cells coming in, and they create inflammation, you know, it’s just like there’s a kind of a festering going on in there that’s really a train wreck for the whole system. Dr. Deb Muth 09:58Do we see different, results with things like this in Europe, where they’re not allowed to use a lot of these chemicals that we’re allowed to use here? Seneff 10:07Yeah, they are allowed, but it’s much, much less there. My friend, Tony Mitra got his government, Canada, to do a test… to do a big test of over 8,000 samples, food samples, to get… look for glyphosate. U.S. government doesn’t bother to test for glyphosate, because they consider it to be safe.We know it’s all over our food supply from work by people like Zen Honeycutt. My friend Zan Honeycutt of Moms Across America has really been on a mission to test all kinds of different food samples for glyphosate and finding it extensive in our food supply, in the school lunches. in the fast food restaurants and the food that’s fed to the Army. She’s done all these different studies, breast milk. Wines, you know, all the wines were contaminated, even the biodynamic, which are organic.Had small amounts of glyphosate, so it’s just like it’s all over the food supply. Canada did 8,000 samples. Tony Beecher finally got them to do that after many years of harassing them, and then he published the results in a book called Poison Foods of North America, because they found that they had imports from Europe, imports from Mexico, imports from the U.S, And basically, the U.S. and Canada came out way on top, as far as overall, the numbers were much higher in those two countries. And Mexico lined up with Europe, which was quite interesting to me. So, you know, you’re better off if you buy food from Mexico. Dr. Deb Muth 11:31Yeah, and I wouldn’t have thought that, I would have thought that was different. Seneff 11:34And I know you often think that Mexican food is not going to be as carefully regulated, and you might get some kind of, toxin. You don’t expect Mexican food to be healthier than American, but it is. Dr. Deb Muth 11:44Yeah. Yeah, can you talk a little bit about deuterium? What is deuterium? Seneff 11:51Okay, that’s a good place to start. Yeah, deuterium… I am absolutely fascinated with deuterium, and I believe that the team of researchers that I’m working with, we are on to something really huge. I’m super, super excited. I almost can’t contain my excitement with this, because once we started looking, it’s just like everything made so much sense. Everything kind of came together. In terms of metabolism, and disruptive metabolism, and all the stuff that’s going on in the gut. It really, really makes sense. Deuterium is heavy hydrogen. It’s a natural element. Hydrogen is the smallest element, the upper left corner of the periodic table. One proton and one electron, and it’s by far the most common atom in the universe.And in our body, as well, by far the most common atom in our body, and it’s involved in all the chemical reactions that take place. And so, you know, have carbohydrates. The hydrates is hydrogen, you know, in the word carbon, hydrogen, carbohydrates. And of course, carbohydrates are, you know, basic foods. So anyway, deuterium has an extra neutron. It’s just like carbon-14, so carbon-12, carbon-14 is a little bit heavier. It’s got 14 instead of 12. It has extra neutrons. So there are these kind of isotopes of various atoms, but hydrogen has hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium. Tritium has two extra neutrons. It’s very rare, and deuterium has one extra neutron, and it’s rare compared to hydrogen, but it’s not rare, because hydrogen’s so common. So it’s actually present in the blood at five times the level of calcium, for example. Dr. Deb Muth 13:24Oh. Seneff 13:25So it’s not rare, but it’s a very interesting atom that has caused us trouble in the mitochondria. Dr. Deb Muth 13:32Is it actually considered a toxin? Seneff 13:34It’s a natural element, you know. I mean, you have natural elements that are toxic, you know, like some of those metals, like mercury, for example, is a natural element, but it’s toxic, so it’s not a chemical, it’s not a chemical, you know, not made in the chemical lab. It’s just an atom. And it’s all over the universe. It’s not like you can avoid it, or you can, you know, you can’t get rid of it. It’s everywhere. And so it’s a natural part of biology, and our biology has evolved. to very, very clever ways to protect the mitochondria from deuterium. So the thing is, mitochondria have ATPase, which makes ATP, and ATP is the universal… it’s the energy source for the cell.ATP. It’s made in the mitochondria, very, very important, oxidative phosphorylation, you know, that’s sort of basic in biology. And, those ATPase pumps, depend upon hydrogen flowing through the pumps to generate, motor force to make the ATP.And they pile up the hydrogen inside an inner membrane space. They’re kind of cute. The mitochondria have this internal matrix in the hole, like a donut hole. The matrix is where a lot of activity is going on. And then there’s a membrane, but the membrane has both an outer membrane and an inner membrane. So there’s an intermembrane space where the mitochondria dump a lot of protons. They make… put lots and lots of protons in there, and then the protons naturally come out through basic… through basic physics, they come out, and the pumps are there to grab the energy as the protons come out. It’s quite cool. Go back into the matrix. the protons go back into the matrix. So what the body does is it tries to keep deuterons out of those… out of that intermembrane space. It tries really hard not to put deuterons in there. So deuterons are the equivalent of protons.You know, proteom is the normal hydrogen, and then deuterium is the… is the one with the extra neutron that makes it twice as heavy. So because it’s twice as heavy, it behaves very, very differently. It’s kind of like a big, bulky thing coming through the pumps, and it can clobber them. It can really mess them up.And the body knows that, and so the body has designed incredibly elegant mechanisms to keep the deuterium levels inside that inner membrane space as low as possible. the body obsesses on that. And once you realize that, all of a sudden, lots and lots of things make sense in terms of looking at biochemistry and what’s going on. All kinds of things that didn’t make sense before suddenly come. clear… clear… are motivated by this idea of avoiding deuterium in the inner membrane space. So it’s really, really fascinating biology. Dr. Deb Muth 16:08So does the glyphosate tend to increase the deuterium in that space, or does it disrupt it? Seneff 16:16It definitely increases it, and the reason why is because it disrupts the enzymes that manage it. And so, for example. So this, I have to get into hydrogen gas and microbial production of hydrogen gas, which is central to the story. And you know, people get gashy, they have, like, bloating and stuff, there’s a lot. Dr. Deb Muth 16:34echo. Seneff 16:34That’s because those gases that are being made by the microbes are unable to be brought back into organic matter. So normally the microbes make lots and lots of gas, and they start with hydrogen gas, and they make methane gas, they make hydrogen sulfide gas, and they make all these gases. And then they use those gases as reducing agents to come back and make organic matter. So they basically convert food into basic gases, like hydrogen and carbon dioxide, right? And then they take the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to convert it back into food. And the reason why they do that is because the process of making the gas tremendously strips out the deuterium. This is absolutely central, I think, to metabolism.And it’s not something very many people are aware of. The microbes make the hydrogen gas. And when they do that, they lose 80% of the deuterium, because the deuterium tends to stay in the aqueous space, because it’s too heavy. You just think of, you know, trying to lift out… if you’re twice as heavy, it’s a lot harder to get out of the liquid into the air. You know, so basically to make the gas. When you make the gas, you lose a lot of the deuterium. And that is super, super central, I think, to metabolism. Dr. Deb Muth 17:47So, if that’s what’s happening inside of there, it’s obviously creating metabolism issues. What does that mean for energy and mitochondrial health, then? Seneff 17:58Well, what happens is that the microbes are unable to make enough of those nutrients that are super for the host that have low deuterium. And a particular one that I have in mind is butyrate. And I don’t know if you know anything about butyrate. Dr. Deb Muth 18:10Yeah. Seneff 18:12But it’s a very healthy resource for the gut. The colonocytes lining the gut, 80% of their food is butyrate. They love butyrate, normally. But lots of people have butyrate deficiency in their gut. And that deficiency is due to the fact that the microbes can’t make the hydrogen gas, because when they make the hydro… or they can’t bring the hydrogen gas back in to make. Dr. Deb Muth 18:34Beautiful. Seneff 18:35Because a butyrate comes from the hydrogen gas that’s produced by the gut microbes. Dr. Deb Muth 18:39So, if we supplement with N-butyrate, does that help that process work better, or does it not really do much with the deuterium, then? Seneff 18:48Well, there’s a big question with supplements, and I’m really starting to appreciate this more. You know, I always like natural, right? Natural versus synthetic. And I think there’s a huge difference. For many of these supplements that are popular, there’s a huge difference between natural and synthetic. Yeah. And that big difference has to do with the level of deuterium, because if it’s made synthetically. It’s not going to be depleted in deuterium. So when you’re taking… and I don’t know butyrate, you have to go and look at how they manufacture it to see if it comes from natural or synthetic ingredients. It’s extremely interesting with… I’ve looked into some of these other nutrients that people like to take as supplements. Choline by tartrate is one that I really was fascinated with, because… and there are papers that show that if you take choline by tartrate as a supplement… so choline, of course, is a very important nutrient, a lot ofAre deficient, especially if they’re vegetarian. And choline bitartrate is a synthetic form of choline. And, choline bitartrate, if you take… the studies have shown There’s a beautiful study that had people who ate a bunch of eggs, you know, because eggs are high in choline, and then they had people who took choline by tartrate to get an equivalent amount of choline in their diet compared to the eggs, right? And the people who ate the eggs were fine, and the people who ate the choline bitartrate were not. They had a very big increase in a metabolite called trimethylamine oxide, TMAO. Dr. Deb Muth 20:13in the. Seneff 20:14in the blood. And TMAO is a risk factor for a huge number of diseases, you know, all the usual suspects, the diabetes, the cholesterol, the heart disease, cancer, all kinds of diseases. Dr. Deb Muth 20:26TMA over. Seneff 20:26is a very interesting molecule that’s been studied quite a bit recently. There’s a lot of papers on it. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, TMAO . Dr. Deb Muth 20:32I have, yeah. Seneff 20:33Yeah, okay. Well, that one is a… it’s very, very interesting, and I have a paper that I’m trying to get published right now that I’m quite proud of that talks about all of this, but they found that when you eat the eggs and get the choline that way, you’re fine, but if you take the choline bichartrate, you’re not. You get all this TMAO. And the reason, I think, is because the microbes… the microbes make TMA from choline. the trimethylamine. Choline has a nitrogen atom with 3 methyls attached to it, and those methyls are going to be really low in deuterium. Because they’re part of the methylation pathway, which microbes make sure those methyls are low in deuterium. So all the whole methylation pathways, I think, is a distribution system to deliver low deuterium nutrients throughout the body, not just in the gut. You know, and the body has all these ways of hooking methyls onto things. Dr. Deb Muth 21:26and take it. Seneff 21:26them off, and when it takes them off, it metabolizes them in the mitochondria, delivering to them low deuterium nutrient. So, so when you take the choline bitartrate, and it’s not low deuterium, what happens is you end up with molecules of TMA, trimethylamine, that have deuterium in them. And when you have those, they won’t… the microbes won’t metabolize them, they won’t turn them back into hydrogen. You know, deuterium depleted hydrogen, they won’t do it. So they stick around, the TMA doesn’t get metabolized, and then it gets sent to the liver, the liver turns it into TMAO, and now you’ve got your problem. And I think TMAO is a marker for deuterium overload in the mitochondria, in the methylation pathways. Dr. Deb Muth 22:06That’s interesting that you’re talking about that. I belong to a group, and we’ve been researching plosmalogen therapy, and one of the supplements that was created was created with a large amount of phospholine. And,And by itself, when we used the phospholine in one of our formulations, it wasn’t bad, but when they doubled the dose and they were putting it in all of their formulations, people were starting to see the TMO levels go up. And we were trying to figure out, like, what’s happening here. It wasn’t everybody, but it was a good chunk of people, enough for us to say, hey, something needs to change here. We need to take out this phospholine, or not use as much of it. But now this explains exactly why the TAMO was going up. And if those people do have a lot of deuterium, maybe why we saw some people have a problem with it, but not everybody had a problem with it. Seneff 22:57It depends on their microbes. If their microbes are healthy enough to be able to metabolize the TMA, they’re fine. And the microbes produce the TMA, and then they metabolize it. And they’re doing that to generate more deuterium-depleted nutrients. They’re constantly trying to come up with new nutrients that are deuterium-depleted to feed to the host. I mean, they’re really obsessed with it. And they do a good job, normally, but they get so messed up by all these chemicals, and not just glyphosate, of course, all the chemicals in our food and in the air, it’s a mess, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 23:26It’s amazing the body works as well as it does. Seneff 23:28It is. I really am surprised that we don’t have more people who are super sick, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 23:33Exactly. Seneff 23:33Not for sure, but some of us are doing okay with it, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 23:37Yeah, exactly. So when we have this high level of deuterium, high levels of glyphosphate, what is that going to do to the body’s energy stores? Seneff 23:46well, it’s going to wreck the mitochondria, and then you’re going to get chronic fatigue. I mean, I think chronic fatigue syndrome, to me, is a very clear example of mitochondrial damage due to excess deuterium. I think that can completely explain that disease. Dr. Deb Muth 24:01Do you think this high level of deuterium is causing people to see more neurological diseases as well, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s? It’s fueling it. Seneff 24:11Absolutely, because the brain has so much dependence on energy, you know, the brain uses a lot of energy, and they need really healthy mitochondria. They have… neurons have lots of mitochondria. Neurons and muscle cells really, you know, are loaded up with mitochondria, and both of them get injured when they don’t have a… when they can’t keep deuterium out of the mitochondria. Dr. Deb Muth 24:30The cells. Seneff 24:31get injured by all the reactive oxygen the mitochondria are producing, which the ATPase pumps, once they’re getting contaminated with all that deuterium, they start spewing out reactive oxygen. It kills the mitochondria, then it kills the cell, then it kills the brain, you know? It’s like a progression. It really starts with the mitochondrial damage, and then the cell dies, and once the neurons start dying, then the brain dies, you know, and you’ve got all. symptoms. Dr. Deb Muth 24:55So can we measure deuterium like we can glyphosphate in the body? Seneff 24:59You can, yes. In fact, you can do a saliva test and send it off and get the… get a level of how much deuterium is in your saliva. I would love to know more… in more detail how much deuterium is in different parts of the body, because that’s really interesting to me from my studies. What I’m suspecting is that the body… so the cells actually dump deuterium outside the cell. That to try to get as little deuterium as possible inside the cell. And within the cell, they’re trying to get as little deuterium as possible inside the mitochondria. So there’s layers of trying to get rid of the deuterium. And so the convenient thing is to dump the deuterium outside the cell. So there’s a lot of deuterium in bones, for example, probably in your skin, you know, any kind of exterior materials. And the sort of glycocalyx, so there’s this glycocalyx that lines all the blood vessels.That’s these sort of complicated sulfated sugar… complex sugar molecules that, that create gelled water. this gets into Gerald Pollack’s work. I don’t know if you know anything about Gerald Pollack and gelled water, but that’s quite a fascinating field all by itself. But it has to do with really fascinating stuff, because Gerald Pollack talks about battery… a battery being created by the gel. He’s done a lot of research on gelled water. You know, like jello, for example.And you put some powder, you put some hot boiling water, you let it sit, it gels up. It’s mostly water, but it’s a funny phase of water. It’s called the… he calls it the fourth phase of water. He wrote a whole book about that. Gerald Pollack did. And, it’s a gel phase, so water has, you know, the liquid, the solid, the gas, and then the gel. And… and most of the water in our body is gel, is gelled. And especially all the water lining the blood vessels. The blood vessels have free-flowing blood in the middle, right? Dr. Deb Muth 26:46in the long… Seneff 26:46the edges, they have this gelled water that’s created by these sulfated glycos… I mean, the glycans, they’re called, complicated word there, but… They create the gelled water, and the gel… actually, what Pollock showed is that the gel becomes negatively charged, and it pushes out protons. It pushes protons out into the blood. And it ends up being negatively charged because of that. And it creates a battery, and that battery is a source of energy, so… so you can think of, the gel as being like a battery supporting the entire body. All the gel in the blood is a battery. It’s a giant battery. And when you get exposed to sunlight, the gel grows in volume by a lot, and so when the gel gets bigger, it gets to be a bigger battery, and it’s capturing the energy in sunlight. It’s like a solar panel. your skin is like a solar panel, capturing the energy in the sunlight and converting it into this energy in that gel that pushes out those protons. And the cool thing is the deuterons tend to stay behind Because, It’s a little bit of interesting physics here when you have a water molecule, could have one deuterium, one hydrogen, and an oxygen. Water is H2O, right? It would be HDO, one hydrogen, one deuterium, and oxygen, right? HGO. And when you separate that out, usually you separate water out into OH- and H+, right, when you pull it apart into ions. OH minus and H+. Well, what happens here is that the deuterium sticks harder to the oxygen. than the hydrogen does. So you get OD- and H+. more often than OH minus and D+. Dr. Deb Muth 28:22So you have a lot fewer D pluses inside that gel. Seneff 28:26And the H pluses go out into the blood, and the D pluses are… the Ds are stuck to the oxygen, so they don’t go out. So you end up, actually, that’s a sort of distillation process that pulls healthy proteins out of the gel, into the blood. And that makes the blood levels of deuterium lower. Do you see what I’m saying? The deuterium gets trapped in the gel. And the deuterium gets trapped in bone in the same way, in the bone, in the skin. So the body’s trying to keep the deuterium out of the cell, and within the cell, it’s trying to keep it out of the mitochondria, and actually out of all the organelles, not just the mitochondria. So it’s… there’s a whole… Metabolism cannot be explained without looking at deuterium. Dr. Deb Muth 29:07Yeah, so if deuterium’s getting trapped in the bone, much like lead does, does it take up space where we can’t have calcium, and then it leads to more osteoporosis as well? Seneff 29:16I don’t think so. I think deuterium is actually healthy in the bones. Dr. Deb Muth 29:19Interesting. It actually makes the bone stronger, and in fact, there was a really beautiful article on seals. Seneff 29:24You know, SEALs, they do the deep dives, they get into this really, high-pressure zone. Dr. Deb Muth 29:28with… Seneff 29:29in deep water. So they have to be really strong, and the seals actually dope up their bones with twice as much deuterium as what is normal. So they concentrate deuterium. They showed it with the seals, they concentrate deuterium in their bones, and the deuterium makes the bones stronger, so they can sustain the high pressure of the dot. Do you hear the thunder? We’ve got a big thunderstorm. Dr. Deb Muth 29:52So, when you’re testing for deuterium in saliva, are you testing the excess, then? Like, what the body doesn’t. Seneff 30:00Well, there’s the. Dr. Deb Muth 30:00The waste of it? Seneff 30:01It’s really complicated, because I think it’s hard to know how to interpret it. It’s just like when you test for, like, you know, toxic metals, like mercury, like in the hair, you can do a. Dr. Deb Muth 30:13It’s in the hair. Seneff 30:14And sometimes you can find someone who actually has a problem with that metal, but the hair doesn’t show it. Dr. Deb Muth 30:20Bismar. Seneff 30:21doesn’t actually excrete it in the hair, so you have to think about Can the body get rid of it that way? And actually, in the saliva, I believe the saliva the body concentrates deuterium in the saliva, because it’s trying to get rid of deuterium. So a way to… you have the salivary glands, and they can actually excrete, preferentially excrete deuterium. Into the saliva. to concentrate it there in order to keep it out of the body. But those enzymes that do that might be compromised, in which case you have less deuterium in your mouth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s good. You see what I mean? So when you see whatever the level is, it’s hard to interpret it, I believe. Dr. Deb Muth 30:58Yeah, it’s hard to tell what to do with it, then. Seneff 31:01Yeah, whether it’s low because your salivary glands aren’t working well, or whether it’s low because your whole body’s low, you know? And you can’t really know which way that goes, necessarily. So that makes it hard to interpret, I think. Dr. Deb Muth 31:13It sure does. Seneff 31:15I’m interested, for example, breast milk has low deuterium. Saliva has high deuterium. And you’re… I haven’t been able to find… there’s very few measurements, so I’d like to see a lot more measurements on the… just what’s typical, you know? Right. Dr. Deb Muth 31:31expect the urine to have hydrocherium, so anything that you’re excreting, I would expect it to have hydrocherium. So, knowing this information that we have, how does one fix these metabolic issues that we’ve kind of created in our own environment, for lack of a better term, because of our own… our own misgivings of what we’ve done in the world. How do we protect our brain and repair that metabolic issue in the mitochondria these days, then? Seneff 31:58I would say the most essential thing is to eat certified organic food. Dr. Deb Muth 32:02Always buy certified organic. It doesn’t guarantee that it’s free from chemicals, but it’s generally better. Seneff 32:07So that’s… we’ve been practicing that ever since 2012, when I figured out that glyphosate is causing a mess. So we went organic, and we’ve been like that ever since. We did a purge, we threw away everything, even the spices, started over in our kitchen. Yeah. In 2012, and then we’ve just been consistently buying certified organic ever since then. Dr. Deb Muth 32:27at least lowers the load, right? I mean… Seneff 32:29Yeah, it’s. Dr. Deb Muth 32:30There could be… Seneff 32:30some contamination. Dr. Deb Muth 32:31there, but… Seneff 32:32It’s a lot less, generally, but not zero, not necessarily zero. Dr. Deb Muth 32:35Right. Seneff 32:36undetectable. But that’s a really important thing. Another thing is to eat… I think eating fiber can help the microbes to produce those low-deuterium nutrients. The microbesWe can’t digest… our cells don’t know what to do with fiber, but the microbes can digest the fiber, turn it into hydrogen gas, turn it back into nutrients, like short-chain fatty acids, you know, butyrate. So, by eating foods that contain fiber, you’re helping the microbes to produce butyrate, and butyrate is really, really important for the health of the colon, you know? Dr. Deb Muth 33:07Yeah, and we’re talking about eating whole food organic, not organic Doritos and Cheetos. Seneff 33:13Right, right. Dr. Deb Muth 33:14kinds of things, right? Seneff 33:15Whole foods is really important. I always say whole foods and organic foods, those are the two really important things. And then I don’t really, you know, there’s all these different fad diets with respect to, a loss of fat, or no fat, and all that kind of thing. I don’t buy into any of those. I think you just want to have a balanced diet.Carbs are okay, you know, fats are really healthy, and especially animal-based fats are healthy. I don’t like a vegan diet, because I think animal-based foods provide certain nutrients that are really hard to get otherwise. And like I say, you can’t take choline by tartrate to replace the choline that’s in the animal-based foods. Dr. Deb Muth 33:48Right. Yeah, I’ve worked a lot, and I’ve never seen a healthy vegan. I mean, we can say we’re vegan.But those people are eating a lot of junk food, typically. They’re not true vegans, where they’re just eating whole food and getting all their nutrients from good quality foods. Most of the people that I’ve worked with over the years that have been vegan eat a lot of processed foods, a lot of junk foods. It just doesn’t include the animal fats, and then that makes them unhealthy, and we see a lot of nutrient deficiencies and a lot of pain and energy issues. It’s very hard to be a healthy vegan. In my opinion, as well. Seneff 34:20I agree, I agree, yeah. Dr. Deb Muth 34:23So I like to ask this question of all of my guests, and if you were designing a public health policy tomorrow, what would your first change be? Seneff 34:32To switch the farming system to be small farms that are regenerative, not just organic, organic regenerative small farms, with no use of chemicals. Dr. Deb Muth 34:42Yeah. Seneff 34:43No insecticides, no fungicides, no herbicides, nothing, you know? And even natural fertilizer, of course, as well. Of course, right now, you know, the organic farms rely on the chickens to get. Dr. Deb Muth 34:57the. Seneff 34:58Manure, which has glyphosate in it, so they… they get their glyphosate from the manure. Dr. Deb Muth 35:04Yeah, because a lot of that chicken feed has glyphosate in it, and then they’re passing that through, and we think that it doesn’t pass through, but it does pass through, and… Yeah, I would agree with you. I think when we went to these big industrial farming practices, we did not do ourselves any favor. And shipping food across the country to be slaughtered, only to ship it back here. Seneff 35:29It doesn’t make any sense, and… Dr. Deb Muth 35:32Growing things in environments where people live that isn’t natural to them, that doesn’t make sense to me either, in a lot of ways. Seneff 35:41Yeah, it’s very frustrating, because I think we really… it’s too bad that we lost all those small family farms, because we need them back. We really need them back, and I think that’s really the… and you want to have a variety of different crops, you know, we have all these massive cornfields, that’s just wrong. Dr. Deb Muth 35:55Yeah. Yeah, and they do nothing but corn until…Until your county says you have to do something different now, because you’ve depleted the soil too much, and they don’t want to put any soil preservation back in, and put any nutrients back in, because that’s expensive. Seneff 36:12Exactly. Dr. Deb Muth 36:13And then they’ll rotate the crop maybe once a year, and then they’re back to growing corn again, because that’s the largest revenue producer for them at the time, and it really is a challenge for us. Really a challenge. Seneff 36:26Yeah, it’s going to be very difficult to pivot to the kind of agriculture we need, and if we don’t do it, we’re just going to get sicker and sicker. Dr. Deb Muth 36:33Like, my friend. Seneff 36:34frightening. Dr. Deb Muth 36:35Yeah. Seneff 36:35How sick we are. Dr. Deb Muth 36:37Yeah, and I think people trying to grow their own food, at least some of it, can be really helpful and beneficial, too. We need to go back to that practice. Seneff 36:44I know, yes, rooftop farms, right? Dr. Deb Muth 36:47Back in the city. Seneff 36:48That’s really quite cool. I’ve heard some lectures on that. Dr. Deb Muth 36:51Yeah. Yeah, even some of the hydroponic growing that you can do in your apartment and get some lettuce and some herbs and things like that. I mean, anything that you can grow yourself, I think, is a big benefit. A, you don’t. Seneff 37:03I think it’s. Dr. Deb Muth 37:04B, you know how it’s been grown. C, it’s just healthier for you, and it’s less that you’re gonna have to buy that you don’t know that, what’s been growing in it, so… Seneff 37:13And it’s also kind of fun, right? You feel good that you’ve produced your own food. I think it’s really quite neat. Dr. Deb Muth 37:18Yeah, and there’s something, therapeutic about digging in the dirt a little bit, and getting your hands dirty. Seneff 37:24It’s really good to be outdoors and getting exercise. I mean, really, the work that’s involved with growing food is quite healthy work, really. Dr. Deb Muth 37:31Yeah, it’s a lot of work, for sure. That it is. So, for listeners that might be feeling a little overwhelmed about what we’re talking about, and thinking about, how do I detox or nutrition, where do I get some of this education, what kind of resources would you recommend for them? Seneff 37:47That’s a tough one. There’s not much known about deuterium, so it’s really quite difficult to… you can search deuterium, and there are some… a couple of good resources, which I can’t name, I could probably send you a link, describing deuterium. I know there’s a woman who’s written some nice material. on deuterium, just to get a sense of… more… a better sense of what it is, and why it’s a problem. But there’s not much. I mean, we need to have a lot more. I really want to get the research community aware that. Dr. Deb Muth 38:17They need to be. Seneff 38:17researching deuterium and its role in the body, because I think it’s absolutely essential. We’ll never understand disease if we don’t look at deuterium. Dr. Deb Muth 38:24Yeah, I think so, too. I think… I think the… there’s a lot of amazing discoveries that are being found. That could open the doors and give us answers to reversing a lot of disease, if there was funding behind it, if there were people like you that were interested in it, to really dig down from a functional medicine standpoint and try to figure it out instead of looking at it from a big pharma aspect, where we just need to find a pill that’ll fix it. Seneff 38:50I know. Dr. Deb Muth 38:51There are not pills that are going to fix these kinds of things. Seneff 38:54Right, yes, pharma’s way off base, I think. They’re really going after the completely wrong approach to health. Dr. Deb Muth 39:01I agree. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been a pleasure. Is there any last words that you want to leave with our listeners? Seneff 39:09I don’t know, I just, you know, healthy living is basically just eating whole foods, eating organic foods, getting plenty of fiber and fermented foods.And healthy fats, you know, sort of a variety of diet, a really mixed diet. Lots of fresh vegetables. I mean, there’s all these different great things to eat. Just stay away from the soy protein bars, you know, and the candy bars, and that sort of thing. And the cookies, I mean, just, you know. And then, of course, getting outside in the sunlight is something I always have to say. I love the sun. I think it’s very therapeutic, and we don’t get enough sunlight. We’re just. Dr. Deb Muth 39:43We don’t. And if we do, then we’re lathering on all of our sunscreen so that we don’t get the sun, and that’s creating its own issues, right? Seneff 39:51That’s right. Dr. Deb Muth 39:54Well, thank you so much for being with me today. Seneff 39:56Thank you. My pleasure. Dr. Deb Muth 40:03Thank you for joining me today on Let’s Talk Wellness Now. If this episode has resonated with you, share it with another woman ready to reclaim their health and their vitality. And remember, wellness isn’t just about feeling good, it’s about thriving in every area of your life. If you’re ready to explore personalized regenerative medicine. Please visit serenityhealthcarecenter.com. You can also follow me on social media, and join our free programSeen at Last community on Facebook. Until next time, I’m Dr. Deb, reminding you to care for your body, mind, and spirit. Be well, and I’ll see you on the next episode. Meta Boxes Use up and down arrow keys to resize the meta box pane.Toggle panel: AIOSEO Settings SERP Preview Let’s Talk Wellness Now https://letstalkwellnessnow.com › 2026 › 06 › 05 › episode-267-env…The post Episode 267 – Environmental Toxins, Nutrition, and Their Role in Chronic Disease Development first appeared on Let's Talk Wellness Now.

5-31-26 AM "How Shall We Then Live"Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:1-16I. A Vital Question A. Because it Concerns the Youth B. Because it Concerns the LifeII. An Essential Answer A. Focusing on God's Word B. Focusing on Man's AttentionIII. A Necessary Encouragement A. The Content of the Necessary Encouragement B. The Need for the Necessary EncouragementRev. Greg Lubbers

May 25, 2026Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life1 Timothy 5:3-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church Support the show

Hebrews 11:8–16I. Faith obeys God's voice vs. 8-10 II. Faith produces fruit vs. 11-12 III. Faith treats future promises as present reality vs. 13-14 IV. Faith redefines reality vs. 15-15

April 28, 2026Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeThe Revelation 21:9-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church Support the show

Dr. Deb Muth 0:03What if everything you’ve been told about getting healthy is backwards?What if chasing symptoms with pills, procedures, and quick fixes is exactly why you’re still sick? Tired, inflamed, and frustrated. Today, I’m sitting down with Dr. Holly Donahue, a naturopathic doctor who walked away from corporate burnout to discover the truth.Your body already knows how to heal. You just need to remove what’s blocking it, and give it what it’s missing. If you’re done with Band-Aid solutions and ready for real, lasting transformation, this conversation changes everything. Welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now, the show where we uncover the root causes of chronic illness, explore cutting-edge regenerative medicine, and empower you with the tools to heal. I’m Dr. Deb, your medical detective, and today, we’re diving into the hidden truth about whole body wellness, and why treating symptoms will never give you the vibrant health you deserve. I’m joined by Dr. Holly Donahue, a licensed naturopathic doctor with over two decades of clinical experiencing Helping high performers heal from burnout, chronic fatigue, hormone imbalance, and stubborn weight issues. She’s the founder of Simple Health, and she’s here to share the science-backed approach to root cause healing that addresses your body, mind, and spirit, not just your lab values. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with a chronic condition, or is struggling with unexplained symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, hormonal chaos, or chronic inflammation. This episode is for you. Please share it with them. So, as usual, grab your cup of coffee, tea, or whatever helps you unwind, settle in, and let’s get started on your journey to deeper healing. And we’ll be right back after a word from our sponsor. All right. So, Dr. Donahue, let’s start with the question that’s on everyone’s mind, right? How did you transition away from corporate and into the world of, naturopath… natural medicine, naturopathic medicine, root cause medicine, all the wonderful terms we’re using for this these days? Dr. Holly Donahue 02:56Yeah, first of all, thanks for having me, Dr. Debb. I so appreciate it, and that is a beautiful question, and I will share with you my health journey and why I got into this, and… how I got to do this amazing work, right? Because I always believed, for me, my higher being is God, and it walked right into me, right? Because I was pretty happy in the apparel industry. So, just as you said, I was in the apparel industry, I, my education doesn’t really matter, but double, like, marketing and textile marketing, and I was in design, and I was working in design. from LA to London to the East Coast. And 2 days after September 11th, to sum it up, I got laid off. Even though I had been pulled out of a job where my vice president of the company was like, I want you to come down here with me, and the apparel industry, you’re switching every two to three years. For those that don’t know it, that’s just how the journey works, and I was known as a changemaker in the field. And so, here we are two days after September 11th, and I was seeing a naturopath, and I was, let’s see, 29 to 30, right? And so, prior to that, the reason why I searched out for a naturopath was because in my teenage years, and… Up until that time, I was suffering with horrible menstrual cramps and horrible depression, hence why I moved to LA, thinking if I was in the sun all the time, my life would change, which we all do, change our place, change our time, things will change. Had nothing to do with family or roots, but I thought, if I’m around sunshine all the time, I won’t be depressed. Well, wherever you go, there you are, because it went with me, right? So I had my foot down to the ground, and I was just like, I am committed to not living life like this, right? Even at 7 years old, I had strep ear all the time, and my mom’s like, we’re gonna have your tonsils out, and I’m like, no we’re not. And she goes, no, you’re gonna feel so much better, no more strep ear. And I’m like, God gave them to me for a reason, you’re not taking them out. She’s like, okay, like, I was really strong. And so, let’s wind up to 2 days after September 11th. Prior to that, I had started to retake chemistry and biology, because I haven’t taken it since my textile years, which was a different chemistry, right? And so, I thought, well, I’ll just start and see where it goes, because my naturopath at the time. Dr. Dadama was like, we need more naturopaths, and I’m like, I’m really good where I am. I love what I do, I love corporate America, I love designing, I love product development. And he’s like, no, no, no, so he kept talking. Well, when this all fell… And 2 days after September 11th, I raised my hand and I said, God, I hear you. I went off to naturopathic medicine school in my 30s. And I never looked back, and I just really believe the gift of healing was, put together for me in so many ways. And so, why do I love talking about natural medicine, naturopathic medicine? Because I was not gonna just take an antidepressant, which is what the medical world… they wanted to give me a pill for a nail, that’s what I call it. I didn’t need to be on birth control. I wasn’t sexually active. Right? So none of that made sense to me. And it wasn’t until I really changed my nutrition, began to understand who I am as a person, and what my body really needed, did I heal. Dr. Deb Muth 06:20Isn’t that amazing? Like, I think so many of us enter into the alternative quote-unquote world. Because what is happening over here in what is known as the traditional medicine world isn’t working for people, and no one’s listening to them, and we just follow the traditional protocol, whether it makes sense or not, this is the protocol, everybody gets it. There’s no individuality, no personalization, nothing that happens in that world. And so, people tend to go looking for that… that uniqueness that natural medicine and naturopaths allow to happen. And that’s where true healing actually begins, for so many people. Dr. Holly Donahue 07:02 Yes, and honestly, once my hormones were healed, hence why I talk about hormones all the time, and my thyroid was healed, and I was eating the right nutrition, and for those of you that are listening, please stop playing with nutrition, like, get on that… get on that connection of what works for you. And I’ll be honest, like, none of us as doctors can… we can guide you. what’s really good in eating, but figuring it out for yourself is important. And the other naturopath that I saw. Never healed me. I only got so far by just taking supplements and herbs. And I speak that into that, that’s why I’m so driven around the foundation of our medicine. I am not just saying this, is your nutrition. And until I changed my nutrition, and I figured out what workouts work best for me, and I took all the toxicity and mucus out of my body, I was just inflamed, and I didn’t really it. I was eating all the wrong foods. Right? My body can’t do searches and simple sugars, hence why I talk about it, and so many people are addicted to sugar, and they deny it. Dr. Deb Muth 08:11Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 08:11It’s a comfort food, right? So, I always say, I can’t heal you until I fix your nutrition and your sugar, and if that’s not something that you’re willing to work on with me with love, I am not the right practitioner. Because I remember it didn’t heal me. Dr. Deb Muth 08:29Yeah. I think we forget that nutrition is our medicine, right? Food is thy medicine. And it’s so easy for us to just say, but it’s easier to just take 10 supplements than it is to change my diet, cook for the whole family, and then cook for me. Nutrition is really, really difficult for people, because so much of who we are is born into nutrition, right? All of those family traditions of what we make at Christmas, or Easter, or what do you do for a celebration, when all of that changes, you kind of… you have a loss for things. So how do you work around that with people? Dr. Holly Donahue 09:12Yeah, so I look at that as, I’m always suggesting to individuals in all these different celebrations, like, if you’re the one, kind of. that is the pinnacle that’s creating the celebrations, could you change that, right? So maybe you always have people over for your children’s birthday parties, and you have cake, and, you know, you have a spaghetti dinner, whatever it looks like. I’m not judging, I’m not here to judge, I just know what works, right? Then maybe you get to change that. How about doing an outdoor activity with the children? Maybe choosing to go on a hike to the beach where they’re active. And then, you know, you do a healthy treat with them, or do we always have to have these celebrations around sugar? And I’m talking America, because I never saw this when I lived in Europe, like, the way it is here, right? Or, as adults, we’re celebrating with alcohol all the time, right? I removed sugar and alcohol from my diet years ago just because I knew I just didn’t feel good with it. I’m not judging that that’s what you need to do. So, back to your question, the other suggestion I say, if you can with your family, because I know there’s all sorts of… Hidden rules, quiet rules, ways you have to do things to be fit in. First of all, stand up for your own health, so I suggest that. And secondly, how about if you bring something to that meal that you can share with everybody that you know that you can eat? If that doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure, I’m pretty confident, unless I’m really not connected, and I’ve never had anybody not be able to maneuver this. When you go to a meal, look at where… what the protein is there, look at what vegetables are there. And if you’re wanting to have a piece of cake, or a bread, or whatever that looks like for you as you’re carbohydrate simple starch, choose one or the other, and make those choices. And secondly, never go to a holiday, or a meal, or a function, or a gathering starving. Dr. Deb Muth 11:22That is a great suggestion, because once you go there starving, it’s a smorgasbord of food, right? And you’re just grabbing whatever, because you’re so hungry. we don’t think about that. Most people do go to the party starving because they know there’s going to be all this amazing food there that tastes good but might not be healthy for us, but we’re looking forward to having those kinds of things. Dr. Holly Donahue 11:45And just have a little bit less, right? So, like, extreme, you know, maybe, like, grab 2 tablespoons of something if you want to have it, if that’s something. And the other truth is, is that I don’t want people to not live their life and enjoy their life because they’re learning what works for them. And when I say that, like, the 7 pillars of wellness, like. I’m saying movement, I’m saying relationships, I’m saying lifestyle, I’m even saying job, you guys, like, emotions, how you were born and raised, what that, like, that is all important for your health. And I always say, lots of times, I’m not even having constant medical conversations with patients, I’m really having discipline and connection. Like, how can you change how you’re doing things Because we’re so wired. to do… do it the way that we knew how to do it, and it’s really hard to change our neurological habits, and it’s really hard to change our wiring, especially if that’s how we were born and raised, right? And so, sometimes that can really trigger us. But, if you’re going to go to that meal, right, that we’re talking about. Then how about you can, like, encourage everybody afterwards, if it’s nice out, to go for a walk, or have some sort of movement together, so that you had what you wanted, you showed up, you didn’t feel like you were, like, out in left field, and you couldn’t have what everybody had, but you’re still grounded in your own truth, and making decisions, and then you’re like, hey, how about if we all go for a walk, like, and have a chat together? You know, like, you know, and you’re changing, probably, in the family, and then the deeper one that I love, Dr. Deb, the deeper one, is that ripple effect. Once people start to see you heal, they’re gonna ask you what you did. Dr. Deb Muth 13:42Yeah, that is so true. Dr. Holly Donahue 13:43effect is in the family. Dr. Deb Muth 13:45And people notice. We don’t always think people notice. They might not always say things, but they do notice when somebody’s changing. When they look better, their skin is better, their hair is better, they are more vibrant, they have more energy, they’re thinking better. They notice those types of things. Dr. Holly Donahue 14:04Yeah. And you’re not as short with loved ones, right? Because when you don’t feel good and you’re eating, you know, sugar, like, and I mean simple starches, because patients will be like, Dr. Donnie, I don’t eat sugar. And I’m like, okay, well, if you’re not eating sugar, why is your glucose 120 and your hemoglobin A1C 6?So the glucose is immediate, for those that are listening, don’t know. That’s an immediate reading of your glucose, or the hemoglobin A1C tells me what happened over the 3 months, right? A 3-month cycle, so then I get a clip picture of it, and I also test insulin as well, but what I say to them is, okay, you’re not eating sugar.But your body’s seeing something as sugar, because your glucose is still elevated, and your hemoglobin A1C is over 5.4 to 5.6, right? 5.8, you know what I mean? That’s when we start to look at prediabetes, and what people don’t understand is when those numbers, like hemoglobin A1C, are at that elevation, that didn’t just start yesterday. That has been fire in your body for a very long time. Same with cholesterol. Dr. Deb Muth 15:12Yeah.Yeah, we forget about that. You know, this is coming from decades of what we do, not 3 months of what we do. And most people, if we look back on their lifestyles. starting at a very young age, and it saddens me to see young little… little children, babies, right, 2 and 3 years old, that are drinking soda in a bottle. They’re drinking pure sugar everywhere, you know, Gatorade and all this stuff. That’s full of dyes and toxins and sugars, and then we wonder why they’re going crazy, driving mom and dad crazy, bouncing off the walls, or can’t sit still in school and can’t concentrate, because we’ve just fed them a drug that’s just wired them up. And then we just tell them to hurry up and be quiet, right? And that just doesn’t happen, but that… what we’re seeing now is starting at such a young age, you know? So many young people are feeding their kids just garbage all the time, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s terrible. Dr. Holly Donahue 16:14And it’s fascinating, because I’ll use an example of that. Every year, my family and I go to Antigua for a couple weeks, and I just got back a couple weeks ago, and we go in March, right? And so, when… I was at, like, I’ll say the breakfast buffet, right? It’s healthier foods, and I’m not judging, but, like, my family would grab eggs, and we’re like, where’s our protein? Okay, you can do yogurt, you know what I mean? Like, choosing, right? And then our fruit would be our carbohydrate, and then there was nuts there, and so we were really, like, being choice, and then we all do like coffee, right? And so, we chose… I was looking around at the children there that were beautiful, like, little kids, and they’re so sweet, and they’re on their vacation at this nice resort with their family, and they’re eating Froot Loops, and they’re eating all these sugary donuts. Of course, the resort makes them, right? Because a lot of those places, they’re made, they don’t bring them in. Dr. Deb Muth 17:14And they’re. Dr. Holly Donahue 17:14eating croissants and breads, and then they’re, you know, running around, and the families are, like, chasing them. And then, over in another corner.there was a very well-behaved little boy with a mother and father that you could tell was very quiet, very grounded in what they fed the baby, and I just happened to talk to them later. And she happens to be a holistic wellness, yoga and Reiki practitioner, and he happens to be a yoga instructor, and they’re very cautious what they eat, so I noticed they were asking for a lot of vegetables and protein like we were doing, even at lunch and dinner. And I said, you guys are so grounded. But there’s the difference. I’m not trying to compare, but the difference is, just give your kid whatever they want on vacation. Well, you can’t take them back and be like, okay, now you can’t have that at home. like, they’re gonna start to eat the way you eat, so if you don’t go up and get a donut and a croissant, I’m just using simple examples, you are really making the way for the health for your child for the rest of your life. Or for their life, I should say. Dr. Deb Muth 18:29And it’s so important, right? Because we see so much disease happening at such a young age. I don’t know how you are, but in my practice. We have so many young people, you know, 10, 12, 14, 16, that are sick. And really, really sick. And you… it kind of keeps going. We go back and forth with this, like. why do we see so many more young people? One of my doctors treats autism, so we’ve always had young people in our office. But now we’re seeing the young teenagers that are sick, that are not autistic, but they’re now sick, and it’s more and more and more of them, and we just haven’t seen that. I’ve been in practice 25 years. We didn’t see that before. You know, you didn’t see people that were sick until they were, like, in their 40s, because they were burning the candle at both ends, and they just got burned out. But now that’s happening younger and younger. Dr. Holly Donahue 19:24100%, and that goes back to everything that we were talking about. And if you want to step into the other piece of it, it’s all the chemicals and the toxicity that are around us, the radiation from the cell phones. We are vibrational frequency beings. That is not a woo statement, that’s true, that’s how our cell structure is. Then we’re putting all this unnatural makeup and fake eyelashes, a lot of people are wearing, non-organic, natural makeup, you know, underarm deodorant that has aluminum in it, cleaning products that are full of toxicity, we’re breathing them in, you know, there’s mold in so many houses as well. And really, if we don’t have a really strong nutrition protocol for ourself, sleeping well, sleeping soundly as a child, or even as an adult, we’re not spiking cortisol all the time. You know, how can we build up our immune system as a young person, or even as an adult? I mean, these young people are in, like, they tell me all these things they were in, and I’m just like, oh my gosh, I’d be exhausted before, like, 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Dr. Deb Muth 20:36Right? Right. Dr. Holly Donahue 20:38because their parents are trying to work two jobs, they think the more they do, the better they are, the more it’ll look better on the resume, or at school, or the college that they get into. And it’s like, we’re telling this messaging to go, go, go. When do we tell them to meditate and pray and just be quiet? Dr. Deb Muth 20:55Yeah, we never do. Dr. Holly Donahue 20:56Creative. Dr. Deb Muth 20:57We never do. I have a young man in my practice, and he’s just amazing. Typical Type A personality, mast cell. He’s out of college, he’s on a sports team.And they literally go from 5 in the morning until midnight, and then these kids have to stay up and study, get their homework done, and so they’re running on maybe, if they’re lucky, 2 to 3 hours of sleep, and this happens 5 to 6 days a week.How do we possibly think that this is healthy for these kids? Dr. Holly Donahue 21:27Hmm. Yeah, then they’re living in dorms that probably aren’t healthy. Like, my niece lived in a dorm that was full of mold, right? And my sister got her an air purifier, but still, it’s still coming in. And then the food that these institutions feed you, and then I’ll have these, you know, because I live near UNH, my clinic is near UNH, and they’ll be like, but we’re on the meal plan, do you know what I mean? And so I try to teach them the best way to maneuver, like, a buffet and a meal plan. But the truth is, is like, is it really organic foods? Healthy, quality foods? Probably not. So then it’s like, you can’t really… it’s hard for you to get off the meal plan, like, it’s all these, like… I call it the matrix kind of connections, like, you can’t… there’s not flexibility, and then if you have mast cell, it’s like, holy cow, your immune system is already overfiring itself, and now you’re burning the cortisol at all ends, like, how can you calm that flame down? Dr. Deb Muth 22:27Yeah, I remember when my daughter went to college, she had celiac disease, and they forced her to do the meal plan as a freshman, even though we said there’s not going to be anything she can eat, it’s all going to be contaminated. So they forced us to purchase the meal plan, even though she couldn’t have anything on the meal plan. And so she had to go outside of school to eat, which made it more difficult. And just all the way around, they don’t make anything easy for kids that have special dietary needs in these colleges. Dr. Holly Donahue 23:00It’s… it’s… It’s very unfortunate, you know what I mean? And then it… and then what is the first thing that people release, which they really need, is to move their body and do exercise and movement, so when they’re exhausted, they have to show up to so many classes, or they’ll get dinged, but yet they’re not getting sleep at night, and then they’re showing up exhausted, then they’re trying to eat, they’re trying to function. And then here we step in trying to help them, and it’s just like they’re already overloaded, and so to give them a protocol to follow. it’s just really hard for me to watch that maneuvering, so then I just say, okay, let’s just do one thing at a time. It’s gonna be a slow healing, but one thing is better than the other. Dr. Deb Muth 23:49Right. Dr. Holly Donahue 23:50Nothing. Dr. Deb Muth 23:51Yeah, let’s… let’s turn our conversation a little bit, because we’re already heading in that direction, to the burnout, you know?This is epidemic in our country, and especially among high-performing women, the college kids, even the high school kids, the leaders, the busy moms, and everybody’s trying to hold everything together. What are you seeing in your practice in this population? Dr. Holly Donahue 24:13Yeah, and I actually have a lot of entrepreneurs and, like, executives, and believe it or not, I have a lot of nurses and some doctors in my program. I am seeing aha moments that they, even though some of the medical practitioners I have know that sleep is important, they’re just like, I had no idea, right?that sleep was so important, and that shutting off the, light, and your computers, and your email and everything, like, to create a sleep ritual, right, for them. They are so shocked with that. But I am seeing, if you’re asking me diagnosis, I am seeing more autoimmunity than I’ve ever seen before, especially in women.I am seeing… I only used to see, because I do the blood type nutrition, because Dr. Dadamo trained me in that. Dr. Deb Muth 25:07I use… Dr. Holly Donahue 25:07to only see diabetes in O blood type. And prediabetes. I would see some sugar tweaks in A’s and ABs and B’s, but not too much. Like, I see more nervous system dysregulation in an A, and I didn’t see a lot of cardiac in A’s, I saw it more in O’s. That almost… he’d probably roll over in his grave, but that’s almost, like, debunked now, because I’m seeing diabetes in A’s all day long, I’m seeing it in B’s, I’m seeing insomnia like there’s no tomorrow, I’m seeing a lot of, you know, undiagnosed mold and Lyme, where people are completely exhausted, and I know the labeling of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia is just a catch-all diagnosis, so… Many of my patients know I don’t like to label, because if I tell you you have a condition, how many people hold on to that condition and use that as messaging for their life? And I… what I tell them is, let’s look at your labs functionally. I’m seeing very disrupt… I see a lot of mast cell now. I’m seeing a lot of long-haul COVID, or even lung conditions that… We have no idea where it’s coming from. Like, shortness of breath, wheezing, and they’re being diagnosed with asthma, but all the treatments that I’ve done over the years with asthma isn’t healing it. So I’ve got two people that are really at a risk, and have been on rounds of prednisone, and it’s really hard for me to watch, and so I’m stepping back into, you have to slow down, you get to do what you love, who are you being? everyday life, and how are you showing up? And your body, even though as an O, you can take a lot of stress. Dr. Deb Muth 26:57But yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 26:58your body is too stressed out. And it’s shocking that the first thing that… not really, but it still is to me, the first thing people let go of is the nutrition, and the movement, and the sleep. Dr. Deb Muth 27:13Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 27:14And the main things… Dr. Deb Muth 27:15We need to heal. Dr. Holly Donahue 27:16Exactly. So when you ask me that, the biggest piece is blood sugar and stress, cortisol, and adrenals. Dr. Deb Muth 27:24Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 27:24Without a label. Dr. Deb Muth 27:26Yeah, we’re seeing a lot of the same thing. The autoimmunity, the mast cell is huge. More recently, probably the last two months, we’ve been seeing a lot of, very rare, strange cancers that don’t make sense. Dr. Holly Donahue 27:38Oh. Dr. Deb Muth 27:38We’re seeing a lot of undiagnosed mold and Lyme and things like that as well. I mean, it’s just so much more unusual things than what we’ve seen before.and struggling with patients, like things that we used to do, kind of like what you’re saying with the asthma, things that we’ve always done that have worked are not working the same way as they used to, not responding the same way. Since 2020, things have really changed a lot. It’s very difficult.Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 28:07And I think we’re in such transition in the world itself, like, with the nutrient depletion of the soil. And so it’s like, okay, like, how much do we supplement? How much do we use herbs? Like, I love… I personally use a lot of homeopathy. You know, even… that was my go-to. I lost my dad a year ago, we, and I’ve been in a round of grief, and it’s real, you know, and so my go-to was homeopathy, because I had all the other pieces together. However, I did notice, like, the fatigue was real, like, I just kind of wanted to sleep more, you know what I mean? Because it was just, like… but I’ve allowed that to happen, right? And I’ve just had to pivot my schedule, but I know I can as an entrepreneur, but still, you can too. You just have to ask those questions. Do you know what I mean? Like, you gotta figure out what works for you. But if you keep in that go-go state, like you and I just mentioned, all these diagnoses, they’re all, like, almost to me, epigenetics from the outside world, and then the pressure that we’re putting on ourselves, and then when we put that pressure on ourselves, our cells are just completely disrupted. Our gut microbiome is off. If our gut is off. then our immune system can’t heal, so then if COVID or Lyme or something, we get reinfected, that our immune system knows, it almost doesn’t know it anymore, because it’s full of toxicity. Dr. Deb Muth 29:34Yeah, I agree. Dr. Holly Donahue 29:35People are constipated! Dr. Deb Muth 29:36Yes, yes, just about everybody we see is constipated these days, yeah.I really like your approach. I appreciate how you focus on not just supplements and protocols, but you address all of it, like sleep, nutrition, lifestyle. Why is that whole body approach so critical when you’re working with people that have either been burnt out or just have been ill for a while?What is it about that approach that makes it so, so much better than what we do traditionally? Dr. Holly Donahue 30:09Well, first of all, the first thing that comes to my mind is that, I don’t believe the body, you can use one system and one drug at a time. Pharmaceuticals are indicated when they’re indicated. I have somebody that came in with incredibly high elevated cholesterol and hemoglobin A1C, was put on Wegovy and was put on a statin, for example.Those were indicated then and there. Wegovy, I don’t know, but it’s okay, we can work through it, right?But if we just leave that individual there, whether I do herbs or drugs, I’m never getting to the root cause of what’s happening. I’m never getting to, what is your relationship with your wife? Do you enjoy work? Do you… what do you do? How many times do my patients, I say to them, don’t focus on weight.Like, what do you do for joy? So this, to me, is the whole person. The person is just not the pancreas, the blood sugar, the cardiovascular system, and the lungs. Those are very important in the whole arterial system, or we won’t. Dr. Deb Muth 31:18Right. Dr. Holly Donahue 31:18But, like, even the movement, if I don’t talk about movement, like, I don’t know about you, but after, like, a podcast, or after I go live, I have to get up and walk around. We’re not meant to be. It’s not good for our backs, right? Dr. Deb Muth 31:32Hmm? Dr. Holly Donahue 31:33And then if we don’t use the whole body approach, like massage, and I do colon hydrotherapies at the clinic, and muscle stim, and ultrasound, and visceral management, and craniosacral, like, but the biggest thing that heals is removing the toxicity, like with saunas, you know?And it’s like… If I just focused on… One system, for example.And, for example, thyroid. How many women have Hashimoto’s thyroid? Like, they’re gonna be on thyroid medicine for the rest of their life. Is that truth? No! I have gone on thyroid and come off thyroid when I was really sick, right? The receptors aren’t connecting to what’s going on, because my receptors, they’re all mooky, right? Dr. Deb Muth 32:19Like… Dr. Holly Donahue 32:20I’m using non-medical terms so they understand. It’s like, all of this toxicity, it can’t get to it, right? Because there’s so much toxicity in the body. So if I just focus on not doing the whole person… then I’m not getting to the root cause, and what’s gonna happen, and this is in my mind, because I’ve been through it, I’m just gonna only heal a little bit, like I did when I was a teenager. with… if I’m just giving supplements, and I’m not doing the whole body approach, right? And if I’m not looking at the bone health of women as they age, as estrogen and progesterone and menopause. Dr. Deb Muth 32:56cousin. Dr. Holly Donahue 32:56and I’m not focusing on that, then long-term, I mean, I’ve had my patients for 25 plus years, long-term.we’re gonna end up with bone challenges, osteopenia, osteoporosis, right? Placking of the arteries, so if I just do one system.I’m not doing you service. Dr. Deb Muth 33:17Yeah, I love that. I love that. And that’s so true, because we don’t think about, necessarily think about 10 years from now, 15 years from now. Everyone’s focused on.what’s going on right now, let’s fix right now. But that person still has to live in their body, no matter what we do right now. We’ve got to get them past that and get them to a place where they can function 10, 15, 20 years from now. And that makes a huge difference, and like you were saying, the toxicity, I mean, the toxins that we’re exposed to today are so much worse than they were 25 years ago when you and I started this. And it was bad then, but now it’s really bad, and trying to get these things out of people so they don’t develop autoimmune disease, they don’t develop cancer, they don’t get neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia and Parkinson’s. It becomes harder and harder, and the sooner you do that, the better success you have without getting those things later on, when you do get older and your immune system falls a little bit. Dr. Holly Donahue 34:11Yeah, and we are probably, even though most of our research is done on men, and thank God we’re, you know, getting more and more research on women, like the cardiovascular disease in women and heart attack myocardial infarctions. you guys is very different in women, so please ask and find out, because there’s a lot of women that we’re losing in the ER because they’re trying to do the diagnosing of a male, and that’s coming out now. I can’t remember the doctor that’s done several podcasts on it. I think she’s out of Stanford, and it’s like, she’s starting to speak up, right? This isn’t a gender thing, but it is a gender thing, right? And it’s not saying, poor me because I wasn’t research, I’m saying, like, we are different beings. When I treat a male.His wiring, when I treat him, is very different the way I treat a female.Right? A female’s ready to make changes, they’ve had to be flexible, you know, and a man is just wired very differently. Until they have an emergency, are they gonna jump on and really do something? And I’m not talking every man, if you have men that watch this. Dr. Deb Muth 35:18I’m tired. Dr. Holly Donahue 35:18We’re talking the average person. The other thing that I briefly want to speak into is, like, we have so much research on drugs. Why don’t we have more research on herbs, which actually start the beginning of drugs, often, with the synthetics, right? I would love to see that. Dr. Deb Muth 35:36Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 35:37I see so much crap being taken out of our food, and not that we’re talking about different people, because I don’t want to talk about them online, though it’s out there if you want to find it, creating and putting chicken in vats and feeding it to you. So, I don’t know about you, but I’m never eating chicken at a restaurant, unless I know the farm where my chicken came from. Right. Like, this is real, you guys, like, they are doing genetically modified food.The other question that I have is America’s such a growing, knowledgeable country, why do we have 1.3 trillion diagnoses and chronic disease? Dr. Deb Muth 36:11Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 36:11And climbing. Yeah. That’s what brings tears to my eyes every time. Dr. Deb Muth 36:15What am I saying? Dr. Holly Donahue 36:16Say it. Dr. Deb Muth 36:16I agree, I agree, and I’m right there with you on the research of women. I just wrote a book called Seen It Last, and when I did the research to see how do we research women and men and how different it is, it’s ridiculous. We just assume women are smaller versions of men. Half the time, women are not even involved in a study. They’re not allowed because of our reproductive abilities, and they don’t want anybody in there at that point.Which I totally understand. You want to try to, you know, prevent having something happen to somebody if they didn’t know they were pregnant, but that totally excludes us from the research to say, you know, does lisinopril work the same way for men as it does for women? If we don’t have women in the study, we have no idea. And we’ve been dismissed so many times over the years, and it’s like thalidomide, right? Like, hello? And it’s the same type of thing over and over again, year after year for women, and it is not right. It’s what we’re dealing with, but if we don’t all start speaking up, it’s gonna continue to be our legacy. Dr. Holly Donahue 37:17Yes, and it’s also, like, if we… even for both genders, if we give a drug, like. that person should understand the drug. Like, I just had somebody been given a drug, they gave Losartan, and then they also got ritorvastatin. They’re like, I’m on a statin, I don’t want to be on a statin, and I’m like, that’s what you were just given. Dr. Deb Muth 37:39Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 37:39And I’m the one who didn’t prescribe it, and I’m not feeling bad for myself, but I’m the one that’s the bearer of the bad news to be like, have you looked at the risks and benefits? You probably need it right now, but then do you also know how difficult it is to come off, like, lisinopril or Losartan? Dr. Deb Muth 37:59Right. Dr. Holly Donahue 38:00Like, once your body gets used to a lot of those calcium channel blockers, those beta blockers, it’s a lot of rebound blood pressure that you’re gonna be dealing with. So, I feel like the medical world should share that with them, and say, hey, do you want to do lifestyle first? And how about go see a naturopath, or we have a functional medicine practitioner on our team, are you willing to do the work? Unless they’re gonna… unless they’re We’re in an acute situation. And they’re gonna have a myocardial infarction, or congestive heart failure, you know, which, don’t get me started on that diagnosis, like. Radiologists are like, congestive heart failure is… the wrong diagnosis in so many cases. All that means, you guys, is that your heart isn’t pumping the way that it should be. Why can’t we have different levels? And cardiologists will say the same thing, it’s an awful term. Dr. Deb Muth 38:55It is. We have cardiologists… we text a lot of D-dimers post. Dr. Holly Donahue 39:00Oh, night. Dr. Deb Muth 39:01post the you-know-what, and we have some of them that come back, almost all of them come back high, but some come back really high, like 5 or 6, and we send them to cardiology for a workup, and the cardiologists are like, we don’t care, it’s not high enough for us to do anything with. And I’m like…It’s five! Are you kidding me? It’s supposed to be less than 1, and we’re not concerned about it? And they’re like, no, we’re not concerned about it. And I’m like, until the person has a stroke, or a heart attack, or has something happen, they’re not doing anything about this stuff.And as naturopaths, you and I look at this and go, wait a minute, there’s something happening in the body. We need to fix this before we have a big event that occurs. But nobody is looking at that. They don’t care anymore. Dr. Holly Donahue 39:44Hmm. Dr. Deb Muth 39:46Frustrating. Dr. Holly Donahue 39:46so exhaust, you know, I’m not making excuses for them, but, you know, my dad had an amazing primary care physician, and now he stepped out of, being in the medical system, you know? And he went off, and he’s doing, concierge primary care, direct primary care with another female doctor, and I think that was the best thing, because when my dad passed away, how many doctors call your family and wanted to show up for the funeral, and then said to my mom, your daughter, just meaning me, because I happen to. Dr. Deb Muth 40:25Have a mess. Dr. Holly Donahue 40:25medical license. Of course, my other sisters were amazing love and care and. Dr. Deb Muth 40:29Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 40:29But from a medical perspective, he’d be like, ask… you know, ask her, what can she give him for, like, decreased motility and for constipation? He passed at 91… at 92, you know what I mean? And his body was shutting down, but he had a desire to live. But he also said, like, if it wasn’t for all those supplements and the food that you fed him, and the love that you gave him, he wouldn’t have lived as long as he did, and he might have had a cardiac event. and not just died at home with his lung… I mean, his lungs were… he only had a third of his lung on his left side that was still functioning. That’s not the point. The point is, is when you ask me, why do I do whole body medicine? He had wished he had listened to me years ago about his diabetes, but he was too busy… he was too busy building. Dr. Deb Muth 41:19building a. Dr. Holly Donahue 41:20Business Entrepreneurs, like we just covered. Dr. Deb Muth 41:22Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 41:22He was too busy making income for his family, and he couldn’t stop, because he had a commitment to be successful in business, and boy, was he. But at what toll did that take him? We never saw him when we were children. We… he knew we loved her, you know what I mean? Right. But there’s a price that you pay exchanging your health for time and your job that you don’t spend time with loved ones, and that’s why I do lifestyle medicine. Dr. Deb Muth 41:52Yeah, and that makes… that is so true. I mean, I think that statement is so powerful, because it’s easy for all of us to get busy and get tied up in chasing the dollar and chasing what we want to be known for. And just go, go, go, go, go. But just putting it into that simple framework. That, yes, you can chase that, but you’re giving up these things on the other side, and this is what your life may look like when you are retired, makes a huge difference, because you’ve lost out on so much of that life then, as a result. Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 42:27Yeah, and then when he got to the point where he was doing really well, he’s like, let’s all go on vacation, let’s… and we’re like, honey, we have jobs. Dr. Deb Muth 42:34Yeah, can’t do it now. Dr. Holly Donahue 42:36You know? Like, we have to, like, make the time, and then let’s do it, you know what I mean? Dr. Deb Muth 42:40Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 42:41You can’t just, like, up and be like, okay, we’re outta here, like. Dr. Deb Muth 42:43Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 42:44Since we gotta go now, you know. Dr. Deb Muth 42:45Yeah, right? We think that someday when we have money, it’s like that, but it isn’t like that, unfortunately.Well, this has been such a great conversation. I have one last question for you. It’s the question that we ask everyone. If you had an opportunity to sit down with the changemakers in this country for healthcare, what would be the number one thing you would ask them to change? Dr. Holly Donahue 43:09The nutrition and how we grow it, and, you know, the toxicity, and the pesticides that are being sprayed, and all the farmers that are really being put out of business, because bigger, faster, you know, we werewe would feed more people by doing this. We have people that are starving every single day, and I… and I just think, like, if we were healthier on that movement, then we would have a healthier culture. And, you know. Everything would flow so much easier. Dr. Deb Muth 43:43Yeah, I agree. I think that’s where it has to start, really. Like, we can talk about all these other things that we could change, and yes, it makes great things and great sense, but the foundation has to be solid so people stop getting a lot of these diseases because they’re nutrient deficient and they’re full of toxins and everything else.That’s how we truly change the world of health and wellness, is nutrition out of the gate. Dr. Holly Donahue 44:07Yes, and, you know, with that being connected, I also wish that we could tell people, just because they have this label and diagnosis, that they can heal. as long as they get the foundation and the lifestyle pieces that you and I covered with the nutrition, which goes back to my answer, you don’t have to carry a label and a diagnosis the rest of your life. Dr. Deb Muth 44:35Yeah. Dr. Holly Donahue 44:36you have to ask yourself, how did I allow this in my body? How did it come in? And then work with practitioners to remove it. Dr. Deb Muth 44:44Yeah, that’s often.So… Dr. Hawley, how can people find you? And you have a big event coming up, so… Dr. Holly Donahue 44:51Cheers, man. Dr. Deb Muth 44:51information about that with our listeners. Dr. Holly Donahue 44:53Thank you so much. So, you can, you can actually find me on, Instagram at Dr. HollyDonoghuend and Facebook, so I’m in both of those, you know, both of those arenas all the time, my team, we’re out posting. And I also, thank you for asking, I also am doing a, summit, where I bring on speakers, which we love to have you sometime, where I bring on speakers, and it’s my give back. And we are hosting a 5-day summit, one day live on the 20th through the 24th, and it’s all about hormones. And we’re saying, like, we’re bringing on these medical detectives as practitioners that are speaking into how your vitality, you know, your hormones are disrupted. from all the pieces that you’re doing, whether it’s blood sugar, whether it’s your actual hormones, your hunger hormones, and how to actually solve that problem and have the energy and the desire to actually heal yourself. So we’re going to walk everybody on a journey on different arenas that will talk about, really the truth that doctors aren’t talking about, because they don’t share this information. They’re always constantly putting outAnd then with that, when we’re going to step into a metabolism reset challenge right after the summit, it’s a 5-day challenge that will go even deeper. And my goal is there’s a lot of people on GLP-1s, Ozempic, Wegovy, Moderna, and all of that, and they really don’t know, A, why they’re on it, they think they’re on it for weight loss, which could be true, but it does have really good benefits that weWe do see.But do you really have to be it on the rest of your life, right? Or if you’re not on it, and you really want to learn how to balance your metabolism, I’m gonna walk you through 5 days of teaching you all the pieces of the puzzle that I taught about today in a much deeper way, so that at the end of the actual challenge, you’ll have tools that you can actually make changes for yourself. Dr. Deb Muth 46:57Oh, that’s awesome. I love that idea. That is a great thing, because people need to learn that. And we do a lot of GLP-1 support, too, but the big, big question that everybody has is, do I have to be on this forever? And the answer is no, as long as you’re using it as a toolto make the changes that you need to change your metabolism, then you don’t need this forever. But if you’re not making the lifestyle changes, then yes, then you’re going to have to be on it forever, because you haven’t done the work to change it in the first place. So, that sounds awesome. Thank you. Dr. Holly Donahue 47:27Yeah, you’re welcome. Dr. Deb Muth 47:29Anything else you want to share with our listeners? Dr. Holly Donahue 47:31No, I just, you know, I don’t say no, but what I would love everybody to hear is, like.Natural medicine, and what Dr. Deb and I do, it’s not a magic bullet, but it… all the efforts that you put in to change your life and adjust your nutrition and change your habits, like I talked about in the very beginning, it becomes a ripple effect, and the more people that you bring on board to follow you on natural wellness and healing.you’re gonna hear comments like, what are you doing? You know what I mean? Your life is better, your sex life is better, your energy is better, your relationships are better, work is easier, there’s more joy in your life. And who doesn’t want to have all that? And it just is putting those pieces together, but you can have that as well. Like, anti-aging is all over the place, and biohackingBut what if we just go back to the basics so you learn how to become your own doctor and, like, what you need and can advocate for yourself? That’s my goal long-term. Dr. Deb Muth 48:36I love that, and that is so true. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Dr. Holly Donahue 48:41Thank you so much for having me, I really appreciate it. Dr. Deb Muth 48:47Thank you for joining me today on Let’s Talk Wellness Now. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who could benefit from learning the truth about root cause healing and whole body wellness. A huge thank you to Dr. Holly Donahue for sharing her wisdom with us today, and her clinical expertise. If you want to learn more.About her, or explore how naturopathic medicine can help you heal from burnout, fatigue, hormonal imbalance, or chronic illness. Visit simplehealthnh.com.Or you can reach out to Dr. Donahue directly at DrDonahue at SimpleHealthNH.com. We will have those links for you below in the show notes as well. And remember, wellness isn’t just about feeling good. It’s about thriving in every area of your life.If you’re ready to explore how root cause medicine can help you break free from the symptom chasing, cycle, and build real sustainable health.Visit Serenityhealthcarecenter.com. And remember, no supplement, no hormone, no protocol can overcome ongoing toxin exposure, chronic stress, poor nutrition, gut dysfunction, and inadequate sleep.True healing requires your active participation. You have to be willing to address the root causes and change the lifestyle factors that disrupted your health in the first place.Root cause healing amplifies your body’s natural healing capacity, but you have to create the internal environment where healing can actually happen.Until next time, I’m Dr. Deb, reminding you to take care of your body, mind, and spirit. Be well, and I’ll see you on the next episode.The post Episode 261 – Root-Cause Healing and Whole-Body Wellness first appeared on Let's Talk Wellness Now.

W Psalmie 63:2 (63:1) Dawid napisał: „Tęskni do ciebie ciało moje, jak ziemia zeschła, spragniona i bezwodna”. Jednak w oryginale hebrajskim sens tego zdania jest nieco inny. Dosłownie można je oddać: „moje ciało tęskni do ciebie w ziemi suchej, spragnionej i bezwodnej”. Oznacza to, że Dawid nie tylko porównuje się do suchej ziemi, ale opisuje także miejsce, w którym się znajduje. Najprawdopodobniej chodzi o pustkowie judzkie, gdzie ukrywał się przed królem Saulem. Skąd o tym wiemy?Nagłówek tego psalmu mówi: „Psalm Dawidowy, gdy przebywał na pustyni judzkiej” (Psalm 63:1). Mnie słowo „pustynia” kojarzy się głównie z piaskiem, dlatego wolę określenie „pustkowie judzkie”. Jest to obszar kredowych wzgórz poprzecinanych głębokimi wąwozami. Panuje tam skrajna suchość, a strumienie pojawiają się tylko w porze deszczowej. Przez większość roku to miejsce pozostaje suche. Roślinność jest bardzo uboga, ponieważ wilgotne powietrze znad Morza Śródziemnego zatrzymuje się na górach Judei, natomiast od wschodu napływają gorące, suche wiatry znad pustyni. Ale gdzie znajdowało się to pustkowie?Już sama nazwa „pustkowie judzkie” wskazuje, że teren ten należał do plemienia Judy. Znajdował się bardzo blisko Jerozolimy. Góra Oliwna znajdowała się na wschód od miasta. Dziś Jerozolima się rozrosła i Góra Oliwna jest jej częścią. Zaraz za tą górą zaczyna się właśnie pustkowie judzkie. To stamtąd prowadziła droga w dół, do Jerycha. Do tej drogi nawiązał Jezus w przypowieści o miłosiernym Samarytaninie, mówiąc: „Pewien człowiek szedł z Jerozolimy do Jerycha i wpadł w ręce zbójców” (Łukasza 10:30). Ta historia rozgrywa się właśnie na pustkowiu judzkim - terenie odludnym, niebezpiecznym i pełnym wąwozów, w których łatwo było urządzić zasadzkę.Pierwsza wzmianka o tym miejscu pojawia się w Księdze Sędziów. W Sędziów 1:16 czytamy: “Potomkowie Kenity, teścia Mojżesza, wyruszyli z Miasta Palm wraz z synami Judy na pustynię judzką, na południe od Arad. Przybywszy tam, zamieszkali wśród ludu”. Warto przypomnieć, że teść Mojżesza i jego potomkowie byli pasterzami. Pustkowie judzkie było trudnym miejscem do życia dla ludzi, ale owce potrafiły znaleźć tam pożywienie na ubogich zboczach i w sezonowych dolinach. To ciekawy szczegół, bo wiele wieków później właśnie pasterz wypasający owce w tym rejonie natrafił przypadkowo na gliniane dzbany ukryte w grotach. Tak odkryto słynne Zwoje znad Morza Martwego.Wspomniane w Sędziów 1:16 miasto Arad leżało przy południowych rubieżach ziem zamieszkanych przez Judę. Hebron znajduje się około 35 kilometrów na południe od Jerozolimy, a Arad leży mniej więcej kolejne 30–35 kilometrów dalej na południe. Ale ten werset mówi o pustkowiu na południe od Aradu, a więc mamy jakieś 70 kilometrów z Jerozolimy do tego miasta i jeszcze jakiś pas pustkowia dalej. Pokazuje to, że pas pustyni judzkiej mógł rozciągać się z północy na południe na długości około 70-80 kilometrów. Dlaczego położenie tej krainy jest ważne?Księga Kapłańska 16:21 mówi: “I położy Aaron obie swoje ręce na głowie kozła żywego, i wyzna nad nim wszystkie przewinienia synów izraelskich i wszystkie ich przestępstwa, którymi zgrzeszyli, i złoży je na głowę kozła, i wypędzi go przez wyznaczonego męża na pustynię”. Słowa te były zapisane za życia Aarona podczas przejścia przez pustynię do Ziemi Obiecanej. Aaron i Mojżesz umarli, a tereny te zdobył Jozue. Gdy więc kapłani wypędzali kozła prawdopodobnie wykorzystywali do tego pustkowie przy Jerozolimie. Została ona zdobyta w czasach Dawida, ale przybytek był w Nob, Szilo czy Gibeonie. Te miasta, szczególnie Nob znajdowały się blisko Jerozolimy, a więc także blisko pustkowia judzkiego. Później aby kozioł nie wrócił zrzucano go z jednej z gór w przepaść.Świadomość jak sucha to była kraina pomaga uświadomić sobie jakie wrażenie musiała robić wizja proroka Ezechiela z 47 rozdziału jego księgi. Opisywał on potok płynący na wschód od świątyni, a więc od Jerozolimy. W Ezechiela 47:8 czytamy: “I rzekł do mnie: Te wody płyną w kierunku okręgu wschodniego i spływają w dół na step i wpadają do Morza, do wody zgniłej, która wtedy staje się zdrowa”. Woda ze świątyni miała płynąć aż do Morza, chodzi o Morze Martwe. Po obu stronach tego strumienia, który robił się coraz szerszy rosły drzewa, których nie ma w tym rejonie. Ezechiel użył słowa Araba. Była to dolina ciągnąca się od Jeziora Galilejskiego. Właśnie ta dolina od Jerozolimy w dół to pustkowie judzkie.To pustkowie jest związane z chrześcijaństwem. W Mateusza 3:1 czytamy: “A w one dni przyszedł Jan Chrzciciel, każąc na pustyni judzkiej”. Jak długo Jan tam mieszkał? W Łukasza 1:80 czytamy: “A dziecię rosło i wzmacniało się na duchu, przebywając na pustkowiu, aż do dnia wystąpienia przed Izraelem”. Wygląda na to, że Jan Chrzciciel zamieszkał tam na długo przed tym zanim zaczął chrzcić. Oczywiście nie mógł on chrzcić ludzi na pustkowiu. Robił to w Jordanie. Pustkowie to znajduje się jednak bardzo blisko rzeki. Świadomość tego pozwala zrozumieć, gdzie prawdopodobnie poszedł sam Jezus.W Mateusza 4:1 czytamy: “Wtedy Duch zaprowadził Jezusa na pustynię, aby go kusił diabeł”. Mowa tutaj o tym co Jezus zrobił zaraz po chrzcie w rzece Jordan. Poszedł na pustkowie. Najprawdopodobniej na pustkowie judzkie znajdujące się stosunkowo niedaleko. Jan Chrzciciel wykonywał swoje dzieło w Betanii za Jordanem. Było to prawdopodobnie jakieś dwa dni drogi na północ od Jerozolimy, a więc także od pustkowia judzkiego. Nawet gdyby chrzest Jezusa odbył się nie przy Jerozolimie, ale właśnie tam dwa dni drogi na północ to i tak pustkowie judzkie wydaje się najbliższą pustynią w okolicy.W odcinku 9 tej audycji mówiłem o sektach w czasach Jezusa. Ewangelie wspominają o saduceuszach i faryzeuszach. Ale była jeszcze trzecia grupa, która nie chciała się pogodzić z hellenizacją judaizmu. Byli to esseńczycy i aby uchronić się przed obcymi wpływami postanowili się odosobnić i zamieszkali właśnie na pustkowiu judzkim. To oni pozostawili po sobie zapisy, które my znamy jako Zwoje znad Morza Martwego. Ponieważ Jan Chrzciciel przebywał tam być może wiele lat, a Jezus Chrystus 40 dni po swoim chrzcie powstała teoria łącząca chrześcijaństwo z religią esseńczyków.Pozornie są pewne podobieństwa między chrześcijaństwem a religią esseńczyków. Np. obie religie kładły duży nacisk na moralność, oczekiwały bliskiego końca czy miały wspólny majątek co niektórzy porównują do wspólnoty opisanej w Dziejach Apostolskich. Jest jednak wiele różnic. Wprawdzie Jan też długo mieszkał w odosobnieniu, ale później wychodził do ludzi. Jezus przez całą służbę był otoczony przez tłumy. Esseńczycy podobnie jak faryzeusze stosowali rytualne oczyszczanie. Jan chrzcił wodą, ale był to jednorazowy akt, a Jezus głosił, że ważniejsza jest wewnętrzna czystość. Esseńczycy nawoływali też do celibatu, czego pierwsi chrześcijanie nie stosowali.Właśnie tam, na niemal niedostępnym, rombowym wierzchołku góry, król Herod Wielki wzniósł swoją najbardziej imponującą twierdzę - Masadę. Wybrał to miejsce nieprzypadkowo; oddalona od szlaków handlowych i otoczona przepaściami sięgającymi kilkuset metrów. Właśnie tam ukrył rodzinę gdy musiał uciekać. Masada była niemal niemożliwa do zdobycia. Strategiczne położenie pozwalało kontrolować panoramę Pustkowia Judzkiego oraz taflę Morza Martwego. Choć Jerozolima upadła już w 70 roku n.e., Masada pozostała ostatnim bastionem żydowskiego oporu, broniąc się przed rzymskimi legionami jeszcze przez trzy lata.Dla rzymskiej armii największym wyzwaniem nie była jedynie walka, ale przetrwanie w tym "bezwodnym" terenie, o którym pisał Dawid. Aby utrzymać oblężenie, musieli zbudować ogromny nasyp, który do dziś widoczny jest na zachodnim zboczu. Ale jak Żydzi w tej suchej krainie wytrzymali tak długo oblężenie. Wspomniany już Herod Wielki nie tylko zbudował tą twierdzę, ale przygotował także skalne cysterny, które mogły pomieścić jakieś 300 tysięcy hektolitrów wody. Hektolitr to 100 litrów. 300 tysiące hektolitrów to jakieś 12 olimpijskich basenów pełnych wody. Tak więc gdy Rzymianie oblegali tą twierdzę znajdujący się w niej obrońcy mieli wody pod dostatkiem.Podsumowując. Pustkowie judzkie było miejscem suchym, w który niewiele rosło. Gdy spadał deszcz miejsce to porasta skromna roślinność. Ten suchy klimat okazał się świetny dla przechowania zwojów, które miały jakieś 2000 lat. Na tym pustkowiu mieszkali potomkowie teścia Mojżesza, potem Dawid i Jan Chrzciciel. Prawdopodobnie tam Jezus spędził 40 dni po chrzcie. Prorok Ezechiel opisał w wizji jak to wysuszone miejsce zmienia się w ogród. Na tym pustkowiu mieszkali esseńczycy, a król Herod zbudował swoją twierdzę Masadę.Boże! Tyś Bogiem moim, ciebie gorliwie szukam, Ciebie pragnie dusza moja; Tęskni do ciebie ciało moje, Jak ziemia zeschła, spragniona i bezwodna.https://biblia-online.pl/Biblia/Warszawska/Ksiega-Psalmow/63/2Psalm Dawidowy, gdy był w pustyni judzkiej.https://biblia-online.pl/Biblia/Warszawska/Ksiega-Psalmow/63/1A Jezus, nawiązując do tego, rzekł: Pewien człowiek szedł z Jerozolimy do Jerycha i wpadł w ręce zbójców, którzy go obrabowali, poranili i odeszli, zostawiając go na pół umarłego.https://biblia-online.pl/Biblia/Warszawska/Ewangelia-Lukasza/10/30Potomkowie Kenity Chobaba, teścia Mojżesza, wyruszyli z synami Judy z Miasta Palm na pustynię judzką, która jest na południe od Arad, i przyszedłszy tam, zamieszkali wraz z ludem.https://biblia-online.pl/Biblia/Warszawska/Ksiega-Sedziow/1/16I położy Aaron obie swoje ręce na głowie kozła żywego, i wyzna nad nim wszystkie przewinienia synów izraelskich i wszystkie ich przestępstwa, którymi zgrzeszyli, i złoży je na głowę kozła, i wypędzi go przez wyznaczonego męża na pustynię.https://biblia-online.pl/Biblia/Warszawska/3-Ksiega-Mojzeszowa/16/21

Introduction: How to Get Self-Controlled: (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) You Must Give Maximum EFFORT. (1 Cor 9:24) 2 Peter 1:5-6 - For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control... You Must Be Motivated By the PRIZE. (1 Cor 9:25) You Must Have a PLAN. (1 Cor 9:26) The Plan for Self-Control: AVOID Situations Where You'll Be Tempted. ACCOUNTABILITY. Put OFF / Put ON. You Must Have a Healthy Fear of Being DISQUALIFIED. (1 Cor 9:27) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript 00:36-00:41Open up those Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians, in chapter 9.00:43-00:55After a little break from 1 Corinthians to go through our Easter series about the offices of Jesus, Prophet, Priest, and King, we are back in 1 Corinthians.00:56-01:05Let's get caught up, let's review, for those of us who have been part of it, and for those of you who are visiting with us, of 1 Corinthians so far.01:05-01:11The first four chapters are about the church being united.01:13-01:15Paul's like, "You guys have to get it together.01:15-01:19You've got to stop the faction, stop your little clique, stop the divisiveness.01:20-01:32You guys have got to get it together." And then, chapters 5 and 6, he talks about the church purified, dealing with sexual sin in the church.01:33-01:34you guys got to get it together.01:35-01:42All right, and then when you get to chapter seven and beyond, 1 Corinthians sort of turns into a Q&A session.01:43-01:46Paul's like, okay, you had some questions for me and I'm gonna answer them.01:46-01:55And the first issue was about marriage and the issues that go with that singleness, intimacy, all of those things.01:55-02:06And then this last stretch we've been on before our little break was the issue of Should Christians eat the meat that was sacrificed to idols?02:08-02:23And that turned into a whole discussion where Paul says the mature believer is willing to lay down his rights or her rights for the sake of winning the lost.02:24-02:30And that takes us to chapter nine, verse 24, picking up where we left off last time.02:30-02:35So, I'd like you to just bow your heads and just take a moment and please pray for me.02:36-02:44To be faithful to clearly communicate the word of God, I'll pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is.02:46-02:49The Lord has something for each of us in this passage today, all right?02:50-02:50Let's pray.02:52-02:58Father in heaven, as we turn to your word today, it's such an ironic concept because we think we're in control.03:00-03:07But when we insist on doing things our way, we actually aren't in control at all.03:10-03:11You've commanded us, Father.03:11-03:15You've empowered us to be self-controlled people.03:17-03:40And I pray for every single one of us in this room, everyone who's watching the stream, everyone who's going to be downloading the podcast later, everyone who encounters this teaching from your word, Father, every single one of us, please, by the wisdom of your word, by the power of your Spirit, make us different than the world.03:43-03:50Make us kingdom people who are self-controlled. To your glory and honor, We pray in Jesus' name.03:52-03:56And all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen.03:59-04:03When you drive home today, just be careful.04:04-04:13I'm not sure legally if I'm allowed to say anything, but I have a pastor friend who, driving home from Easter, was crashed into by a door dash driver.04:15-04:17And I was so confused when he told me.04:17-04:25I'm like, "I thought they just brought the food to your house." Like, "Ah." But there's a lot of maniacs on the road.04:25-04:45You're like, "Yeah, I'm one of them." But several years ago, Aaron bought me a tire cover for the back of my Jeep that says, "To God be the glory." And at first I thought, that's just a nice little witnessing tool or something, right?04:45-04:49but I found that it's had a much different effect than I was expecting.04:50-05:18That thing has given me a lot of self-control. Aaron's always reminding me in traffic, "Remember what the back of your Jeep says, remember what the back of your Jeep says, do not give that driver a thumbs down, remember what the back of your Jeep says." And the reality is we all need help with self-control, don't we? We You and I, we have an enemy.05:20-05:22And if you're not careful, this enemy is going to destroy you.05:24-05:34And your enemy is not some spiteful coworker, not some other student in your school, not some slanderous church member.05:34-05:39And I'm not even talking about the devil himself.05:42-05:45Your biggest enemy is you.05:48-06:01And if we're going to be honest with ourselves, which we certainly encourage, many of your problems ultimately find their root in a lack of self-control.06:03-06:06I mean, just think about the problems a person can have.06:06-06:08Think about the problems that you have.06:08-06:13How much of it comes from just a complete lack of self-control, right?06:13-06:15People dealing with issues of lust.06:16-06:17It's a lack of self-control.06:18-06:21People dealing with anger issues, fits of rage.06:22-06:22What do they say?06:22-06:25"I just lost control." Right.06:26-06:28People dealing with addiction issues.06:29-06:33Zero self-control, whether it's a chemical or a drink or food.06:35-06:36Lack of self-control.06:36-06:37For some people, it's spending.06:39-06:40They just spend out of control.06:41-06:44There's no budget, there's no discipline, there's no self-control.06:47-06:49For some of you, it's your words.06:50-07:01Like, man, I just, I say things and I joke about things, I'm determined I'm not gonna do that, and then I just kinda go with it and I don't have any self-control.07:03-07:06But church, God's word is absolutely clear on this.07:07-07:13Your walk with Christ is to be on a path of self-control.07:15-07:19Self-control is going to affect every single area of your life.07:21-07:25Do you want to feel like you're walking in victory with Christ?07:28-07:30It's a path of self-control.07:32-07:34Lack of self-control can affect your physical health.07:36-07:39Lack of self-control can affect your mental health.07:40-07:46How many people dealing with depression, at the very base of it is, they lack self-control.07:50-07:54Lack of self-control can affect your witness for Christ.07:55-08:01So in this passage we're looking at today, Paul is going to show us how to grow in spiritual self-control.08:02-08:06And Paul says you need to learn principles from an athlete.08:07-08:17And they tell you, you know, when you're in preaching class, you don't always want to go to a sports illustration in your sermon.08:17-08:21And Paul didn't get the memo about no sports illustrations because that's where he went.08:22-08:28So this illustration we're going to look at is a familiar analogy to the Corinthians.08:29-08:32They were a sports-dominated culture.08:34-08:34Sound familiar?08:36-08:38They had the It's Me In Games.08:39-08:43It was every two or three years, depending on who you read.08:44-08:45But they were like the Olympics.08:47-08:49And I found this fascinating.08:49-09:01The athletes in these games had to take an oath that they were going to train for ten months, including abstaining from eating anything unhealthy.09:02-09:02Okay?09:03-09:35Funyuns for 10 months. These people were dedicated. But it was even harder than that because the last 30 days before the event, they were required to be in the gym every single day. And the winner of the event got a pine wreath. Alright, with that as a background, let's look at what Paul says, we're going to read all of it and then go back, pick up some principles.09:36-09:37That is a background.09:37-09:39They knew what he was talking about here.09:39-09:52He says in verse 24, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?09:53-09:55So run that you may obtain it.09:57-10:02Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.10:04-10:11They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable.10:13-10:15So I do not run aimlessly.10:15-10:26I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.10:28-10:30It's obvious Paul's point here, right?10:30-10:33He says our life is like a race.10:34-10:41And we need to run our race in such a way that we are useful to God.10:43-10:48And to do that, Paul makes it very clear, we must be self-controlled.10:48-10:53We have to be willing to give up anything that's going to hinder our race.10:55-11:03So using this race metaphor, God gives us principles for self-control.11:03-11:07So if you're taking notes on your outline, I certainly encourage you to do that.11:08-11:11Just very simply, here's the point.11:11-11:12This is how to get self-controlled.11:13-11:18Number one, you must give maximum effort.11:21-11:25You must give maximum effort.11:25-11:26Look at verse 24 again.11:27-11:39He says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?" Here it is.11:40-12:09run, that you may obtain it." Now their race only had one winner. But this prize he's talking about in this passage is open to everyone because it's your own race. Listen, in this race you're not competing with anyone but yourselves. You're like, "What's this prize he's talking about? Only one receives a prize. I knew what it was for the athletes, but how How does this analogy translate spiritually?12:10-12:12What prize is he talking about here?12:16-12:19You know, when you read the Bible, you have to read it in context.12:20-12:30You know, too many people just pull a passage out and kind of run with it, but he's keeping the same train of thought going throughout this whole section.12:32-12:33What is the prize?12:34-12:39Well, in the previous section, he talked about being all things to all people.12:41-12:43Why? Why, Paul?12:44-12:47If you recall, he said he wants to win people.12:48-12:49Win people.12:50-12:51He said it five times.12:52-12:54Verse 19, verse 20, verse 21, verse 22.12:54-12:58Paul's like the Jews, those under the law, those outside the law, the weak.12:58-13:00I want to win lost people.13:00-13:03That's the prize in view here.13:03-13:13You see, the prize he's not talking specifically here about salvation, or heaven, or some believers' heavenly rewards specifically.13:13-13:15All of those are prizes for sure.13:15-13:18But specifically in this context, he's talking about people.13:20-13:23Specifically here, he's talking about winning lost people with the gospel.13:24-13:34You see, this flows from the thought of the previous passage where he says, "Holding on to your rights can make you lose your opportunity to share the gospel and win people.13:38-13:41So what's his point here with this analogy, with this illustration?13:42-13:43This is the whole point.13:46-13:52If you're concerned about winning the lost, listen, church, you have lost your audience.13:54-13:55You have ruined your opportunity to share.13:56-14:04You have shot yourself in the foot when you're trying to win someone to Christ, but they don't see Christ in you.14:10-14:15You see, if somebody looks at your life, somebody that you're trying to win to Christ, they look at your life and they see sin.14:16-14:18They see hypocrisy.14:18-14:22And you're telling them that they need Jesus like you need Jesus.14:22-14:26They're thinking, well, Jesus didn't seem do you any good.14:27-14:32You know, all your church, and all your Bible studies, and all your Sunday school didn't seem to help you at all.14:33-14:35So why would I be interested in that?14:39-14:46That's why Paul says, "Run that you may obtain the prize." Run that you may obtain the prize.14:46-14:48You're like, well, that's obvious, right?14:49-14:51I mean, you run like you're trying to win.14:55-14:58He's talking about putting forth the effort.15:01-15:03Isn't this kind of a no-brainer?15:03-15:08I mean, what athlete would show up and not try to win?15:08-15:13Who shows up to the event and puts no effort into it?15:19-15:19a lot of people.15:23-15:24Here's what I mean.15:25-15:51For example, Christian men say, "I'm struggling with looking at things on the computer that I shouldn't look at." And I've dealt with a lot of this over the years where men come to me and they're like, "I'm struggling with that!" And I'm like, "Okay, well, tell me about your struggle." Well, I do it every day.15:52-15:53Like, that's not a struggle.15:54-15:55You know what struggle implies?15:57-16:01Struggle implies that there is some effort going on to deal with it.16:01-16:07But to just sort of roll over and give yourself to some besetting sin, and be like, well, it's a struggle.16:07-16:08You're not struggling.16:13-16:23Just doing it in no way suggests there's any effort for self-control with any besetting sin.16:24-16:24Not just that one.16:26-16:27And that's what Paul's saying here.16:27-16:28This is where it has to start.16:28-16:30Look, church, you've got to make the effort.16:33-16:37You can't just go to bed and hope the self-control fairy shows up.16:38-16:39You have to make the effort.16:42-16:46You have to get to the place where you're like, look, I am in a race, okay?16:47-16:52And maybe I haven't been putting the effort in, but that changes today.16:52-16:53I'm gonna win.16:53-16:58Look, you're gonna get to the place in your life where you say, I'm not okay with living in defeat.16:58-17:00I'm not okay with that anymore.17:01-17:02This ends right now.17:03-17:04You gotta put forth the effort.17:07-17:08How are you doing there?17:11-17:14As you know, I coach my son's deck hockey.17:14-17:17We, I've done it for years.17:18-17:25And several years ago, at the time, actually, the GOAT was coaching with me, we had a couple players on our team.17:25-17:26Don't say their name.17:26-17:36We had a couple, they're gonna be watching this, we're like, "Hey!" We had a couple players on the team a few years ago, extremely high-skilled players.17:40-17:52And during the game, we noticed - Sean and I did - we noticed that these two players in particular, any time we had a line change, they'd go out on the deck.17:54-17:57It was somewhere between a walk and a trot.18:00-18:37And I'm like, "Sean, what's going on there?" And he's like, "What are they doing?" we called them over like next line change and we're like what's going on out there why are you guys are like barely moving out there everybody else like running and they're just like and they said well we got a we got a big important game with another league this weekend we don't want to risk getting hurt so Sean and I were like hey that's great we'll help you with that you can and just sit the rest of the game.18:38-18:41Because we're not putting players out there that aren't putting forth any effort.18:42-18:43We're not going to do that.18:43-18:46You're embarrassing yourselves and you're embarrassing the team.18:49-18:54But you know, those two young men had everything they needed to win.18:55-18:57They had their equipment on.18:57-19:00They had a great knowledge of the game.19:01-19:03They had a lot of experience.19:04-19:29what they didn't have that day? Effort. So you see, it doesn't matter what else they had. When there was no effort, it was game over before it started. It's like, why did you guys even show up? Why did you put your gear on and go on the deck if you don't want You don't have to make any effort.19:32-19:36And I think that describes a lot of Christians in their walk with Christ.19:40-19:50I mean, you come to church, you go to small group, you go to the men's conference, you go to the women's conference, and you show up.19:50-19:57You have everything you need to succeed, but there's just zero effort in the area of self-control.20:00-20:00It's a problem.20:02-20:03It's a problem.20:06-20:10Look what 2 Peter 1:5-6.20:10-20:11Same thing.20:11-20:22Look, "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with..." Oh, oh, there it is again.20:24-20:25Self-control.20:27-20:28Yes, listen, I know.20:29-20:35Before you send me a text or an email, I know that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit.20:36-20:43I know that the only way that happens is if the Lord empowers you to do that.20:43-20:44I know that. Yes.20:44-20:47That is 100% true, and that is also another sermon entirely.20:48-20:51This is telling us right here.20:52-20:56This passage is telling us here, you and I are commanded to make every effort.20:57-20:58Are you doing that?21:01-21:02You must give maximum effort.21:04-21:07If you're not willing to do that, none of the rest of this sermon is going to apply.21:08-21:12But if you are willing to do that, if you're willing to say, "I'm done.21:12-21:16I'm done living in defeat." If that's you, great, let's keep going.21:16-21:19Number two, you must be motivated by the prize.21:21-21:23You must be motivated by the prize.21:24-21:25Look at verse 25 again.21:28-21:29Bless you.21:31-21:36"Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.21:39-21:53They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable." First of all, note, "every athlete." This isn't a passage for preachers and missionaries alone.21:54-21:55This is for you too.21:57-22:00And then notice he says self-control in all things.22:01-22:02All things.22:02-22:03Every area.22:04-22:14You have an area of your life right now where you're like, you know what, I think overall I'm doing good in my walk with Christ, but I do have this area where I'm not self-controlled.22:14-22:14Do you have that?22:19-22:20You need to stay motivated.22:21-22:22You've got to keep your eyes on the prize.22:28-22:29I like Paul's point here.22:30-22:32The comparison of the prizes.22:33-22:37Paul says here that these Greek athletes, all that training, right?22:37-22:40Ten months, 30 days, all that training.22:40-22:41And what do they win?22:43-22:44What do they win?22:44-22:49A Christmas decoration put on their head.22:52-22:53Hip, hip.22:54-22:55No.22:56-22:58No, not even close.23:00-23:01That's Paul's point, right?23:01-23:05He says, "They do all that for a lame prize." Talk about lame prizes.23:05-23:09In these past Olympics, didn't those medals like fall apart or something?23:09-23:15Wasn't there a whole thing like, "Hey, I've traded my whole life for this medal." Oh, and a stuffed animal, yay.23:16-23:16(audience laughing)23:19-23:30He goes, "It's a lame prize." It's like, you know, that's like several years ago, a bunch of guys from church, we went to, do you ever see those indoor places where you can throw the ax at the wood,23:30-23:31(imitates ax thudding)23:31-23:32when you're into the bulls eye,23:32-23:32(imitates ax thudding)23:33-23:34do you ever see these?23:34-23:40What's it called, the lumber jacks or something, or you know what I'm talking about?23:40-23:41The old ax throwing thing?23:42-23:48Well, a bunch of us went there, And there might've been some ladies there too, I don't remember, but here's what I do remember.23:50-23:51I won.23:53-23:53I won.23:56-23:58Yeah, thank you, the one person that's proud of me.23:58-24:02No, Tristan, just Tristan, just Tristan.24:03-24:05The rest of you, too late, thank you, Tristan.24:07-24:07I won.24:08-24:09Do you know what I won?24:11-24:11A sticker.24:11-24:12(Laughter)24:14-24:15I'm not even joking.24:16-24:19It's on my wastebasket in my office, the sticker.24:20-24:22That's what I want. And that's Paul's point here.24:22-24:36He goes, "They did all that training, all that competing, and all they got was a stupid wreath for their head." Paul's point here is, shouldn't we be more motivated?24:37-24:39Because our prize is winning people to Jesus.24:39-24:50We're talking about eternity, and we're talking about lost people who are going to suffer apart from the presence of God forever, and we have the opportunity to change that.24:54-25:00And look, if you've ever won someone to Christ, you know the humble joy that that brings.25:03-25:05And if you haven't, go do it.25:09-25:10And if you have, go do it again.25:12-25:14It's about winning people to Christ.25:14-25:15That's the prize.25:15-25:16That's the prize.25:17-25:28I know there are some people that are hearing this, and they're like, "Oh, that's the prize." Yet people aren't excited about the gospel because they aren't doing what makes the gospel exciting.25:29-25:31That's the problem in the church.25:31-25:33They're not living it, and they're not sharing it.25:34-25:35That's what makes the gospel exciting.25:38-25:39That's the prize.25:41-25:56I promise you, someday, someday, Christian, when you stand before the Lord, you're going to realize it was worth it.25:58-26:12You're going to stand before the Lord, you're going to say, "Jesus, You were worth it." You're going to say, "Jesus, every time I used the self-control you gave Me by the power of Your Spirit for the sake of imitating You, it was all worth it.26:12-26:22Every person that you reached, Jesus, through Me, that is now beholding Your glory and worshiping You for all of eternity, it's worth it.26:24-26:27There's a glorious victory celebration that's coming soon.26:29-26:31And Paul reminds us, keep your eyes on the prize.26:31-26:33Not some stupid wreath.26:34-26:35Perfecting eternity.26:38-26:40So keep control of yourself.26:42-26:44How to get self-control.26:44-26:45Maximum efforts.26:46-26:47Motivated by the prize.26:48-26:52Number three, you must have a plan.26:53-26:54You must have a plan.26:56-26:57Luke 26.26:59-27:04Paul says, "So, I do not run aimlessly.27:06-27:10I do not box as one beating the air.27:12-27:13I do not run aimlessly.27:15-27:18Track and field people, you know this, right?27:19-27:26When you show up for a meet, when you show up for a race, there has to be a track and a finish line, right?27:26-27:34You don't show up to the event, you're like, "I'm ready to run." They're just like, "Run wherever you want." Well, how do I know if I win?27:34-27:35That's his point.27:35-27:36I don't run aimlessly.27:37-27:39You got to stay on track.27:40-27:46You don't show up at the track meet and you just start running through the bleachers, running by the concession stand.27:47-27:48Well, this is my race.27:48-27:49No, no, no.27:50-27:51No track.27:54-27:55No finish line.27:57-27:58Likely, no effort.28:00-28:01Definitely no victory.28:04-28:05You have to have a plan to win.28:10-28:10Please hear me.28:12-28:14This is why many of you struggle with self-control.28:16-28:19Many of you struggle with self-control because you do not have a plan.28:21-28:21Here's what I mean.28:21-28:26You'll walk out of church today, and this is your big takeaway.28:26-28:27You'll say, "You know what?28:29-28:30He's right.28:31-28:33From now on I'm going to have self-control.28:36-28:41And you're going to leave it that vague, you're going to leave it that non-specific, and you're going to fail again.28:44-28:45Because you don't have a plan.28:49-28:50You're not being intentional.28:51-28:53You're running in a concession stand.28:54-28:55You have to have a plan.28:55-29:00So very quickly here, you're like, "Well, I don't know what the plan is." tells you what the plan is.29:00-29:02I'm going to give you the plan for self-control.29:03-29:04Start here, okay?29:06-29:07Three things, again, quickly.29:07-29:13We could spend a whole lot of time on these, but if you want to dig deeper, come and meet with one of our pastors.29:14-29:15We will be glad to walk through this with you.29:15-29:17But letter A, the plan for self-control.29:17-29:19Avoid situations where you'll be tempted.29:19-29:21We just talked about this recently in a message.29:23-29:28You know, I'd like to remind you, as I do often, I've never ever ever lost a fight to Mike Tyson.29:29-29:29Not once ever.29:30-29:32I have a perfect record against Mike Tyson.29:33-29:35Zero losses, thank you, thank you Tristan.29:35-29:37Tristan is the only person in this church that's proud of me.29:40-29:42I've never lost a fight to Mike Tyson, why?29:42-29:43Because I've never showed up.29:45-29:53Right, you have to avoid situations where you'll be tempted because I guarantee you if I would have showed up to fight Mike Tyson, my teeth would have been in the fourth row, okay?29:54-29:57you won't lose the fight if you don't show up.29:58-30:00So avoid situations where you'll be tempted.30:00-30:01Put up fences for yourself.30:02-30:06You're like, "Well, that sounds like legalism." Listen, it's okay to be a personal legalist.30:07-30:07It's okay.30:08-30:13Legalism is a problem when I start enforcing my convictions on you.30:13-30:14That's when it's a problem.30:14-30:19But when I have convictions and fences that I enforce on myself, that is healthy.30:20-30:21That is self-control.30:23-30:24You can be a personal legalist.30:25-30:25It's okay.30:27-30:29But avoid situations where you'll be tempted.30:30-30:31Letter B, how about accountability?30:32-30:33Accountability.30:33-30:35You should be in a small group.30:36-30:39You should have a trusted brother or sister in Christ.30:40-30:41Somebody that you can be open with.30:41-30:43Somebody that you can share your heart.30:44-30:45Where you're really struggling.30:45-30:46Where you really need prayer.30:46-30:48Where you really need them to check up on you.30:48-30:53You should have a two-way street with someone that way.30:53-31:04Someone that's not going to judge you or look down on you or be harsh with you, but somebody who's going to love you through it and encourage you.31:05-31:06And you do that for them.31:06-31:07Accountability.31:11-31:13The third plan for self-control.31:14-31:14Put off, put on.31:16-31:17Put off, put on.31:18-31:19This is all through the Bible, by the way.31:21-31:24This is a key piece in your personal discipleship.31:24-31:26This is a key piece in your walk with Christ.31:29-31:30Here's the short version.31:30-31:32The Bible doesn't tell you to just stop sinning.31:33-31:37The Bible tells us that you need to replace sinning with something good.31:38-31:40That's over and over and over in Scripture.31:43-31:45It's like, "Okay, stop sinning." No, no, no. Don't stop sinning.31:46-31:47Replace sinning.31:48-31:51Take the sin off and then replace it with something else.31:56-32:07If you've ever come to one of us for counseling, especially if you're dealing with a besetting sin, this is what we do, because this is what the Bible commands.32:08-32:11That besetting sin, okay, here's what we're going to do.32:11-32:18We're going to look at it the way God looks at it, and we're going to replace that sin with something else, with something that honors and glorifies God.32:20-32:22It's like the old story.32:24-32:25I've shared this with you before.32:26-32:27I didn't make this up.32:27-32:30This is ancient, but I love it because it's effective and I like dogs.32:30-32:32But this guy had two dogs.32:33-32:36He had a white dog and a gray dog.32:38-33:35And every time he let him off the leash to eat, that old gray dog, he just beat that white dog up and the gray dog got all the food. So over time the gray dog was getting stronger and stronger and the white dog not getting to eat was getting weaker and weaker and the guy's like this isn't working. So here's what he did he he leashed both dogs and for a season he gave the white dog all the best most Awesome dog food kibbles and bits and bits and bits and and the gray dog He barely gave enough food to keep it alive. It's just an illustration. It's made up. Do not call PETA But the guy says no for a season I'm only feeding the white dog So, you know what happened the white dog got bigger and stronger in the gray dog at that And that season got weaker and weaker. So when he let him off the leash guess which dog was stronger, right?33:35-33:39The point of the story is this, the dog that you feed is going to be the stronger dog.33:42-34:00And if you find in your life that you're constantly feeding your sin, whatever your sin, your besetting sin is, your sin tendency, if you're constantly feeding that, it's a lot harder if you don't want to do the right thing when you're constantly feeding doing the sinful thing.34:00-34:03Self-control is feeding the white dog.34:03-34:05I'm only going after the things that honor the Lord.34:06-34:07That's what I'm going after.34:07-34:08I'm not feeding my sin.34:08-34:11I'm feeding righteousness, so to speak.34:14-34:15That's the plan.34:16-34:20I want to remind you that self-control has to happen before you encounter temptation.34:21-34:27Self-control isn't, well, I hope if I encounter a temptation today, I hope I stand strong.34:28-34:29It's usually too late by then.34:30-34:31The work has to be done beforehand.34:32-34:34Decisions have to be made beforehand.34:36-34:48That's why Paul here says in the second part of the verse, "I do not box as one beating the air." Same principle, right?34:48-34:49Paul says I have a plan.34:49-34:50I stick to the plan.34:50-34:52I stay focused on the plan.34:52-34:53Like wait, wait, wait, wait.34:54-34:55Boxing? I thought we were talking about racing.34:58-34:59I thought we were talking about running.35:00-35:56boxing thing. You know that'd be a great new sport. Wouldn't that make the Olympics so much more interesting if the people that were running were also allowed to punch each other? Wouldn't that be awesome? You know, because you, right, as one person pointed out, you would have one guy that's like really fast and like he's not getting punched and he's probably gonna win but I think that everybody faster. And I think it would really make those middle-of-the-pack people... I think we need to get on this. So what's he talking about here? Well, Paul says, "Yeah, I'm still talking about racing, but while I'm running my race, I have an opponent who wants to knock me off track. I have this opponent that I I have to knock him out.35:58-36:00Like, who is that opponent, Paul?36:00-36:01And he's like, it's me.36:02-36:04I'm the biggest problem in my race.36:06-36:07My flesh is my biggest enemy.36:10-36:17Which is why number four leads us to this, you must have a healthy fear of being disqualified.36:19-36:21You must have a healthy fear of being disqualified.36:23-36:24Look at verse 27.36:25-36:39He says, "But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." I was like, hey, hey, I control my body, not vice versa.36:39-36:42My body doesn't control me.36:42-36:46I tell my body what we're doing.36:48-36:51Paul, why are you so adamant about that?36:51-36:56Why are you coming in hot about self-control here?36:56-37:02What's your issue, Paul?" He tells us right here, he says, "Because I don't want to be disqualified." That's why.37:06-37:21You know, it's interesting, in these It's Me and Games, their Olympic Games, the whole The whole thing began with a herald.37:22-37:26They would have a guy who got up, he announced the contest.37:27-37:28He announced the games.37:29-37:30He announced the rules.37:30-37:32He announced the contestants.37:34-37:38And anyone who broke the rules was disqualified.37:38-37:39You're out.37:40-37:41We don't tolerate that.37:42-37:44And here's the point, church.37:46-37:57Paul here is telling us that the Christian is the herald and an athlete in the race at the same time.38:03-38:07Do you see why that's such an important point to make?38:10-38:21Paul is saying here, how embarrassing would it be You stood up and told everybody the rules, and then you got disqualified because you broke the rules.38:22-38:24How embarrassing would that be?38:25-38:27Oh, it's worse than embarrassing.38:31-38:36Because a ruined testimony discredits the gospel in the eyes of the unsaved.38:40-38:41It's Paul's point here.38:42-38:45He goes, "Look, you're no longer effective.38:48-38:50You're worthless when it comes to witnessing.38:50-38:52You've discredited yourself.38:54-38:54It's happened to too many.38:55-38:57It's happened to too many Christians.38:57-38:59It's happened to too many preachers.39:00-39:03You stand up and announce, and then you break the rules yourself.39:03-39:06Like, dude, shouldn't you have known more than anyone?39:11-39:13So you need another motivation for self-control?39:14-39:16You should have a healthy fear of failure.39:17-39:23And please, let's be clear, he is not, when he's talking about disqualification, he's not talking about your salvation.39:24-39:25Understand that.39:25-39:27You cannot lose your salvation.39:27-39:48If you are truly born again, I mean, if you are truly born again, you believe in Christ, you receive Christ, you believe in His death on the cross to take away your sins, If you believe He rose from the dead, He gave you the promise of eternal life, if you truly believe that, you are an adopted child of God.39:49-39:52You are sealed in the Holy Spirit and nothing can change that.39:52-39:55There is not a force in the universe that can change that.39:55-40:00And I see no language in the Bible that talks about being unadopted.40:02-40:05That talks about the seal of the Spirit being removed from you.40:05-40:07I don't see any language in the Bible about that.40:08-40:11He is not talking about losing your salvation.40:12-40:13You can't.40:13-40:17But, you can lose your ministry.40:21-40:29And if you're a believer, you know, that's one of the greatest losses that you can experience in this life.40:31-40:42Any ministry, however you serve God, Whatever you're doing for the king, you lose that.40:46-40:50You're like, "You know, I was partnering with the living God.40:50-40:54I was doing things that matter for eternity and it's over.40:55-41:01And I have no one to blame but myself because I just couldn't control myself.41:02-41:07And I got myself disqualified." on the outside looking in.41:09-41:13Watching other people do what used to give you so much purpose and joy.41:14-41:14You're disqualified.41:17-41:19You ruined your testimony.41:19-41:21You shattered people's trust in you.41:22-41:24You're no longer useful for ministry.41:26-41:27You're disqualified.41:29-41:31You should have a healthy fear of that.41:33-41:41You should always have it in the back of your mind what's at stake if you fail to be self-controlled.41:43-41:47If our worship team would come back up, I'd like you to just bow your heads, please.41:47-41:49I just want us to take a couple of moments.41:50-41:57I want us to take a couple of moments for prayer, self-evaluation.41:58-42:00You know, sometimes we get together and go to little groups and pray.42:03-42:05That's wonderful, but we're not doing that today.42:06-42:08Today, this is between you and the Lord.42:10-42:12Just you and the Lord.42:15-42:16Right now.42:19-42:26Is there any area of your life right now where you are not exercising self-control?42:28-42:30We talked about this not too long ago.42:30-42:30Confession.42:31-42:32Agreeing with God.42:33-42:35Do you need to do that today?42:35-42:36Agree with God.42:36-42:36Yeah, God, you know what?42:36-42:45This is an area, Father, where I have completely neglected to exercise any kind of self-control.42:46-42:55I just want to ask you today - your head's bowed - how much effort are you putting into this?42:57-43:00Can you honestly say you've been struggling with sin?43:01-43:06Or have you just been sort of letting sin walk all over you?43:08-43:10Are you putting forth any effort?43:12-43:14Do you realize the prize?43:17-43:19Oh, there are so many prizes.43:21-44:07Eternal life in the presence of our Lord, the rewards that come through faithful service, all of that, but specifically again, here he's talking about winning the lost in this whole section. He's talking about winning the lost. That's the prize. Changing eternity for people, winning people to Christ, should motivate us to repent of our hypocrisy. So Again, my friends, you don't want to walk out of here with some generic, "I'm going to try to be self-controlled." It's just not going to work.44:08-44:09You've got to have a plan.44:11-44:18Are you willing to put up fences for yourself to stay out of places where you know you're going to lose that fight if you walk in there?44:20-44:22Are you willing to get accountability?44:22-44:33Are you willing to replace that sin, that time, that energy, that effort you're putting into sin, will you put that into something that honors the Lord instead?44:33-44:37You're going to start feeding the white dog and stop feeding the gray dog.44:38-44:39What's your plan?44:41-44:42Remember what's at stake.44:44-44:55Oh yes, there's always shame and embarrassment in being found out that you've been living in some kind of unrepentant, besetting sin.44:57-45:15There's also forfeiting your ministry, disqualifying yourself, being completely ineffective for the kingdom because you were so unwilling to get with God.45:17-45:25Today's the day to put the flag in the ground, draw the line in the sand, whatever other metaphor you want to use, but today's the day.45:26-45:28We're changing things today.45:29-45:38Father in heaven, I pray for every single one of us who are called by Your name.45:40-45:45Father, we all have areas of our lives where we just have let it go.45:45-45:46We've made excuses.45:46-45:49We've not exercised any control.45:50-45:53Today, Father, let us be done with the excuses.45:53-45:56Give us a reality check on what's at stake.45:59-46:04The main thing, Father, is Your glory and honor.46:06-46:24So I pray today, Father, that we leave here recommitted that the light of Your Word, the and the light that comes from Your Holy Spirit would shine in all of the dark places in our hearts and minds and show us where we are not honoring You.46:26-46:32Father, let today be a day of confession and repentance.46:33-46:39Let us be people who actually show up to the race to win.46:42-46:46We thank You, Father, for the power that You give us to do that through Your Holy Spirit.46:48-46:52Give us the want to by that same power.46:53-46:56We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 9:24-27What was your big take-away from this passage / message?What strategies have you found effective to be self-controlled?Why do you think many Christians put little (or no) effort in self-control?The “prize” in this context is winning lost people. How is that a motivation to self-control?NO NAMES! – but do you know someone who disqualified themselves from ministry due to lack of self-control? How did you react to that news? How does this make an unbeliever think about the Gospel? BreakoutPray for one another. In what area are you struggling with self-control? What is your plan for change?

Introduction: Psalm 32:5 – I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Proverbs 28:13 – Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Conceal or Confess? If You Want to Confess: (1 John 1:5 - 2:6) You Have to Be Done LYING About Your Sin. (1 John 1:5-10) 3 Lies You Have to Stop Claiming: I BELIEVE in God. (When You Don't LIVE Like It.) (1 John 1:6-7) I'm a GOOD Person. (1 John 1:8-9) I Don't SIN. (1 John 1:10) You Have to Come to JESUS. (1 John 2:1-2) Your LIFESTYLE Proves Your Sincerity. (1 John 2:3-6) Hebrews 4:14 - Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! Audio Transcript 00:00-00:09Open up those Bibles to the passage that Levi just read, 1 John 1.00:12-00:14While you're turning there, let's just quiet our hearts for a moment.00:14-00:19And I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to faithfully communicate God's Word.00:21-00:29And I'll pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us from His Word tonight.00:29-00:31All right, let's pray.00:33-00:44Father in heaven, I pray that this time would allow us to feel the weight of what it is we're remembering here tonight.00:46-00:48We're so distracted with so many things.00:50-01:02I just pray, Father, by the power of Your Spirit, everything is off our minds and hearts except your word.01:06-01:14And that we would be honest enough with ourselves to see things as you see them.01:18-01:24Thank you, Father, for the sacrifice that was made.01:26-01:29You spared not your own son.01:34-01:38We pray in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen.01:40-01:41Amen.01:41-01:46We're in this series, this short series called Respect the Office.01:49-01:54That if Jesus presented a resume, it would have a lot on it.01:56-02:00But there are three roles in particular.02:02-02:07We're just sort of slowing down and looking at, and last Sunday Pastor Rich talked about Jesus as prophet.02:08-02:10He is the word of God.02:10-02:14Who God is, is represented in Jesus.02:16-02:22Tonight, we're going to see that Jesus Christ is our priest.02:25-02:27What is a priest, anyways?02:28-02:36Well, in the simplest terms, the prophet represented God to man.02:37-02:42And the priest represents man to God.02:43-02:50And in the Old Testament, the priests offered sacrifices from sinners to God at the temple.02:51-03:12So tonight, as our minds naturally think of Jesus Christ on the cross, what you need to see in your mind in that moment when Jesus was on the cross, was He was not only the the sacrifice that was being offered for sin.03:12-03:17At the same time, He was the priest who was offering the sacrifice.03:19-03:28Jesus Christ, as our priest, came to deal with our sin.03:32-03:51There is one thing you must do Before you can receive forgiveness, before you can have a relationship with God at all, there's one thing you have to do.03:52-03:53You have to confess.03:55-04:09And if you're a Christian, if you are truly born again, and you're sitting here tonight, and you're wondering why your walk is so weak, why you aren't the strong Christian that you thought you would be by now.04:13-04:15Maybe you stopped confessing.04:16-04:19Look at verse 9 again.04:21-04:30If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.04:34-04:36We're going to talk about confess tonight.04:37-04:39What does it mean to confess?04:41-04:44Well, in the Greek, it's a compound word.04:44-04:54It literally means, "say the same." In other words, to confess means that you're agreeing with God.04:56-04:58Agreeing with God that you are a sinner.04:58-05:02Agreeing with God that your sin is wrong.05:05-05:06I agree with God.05:07-05:08It's saying I'm guilty.05:09-05:11I'm not a good person.05:11-05:16I look at my actions and I do things that are just shameful.05:18-05:21I hear the words that come out of my mouth sometimes.05:22-05:24What is wrong with me?05:27-05:27Shameful.05:29-05:38So I look into my heart and I realize, there's something broken in me.05:40-05:41There's something evil in me.05:44-05:47How is it that I can be so full of selfishness?05:47-05:51How is it that I can be so full of hatred sometimes?05:52-05:53How is it that I can be so full of lust?05:55-05:56Why is that?06:00-06:01Confessing is agreeing with God.06:05-06:10And the three hardest words that you will ever say, it's not, "I love you." Those ones are hard.06:10-06:12But there are three harder words to say.06:13-06:24And those words are these, "I have sinned." To get to the point where you are saying this from your heart, "I've sinned.06:25-06:26I have sinned.06:27-06:30You know, I was thinking about that a lot this week and preparing for this message.06:31-06:32Why is that so hard?06:35-06:46I mean, it's clear in the Bible, it's clear from observation that we have a problem, but why is it so hard for me to get to that place where I say, "I have sinned"?06:46-06:49Why is it so hard for you to admit that, to confess that?06:52-06:53I think it's a lot of things.06:55-06:57I think the big reason is pride, right?06:58-07:02To admit that you're a sinner is also an admission of weakness.07:02-07:06I'm not the morally strong person that I want to think that I am.07:07-07:15Maybe it's hard to confess that I am a sinner because deep down the reality is we actually kind of like our sin.07:16-07:19We would miss it if it wasn't in our lives.07:19-08:13is that. If you're sitting here tonight and you're like, "Well, I don't feel like I love my sin. I want out of it, but I feel trapped in it. I'm in bondage to it." That's hard to confess. That something is so ruling over you. "I don't want to do this, but I keep doing it. What is my problem?" You know, I think really for a lot of us, it's hard to say I have sinned because it's just so hard to not see yourself as the hero in your own story. Sometimes you're the bad guy. So am I. Acknowledging sin is uncomfortable. It's offensive. And it just it goes against our natural inclinations.08:17-08:18Here's the reality from God's Word.08:20-08:21Unsaved people.08:22-08:29People who don't sincerely know the Lord, are always going to try to downplay sin.08:31-08:32It's not that big of a deal.08:33-08:36And one of the ways they do that is by trying to redefine sin.08:36-08:40We won't call it sin, we'll call it something else and kind of soften the blow.08:41-08:46But the big one is, unsaved people conceal their sin.08:47-08:48Let's keep it hidden.08:48-08:50Let's make sure nobody finds out about it.08:50-08:52They conceal their sin.08:55-09:05Saved people, on the other hand, according to that passage Levi just read, saved people confess their sin.09:08-09:10So tonight I just want to ask you one question.09:12-09:12What are you doing?09:16-09:18Conceal or confess?09:19-09:20Which one are you?09:25-09:32Bible's so clear about this and what's at stake in this.09:33-09:40Psalm 32.5 says, "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.09:41-09:49I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Do you see that?09:51-09:52Conceal or confess.09:55-10:20Same thing, Proverbs 28.13 says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." So what are you doing with your sin? Are you concealing it? Or are you confessing it?10:23-10:33So on your outline, if you're taking notes, it says at the top, "Conceal or confess?" And there might be some people in here that are honest enough to say, you know what, I'd rather just conceal it.10:34-10:37And I would say respectfully, I don't know why you're here tonight.10:41-10:42You should have stayed home.10:45-10:48But I do know that there are some people here tonight that are like, you know what?10:51-10:53It's gone on beyond too long.10:54-10:54I need to confess.10:56-10:57I need to confess.10:57-11:03Well, I'm so glad you're here, if that's you, because I want to help you with that, from the Word of God.11:03-11:07So on your outline, if you want to confess, number one, this is where you have to start.11:09-11:11You have to be done lying about your sin.11:11-11:12You have to be done with that.11:13-11:16You have to be done lying about your sin.11:18-11:19Again, look at verse five.11:20-11:29He says, "This is the message we have heard from Him "and proclaimed to you, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.11:30-11:31God is light.11:32-11:38We could spend a whole sermon series talking about that, but the bottom line is this, that represents life.11:39-11:40That represents holiness.11:41-11:43There is no death in God.11:43-11:45There's no unholiness in God.11:45-11:46There's no sin.11:46-11:48There's no darkness of any kind in God.11:49-11:54A man, on the other hand, I probably don't have to sell you on that, do I?11:57-12:04And you see, when we talk about confessing, yes, you absolutely must confess with your mouth.12:07-12:10But, it has to ultimately start in your heart.12:12-12:18Because you can say something with your mouth that isn't actually true in your heart.12:20-12:27And when you say something that's not true, that's called telling a lie.12:28-12:30And that's where John starts here.12:31-12:32Like, you want to confess?12:33-12:33You've got to be done lying.12:36-12:46You see, three times in this passage, he says, "if we claim" or "if we say" "if we say" "if we say" He's pointing out the lies We tell ourselves.12:47-12:48He goes, you've got to stop that.12:49-12:50Let's look at them quickly.12:51-12:53Three lies you've got to stop claiming.12:54-12:55You've got to stop these.12:55-12:57Number, or letter A, sorry, letter A.12:58-13:00Here's a lie that a lot of people are saying.13:01-13:02I believe in God.13:05-13:07When you don't live like it.13:09-13:15People are saying, yeah, I believe in God, but they don't live like they know Him at all.13:16-13:18It's a lie, right?13:18-13:19Not my opinion, look at verse six.13:20-13:31He says, "If we say we have fellowship with Him, with God, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.13:32-13:35If we claim we have fellowship with Him," do you know what that is?13:36-13:40That's the guy or the girl that says, "Oh, I believe in God.13:41-13:42"Oh yeah, yeah, I believe in God.13:42-13:43I know God.13:44-13:49I mean, yeah, I'm a Christian." But he says they walk in darkness.13:49-13:54They're living in some secret, sinful lifestyle.13:57-13:59And John points out here, look, you're living a lie.14:00-14:02You're just, you're living a lie.14:03-14:05I don't know who you think you're fooling, but it's not God.14:07-14:08And this is a hard truth.14:11-14:14that I think tonight we need to confront ourselves with.14:15-14:18Not everyone who claims to know God actually does know God.14:20-14:23Not everyone who claims they know God is actually heading to heaven.14:26-14:33Not everyone who's sitting in a church, not just tonight, any church, week after week, not everyone sitting in a church is saved.14:37-15:04I got to tell you, I talk to a lot of people who will be talking about a family member of theirs, their brother, or their adult children, or their parents, and we'll be talking about these family members, and I'm like, "Well, do they know the Lord?" And they'll say, "Well, yeah, they're Christians." And then they say, "But they haven't gone to church "in years, they're not interested in praying.15:05-15:08They really don't want to have any spiritual conversations.15:09-15:12You know, I invited them to Good Friday service and they absolutely didn't want to come.15:14-15:15But yeah, he's a Christian.15:18-15:24I mean, yeah, he's living in adultery right now.15:25-15:26Oh, he's foul-mouthed.15:27-15:29And he is such a heavy drinker.15:32-15:32But he's a Christian.15:35-15:36Based on what?15:37-15:39What are you basing that on?15:39-15:41And you know what the response usually is?15:41-15:47Well, one time we were in a church and they said they believed in God.15:48-15:51They like raised their hand in a service one time.15:54-15:55But what does the Bible say?15:56-15:58Do you see that in verse six?15:58-16:03If we say we have fellowship, but we're walking in darkness, what does your Bible say?16:04-16:05It says you're lying.16:06-16:06It's just not true.16:10-16:12But on the other hand, look at verse seven.16:12-16:25He says, "But if we walk in the light, "as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, "and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." Walking in the light.16:26-16:27No hidden sin.16:29-16:35No secret sin that you hope to heaven nobody finds out about.16:43-16:46You sin, you confess.16:48-16:49You are walking in the light.16:50-16:51You're like, yeah, I did sin.16:51-16:53That was wrong what I did.16:53-16:54It was wrong in God's eyes.16:54-16:55I've sinned against my family.16:55-16:56I'm confessing that.16:56-16:58I'm getting with God on this.16:58-17:04I'm getting accountability on this to help me drag this to the light.17:07-17:09So what's your plan tonight?17:09-17:10Are you going to conceal?17:12-17:13Or are you going to confess?17:20-17:23You're walking in the light or you're walking in darkness?17:26-17:28There's no middle ground, by the way.17:29-17:33The Bible doesn't talk about walking in half light or half dark.17:33-17:36What typifies your life right now?17:37-17:39Which one describes you?17:40-17:42Are you walking in the light?17:45-17:47Or is there a whole lot of stuff that you're trying to keep concealed?17:51-17:53Well, John says, "Stop lying.17:54-17:54"Stop lying.17:54-17:59"Your claim of believing in God means nothing if your life is characterized by sin.18:00-18:03All right, so that's a lie you have to stop claiming.18:03-18:06Here's another lie you have to stop.18:07-18:08Letter B, I'm a good person.18:11-18:12I'm a good person.18:12-18:14Well, let's see what the Bible says about that, verse eight.18:14-18:22If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.18:23-18:25We claim we're without sin.18:26-18:27I'm not that bad.18:28-18:32I mean, I'm actually a good person.18:33-18:39Like deep down, you know, deep down, I have a good heart.18:40-18:42I'm a good person deep down.18:44-18:45God knows that.18:48-18:49Here's what God knows.18:51-18:54God knows that you were born with a sin nature that you inherited from Adam.18:55-18:58that's been passed down from generation to generation, and you got it.19:02-19:02Don't believe me?19:04-19:07Sometimes I have people challenge me on this, like I don't think that we're born with a sin nature.19:08-19:09I don't think that that's true.19:09-19:11I don't think that we are born with a sin nature.19:11-19:13I'm like, have you ever been around a kid?19:14-19:15Ever?19:17-19:18(congregation laughing)19:19-19:21That's exactly what I'm talking about.19:25-19:28That's exactly what I'm talking about, that little sinner tried to hijack the sermon.19:31-19:33You just proved my point, little lamb.19:40-19:43And look, if you don't have kids, there's plenty of people around here that do have them.19:43-19:45I'm sure they'll let you hang out.19:47-19:49I'm sure they might ask you to watch them for a few days.19:55-19:56Who has ever taught a kid?19:58-19:59I mean, think of a little toddler.20:00-20:01Think of little Joey back there.20:02-20:06Does dad ever sit down with him and say, "Listen, listen, Joey, I'm gonna teach you "something important here.20:07-20:12"If you learn how to lie convincingly, "you're gonna go far in life, all right?20:13-20:17"I guess, son, what I'm saying is "always cover your tracks, okay?20:18-20:25"Because if you got away with it, then you've mastered the art of deception.20:26-20:29Has any dad sat down with their kid and taught them that?20:29-20:30I sure hope not.20:30-20:31You're a monster.20:31-20:33You're a monster if you're teaching your kid how to sin.20:34-20:36But you don't have to.20:37-20:45How is it that these kids automatically know how to sneak, how to lie, how to steal, how to be selfish?20:45-20:46How do they know that?20:47-20:50Like, were they reading some manual in the womb?20:50-20:51Like, what is going on here?20:54-20:55We're born with a sin nature.20:57-20:59So if you're like, "Well, you know what?21:00-21:01I'm really not that bad.21:01-21:05I'm not really a bad person." The Bible says you're deceiving to yourself.21:05-21:09You're telling a lie, and then you're turning around and believing the own lie that you just told yourself.21:12-21:13You say you have a good heart?21:15-21:30Actually if that's your stance, if that's your stance here tonight, to think that you're You're really a good person, I've got to tell you, you're in a hopeless situation when it comes to the gospel, because you're not going to confess.21:32-21:36What can God do for someone who doesn't think that they need Him?21:39-21:40It's a hopeless situation.21:44-21:45Look at verse nine again.21:45-21:56If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, excuse me, forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.21:59-22:02I did a lot of reading this past week in preparing for this.22:02-22:12And you get to this verse, and these scholars and commentators are like, is this verse for believers, or is this verse for unbelievers?22:16-22:28The answer is yes. The answer is yes. Confession is like repentance. Think about repentance.22:29-22:44Is repentance something you do when you first come to Christ? Yeah. But if you're a true born again believer in Christ, when do you stop repenting? Never. In Matthew 3.8, Luke 3.8, both say the exact same thing.22:45-22:49Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.22:49-22:53Repentance is to be the lifestyle of the follower of Jesus.22:54-22:56And confession is exactly the same.22:56-22:59In coming to Christ, you have to confess.22:59-23:07And if you're a Christian, your life is typified by constant acknowledgment of your sin before a holy God.23:11-23:18regular occurrence in our walk with Christ, Christians are characterized as confessors.23:20-23:23A true Christian is always going to God.23:23-23:25"God, I hate my sin.23:25-23:27God, this is what I did.23:27-23:29I messed up.23:29-23:29I sinned.23:30-23:33God, specifically, here is what I did.23:34-23:35God, I need to change.23:35-23:37God, I'm confessing that.23:38-23:42Thank You for the forgiveness that You've purchased through Your Son, Jesus Christ, God.23:42-23:49I need the power of Your Spirit to help me repent." That is how a Christian confesses their sin.23:51-23:54And John says that God's response is to forgive and purify.23:56-23:57Why does He do that?23:59-24:00Because you're worthy?24:03-24:03Not hardly.24:04-24:09John says he does that because he, he is faithful and just.24:11-24:17See, God's forgiveness is based on his promise, not your performance.24:17-24:21God's forgiveness comes to you on his terms, not your terms.24:22-24:28And God's forgiveness, the assurance that we have that we are forgiven is because of God's integrity.24:30-24:39that I can say, "I know that I have the promise of heaven," not because of me, I know I have the promise of heaven because I believe in a God who always keeps His word.24:41-24:42And this is what He's promised.24:45-24:50So if you're sitting here tonight, you're like, "Yeah, I'm a good person." You're really not.24:52-24:59As long as you think you are, you're not going to understand what the cross of Jesus Christ was all about.25:01-25:03Three lies you need to stop claiming.25:04-25:07Letter C, same vein here, right?25:07-25:08Letter C, I don't sin.25:11-25:12I don't sin.25:13-25:15Believe it or not, I've met people that have made that claim.25:15-25:16Look at verse 10.25:16-25:30He says, "If we say we have not sinned, "we make him a liar and his word is not in us." If we claim we have not sinned, that's the person, And again, I've met these people, they're like, "Sin?25:33-25:43I don't sin." Well, you did just call God a liar then because He says differently.25:46-25:50It's one of the interesting things about sin, wouldn't you say?25:50-26:00interesting, that we tend to minimize our sin and we maximize other people's sin.26:02-26:08Ours is so small and insignificant, but somebody else's, oh boy, they really blew it.26:14-26:16God wants to deal with you about your sin.26:18-26:24And you can't confess Jesus as a Savior if you say you don't have what He saves from.26:27-26:36And if you refuse to acknowledge your sin, you refuse to admit, you refuse to confess your sin, then the cross means nothing.26:38-26:45And we come to a service like this, we think of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we're really left wondering why did he die in the first place?26:48-26:49Concealer confess.26:53-26:53What are you doing?26:58-26:59Concealer confess.26:59-27:01Are you going to leave tonight lying to yourself?27:04-27:07Or are you going to finally agree with God?27:12-27:23So if you want to confess, if that's you, and I want to help you, first of all, you gotta stop lying to yourself, you gotta stop lying to God, you gotta stop lying to everybody, you gotta stop the lies.27:23-27:27Number two, you have to come to Jesus.27:30-27:33Confession is about the person of Jesus Christ.27:33-27:47Look at verse one, he says, in chapter two, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you "so that you may not sin." But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.27:49-28:01John says, "Look, I'm writing this so you don't sin." God's Word doesn't allow us to have a dismissive attitude about sin, which a lot of Christians have.28:02-28:05It's like, "Well, yeah, I sin, but it doesn't really matter.28:05-28:10I'm forgiven in Christ." we just sort of dismiss it.28:12-28:13John goes, "No, no, no, no.28:14-28:35I'm writing these things to you so that you are turning from sin." He goes, "But if anybody does sin, and you will," spoiler alert, "you will," John says, "when you sin, you have an advocate, if you're in Christ." And this is one of the most beautiful pictures in all the Bible.28:36-28:39You know, it's a courtroom scene actually.28:39-28:45Revelation chapter 12 says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren.28:45-28:46Do you know what Satan does?28:47-28:52He goes before God, and if you're a follower of Christ, Satan accuses you before God.28:53-28:55Satan's like, he's no good.28:57-28:58Did you hear what he said?28:58-29:00That's one of your guys?29:00-29:01Did you hear what he said?29:02-29:03That's what Satan does.29:03-29:06Satan, he's a slanderer, he's an accuser.29:06-29:10But you see, when Jesus Christ is your advocate, he is your defense attorney.29:11-29:22That when Satan says, "Do you see what a miserable person this is?" Jesus steps up and says, "He did sin, "but I took his sin on myself when I died on the cross." He's forgiven.29:22-29:25He is not guilty because I paid that penalty.29:27-29:28And Satan goes to the next person.29:28-29:30You see what a miserable person she is?29:30-29:31Do you hear how she talked?29:31-29:32Do you see what she did?29:33-29:43Jesus says, "I died for her." All of the sin that was committed by her, Jesus said, "When I was on the cross, I paid the penalty." She is not guilty.29:45-29:50That's what it means that Jesus as our advocate, and that is way better than Edgar Snyder.29:53-29:55Owen might not think so.29:57-29:58If you know, you know.29:59-30:00Look at verse two.30:03-30:10He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.30:11-30:12Propitiation.30:12-30:15Oh, that's like one of the best words in the Bible.30:15-30:20John's just hitting like all of the most awesome concepts in a row right here.30:21-30:27Propitiation, your Bible might translate it, atoning, sacrifice, but this is a concept that you really need to understand.30:28-30:29Propitiation just simply means this.30:30-30:34God is satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross.30:35-30:36That's what it means.30:36-30:43When Jesus was on the cross, God was pouring out his wrath on Jesus for my sin and for your sin.30:44-30:47God put all of the wrath that I deserve on Jesus.30:47-30:50And that is awesome news because you know what that means?30:50-30:52God has no more wrath left for me.30:54-30:57And if you're in Christ, he has no wrath left for you.30:57-31:07And Christian, you've gotta get this in your head I've talked to so many Christians that are like, "I just really feel like God's mad at me, "and I feel like God's so disappointed in me." He's not!31:08-31:16It's not like God poured out His wrath on Jesus, and then God turns around and sees you sinning, and is like, "Oh, I'm still mad!31:17-31:20"I gotta punish her now, too!" That's not how it works.31:22-31:23Propitiation, God is satisfied.31:24-31:29He has no wrath for you if you've truly received Jesus Christ.31:32-31:47And not just for you, not just for you, look at verse two, he goes on to say, "Not for ours only, "not for our sins only, "but also for the sins of the whole world." Again, this is where a lot of scholars get caught up.31:50-31:55I just, you're like, "Oh, you think you're smarter than those scholars." No, I don't.31:55-31:57I think they're too smart sometimes.31:58-32:01I think they make this way too complicated.32:03-32:04You know what I mean by that?32:04-32:16You know, I was reading, and I heard some pastoral panel thing, they were talking about this very verse, and they were like, what is being talked about here for the sins of the whole world?32:16-32:19Is he talking about the elect?32:19-32:20Like it's just for the elect?32:22-32:25Is this speaking to limited atonement?32:28-32:33You're making this way more complicated than it needs to be.32:33-32:34Do you know what this means?32:35-32:36Do you know what this verse means?32:36-32:38I'll tell you what this verse means.32:39-32:39Right here.32:41-32:49What this verse is saying is I can confidently say to anyone, when you believe in Jesus, you will be forgiven of your sins.32:50-32:52You will be adopted as a child of God.32:52-32:54I can say that to anybody, because it's for the whole world.32:54-33:04I can say that here, I can say that in Thailand, I can say that in Blonox, it doesn't matter where I am, this truth holds, Jesus forgives sin.33:06-33:08Let God figure out all that other stuff.33:10-33:14My job is to tell the world, and your job too.33:16-33:17Concealer confess.33:19-33:19Conceal or confess.33:21-33:31At this point, if you're still wanting to conceal, you're committed to walking out of here like, "Yeah, I just can't, I can't come clean about my sin.33:31-33:38"Not to God, not to anybody." Well, it's not gonna go well for you.33:39-33:45Remember what the Proverbs writers say, that if you conceal your sin, you're not gonna prosper.33:46-33:48It's not gonna go well for you.33:51-33:57But if you want to confess, that's business that you have to do with Jesus.33:59-34:16Not only confessing who you are as a sinner, but confession includes saying who He is, agreeing with God who Jesus is, agreeing with God that Jesus is your advocate, agreeing with God that Jesus is your propitiation, agreeing with God about that.34:17-34:24If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.34:28-34:34So this night more than any other probably reminds us why Jesus is the only one who can take your sin away.34:35-34:36Nobody else can do that.34:38-34:46Nobody else can make you be pronounced not guilty in the courtroom of God.34:49-34:50Conceal or confess?34:52-34:59Well, if you want to confess, number three, your lifestyle proves your sincerity.35:02-35:04Your lifestyle proves your sincerity.35:05-35:07Look at verses 3 through 6 again.35:08-35:13He says, "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.35:15-35:20Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.35:21-35:27But whoever keeps His word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.35:28-35:34By this we may know that we are in Him.35:35-35:41Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.35:44-35:48I'm sure if the hospitality team grabbed every person on the way out, do you wanna confess?35:48-35:50I'm sure they would get 100%.35:50-35:51Yeah, I confess.35:51-35:52I can, yeah, I confess.35:58-36:02We'll find out if it's sincere by how you live, right?36:03-36:05That's why he says it in verse three.36:05-36:06He says it at the end of verse five.36:07-36:08We know that we have come to know him.36:09-36:10We know that we are saved.36:10-36:12Like what's the evidence?36:12-36:15How do I really know if I'm saved or not?36:15-36:16How would I know that?36:16-36:17He tells you right here.36:17-36:19Here's how you know that you're saved.36:19-36:20You keep his commands.36:22-36:28The proof that you know God is just simply you do what he says.36:32-36:34It's not just what you claim.36:37-36:38Are you saved?36:38-36:38You know the Lord.36:39-36:40And people say, well, you know what?36:40-36:46I was baptized 17 years ago at First Baptist Church of so-and-so.36:47-36:47Goody.36:49-36:51That's not evidence that you're saved, though.36:53-37:05Or somebody says, "Well, I go to church almost every week." I mean, not when Declan has lacrosse, but every other week I'm in church.37:05-37:06Great.37:08-37:10I strongly encourage church attendance.37:10-37:13I think that's a good thing, but that's not evidence of salvation.37:14-37:17Evidence of salvation is I do what God tells me to do.37:19-37:22It's just that simple, according to John.37:24-37:30I believe, I believe not verified by what you say, I believe is verified by how you live.37:30-37:32Are you gonna conceal or are you gonna confess tonight?37:33-37:34Which is it?37:36-37:51Because obviously, if you really agree with God that sin is evil, you're going to be constantly confessing and forsaking sin.37:55-37:57So do you live a life of confession?38:01-38:04Do you agree with God about your sin?38:06-38:19And do you agree with God concerning what He said the crucifixion of His Son accomplished for the person who will turn to Him?38:22-38:23Our worship team would make their way back up.38:26-38:54And our communion servers, we're gonna close our time around the Lord's table And you do not have to be a member of Harvard's Bible Chapel to take communion, but you do have to be a born-again believer in Christ. This is for believers.38:58-39:02And fellow Christians, it is gathering around the Lord's table.39:02-39:06Well, this is a time to confess everything.39:08-39:11Everything that John said in this passage, we get to confess that right now.39:13-39:21When we take these elements, what we're saying, what we're confessing, I confess that my sin is evil and wrong in the eyes of God.39:22-39:23I confess that.39:24-39:27I confess that Jesus Christ died for my sin.39:29-39:35I confess that God is satisfied with the work that Jesus accomplished on my behalf.39:37-39:40I confess Jesus Christ is my advocate.39:41-39:46I confess that I need His Spirit to make me who God wants me to be.39:49-40:00I confess that I will prove that I believe when I obey God in every area of my life.40:03-40:16Hebrews 4.14 says, "Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.40:18-40:22Let us hold fast our confession.40:24-40:36We're going to ask, when you're ready, if you would come down to the center aisles and receive the elements from one of our pastors, and you can return to your seat by the outside aisle.40:37-40:49I'm going to ask that you hold on to it, and let's confess together tonight, church, that We are agreeing with God in all these things.40:52-40:54So please come, take the elements.40:56-40:57This is our confession.40:59-41:05This is our agreeing with God that Jesus is who God said He is.41:06-41:09And that Jesus accomplished what God said He accomplished.41:11-41:16The Bible tells us on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and he broke it and he gave thanks.41:17-41:20And he said, "This is my body, which is broken for you.41:21-41:45Eat this in remembrance of me." After the meal, Bible tells us that Jesus took the cup and he said, "This cup is my blood, the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.41:46-41:48Drink this in remembrance of me.41:50-41:51What are you doing tonight?41:54-41:56Conceal or confess?41:59-42:01Jesus has quite a resume.42:04-42:06As the prophet, he is the word of God.42:08-42:11As the priest, he takes away our sin.42:12-42:15I want to invite you to come back in two days on Sunday.42:15-42:26Pastor Taylor is going to talk about the other role that Jesus has, the King of Kings.42:27-42:28You don't want to miss that.42:30-42:31You are loved. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 John 1:5-2:6What was your big take-away from this passage / message?BreakoutPray for one another.

March 24, 2026Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeThe Revelation 18:13-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church Support the show

Introduction: Three Valid Reasons for Liberty (that Don't Work When You Have a Weaker Brother). (1 Corinthians 8:1-13) I Have KNOWLEDGE. (1 Cor 8:1-3) Philippians 1:9 – And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment I Have WISDOM. (1 Cor 8:4-7) I Have GOOD THEOLOGY. (1 Cor 8:8-13) Matthew 18:6 - whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 25:40 - Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! AUDIO TRANSCRIPT 00:36-00:39Open up those Bibles to 1 Corinthians 8.00:41-00:49Oh, that sweet, sweet, quiet lull of early service on Daylight Saving Sunday.00:51-00:52So tranquil.00:54-00:55Let's kick that up, shall we?00:55-00:56Let's have a fight.00:58-01:01Amen, somebody came ready to rumble.01:04-01:06Not like a fist fight.01:07-01:09Let's just have a good old fashioned argument.01:10-01:12All right, that'll get the blood boiling.01:13-01:15All in favor of having an argument?01:16-01:16Some of you.01:17-01:18(congregation laughing)01:19-01:20Little too eager.01:21-01:22All right, here we go.01:23-01:24Is a hot dog a sandwich?01:27-01:29Oh, did you hear that Pastor Taylor?01:30-01:31Apparently we struck a nerve.01:32-01:34Show of hands, how many people say that a hot dog is a sandwich?01:35-01:36Okay.01:37-01:39Some of you, okay, how many people insist that it's not?01:41-01:41Whoa.01:43-01:46Whoa, you might wanna pump the brakes on that.01:46-01:49I mean, what, it's like meat and condiments in bread, right?01:51-01:53Isn't that the very definition of a sandwich?01:54-01:57And you're like, well, but it's shaped different.01:58-01:59Well, I'm shaped different.01:59-02:00Does that mean I'm not a human?02:00-02:01Like, come on, what's that?02:05-02:07Some of you are a little too emotional about that.02:09-02:10It's silly though, right?02:10-02:14We're not really going to fight about that.02:16-02:24But when we get to this next section in 1 Corinthians, believe it or not, and you will, it was a food controversy.02:25-02:26That's what's going on.02:26-02:31They had a food controversy, but it wasn't about hot dogs.02:33-02:40It was about something that was much bigger problem for the church.02:41-02:44All right, let's just stop for a minute.02:44-02:51This is a challenging text, but we are going to get through it together.02:52-02:55I'm gonna ask you to pray for me, and I will pray for you.02:56-02:58Let's see what the Lord has to teach us today in His Word.02:58-03:01All right, let's just take a moment and pray.03:09-03:11Father, fire us up to receive your Word.03:13-03:17We don't wanna go into a lull because we lost an hour of sleep or whatever.03:17-03:23God, this is your Word, and we should be excited to see what it is that you have told us in your Word.03:26-03:30and we should be looking to see how we can reflect the truth of your word in our lives.03:30-03:46So God, give us the faith to really believe what you said to the point that it takes root, to the point that it's manifest in our hearts, in our minds, in our attitudes, and ultimately in our conduct.03:47-03:57We pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and all of God's people said, Amen, amen.03:57-04:03In this section in 1 Corinthians, it's kind of like a big Q&A session, right?04:03-04:05And look at chapter eight, verse one.04:06-04:07Do you see the first two words in your Bible?04:08-04:13He says, in this chapter, he says, "Now concerning." We talked about that, right?04:13-04:17It seems to be like, okay, next subject, right?04:17-04:20That's his clue that we're moving on to a new subject.04:21-04:46And the next topic that again is going to span next three chapters is Christian liberty. Just in case we didn't offend anybody with the last part of it, let's talk about liberty, shall we? Am I free to do whatever I want? I'm free in Christ! I can do whatever I want to do, right? Right?04:46-04:46Right?04:46-04:46Right?04:50-04:53Oh, legalism versus liberty.04:54-04:58It's the issue literally as old as the church herself.05:01-05:02Legalism.05:04-05:05That's one side.05:05-05:06Legalism.05:06-05:11The people that are legalists say to be accepted by God, here's some things you can't do.05:11-05:13Here's your list of things that you cannot do.05:14-05:16And if you keep the list, you're accepted by God.05:17-05:19That's the legalist likes the rules.05:19-05:24But on the other hand, you have the liberty people.05:26-05:28The liberty people say, "Hey, I'm saved by grace.05:28-05:30My performance doesn't matter.05:30-05:35Nothing can change the fact that I'm saved by grace and I can do whatever I want to do.05:36-05:38Nothing will separate me from the love of Christ.05:38-05:55I am free to do whatever I want to do." Well their particular liberty issue that became a problem for the church is what Paul is addressing in chapter 8, 9, and through 10.05:57-05:57Here's their issue.05:59-06:01Look again, chapter 8, verse 1.06:01-06:15He said, "Now concerning food offered to idols." That's meat that was sacrificed to a pagan God.06:17-06:19Like what in the world is going on here?06:21-06:24Understand in the Greek culture, they had gods for everything.06:25-06:29It was part of every aspect of life.06:30-06:33There was a God for literally everything.06:37-06:48And when a pagan worshiper would offer a sacrifice to a God, that sacrifice was divided into three parts.06:49-06:59Part was burned for the pagan God, part went home with the worshiper, but then the third part went with the priest.07:00-07:02The pagan priest, right?07:04-07:05How much pot roast can you eat?07:06-07:11Okay, so you can imagine, these priests, they had an abundance.07:11-07:14So they would take the extra down and sell it at the market.07:17-07:29There was other pagan meat at the market as well, because in the Greek culture, they believed that an evil spirit could enter you through what you ate.07:29-07:31So they believed that an evil spirit could get in the meat.07:31-07:34And when you ate the meat, now you had the evil spirit inside you.07:35-07:41So they would sacrifice to a God who would make sure that there were no evil spirits in the meat.07:41-07:53And on top of that, because it was such a pagan culture, the temple was sort of the community center, meaning weddings and parties were commonly held at the temple.07:53-07:55You're gonna see that come up here in this text.07:55-08:04And here's the point, my friends, Almost all the meat in this culture was used for pagan worship somehow.08:05-08:06Almost all of it.08:10-08:11So maybe you begin to see the problem.08:13-08:19For the church, for the Christians, for the Jesus followers, there was division.08:20-08:27For some, they were like, "Should we eat the pagan meat?" Absolutely not.08:27-08:28I'm not touching that.08:29-08:32They use that meat in pagan worship.08:32-08:34I'm not touching that with a 10 foot pole.08:35-08:37No way am I touching that.08:39-08:46And then there were more mature believers that were like, a hamburger is a hamburger, bro.08:48-08:50The boogeyman doesn't live in the hamburger.08:51-08:52Just eat it.08:52-08:52Come on.08:55-08:57Can you see why that would be a problem in the church?09:00-09:16People saying, "Eat the meat." People saying, "Absolutely, you shouldn't go near it." So in chapter eight here, and we're gonna be looking at the whole chapter, Paul is addressing the mature Christians who insisted on their liberty.09:19-09:26These mature Christians who said, "Hey, it bothers some of the weaker Christians that we eat the meat, but look, I'm free in Christ.09:27-09:28It's not haunted meat.09:28-09:31Am I not free to eat the meat if I want to eat the meat?09:38-09:44I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and guess that this probably isn't an issue for this church.09:45-09:46Right?09:48-09:58I don't imagine you've had to sit down at the table debate whether or not the boogeyman was in the steak, if you should eat it or not.10:02-10:06But you know there's always been issues of legalism and liberty in the church.10:07-10:25Always. Always. Okay so we're not arguing about the pagan meat, but I mean look at look at church history. We have this, even very recently, we are constantly At odds trying to figure out some things.10:26-10:28Issues of legalism versus liberty.10:30-10:32Like things like playing cards.10:34-10:39I know young people that might be hard to believe, but there was a time that that was a big issue in the church.10:39-10:41Should you be allowed to play cards?10:43-10:50Things like dancing, movies, hairstyle, dress.10:50-10:50Yes.10:53-10:55Things you can do on Sunday.10:57-10:59You can't go to a restaurant 'cause you're making people work.10:59-11:00You can't wash your car on Sunday.11:00-11:01That's considered work.11:02-11:05And you're breaking the Sabbath and there's so much wrong with that thinking.11:05-11:06But it's an issue.11:07-11:08It's an issue.11:09-11:11Things like yoga.11:16-11:20Last and certainly my favorite, Trick or treat.11:26-11:27I hate Halloween.11:29-11:32Not because you dress up like Spider-Man and get a Kit Kat.11:32-11:33I think that's kind of cool.11:34-11:42But just what it does in the church, because you have people that are like, it's fun, let's let them dress up and get candy and see the neighbors.11:42-11:45And then you have people that are like, it's demonic.11:46-11:49And like, I don't know what to do.11:51-11:53That's kind of the flavor of what we're getting here.11:55-11:56See, all these things are gray areas.11:56-12:04There's nothing explicit in the Bible that we can point to where the Bible says, do not do this, do not go trick or treating, do not dance.12:05-12:09Yet we can't find verses in the Bible that explicitly say.12:09-12:12So what do we do with these gray areas?12:12-12:18And the liberty person would say, I'm free to do whatever I want to do.12:19-12:20'Cause I'm free in Christ.12:20-12:22I'm free in Christ, man.12:22-12:24I can do whatever I want, right?12:27-12:28No.12:29-12:37No, not if doing one of these gray area things could cause a brother to sin.12:40-13:34So Paul addressing their issue with the meat gives us principles that apply for all times even until today. I want you to think about this scenario as we go through this passage because here's a real-life scenario that could happen to you where you need to apply these principles, this could happen to you this week. Just imagine the issue of alcohol. First of all, are you free to drink alcohol? Well, the Bible warns about drunkenness, but yes, the Bible does not say, "Thou shalt not ever touch alcohol." Okay? So yes, technically you are free, you are free to drink alcohol.13:37-13:42If you're of age and avoid drunkenness and all that, sure, sure, sure.13:43-13:50Okay, but imagine this scenario, a man who recently comes to harvest decides he wants to go to your small group.13:52-13:55But this man is coming out of an addicted background.13:57-14:00He had a really bad problem with alcohol, he went to rehab.14:02-14:05And this man ends up coming to know Christ.14:05-14:06He's born again.14:06-14:08He received Jesus as his Lord and Savior.14:08-14:10He's been transformed.14:10-14:14And now this man hates how alcohol has wrecked his life.14:16-14:21And this man sees alcohol a whole lot different than you or I might look at alcohol.14:23-14:34All right, so that guy says, "Pastor Taylor, I want to get involved in one of your small groups." And Pastor Taylor gets the guy coming to your small group.14:35-14:43And this week, you're having a barbecue at your small group because the weather is oh so great as it has been.14:45-14:53And as a small group leader, you're wondering, "Well, can I have beer at our small group barbecue?14:58-14:58Can I?15:01-15:46We have alcohol at a church event?" And you're like, "Okay, well this guy's coming and Pastor Taylor sort of told me this man's background and I know that if we have alcohol at our barbecue, it's going to bother that guy. I know that, but I'm free. I'm free to drink it. Why is his problem my problem? Should I still have it even though this guy's coming? I mean, I can have it, so let's just go ahead and have it and he can figure that out, right? Well, that was the Corinthian dilemma. Some mature believers were eating the meat regardless of how it affected the weaker believers.15:47-15:53And I'm glad you're sitting down because you're going to be shocked that this resulted in more disunity problems for Corinth.15:55-15:57Those people fought about everything.15:59-16:00And here's another issue.16:03-16:12So on your outline, listen very closely to this next sentence because you have to understand the angle at which Paul's going after them.16:13-16:26Paul, in 1 Corinthians 8, is going after the three reasons that the mature believers were using to justify eating the pagan meat.16:29-16:33It's okay for us to eat it, and here's why it's okay for us to eat it.16:33-16:39Paul goes after those reasons, and they're the same reasons we use today.16:41-16:55And interestingly enough, Paul agrees with them, but he shows them why their reasons for eating the meat, their reasons for liberty, do not apply in light of how it's going to affect a weaker believer.16:57-16:58All right?16:59-17:03That's why the heading on your outline, it's a big one.17:04-17:10Three valid reasons for liberty that don't work when you have a weaker brother.17:12-17:17All of these are legit reasons for liberty, but they do not work when you have a weaker brother.17:18-17:18Y'all with me?17:19-17:20I can start over.17:21-17:22It's a hot dog and sandwich.17:25-17:28Three valid reasons for liberty that do not work when you have a weaker brother.17:29-17:31Here's the first one, number one, write this down.17:31-17:32I have knowledge.17:33-17:34I have knowledge.17:34-17:36I know some stuff.17:37-17:38I know, okay.17:40-17:40Back to verse one.17:40-17:50"Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge." Stop there.17:52-17:57You see, they were saying, Look, I know I can eat the meat sacrificed to the...17:57-17:58I can do that because I know, I know.17:59-18:01I know what the Bible says about food, okay?18:01-18:05And Peter had that vision, Acts 10, the sheath, everything's clean.18:06-18:09I know about that, I know, I know, I know.18:09-18:11And look, meat is meat, I know.18:14-18:16We do the same thing, by the way, with alcohol, right?18:17-18:18We know, we know some stuff.18:19-18:22Okay, small group leader thinking about having beer at your barbecue.18:22-18:26I know, I know, I know what the Bible says, okay?18:26-18:31And in fact, you know, back in biblical times, they didn't have refrigerators.18:32-18:37So their grape juice fermented, and it was really only like a 3% alcohol on some things.18:37-18:40And it was, but some of the drinks was only 1% alcohol.18:41-18:48And (mimics barking) Look, knowledge is great.18:49-18:56Actually, God's word exalts knowledge, knowing God's truth.18:57-19:01But here's the thing, knowledge isn't everything.19:02-19:02Okay?19:04-19:06Knowledge isn't everything because look at the rest of verse one.19:07-19:18He says, "This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Just having knowledge puffs up.19:18-19:20Knowledge makes people proud.19:21-19:22That's what he's saying.19:22-19:23Knowledge makes people proud.19:24-19:25Have you ever been around that guy?19:26-19:27You know that guy?19:28-19:30The actually guy?19:31-19:32You know that guy?19:32-19:33That's like actually.19:33-19:34You know, you've been around that guy?19:36-19:37If you are that guy, I hope you repent.19:38-19:39But you know that guy.19:39-19:43You're like, man, it was like 80 degrees today.19:43-19:47Actually, it was 77 degrees.19:48-19:49(sniffling)19:50-19:51You got me.19:52-19:53I'm a big fat liar.19:54-20:00Or you're like, strawberries are my favorite fruit.20:01-20:04Actually, a strawberry is not a fruit.20:04-20:05It is a member of the rose family.20:06-20:08Actually, a banana actually is a berry.20:09-20:09Actually.20:14-20:15Knowledge puffs up.20:15-20:19The guy that's just knowledge, obnoxious.20:23-20:29He says, "But love, love builds up." You see, knowledge is about me, but love is about you.20:30-20:32Love is about building you up.20:32-20:37And that's why you gotta have love with your knowledge.20:37-20:38That's Paul's point here.20:39-20:41Actually, he said the same thing, Philippians 1:9.20:42-20:51"And it is my prayer that your love may abound and more with knowledge. You see that? Love with knowledge and all discernment.20:53-20:59All your Bible knowledge does you no good if you aren't operating from a position of love.21:01-21:16So look at verse 2. He says, "If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know." Knowledge is a funny thing, isn't it?21:16-21:20You think you know something, and you don't.21:21-21:30The guy that's walking around thinking he's the expert and he knows everything, usually doesn't really know near as much as he thinks he knows.21:34-21:38You mature people, Paul says, you mature people insisting on your liberty.21:38-21:43You think you're so smart, but you don't know as much as you think you do.21:44-22:04because you're missing what the Christian life is all about and it is love. Biblical knowledge should move you to love. You're like, "Wait, wait, hang on.22:04-22:12How does that work? How does knowledge and love, how does that How does that work together exactly?22:12-22:17And Paul's like, "Like your relationship with God Himself." Look at verse 3.22:18-22:26He says, "But if anyone loves God, he is known by God." There it is.22:26-22:31Knowledge and love working together in your relationship with God.22:31-22:33Both of them have to be present.22:34-22:36So you can know about God without loving Him.22:38-22:45But you don't really know God without loving Him.22:48-22:49So what's he saying?22:49-22:50Here's the bottom line, alright?22:51-22:53Here's the CliffsNotes version of this chunk.22:53-22:58He says, "Your knowledge means nothing without love." That's what he's saying.22:58-22:59Your knowledge means nothing without love.22:59-23:06God doesn't care that you know stuff if you don't love your weaker brother.23:06-23:07That's the point.23:09-23:13So again, you're thinking about having beer at your small group barbecue.23:15-23:20Listen, and that guy's coming that's had the struggle in the past.23:20-23:26Look, that guy that's coming, he doesn't need your list of alcohol facts.23:26-23:27Okay?23:27-23:35What he needs is you to love him enough that you care more about him growing in Christ then you do you having your beer.23:39-23:48So if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, I know some Bible verses, you missed the big picture.23:50-23:52All right, I have knowledge.23:54-23:55Great, great.23:57-24:01Doesn't matter in the face of a weaker brother, you gotta love him.24:02-24:03I love 'em.24:03-24:06Number two, jot this one down.24:06-24:06I have wisdom.24:08-24:09I have wisdom.24:10-24:11There's a difference, right?24:12-24:13Knowledge, you know the facts.24:14-24:19Wisdom is like knowing how to apply the facts, knowing how knowledge works together.24:21-24:23Look at verses four through six with me.24:24-24:39He says, "Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but One.24:41-25:14For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Yet for us, there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." Wow. I could do like a whole series just on like the end of verse 6 there.25:15-25:16That is such an awesome verse.25:16-25:17You should highlight that in your Bible.25:21-25:23That's the gospel right there in verse 6.25:23-25:24This is the gospel.25:24-25:39God came to us in Christ, and we go to God in Christ.25:43-25:44That's awesome.25:47-25:50Regarding the issue at hand, Paul's here saying, "Look, right on, right on.25:51-25:52Hey, I'm with you.25:52-25:54The idol is just a trinket.25:54-25:55There's no boogeyman in the meat.25:56-25:57You have wisdom.25:57-26:03You understand the world in light of the truth of God's Word." Awesome.26:04-26:12Verse 7, "However, not all possess this knowledge." See that?26:13-26:14Paul's agreeing with him.26:14-26:15Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.26:16-26:16I get it.26:17-26:18The idol's a trinket.26:19-26:19Right.26:21-26:22The meat's not haunted, I get it.26:23-26:23You're right.26:24-26:34However, however, look, God in his word has told us everything he wants us to know about him.26:38-26:42But we are all at different levels of understanding.26:43-26:50Some of us are just a little further down the road on our journey than others in maturing with Christ.26:50-26:51That's just the way things work.26:52-26:54We learn, we grow, we mature.26:54-26:56Some of us are more mature than others.26:56-26:57That's just reality.26:59-27:00And that's what Paul's saying here.27:00-27:01He's, "Look, good for you.27:01-27:02You know some things.27:02-27:04You know some things about the idols.27:04-27:05Guess what?27:05-27:07Not everyone understands.27:08-27:09Not everyone's where you are.27:12-27:13Not everyone gets it.27:15-27:42Look at the rest of verse 7, he goes, "But some," talking about the weaker brothers here, "but some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled." Your conscience, he says, "These weaker brothers having a problem with their..." What is the conscience?27:42-27:44We talked about this way and through the book of Hebrews.27:45-27:46Your conscience, what is your conscience?27:46-27:57The conscience is the part of your mind that approves or condemns what you do, based on how you understand right and wrong.27:59-28:00That's your conscience.28:00-28:04And some, Paul says, have a weak conscience, meaning it's immature.28:06-28:28not fully understanding yet. And if a weaker brother eats the pagan meat, they go against their conscience and Paul says, "They are defiled." That word "defiled" actually means "guilty." They feel guilty for doing it. They went against their conscience.28:35-28:49Have you ever believed something for so long that even when you learn the truth, it's hard to let go of that old belief that you held onto for so long?28:51-28:52I think we've all been guilty of that.28:53-28:54You know, here's one for me.28:56-29:01When I was a kid, I've always been an excellent singer.29:04-29:06(congregation laughing)29:14-29:14What is going on here?29:21-29:23Learning to have grace with the weaker brothers.29:24-29:25(congregation laughing)29:28-29:30Pastor Taylor, you are absolutely right.29:30-29:32That statement was sarcastic, you are right.29:33-29:34He is absolutely right.29:34-29:36He's not the weaker brother, he's right.29:36-29:38But I have always been a great singer.29:38-29:49But anyways, when I was little, I would sing at the dinner table, 'cause I'm always singing, I'm singing, doing everything, but I'd come to the dinner table and I'd sing.29:50-29:51And do you know what my mom told me?29:52-29:57She says, "You can't sing at the table because it," anybody know?29:59-30:00She made this up.30:01-30:05My mom said, she says, "You can't sing at the table "because it makes the angels cry."30:07-30:08(congregation laughing)30:12-30:13I am dead serious.30:14-30:18Now I found, I just this minute realized she just made that up.30:20-30:21'Cause I was expecting somebody to shout that out.30:22-30:23Nope.30:25-30:29So I grew up like, don't sing, when I get to the table, I'm like, don't sing, why?30:29-30:38because all the angels in heaven are like, "Oh, please." At first I thought it was just like anybody singing, but I think mom meant my singing.30:39-30:41My singing offended the holy angels.30:41-30:56But so I was like, "Don't sing at the table "because the angels, it just made the angels cry." And you're like, "That's silly." It is, admittedly.30:57-31:05But I gotta tell you, to this day, if I'm eating somewhere and I hear somebody singing, do you know what the first thing is that I think of?31:08-31:09You're making the angels cry.31:10-31:11Way to go.31:13-31:14Do you know what I mean?31:14-31:22I know that's not true, but I do cringe when I hear somebody sing at the table because it was just so ingrained in me my whole life growing up.31:22-31:23Don't sing at the table, don't sing at the table.31:24-31:24Angels are weeping.31:27-31:27Like...31:30-31:34And it was true in this culture that Paul's dealing with here.31:35-31:40Imagine the person that got saved out of idolatry.31:41-31:42That's a huge change.31:44-31:57You know, all this time, for all these years, the evil spirits live in the meat, got to sacrifice to the gods, you get the spirits out of the meat, the evil spirits live in the meat, and then they come to Christ, They get the truth of the gospel, and they're like, "That's not true.31:58-31:59There's no evil spirits in the meat.32:00-32:07It's not true at all." It's totally safe to eat, right?32:08-32:12I mean, it is safe, right?32:17-32:23But, I mean, it is pagan meat.32:23-32:41eat. I mean, I guess it's okay to eat it. I mean, gosh, I just don't feel right about eating it. You see the dilemma? I know, but I...32:46-32:55See, mature believers, mature believers, maybe you understand the real truth about the idols and the mate.32:55-33:05Paul's like, "But your weaker brother, he's not there yet." And love says, "I will forego something that might bother the weaker brother." That's what love says.33:06-33:13Look, spiritual maturity is deeper than right and wrong.33:16-33:30The mature believer says, "How does what I do affect the baby Christians?" And you see with the whole alcohol, with the small group barbecue thing, it's the same principle in play.33:31-33:38If the weaker brother is coming to the barbecue, the loving choice is to not have any alcohol there at all.33:40-33:42Not being legalistic, being loving.33:44-33:48I don't want this to be a problem for you, so we're just going to take it off the table.33:49-33:51We'll have a Dr. Pepper.33:55-34:05Look, if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, "I have wisdom, I know the ways of the world and how it works," you've just missed the whole picture.34:08-34:08One more.34:11-34:15Three valid reasons for liberty that don't work when you have a weaker brother.34:17-34:19"I have knowledge." That doesn't work when there's a weaker brother.34:19-34:22"I have wisdom." That doesn't work.34:22-34:26When you have a weaker brother, number three, here's one that we often use, I have good theology.34:28-34:30And see, these all do kind of bleed together, obviously.34:32-34:33But I have good theology.34:36-34:37Look at verse eight.34:38-34:41He says, "Food will not commend us to God.34:42-34:55"We are no worse off if we do not eat "and no better off if we do." Interestingly, that word commend is literally draw us near to.34:58-35:01What you eat is not going to draw you closer to God.35:04-35:04And that's what he's saying.35:05-35:11Eating doesn't make you holy, nor does eating make you a sinner.35:13-35:15That's good theology, right?35:16-35:16It's good theology.35:18-35:20What you eat will not draw you near to God.35:21-35:24There's only one way to draw near to God, and that's Jesus Christ.35:25-35:29He provided access to God through his death, through his resurrection.35:29-35:32That's the only basis you have of coming to God.35:33-35:35The only way you can draw near is through Jesus Christ.35:36-35:38But it certainly isn't in what you eat.35:41-35:43That's great theology, right?35:45-35:53So God doesn't care what we eat, But, but God does care about his weaker children and the way we love them.35:54-35:55He cares about that.35:55-35:57Look at verses nine and 10.35:58-36:05He says, "But take care that this right of yours "does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.36:07-36:23"For if anyone sees you who have knowledge "eating in an idol's temple, Will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?36:27-36:30Stumbling block, stumbling block.36:30-36:33That's something that makes you sin, right?36:33-36:34That's a stumbling block.36:35-36:41And Paul here says, you're insisting on your freedom can make the weaker brother sin.36:45-36:45What do you mean?36:46-37:03Just simply this, if their conscience says, don't eat the pagan meat, and they see you eating, they're going to feel pressured to go against their conscience and eat, and that will make them miserable.37:06-37:11They're gonna feel the pressure, they're gonna eat, and then they're gonna immediately, I shouldn't have eaten that.37:13-37:20But you know, he makes me feel guilty if I don't join in and eat, but then I do eat, and now I feel guilty that I did.37:23-37:24You see an obvious application, right?37:26-37:33You decide you're gonna go ahead and have alcohol with your little small group barbecue, volleyball extravaganza thing.37:33-37:35And you're like, I'm still gonna have alcohol there.37:36-37:39And that recovering addict shows up.37:40-37:43And he's like, yeah, I don't drink anymore.37:44-37:45It ruined my life.37:48-37:50But everybody else is drinking.37:51-37:54Man, I kind of feel like the odd man out here.37:55-38:01Maybe I should, I mean, these are new friends and I should try to fit in, right?38:01-38:06So, I don't want to look like a weirdo.38:08-38:08And then he drinks.38:10-38:11How does he feel about himself afterwards?38:14-38:15I can't believe I did that.38:22-38:26Listen, never ever violate your conscience.38:28-38:36I have people come to me for counseling all the time and it can be a gray area matter and they'll say, "I just have this conviction about this.38:36-38:39"Is that right?" I tell them the same thing, ask anybody that's come.38:40-38:42I'm like, I will never tell you to violate your conscience.38:43-38:50If you have a conviction and it's different than mine, and it's a non-biblical issue, I am not going to tell you to violate your conscience on that.38:51-38:56And at the same time, do not ever ask someone else to violate theirs.39:01-39:06With your conscience, yes, understand, seek to understand why you feel how you do.39:07-39:11Evaluate if it is from God, but never violate your conscience.39:11-39:13Look, you're going to mature in Christ.39:13-39:19Your understanding of God's word is going to mature, but don't force it.39:23-39:27Let the growth happen naturally for you and for the weaker brother.39:31-39:48And I know at this point in the message, there's still somebody, somebody's inwardly protesting all this, saying, "Why should I care what my choices "have to do with somebody else's conscience?39:48-39:55"Like, why is that any of their business?" Well, look at verse 11.39:57-40:07Paul says, "And so by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.40:13-40:13Why should you care?40:16-40:18Because Jesus does.40:20-40:23How much does Jesus care about this weaker brother, really?40:23-40:25How much does Jesus care?40:26-40:27Jesus died for him.40:28-40:30That is how Jesus regards this man.40:30-40:35That is how Jesus so loves this man that Jesus was willing to die for him.40:36-40:38And that's why you should love him too.40:41-40:57Verse 12, he says, "Thus, sitting against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ." Wow.40:59-41:00Paul ratchets it up.41:01-41:03This is the top of the mountain here.41:04-41:10He goes, "Do you need a reason to not offend the weaker brother?41:10-41:13Do you need a reason for that?" He goes, "Here's your reason.41:13-41:15Here's number one.41:17-41:21Jesus takes any mistreatment of his people very seriously.41:22-41:29You sit against that weaker brother, you're sitting against Jesus himself." And Jesus takes this very seriously.41:32-41:41Look, if you pressure my son into doing something he doesn't wanna do, we are having words.41:45-41:51Jesus has a much stronger stance on this than I do, actually.41:54-42:14Matthew 18.6, "Whoever causes," these are the words of Jesus, "Whoever causes one of these little ones "who believe in me to sin, "it would be better for him to have a great millstone "fastened around his neck "and be drowned in the depths of the sea." You sin against a weaker brother, you're sinning against Jesus.42:15-42:16He takes that pretty seriously.42:17-42:32And again, Matthew 25, verse 40, Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, "As you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, "you did it to me." Serious business.42:34-42:36And finally, verse 13.42:39-42:58Paul says, "Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, "I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." Paul's like, "Look, run the risk of sinning against Jesus?42:58-42:59Nuh-uh, uh-uh.43:00-43:18I'm not going to insist on my liberty, my rights." Paul says, "I will become a vegan before I cause a brother to stumble, because loving Loving my weaker brother is more important than having a burger.43:20-43:24And loving my weaker brother is more important than having a beer.43:28-43:35So if you're insisting on your liberty on the basis of, "Well, I have good theology," you missed the big picture.43:37-43:37All right.43:38-43:39That was the introduction.43:41-43:42Here's the sermon.43:44-43:47Your liberty goes only as far as love.43:50-43:56Like the Corinthians, you can say, "Well, I know the Bible and I understand spiritual truths.43:57-43:59My theology is on point.43:59-44:06I am free in Christ to do whatever I want!" No, you aren't.44:09-44:14You must be willing to lay down your rights if it means protecting your weaker brother.44:17-44:19For communion servers would come up, our worship team.44:23-44:32I'll give you one more reason why we should lay down our rights out of love.44:35-44:37And it's because we have a great example.44:37-44:45You know, the Bible says Jesus did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.44:45-44:46Wrap your head around that.44:47-44:55Jesus had the right to insist on all of the privileges that come with being God.44:58-45:02And he humbled himself to give them up.45:05-45:11The question I have for you this morning is, will you follow Jesus in that?45:13-45:19Are you willing to lay down your rights, your freedoms, out of love?45:21-45:22I want you to stand.45:25-45:31And when you're ready to receive the Lord's Supper, by the way, if you're a born again believer in Christ, this is for you.45:32-45:37You don't have to be a member of Harvest Bible Chapel, but you do have to be a born again believer in Christ.45:38-45:39And if you are, he invites you.45:40-45:49Come down the center aisle, receive the elements, and I'm gonna ask that you take them back to your seat by going to the outside aisle.45:49-45:56And when everyone has the elements, we will receive the Lord's Supper together as an act of church unity.45:56-45:57All right, please come.46:01-46:03Why should I choose to lay down my rights?46:07-46:11because I have a great example in my Lord.46:13-46:20The Bible tells us the night Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and He broke it.46:20-46:43He gave thanks and He said, "This is my body which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me." After the meal, Jesus took the cup He said, "This cup is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.46:45-46:47Drink this in remembrance of Me." Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 8:1-13What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Do you tend to lean more on the side of “legalism” or “libertine”? Why?What exactly is meant by “stumbling block” (1 Cor 8:9)? How could you be responsible for someone else sinning (1 Cor 8:12)?Besides alcohol, what are some examples of gray areas today that we need to be careful to “not make a weaker brother stumble”?BreakoutPray for one another.

“Growing in Christ: Part III”Ephesians 4:1-16I. OUR CALLING AS A CHURCHII. GROWING IN AND THROUGH OUR CHURCH FAMILY

Introduction: Matters of Marriage: A Word for Each of You. (1 Corinthians 7:8-16) Singles: Enjoy the GIFT of SINGLENESS or GET MARRIED. (1 Cor 7:8-9) Single & Want to Get Married? 3 Don'ts: Don't SETTLE. Don't Look for the RIGHT PERSON. Don't Seek MARRIAGE – Seek LOVE. Married Christians: STAY MARRIED. (1 Cor 7:10-11) Married to a NonChristian (Who Wants to Stay Married): STAY MARRIED. (1 Cor 7:12-14) Married to a NonChristian (Who Wants to Leave): LET THEM GO. (1 Cor 7:15-16) Romans 7:2 – For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Matthew 19:8 – He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce...” Matthew 19:9 - “And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.” Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! AUDIO TRANSCRIPT 00:36-00:39Open up those Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 7.00:41-00:42Chapter 7.00:44-00:47We're in the third section of 1 Corinthians.00:48-00:51Chapters 1 through 4 is about unity.00:52-00:54Like church, get it together.00:56-00:58Chapters 5 and 6 are about purity.01:01-01:08And then when we get to chapter 7 verse 1, you see that Paul is addressing some questions that they had.01:10-01:17And the first subject of this Q&A session is marriage.01:20-01:22So that's where we are.01:22-01:24We go where the text takes us.01:24-01:33I'm going to ask that you would please just quiet your heart before the Lord for a moment and pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word.01:33-01:44This is a passage that is going to get a reaction, and it's not about really my opinion or your opinion, it's what did God actually say?01:45-01:46That's what we're going after, right?01:48-01:52So pray for me to be faithful to clearly communicate what God said.01:52-01:57I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is that God said.01:57-01:59All right, let's just take a moment and pray.02:02-02:16Our Father in heaven, I know that many times in my life I've had strong opinions about things that have had to change because of what your Word says.02:22-02:26Because at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what any of us think, Father, It only matters what you think.02:27-02:42So I just pray that you would give us wisdom, that you would eliminate any distractions in our hearts and minds so we can just lock into what your Word has to say here.02:44-02:45It's for the glory of your name.02:46-03:00We pray in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, "Amen." If you've been with us at all through our series in 1 Corinthians, we've seen that everything was a mess, right?03:00-03:06So now Paul's talking about marriage and no surprise, marriage was a mess.03:07-03:09We talked about this last week.03:09-03:16There were people strong on the single side and there were people strong on the marriage side.03:16-03:17Which one is good?03:17-03:21And the answer is both of them are good.03:23-03:28Marriage was a mess in Corinth, and if we're going to be honest, we're not doing so hot here today either.03:31-03:38As I was preparing this, I get an email that has just short news articles in it and updates and things like that.03:39-03:42And I just read this on Friday, I wanted to share part of this article with you.03:43-03:50This is the newest craze, I haven't heard of this one, maybe you have, but the newest craze is divorce rings.03:51-03:52Have you heard of divorce rings?03:53-03:54Raise your hand if you've heard of divorce rings.03:55-03:57Okay, a couple of you have, all right.03:58-04:04This is new as far as this article told us, but I just want to read part of it.04:04-04:18It says, "The diamond ring Alex Weinstein," that's a female, "wears every day is a reminder that once upon a time she said, "I do," these days she happily says she does not.04:20-04:45Weinstein got divorced last March and tossed her engagement ring in a drawer for a few months. Then the Tampa, Florida-based content creator decided to make herself a divorce ring. She reset a radiant three-carat stone from her ex- husband into gold, turning it east to west in a bezel." I should have looked up what that meant.04:45-04:46Anybody know what a bezel is?04:47-04:48Okay, nobody?04:49-04:50All right, I shouldn't have said anything, huh?04:51-04:53I was safe until I just said that.04:53-04:55All right, noted.04:55-04:56That helps me for the second service.04:58-05:07The shame and stigma, the article goes on, "The shame and stigma of divorce has been replaced for some women with empowerment and celebration.05:10-05:17While diamond rings have long been a cultural signifier of marriage, some women are also choosing to mark the end of their matrimonies with a little bling.05:21-05:26Weinstein says, "I'm not proud of getting divorced, but I am proud of putting myself first.05:28-05:34Why shouldn't I celebrate this chapter of my life?" Why am I sharing this article with you?05:36-05:49Because I think if anything sort of personifies how far we have drifted as a culture from God's ideal, I think this kind of nails it.05:50-05:53We are celebrating divorce.05:55-05:56We are celebrating it!06:00-06:04You know, we look at Corinth and we're like, "Man, those people were messed up." Us people are messed up.06:08-06:20Back to Corinth, though, some would say...some in Corinth had said, "Excuse me." Some said, "You know, being single is actually being more devoted to God." And they actually had married people get a divorce.06:21-06:36Like, "Hey, you'll be more devoted to God if you get the divorce." And then there were some that said, "Look, if you want to be devoted to God, you can't have intimate relations with a woman.06:36-06:48So if you want to stay married, just don't have any intimacy." Those were some of the thoughts they had in Corinth, and both of those are wrong.06:50-06:54In the previous passage, again, Paul said, "Staying single is good.06:54-06:56Marriage is good.06:56-06:59And intimacy in marriage should be a regular thing.07:03-07:05But what if I'm not in a biblical marriage?07:09-07:12What I mean is, what if I'm not married to a Christian?07:13-07:29I mean, you could go through the last couple of messages and say, "Oh, that's well and good for two people who love Jesus Christ, have the Word of God as their authority, and Oh yeah, like easy for them.07:31-07:33But what about me, Paul?07:34-07:38My spouse isn't a believer, so what am I supposed to do?07:40-07:41Should I just get a divorce?07:44-07:44What should I do?07:46-09:17Well, in this section we're looking at today, Paul clarifies matters of marriage addressing everyone in the church. Literally everyone in the church and everyone in this church. So this is kind of a good news/bad news thing. We're not having one sermon today. You're like, "All right, we are having four sermons today. All right, four sermons." Because each of these are very specifically addressed to a different group. So first up, matters of marriage, a word for each of you. You can take notes on the other ones if you like, but pay attention into the category you fall. Number one, singles. Singles, a word for you, here it is. Enjoy the gift of singleness or get married. Enjoy the gift of singleness or get married. All right, so if you're here and you're single, if you're streaming and you're single, if for you. All right? If you're single, enjoy that if it's a gift or get married. Look at verse 8. Paul says, "To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am." Unmarried for any reason, right? Paul, once again, this is a We're going to go through this quickly.09:18-09:19We talked all about this last week.09:19-09:21Paul said being single is good.09:23-09:23Right?09:23-09:24Being single is good.09:24-09:26Why is he circling back to that?09:26-09:34Because there were Jews in Corinth that said, "You couldn't be holy unless you were married." That was a common Jewish mindset in that day.09:35-09:36You couldn't be holy unless you were married.09:36-09:41Paul's like, "That's not true." All right?09:41-09:43It's a gift for some people.09:45-09:47And Paul listed himself as one of those people.09:48-09:50Paul here very clearly says that he was single.09:51-09:52Like what happened to Paul?09:52-09:52Did he get a divorce?09:53-09:54Did his wife leave him?09:54-09:55Is he a widower?09:56-09:57We have no idea.09:59-10:03We don't know the details, but we know from this verse that he was single.10:06-10:07Okay, so single people, listen.10:10-10:27not denying that there are pressures to being single that married couples do not have. Things like loneliness, things like trying to manage a household yourself.10:28-10:34There are pressures that single people experience that married people don't.10:35-10:39But Paul is reminding the single people again, it is not wrong.10:40-10:44You don't have to feel like you're a second-rate Christian because you're not married.10:44-10:46It is not wrong.10:46-10:51And we're going to see later in this chapter, there are actually some advantages to being single.10:52-10:54All right, but look at verse 9.10:56-11:05He says, "But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry.11:06-11:16For it is better to marry than to burn with passion." So Paul's like, "Okay, you're single, but you have those urges.11:19-11:20You can't control yourself.11:20-11:23You like want to be with a person so badly.11:24-11:27Like you found that being single really isn't for you.11:27-11:28What should I do?11:28-11:29Paul's like, get married.11:30-11:31Get married.11:32-11:35He says it's better to marry than to burn.11:36-11:37Again, we talked about this last week.11:37-11:40If you have the gift of singleness, you aren't burning.11:42-11:47But if you have those desires, God gave the right context to use them.11:48-11:49That's why he says get married.11:50-11:50Get married.11:50-11:54You have the passion, you have the desire, get married.11:57-12:07I've got to say a couple of things about that, unless somebody runs out of here today, runs right across the street to Pantera Bread, and is like, "Look, Pastor Jeff said to get married.12:07-12:10Are you single?" No, okay, "Are you single?" "No, I'm going to find somebody.12:10-12:11Pastor Jeff said to get married.12:12-12:12It's right in the Bible.12:13-12:15I've got to find somebody today." Let's pump the brakes for a second.12:17-12:17All right?12:17-12:21If you're single and you want to get married, I'm going to give you three don'ts here, all right?12:23-12:27He says to get married, yes, but I want to caution you on a couple of things here.12:27-12:28Three don'ts.12:29-12:30Letter A, don't settle.12:32-12:33Don't settle.12:36-12:38I know being single can be hard.12:39-12:40Do you know what's harder than being single?12:42-12:44Being married to the wrong person.12:46-12:54Rushing into a marriage, not really knowing somebody, not understanding they don't really love you, they don't really love the Lord as they should.12:58-13:02It is absolutely heartbreaking how many times I've seen that.13:02-13:14Somebody wanting marriage so badly that the first single person that comes along that looks eligible and there's some kind of interest, we're rushing right into it, and oh, the regret that comes from that.13:15-13:16I've made a huge mistake.13:17-13:18What do I do now?13:20-13:30settle. Letter B, don't look for the right person. Don't look for the right person.13:34-14:46Like, wait a minute, you just said it was bad to be married to the wrong person, now you're telling me not to look for the right person? Yeah, don't look for the right person. You need to focus on trying to be the right person, all right? Try to to be the right person. In the early days of this church when we were really teeny tiny we had a single guy that came to me. He came up to me, he goes, "Pastor Jeff, I think I'm going to go to another church." I'm like, "Oh, why? What's the matter?" He goes, "I love this church so much, but I really want to meet somebody and I just really want to get married." Not a lot of single people in that tiny church. And I said, "That's a terrible way to pick a church. You know, who's got the best single scene? I said, "That's a terrible way to pick a church." I said, "You need to find a church where God is feeding you and where God is using you. You find a church where that's happening, you trust God to do the rest." He's like, "You're right." He goes, "You're right." And it wasn't long after that he did find a single lady, even in her teeny tiny church, and they're married. They since moved away and they have like, I I don't know, 20 or 25 kids, I don't know.14:47-15:03But the point was he was willing to trust God and seeking God first and seeking to be the person worth marrying, not just trying to find the right person for him.15:04-15:06So try to be the right person for somebody else.15:08-15:12Letter C, I read this great advice from a pastor this past week.15:12-15:19He said, "Don't seek marriage, seek love." Don't seek marriage, seek love.15:20-15:24Because ultimately, you're going to marry the person that you fall in love with.15:26-15:27All right?15:27-15:33So when Paul here says, "Look, if you have the desire," he goes, "Don't burn with passion." He goes, "Go get married.15:33-15:41Go get married." But again, let's temper that with, let's not rush into anything.15:43-15:44It's going to bring regret.15:45-15:52God has called you, God has called all of us to be content and thankful in every chapter of life we find ourselves.15:54-15:56So singles, this sermon's for you.15:56-15:58Enjoy the gift of singleness or get married.15:59-15:59All right?16:02-16:04All right, next sermon.16:04-16:06This is for married Christians.16:07-16:09Are you and your spouse both Christians?16:10-16:38a word for you. Stay married. Very simple. Very simple. Look at verse 10. Paul says, "To the married I give this charge, not I, but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband." Not separate, obviously, he's talking about divorce. So he's talking here specifically to Christian couples.16:40-16:46We know this because he talks about mixed couples in verse 12.16:46-16:49And by the way, let's get this out of the way.16:50-16:56When we talk about mixed couples, or we talk about intermarrying, that has nothing to do with race.16:58-17:00There's only one race, there's the human race.17:01-17:10So as long as you're marrying another human of the opposite sex, oh, the things I didn't think I'd have to say.17:14-17:15Race doesn't matter.17:15-17:16Okay?17:16-17:21So when we talk about mixed marriages, biblically there is no such thing except for mixed faith.17:22-17:26That's what the Bible forbids, mixed faith marriages.17:26-17:28He talks about them in a second, all right?17:28-17:29I felt like I had to say that.17:35-17:50So Christian couples, Paul says, "I get a word for you," he goes, "not I, but the Lord." Meaning Paul's like, "Look, what I'm about to tell you came straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ Himself." This is the Lord's charge, all right?17:52-17:57The Lord's charge is, Christian couples, no divorce.17:59-18:00Divorce isn't an option.18:00-18:02Divorce isn't a word that's said in your home.18:04-18:10Jesus talked about this so many times, Matthew 5, Matthew 19, Mark 10, Luke 16.18:11-18:15Jesus taught over and over that marriage is meant to be lifelong.18:16-18:16All right?18:18-18:45So we're going to try you out for a year or two, if it's not going to work, we have our exit strategy. That's not how marriage is designed according to our Lord. Marriage is meant to be lifelong. And remember, there were some Corinthians that thought, "Yeah, but if you really want to be devoted to God, you've got to get a divorce." And Paul here is just saying, "You know, God's not on board with that." I mean, just imagine for a second.18:48-19:08for a second if that sentiment was legitimate. Let's just pretend for a second that you could be more devoted to God, you could be more devoted to Jesus if you got a divorce. Do you see what would happen? Everyone that's looking for an out would just use that excuse.19:11-19:13They'd be like, "You know what, sweetheart?19:14-19:27I think we should get a divorce because I just want to love Jesus more." Right?19:27-19:28It'd start a new phrase.19:28-19:36It would be, "It's not you, it's Him." Right?19:36-19:37But that was the mindset they had.19:37-19:38And Paul's like, "No, no, no, no.19:40-19:42The words of our Lord are quite clear.19:43-19:52Don't get a divorce." But then you have the person that's like, "Oh, Paul, I wish you would have wrote this letter two weeks ago, because I did buy it.19:52-19:53You know what?19:53-20:00Yeah, we are both believers, but I bought into the idea that getting a divorce would benefit my walk.20:00-20:05So what do you do if you are both Christians and you did get a divorce?20:05-20:09What do you do about that?" Well, look at verse 11.20:09-20:18He says, "But if she does get a divorce, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband.20:21-20:28And the husband should not divorce his wife." Okay, so if you're like, "You know what?20:28-20:33I did get the divorce, and now looking back, we are both believers.20:33-20:37I shouldn't have done that." Paul goes, "Okay, well now you have two choices.20:37-20:58You're either unmarried the rest of your life, or go back to your husband and get back on track." Like, "I'm not sure that's possible." Well, if you're both Christians, forgiveness and healing and reconciliation should not be foreign concepts to you.21:01-21:04So if you and your spouse are both Christians, stay married.21:06-21:07All right?21:07-21:11And as we saw last week, verse 3, married Christian couples, pay your debt.21:13-21:13All right?21:14-21:16I know that's the sermon that always gets applied.21:16-21:20I know the nursery is going to be restocked in about nine months.21:21-21:21I know.21:24-21:25So married Christians.21:26-21:26All right.21:27-21:33This is where things get even more difficult.21:35-21:39This is addressed to those of you who are married to a non-Christian.21:39-21:44And I know there are some people in this church that are married to a non-Christian.21:46-21:49But this non-Christian wants to stay married.21:49-22:02Okay, you're like, "Yeah, my husband's not a believer, or my wife's not a believer, and Like, she's okay with me being a believer, and she's okay with me going to church, and she wants to stay married, so what do I do?22:02-22:03What do I do here?22:06-22:11God says, "Stay married." Stay married.22:14-22:21You know, back in, look at the, back in chapter 6 verse 15, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago.22:21-22:32Paul says, talking about those who were being sexually immoral with the cult prostitutes, he says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?22:33-22:37Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?22:38-23:01Never." You see, there would have been some that heard this principle like, "Okay, so me physically being with a prostitute is like defiling for me, so what about me physically being with a non-Christian spouse?23:02-23:13Well, me being intimate, I mean, isn't it the same principle that I am defiling my body because I'm in this mixed marriage?23:14-23:16We have different faiths?23:18-23:20That's the question on the table.23:23-23:32Regarding mixed marriages, meaning one's a believer and one's not, you're like, "What do you do?" Well, first of all, it's forbidden, single people.23:34-23:42Second Corinthians 6.14, if you're single, listen, if you're single, you are not to get married to a non-Christian.23:45-23:46Corinthians 6.14.23:48-23:50You are not to get married to a non-Christian if you're single.23:52-23:54If you can prevent this, you should prevent this.23:55-24:03That people think, "Well, I'm going to get married to the person and I'll save them, and I'm going to be such a good influence on them," and it usually works the other way.24:07-24:12So if you're single, you are not to marry a non-Christian.24:13-24:23So all right, now with that out of the way, the question is, "Well, what if we were married as non-Christians and I got saved and he didn't get saved?" Or vice versa, man.24:23-24:26You're like, "Well, I got saved and my wife didn't get saved.24:26-24:29What do we do?" Well, look at verse 12.24:29-24:54He says, "To the rest I say, 'I, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her." By the way, when he says here, "I, not the Lord," you know what some people do with that, right?24:55-25:11They're like, "Oh, well, this is just Paul's opinion." So we can sort of disregard this section because Paul here, I mean, he's saying that this is just his opinion, and that's not what he's saying at all.25:13-25:29Back in verse 10, he was saying, "I'm quoting Jesus here." Now in verse 12, he's saying, "This is also from the Lord, but this isn't a direct quote from Jesus, do you see?" He's not saying this is uninspired.25:30-26:06He's just saying, "Before I was directly quoting from the ministry of Jesus, and now this is new revelation from God. That's all he's saying. So what if I'm married to a non-Christian and he wants to stay married? Paul says, "You don't get a divorce, you stay married. That's what you do." Like, really? Verse 13, "If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him." Oh yeah, that question, being with this non-Christian make me unholy?26:06-26:10Like isn't it the same principle as being with the prostitutes?26:11-26:13No, not at all.26:14-26:15Because look at verse 14.26:17-26:26For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.26:29-26:47You see, when one of you is saved and your spouse is not, it's not that the Christian is made unholy in the eyes of God, it's the unsaved person is made holy.26:52-26:53I want to be clear here.26:54-27:01That does not mean that the unbelieving spouse is saved because they're spouses.27:01-27:03That is not what that means.27:03-27:06The Bible is crystal clear on salvation.27:06-27:09Salvation is an individual transaction.27:10-27:14You can't get saved because of somebody else.27:14-27:18Biblically, you have to make the choice to turn from your sin.27:19-27:20You have to make the choice to repent.27:21-27:27You have to make the choice that you are going to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.27:28-27:35It doesn't matter how good of a Christian your grandmama was, or your mama, or your spouse.27:35-27:36It doesn't matter.27:37-27:38You're not saved.27:38-27:40It's not like group raid here, all right?27:42-27:46You're saved by you making the choice.27:47-27:49You're like, all right, so what's he talking about here?27:50-27:57Well, it's a big fancy theological term that's known as matrimonial sanctification.27:58-28:01Impress your friends, drop that in conversation this week.28:02-28:03Do you have a water cooler at your workplace?28:03-28:04Drop that.28:05-28:08Yes, we were talking about matrimonial sanctification at church.28:10-28:12And they're like, "Oh, what is that?" And you'll tell them.28:13-28:18Well, in God's eyes, if one spouse is saved, there's blessing for everyone in the house.28:20-28:22I mean, think about it this way.28:25-28:26Think about it this way.28:26-28:36Imagine this married couple, you have this married couple, and the wife's parents die, and they leave her an inheritance.28:39-28:40They leave her a speedboat.28:42-28:44Now husbands, are you going to benefit from this inheritance?28:48-28:48No?28:49-28:50All right, let me try something else.28:52-28:55Her parents left her a Harley Davidson.28:56-28:58Husbands, are you going to benefit from this inheritance?29:00-29:02Yeah, some of you.29:02-29:03All right, let me try this again.29:06-29:08Her parents left her a monster truck.29:08-29:11Husbands, are you going to benefit from this inheritance?29:12-29:15Okay, this is really going to help for the second service.29:15-29:17Do you see the point?29:17-29:18You got the inheritance.29:19-29:26You know, you're driving grave digger down the road, but you had nothing to do with that, right?29:27-29:31You were blessed just because your wife received an inheritance.29:31-29:33It's the same principle at play here.29:34-29:35You're blessed by association.29:37-29:43In the same way, in marriage, two become one, and when God blesses one, the other gets blessed.29:43-29:48I mean, it's not salvation, but it's better than two pagans being married to each other.29:49-29:49Right?29:49-30:05Think of the blessing that comes to the non-Christian spouse when the Christian spouse is exhibiting the fruit of the Holy Spirit, when the Christian spouse is showing humility and love and service and selflessness.30:05-30:09And how could you not be blessed being in a house like that?30:13-30:14That's what he's talking about.30:16-30:23Oh, and regarding the salvation piece, look, nobody can deny the influence the believing spouse has.30:23-30:32I've heard the story so many times of people getting saved because of the witness that their Christian spouse has had.30:34-30:39So if you're in this situation, if your spouse is unsaved, God wants to reach them through you.30:41-30:43So let him see Christ in you.30:45-30:48And you're like, "Well, that's well and good, but what if we have kids, right?30:48-30:53I mean, I'm saved, he's not.30:53-30:59Does that make our kids like half pagan?" No, no, it really doesn't.30:59-31:01Look at the rest of verse 14.31:02-31:16Paul says, "Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." See, even if you have kids with a non-Christian, your kids are also made holy through that.31:16-31:16Same principle.31:17-31:23Your kids are also blessed through that because God sees your marriage as holy, so He's going to see your kids as holy.31:24-31:30So if you're married to a non-Christian who wants to stay married, God's going to bless the family.31:31-31:34Stay married if they want to stay.31:36-31:38All right, one more.31:39-31:42One more group we didn't cover, and that's the last one here.31:43-31:48Let's say someone is married to a non-Christian, and that non-Christian is like, "I want out.31:49-31:55Like look, I didn't sign up for all this Jesus stuff, all this Bible study stuff.31:55-31:57I didn't sign up for all this church stuff.31:58-31:58I'm not interested.31:59-32:00I'm not a religious person.32:01-32:05I want out." So what do you do when you're married to a non-Christian who wants to leave?32:05-32:07The answer is, let them go.32:09-32:10Let them go.32:14-32:15Look at verse 15.32:15-32:33He says, "But if the unbelieving partner separates," that's divorce, look what he says, "let it be so." If the non-Christian spouse initiates a divorce, Paul says they can go.32:37-32:38And I know the reaction.32:38-32:39You're like, "Wait, wait.32:39-32:40Well, that means I'm stuck.32:41-32:49You know, I wanted to save this marriage, and they divorced me, and now I can never get remarried again because they left me.32:49-32:53So I'm stuck, right?" Paul doesn't say that.32:56-32:57Paul doesn't say that.32:57-33:04Paul was clear on situations where you had to be remaining unmarried.33:04-33:05We saw that in verse 11.33:06-33:11He was clear in those situations, and he could have said that here, but he didn't.33:13-33:14You can remarry.33:14-33:22If you are married to a non-Christian that abandons you, initiates a divorce, and leaves you, you can remarry.33:23-33:24Look at the rest of verse 15.33:25-33:30He says, "In such cases, the brother or sister is not enslaved." God has called you to peace.33:31-33:32Not enslaved.33:33-33:34Like, not enslaved to what?33:35-33:37He's talking about free from being bound to the marriage.33:38-33:39That's what he's talking about.33:41-33:53See Romans 7, 2 says, "For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives." That's what he's talking about here in 1 Corinthians 7.33:53-33:55That's the bound to the marriage.33:55-33:57He goes, "You're not enslaved.33:57-33:58You're not bound anymore.34:01-34:19You're no longer bound to the marriage." Now look, I know some sermons are easier to preach than others, and divorce is a very touchy subjects.34:26-34:27It's always painful.34:28-34:29It always brings regret and hurt.34:30-34:30I know that.34:33-34:40So I want to take a moment and I want to be clear on my best understanding on the subject biblically.34:42-34:43All right?34:44-34:46I don't want there to be any ambiguity.34:47-34:48I want to be clear.34:48-35:00I believe that there is only one cause for divorce biblically, and that is hardness of heart.35:04-35:05Like, why do I think that?35:05-35:08Well, Jesus was asked about divorce in Matthew 19, eight.35:09-35:09This is what he said.35:10-35:24He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce." Jesus said divorce was allowed through Moses, through the law, because of hardness of heart.35:25-35:27Again divorce is allowed, not commanded.35:30-35:30Right?35:31-35:32Allowed not commanded.35:34-35:38But the question is, how do you know when someone is hard hearted?35:40-35:43Towards their spouse or towards their marriage, right?35:45-35:46Kind of a hard thing to gauge, isn't it?35:47-35:52Well Jesus said, "I can divorce you if you're hard-hearted." Well you seem hard-hearted to me, I'm getting divorced.35:52-35:53How do you know?35:54-36:07Well biblically there are two ways that hard-heartedness manifests, and both begin with the letter A. It's affair and abandonment.36:11-36:12Jesus spoke on a fair.36:13-36:30Matthew 19, 9, Jesus says, "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery." Now again, divorce is allowed, but not commanded.36:30-36:39Understand this, when this happens in a marriage, that doesn't mean you are required to get a divorce.36:39-36:43I can tell you so many stories of marriages where this did happen.36:43-36:51And there was much repentance and seeking the Lord, and marriages are on track better than they were on their honeymoon.36:55-37:05But when someone is committed to having relations with people outside the marriage, Jesus says that's evidence of hard-heartedness.37:06-37:08Moses allowed for divorce for that.37:08-37:17Here, Paul is addressing the other manifestation of hard-heartedness, and that's abandonment.37:18-37:22That if your non-Christian spouse divorces you, abandons you, you are free.37:24-37:27That's how you know your spouse is hard-hearted.37:29-37:35When they are willing to engage in relations with someone else, they're hard-hearted towards you.37:35-37:41Or when they're like, "I'm fine to just walk away from this marriage.37:41-37:43I'm fine to walk away from our vows.37:43-37:50I'm fine to walk away from that." Those are evidences of hard-heartedness.37:54-37:57And Jesus says abandonment is like adultery.37:57-37:59I'm sorry, Paul says abandonment here is like adultery.38:00-38:01You are called to peace.38:05-38:10You are not called to fighting a non-Christian to stay in a marriage that they are committed to getting out of.38:12-38:13One more verse.38:15-38:20Paul says, "For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband?38:21-38:31Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?" You know, people are really divided on what this verse means.38:35-38:41Some people think this verse means, "Well, you don't know if you're going to save your spouse, so let them go.38:41-38:43I mean, you have no guarantees, just let them go.38:44-38:56There's no promises are going to come to Christ, if they say let them go." That's what some people think, but other people think this means, "No, no, no, you might be the one that God uses to save them, so you should try to save your marriage at any cost.38:59-39:00I lean towards the latter.39:04-39:05There's no guarantees either way.39:05-39:06You don't know.39:08-39:10You don't know what God's doing.39:13-39:18So you better be sure that you did all you could to save the marriage.39:20-39:23I personally believe that this verse pumps the brakes.39:26-39:38This verse, as one person I read this past week said, this verse tempers any tendency that just easily give up on the marriage.39:41-39:45Because some people are just so quick to run to divorce as like option one.39:47-39:56Again, if things are hard now, how do you know that God isn't using you to reach your spouse?39:58-40:00Our worship team would make their way back up front.40:07-40:16Paul continues, and I think he's doubling down on some of these things because some of it's hard to accept and some of it's hard to hear.40:17-40:20But again, Paul reminds us that singleness is God's gift for some.40:23-40:25Marriage is God's gift for the rest.40:28-40:30One of these four sermons applies to you.40:32-40:37So whichever it is, go after it with the reverence and with the sacredness that God has called you to.40:38-40:39Let's pray.40:41-40:52Father in heaven, we're asking today, Father, that your Holy Spirit be at work in our hearts.40:54-41:03When we talk about singleness and divorce and all these things, it's such an emotional subject because there are people here that have been deeply wounded by these things.41:06-41:12And we by no means, Father, wanna kick someone when they're down or rub salt on the wound.41:12-41:15We just, we wanna take an honest look at what your word has to say.41:17-41:19Father, we thank you for your grace.41:19-41:21We thank you that you are the God of miracles.41:21-41:35We thank you, God, that no matter how badly things might have gotten in marriage, whether it was able to be saved or not, God, there's always hope with you.41:35-41:37There's always healing with you.41:39-41:40That's why we come to you.41:40-41:51Father, I pray for all of us that we would take a hard look at the place you have us right now, because there's something in here for each one of us.41:55-41:59And that we would go after it, trusting you to always do what you promised.42:00-42:02We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 7:8-16What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Explain 1 Cor 7:14. How is the nonChristian spouse made holy because of a Christian spouse? What does that mean?If you are married to a nonChristian who wants out of the marriage (1 Cor 7:15), how do you know when to grant their divorce (when to stop trying to save the marriage, asking for counseling, etc)?Why should you allow a nonChristian to divorce and leave a Christian (v15)? Is the believing spouse free to remarry? Why or why not? BreakoutPray for one another.

February 13, 2026Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeThe Revelation 16:15-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

OPEN HEAVENSMATALA LE LAGI MO LE ASO LULU 11 FEPUARI 2026(tusia e Pastor EA Adeboye) Manatu Autu: Fua mai ni fua mo Keriso 1 (Bear fruits for Christ 1)Tauloto Tusi Paia: Mareko 16:15 “Ua fetalai atu fo‘i o ia ‘iā te i latou, “Ō atu ia ‘outou i le lalolagi uma, ‘inā tala‘i atu ai le tala lelei i tagata uma lava.”Faitauga - Tusi Paia: Ioane 15:14-16I le faitauga mai le Tusi Paia o le asō, na fetalai Iesu na ia filifilia lona au soo e fua mai ni fua ma ia tumau ai. O le upu ‘fua' o lona uiga o agaga. O loo faamanino mai e Iesu e na o i latou e usitai i ana poloaiga e taua o ana uo ma o soo se mea e latou te ole atu ai i le Tamā i lona suafa, e na te foai atu iai latou. O i latou e latalata ia te a'u, e filiga e manumalo agaga mo Keriso aua ou te iloa o le finagalo lea o le Atua. Ou te naunau e manumaloina agaga seia oo ina ou oti. Tusa pe leai ni avanoa, ou te faia avanoa ina ia ou talai atu Iesu i tagata. Na fai mai se tagata ia te au e leai se mea o faamauina ai na faailoga le aso fanau o Iesu, ona ia faaseā mai lea i le faailoga o lo'u aso fanau. Na ou faafetaia o ia ma ou fai iai e faaaoga e le Atua lo'u aso fanau e manumaloina ai agaga mo lona malo. Na filifilia i tatou e Iesu e fua mai ni fua ma tumau i lona malo, ma e tatau ona tatou faaaogaina soo se avanoa e tuliloaina ai. O se faanoanoaga tele ona o le toatele, e lē faatauaina le manumaloina o agaga. Na poloai Iesu iai tatou e o atu i le lalolagi ma talai atu le talalelei i soo se tagata, e pei ona tatou iloa i le tauloto mai le Tusi Paia o le asō. E lei valaau mai iai tatou e o atu i nofoaga e talia ai tatou e tagata pe faigofie ona faia ai le galuega. Na ia valaau mai iai tatou e o atu i le lalolagi atoa, pe lelei pe leaga. A aumai se galuega e le Atua ia tei tatou e o atu e faia, e tatau ona tatou o atu ma faia. I le Galuega 16:6-40, na maua se faaaliga e Paulo na ia vaaia se tamaloa o valaau mai ia te ia e alu atu i Maketonia e fesoasoani iai latou. I luma atu o le taimi lea, sa ia taumafai atu e talai le talalelei i ni nuu i Asia, peitai na faasāina e Agaga Paia. E te ono manatu ona na valaau le Atua ia te ia e alu i Maketonia o le a leai nisi e tetee mai poo ni puapuaga. Peitai, e lei leva ona taunuu Paulo ma Sila i lea nuu, ae fasia i laua ma lafo i le falepuipui. Ui i lea, e lei taofia ai mai le talai atu o le talalelei. O tagata e lei sauni e fetaiai ma mea faigata, e lē mamao le tulaga e oo iai i le usitaia o poloaiga a Iesu, e o atu i le lalolagi uma ma talai atu le talalelei.Le au pele e, e iai taimi, ao e talai atu le talalelei, e teena pe ulagia oe e tagata. Peitai, ia outou loto tetele pe a tupu lea tulaga. Na fetalai Iesu o soo se tagata e sauaina ona o ia e maua e ia le taui e tele (Mataio 5:11-12). Ia e talai pea le talalelei i taimi uma pe talafeagai pe lē talafeagai, ona e susulu pea lea e pei o se fetu e faavavau (Tanielu 12:3). Ia e faamaoni e talai le talalelei  i soo se avanoa e te maua, i le suafa o Iesu, Amene. 

Introduction: 4 Things to Say To Yourself When You're Tempted: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) I can't EXCUSE sin. (1 Cor 6:12-14) I am ONE with Christ. (1 Cor 6:15-17) God says to RUN from sexual sin. (1 Cor 6:18) My body BELONGS to God. (1 Cor 6:19-20) Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANKHint: Highlight blanks above for answers! AUDIO TRANSCRIPT 00:43-00:45What kind of a church is this?00:46-00:48We are a church that sits on four pillars.00:50-00:53We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.00:55-00:58We lift high the name of Jesus in worship.00:59-01:01We believe firmly in the power of prayer.01:02-01:05And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.01:09-01:19Speaking of that first pillar, we're going through a series here Corinthians, and we go where the text takes us.01:21-01:23And today we're going to talk about sexual immorality.01:26-01:28I'm going to be direct but not explicit.01:28-01:33The question comes up, "Should my child listen to this?" But parental discretion advised.01:33-01:36Again, direct but not explicit.01:37-01:44I would encourage you parents, whether you're sitting here or whether you're streaming somebody's going to be talking to your kids about this.01:44-01:54You should be, but they're going to be hearing a lot of different opinions regarding matters of marriage and sexuality.01:54-01:56I think it might do them good to hear God's opinion of it.01:58-02:10So I'm just going to ask you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's word clearly, and I will pray for you to have your heart open to receive what He wants to tell us today.02:17-02:30Father in heaven, let this not just be another sermon sat through, but let Your Word transform our hearts and minds.02:30-02:36Father, give us the faith to believe and act upon what You have already pronounced to be true.02:39-02:41Let this be the day of repentance.02:42-02:52Let this be a day of joy and celebration and truly embracing Your gifts.02:53-02:55Your Word says every good and perfect gift comes from above.02:56-02:57Father, we believe that.03:01-03:04And I thank You, Father, ahead of time for the work that You're going to do.03:05-03:12We pray in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, "Amen." Amen.03:12-03:331 Corinthians chapter 6, we're in a series through 1 Corinthians called "Unified and Purified." Unified, that's the first four chapters, unified, where Paul says, "Church, collectively, get it together." Right?03:34-03:53In this next section that we're in, the church purified, Paul says, "Each of you, be who Jesus saved you to be." And today we are going to be talking about sexual immorality.03:54-04:14And those of you who have been going through this series with us might be saying at this point, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, maybe the cold is affecting your brain, but didn't we talk about that guy two weeks ago?" Oh, you think there was just one person in that church struggling with it.04:16-04:18Did you hurt your head when you fell off the turnip truck?04:19-04:19No.04:20-04:32There wasn't just one person at that church dealing with it, and I guarantee you there's There's not just one person in this church dealing with it.04:32-04:34Look down to verse 18.04:34-04:36This is the sermon.04:38-05:10Verse 18, Paul says, "Flee from sexual immorality." "Flee from sexual immorality." See, in Corinth, they were famous for their temple to Aphrodite, And their priestesses were actually prostitutes, and they would by those means help men worship according to their religion.05:12-05:14That was their context.05:16-05:20But the principles in this passage aren't limited to that.05:20-05:22And you have to get that.05:23-05:37You know, we don't want guys sitting here going, "Well, I'm doing pretty good because I've never been with a prostitute." Flea, sexual immorality, that word sexual immorality covers it all.05:38-05:54Whether it's an affair, or pornography, or one of these apps that allow you to meet up with people, it's anything outside of God's design for marriage and sexuality.05:55-05:59And look, there is nothing new under the sun.06:00-06:06The problem that this church had is the same problem that the church has today.06:06-06:07We touched on this a couple of weeks ago.06:08-06:08Here's the problem.06:09-06:13It's not viewing sex as sacred.06:14-06:14That's the problem.06:17-06:24We've turned this gift from God into some gross form of self-gratification.06:27-06:30So what is the purpose of sex?06:31-06:32What is it?06:33-06:38Well, what is the purpose of everything that God created?06:41-06:44The purpose of everything that God created is to glorify Him.06:46-06:48So what is the purpose of marital intimacy?06:50-06:51You're like, "Really?06:51-06:53To glorify God?" Yeah.06:54-06:54Yeah.06:55-07:01Need I remind you that the whole idea of marital intimacy was God's idea.07:01-07:08The whole idea that this was to be a pleasure shared between a married couple, that was God's plan.07:10-07:12He designed that, right?07:12-07:15Genesis tells us male and female, He created them.07:16-07:19The two shall become one flesh, Genesis 2.24.07:20-07:30That's the purpose of intimacy, but what's the objective of sex?07:30-07:33What's the objective of sexual relations?07:34-07:45Well, some would say, "Well, the objective is procreation, that's it." That's not the primary objective.07:47-07:55And for some, they would say, "It's pleasure." There's that, but that's not the primary objective of sex.07:56-07:59The primary objective is intimacy.08:03-08:05And you need to learn this statement from God's Word.08:08-08:10Intimacy is for those in the covenant.08:13-08:15Intimacy is for those in the covenant.08:18-08:26See under the new covenant, God desires the closest relationship possible that He can have with His people.08:26-08:27So what does He do?08:28-08:31He lives inside the heart of a believer.08:34-08:40And the Bible tells us that marriage and sex is a picture of the gospel.08:41-08:45The man representing Jesus, the woman representing the church.08:45-08:47Ephesians 5, you can read that later.08:48-08:49Same point though.08:51-08:54God's relationship with man, man's relationship with his wife.08:55-08:58Intimacy is for the covenant.09:01-09:05And sex is the physical manifestation.09:05-09:08It's the illustration of such intimacy.09:13-09:19Because in the covenant of marriage, the man representing Jesus is initiating a love relationship.09:20-09:28And the woman representing the church is receiving an intimacy that the two exclusively enjoy.09:29-09:39And the fact right now that people would hear something like that and start to snicker and start to giggle shows you the problem.09:41-09:43That the whole idea of sex has been perverted.09:45-09:47Like obviously, right?09:48-09:49Like how did that happen?09:52-09:56Well the Bible tells us when Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately noticed what?09:58-09:59They noticed that they were naked.10:00-10:01Isn't that strange?10:02-10:06Because up until that point, they only ever saw each other naked.10:07-10:15Now all of a sudden that sin is in the world, now they cast a whole new light on this.10:18-10:22But all of the sudden they had to cover themselves up.10:28-10:33There is a shame associated with sexuality because of sin.10:37-10:46God's wedding gift to men and women has been misused and abused and perverted.10:48-10:58And like the Corinthians, the world's profane, disgusting view of sex has been brought into the church.11:02-11:10And like them, there are many people here that are indulging in some form of sexual sin.11:15-11:18So what's it going to take to get you to break free?11:18-11:18What is it?11:21-11:23I've been doing this a long time.11:23-11:24I know how sermons work.11:24-11:27This is the part of the sermon where you get the stats, right?11:28-11:36You get the statistics on pornography and usage in the church and out the church.11:37-11:39That doesn't make a difference to people.11:41-11:49Or this is the part of the sermon where I can tell you the effect that pornography will have on your marriage and your relationships.11:49-12:05And I can get, you know, line graphs up there or quotes from brilliant scientists talking about the effect that it has on your marriage and the effect that it has on your brain, and that's not going to move anybody.12:07-12:11We could talk about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.12:15-12:24I don't really think any of those things are very effective to get people on track with God's design for marital intimacy.12:25-12:27What we need is the power of the Holy Spirit.12:28-12:31What we need is the wisdom that comes from the Word of God.12:33-12:37So on your outline, that's what we're going after today.12:38-12:50That when you find yourself in a place of temptation, through this passage you're going to see, there's four things that you need to say to yourself when temptation shows up.12:52-12:52Alright?12:52-12:55Number one, break this down, I can't excuse sin.12:56-12:59I just can't excuse sin.13:04-13:12You see, the Corinthians, in their culture, they had some popular sayings that they used to excuse sin.13:12-13:14Look at your Bible, here's two of them.13:14-13:26Verse 12, "All things are lawful for me." Verse 13, "Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food." Stop there.13:26-13:32Those were two of the sayings of the culture, two of the, you know, secular proverbs, so to speak.13:33-13:39But when they wanted to excuse and justify their sexual sin, they would say one of those statements.13:39-13:44And what we have here in 1 Corinthians 6 is Paul systematically breaking them down.13:44-13:51He's like, "Your reasoning is really messed up here." So let's look at it.13:51-13:58First of all, verse 12, he says, "All things are lawful for me." Stop there.14:00-14:01Is that true?14:05-14:20Look, if you are a born-again believer in Christ, if you are truly regenerate, if you are truly saved, you have freedom in Christ.14:21-14:25Yes, nothing can separate you from the love of God.14:25-14:30No sin that you commit will disqualify you from being a child of God.14:30-14:31That is true.14:31-14:32All right?14:34-14:35But let's look at what Paul says.14:35-14:48He says, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful." Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.14:48-14:49This is Paul's first argument.14:51-14:54Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.14:57-15:01Can I have gummy bears and cream soda for breakfast?15:04-15:07Aaron, can I have gummy bears and cream soda for breakfast?15:09-15:11Yes, I can.15:12-15:15And you were all witness that she nodded her head yes.15:16-15:19Look, God's not going to condemn me for that.15:22-15:23Is it very helpful though?15:24-15:26What about, can I play the lottery?15:27-15:29Can I play the...oh, Aaron says no on that one.15:31-15:35For purposes of illustration, can I play the lottery?15:37-15:38Sure I can.15:40-15:44God's not going to send me to hell if I buy a scratchy ticket, right?15:45-15:49If I buy a scratchy lottery, Pastor Taylor, God's not going to send me to hell for that.15:53-15:54But does that make it a good idea?15:57-15:58It's not helpful, is it?15:59-16:00It's not wise.16:00-16:03The lottery is just a tax on people who are bad at math.16:06-16:11Okay, now how about sleeping with someone you're not married to?16:12-16:17If you're a true Christian, that is not going to send you to hell.16:21-16:29Saying that it is not helpful is one of the biggest understatements of all time.16:32-16:33I think that's Paul's point.16:35-16:35It's not helpful.16:37-16:39Sleeping with someone you're not married to is not helpful.16:40-16:44It can result in an unwanted pregnancy.16:47-16:50If she's married, you're going to deal with an angry husband when he finds out.16:52-16:56You're going to deal with shame in your workplace, in your church, in your community.16:59-17:03Your testimony, if you're a Christian, certainly not going to help that.17:04-17:10Oh, and if she's married, now you've destroyed two families, yours and hers.17:11-17:15And if you're not married, you've done damage to future spouses, yours and hers.17:18-17:19There's consequences.17:20-17:21So that's where Paul starts.17:21-17:25He's like, "All things are lawful for me." He's like, "Bag that excuse.17:26-17:30Not all things are helpful." Let's look at the next one.17:31-18:12Back in verse 12, he says, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved anything. Some translations, "I will not be dominated by anything." He goes, "Why would I mess around with something that could enslave me? Why would I do that?" It's just, it's foolishness, right? And sexual sin is addictive, right? Talk to the guy who struggled with looking at things on his computer that he shouldn't be looking at.18:13-18:14It's addictive.18:15-18:21Talk to the girl who's in that wrong relationship that she just keeps going back to.18:21-18:22It's addictive.18:25-18:31I mean, with any sin, one and done is bad enough.18:32-18:43But when you have a sin that just keeps drawing you back in, Paul says, "You really want to mess around with something that's going to consume your life?18:44-18:53I'm not going to be dominated by anything." He's like, "You can bag that excuse too." But there's another one.18:53-18:54Look at verse 13.18:55-18:59He says, "Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food.19:01-19:15And God, this is Paul's commentary on that saying, he goes, "And God will destroy both one and the other." The body's not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.19:19-19:21See that was the other excuse for sexual sin.19:21-19:24Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach's for food.19:24-19:25You see that argument?19:26-19:37The argument is this, look, the act of physical intimacy, it's just biological, right?19:37-19:39It's just a biological thing.19:39-19:43I mean, you guys are a little too uptight about that.19:43-19:46It's just a biological function.19:47-19:49I mean, let me break it down for you.19:49-20:00and my tummy is hungry, and I see food, I'm like, well, I see a connection here.20:00-20:02You two were sort of made for each other.20:03-20:04Let's get this together, right?20:05-20:07It's obvious what needs to happen here.20:08-20:10The food needs to go in my tummy.20:15-20:18He applied that same logic to sex.20:20-20:28It's like, "Look, I have body parts and there is a woman, so it's obvious what needs to happen here.20:28-20:36These two were made for each other." You see, Paul shoots that one down, foolish thinking.20:36-20:40He goes, "Yeah, food and stomach, that's an appropriate match.20:41-20:46body doesn't match with sexual sin.20:48-20:52What body matches with is the Lord.20:53-20:58So your little analogy is fundamentally faulty.21:00-21:04And Paul says further, "More food for the stomach." That's a temporary thing.21:08-21:10That's just a temporary thing.21:10-21:12But your body is the Lord's.21:14-21:15That's an eternal thing.21:16-21:26In other words, Paul says your analogy breaks down because while digestion, yes, is a biological function, sex is not just a biological function.21:26-21:28It's not just a physical act.21:28-21:28It's not.21:31-21:34By the way, your body is not going to be destroyed.21:35-21:36It's going to be glorified.21:36-21:5214, Paul says, "And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power." Paul is saying, "Your body has a glorious destiny.21:54-22:01Don't use it for lust." Paul is like, "Bag that excuse.22:01-22:03It's just a biological function.22:04-22:06You are not a dog, okay?22:08-22:15This act of intimacy is more than just some biological function like eating or drinking.22:19-22:23That saying, "All things are lawful for me," boy, that one didn't go away, did it?22:24-23:18I think we all know people that are like the ultra-grace people that are like, "Hey, because Christ died for me, I can do whatever I want. I have freedom in Christ to do whatever I want." That mindset overtook the Corinthians, and so many Christians today have such a skewed view of God's Word. Look, liberty is not license. All right? Liberty is not license. And I want to say this with as much love and compassion as I can muster here, but you are either unregenerate or you're a toddler Christian if you think freedom in Christ is a green light for anything and everything that you want to do." Those were their sayings.23:20-23:25Boy, we could spend a lot of time talking about some of the sayings that we threw around in our day, right?23:26-23:30We have other popular sayings that we use to excuse sin.23:31-23:32I've heard them all.23:34-23:40Here's a big one, you've heard this one, when people want to excuse their sexual sin, they're like, "Everyone does it." You heard that one?23:40-23:41Everyone does it.23:41-23:45Oh, okay, that's the measure of what's appropriate, right?23:45-23:47As long as everybody's doing it, then it must be okay.23:50-23:52You can bag that excuse.23:54-23:55Here's one that I hate.23:56-24:08I've heard so many times people say, "Well, you wouldn't buy a car without test driving it, huh?" A problem with that analogy, we're talking about a human being, not a car.24:08-24:17If I go to a lot and test drive a car and decide not to buy it, that car isn't going to carry emotional damage with it for the rest of its life.24:21-24:22You use cars.24:23-24:24You don't use people.24:25-24:27Beg that excuse.24:28-24:37You hear people say, "Well, you know, come on, a man has needs." Yeah, yeah, a man does have needs.24:37-24:38A man needs Christ.24:39-24:41Let's focus on that need.24:41-24:43That's the most important need.24:43-24:44Let's go after that one.24:45-24:46Or how about this one?24:48-24:49"Oh, you don't understand.24:49-25:01We love each other." Okay, well if you love her that much, then you should enter into a covenant with her and honor the Lord with it.25:02-25:10But if you don't love her enough to enter the covenant with her in marriage, then you shouldn't be physical with her.25:12-25:13Beg that excuse.25:15-25:18Paul says, "Your body's not meant for sexual sin.25:18-25:20It's not meant for self-gratification.25:20-25:21It's meant for the Lord.25:21-25:22It has a glorious destiny.25:22-25:31And here's the bottom line, church, you are never going to repent if you're always looking for an excuse to sin.25:36-25:43So next time you are tempted, you need to stop and say, "I can't excuse sin.25:44-25:45I can't excuse this.25:47-25:51There's nothing I can say before God that would make this sin okay.25:53-25:54I can't excuse sin.25:56-25:56All right?25:56-26:05Number two, when you're tempted, you need to learn to stop and say this, "I am one with Christ.26:07-26:09I am one with Christ." Look at verses 15 through 17.26:11-26:18Paul goes on, he says, "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?26:22-26:28Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?26:28-26:29Never!26:32-26:39Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her?26:41-26:45Or, as it is written, the two will become one flesh.26:48-26:54But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.26:55-26:57I am one with Christ.26:57-27:05You see, Paul was talking to the Corinthians who were worshipping with the temple prostitutes.27:06-27:16Like you're taking a body, your body, the personal property of Jesus, and using it to gratify yourself in a relationship with a godless woman.27:19-27:25And this is equivalent to dragging Christ Himself into prostitution.27:26-27:29That is an absolutely horrible thought, but that's what He says.27:31-27:32Think about that.27:33-27:38Think about how repulsive and appalling this is.27:38-27:39Think about it.27:42-27:46I mean, would you call Pastor Taylor up and say, "Hey, a bunch of us are going down to the strip club.27:46-27:48You want to go with us?" Would you do that?27:52-27:54Not in a million years would I do that.27:58-28:05Or would you call up Pastor Rich and say, "Hey, we're going to go downtown and see if we can pick up some women.28:05-28:10You want to come with us?" You would never do that.28:14-28:18But see, the reality, according to God's Word, is far worse.28:20-28:29Because the Bible says we are one with Christ, and engaging in sexual immorality is joining Christ Himself in the act.28:33-28:36Be like asking Jesus to go pick up prostitutes with you.28:40-28:41Absolutely foul.28:43-28:50But you know, it's the same principle, men, when you're looking at things on your computer that you shouldn't be looking at.28:51-28:52It's the same principle.28:52-29:15It would be like calling Jesus up and saying, "Hey, why don't you come over and surf the net with me. Let's look at some stuff together. Would you do that? It's the same principle when you're sneaking around with a co-worker. "Hey Jesus, we're going to call my wife and say we're working late, but we're really going to meet up with so-and-so." Would you do that?29:17-29:21Or when you use an app to meet up with people for a physical relationship.29:24-29:28Look, if you're a Christian, the very thought of that's repulsive.29:28-29:30There's nothing funny about that at all.29:32-29:36So the next time you're tempted, you need to stop and say, "What am I doing?29:36-29:39I am one Spirit with Christ.29:39-29:44Why in the world would I drag the Lord into engaging in this garbage?29:48-29:56I'm one with Christ." Number three, four things to say to yourself when you're tempted.29:56-30:00Number three, God says to run from sexual sin.30:02-30:11Here it is, verse 18, "Flee from sexual immorality." Flee.30:12-30:13Get away.30:18-30:19This is how you win.30:25-30:26I grew up in the '80s.30:28-30:38And I, you know I never, I don't like bragging.30:40-30:44But I'm going to, for a couple of minutes if you'll indulge me.30:47-30:52But I grew up in the '80s, and one of my favorite things about the '80s was Mike Tyson.30:54-31:00Now some of you might remember, or might know of Mike Tyson, rather, seeing him in movies, or cartoons, or whatever.31:01-31:02That's not the Mike Tyson that I knew growing up.31:03-31:05Growing up, I could not wait.31:06-31:23HBO would show his fights, he'd come out with the ripped towel over his head, he had the coin laced in his boot, and he would just come out, and it would be like, "Ding, blaka blaka!" Like, "Ouch!" Look it up on the YouTubes if you don't believe me.31:23-31:28It was, he was an absolute monster.31:32-31:39You know, always the highlight, you know, to watch the usually 90-second fight or whatever.31:41-31:44But okay, I don't, but listen, like I said, I don't want to brag.31:47-31:52But I have never lost a fight to Mike Tyson.31:56-31:58And I know what some of you are thinking.31:59-32:10Some of you are thinking, "Yeah, Pastor Jeff, well, Mike Tyson probably didn't fight ten-year-olds." And I would say, "Look, my record speaks for itself.32:12-32:19I have never lost to Mike Tyson. Not one time. Do you know why I've never lost to Mike Tyson?32:20-32:26Because I wasn't stupid enough to show up to fight him. That's the principle here.32:29-32:37Look, it's the same thing with sexual sin. If you stay and try to fight, you will lose.32:39-33:04That's why you don't fight it. The Bible says you run from it. You run from it. And I got to tell you guys, that's why many of you are losing the battle with pornography today. You've isolated yourself again. You're on your computer or your phone again, and you lost again because you showed up.33:08-33:22That's why some of you continue to go too far physically with that person that you're not married to, because you ended up alone with her again, and you gave in to desire with her again.33:22-33:26You showed up again, and you lost again.33:30-33:34You will give in every time you show up.33:35-33:37That's why God says to run.33:38-33:38Run!33:42-33:42Why?33:42-33:44What's the urgency here?33:44-33:45Look at the rest of verse 18.33:47-33:49This is about as serious as it gets.33:49-33:59He says, "Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.34:00-34:01Please hear me.34:01-34:09Sexual sin is not the worst sin, but it is unique in its consequences.34:10-34:15The Bible says when you sin sexually, you are actually sinning against your own body.34:18-34:23Other sins don't affect you the same way that sexual sin does.34:27-34:28Other sins affect outwardly.34:29-34:33There's something different about sexual sin, it affects you inwardly.34:39-34:40Why is that?34:40-34:41Listen closely, please.34:42-34:55No other physical act that you commit in your body carries the spiritual weight that sexual intimacy does.34:55-35:02So no other sin is going to bring the impact that sexual sin brings.35:07-35:10It consumes, it destroys like no other sin.35:13-35:21You know, over the years I've seen a lot of preachers who have disqualified themselves for ministry because of sin.35:22-35:24Do you know what the most common reason is?35:27-35:28You could probably guess, huh?35:31-35:32I do a lot of counseling.35:33-35:38Do you know what's the most common area we find where people need help?35:43-35:44You probably guess.35:46-35:53We've lost ministry, we've hurt our families, we're doing damage control all because we didn't flee.35:54-35:59We showed up, we thought we could handle it this time, and we lost again.36:02-36:04Nobody's surprised but you.36:06-36:20So the next time you're tempted, stop, stop, and say, "This is so serious that God says I should run from it." All right?36:21-36:25And finally, number four, four things to say when you're tempted.36:25-36:28Number four, "My body belongs to God.36:31-36:35My body belongs to God." Look at verse 19.36:37-36:51He says, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" Humans have a unique capacity.36:54-37:00are the only thing in creation that have the ability to be indwelt by God Himself.37:01-37:03No other creature can say that.37:05-37:10God lives inside you if you're a follower of Christ, if you're a believer.37:11-37:13You know, you are the temple of God.37:13-37:31In the Old Testament, the temple of God was a building, and when Jesus walked the earth, The temple, the tabernacle of God was in one man, Jesus Christ, but now under the new covenant, God's temple is in the heart of every believer of Christ.37:35-37:35You're the temple.37:38-37:38What would you think?37:40-37:54What would you think of someone who, during sermon time today, they were looking at explicit of the opposite sex on their phone during the sermon, what would you think about that?37:55-37:57Wouldn't you just sort of be appalled?38:00-38:04Like, I can't believe during the preaching of the Bible somebody was looking at that.38:04-38:05Wouldn't that be appalling?38:06-38:17Or what would you think if there was someone in this church that was having an affair, and they decided that this room was a perfect private place?38:17-38:22Some night through the week when nobody's here, they sneak in here and have an affair right in this room.38:22-38:23What would you think about that?38:24-38:28Wouldn't you be like, "What is the matter with you?38:28-38:39You did that in church?" I don't want to burst any bubbles, but this room, this room is really nothing special.38:40-38:41This is an office building.38:47-38:49That was a rumpus room before we moved in here.38:51-38:53And who knows what they'll do with it when we're gone.38:54-38:56This room is nothing special at all.38:59-39:02You are the temple of God.39:02-39:04You are holy property.39:04-39:15God says, "You are where I live." So every time you commit sexual sin, no matter where you do it, you're doing it in God's living room.39:19-39:35He goes on, look at verse 19, he says, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price to glorify God in your body." You have a holy obligation to Jesus.39:35-39:36You are not your own.39:37-39:40Listen, you have no right to yourself.39:44-39:53You have no right to yourself, because you were bought with a price.39:55-39:56What did it cost to buy you?39:58-40:00It cost the blood of Jesus Christ.40:08-40:10You know, everybody is so concerned about their rights.40:12-40:14"I have rights!40:15-40:16I'm going to stand up for my rights!40:17-40:24I know my rights!" You know, as Christians, we have no rights.40:25-40:26Did you know that?40:30-40:34As a Christian, all I can say is, I'm not my own.40:36-40:37I don't even belong to myself.40:40-40:44This body belongs to Jesus.40:45-40:47This body was heading to hell.40:48-40:56This body was going to be separated from God forever, and Jesus Christ bought this back with His own death.40:57-40:59So this belongs to Jesus.40:59-41:00He paid for it.41:04-41:13So, you know the saying that was so popular, and there's still remnants of it, people walking around going, "My body, my choice." That's not biblical.41:15-41:34You want to make it biblical, you say it this way, "Christ's body, Christ's choice." So, he says, "So, glorify God in your body." We are a wholly motivated church.41:34-41:36We are wholly motivated.41:36-41:38Our highest priority is to glorify God.41:40-41:51Physical intimacy in the covenant of marriage, the purpose for which God designed intimacy, When that act occurs, that glorifies God.41:52-42:00And refusing to allow your passions to control you, when you flee from sexual immorality, you glorify God.42:03-42:07So next time you're tempted, you need to stop and say, "No, no, no.42:09-42:19This belongs to God." You know, the church is called the Bride of Christ.42:22-42:35Jesus desires intimacy with His bride, so He entered a covenant with His bride, and He keeps His covenant because He is faithful to His bride.42:35-42:39And that is exactly what we are called to emulate as children of God.42:40-42:49I keep my covenant to my bride because that's what my Lord does." Her worship team would make their way back up front.42:53-42:58Look, when you leave here today, at some point you're going to be tempted.43:00-43:09You're going to be tempted to think of something you shouldn't, to look at something you shouldn't, to do something that you shouldn't.43:09-43:34going to be tempted. Some of you, it might be tomorrow or Wednesday. Some of you, it might be on your way to the car from church. I want to encourage you, if that's a struggle for you, keep this outline and make it a steady habit in your devotions to read and review These principles from God's Word.43:36-43:45If you're unmarried and you keep finding yourself tempted, sit down and read these together with your boyfriend or girlfriend.43:48-43:53How about you make these four statements the lock screen on your phone?43:55-43:59I can't excuse sin because there is no excuse.44:00-44:03Number two, I am one with Christ.44:06-44:09God says to run from sexual sin.44:11-44:14And my body belongs to God.44:16-44:16Let's pray.44:20-44:32Our Father in heaven, I pray, Father, again by the power of your Holy Spirit, by the wisdom of your Word that today would be the day of repentance.44:34-44:46That some people for too long have just made excuses or shrugged their shoulders or have just given up any thought that this is a sin that can be avoided.44:47-45:07I pray today, Father, that we reexamine the purpose of it and that we would be a people You are truly wholly motivated to enjoy this gift in the way which you told us to enjoy.45:09-45:22Thank you, Father, for this glorious picture that you've given us of Christ faithful to His bride.45:25-45:26Give us the faith to imitate that.45:26-45:28We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Small Group DiscussionRead 1 Corinthians 6:12-20What was your big take-away from this passage / message?Explain the expressions the Corinthians used to justify sexual sin (1 Cor 6:12-13)?What expressions do people use today? How do you refute those?How exactly is sexual sin different from other sins (1 Cor 6:18)?How would you respond to a Christian that justifies their sin by saying, “I have freedom in Christ to live how I want!”? (See 1 Cor 6:19-20) BreakoutPray for one another.

OPEN HEAVENSMATALA LE LAGI MO LE ASO GAFUA 19 IANUARI 2026(tusia e Pastor EA Adeboye) Manatu Autu: Faamanuiaga e lē suia (Irrevesible blessings)Tauloto Tusi Paia: Eperu 6:13-14 “Auā a o folafola mai e le Atua ‘iā Aperaamo, ‘ua lē mafaia ‘ona tautō ia i se tasi e sili ‘iā te ia, o lea na tautō ai o ia ‘iā te ia lava. ‘Ua fa‘apea mai, “E moni lava, ‘ou te matuā fa‘amanuia ‘iā te oe, ma ‘ou matuā fa‘ato‘ateleina lau fānau.”‭‭Faitauga - Tusi Paia: 2 Samuelu 7:1-16I le faitauga o le Tusi Paia o le asō, na fetalai le Atua ia Tavita, ‘Tusa pe faatigā sou atalii ia te a'u pe a e oti, ou te aoai ma faatonu ia te ia ae ou te lē aveesea lo'u alofa mutimutivale mai ia te ia. Ou te fa‘atumauina ma mausalī lou nofoāli‘i e fa‘avavau, poo le a lava le mea e tupu.'. O le mafuaaga lea o Iesu, o le Tupu o Tupu, na faailoa mai o ia o le a'a ma le fanau a Tavita i le Faaaliga 22:16. O le faataitaiga lelei lea o se faamanuiaga e lē suia. A e faitau loloto i le faitauga mai le Tusi Paia o le asō, e te iloa ai, o le folafolaga a le Atua na faia ina ua faatoa maea ona faia le filifiliga a Tavita e na te fauina lona malumalu. O se mea e lei faia muamua e se tagata mo le Atua. I le Kenese 22:1-8, na fai e le Atua se tamai suega mo Aperaamo i le faatonu e ave lona atalii e osi ai le taulaga. Ina ua pasia le suega a Aperaamo, na tauto le Atua ia te ia lava, e faamanuia ia te ia, “‘ua ‘ou tautō a‘u ‘iā te a‘u; ‘ua e faia lava lenei mea, ‘ua e lē tāofia lou atali‘i, o lou atali‘i e to‘atasi; o le mea lea ‘ou te matuā fa‘amanuia ai ‘iā te oe, ma ou matuā fa‘ato‘ateleina lava lau fānau e pei o fetū o le lagi e pei o le oneone fo‘i i le matāfaga; e maua fo‘i e lau fānau faitoto‘a o ē ita ‘iā i latou. O lau fānau fo‘i e manuia ai atu nu‘u uma lava o le lalolagi auā ‘ua e usiusita‘i i la‘u ‘upu.” Kenese‬ ‭22‬:‭16‬-‭18‬E lei manaomia ona tauto le Atua aua a fetalai loa, e taunuu lava. Peitai na tauto le Atua e faaalia o le faamanuiaga ua ia folafolaina e le toe suia. O loo faailoa mai ai iai tatou, o le maua o le faamanuiaga e lē toe suia mai le Atua, e tatau ona tatou faia se mea e pai i lona loto. E mafai ona faamanuia le Atua ia te oe e lē mafai ona toe suia pe afai tatou te faia se mea e faafiafia ai i le Atua. O se tasi tagata e mafai ona faia se folafolaga e lē toe suia, o lou tamā. I le Kenese 27:30-33, fai mai le Tusi Paia e lei leva ona maea ona faamanuia Isaako ia Iakopo, ae foi mai Esau sa alu e tulimanu. Ina ua iloa e le tamā e sese le tagata ua ia faamanuia iai, na ia fai atu ia Esau ua maea ona ia faamanuia ia Iakopo ma e lē mafai ona toe suia. A e faitau auiliili i ia fuaiupu mai le Tusi Paia, e te iloa ai na maua e Iakopo lea faamanuiaga ina ua maea ona ia saunia se meaai faapitoa na faafiafiaina ai lona tamā. A e faia se mea e fiafia ai lou tamā e faaosofia o ia e faamanuia ia te oe mai lona loto, ma e lē mafai ona toe suia. Ou te tatalo e foai atu e le Atua ia te oe ni faamanuiaga e lē mafai ona toe suia, i le suafa o Iesu. Ia e faia se mea taua mo lou tamā poo seisi e faatamā ia te oe i lou olaga i le asō ma ole atu te ia e faamanuia atu ia te oe, i le suafa o Iesu, Amene. 

David Jernigan 0:15Hello! Dr. Deb 0:16Hi there, sorry for all the confusion. David Jernigan 0:19Oh, no worries, you gotta love it, right? Dr. Deb 0:21Oh, I can’t hear you. David Jernigan 0:23No way, let’s see, my mic must be turned off? Dr. Deb 0:27Hang on, I think it’s me. Let’s see…Okay, let’s try now. David Jernigan 0:40Okay, can you hear me? Dr. Deb 0:42Yep, I can hear you now. David Jernigan 0:43Excellent, excellent. And, how are you today? Dr. Deb 0:48I am good, thank you. How about yourself? David Jernigan 0:50I’m good. Well, it’s good to finally meet you and get this thing rolling. Dr. Deb 0:56Yes, yes, I’m so sorry about that. David Jernigan 0:58That’s alright, that’s alright.So… Dr. Deb 1:01Yeah, go ahead. David Jernigan 1:03So, tell me about yourself before we get going. Dr. Deb 1:06Yeah, so I am a nurse practitioner. I’m also a naturopath. I have a practice here in Wisconsin. I’ve been treating Lyme for about 20 years, so I’m really excited to have this conversation and learn what you’re doing, because it’s so exciting and new. David Jernigan 1:21Well, thank you. Dr. Deb 1:22Yeah, so we treat a lot of chronic illness patients, do some anti-aging regenerative things as well, so… David Jernigan 1:30Yeah, I went to your website and saw you guys are killing it, looks like. Dr. Deb 1:35Yeah. David Jernigan 1:35Got a lot of good staff, it looks like. Dr. Deb 1:37Yeah, we’ve got great staff, great patients, busy practice. We have 5 practitioners, so we have about 15,000 patients in our practice right now. David Jernigan 1:46Well, excellent. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah, yeah.So, I’m excited for this discussion. Dr. Deb 1:53Good, me too. So I pre-recorded our intro, so we can just kind of dive right in, and I’ll just ask you to kind of introduce yourself a little bit, tell us a little bit about yourself, and, and then we can just dive right into it. David Jernigan 2:08All right. I’m Dr. David Jernigan, and I own the Biologic Center for Optimum Health in… Franklin, Tennessee, and I’ve been in practice for over 30 years. I shook Willie Bergdurfer’s hand, if anybody knows who that is. It’s kind of infamous now with some of the revelations that have happened about Lyme being a bioweapon and weaponized. But, you know, I’ve been doing this, probably longer than almost anybody that’s still in the business in the natural realm. It chose me. I did not choose Lyme. Matter of fact, there were many times in my career that I was like. You know, cancer’s easier because of the fact that everybody agrees, you know, what we’re dealing with. And in the 90s, it was a whole different reality, where nobody actually understood that you could have Lyme disease and not be coming from New England.You know, so I had actually the first documented case of a Lyme disease, CDC positive.Patient that had never left the state of Kansas before. So they couldn’t say that it wasn’t in Kansas, and so she had actually been, pregnant with… twin boys, and they were born CDC-positive as well, and so it is transmitted across the placenta we know.So, I, you know, the history of how I did all this was, in the 90s, probably 1996, probably, somewhere in there, 97. With this woman, you know, I… if you go into Robin’s pathology books from back then. Which we all used, medical doctors and everybody else studying. you know, there was basically a paragraph about Lyme disease, and on the national board tests, as you recall, it was probably like, what causes, or what is, bullseye rash associated with? And you’d had to guess Lyme disease, of course. Dr. Deb 4:07Female. David Jernigan 4:08But that was, you know, considered to be more a New England illness, and you would never see it anywhere else. But here was this woman. I knew… nothing about Lyme beyond what we had gotten taught in college, which was, like I say, next to nothing. And she would not let me stop feeding me information. I mean, you gotta remember, the internet wasn’t even hardly in existence in those years. I mean, it was brand new. It was supposed to be this information highway, and So I started purchasing, like a lot of doctors do even now, they start purchasing every kind of new supplement that’s supposed to work for bacteria. There was no product in those days that actually was Lyme-specific. I mean, nobody was really dealing with it naturally. It was always a pharmaceutical situation. Dr. Deb 5:04And a very short course at that. David Jernigan 5:06Yeah, 2 weeks of doxy and you’re cured, whether your symptoms are gone or not, which… she’d had the 2 weeks of doxy, and her symptoms and her son’s symptoms were not gone. And so, I absolutely just purchased everything I could find. Nothing would work. I mean, I could name names of products, and you would recognize them, because they’re still out there today. Dr. Deb 5:28Which is. David Jernigan 5:30Kind of a… A sad thing that natural medicine is still riding on these things that have the most marketing. Dr. Deb 5:37As opposed to sometimes the things that actually have the documented research. David Jernigan 5:42Behind it, and I am a doctor of chiropractic medicine, and I specialized all these years in chronic, incurable illnesses of all types. That may sound odd to a lot of people, but doctors of chiropractic medicine are trained just like a GP typically would be. The medical schools, as I understand it, got together, decades ago and said, wow, if all we did was… Crank out general practitioners for the next 10 years, we wouldn’t have still enough general practitioners to supply the demand. Dr. Deb 6:17Right. Everybody in medicine, in medical schools, wanted to be a specialist, because that’s where the money was, and it was… David Jernigan 6:24Easier, kind of, also, to… you know, just focus on one part of the body, and specialize in that. Dr. Deb 6:31Expert in that one area. David Jernigan 6:32So we all now have the same training. We all go through pre-med. We got a bachelor’s degree, I got my bachelor’s degree in nutrition, and through, Park University in Parkville, Missouri. And so, you know, when I ran out of options to purchase, I just used a technology that I developed, which was an advancement upon other technologies, but I called it bioresonance scanning. And I coined the term back in the 90s. It was a way to kind ofKind of like a sensitive test, you know, like you might. Dr. Deb 7:09I wouldn’t. David Jernigan 7:09Of applied kinesiology, then clinical kinesiology, then chiro plus kinesiology, then, you know, you can just keep going with all the advancements that were made. Well, this was an advancement upon those things, so… I developed… I was the first in… in… my known world of doctors to develop a way to detect adjunctively, obviously we can’t say it’s a primary diagnosis. Adjunctively detect the presence of a given specimen. So we could say, thus saith my test. It’s highly likely you have Borrelia burgdurferi. And, but I had to have the specimen on hand to be able to match what I call frequency matching to the specimen. Brand new concept in those days. And so I was able to detect whether or not my treatments were successful or not. This is something even now that’s really difficult for doctors, because antibody tests, even the most advanced ones, it’s still an antibody test. It’s still an immune response to an infection.And accurately, you know, some doctors will slam those tests, saying, well. That doesn’t mean you actually have the infection, that just means your body has seen it before, which is a correct statement, kind of. So being able to detect the presence, and even where in the body these infections are was a way huge advancement in the 90s, for sure it’s kind of funny, I think about a conference I went to, and cuz… I’m kind of jumping ahead. Because I ended up developing my own formula, just for this woman and her children, and it worked. And I was like, wow! Their symptoms were gone, all the blood tests came back negative. In those days, we were using the iGenX. Western blot, eventually. And the, what was called a Lyme urine antigen test. I don’t know if you remember that, because it… Only decades later did I meet, the owner of iGenX, Nick Harris. Dr. Deb 9:17Person. And I was like, whatever happened to the Luwat test? Because I took it off the market after a while. He said, honestly, we lost the antigen and couldn’t find it again. Oh, no. David Jernigan 9:27And so… but that was a brilliant test. It was the actual gold standard in those days. Again, the world… it can’t be understated how different the world was in the 90s. Dr. Deb 9:40Yeah. David Jernigan 9:41Towards natural medicine, even. Dr. Deb 9:44Oh, yeah. We think… we think it’s bad now, but, like, when I started, too, I started in the early 2000s, like, we were all hiding under the radar, like, you didn’t market, we would have never been on social media, we didn’t run ads, we didn’t do any. David Jernigan 10:00Right. Dr. Deb 10:01Because the medical boards were coming for us. David Jernigan 10:04Came after me. Dr. Deb 10:05Because I had the word Lime on my page, my website. David Jernigan 10:10You know, not saying that I treat Lyme. Dr. Deb 10:13Hmm? David Jernigan 10:13Yes Dr. Deb 10:15Just talking about mind. David Jernigan 10:16And it’s funny, because, once I had this formula, it was something… and I trained in Germany, in anthroposophical medicine, and they’ve been trained in herbal… making herbal extracts, making homeopathic remedies in the anthroposophical methodology, and I trained with the Hahnemann versions of homeopathy, which is just slightly different. Yeah. And, so I was well-versed with making some of my own formulas by that time. And so, it was really something that I wrote on the bottle, you know, and I had to call it something, so I called it Borreligin, which is still in existence, and it’s still a phenomenal herbal remedy right now. And to my knowledge, it’s the only frequency-matched herbal formula. Maybe still out there. Because unless you knew how to do my testing, the bioresonent scanning, there was no way to actually do frequency matching. Matter of fact, as a really famous herbalist attacked me online, saying, oh, none of these herbs will kill anything. And I’m like, that wasn’t what I was saying. I was saying, back in those days, I was saying, well, if… what would the body need to address these infections?You know, not, like, what’s gonna kill the infections for the body. Dr. Deb 11:38Right. David Jernigan 11:39Right? So it was a phenomenal way, but the LUAT test was amazing because what you’d do is you would give your treatment, like an MD would give an antibiotic for a week, ahead of time. Trying to increase the number of dead spirochetes showing up in your urine one day out of 3 days urine catch. So you’d wake up in the morning, you’d collect your urine 3 days in a row, and any one of those being positive is a positive. But it was a brilliant test because it wasn’t an antibody test. They were literally counting the number of dead pieces of Lyme bacteria in your urine. I mean, it was pretty irrefutable. So I had a grand slam on the… the Western blot on patients, and I’d also have a grand slam on the LUAT, and their medical doctors would say, oh, that doctor in the lab are probably in cahoots change some lab. Dr. Deb 12:38Of course. David Jernigan 12:39That come in. And I still see that today. You know, it’s like, oh my gosh, the better the tests are getting. There’s still a bias if you do your own research. Well, if you happen to be a doctor who loves research. And you’re a clinician, so you actually treat patients who’s gonna write the research study? Well, of course, the doctor who did the study, well, he’s biased, and I’m like, I still can’t influence lab tests. Well, lab tests aren’t everything. People scream over the internet at me. It’s like, well, a negative lab test doesn’t mean anything. I was like… I get that with the old Western blot testing. Dr. Deb 13:16Right. David Jernigan 13:16The more sensitive tests, which are very close to 100%, Sensitivity, and 100% specificity. So, meaning, like, they can… if you have the infection, they’re gonna find it. Dr. Deb 13:30They’ll find it, yeah. David Jernigan 13:31And if they… if you have the infection, they’re going to be able to tell you exactly 100% correctly what kind of infection it is. Back in those days, you couldn’t, you could just count the dead pieces, which was… Dr. Deb 13:43Yeah. David Jernigan 13:43Significant, but It’s funny, because when medicine does that, you know, mainstream medicine that’s backed by all the nice foundations who donate millions of dollars towards the research. Their negative tests are significant, but if you fund your own, Yours isn’t that significant. Dr. Deb 14:04Right, or what if we call something a seronegative autoimmune disease, like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, because none of the tests are positive, but you have all the symptoms. Here, let me give you this $100,000 a year drug. David Jernigan 14:19Yeah. Dr. Deb 14:19And instead of looking for what might actually be causing the symptoms. That’s all okay, but what we do is not okay. David Jernigan 14:27Right. Yeah, it’s a double standard, and it’s getting better. I want to do… tell the world it is getting better. Some of the dinosaurs are retiring. Dr. Deb 14:36No. David Jernigan 14:37Way for people who are… Are more open-minded to new ideas. But, getting back to that woman, she… that formula that I made just for her and her son, I… She went online. Dr. Deb 14:54Which, I had never been on a news group. David Jernigan 14:58Not even sure I knew what one was, you know? Imagine, I’m kind of that dinosaur that… Cell phones were, like, these really big things with a big antenna sticking out of it, and… Dr. Deb 15:09Nope. David Jernigan 15:10So I thought I was pretty hot stuff, just that I actually had a computer software program that was running my front desk. And even then, it was an Apple IIe computer. Dr. Deb 15:21Right. David Jernigan 15:22Probably be pretty valuable right now if I’d kept it, but… Dr. Deb 15:25Mmm… David Jernigan 15:26It being an antique. But, suddenly people were calling my clinic, because the lady with the twin boys that was well was telling people on these research, I mean, these Lyme disease forums and boards online. And, I started going, oh my gosh, you know, as a doctor, it’s one thing to treat a person in your clinic, it’s a different thing to have your clinic name on the label. Like, we all do, Even now, and you’re supposed to write everything that’s on the label, and… all these guidelines, and I’m like, wow, I need to split this off. I mean, I def… I definitely want to help people, and this is… I was pretty excited about the results we were getting. Pre-treat… Pre-treatment and post-treatment. And, so… that’s where I developed, my nutraceutical business in the 90s called Journey Good Nutraceuticals. My advice to anybody thinking about doing the same thing, don’t put your last name on it. Dr. Deb 16:25– David Jernigan 16:25You know, because anytime negative anything comes out, there goes the Jernigan name, you know, the herbal, you know, there’s just all these, and especially nowadays, with all the bots that are just designed to slam natural medicine. Dr. Deb 16:38Yeah. David Jernigan 16:39And that is out there in a… and just ugly people. Dr. Deb 16:42Or should we just say, people with a different opinion? How’s that? David Jernigan 16:46Yeah. That are being less than supportive. Dr. Deb 16:49But. David Jernigan 16:51It was amazing, because by 1999, I presented my research, my first research, I’d never done research. This is what I would… I would say to a lot of people who go, my doctor did… I don’t know, my doctor doesn’t know what you’re doing, my doctor… I was like going, you know, most doctors don’t do research. They don’t publish anything. Their opinion is their opinion, but they don’t back it up in peer review, right? And so that’s what I always tried to do, was back it up in peer review and publish. And so, in 1999, I presented at the International Tick-Borne Diseases Conference in New York City. I’m telling you, it was like the country boy going to the city, you know, I got my… I got my suit on, and I looked all right, and my booth was wonderful, and all these different things, and it was just a big wake-up call.Because what we had demonstrated… let’s get back to the… and this was what I demonstrated with that first study. was that… A positive LUAC test, that Lyme urine antigen test for my Gen X, was a score of 32. Meaning, one of those 3 mornings urine had 32 pieces in the amount of urine they checked of deadline bacteria spirochetes. Okay? Okay. With antibiotic challenges, a highly positive was a score of 45. Dr. Deb 18:19Wow when I would give one dropper 3 times a day for a week. David Jernigan 18:24Ahead of time, and then do the person’s LUAT test, We were getting scores 100, 200… And at that point, we only had a couple, but we had a couple that were greater than 400. Yeah, dead pieces, where the lab just quits counting. They just said, somewhere over 400, right? Dr. Deb 18:45Yeah. David Jernigan 18:46Which, when the medical system at the conference, you know, I was the only natural doctor in the world that was… had any kind of proof of anything naturally that could outperform antibiotics. Can you imagine? Dr. Deb 18:59Yeah. And… David Jernigan 19:01They were just, oh my gosh, incredulous. They’re like, I’ve given the most… one guy came up to me, and to my face, and he goes, I’ve given the most aggressive antibiotic protocols And I’ve only seen one patient over 100. I was like, that makes this pretty significant, doesn’t it? But, it didn’t just, like, make us take off, because guess what? In Lyme world, if a pharmaceutical antibiotic made you feel horrible. That meant it was working. Dr. Deb 19:28That’s right. We used to, back in the day, if you didn’t herx. And had that horrible die-off reaction, for those of you who don’t know what a herx is, but if we didn’t make you herx, we weren’t doing our job right. David Jernigan 19:40You’re looking for your patients to feel horrible, and sometimes to the level of committing suicide. Dr. Deb 19:46Yes. David Jernigan 19:47So bad. Dr. Deb 19:48Yes. David Jernigan 19:49And I was the first doctor, I think, in the world to start screaming and hollering and saying, stop using the worsening of your patient’s symptoms as a guide to good treatment, because they’re… I wasn’t seeing it with my formulas. Because I was doing a comprehensive program of care. I think I was also one of the first doctors to say, we need to detoxify these people as we’re doing this. And you would sit there and say, well, sure you were. I was like, well, remember, there wasn’t a lot of communication. There wasn’t anybody on the internet saying, do this, do that. And, It was, it was interesting in those days. It was, how do you… How do you help the world heal from these things? That they don’t know they have. So later, I actually had a beautiful booth at a health… a big health expo in Texas, I remember, and I was like, you know, you spend a lot of money on the booth, and… Dr. Deb 20:43Yup. David Jernigan 20:43And you’re thinking about it because you’re funding the whole thing, you say, wow, if I only sell one case, I’ll at least cover my cost. Dr. Deb 20:51Yep. Yeah, you’re great. David Jernigan 20:52And I had this beautiful banner of, like, a blown-up tick’s mouth under microscope. You know those beautiful pictures of, like, all the barbs sticking out, and how they anchor themselves in your skin, and… And, thousand people walking by my booth, and they’re just like, keep walking, because they didn’t know they had Lyme. There was, like, and they had MS, maybe, but they don’t have Lyme, and so they just would keep walking. Nobody even knew. Why would I go to a conference in Texas? And I’m trying to say, no, guys, it’s everywhere. Dr. Deb 21:24Yeah. David Jernigan 21:24And… and everybody, you know, yes, you probably have this, you know, kind of thing. If you’re… if you… are chronically ill, almost, of any kind of way. You know, kind of trying to tell people this was… Again, in Robin’s pathology textbooks, one of the few things that it did tell you about Lyme was that it was called the Great… the New Great Imitator. Because it would imitate up to 200 or more different illnesses. So, it’s been an interesting journey, of… educating people, writing articles, but it was interesting, the lady who I first fixed, Laboratory verified, everything like that, symptoms went away, all that kind of fun stuff. Her children were fine, they’ve been fine for years now. When she went on the newsboards in the Lyme disease support groups, It created a war. Oh my goodness, it was like, how dare you? And, say that something natural might actually help, right? Dr. Deb 22:30Right, exactly. David Jernigan 22:32And, I even had… A… one of those first calls to… with a marketing company at one point, way a long time ago. And the lady got on the phone, the owner of the marketing company goes, I would have blood on my hands if I actually took your clinic on. Yeah, you can’t treat Lyme disease, and… Even the big, big associations that are out there are still largely that way. I mean, they’re getting better, but it’s just like… you know, a lot of the times, it’s herbs are good. Herbs will help. Good, you know, but they’re safe. So, it’s still a challenge to… to… present in mainstream Lyme communities, even. Because there’s this… Fear of doing anything outside of antibiotics. Dr. Deb 23:32Yeah, so let me ask you this. From your perspective. Why do you think so many chronic infections exist these days, like Lyme and the co-infections, Babesia, Bartonella, mold illness? And we talked a little bit about herbs and why they, antibiotics and things like that fail, but let’s talk a little bit about that. David Jernigan 23:53So, it’s fascinating. When I trained in Germany, they said that we, as humanity, has moved away from what they called the inflammatory diseases. You know, in the old days, it was. Lots of high fevers, purulent, pus-generating bacterial infections. And I said, as a society, we have… Dr. Deb 24:14Have shifted from those to what they call cold sclerotic diseases, which are your… David Jernigan 24:21Cancers, your diabetes, your atherosclerosis, your… and they said, we’re starting to see what used to only be geriatric diseases in our children. That’s how bad it’s gotten. We have suppressed fevers, we don’t… we don’t respect the wisdom of the human body. So, you know, the doctors say, step aside, body, I will fix this infection for you with this antibiotic. And so, what we’ve done with the, overuse of antibiotics, and this isn’t me just talking from a natural perspective, this is… Right, it’s everybody around the world is acknowledging. I’ll show you… I could show you a, a presentation, if we can do a screen-sharing situation. Yeah. About the antibiotic situation in the world, because it’s really concerning. But what I would say, and kind of like an advancement forward, is we are seeing mutated bacteria. You know, they talked about… do you remember when they found the Iceman, you know, the… You know, the prehistoric guy that’s… In the eyes, and he had Lyme bacteria. I was like, he had spirochetes, maybe. Dr. Deb 25:33Yeah. David Jernigan 25:33That isn’t a modified, mutated version. That’s just maybe the… Lyme… you know, Borrelia… call it Borrelia something, you know, it’s a spirochete, but what we’re dealing with today. Even under strep or staph, as you know, you know, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, you name it, whatever kind of infection a person has is not the same bacteria that your grandparents dealt with. Dr. Deb 26:01That’s right. David Jernigan 26:32It’s a much mutated, stronger, more resistant to treatment type of thing. So, I think that’s one reason. I think the, It’s great that we’re seeing, you know, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. bringing awareness to things that Like it or not, yeah, seed oils do create inflammation, and everyone in the natural realm, as you know. Has been trying to say this for probably how long? Dr. Deb 26:35Yeah, 25, 30 years. 20 years each. David Jernigan 26:48Yes. You know, thank goodness for people like Sally Fallon and her beautiful book, Nourishing Traditions, that started you know, Dr. Bernard Jensen’s books way back in the day, Dr. Christopher’s books way back in the day. Dr. Deb 26:48Damn. David Jernigan 26:49You know, all of them were way ahead of their time, saying, by the way, your margarine is only missing one ingredient from being axle grease. Dr. Deb 26:58Yeah. David Jernigan 26:58I think that was Dr. Jensen saying that at one point, probably 50, 60 years ago, I don’t know. Dr. Deb 27:03Yep. David Jernigan 27:04So, we’ve created this monster. We, we live in a very controlled environment, you know, of 72, 74 degrees at all times, we don’t sweat, we don’t have to work that hard, typically. You know, most of us aren’t out there like our ancestors were, so that’s making us more and more… Move towards the cold sclerotic diseases, of which even Lyme disease is, you know, which… Yes, it has inflammation, yes, but as a presentation, it’s very often associated with some of these Cold sclerotic diseases of mankind that we see now. Dr. Deb 27:46You have it. David Jernigan 27:47Yeah. Dr. Deb 27:48So, tell me, what is phage therapy? David Jernigan 27:52Well, may I show you a cool video? Dr. Deb 27:55Yeah, I’d love that. David Jernigan 27:56I did not make this video, this is just one of my favorites, because it’s from the National Institute of Health. Let’s see if I can just… Click the share screen thing. And get that to pop up. That’s not what I’m looking for, but it’s gonna be soon. Let’s go here… Alright, can you see that? Dr. Deb 28:18Yeah. David Jernigan 28:19Okay. Modern medicine faces a serious problem. Thanks in part to overuse and misuse of antibiotics, many bacteria are gaining resistance to our most common cures. Researchers are probing possible alternatives to antibiotics, including phages. So, bacteriophages, or we like to call them phages for short, are naturally occurring viruses that infect and kill bacteria. The basic structure consists of a head, a sheath, and tail fibers. The tail fibers are what mediate attachment to the bacterial cell. The DNA stored in the head will then travel down the sheath and be injected inside the cell. Once inside the cell, the phage will hijack the cellular machinery to make many copies of itself. Lastly, the newly assembled phages burst forth from the bacterium, which resets their phage life cycle and kills the bacterium in the process. Someday, healthcare providers may be able to treat MRSA and other stubborn bacterial infections using a mixture of phages, or a phage cocktail process would be first to identify what the pathogen is that’s causing the infection. So the bacterium is isolated and is characterized. And then there’s a need to select a phage in a process known as screening of phage that are either present in a repository or in a so-called phage library. That allows for many of the phages to be evaluated for effectiveness against that isolated I don’t know, bacterium. Phages were first discovered over 100 years ago by a French-Canadian named Felice Derrell. They initially gained popularity in Eastern Europe, however, Western countries largely abandoned phages in favor of antibiotics, which were better understood and easier to produce in large quantities. Now, with bacteria like these gaining resistance to antibiotics, phage research is gaining momentum in the United States once again. NIAID recently partnered with other government agencies to host a phage workshop, where researchers from NIH, FTA, the commercial sector, and academia gathered to discuss recent progress. NIH… So… That is… That is what phage therapy in… is. in what I call conventional phage. Let’s see, how do I get out of the share screen? Hope you already don’t see it. Dr. Deb 30:58Yep, at the top, there should just be a button. David Jernigan 31:00I don’t. Dr. Deb 31:00Stop sharing, yeah. David Jernigan 31:01So… Conventional phage therapy, as you just saw, is a lot like what it is that we’re doing, only the difference is they’re taking wild phages from the environment. They’re finding phages anywhere there’s, like, a lot of bacteria. And then they isolate those phages, and like he said, the gentleman at the very end said we put them in a library, and so there are banks of phages that they can actually now use, and One of the largest banks that I know of has about 700 different bacteriophages, or phages. In their bank that they can pull from. Dr. Deb 31:43Wow. Do you want to take a guess? David Jernigan 31:46How many bacteriophages they’ve identified are in the human gut, on average? Dr. Deb 31:52Oh my god, there’s gotta be more… David Jernigan 31:53Kinds, different kinds of phages, how many? Dr. Deb 31:56There’s gotta be millions. David Jernigan 31:57Well… In population, there’s… humongous numbers, numbers probably well beyond the trillions, okay? Hundreds of trillions, quadrillions, maybe, even. But in the gut, a recent peer-reviewed journal article said that there were 32,242 different types of bacteriophages that live naturally in your intestines, your gut. Dr. Deb 32:25Boom. David Jernigan 32:2632,000. Okay, so… If you read any article on phage therapy that’s in peer review, almost every single one in the very first paragraph, they use the same sentence. They go, Phages are ubiquitous in nature. They’re ubiquitous in nature. So my brain, when I find… when all this finally clicked together, and when we clicked together 5 years into my research, I could not get it to work for 5 years. I just kept going. But that sentence really got me going. I was, like, going, you know. If you look at what ubiquitous means, it says if Phages were the size of grains of sand. Like sand on the beach. They would completely cover the earth and be 50 miles deep. How crazy is that? Dr. Deb 33:24Wow. David Jernigan 33:25That’s how many phages are on the planet. There’s so many… they outnumber every species collectively on the planet. So, it’s an impossibility in my mind. I went, huh, it’s an impossibility that… You catching a, a sterile Bacteria, it’s almost an impossibility. Since the beginning of time, phages have been needing to use a reproductive host. And it’s very specific, so every kind of bacteria has its own kind of phage it uses as a reproductive host. Because phages are… and this is a clarification I want to make for people. just like in the old days, we were talking about the 90s, I talked to a veterinarian that had gotten in trouble with the veterinary board in her state. Dr. Deb 34:14Back in the old days. David Jernigan 34:16Because she gave dogs probiotics. And the board thought she was giving the dogs an infection so that she could treat them and make money off of the subsequent infection. Dr. Deb 34:28Oh my god. David Jernigan 34:29Nobody actually had heard of good, friendly bacteria in the veterinary world, I guess she said she had gotten in trouble, and she had to defend herself, that, no, I’m giving friendly, benevolent, beneficial bacteria. Okay, to these animals, and getting good results.So, phages… Are friendly, benevolent, beneficial viruses. That live in your body, but they only will infect a certain type of bacteria. So… What that means is if you have staff.Aureus, you know, Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. That bacteria has its own kind of phage that infects it called a staph aureus phage. E. coli has an E. coli phage. Each type of E. coli has its own phage, so Borrelia burgdurferi has its own Borrelia burgdurferi type of phage, whereas Borrelia miyamotoi alright? Or any of the other Borrelia species, or the Bartonella species, or the… you just keep going, and Moses has its own type of phage that only will infect that type of bacteria. So that’s… You know, when you realize, wow, why are we going to the environment Was my thought. Dr. Deb 35:54Yeah. David Jernigan 34:55Trying to find wild phages and put them into your body, and hopefully they go and do what you want them to do. What if we could trigger the phages themselves that live in your body to, instead of just farming that bacteria that it uses as a host, because what I mean by farming is the phages will only kill 40% of that population of bacteria a day. Dr. Deb 36:20Wow. David Jernigan 36:20And then they send out a signal to all the other phages saying, stop killing! Dr. Deb 36:24It’s like. David Jernigan 36:2560% of the bacteria population left to be breeding stock. It’s kind of like the farmer, the rancher, who… he doesn’t send his whole herd to the butcher. Dr. Deb 36:35Right. David Jernigan 36:36Just to, you know, he keeps his breeding stock. He sends the rest, right? So, the phages will kill 40% of the population every day, just in their reproduction process. Because once there’s so many, as you saw in the video, once the phage lands on top of the bacteria, injects its genetic material into the bacteria, that bacteria genetic engine starts cranking out up to 5,200 phages per bacteria. Dr. Deb 37:06I don’t know who counted all those… David Jernigan 37:08Inside of a bacteria, but some scientists peer-reviewed it and put it out there. that ruptures, and it literally looks like a grenade goes off inside of the bacteria. I wish I’d remembered to bring that video of a phage killing a bacteria, but it just goes, oof. And it’s just a cloud of dust. So, you’re breaking apart a lot of those different toxins and things. So… That’s… That was the impetus to me creating what I did. That and the fact that I looked it up, and I found out that phages will sometimes go… Crazy. I don’t know how to say it. Wiping out 100% of their host. And it could be a trigger, like change in the body’s pH levels, it could be electromagnetically done, you know, like, there’s been documentation of… I think it was, 50 Hz, electricity. Triggering one kind of phage to go… Crazy and annihilate its host population. There’s other ways, but I was, like, going, none of those fit me, you know? It’s not like I’m gonna shock somebody with a… Jumper cable or something to try to get phages to… to do that kind of thing. But the fact that it could be done, they can be triggered, they can switch and suddenly go crazy against their population. But what happens when they kill 100% of their host? The phages themselves die within 4 days. Dr. Deb 38:45Hmm. Because they can’t keep reproducing. David Jernigan 38:47There’s nothing to reproduce them, yeah. Dr. Deb 38:49Yeah. Especially… unless they’re a polyvalent phage, that means a phage that can segue and use. David Jernigan 38:54One or two other kinds of bacteria. To, as a reproductive host. But a lot of phages, if not the majority, are monovalent, which means they have one host that they like to use. And so… Borrelia, so… my study that I ended up doing, and I published the results in 2021, And it’s a small study, but it’s right in there at the high end, believe it or not, of phage research. Most phage research is less than 30 people. In the study. But, we did 26 people.And after one month of doing the phage induction that I invented, which only… Appears to only, induce or stimulate the types of phages that will do the job in your body. I don’t care what kind of phage it is. I don’t care if it’s a Borrelia phage, it may be a polyvalent phage that normally doesn’t use the Borrelia burgdurferi as its number one. Host, but it can. To go and kill that infection. And the fascinating thing is, there was a brand new test that came out at the same time I came out with the idea, literally the same weekend they presented. Dr. Deb 40:1511. David Jernigan 40:15ILADS conference in Boston in 2019. It was called the Felix Borrelia phage Test. So the Felix Borrelia phage test. Because Borrelia are often intracellular, right, they’re buried down in the tissue, they’re not often in the blood that much. And therefore, doing a blood test isn’t really that accurate. But you remember how there’s, like, potentially as many as 5,200 phages of that type erupt from each bacteria when it breaks apart. It’s way easier to detect those phages, because they’re now circulating, those 52, as you saw in the video. 5,200 different phages are now seeking out another Borrelia that they can infect. And so, while they’re out in circulation, that’s easy to find in the bloodstream. So, 77% of the people, so 20 out of 26, were tested after a 2-week period. After only a 4-day round of treatment. Because according to my testing, remember, I can actually test adjunctively to see if I can find any signatures for those kinds of bacteria. And I couldn’t after 4 days, so we discontinued treatment and waited Beyond the 4 days that would allow the phages themselves to die, so we waited about a week and a half.And redid the test. And 77%, so that 20 out of 26 of the people, were completely negative. Dr. Deb 41:50Wow. David Jernigan 41:52Which, you go, well, it’s just a blood test. Well, no, we actually had people that were getting better, like, they’d never gotten better before. We had one woman who was wheelchair-bound, and in two weeks was able to walk, and even ultimately wanted to work for my clinic. I’m just, like, going… Dr. Deb 42:07I didn’t want to write about all that. I wanted to write about the phages. I was like… David Jernigan 42:12article, I probably should have put some of those stories, because, Critics would say, well, you got rid of the infection, maybe, but… Did you fix the Lyme disease? Well, that’s… there’s two factors here that every doctor needs to understand. There’s the infection in chronic illness, there’s the infection, and then there’s the damage that’s been done. Because sometimes I have these people that would come in and say, well, Dr. Jernigan, it didn’t work for me, I’m still in the wheelchair. And I’m like, no, it worked. Repeat lab test over months says it’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s like, we would follow, and 88% of the people we followed long-term were still negative, which is amazing to me. Dr. Deb 42:56And then they have to repair the damage. David Jernigan 42:59It’s the damages why you still have your symptoms. And that’s where the doctor has to get busy, right? Dr. Deb 43:06Right David Jernigan 43:06They were told erroneously by their doctor that originally treated them that they’d be well, they’d get out of the wheelchair, if he could actually kill all these infections. Dr. Deb 43:15It’s not true. David Jernigan 43:16Unless it’s caught early. So I love the analogy, and I’ve said it a thousand times.that Lyme disease and chronic infections are much like having termites in the wood of your house. If you find the termites early, then yeah, killing the infection, life goes back to normal, the storm comes and your house doesn’t fall down. But if it’s 20 years later. Killing the termites is still a grand idea. Right. But you have the damage in the wood that needs to be repaired as well. All the systems… when I talk about damage to the wood, I mean, like. All the bioregulatory aspects of the body, how it regulates itself, all the biochemical pathways, the metabolic pathways we all know about, getting the toxins that have been lodged in there for many years, stopping the inflammatory things that have been running crazy. Dealing with all those cytokines that are just running rampant through the body, creating this whole MCAS situation. Which are largely… Dr. Deb 44:21Coming from your body’s own immune cells called macrophages, which are not even… David Jernigan 44:26It’s not… a virus at all, it’s part of the immune system, it’s like a Pac-Man, and research shows that especially in spirochetes. There is no toxin. Now, I wrote 4 books. I think I wrote the very first book on the natural treatment of people with Lyme disease back in the 90s. Why did I write that? Not because I wanted to be famous, it’s a tiny book, actually, the first one was.I was just trying to help people get out of this idea that you will be well when you kill all the bugs. I was saying, it’s… you need to be doing this. If you can’t come to my clinic, at least do this. Try to find somebody that will do this for you. And that ultimately led to a bigger book.as I kept learning more, and I was like, going, well, okay, now at least do this amount of stuff. And you need to make sure your doctor is handling this, this, this, and this. And so, the third book was, like, 500 and something pages long. And then the fourth book was 500 and something pages long, and now they’re all obsolete with the whole phage thing, because this just rewrites everything. Dr. Deb 45:34Yeah. David Jernigan 45:34It’s pretty fascinating. Dr. Deb 45:37Do you think the war on bugs, mentality created more chronic illness than it solved? David Jernigan 45:44Because of the tools that doctors had to use, yes. We’re a minority, we’re still a minority, you and I. Dr. Deb 45:54Yep. Our doctoring… David Jernigan 45:56Methods I never had, and you’d never… maybe you did, but I’d never had the ability to grab a prescription pad and write out a prescription. I had to figure out, how do I get… and this was… and still my guiding thing, is like, how do I identify, number one, everything that can be found that’s gone wrong in the human body. And what do I need to provide that body? Like, the body is the carpenter. That has to do the repair, has to regenerate, has to do everything, has to get… everything fixed right? We can’t fix anything. If you have a paper cut, there isn’t a doctor on the planet that can make that go away. Dr. Deb 46:38Right. David Jernigan 46:39Of their own power, much less chronic illnesses. So, all the treatments are like the screws, saws, hammers, you know the carpenter must be able to use. So a lot of the time, doctors are just throwing an entire Home Depot on top of the carpenter. In the form of, like, bags of supplements, you know, hundreds of supplements, I’ve seen patients walk in my door with two suitcasefuls. And they were taking 70 bottles, 65 to 70 bottles of supplements, and I’d be just like, wow, your carpenter who’s been working for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He’s exhausted. There’s chaos everywhere, you don’t know where to. Dr. Deb 47:22Starting. David Jernigan 47:22He goes, you want me to do what with all this stuff? Dr. Deb 47:25Yep, I’ve seen the same thing. People… thousands, you know, several thousand dollars a month on supplements, and not any better. But they’re afraid to give up their supplements, too, because they don’t want to go backwards, either, and… there’s got to be a better way on both sides, the conventional side and the alternative side, although you and I don’t say it’s alternative, that’s the way medicine should be, but… David Jernigan 47:48Right. Dr. Deb 47:49We have to have a good balance on both sides. David Jernigan 47:52And I will say, too, in defense of doctors using a lot of supplements, I do use a lot of supplements. Dr. Deb 47:57Yeah, I do too. David Jernigan 47:58but I want to synergize what I’m giving the patient so that the carpenter isn’t overwhelmed and can actually get the job done. Like, everything has to work harmoniously together, so it’s not that… It’s not the number of supplements, and why would you need a lot of supplements? Well, because every system in your body is Messed up. My kind of clientele for 30 years. Our clientele, yours and mine. Dr. Deb 48:25Yeah. David Jernigan 48:26They have been sick, For decades, many of them. Dr. Deb 48:31Yeah. David Jernigan 48:31And if they went into a hospital, they honestly need every department. They need endocrinology, they need their kidney doctor, they need their… They’re a cardiologists, they need a neurologist, they need a rheumatologist. I mean, because none of those doctors are gonna deal with everything. They’re just gonna deal with one piece of the puzzle. And if they did get the benefit of all the different departments they need, yeah, they’d go out with a garbage bag full of stuff, too. Dr. Deb 48:57Hey, wood. David Jernigan 48:58Only, they’re not synergized. They don’t work together. You’re creating this chemistry set of who knows how much poison. And I want to tell your listeners, and I mean, you probably say this to your patients as well. There is a law of pharmacy that I learned eons ago, and it applies to natural medicine, too. Dr. Deb 49:21Yep. David Jernigan 49:22But the law says every drug’s primary side effect Is its primary action. So, if you listen to TV, you can see this on commercials. I love… I love listening to these commercials, because I’m like, wow. let’s… let’s… I don’t want to say I’ve named Brandon. I don’t know if that’s…Inappropriate to name a name brand, but let’s just say you have a pharmaceutical that is for sleep. After they show you this beautiful scene of the person restfully sleeping and everything like that, they tell you the truth. It’s like, this may cause sleepiness… I mean, sleeplessness. Dr. Deb 50:04Yeah. David Jernigan 50:04Found insomnia. Dr. Deb 50:06And headaches, and diarrhea. David Jernigan 50:08All the other things, and if it’s an antidepressant, what does the commercial do after it finishes showing you little bunny foo-foo, jumping through a green, happy people? They tell you, this may create depression, severe depression, and suicidal tendencies, which is the ultimate depression. So, I want everyone to understand you need to figure out what your doctor’s tools are that they’re asking you to take, and they’re wanting you to take it forever, generally in mainstream medicine, right? In the hospitals and everything. They don’t say, hey, your heart has this condition, take this medicine for 3 months, after which time you can get off. Dr. Deb 50:48Yep. David Jernigan 50:49not fixing it, right? So… That, on a timeline, there is a point, if it was truly even fixing anything. That you… it’s done what it should do, and you should get off, even if it’s a natural product. It’s just like. Dr. Deb 51:03Right David Jernigan 51:03It’s done what it should do, and you should get off, but instead. you go through the tree… the correction and out the other side, and that’s where it starts manifesting a lot of the same problems that it had. So, anti-inflammatories, painkillers, imagine the number one side effects are pain inflammation. So, the doctor says, well. If you say, hey, I’m having more pain, what does he do? He ups the dosage. And if he… if that doesn’t work, if you’re still in a lot of pain, which he would be, he changes it to a more powerful thing, right? But it starts the cycle all over again. So when you ask me, it’s like, why are we having so much chronic illness? It’s because of the whole philosophy. is the treatment philosophy of mainstream medicine that despises what you and I do. Because we’re… our philosophy from the start is the biggest thing. It’s like… We’re striving for cure. That dirty four-letter word, cure, we’re not even supposed to use it. And yet, if you look it up in Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, it just means a restoration of health. Remission. Everyone’s like, oh, I’m in remission. I’m like, remission is a drug term. It’s a medical term. Again, look it up in a medical dictionary. It is a pharmaceutical term for a temporary pause Or a reduction of your symptom, but because it’s just… symptom suppression, it will come back. It’s… remission is great, I suppose, in… At the end of, like, where you’ve exhausted everything, because I can’t fix everything, I don’t know about you. Dr. Deb 52:41No, I can’t either, yeah. David Jernigan 52:43you know, on my phone consults, I try to always remind people, as much as I get excited about my technologies gosh, I see so much opportunity to fix you. I always try to go, please understand, I’m gonna tell you what most doctors may not tell you on a phone consultation. I can’t fix everything. Dr. Deb 53:03Yeah. David Jernigan 53:03For all of my tricks, I can’t fix everything. Not tricks, but you know, all my technologies, and all my inventions. Phages, too. They are a tool. You know, antibiotics. I think I wrote a blog one time, it should be on my website somewhere, that says, Antibiotics do not… fix… neurological disease, or… I don’t know, something like that. You know, you’re using the wrong tool. I mean, it does what it does. Dr. Deb 53:32Yeah, you’re using a hammer to do what a screwdriver needs to. David Jernigan 53:35Yeah, you know, it’s like it’s… And yet, you can probably tell her… that you’ve had patients, too, that they go, Dr. Jernigan. My throat was so sore, and as soon as I swallowed that antibiotic. I felt better, and I’m, like, going… How long did it take? Oh, it was immediate! I was like, dude, the gel cap didn’t even have time to dissolve, I mean… Dr. Deb 53:58SIBO. David Jernigan 54:00But, it’s not going to repair the tissues that were all raw. kind of stuff. So, I mean, that ulceration of your throat that’s happening, the inflammation, there’s no anti-inflammatory effect of these things. So, I digress a little bit, but phages, too… I wrote an article that’s on the website, that’s setting healthy expectations for phages, because they want… we can see some amazing things happen, things that in my 30 years, I wish I had all my career to do over again, now having this tool. It’s just that much fun. I… when doctors around the country now are starting to use our inducent formulas, there’s, 13 of them now, formulas. For different broad-spectrum illness presentations. I tell them all the same thing, I was like, you are gonna have so much fun. Dr. Deb 54:53That’s exciting. Women. David Jernigan 54:54Winning is fun, you know? I was like. You know, mainstream medicine may never accept this, I don’t know. I feel a real huge burden, though, to do my best to follow a, very scientific methodology. I’ve published as much as I can publish at this time by myself. I never took money from the… the sources that are out there, because what do they do? They always come… money comes with strings. Dr. Deb 55:22Yes, it does. David Jernigan 55:23I don’t trust… I don’t trust… I mean, if you listen to the, roundtable that Our Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Dr. Deb 55:35Yeah. David Jernigan 55:36On Lyme disease last week the first couple of speakers were, like, pretty legit. I mean, all of them were legit, but I mean, they were, like, senators and congressmen or something like that, I think. And then you have… RFK Jr. himself, who’s legit. Yeah they were fessing up to the fact that, yes, they were suppressing anything to do with Lyme. Dr. Deb 56:00Yeah. David Jernigan 56:00Our… our highest levels of, marbled halls and pillars and… of medicine were doing everything the way I thought they were. They were suppressing me. I was like, how can you ignore the best formulas ever, and still, I think Borreligen, and now, induced native phage therapy are still, I believe, I don’t… I’ve never seen it, I could be wrong. The only natural things that have been documented in a medical methodology. Dr. Deb 56:34Hmm in the natural realm. I mean, all the herbs that we talk about. David Jernigan 56:39You know, there’s one that was really famous for a while, and it said, we gave… so many patients. This product, and other nutritional supplements. And at the end, X number of them were… dramatically better. That’s not research. Dr. Deb 56:57Right. That’s observation. David Jernigan 56:59The trick there was we gave this one thing, and then we gave high-dose proteolytic enzymes, we gave high dose this, we gave high dose that, but at the end of the study, we’re going to point back at the thing we’re trying to sell you as being what did it. Dr. Deb 57:12Which is what we do in all research, pretty much. David Jernigan 57:15Well… Dr. Deb 57:16tried to… David Jernigan 57:17Good guys, I hope. Dr. Deb 57:18Do the way we want, right? In… in conventional… David Jernigan 57:22Yeah. Dr. Deb 57:22Fantastic David Jernigan 57:23Very often, yeah, in conventional medicine, definitely. Yeah. And, it’s kind of scary, isn’t it, how many pharmaceuticals are slamming us with, because they’re… Dr. Deb 57:33Okay. David Jernigan 57:34There’s a new one on TV every day, and there’s. Dr. Deb 57:36Every day, yes. David Jernigan 57:37It’s like, who comes up with these names? They’re just horrible. Dr. Deb 57:40Yeah, you can’t pronounce them. David Jernigan 57:41I want to be a marketing company and come up with some Zimbabwehika, or something that actually they go with, and I’m like, I just made a million bucks coming up with it. I’ll be glad when that’s not on the TV anymore, which… Oh, me too. Me too. Dr. Deb 57:54Dr. Jaredgen, this was really wonderful. What do you want to leave our listeners with? David Jernigan 58:00Well, you know, everyone’s calling for a new treatment. Dr. Deb 58:05Yeah. You bet. David Jernigan 58:08I have done everything I can do to get it out there, scientifically, in peer review, so that if you want to look up my name. Dr. Deb 58:16I published an open access journal so that you didn’t have to buy the articles. Like, PubMed, you have to be a member. If you want to look at a lot of the research, you have to buy the articles. David Jernigan 58:26I’ve done everything open access so that people had access to the information. I honestly created induced native phage therapy to fix my own wife. I mean, I… I was… I used to think I could actually fix almost anything. Gave me enough time. And, I could not fix her. You know, the first 10 years, she was bedridden. Dr. Deb 58:49Wow. David Jernigan 58:50People go, oh, it’s easy for you, Dr. Jernigan, you’re a doctor. Dr. Deb 58:54Oh yeah, right? Yeah. David Jernigan 58:56Oh my gosh, how many tears have been shed, and how much heartache, and how much of this and that. I mean, 90% of our marriage, she was in, bed, just missing Christmas. All the horror stories you hear in the Lime world, that was her, and I could not get her completely well. And, she’s a very discerning woman. I say that in all my podcasts, because it’s. Dr. Deb 59:19Just… David Jernigan 59:16Amazing. It’s like, every husband, I think, should want a wife that’s… Always, right? Not that you surrender your own opinion, but it’s like, it’s… it was literally, I don’t know what, 6 months before the ILADS conference in Boston in 2029… in 2019 that She said, are you going to the ILADS conference this year? And I’m like, I’ve been going for, like, 15, 20 years, however long it’s been going on, and I was like, I’m not gonna go to this one. And, 3 days before the conference, she says, I think you should go. And I go, okay. Like I say, she’s generally right. And that… I bought a Scientific American magazine at the newsstand in the Nashville airport. Started reading a story about phages in that that copped that edition of the Scientific American, and It was a good article, but it wasn’t super meaty, you know. very deep on those, but I just was stimulated. Something about being at elevation. Dr. Deb 1:00:02Yeah. Your own mountains, I don’t know, I get all inspired. David Jernigan 1:00:25And I wrote in the margins and highlighted this and that until it was, like, ultimately, I spent the entire conference hammering this out. And it worked. And it’s been working, it’s just amazing. It’s… We’re over 200 different infections that we’ve… we’ve clinically or laboratory-wise documented. There’s a new test for my GenX called the CEPCR Lyme Panel. like, culture. 64 different types of infections, and I believe right now the latest count is something like 10 for 10 were completely negative. Dr. Deb 1:01:03Wow. David Jernigan 1:01:03These chronically infected people. And so, that hadn’t been published anywhere. So, in my published article, remember I was talking about that 20 out of the 26 were tested as negative for the infection? That doesn’t mean they’re cured, okay? Remember, they’re chronically damaged. That’s how we need to look at it. Dr. Deb 1:01:23funny David Jernigan 1:01:24damaged. You’re not just chronically infected. And, but with 30-day treatment.24 out of the 26 were tested as negative. Dr. Deb Muth 1:01:34That’s amazing. David Jernigan 1:01:35So 92% of the people were negative.Okay? The chances of that happening, when you run it through statistical analysis.The chances… when you compare the results to the sensitivity percentages, you know, the 100% specificity and 92% sensitivity of the…Of the lab testIt’s a 4.5 nonillion to 1 chance that it was a fluke. Isn’t that amazing? Now, nearly… I’m not even sure how many zeros that is, but it’s a lot. Dr. Deb Muth 1:02:08That’s is awesome. David Jernigan 1:02:09Like, if I just said, well, it’s a one in a million chance it was a fluke.Okay.So, lab tests don’t lie. You’re not done, necessarily, just because you got rid of the infections. Now that formula for Lyme has grown to be 90-plusmicrobes targeted in the one formula. So, we figured out we can actually target individually, but collectively, almost like an antibiotic that’s laser-guided to only go after the bad guys that we targeted.So, all the Borrelia types are targeted, all the Babesias, for,the Bartonellas, the anaplasmosis, you name it, mycoplasma types are all targeted in that one formula, because I said.Took my collective 30 years of experience and 15,000 patients.that I would typically see as co-infections and put them into that one formula, so…When we get these tests coming back that are testing for 64, it’s because of that.So, there’s a lot of coolnesses that I could actually keep going and going. Dr. Deb Muth 1:03:15That’s exciting. David Jernigan 1:03:15I love this topic, but I thank you for letting me come on. Dr. Deb Muth 1:03:18Thank you for joining us. How can people find you? David Jernigan 1:03:22Two ways. There’s the Phagen Corp company that is now manufacturing my formulas.That is P-H-A-G-E-N-C-O-R-P dot com. Practitioners can go there, and there’s a practitioner side of the website that’s very beefy with science, and… and all the formulas that were used, what’s inside of all the formulas, meaning what microbes are targeted by each one. Like, there’s a GI formula, there’s a UTI formula, there’s a SIRS formula, there’s a Lyme formula, there’s a central nervous system type infection formula, there’s… And we can keep going, you know, SIBO, SIFO formula, mold formula… I mean, we’ve discovered so many things that I could just keep going for hours, and… Dr. Deb Muth 1:04:05Yeah. David Jernigan 1:04:06About the discoveries, from where it started in its humble beginnings, To now, so… There’s another way, if you wanted to see our clinic website, is Biologics, with an X, so B-I-O-L-O-G-I-X, Center, C-E-N-T-E-R dot com. And, if somebody thinks they want to be a patient and experience this at our clinic, typically we don’t take just Easy stuff. All we see is chronic.Chronic cases from all over the world. Something like 96% of our patients come from other states and countries. And typically, I’ve been close to 90% for my whole career.About 30-something percent come from other countries in that, so… we’ve gotten really good and learned a lot in having to deal with what nobody else knows what to do with. But if you do want to do that, you can contact us. And, if you… If you don’t get the answers from my patient care staff, then I do free consultations. With the people that are thinking about, whether we can help them or not. Dr. Deb Muth 1:05:13Well, that’s excellent. For those of you who are driving or don’t have any way of writing things down, don’t worry about it, we’ve got you. We will have all of his contact information in our show notes, so you will be able to reach out to him. Thank you again for joining me. This has been an amazing conversation. David Jernigan 1:05:30Thank you, I appreciate you having me on. It was a lot of fun. The post Episode 252 – Induced Native Phage Therapy (INPT) & advanced natural therapies first appeared on Let's Talk Wellness Now.

Hebrews 4:14–16I. Consider the Look of ChristII. Assume a Posture of ConfidenceIII. Go to the Throne of GraceIV. Expect to Receive God's Help

《原谅，是给自己的礼物》“Forgiveness Is a Gift to Yourself”Forgiveness doesn't change the past, but it frees the future.“原谅不能改变过去，但能让未来自由。”Growing up, this memory was undeniably the most painful chapter of my life, and it deeply shaped the person I am today.在我成长的过程中，这段记忆无疑是最痛苦的，也深深塑造了今日的我。⸻2In junior high, I was an outstanding student, almost always ranking first in the entire school. Yet, I didn't get into my dream school—Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High. I eventually chose Fengshan High School and passed the exam to enter the gifted English program.国中时，我的成绩优异，几乎总是全校第一。然而，我却未能如愿考上第一志愿——高雄女中。最终，我选择了凤山高中，并通过考试进入英语资优班。⸻3Those days were wonderful. Each of my classmates had their own unique personality, and the cheerful atmosphere helped me open up in ways I rarely had before. I finally had more time to study the English I loved, and we had a humorous, open-minded homeroom teacher—Gilian.那段日子是如此美好，班上的同学各具特色，乐观开朗的氛围也让我开始展现自己较少流露的一面。我能花更多时间学习最热爱的英语，还有一位幽默开明的班导师——Lilian。⸻4She cared deeply for us. She even invited the whole class to her wedding and organized a trip from Kaohsiung to Taipei to visit universities—an experience that broadened my world.她不仅用心指导我们，还带全班参加她的婚礼，甚至组织我们从高雄到台北的大学参观，开拓视野。⸻5In that class, I became inseparable friends with Jenny. She was lively and outgoing—the center of attention—while I was more introverted, yet I tried my best to be close to her, learning confidence through her.在这个班级里，我和佳欣成了无话不谈的好友。她个性活泼开朗，是班上的焦点人物，而我则较为内向，但仍努力靠近她，试着学习她的自信与魅力。⸻6Through her, I met Zack, the class president next door. Tall and delicate-looking, he stood out instantly—and he was the boy Jia-Xin had a crush on.也因为她，我认识了隔壁班的班长——宇哲。他高挑清秀，第一眼就能吸引目光，也是佳欣暗恋的对象。⸻7As time passed, I came to learn about his life. His mother had passed away when he was young, leaving his father to raise him and his sister alone.随着相处时间增长，我也逐渐了解了宇哲的故事。他的母亲在他小时候便过世了，父亲独自抚养他和妹妹。⸻8Despite his hardships, he remained disciplined and hardworking, always ranking near the top. I admired him deeply, and we gradually became friends who shared everything.尽管如此，他仍然自律勤奋，成绩名列前茅，从未让家人担心。我对这样坚强的他充满敬佩，也渐渐与他成了无话不谈的朋友。⸻9Coincidentally, our birthdays were only eleven days apart. On his birthday, Jenny and I celebrated with him. For mine, I didn't expect much, yet he still gave me a gift—a baseball cap, unwrapped, placed on the floor outside my classroom.巧合的是，我们的生日同在同一个月份，仅相差11天。宇哲生日那天，我和佳欣特地为他庆祝。而当我的生日到来时，他给了我一顶没有包装、放在教室门口地上的棒球帽。⸻10I didn't think much of it at the time—boys weren't always thoughtful. But a few days later, he posted an article on the school's online forum, calling me “vain,” even claiming that no one in class liked me.当时我不以为意，心想男孩总是不如女孩细心，却没想到，几天后，他竟在学校的电子论坛上发文，指名道姓地说我“爱慕虚荣”，还写道班上的同学都不喜欢我。⸻11As my eyes moved across those cold, merciless words, my heartbeat grew heavy. I couldn't believe that in the eyes of someone I trusted, I had become that kind of person.当我滑动滑鼠，视线落在那些冰冷而残忍的字眼上，心跳逐渐加快。我无法相信，在我所重视的同学眼中，我竟成了这样的人。⸻12The hurt and humiliation swallowed me whole.那一刻，委屈与羞辱交织，将我吞没。⸻13I spiraled into self-doubt. Every day after school, I would hide in the bathroom and cry under the sound of running water.从那天起，我陷入深深的自我怀疑，每天郁郁寡欢。回家后，我的固定行程变成了躲进浴室，在水流的掩护下哭泣。⸻14This lasted until one day, our teacher said in class, “If anyone feels uncomfortable here, you may apply to transfer.”这样的日子持续了许久，直到某天，Lilian老师在课堂上说：“如果有同学觉得不适应，可以申请转班。”⸻15It was like seeing an escape route from my pain.那一刻，我仿佛看见了逃离痛苦的出口。⸻16I immediately called my father. I expected him to question me or persuade me to stay, but he simply said, “As long as you're happy.”下课后，我立刻拨电话给爸爸，本以为他会细问原因或劝我留下，然而他只是平静地说：“只要妳开心就好。”⸻17The next day, I submitted the transfer form, closing that chapter of darkness.隔天，我便递交了转班申请，正式为这段阴影画上句点。⸻18This was not the first time I had experienced social hurt growing up. I was ignored by friends in elementary school, again in junior high—psychological wounds I didn't recognize as “bullying” until later.这次的事件并非我在求学阶段首次遭遇的人际挑战。小学和国中，我都曾被要好的同学突然当成空气，这些心理创伤直到多年后才被我意识到其实也是一种“霸凌”。⸻19From these experiences, I learned one thing: “The best revenge is becoming a better version of yourself.”那时的我感到无助，也深深受伤，但我学到了一个重要的道理——“最好的复仇方式，就是活出更好的自己。”⸻20So when this happened again, I chose growth. I devoured books on personal development—especially Dale Carnegie'sHow to Win Friends and Influence People.因此，当这次的事情发生时，我选择成长。我开始阅读大量心理成长类书籍，其中卡内基的《如何赢得友谊与影响他人》对我影响最深。

Forgiveness doesn't change the past, but it frees the future.“原谅不能改变过去，但能让未来自由。”1Growing up, this memory was undeniably the most painful chapter of my life, and it deeply shaped the person I am today.在我成长的过程中，这段记忆无疑是最痛苦的，也深深塑造了今日的我。⸻2In junior high, I was an outstanding student, almost always ranking first in the entire school. Yet, I didn't get into my dream school—Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High. I eventually chose Fengshan High School and passed the exam to enter the gifted English program.国中时，我的成绩优异，几乎总是全校第一。然而，我却未能如愿考上第一志愿——高雄女中。最终，我选择了凤山高中，并通过考试进入英语资优班。⸻3Those days were wonderful. Each of my classmates had their own unique personality, and the cheerful atmosphere helped me open up in ways I rarely had before. I finally had more time to study the English I loved, and we had a humorous, open-minded homeroom teacher—Gilian.那段日子是如此美好，班上的同学各具特色，乐观开朗的氛围也让我开始展现自己较少流露的一面。我能花更多时间学习最热爱的英语，还有一位幽默开明的班导师——Lilian。⸻4She cared deeply for us. She even invited the whole class to her wedding and organized a trip from Kaohsiung to Taipei to visit universities—an experience that broadened my world.她不仅用心指导我们，还带全班参加她的婚礼，甚至组织我们从高雄到台北的大学参观，开拓视野。⸻5In that class, I became inseparable friends with Jenny. She was lively and outgoing—the center of attention—while I was more introverted, yet I tried my best to be close to her, learning confidence through her.在这个班级里，我和佳欣成了无话不谈的好友。她个性活泼开朗，是班上的焦点人物，而我则较为内向，但仍努力靠近她，试着学习她的自信与魅力。⸻6Through her, I met Zack, the class president next door. Tall and delicate-looking, he stood out instantly—and he was the boy Jia-Xin had a crush on.也因为她，我认识了隔壁班的班长——宇哲。他高挑清秀，第一眼就能吸引目光，也是佳欣暗恋的对象。⸻7As time passed, I came to learn about his life. His mother had passed away when he was young, leaving his father to raise him and his sister alone.随着相处时间增长，我也逐渐了解了宇哲的故事。他的母亲在他小时候便过世了，父亲独自抚养他和妹妹。⸻8Despite his hardships, he remained disciplined and hardworking, always ranking near the top. I admired him deeply, and we gradually became friends who shared everything.尽管如此，他仍然自律勤奋，成绩名列前茅，从未让家人担心。我对这样坚强的他充满敬佩，也渐渐与他成了无话不谈的朋友。⸻9Coincidentally, our birthdays were only eleven days apart. On his birthday, Jenny and I celebrated with him. For mine, I didn't expect much, yet he still gave me a gift—a baseball cap, unwrapped, placed on the floor outside my classroom.巧合的是，我们的生日同在同一个月份，仅相差11天。宇哲生日那天，我和佳欣特地为他庆祝。而当我的生日到来时，他给了我一顶没有包装、放在教室门口地上的棒球帽。⸻10I didn't think much of it at the time—boys weren't always thoughtful. But a few days later, he posted an article on the school's online forum, calling me “vain,” even claiming that no one in class liked me.当时我不以为意，心想男孩总是不如女孩细心，却没想到，几天后，他竟在学校的电子论坛上发文，指名道姓地说我“爱慕虚荣”，还写道班上的同学都不喜欢我。⸻11As my eyes moved across those cold, merciless words, my heartbeat grew heavy. I couldn't believe that in the eyes of someone I trusted, I had become that kind of person.当我滑动滑鼠，视线落在那些冰冷而残忍的字眼上，心跳逐渐加快。我无法相信，在我所重视的同学眼中，我竟成了这样的人。⸻12The hurt and humiliation swallowed me whole.那一刻，委屈与羞辱交织，将我吞没。⸻13I spiraled into self-doubt. Every day after school, I would hide in the bathroom and cry under the sound of running water.从那天起，我陷入深深的自我怀疑，每天郁郁寡欢。回家后，我的固定行程变成了躲进浴室，在水流的掩护下哭泣。⸻14This lasted until one day, our teacher said in class, “If anyone feels uncomfortable here, you may apply to transfer.”这样的日子持续了许久，直到某天，Lilian老师在课堂上说：“如果有同学觉得不适应，可以申请转班。”⸻15It was like seeing an escape route from my pain.那一刻，我仿佛看见了逃离痛苦的出口。⸻16I immediately called my father. I expected him to question me or persuade me to stay, but he simply said, “As long as you're happy.”下课后，我立刻拨电话给爸爸，本以为他会细问原因或劝我留下，然而他只是平静地说：“只要妳开心就好。”⸻17The next day, I submitted the transfer form, closing that chapter of darkness.隔天，我便递交了转班申请，正式为这段阴影画上句点。⸻18This was not the first time I had experienced social hurt growing up. I was ignored by friends in elementary school, again in junior high—psychological wounds I didn't recognize as “bullying” until later.

Ríos Live: XXX. La sentencia mas injusta de la historia- Pastor Jairo CarmonaS. Juan 18 v.28-19 v.16I. La Justicia del Acusado - Cristo A. En su interrogatorio afirma su Reinado y su Dominio. - 1. Afirmó su carácter y posición de Rey, pero no un reino de este mundo - (Juan 18 vs.33; 36) No negó su título como Rey, pero aclaró el origen, carácter, tiempo y lugar de Su Reino. - 2. Dominio total de su situación actual bajo el juicio de una criatura (19 v.11) B. En su interrogatorio es encontrado inocente por Pilato Pilato reafirmó 3 veces la inocencia de Jesús. - (18 v.38. 19 vs.4,6) C. Una justicia requerida para ser el Salvador de los injustos (Éxodo 2 v.5; Levítico 4 vs.27-35).Él fue tratado como injusto para que nosotros fuésemos tratados como justos, Él fue tratado como un criminal, para que nosotros, los criminales, fuésemos tratados como Justos. (II Pedro 5 v.21; 1I Pedro 3 v.18).II. La malicia de los acusadores - Líderes Religiosos y pueblo A. Su Maldad maquillada con piedad (18 v.28) - 1. La Hipocresía religiosa - 2. El engaño de la religión superficial sin ser confrontada por la verdad de la luz del evangelio (Juan 3 v.19). B. Su maldad cegó su entendimiento - 1. No buscaban un castigo, buscaban la muerte de Jesús (18 v.31; 19 v.6; 15) - 2. Eligen un ladrón por encima de Jesús (18 vs.39-40) a) Su elección no fue por un niño o mujer inocente acusada injustamente sino, Barrabáss b) Cualquiera era mejor que Jesús para ellos c) Prefieren a Barrabás porque él no expone su maldad, no es una amenaza para su religión y posición. El mundo ama lo suyo, pero odia la verdad y la luzCegados por la malicia de su corazón acabaron preservando una religión pero perdiendo su alma, retuvieron las apariencias externas, siendo fieles a la religión ritualista, pero con un corazón endurecido al verdadero evangelio. ¿Elegiremos tambien nosotros aquellos que nos destruye por encima de Cristo? ¿Nos enfocaremos en las cosa externas solamente y descuidaremos las intenciones, los pensamientos y las maquinaciones reales de nuestro corazón? Cuidemos nuestro corazón de la hipocresía religiosa, y hagamos elecciones sabias en nuestras vidas.Por otro lado, si la gente elige a otros por encima de ti, si en el trabajo se elige a otro en tu lugar, si una chica te rechaza por tus convicciones firmes en Cristo. Que así sea, Cristo entiende el rechazoMuchos van a maquinar contra tí, pero recuerda, cada ataque del enemigo, solamente será usado para Su Gloria si te mantienes firme al Señor. El ataque en el trabajo, el ataque a tu familia, en la escuela o en tu hogar, todo lo usará Dios para Su gloria y sus propósitos.III. La decisión de un juez corrupto y débil - PilatoA pesar de estar convencido de la inocencia de Jesús, cedió a la presión de la gente.Defraudamos a Dios cuando sabiendo hacer lo que es correcto no lo hacemos, por la presión de la gente o por que nuestro bienestar se verá comprometido, A. Un juez corrupto y débil que tuvo la oportunidad de hacer lo correcto - (18 vs. 38-39; 19 v.12) - 1. Quiso liberarlos: Pero querer hacer algo "NO ES SUFICIENTE" - 2. Pudo liberar a Jesús: Habia recibido la autoridad de Dios para ocupar esta posición política. Dios nos pedirá cuentas de lo que pudimos hacer, no de aquello que no estaba dentro de nuestra capacidad y autoridad (Lucas 12 v.48) B. Un Juez que cedió a la presión del pueblo: Su miedo a los hombres hombres fue mayor que su temor a Dios (19 v.8, 12) - 1. Pilato sintió miedo cuando supo que Jesús reclamaba ser el Hijo de Dios - 2. Pilato sintió más miedo ante las Palabras y la presión de los líderes que amenazaban las cosas que más amaba. su poder, posición, prestigio y riquezas (vv.12).#riosokc #rioslive #Jesús

** There are less than 10 tickets remaining for the live recording of Uncommons with Catherine McKenna on Thursday Oct 2nd. Register for free here. **On this two-part episode of Uncommons, Nate digs into Bill C-2 and potential impacts on privacy, data surveillance and sharing with US authorities, and asylum claims and refugee protections.In the first half, Nate is joined by Kate Robertson, senior researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. Kate's career has spanned criminal prosecutions, regulatory investigations, and international human rights work with the United Nations in Cambodia. She has advocated at every level of court in Canada, clerked at the Supreme Court, and has provided pro bono services through organizations like Human Rights Watch Canada. Her current research at Citizen Lab examines the intersection of technology, privacy, and the law.In part two, Nate is joined by Adam Sadinsky, a Toronto-based immigration and refugee lawyer and co-chair of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers' Advocacy Committee. Adam has represented clients at every level of court in Canada, including the Supreme Court, and was co-counsel in M.A.A. v. D.E.M.E. (2020 ONCA 486) and Canadian Council for Refugees v. Canada (2023 SCC 17).Further Reading:Unspoken Implications A Preliminary Analysis of Bill C-2 and Canada's Potential Data-Sharing Obligations Towards the United States and Other Countries - Kate Robertson, Citizen LabKate Robertson Chapters:00:00 Introduction & Citizen Lab03:00 Bill C-2 and the Strong Borders Act08:00 Data Sharing and Human Rights Concerns15:00 The Cloud Act & International Agreements22:00 Real-World Examples & Privacy Risks28:00 Parliamentary Process & Fixing the BillAdam Sadinsky Chapters:33:33 Concerns Over Asylum Eligibility in Canada36:30 Government Goals and Fairness for Refugee Claimants39:00 Changing Country Conditions and New Risks41:30 The Niagara Falls Example & Other Unfair Exclusions44:00 Frivolous vs. Legitimate Claims in the Refugee System47:00 Clearing the Backlog with Fair Pathways50:00 Broad Powers Granted to the Government52:00 Privacy Concerns and Closing ReflectionsPart 1: Kate RobertsonNate Erskine-Smith00:00-00:01Kate, thanks for joining me.Kate Robertson00:01-00:01Thanks for having me.Nate Erskine-Smith00:02-00:15So I have had Ron Debert on the podcast before. So for people who really want to go back into the archive, they can learn a little bit about what the Citizen Lab is. But for those who are not that interested, you're a senior researcher there. What is the Citizen Lab?Kate Robertson00:16-01:00Well, it's an interdisciplinary research lab based at University of Toronto. It brings together researchers from a technology standpoint, political science, lawyers like myself and other disciplines to examine the intersection between information and communication technologies, law, human rights, and global security. And over time, it's published human rights reports about some of the controversial and emerging surveillance technologies of our time, including spyware or AI-driven technologies. And it's also really attempted to produce a thoughtful research that helps policymakers navigate some of these challenges and threats.Nate Erskine-Smith01:01-02:50That's a very good lead into this conversation because here we have Bill C-2 coming before Parliament for debate this fall, introduced in June, at the beginning of June. And it's called the Strong Borders Act in short, but it touches, I started counting, it's 15 different acts that are touched by this omnibus legislation. The government has laid out a rationale around strengthening our borders, keeping our borders secure, combating transnational organized crime, stopping the flow of illegal fentanyl, cracking down on money laundering, a litany of things that I think most people would look at and say broadly supportive of stopping these things from happening and making sure we're enhancing our security and the integrity of our immigration system and on. You, though, have provided some pretty thoughtful and detailed rational legal advice around some of the challenges you see in the bill. You're not the only one. There are other challenges on the asylum changes we're making. There are other challenges on lawful access and privacy. You've, though, highlighted, in keeping with the work of the Citizen Lab, the cross-border data sharing, the challenges with those data sharing provisions in the bill. It is a bit of a deep dive and a little wonky, but you've written a preliminary analysis of C2 and Canada's potential data sharing obligations towards the U.S. and other countries, unspoken implications, and you published it mid-June. It is incredibly relevant given the conversation we're having this fall. So if you were to at a high level, and we'll go ahead and some of the weeds, but at a high level articulate the main challenges you see in the legislation from the standpoint that you wrote in unspoken implications. Walk us through them.Kate Robertson02:51-06:15Well, before C2 was tabled for a number of years now, myself and other colleagues at the lab have been studying new and evolving ways that we're seeing law enforcement data sharing and cross-border cooperation mechanisms being put to use in new ways. We have seen within this realm some controversial data sharing frameworks under treaty protocols or bilateral agreement mechanisms with the United States and others, which reshape how information is shared with law enforcement in foreign jurisdictions and what kinds of safeguards and mechanisms are applied to that framework to protect human rights. And I think as a really broad trend, what is probably most, the simplest way to put it is that what we're really seeing is a growing number of ways that borders are actually being exploited to the detriment of human rights standards. Rights are essentially falling through the cracks. This can happen either through cross-border joint investigations between agencies in multiple states in ways that essentially go forum shopping for the laws and the most locks, that's right. You can also see foreign states that seek to leverage cooperation tools in democratic states in order to track, surveil, or potentially even extradite human rights activists and dissidents, journalists that are living in exile outside their borders. And what this has really come out of is a discussion point that has been made really around the world that if crime is going to become more transient across borders, that law enforcement also needs to have a greater freedom to move more seamlessly across borders. But what often is left out of that framing is that human rights standards that are really deeply entrenched in our domestic law systems, they would also need to be concurrently meaningful across borders. And unfortunately, that's not what we're seeing. Canada is going to be facing decisions around this, both within the context of C2 and around it in the coming months and beyond, as we know that it has been considering and in negotiation around a couple of very controversial agreements. One of those, the sort of elephant in the room, so to speak, is that the legislation has been tabled at a time where we know that Canada and the United States have been in negotiations for actually a couple of years around a potential agreement called the CLOUD Act, which would quite literally cede Canada's sovereignty to the United States and law enforcement authorities and give them really a blanket opportunity to directly apply surveillance orders onto entities, both public and private in Canada?Nate Erskine-Smith06:16-07:46Well, so years in the making negotiations, but we are in a very different world with the United States today than we were two years ago. And I was just in, I was in Mexico City for a conference with parliamentarians across the Americas, and there were six Democratic congressmen and women there. One, Chuy Garcia represents Chicago district. He was telling me that he went up to ICE officials and they're masked and he is saying, identify yourself. And he's a congressman. He's saying, identify yourself. What's your ID? What's your badge number? They're hiding their ID and maintaining masks and they're refusing to identify who they are as law enforcement officials, ostensibly refusing to identify who they are to an American congressman. And if they're willing to refuse to identify themselves in that manner to a congressman. I can only imagine what is happening to people who don't have that kind of authority and standing in American life. And that's the context that I see this in now. I would have probably still been troubled to a degree with open data sharing and laxer standards on the human rights side, but all the more troubling, you talk about less democratic jurisdictions and authoritarian regimes. Well, isn't the U.S. itself a challenge today more than ever has been? And then shouldn't we maybe slam the pause button on negotiations like this? Well, you raise a number of really important points. And I think thatKate Robertson07:47-09:54there have been warning signs and worse that have long preceded the current administration and the backsliding that you're commenting upon since the beginning of 2025. Certainly, I spoke about the increasing trend of the exploitation of borders. I mean, I think we're seeing signs that really borders are actually, in essence, being used as a form of punishment, even in some respects, which I would say it is when you say to someone who would potentially exercise due process rights against deportation and say if you exercise those rights, you'll be deported to a different continent from your home country where your rights are perhaps less. And that's something that UN human rights authorities have been raising alarm bells about around the deportation of persons to third countries, potentially where they'll face risks of torture even. But these patterns are all too reminiscent of what we saw in the wake of 9-11 and the creation of black sites where individuals, including Canadian persons, were detained or even tortured. And really, this stems from a number of issues. But what we have identified in analyzing potential cloud agreement is really just the momentous decision that the Canadian government would have to make to concede sovereignty to a country which is in many ways a pariah for refusing to acknowledge extraterritorial international human rights obligations to persons outside of its borders. And so to invite that type of direct surveillance and exercise of authority within Canada's borders was a country who has refused for a very long time, unlike Canada and many other countries around the world, has refused to recognize through its courts and through its government any obligation to protect the international human rights of people in Canada.Nate Erskine-Smith09:56-10:21And yet, you wrote, some of the data and surveillance powers in Bill C-2 read like they could have been drafted by U.S. officials. So you take the frame that you're just articulating around with what the U.S. worldview is on this and has been and exacerbated by obviously the current administration. But I don't love the sound of it reading like it was drafted by AmericanKate Robertson10:22-12:43officials. Well, you know, it's always struck me as a really remarkable story, to be frank. You know, to borrow Dickens' tale of two countries, which is that since the 1990s, Canada's Supreme Court has been charting a fundamentally different course from the constitutional approach that's taken the United States around privacy and surveillance. And it really started with persons looking at what's happening and the way that technology evolves and how much insecurity people feel when they believe that surveillance is happening without any judicial oversight. And looking ahead and saying, you know what, if we take this approach, it's not going to go anywhere good. And that's a really remarkable decision that was made and has continued to be made by the court time and time again, even as recently as last year, the court has said we take a distinct approach from the United States. And it had a lot of foresight given, you know, in the 1990s, technology is nowhere near what it is today. Of course. And yet in the text of C2, we see provisions that, you know, I struggle when I hear proponents of the legislation describe it as balanced and in keeping with the Charter, when actually they're proposing to essentially flip the table on principles that have been enshrined for decades to protect Canadians, including, for example, the notion that third parties like private companies have the authority to voluntarily share our own. information with the police without any warrant. And that's actually the crux of what has become a fundamentally different approach that I think has really led Canada to be a more resilient country when it comes to technological change. And I sometimes describe us as a country that is showing the world that, you know, it's possible to do both. You can judicially supervise investigations that are effective and protect the public. And the sky does not fall if you do so. And right now we're literally seeing and see to something that I think is really unique and important made in Canada approach being potentially put on the chopping block.Nate Erskine-Smith12:44-13:29And for those listening who might think, okay, well, at a high level, I don't love expansive data sharing and reduced human rights protections, but practically, are there examples? And you pointed to in your writing right from the hop, the Arar case, and you mentioned the Supreme Court, but they, you know, they noted that it's a chilling example of the dangers of unconditional information sharing. And the commission noted to the potentially risky exercise of open ended, unconditional data sharing as well. But that's a real life example, a real life Canadian example of what can go wrong in a really horrible, tragic way when you don't have guardrails that focus and protect human rights.Kate Robertson13:31-14:56You're right to raise that example. I raise it. It's a really important one. It's one that is, I think, part of, you know, Canada has many commendable and important features to its framework, but it's not a perfect country by any means. That was an example of just information sharing with the United States itself that led to a Canadian citizen being rendered and tortured in a foreign country. Even a more recent example, we are not the only country that's received requests for cooperation from a foreign state in circumstances where a person's life is quite literally in jeopardy. We have known from public reporting that in the case of Hardeep Najjar, before he was ultimately assassinated on Canadian soil, an Interpol Red Notice had been issued about him at the request of the government of India. And the government had also requested his extradition. And we know that there's a number of important circumstances that have been commented upon by the federal government in the wake of those revelations. And it's provoked a really important discussion around the risks of foreign interference. But it is certainly an example where we know that cooperation requests have been made in respect of someone who's quite literally and tragically at risk of loss of life.Nate Erskine-Smith14:57-16:07And when it comes to the, what we're really talking about is, you mentioned the Cloud Act. There's also, I got to go to the notes because it's so arcane, but the second additional protocol to the Budapest Convention. These are, in that case, it's a treaty that Canada would ratify. And then this piece of legislation would in some way create implementing authorities for. I didn't fully appreciate this until going through that. And I'd be interested in your thoughts just in terms of the details of these. And we can make it as wonky as you like in terms of the challenges that these treaties offer. I think you've already articulated the watering down of traditional human rights protections and privacy protections we would understand in Canadian law. But the transparency piece, I didn't fully appreciate either. And as a parliamentarian, I probably should have because there's... Until reading your paper, I didn't know that there was a policy on tabling of treaties That really directs a process for introducing treaty implementing legislation. And this process also gets that entirely backwards.Kate Robertson16:09-17:01That's right. And, you know, in researching and studying what to do with, you know, what I foresee is potentially quite a mess if we were to enter into a treaty that binds us to standards that are unconstitutional. You know, that is a diplomatic nightmare of sorts, but it's also one that would create, you know, a constitutional entanglement of that's really, I think, unprecedented in Canada. But nevertheless, that problem is foreseen if one or both of these were to go ahead. And I refer to that in the cloud agreement or the 2AP. But this policy, as I understand it, I believe it was tabled by then Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier, as he was at the time, by Prime Minister Harper's government.Nate Erskine-Smith17:02-17:04He's come a long way.Kate Robertson17:07-18:12I believe that the rationale for the policy was quite self-evident at the time. I mean, if you think about the discussions that are happening right now, for example, in Quebec around digital sovereignty and the types of entanglements that U.S. legal process might impact around Quebec privacy legislation. Other issues around the AI space in Ontario or our health sector in terms of technology companies in Ontario. These treaties really have profound implications at a much broader scale than the federal government and law enforcement. And that's not even getting to Indigenous sovereignty issues. And so the policy is really trying to give a greater voice to the range of perspectives that a federal government would consider before binding Canada internationally on behalf of all of these layers of decision making without perhaps even consulting with Parliament First.Nate Erskine-Smith18:12-19:15So this is, I guess, one struggle. There's the specific concerns around watering down protections, but just on process. This just bothered me in particular because we're going to undergo this process in the fall. And so I printed out the Strong Borders Act, Government of Canada Strengthens Border Security and the backgrounder to the law. And going through it, it's six pages when I print it out. And it doesn't make mention of the Budapest Convention. It doesn't make mention of the Cloud Act. It doesn't make mention of any number of rationales for this legislation. But it doesn't make mention that this is in part, at least, to help implement treaties that are under active negotiation. not only gets backwards the policy, but one would have thought, especially I took from your paper, that the Department has subsequently, the Justice Department has subsequently acknowledged that this would in fact help the government implement these treaties. So surely it shouldKate Robertson19:15-19:57be in the background. I would have thought so. As someone that has been studying these treaty frameworks very carefully, it was immediately apparent to me that they're at least relevant. It was put in the briefing as a question as to whether or not the actual intent of some of these new proposed powers is to put Canada in a position to ratify this treaty. And the answer at that time was yes, that that is the intent of them. And it was also stated that other cooperation frameworks were foreseeable.Nate Erskine-Smith19:59-20:57What next? So here I am, one member of parliament, and oftentimes through these processes, we're going to, there's the objective of the bill, and then there's the details of the bill, and we're going to get this bill to a committee process. I understand the intention is for it to be a pretty fulsome committee hearing, and it's an omnibus bill. So what should happen is the asylum components should get kicked to the immigration committee. The pieces around national security should obviously get kicked to public safety committee, and there should be different committees that deal with their different constituent elements that are relevant to those committees. I don't know if it will work that way, but that would be a more rational way of engaging with a really broad ranging bill. Is there a fix for this though? So are there amendments that could cure it or is it foundationally a problem that is incurable?Kate Robertson20:58-21:59Well, I mean, I think that for myself as someone studying this area, it's obvious to me that what agreements may be struck would profoundly alter the implications of pretty much every aspect of this legislation. And that stems in part from just how fundamental it would be if Canada were to cede its sovereignty to US law enforcement agencies and potentially even national security agencies as well. But obviously, the provisions themselves are quite relevant to these frameworks. And so it's clear that Parliament needs to have the opportunity to study how these provisions would actually be used. And I am still left on knowing how that would be possible without transparencyNate Erskine-Smith22:00-22:05about what is at stake in terms of potential agreements. Right. What have we agreed to? If thisKate Robertson22:05-24:57is implementing legislation what are we implementing certainly it's a significantly different proposition now even parking the international data sharing context the constitutional issues that are raised in the parts of the bill that i'm able to study within my realm of expertise which is in the context of omnibus legislation not the entire bill of course yeah um but it's hard to even know where to begin um the the the powers that are being put forward you know i kind of have to set the table a bit to understand to explain why the table is being flipped yeah yeah we're at a time where um you know a number of years ago i published about the growing use of algorithms and AI and surveillance systems in Canada and gaps in the law and the need to bring Canada's oversight into the 21st century. Those gaps now, even five years later, are growing into chasms. And we've also had multiple investigative reports by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada being sent to Parliament about difficulties it's had reviewing the activities of law enforcement agencies, difficulties it's had with private sector companies who've been non-compliant with privacy legislation, and cooperating at all with the regulator. And we now have powers being put forward that would essentially say, for greater certainty, it's finders keepers rules. Anything in the public domain can be obtained and used by police without warrant. And while this has been put forward as a balancing of constitutional norms, the Supreme Court has said the opposite. It's not an all or nothing field. And in the context of commercial data brokers that are harvesting and selling our data, including mental health care that we might seek online, AI-fueled surveillance tools that are otherwise unchecked in the Canadian domain. I think this is a frankly stunning response to the context of the threats that we face. And I really think it sends and creates really problematic questions around what law enforcement and other government agencies are expected to do in the context of future privacy reviews when essentially everything that's been happening is supposedly being green lit with this new completely un-nuanced power. I should note you are certainly not alone in theseNate Erskine-Smith24:57-27:07concerns. I mean, in addition to the paper that I was talking about at the outset that you've written as an analyst that alongside Ron Deaver in the Citizen Lab. But there's another open letter you've signed that's called for the withdrawal of C2, but it's led by open media. I mean, BCCLA, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Council for Refugees, QP, International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Penn Canada, the Center for Free Expression, privacy experts like Colin Bennett, who I used be on the Privacy Committee and that were pretty regular witnesses. You mentioned the Privacy Commissioner has not signed the open letter, but the Privacy Commissioner of both Canada and the Information Commissioner of Ontario, who's also responsible for privacy. In the context of the treaties that you were mentioning, the Budapest Convention in particular, they had highlighted concerns absent updated, modernized legislation. And at the federal level, we have had in fits and starts attempts to modernize our private sector privacy legislation. But apart from a consultation paper at one point around the Privacy Act, which would apply to public sector organizations, there's really been no serious effort to table legislation or otherwise modernize that. So am I right to say, you know, we are creating a myriad number of problems with respect to watering down privacy and human rights protections domestically and especially in relation to foreign governments with relation to data of our citizens here. And we could potentially cure those problems, at least in part, if we modernize our privacy legislation and our privacy protections and human rights protections here at home. But we are, as you say, a gap to chasm. We are so woefully behind in that conversation. It's a bit of an odd thing to pass the open-ended data sharing and surveillance piece before you even have a conversation around updating your privacy protections.Kate Robertson27:07-28:13Yeah, I mean, frankly, odd, I would use the word irresponsible. We know that these tools, it's becoming increasingly well documented how impactful they are for communities and individuals, whether it's wrongful arrests, whether it's discriminatory algorithms. really fraught tools to say the least. And it's not as if Parliament does not have a critical role here. You know, in decades past, to use the example of surveillance within Quebec, which was ultimately found to have involved, you know, years of illegal activity and surveillance activities focused on political organizing in Quebec. And that led to Parliament striking an inquiry and ultimately overhauling the mandate of the RCMP. There were recommendations made that the RCMP needs to follow the law. That was an actual recommendation.Nate Erskine-Smith28:14-28:16I'm sorry that it needs to be said, but yeah.Kate Robertson28:16-29:05The safeguards around surveillance are about ensuring that when we use these powers, they're being used appropriately. And, you know, there isn't even, frankly, a guarantee that judicial oversight will enable this to happen. And it certainly provides comfort to many Canadians. But we know, for example, that there were phones being watched of journalists in Montreal with, unfortunately, judicial oversight not even that many years ago. So this is something that certainly is capable of leading to more abuses in Canada around political speech and online activity. And it's something that we need to be protective against and forward thinking about.Nate Erskine-Smith29:05-29:58Yeah, and the conversation has to hold at the same time considerations of public safety, of course, but also considerations for due process and privacy and human rights protections. These things, we have to do both. If we don't do both, then we're not the democratic society we hold ourselves out as. I said odd, you said irresponsible. You were forceful in your commentary, but the open letter that had a number of civil society organizations, I mentioned a few, was pretty clear to say the proposed legislation reflects little more than shameful appeasement of the dangerous rhetoric and false claims about our country emanating from the United States. It's a multi-pronged assault on the basic human rights and freedoms Canada holds dear. Got anything else to add?Kate Robertson30:00-30:56I mean, the elephant in the room is the context in which the legislation has been tabled within. And I do think that we're at a time where we are seeing democratic backsliding around the world, of course, and rising digital authoritarianism. And these standards really don't come out of the air. They're ones that need to be protected. And I do find myself, when I look at some of the really un-nuanced powers that are being put forward, I do find myself asking whether or not those risks are really front and center when we're proposing to move forward in this way. And I can only defer to experts from, as you said, hundreds of organizations that have called attention towards pretty much every aspect of this legislation.Nate Erskine-Smith30:57-31:44And I will have the benefit of engaging folks on the privacy side around lawful access and around concerns around changes to the asylum claim and due process from the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. But as we do see this move its way through Parliament, if we see it move its way through Parliament in the fall, if they're recognizing that the call was for withdrawal, but also recognizing a political reality where if it is to pass, we want to make sure we are improving it as much as possible. If there are amendments along the way, if there are other people you think that I should engage with, please do let me know because this is before us. It's an important piece of legislation. And if it's not to be withdrawn, we better improve it as much as possible.Kate Robertson31:46-32:02I appreciate that offer and really commend you for covering the issue carefully. And I really look forward to more engagement from yourself and other colleagues in parliament as legislation is considered further. I expect you will be a witness at committee,Nate Erskine-Smith32:02-32:06but thanks very much for the time. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.Part 2: Adam SadinskyChapters:33:33 Concerns Over Asylum Eligibility in Canada36:30 Government Goals and Fairness for Refugee Claimants39:00 Changing Country Conditions and New Risks41:30 The Niagara Falls Example & Other Unfair Exclusions44:00 Frivolous vs. Legitimate Claims in the Refugee System47:00 Clearing the Backlog with Fair Pathways50:00 Broad Powers Granted to the Government52:00 Privacy Concerns and Closing ReflectionsNate Erskine-Smith33:33-33:35Adam, thanks for joining me.Adam Sadinsky33:35-33:36Thanks for having me, Nate.Nate Erskine-Smith33:36-33:57We've had a brief discussion about this, by way of my role as an MP, but, for those who are listening in, they'll have just heard a rundown of all the concerns that the Citizen Lab has with data surveillance and data sharing with law enforcement around the world. You've got different concerns about C2 and you represent the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. What are your concerns here?Adam Sadinsky33:57-35:31I mean, our biggest concern with this bill is new provisions that create additional categories of folks ineligible to claim asylum in Canada. And specifically to have their hearings heard at the Immigration and Refugee Board. The biggest one of those categories is definitely, a bar on individuals making refugee claims in Canada one year after they have arrived in Canada, and that's one year, whether they have been in Canada for that whole year or they left at some point and came back. Those folks who have been here, who came more than a year ago, if they now fear persecution and want to make a claim for refugee protection, this bill would shunt them into an inferior system where rather than having a full hearing in their day in court.Their application will be decided by an officer of immigration, alone, sitting in the cubicle, probably, with some papers in front of them. That person is going to make an enormous decision about whether to send that person back home where they feared persecution, torture, death. Our position is that this new form of ineligibility. Is unfair. it doesn't meet the government's goals, as we understand them, and we share, we share the views of organizations like, Citizen Lab, that the bill should be withdrawn. There are other ways to do this, but this bill is fundamentally flawed.Nate Erskine-Smith35:31-35:57Let's talk about government goals. Those looking at the influx of temporary residents in Canada specifically, and I don't, and I don't wanna pick on international students, but we've seen a huge influx of international students just as one category example. And they've said, well, if someone's been here for a year and they didn't claim right away, they didn't come here to claim asylum. Because they would've claimed within that first year, presumably, you know, what's the problem with, uh, with a rule that is really trying to tackle this problem.Adam Sadinsky35:57-38:33The issue is, I mean, Nate, you had mentioned, you know, people who had come to Canada, they didn't initially claim and it didn't initially claim asylum, temporary residents. What do we do about it? I wanna give a couple of examples of people who would be caught by this provision, who fall into that category. But there's legitimate reasons why they might claim more than a year after arriving in Canada. The first is someone who came to Canada, student worker, whatever. At the time they came to Canada, they would've been safe going back home they didn't have a fear of returning back home. But country conditions change and they can change quickly. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, was a stark example there may have been people who came to Canada as students planning to go back to Afghanistan and rebuild their country. As the bill is currently written. If there were to be a situation like that, and there will be some other Afghanistan, there will be some other situation down the line. Those people who weren't afraid when they originally came to Canada and now have a legitimate claim, will have an inferior, process that they go through, one that is riddled with issues, examples of unfairness compared to the refugee, the regular refugee system, and a lack of protection from deportation, pending any appeal.So that's one category. A second category is people who were afraid of going back home when they came to Canada but didn't need to claim asylum because they had another avenue to remain in Canada. So the government advertised, Minister Frazier was saying this often come to Canada, come as a student and there's a well-established pathway. You'll have a study permit, you'll get a post-graduation work permit. This is what the government wanted. The rug has been pulled out from under many of those people. Towards the end of last year when Canada said, okay, it's enough, too many temporary residents. But what about the temporary residents who had a fear of returning home when they came? They went through the system the “right way,” quote unquote. They didn't go to the asylum system. they went through another path. And now they're looking at it. They say, well, you know, I came to Canada to study, but also I'm gay and I'm from a country where, if people know about that, you know, I'll be tortured. Maybe since they've been in Canada, that person in that example, they've been in a relationship, they've been posting on social media with their partner. It is very dangerous so why, why shouldn't that person claim refugee protection through regular means?Nate Erskine-Smith38:33-39:06Is this right on your read of the law as it is written right now, if someone were to come with their family when they're a kid and they were to be in Canada for over a year and then their family were to move back to either the home country or to a different country, and, they wake up as a teenager many years later, they wake up as an adult many years later and their country's falling apart, and they were to flee and come to Canada. By virtue of the fact they've been here for a year as a kid, would that preclude them from making a claim?Adam Sadinsky39:06-39:10It's even worse than that, Nate.Nate Erskine-Smith39:09-39:10Oh, great.Adam Sadinsky39:10-39:47In your example, the family stayed in Canada for more than a year. Yes, absolutely. That person is caught by this provision. But here's who else would be someone comes when they're five years old with their family, on a trip to the United States. during that trip, they decide we want to see the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. They either have a visa or get whatever visa they need, or don't need one. They visit the falls, and at that point that they enter Canada, a clock starts ticking. That never stops ticking. So maybe they came to Canada for two hours.Nate Erskine-Smith39:44-39:45Two hours and you're outta luck.Adam Sadinsky39:45-39:47They go back to the USNate Erskine-Smith39:47-39:47Oh man.Adam Sadinsky39:47-40:09They never come back to Canada again. The way that the bill is written, that clock never stops ticking, right? Their country falls apart. They come back 15 years later. That person is going to have a very different kind of process that they go through, to get protection in Canada, than someone who wouldn't be caught by this bill.Nate Erskine-Smith40:09-40:34Say those are the facts as they are, that's one category. There's another category where I've come as a student, I thought there would be a pathway. I don't really fear persecution in my home country, but I want to stay in Canada we see in this constituency office, as other constituency offices do people come with immigration help or they've got legitimate claims. We see some people come with help with illegitimate claimsAdam Sadinsky40:34-42:46We have to be very careful when we talk about categorizing claims as frivolous. There is no question people make refugee claims in Canada that have no merit. You'll not hear from me, you'll not hear from our organization saying that every 100% of refugee claims made in Canada, are with merit. The issue is how we determine. At that initial stage that you're saying, oh, let's, let's deal quickly with frivolous claims. How do you determine if a claim is frivolous? What if someone, you know, I do a lot of appeal work, we get appeals of claims prepared by immigration consultants, or not even immigration consultants. And, you know, there's a core of a very strong refugee claim there that wasn't prepared properly.Nate Erskine-Smith42:46-42:46Yeah, we see it too. That's a good point.Adam Sadinsky42:46-42:46How that claim was prepared has nothing to do with what the person actually faces back home. We have to be very careful in terms of, quick negative claims, and clearing the decks of what some might think are frivolous claims. But there may be some legitimate and very strong core there. What could be done, and you alluded to this, is there are significant claims in the refugee board's backlog that are very, very strong just based on the countries they come from or the profiles of the individuals who have made those claims, where there are countries that have 99% success rate. And that's not because the board is super generous. It's because the conditions in those countries are very, very bad. And so the government could implement policies and this would be done without legislation to grant pathways for folks from, for example, Eritrea 99ish percent success rate. However, the government wants to deal with that in terms of numbers, but there's no need for the board to spend time determining whether this claim is in the 1%, that doesn't deserve to be accepted. Our view is that 1% being accepted is, a trade off for, a more efficient system.Nate Erskine-Smith42:46-43:30Similarly though, individuals who come into my office and they've been here for more than five years. They have been strong contributors to the community. They have jobs. They're oftentimes connected to a faith organization. They're certainly connected to a community based organization that is going to bat for them. There's, you know, obviously no criminal record in many cases they have other family here. And they've gone through so many appeals at different times. I look at that and I go, throughout Canadian history, there have been different regularization programs. Couldn't you kick a ton of people not a country specific basis, but a category specific basis of over five years, economic contributions, community contributions, no criminal record, you're approved.Adam Sadinsky43:30-44:20Yeah, I'd add to your list of categories, folks who are working in, professions, that Canada needs workers in. give the example of construction. We are facing a housing crisis. So many construction workers are not Canadian. Many of my clients who are refugee claimants waiting for their hearings are working in the construction industry. And the government did that, back in the COVID pandemic, creating what was, what became known as the Guardian Angels Program, where folks who were working in the healthcare sector, on the front lines, combating the pandemic, supporting, folks who needed it, that they were allowed to be taken again out of the refugee queue with a designated, pathway to permanent residents on the basis of the work and the contribution they were doing. All of these could be done.Adam Sadinsky44:20-45:05The refugee system is built on Canada's international obligations under the refugee convention, to claim refugee protection, to claim asylum is a human right. Every person in the world has the right to claim asylum. Individuals who are claiming asylum in Canada are exercising that right. Each individual has their own claim, and that's the real value that the refugee board brings to bear and why Canada has had a gold standard. The refugee system, replicated, around the world, every individual has their day in court, to explain to an expert tribunal why they face persecution. This bill would take that away.Nate Erskine-Smith45:05-46:18Yeah, I can't put my finger on what the other rationale would be though, because why the, why this change now? Well, we have right now, a huge number over a million people who are going to eventually be without status because they're not gonna have a pathway that was originally, that they originally thought would be there. The one frustration I have sometimes in the system is there are people who have come into my office with, the original claim, being unfounded. But then I look at it, and they've been here partly because the process took so long, they've been here for over five years. If you've been here for over five years and you're contributing and you're a member of the community, and now we're gonna kick you out. Like your original claim might have been unfounded, but this is insane. Now you're contributing to this country, and what a broken system. So I guess I'm sympathetic to the need for speed at the front end to ensure that unfounded claims are deemed unfounded and people are deported and legitimate claims are deemed founded, and they can be welcomed. So cases don't continue to come into my office that are over five or over six years long where I go, I don't even care if it was originally unfounded or not. Welcome to Canada. You've been contributing here for six years anyway.Adam Sadinsky46:18-46:33But if I can interject? Even if the bill passes as written, each of these individuals is still going to have what's called a pre-removal risk assessment.Nate Erskine-Smith46:31-46:33They're still gonna have a process. Yeah, exactly.Adam Sadinsky46:33-46:55They're still gonna have a process, and they're still going to wait time. All these people are still in the system. The bill is a bit of a shell game where folks are being just transferred from one process to another and say, oh, wow. Great. Look, we've reduced the backlog at the IRB by however many thousand claims,Nate Erskine-Smith46:53-46:55And we've increased the backlog in the process.Adam Sadinsky46:55-48:25Oh, look at the wait time at IRCC, and I'm sure you have constituents who come into your office and say, I filed a spousal sponsorship application two and a half years ago. I'm waiting for my spouse to come and it's taking so long. IRCC is not immune from processing delays. There doesn't seem to be, along with this bill, a corresponding hiring of hundreds and hundreds more pro officers. So, this backlog and this number of claims is shifting from one place to another. And another point I mentioned earlier within the refugee system within the board, when a person appeals a negative decision, right? Because, humans make decisions and humans make mistakes. And that's why we have legislative appeal processes in the system to allow for mistakes to be corrected. That appeal process happens within the board, and a person is protected from deportation while they're appealing with a pro. With this other system, it's different. The moment that an officer makes a negative decision on a pro that person is now eligible to be deported. CBSA can ask them to show up the next day and get on a plane and go home. Yes, a person can apply for judicial review in the federal court that does not stop their deportation. If they can bring a motion to the court for a stay of removal.Nate Erskine-Smith48:19-48:25You're gonna see a ton of new work for the federal court. You are gonna see double the work for the federal courtAdam Sadinsky48:25-48:39Which is already overburdened. So unless the government is also appointing many, many new judges, and probably hiring more Council Department of Justice, this backlog is going to move from one place to another.Nate Erskine-Smith48:39-48:41It's just gonna be industry whack-a-mole with the backlog.Adam Sadinsky48:41-48:52The only way to clear the backlog is to clear people out of it. There's no fair way to clear folks out of it in a negative way. So the only way to do that is positively.Nate Erskine-Smith48:52-49:37In the limited time we got left, the bill also empowers the governor and council of the cabinet to cancel documents, to suspend documents. And just so I've got this clearer in my mind, so if, for example: say one is a say, one is a student on campus, or say one is on a, on a work permit and one is involved in a protest, and that protest the government deems to be something they don't like. The government could cancel the student's permit on the basis that they were involved in the protest. Is that right? The law? Not to say that this government would do that. But this would allow the government to legally do just that. Am I reading it wrong?Adam Sadinsky49:37-50:46The bill gives broad powers to the government to cancel documents. I think you're reading it correctly. To me, when I read the bill, I don't particularly understand exactly what is envisioned. Where it would, where the government would do this, why a government would want to put this in. But you are right. I would hope this government would not do that, but this government is not going to be in power forever. When you put laws on the books, they can be used by whomever for whatever reason they can they want, that's within how that law is drafted. You know, we saw down south, you know, the secretary of State a few months ago said, okay, we're gonna cancel the permits of everyone from South Sudan, in the US because they're not taking back people being deported. It's hugely problematic. It's a complete overreach. It seems like there could be regulations that are brought in. But the power is so broad as written in this law, that it could definitely be used, for purposes most Canadians would not support.Nate Erskine-Smith50:46-51:07And, obviously that's a worst case scenario when we think about the United States in today's political climate. But, it's not clear to your point what the powers are necessary for. If we are to provide additional powers, we should only provide power as much as necessary and proportionate to the goal we want to achieve. Is there anything else you want to add?Adam Sadinsky51:07-51:43I just wanna touch, and I'm sure you got into a lot of these issues, on the privacy side but. The privacy issues in this bill bleed over into the refugee system with broad search powers, um, particularly requiring service providers to provide information, we are concerned these powers could be used by CBSA, for example, to ask a women's shelter, to hand over information about a woman claiming refugee protection or who's undocumented, living in a shelter, we have huge concerns that, you know, these powers will not just be used by police, but also by Canada Border Services and immigration enforcement. I'm not the expert on privacy issues, but we see it we see the specter of those issues as well.Nate Erskine-Smith51:43-52:22That's all the time we got, but in terms of what would help me to inform my own advocacy going forward is, this bill is gonna get to committee. I'm gonna support the bill in committee and see if we can amend it. I know, the position of CARL is withdraw. The position of a number of civil society organizations is to withdraw it. I think it's constructive to have your voice and others at committee, and to make the same arguments you made today with me. Where you have. I know your argument's gonna be withdrawn, you'll say then in the alternative, here are changes that should be made. When you've got a list of those changes in detailed, legislative amendment form, flip them to me and I'll share the ideas around the ministry and around with colleagues, and I appreciate the time. Appreciate the advocacy.Adam Sadinsky52:22-52:24Absolutely. Thank you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.uncommons.ca

September 12, 2025Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeThe Revelation 3:14-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

August 25, 2025Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily LifeThe Revelation 1:16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

OPEN HEAVENSMATALA LE LAGI MO LE ASO SA 25 AOKUSO 2025(tusia e Pastor EA Adeboye)Manatu Autu: Aua Ne'i Matūtū (Don't Be Empty)Tauloto -Tusi Paia–Efeso 5:18 “Aua fo‘i ne‘i ‘onā ‘outou i le uaina, o le mea e ulavale ai; a ‘ia fa‘atumuina ‘outou i le Agaga.”‭‭Faitauga – Tusi Paia –Galuega 19:12-16I nai vaiaso ua mavae, sa ou tāua ai I lenei faamalosi faasolo, afai e mafai ona fa'atumulia I le Agaga Paia, e mafai fo'i ona gaogao ma matūtū. Peita'i e le finagalo le Alii e fo'ifua lana fanau. I le 1 Samuelu 16;1; na fetalai le Atua ia Samuelu, “Tula'i ia ina faatumu lau fagu nifo I lenei suāu'u.” O lona uiga sa leai se mea I le fagu ma ua manaomia ona toe faatumu. I le 1 Samuelu 16:14; ina ua uma ona fa'au'u Tavita e fai ma tupu, na alu ese le Agaga o le Alii mai iā Saulo, ma e talu ai e lē tatau ona i ai se avanoa, i le natura o mea, o lea na osofaia ai Saulo e le agaga leaga. O le matūtū poo le leai o Agaga Paia o se tulaga mata'utia; o lea la e tatau lava ona e aloese mai soosemea e ono tupu ai le gaogao fa'aleagaga. Ou te tatalo ia aua ne'i e aunoa ma Agaga Paia, i le suafa o Iesu. I tausaga ua mavae sa i ai se mea na tupu i se nuu o le taulaga i Ogun State, Nigeria. Sa i ai se fe'ese'esea'iga laititi i le va o tagata o le aulotu I le nuu lea ma ni tagata faataulaitu, ma i'u ina manatu ai le au faataulaitu e tu'u se faatusa o le tiapolo i luma o le falesa a le aulotu lea. Ina ua iloa ma maua lea faatusa, na faatama'ia e se tasi o o'u atalii fa'aleagaga i se pelu. Pe ana fai e gaogao o ia fa'aleagaga semanu e oti lava i le taimi lea. Ona manatu lea o tagata faataulaitu e omai i le falesa e fai se misa. Ina ua ulufale se tasi o i latou i le falesa, e la'a mai i totonu ae tifa. E toe la'a mai ae palasi. Le au pele e, o loo fealualua'i solo le tiapolo e saili se tasi e aina e ia (1 Peteru 5:8). O lea ina ia e manumalō i le tiapolo, e ao ona fa'atumulia oe e Agaga Paia i taimi uma. Po o le a le taumafai malosi mai o le fili, e te manumalō lava pea, i taimi uma. O atalii e toafitu o Seva o loo tāua i le tusi faitau o le asō o ni uso matūtū pe leai se Agaga Paia. Sa mananao e tutuli temoni ma manatu latou te mafaia ona fai pe a o latou faatonu le tiapolo e alu ese i le suafa o Iesu, o loo talaiina e Paulo. Sa o atu i latou i luma o le tagata na ulutinoina e le tiapolo e aunoa ma se faauuga, ma na faamāina i latou. O tagata e manatu latou te mafaia ona faataitai galuega mamana e aunoa ma le totogiina o le tau talafeagai ua o latou tuu I latou lava i le leaga. O lē aunoa ma le mana o le Atua ma lona mamalu, o se tulaga ogaoga mata'utia auā o agaga leaga o loo latou suea i taimi uma ni nofoaga gaogao e nonofo ai (Mataio 12:43-45). Aua fo'i ne'i tuuina atu e outou se mea e mautu ai le tiapolo; aua ne'i faatagaina agaga leaga e pulea lou tagata. Fa'amautinoa e fa'atumulia oe e Agaga Paia i taimi uma ina ia mafai ai ona e ola i le manumalō. E ao ona e tumu i le Agaga Paia i taimi uma. E mata'utia le leaga o le matūtū fa'aleagaga. I le suafa o Iesu Amene.

Helping Each Other Deal With Sin - Matthew 18:15-20God doesn't stop working in our lives when we first trust Jesus. He puts His Spirit inside believers at the moment of their conversion, helping them grow in Christ. And He also puts believers in local churches so we can help each other grow and be faithful and fruitful followers of Christ.Having dealt with the vertical realm of our sin before God, and having left the sin of non-Christians for God Himself to judge, Jesus now turns to the horizontal realm of relational sins between fellow Christians.Christians follow 3 steps in dealing with sin in the local church:Step 1: One person talks to another, face to face - V. 15“For whoever does the will of My Father in Heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” - Matthew 12:50So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. - Matthew 5:23-24Discipleship and discipline are 2 sides of a coin, both meant to help believers. Note from verse 15 the purpose is to help our brother or sister in their walk with Christ – “If he listens to you, you have won your brother.”Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:1-2The rebukes of the righteous should always be a precious ointment, sweet and gentle; never should they break the head. - Charles SpurgeonStep 2: The two talk with the help of another one or two - V. 16I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers? - 1 Cor. 6:5I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. - Philippians 4:2-3Many of the trials of our spiritual life are preventable; if we indulge a sin we invite a sorrow. - Charles SpurgeonStep 3: When sin is not repented of, go to the church and/or its leaders - V. 17‘Heathen…' represents those who rebel against God and therefore exclude themselves from Christian fellowship.' - David Jeremiah“You should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.” - 2 Corinthians 2:5-8Can step 3 be fulfilled by a congregation delegating to its spiritual leaders step 3? Yes, and our church does in its bylaws.As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is delf-condemned. -Titus 3:10-11Do some things go straight to step number 3 – yes, and sometimes even skip that one.Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. - Romans 13:1-2Jesus delegates authority to local churches (and their leaders) to act - V. 18-20Relationships in the church are governed by 3 submissions:Submission to God and His will as stated in His word (1 John 1:5-9)Mutual Submission to one another as each of us is committed to walking in the truth of God's word (Ephesians 5:21)Submission to our leaders as they lead us in biblically faithful ways (Hebrews 13:17).Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power in its working. - James 5:16

OPEN HEAVENSMATALA LE LAGI MO LE ASO LUA 5 AOKUSO 2025(tusia e Pastor EA Adeboye)Manatu Autu: Viiga Taumasuasua (Overflowing praise)Tauloto -Tusi Paia–Salamo 147:1 “Ia ‘outou vivi‘i atu i le ALI‘I. Auā e lelei ‘ona fai pesega i lo tatou Atua; auā e matagofie, e ono lava le vi‘iga.”‭‭Faitauga – Tusi Paia –2 Samuelu 6:14-16I le faitauga o le Tusi Paia mo le asō, na vivii Tavita i le Atua ma lona malosi atoa ma siva e leai ma se manatu i seisi. O se faataitaiga lelei lea o le viiga e taumasuasua, leitioa faamanuia le Atua ia te ia e lē mafaitaulia. A taumasuasua la tatou viiga i le Atua,e na te foai mai faamanuiaga e lē mafaitaulia. A e vivii i le Atua, e te faafiafia ia te ia, afai e te faafiafia ia te ia, e na te faia ou tuaoi e faia le leleiga ma oe (Faataoto 16:7). Leitoa e lē taitai ona faiaina Tavita i se taua, o le taumasuasua o lana viiga e faaosofia le Atua e faafilemu ona fili i ona luma. A e faaaoga soo se auala e vivii ai i le Atua, e na te faia soo se auala e foai faasoloatoa atu ai ia te oe faamanuiaga faulai. O le avatu o viiga e taumasuasua i le Atua, e le mafai ona e tuua ni tapulaa i lau viiga, e tatau ona e vivii ia te ia e lē aunoa. O lona uiga, e te vivii ia te ia I soo se mea e te alu iai ma a'o faia foi au galuega masani o le aso. O lona uiga o le tulaga e alu iai lou mafaufau i aso uma o lou olaga, o le vivii i le Atua e faifaipea. O le mafuaaga lea o so'o se taimi e vaai ai tagata ia te au, e latou te iloa ai o loo gaoioi pea lou gutu, o loo ou pese i pese lotu e vivii ai i le Atua. Ou te manatua e iai se aso na ou malaga ai i se atunuu i fafo ona ou alu lea i se faletusi e faatau ni a'u tusi. Ao tau sue ni au tusi, sa ou pese e vivii  i le Atua.  E iai se palagi na sau i totonu o le faletusi, vaai mai ia te a'u, ma fai sana tala ula i lau pese. Na ma taliē, ma lulu lima, ao faliu e alu, na faapea mai, ‘sei faatali a, o lea ua te'a'. Fai mai sa ia pologa i le tigā o le tua mo le tele o tausaga. O le taimi na ou luluina ai lona lima ao ou iai i le agaga vivii ma tapuai, na te'a vave le tua tigā. Afai e te fia vaai i vavega i so'o se mea e te alu iai, tusa pe e te lē o mafaufau iai, e tatau ona e vivii i le Atua ia taumasuasua. O i latou e avatu i le Atua viiga e taumasuasua, e le faatali sei fai e le Atua se mea mo i latou ona faatoa vivii lea. E vivii i latou i le Atua i ona aso e taugalemū ai ma aso e lē taugalemū ai. O le mafai ona nofo i luga mai le moega i taeao uma, ua lava lea mafuaaga e vivii ai i le Atua. E taui e le Atua i le faamautinoa lea, latou te maua mea uma e manaomia ae lei ole atu i le Atua ina ia atili ona faaavanoa latou taimi e vivii ai ia te ia. Ae lei o'o mai faigata, e na te fofoina ina ia aua nei mapu le tafe o le viiga. Le au pele e, ia fai ma au masani le vivii i le Atua i so'o se mea e te alu iai, ona ia faamatagofieina lea o lou olaga i ana faamanuiaga faulai. O le avatu i le Atua o le viiga e taumasuasua, e tatau ona e vivii ia te ia I soo se mea e te alu iai I taimi uma, i le suafa o Iesu, Amene. 

July 31, 2025Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life1 Corinthians 10:29-33 + 11:1-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

Big Idea: Never put society above Scripture!1 Corinthians 11:2-16I. Only your Creator can define your identity.1 Corinthians 11:2-6Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions just as I delivered them to you. But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ. Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head. Every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since that is one and the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman doesn't cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. But if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her head be covered.II. God created the roles of human relationships.1 Corinthians 11:7-10A man should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God. So too, woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman came from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. This is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.III. Honor God by honoring one another.1 Corinthians 11:11-12In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, and man is not independent of woman. For just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman, and all things come from God.IV. Nature doesn't set our example, but the God of nature does.1 Corinthians 11:13-16Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her as a covering. If anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.Next Steps: Believe: I surrender to my Creator today.Become: I will surrender my appearance to my King tomorrow. Be Sent: I want people to see that Jesus is worthy of my worship this week.Discussion Questions: Did your personal appearance honor Jesus last week? Explain your answer using Scripture. Do you still follow your parents' rules for dress in church?  Explain.Has anyone pushed their views on gender roles as if they were God's rules? How has gender identity affected your community? How do you distinguish God's commands from church tradition?Why does it honor God when you honor others before yourself?Pray for the Holy Spirit to be the only voice you listen to this week.

July 18, 2025Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life1 Corinthians 5:9-13 + 6:1-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

July 11, 2025Hope Alive: Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life1 Corinthians 2:1-16I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.If you would like to revisit today's Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. If this podcast ministered to you, please subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple podcasts. Reviews help us reach more people and spread the wisdom of God. Please follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hopealivewithgod/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/hopealiveministry/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakeComChurch/ -Lake Community Church 

Big Idea: Can you read the mind of Christ?1 Corinthians 2:10-16I. Connecting with God at the spiritual level. 1 Corinthians 2:10-11Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.II. Choosing which spirit you're following.1 Corinthians 2:12-14Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God's Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.III. Knowing that you know him.1 Corinthians 2:15-16The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. For who has known the Lord's mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.Next Steps: Believe: I need to meet the Holy Spirit for the first time. Become: I will get to know the Holy Spirit more this week. Be Sent: I want people to see the Holy Spirit at work in me this week.Discussion Questions: Who do you know more than anyone else in the world? Can you read their mind?On a scale of 1-10, how much deeper did your relationship with Jesus grow last week?Describe what makes you different than every other person on earth.Are all people spiritual?  Is it possible that some are not at all spiritual? Explain your answer. How certain are you that you know the mind of Christ?Name someone who is following the wrong spirit?Pray for that person by name this week. 

OPEN HEAVENSMATALA LE LAGI MO LE ASO LULU 12 MATI  2025(tusia e Pastor EA Adeboye)Manatu Autu: E faaola e Iesu (Jesus delivers)Tauloto -Tusi Paia–2 Samuelu 22:2 “Ua ia fa‘apea ane: O le ALI‘I, o lo‘u papa lea, ma lo‘u ‘olo ma lo‘u fa‘aola.”Faitauga – Tusi Paia – 1 Tupu 17:1-16I le Esoto 14:13-30, na tuliloa atu e le fitafita a Farao le fanauga a Isaraelu a'o iai i luma o le sami ulaula. Na iloa lelei e Isaraelu, a leai seisi e faaola iai latou, e maliliu uma pe toe faafoi uma e nofo pologa. O Mose, lo latou taitai na tagi atu i le Atua, ona ia faaola lea iai latou i lona aao malosi. I le Mareko 5:1-5, o se tamaloa na ulufia e le toatele o temoni na faasa'olotoina I se upu se tasi mai le Faaola e matautia. Sa iai se tamaitai sa iai sona faafitauli uiga ese, so'o se masini e alu i le eletise e faaola e latalata iai, e ulufia o ia e le eletise. Mo se faataitaiga, a ki se ili, e le taamilo le ili ae ua amata ona taamilo o ia. A ki se pusaaisa, e maluluina ai o ia, a ki se auli e amata ona ia vevela ai. Ua oo ina lē mafai ona toe ki se masini eletise i lona fale ma ua nofo i le pogisa. Na ou fai iai e aumai ia te a'u ae faapea mai e le mafai ona aumai i se taavale ona e iai le aso na ave ai I se taavale i le falemai, na faaola le taavale ae ulufia o ia e le uila mai le taavale, ma ua ato i fafo ma le taavale. Ona e le mafai ona alu i se taavale, o lea na ou alu iai e vaai, ma na ou fai iai, e pau le mea na te faia, o le tu'uina atu o lona ola ia Iesu aua e mafai ona ia faaola o ia mai le malosiaga o le pogisa. Na tuuina atu lona ola ia Iesu, tatalo se tatalo puupuu, ma sa faaolaina i le taimi lava lena. Na maliu Iesu ma toetu mai e faaolaina le tagata mai lima o satani (1 Ioane 3:8). E lē afaina pe tele ni malosiaga o le pogisa o loo faalavelave ia te oe, a e valaau ia te ia, e na te faasaoloto ia te oe. O Le tamaloa i le sunako e tasi se agaga leaga sa ia te ia (Mareko 1:23-26), o Maria le Makatala e fitu temoni (Mareko 16:9), ma le tamaloa i Katara na iai le toatele o temoni (Mareko 5:1-15) ma na faasaoloto ma faaola uma e Iesu. Ou te folafola atu ua faasaolotoina oe mai soo se malosiaga o le pogisa o loo faapologa ma faasauā ia te oe poo so'o se mea e tau ia te oe, i le suafa o Iesu. Ua maea ona totogi e Iesu le tau o lou faasaolotoga, amata savali ai ua e saoloto. TataloOu te savali i le faasaolotoga atoatoa i so'o se vaega o lou olaga, i le suafa o Iesu, Amene. 

Dual Use, Space and Ocean Tech...NY Tech Summit (Feb. 25, 2025)SUMMARY KEYWORDSDual use technology, space tech, ocean tech, cyber security, AI disinformation, Elon Musk, Ukrainian defense, naval drones, autonomous weapons, national security, public-private partnerships, ocean habitats, acoustic technology, geopolitical tensions, investment opportunities.SPEAKERSElena Anfimova, Gator Greenwill, Tony Cruz, Lisa Marrocchino, Speaker 5, Jaha Cummings, Carl Pro, Robin Blackstone, Speaker 4, Andrew Fisch, Mark Sanor, Dan BrahmyMark Sanor  00:00So Gator is with a family office investing in this space for a long time, with natural resources and minerals heritage. And Dan I met with Josette Sheeran at her office, otherwise known as the Carlisle hotel, who said, "You got to meet Dan", and now here you are on one of our panels. Thank you. So I think it's better, if you might share the "Harry Met Sally" story of how you met Dan Gator Greenwill  00:49That's a pretty good story. So Dan literally sent me a cold LinkedIn request. Yeah, there was a cut. Yeah, there were a couple of them. Mark Sanor  Wait, let's go back further. How did you identify him for that LinkedIn request? Or is it random? Or is it random? Give them the micDan Brahmy  01:15again, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So as part of being a founder who has lived in Israel for the last 19 years, I've learned to be a relentless a**hole. And so it's kind of this skill set that you need to have in order to get to a certain point in life. And I saw I heard about Gator, and then I was like, you know, maybe I'll just try and find his email address, and then I've had a lot of success is just reaching out to people on LinkedIn, you'd be surprised, like former head of Senate Intel Committee, folks like guys that you would never dream of even talking to. And I was like, hello, I'm Dan, can we talk? And they're like, Okay, whatever. So it just worked out in that Mark Sanor  01:57In that same spirit, how did you How did you land Elon Musk as a client. Dan Brahmy  02:04Well, that's a long story. So, so I'll let you go into the things you wanted to Mark Sanor  02:10say. Oh, he doesn't want that question. Gator Greenwill  02:15So anyhow, Dan, Dan did a cold LinkedIn email. It was persistent, but the area that he was exploring was of already significant interest to the investment fund that I was working for. We had long had the thesis that one of the fundamental risks of AI before we even make it to anything like artificial general or artificial super intelligence was the risk of an explosion in disinformation, an explosion in cognitive biases being worsened by tribalism on the internet. And so Dan had obviously been building the company for a couple of years when he reached out to us, he was beginning to do a raise for series, a had, you know, a very reputable Israeli VC fund that was looking for an American co investor, and we negotiated term sheet, and the the rest is history. Now we are sitting here before you today. So that's the the one minute version. There's obviously more twists and turns along along the way, we've ended up supplying probably 20 to 30, like 20% of your capital stack, maybe something like, something like that. So ended up being a significant portion of, you know, raise capital for for si Amber, before the the pre IPO and the IPO. So Mark Sanor  03:39now just want I'm getting, I want to ask more unfair questions, but, but as you look at the landscape, right? That's this is a one, just one example. What do you what excites and scares you in this? Well, Gator Greenwill  03:52a lot of things scare me. A lot of things also excite me. So the rising geo political tensions between the US and the EU certainly scare me, as well as you know, the US and at least a few members of the of the five eyes, given how important that's been to the defense posture of the United States historically, by the same token, it is causing a much needed re evaluation in Europe of spend by the government sector in the defense space, there has already been a number of very promising start ups actually being founded, even in Ukraine, but also in Estonia, Germany, France, that have been started for funding due To the government just under investing in the sector. So I'm excited about the prospects for investing in Euro zone companies. Aside from Israel, we've also invested in several Euro zone companies. So one thing that distinguished us from early on was we looked at dual use as being not just about American innovation, but American and partners innovation, including. Between Israel and the Euro zone especially. Mark Sanor  05:04And so, I guess from your perspective, Dan, maybe tell a little bit of your some interesting stories. I do want to hear this Elon Musk story, if you don't mind. Dan Brahmy  05:18So just to give a quick background, I'm Dan. I'm one of the co founders and the CEO of a company called Sara, which is cyber security in abracadabra, which kind of reveals what we do. But the truth is, we've been out there for seven years. Raised money from from gators Firm A couple times, and the value has been actually much more than just the capital. Usually, we've raised money from Founders Fund a couple times, which is Peter thiel's fund as well in the valley. So the guy who created PayPal and Palantir and all these other names out there, and for four years, we've actually done the typical mistake of the tech very geeky founders, which is building, building, building, building, and not getting enough feedback from the market. And so for a very long time, we were at that stage where we were trying to prove to the world by building the best possible tech. And I think we had, we still have, actually, it gave us a crazy advantage, but not within that four years time period, because we were just building that technology, which is in a nutshell, able to distinguish between real bad and fake for the online realm, social media and traditional media outlets, right? We want to be that, that sort of stamp of trustworthiness for the conversations that we all witness on a daily basis, on a minute basis, maybe at this point. And then, because of the Peter Thiel relationship, and because we were a tiny Israeli start up with no presence whatsoever, you know, two years ago, two and a half years ago, and we landed an article in the Wall Street Journal and forms, because we made so much noise about the stuff that we were solving. Some day, we received a call from a lawyer who was like, the pit bull is pit bull I've ever seen in my life. Scaries guy I've ever talked to sends me an email like, we need to talk now my client. I'm like, who's your client? It's like, sign this 19,000 pages. NDA, that if you say anything, you'll die tomorrow. I'm like, All right, well, we'll try, you know, we'll just sign it and and then he it's true. I mean, he told me about this story, and so he's like, this is Elon. I'm like, oh, okay, that's interesting. What does he want? It's like, well, you know what he wants? He wants to buy Twitter, right? He wants to take the price lower, and he feels like there's a gap between what Twitter is claiming about the bots and the sock puppets and trolls and the fake accounts and their impact. And so what's what they are stating about themselves as a company, what is truly happening? They're claiming that it's less than 5% has no impact over the conversations that we see over Twitter X, and he feels like it's more and he wants to use your tech. So I'm thinking this might be the first little star on our shoulder as a tech company, right? You want to start building credibility. It's kind of a deep, deep tech, a dual use technology, serving, you know, defense organizations and national security. So I said, interesting. So I mean, obviously I would do it for for a penny, right? But we didn't ask for a penny. We asked for much more, and he paid. And at the very end, I think we did a very good job. And, you know, same pit bull at the end was, I was like, Hey, can I be honest? You know, it would be great if you'd allow us to, you know, we're small company, maybe, maybe, maybe you'd allow me to go to the press, because we did such a great job. And, you know, I think his thought process was, what would a 15 people team from Israel could probably do in the press. What are the odds of these folks making noise? Wrong assumption. We very wrong assumption. So within two weeks, I received another call, after we published 1000 articles in the press, it's just like CNN, all that stuff. And he was, like, a so my client is not happy, because now he's the owner of Twitter. I'm like, okay, and well, now it reflects really badly on him, because now he's the owner of Twitter, and you're bashing the head of Twitter itself. He's the owner my Yeah, but I mean, I, you know, I saved him a billion dollars. So should be happy like, Yeah, I think you should stop now with the press. You know, it's enough and say, Well, you know, we also lined up like the BBC and stuff like that. But it will stop at 1000 articles from that moment onward. So it was November 2022 as a small company, literally, with almost no revenue at that. Point, I think we were like 300,000 in annual revenue. In two years, we ramped up to 6,000,006 point 1 million. So we blew up, and today we serve I'm not saying it's all about the musk story, but I think that a lot of startups are just completely, completely disregarding that credibility and that and that brand recognition, because, though, because we not that we we're all about the tech and the tech and the tech and and eventually, and I'm saying this as a as a tech company in the field of AI combating bad AI with good AI. And I'm going to be shooting myself in the foot as a soon to be CEO of a publicly traded company. Don't hate me when I say that. But I think people don't buy technologies. I think people by people, and people by trust, and we, I guess we prove that with time, and this equation proves to be the worthy one. That's the route we're going to be taking. And two thirds of the companies, like R and D people, I don't understand half of the shit that they're saying to me, and I'm like, Oh, very interesting. And we just move on to other stuff. But the truth is this, what we see, it's, it's, it's incredible technology being leveraged by people who want to trust you, like, that's pretty much that. So that's the story about which Mark Sanor  11:13has, which has lots of use cases, right? Not just dual use, not just forensics, but we, Dan Brahmy  11:20serve. I mean, we're on a, this is a do use technology panel. Is this a panel? If it's two people, yeah, Mark Sanor  11:28it says it's a duo, duo, dual use, the finalist Dan Brahmy  11:33of the panelists. Yeah, we work a lot with national security folks. Mark Sanor  11:38So why do you want to go public? Why? Because he wants you to go public. Do you Gator Greenwill  11:46sure I'll so I think what we found, and I've been discussing the IPO option with Dan, actually from fairly soon after he invested, after I invested, sorry, when he began discussing with different bankers about that option, and our conclusion, based on conversations with a number of VCs, was that even with a relatively depressed IPO market, the cost of money for a compelling company in the public markets is significantly cheaper than what you were seeing from VCs, post SVB bank collapse, term sheets got especially outside, if you were not a kind of golden circle Silicon Valley, you kind of Blessed from above. You know, start up. You know, no offense against, you know, friends of mine that run companies like that. You know, the types of term sheets that you get, you know, from VCs, you know, are typically fairly onerous. And so that was where, you know, we said, hey, you know, this is going to give a, you know, a multi year pipeline to the company, you know, add a, add a valuation that is has lots of room to grow, but is not overly dilutive to the existence. And I know Mark Sanor  12:59we're not pitching, but I think there's an opportunity for us to get it before the IPO. Right? All right, we'll come back to that, all right, other than his space, 13:12not a technical Mark Sanor  13:14one, a personal one, what kind of answer? Dan Brahmy  13:16I was born in France, so I'm romantic by default. Okay, I've lived there. I've no, it's true. I Yeah, so this is the beginning of the story. So 50, I live 15 years in France, right? And everything's about, like cheese love and Eiffel Tower and whatever people like about France. But there's something true about it. And I mean, I could be talking about the VC and the term sheets and the limitation preference and all the stuff that everybody knows about that probably more than I do, as a matter of fact. But the truth is, I think that we're solving one of the most complex and interesting challenges that we're facing at least nowadays, maybe in seven years will be different. But for sure, for the last two, three years and for the next couple of years ahead of us, we are in really deep, muddy waters, and the way that I want one of our, one of our board members is Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state and head of CIA Jos about to be coming in as a post listing board member. You already know that one of the one of my ways to pitch it to them was not telling them about the technicalities of becoming a NASDAQ publicly traded company, because they know everything about complexities. While I was running in diapers, the guy run the CIA, so obviously he knows more than everything that I would do in life. But I told him, I think people need to perceive that opportunity at being a shareholder at Sara some point in time, in the next couple of years, as maybe I should invest in Batman, like if we are Batman. Mark Sanor  15:01It, and you guys are running this, the French, the French coming out, and you the romantic Dan Brahmy  15:08stuff, very geeky. But the truth is, like, if we're Batman and Batman has technologies, all I'm saying is, I think people should see this as the opportunity to potentially invest and help us build the technology that can be the arsenal to bring back a little bit of more transparency for this democracy. Because right now, Gotham City is running on fumes and is looking really bad, and the and and it feels like people are losing trust, slowly losing trust. And I got, I got two children, the two boys, four and two years old. And I'm saying, Damn, by the time they became they become teenagers. What are they going to be trusting? What they'll never trust the media. They'll never trust social media. They'll never trust things that they see online. Because Mark Sanor  15:49every single No, their dad is Batman, Dan Brahmy  15:53right? So that's Batman, exactly. I don't know who's Batman son in the show, but, but that's, that's the way I that I sold it to Mike Pompeo, like I want people to invest in Batman's also Mark Sanor  16:04so questions for Batman, yes, Tony Cruz  16:13as Iron Gate Capital Advisors looked at you. Have you talked 16:15to Hamlet you save? Or Gator Greenwill  16:20I know Hamlet, I'm not sure if he's under in this specific deal. I mean, some of the, you know, some of the companies that, some of the funds that, Iron Gate is an investor, and I'm almost, like 99.9% they have evaluated. Now, obviously it's a different, you know, it's about to be a different deal than it was, you know, before an IPO. So always could be worth revising that discussion with Ty and Hannah, Mark Sanor  16:48I've got two more panelists for you. So their space is up there as well. And there's ocean space and ocean we're talking about explain, and then ELA as a fund that focuses on dual use technologies as well. So just introduce yourself. Let me start with Elena. Elena Anfimova  17:14Thank you, Mark. Hello everybody. My name is Elena, and I do Ukrainian defense technology. You probably know that Ukrainian defense Tech is a world class innovation, and the gap the capital requirement for it is massive, and the challenge, in addition to capital, is how this startups access global markets. So this is what my team is working on, how to integrate the start ups in the domestic defense ecosystem, Mark Sanor  17:52which some are calling like the new Israel of sorts. And we were just having, oh, Patrick's here. We were having lunch, and I said, Do you know who Jacques Cousteau is? And he goes, Well, yes, I've been and I invested in his films. So his grandson, Fabian, has been with us, the CEO of his company. We've invested a lot in space, but we can gain a lot more cheaply and investing in ocean based research. So maybe it's explain. Hello. Lisa Marrocchino  18:27I'm Lisa March, you know, thank you for having me join. I was just in Davos, in Ukraine, cyber tech, and technology was a big topic there, so that was super interesting for me to be there was an AI cyber conference that I attended, but what we're doing at Fabien Cousteau was the first grandson of Jacques co he. His grandfather was an ocean pioneer. I'm missing the word ocean tech from this conference. However, we need to change that. I also do believe that ocean tech is going dual use because of, well, lots of geo political reasons. So we are focusing on national security as well, and I'll explain a little bit of that. But Jacques Cousteau developed some of the first technologies to spend more time in the ocean and habitat. So he built some of what are called Ocean habitats, or really ocean research stations. And we have one in space, but we don't have any in the ocean, because the space race took off and got and left ocean behind. And as Mark mentioned, in the last 10 years, you have invested $270 billion in space and private creating a private space industry, and created, really 1700 new companies. So we really are poised to create that same kind of phenomenon in ocean tech. It reminds me I was at Goldman Sachs in technology research, and this really reminds me of, kind of the early days of technology. So his grandson kind of picked up the torch, and in 2014 lived under water for. For 31 days with five scientists did not come up to the surface because of what's called saturation technology. So he was fully saturated and lived at 20 meters or 60 feet, and did not come up to the surface for 31 days. So what happened were some phenomenal things under water. There were science experiments and kind of an acceleration of that, because you were able to dive 10 to 12 hours a day. So what we can't get back is time. We know we're at the precipice. I mean, someone mentioned a meteor here that almost hit us. I think we should be much more worried about climate change and some cataclysmic issues that are we're on the precipice of then, uh, then the media are hitting us. So I, I do believe that we we're not focused on climate change and maybe this administration and where we are today. We won't be so we will use acoustic technology, sensor technologies we've evolved from just, not just a habitat, but really thinking about an ocean technology platform where acoustics and all of those national security issues do come into play, so I'll stop there. Mark Sanor  21:08Excellent. All right, so you got a cornucopia now, space slash ocean tech we'll use and let's open up for questions. I Andrew Fisch  21:24Yes, Lisa, this is completely anecdotal, so you'll have to answer the question, and in for me, a lot of call them drums. You know, a lot of devices are being now, roaming the oceans, gathering data of all types. Is this advancing what you do as opposed to having literally people in one place? Is it complimentary? Is replace anything? Lisa Marrocchino  21:53That's a great question. We really believe that you can't just do it alone with robots, but robots are essential to amplifying and extending the reach of humans. So and this, and NASA is really studying this a lot as well, kind of this human robotic interface, if human interface, and we really, if it were true that robots could do it all, they would be the only thing on them, you know, in space. So I do believe that you really need that human interaction with robots, and we can really amplify so yes, we'll be looking at robotics, a U V S, R V s, all of those in surrounding the habitat. If you think about the habitat, is almost like the smartest node on this kind of technology ecosystem platform. So that's how we're really looking at it. There's some super cool technology that can be, that's not even out there yet, right? That can Yes, absolutely. Then they have to come back, right? And then you have to interpret the data and AI, you know, one i We heard a lot about AI, and that's one thing I'm really optimistic about. AI in ocean, there is a flood gate of so if you send out all those robots and all those sensors, are going to come back with a flood gate, even with hydro acoustic modems, there's so much information to be processed, and we know nothing about our ocean. You know, 5% has been explored. So how can we gather all that data to do to make better decisions? And that's where robotics and AI, I think, is going to make play a major role in so we're looking at all of that technology. 23:24Thank you. Other questions, Robin Blackstone  23:28yes, you know, it occurred to me that one of the factors in the ocean as well as space, is that a lot of it's not own by anybody, and so it's essentially available to be used by anyone. And it's kind of an interesting advantage. Planets would be another space like that. So in a world that's carved up already on land, there's these vast spaces which are not carved up. I was just wondering what advantage that might confer on the work that you guys are doing. Lisa Marrocchino  24:06Yeah, that's also a really good question. So we work with governments and create public private partnerships. So right now we're working in Curacao, Portugal, cap of ver very talking to people in the Middle East as well. And it is interesting. And I don't know if anyone saw there was recently an article about China having a habitat. So there is an interesting phenomenon happening, going back to dual use and national security. All of a sudden, China is interested in creating habitats at very deep levels and to do all kinds of things. So it is an open space, and I think legal will probably play a big role in this. But right now, we haven't had any issues with putting a habitat in waters outside of Curacao, Cabo Verde, Portugal and the Red Sea even there's no been no issues with like, you can't go there or you can go here, but it is a. Question, the ocean is even bigger than lots of spaces, and it's right in our back yard. So as long as we all play nice, I think, for a while, and if China accelerates what they're doing in the ocean, I hope and pray that that will help the US come to terms with investing more and the ocean, 25:27just Jaha Cummings  25:32on the question of, I guess, areas for American city research, if you consider micro Nisa, I lived there for 20 years, and the whole northern Pacific we have our contact agreement, which pretty much denies rite of passage to anyone else, right? Lisa Marrocchino  25:45I love that. Yeah, all areas are open, or we're open to any area really that would that where we need to study the ocean, and really that's almost everywhere, because we haven't studied it at Gator Greenwill  26:00all. On the question of geo politics and the ocean, one I think still under sung aspect is that right now, an enormous amount of the world internet traffic travels underneath the sea, and we've already started to see Russian and Chinese vessels in the Baltic and the South China Seas, you know, imping upon Japan, or in some cases, it seems, even sabotage cables running into various countries that they have issues with, so that, you know, that's a live area, and sort of, you know, the oceans have Been a commons for the transmission of data and information for a long time that now seems to be more and more contested in the current moment of power competition, Mark Sanor  26:53one second, and you could just say, What? What? What's the technology or company in Ukraine or related to Ukraine, because you're not all investing in Ukrainian companies that you think is most exciting we should be aware of. Well, 27:10naval drones. Elena Anfimova  27:21Oh, yeah, they're Ukraine is the first country in the world to sort of create effective naval drones. And on December 31 actually, Ukrainian naval drones. Magura down two Russian helicopters, the first presidents in the world. Hard to say it's a record. It's still loss of life, and it's still horrible, but technologically speaking, a very cheap drone, comparatively to any missile destroys a helicopter to helicopter, and the third was damaged, but made it be back to the base. Another case, one Ukrainian drones destroyed $130 million missile system. So the mind boggling phenomenon about these drones and the drone warfare is that this very cheap, again, comparatively speaking, devices destroy multi, sometimes 100 million dollar systems I just came back from the Emirates, I went to this I deck, if you guys know, it's like the largest defense exhibition. And there were all these massive, shiny toys. And I was walking, walking by and thinking, you know, like a 10,000 drone can destroy it. So I guess what we're still grasping is how war far has changed, and dominating military stockpiles are still kind of the World War Two, slash Cold War technology, and what needs to happen right now is restocking in pivoting to defense technology right now in Ukraine, the war that's happening is a war of drones. It's not even people anymore. I had a like innovative aim in system for guns, you know, for actual soldiers to do something with. And I had to drop it because there were no soldiers anymore fighting, you know, each other. It's drones and swarms of drones. So. Boom, and there is a Ukrainian company called swam. I did not invest in it, but that that's a really break through technology. Then another, and pretty much like the group of tech that's really promising, is autonomous weapons. So it's autonomous remote control weapons that you can control from 1000s of miles, and they help to save lives and pretty much like it's equipment destroying equipment. Given how horrendous the concept of physical warfare is in 21st century, it's still better than you know this mince meat attacks, I think it's called that Russia really prefers and practices to this day in Ukraine, we do not have the human resources to sort of mimic this strategy. And we value human life, so we really prefer robots to fight. So it's autonomous weapons, autonomous drones, and also electronic warfare, because what's happening is that when you face a technologically advanced enemy is that there is this jam in spoofing and GPS de night environments, so the navigation systems become very prominent anti drone electronic warfare. So how do you protect your drone from being jammed and spoofed so that it completes its mission. The interesting part is that American drones did not do well in Ukraine at all. They were expensive and glitchy because they could not perform with that kind of electronic warfare that Russia has, and let's say, out of 10, Mission only two mission are complete, whereas Ukrainian drones can complete eight out of 10. There is one. Mark Sanor  32:14Compare that to the US technology today. How far are we? Because we haven't done this every day, every hour, like you Elena Anfimova  32:21are well. So this is what I'm saying, and a lot of feedback is kind of just like a second hand information, right? Because it's not published anywhere. The only sort of public media account of this that I found is a Wall Street Journal article about that, how glitchy and how ineffective American drones were tested in Ukraine on the battlefield. Because you see, the thing is, is even for AI to function well, it needs to be fed lots of data. Ukraine is pretty much the only place where you can get the data, and that pretty much accounts for why Ukrainian drones are so much more efficient than any other drones unless they are tested on the battle field in Ukraine. So for any drone company right now to be you know, anything, they have to be there, there. So is 33:21this something you're looking Gator Greenwill  33:22at? Absolutely. We're active investors in the conference system space, happy to discuss more especially Speaker 5  33:32so we are almost ready for breakouts and refreshments. Carl Pro  33:37But I had a quick question on the what I call your misinformation or BS software, I spent my lunch time reading through like 25 or 30 websites to try to pick out the same story and read them and all to find out where the truth is. Your system would probably be great to have some independent calculation of current events, without the biases. Dan Brahmy  34:10We have been, not we've been we've been dreaming of eventually creating that stamp of trust within us that we that we spoke about. So the short answer, what you said is, this is exactly what we're aiming at, which is being able to understand whether the source, so the actor who's pushing and propagating a certain narrative or a certain angle, whether it can be a trusted source. So is it a is it a real person? Is it a real journalist? Is it a fake journalist? Is it a but a sock puppet patrol, a spam account, you name it. There's another 10,000 we don't need to get into all the categories, but, but I think that that gives you know one portion of the answer that you're looking for, and and then we explain, just to give you slightly longer answer, we we sort of decipher what we call the behavioral patterns. So. So think about an MRI that says, how, how powerful and how fast does a piece of information fly out over social media? Is it only within the social media realm, or is it flying from social media, from Twitter to The Wall Street Journal and then back to Facebook, and then going back to tick tock. And then what kind of formats, right? So the speed and the strength, and then the third part of your question would be about the authenticity and the nature of the content itself. So not just the similarity, and is it copy paste, but actually, is it? Is it a deep fake? Is it is, you know, is a computer generating the pictures and the videos that we're looking at right now, and then you aggregate all this sort of answer into, should you ignore what you're seeing, watching, reading? Should you track it closely, because it might become a threat, slash an opportunity, depending which side you're on the scale, or the last point, which is, should you be so worried that you need to mitigate against that immediately? We you know you spoke about the drones, and we spoke about the the the Navy and how we could potentially leverage the unexplored territories. We've talked to three and four star generals, and we've talked to Secretaries of Navy, and we've talked to all these incredibly smart and powerful people that have the almighty power to shift territories and shift decision making process. And the funny thing is, they have made very costly decisions based on misinformation. They shifted entire armies, not small military operations. They have shifted dozens of planes, dozens of naval ships and 1000s of soldiers. What Mark Sanor  37:01so the first, so the first saner. His name was Sanor, who was Prussian. You know, we had a lot of hessian troops. So Michael Sanor was the aide de camp. Eventually, he was known as the Flying Dutchman. He stole the white horse. But for the battle of York title, it led to the victory, partly, where the French, because they were in New Jersey, where I live, their ovens kept baking the bread, and that was that deception to the troops. They fell. They're clearly still still up there. They're still eating when instead they they moved around and caught them by surprise. So we love the French information. And it was interesting that Macron came over to see Trump. But they will talk about these things, the breakouts. This is how we do breakouts. This comes this is a slide from 2011 12, when I would do these breakouts for Dennison. Anybody from Denison? You're close enough Denison people here, usually there's always one Michigan room makes little sister Council. But we would get together in round tables and then, and it would be the round table for fashion in New York, or for finance. And then we eventually get 300 people. And there were segments that we now have a round table for each of these panels. And like one physically is over there. It's probably a popular one next to the bar. Another one's over here, and we have the ones out there, out first, mingle, you know, stretch, move around again, and then I'll put on the screen where the round tables will be. And they will the format is basically no one dominates the conversation. There's no like alpha that just takes over. It's a round table. Everybody should introduce themselves what they're doing so that everybody knows and we all try to help each other. It's the same thing we did for the alumni. No one's asking for money. The school isn't asking for money. We're here to help each other. The same spirit here and for our family office world. So if someone's got some insights, you want some questions, let's ask the panel a little more information. You know, Alyssa, like you're in the ocean world, right? You should be a guest in this, well, deep tech, ocean tech world. And, you know, everybody should know each other. And and then we come back and we say two things, what did you learn? What are your takeaways? We'll come back here one more time, and one or two people will speak about it. And one of those takeaways is like, or is like, is there something we should do? Should we do a deep dive on ocean tech? Should we do a deep dive on, you Speaker 4  39:50know, may I say one more thing, just to give plug the ocean short time you don't Mark Sanor  39:55have a chance to do that. Okay? This is just the principles of it. Okay? And you want to know more about ocean Tech, I think Lisa will be near that bar over there. And so let's let's break. I'll come back to Mike 10 minutes or so. Let you know where the breakouts will be. Do the breakouts meet the people who are relevant to you. And that's that magic for what we do. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Panel. I'm joined our 361 firm community of investors and thought leaders. We have a lot of events created by the community as we collaborate on investments and philanthropic interests. Join us. You. You can subscribe to various 361 events and content at https://361firm.com/subs. For reference: Web: www.361firm.com/homeOnboard as Investor: https://361.pub/shortdiagOnboard Deals 361: www.361firm.com/onbOnboard as Banker: www.361firm.com/bankersEvents: www.361firm.com/eventsContent: www.youtube.com/361firmWeekly Digests: www.361firm.com/digest

The 3 last months of 2024 were the most emotionally challenging months of the last three years of my Life! I truly experienced a battle of my mind! I was drowning….. but through it all God “reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters. ... He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters” psalm 18:16I needed to share my experience because I know I am not the only one. May this message validate your struggle, leave you feeling seen and heard but most importantly empower you with the tools to win the battle of your mind! That you cast down every thought every imagination that is contrary to God bringing it to obedience of Jesus Christ! 2 Corinthians 10:5 #christianfaith

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________Opening Words:“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”Psalm 19:14 (ESV) Confession:Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen. The InvitatoryLord, open our lips.And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Venite (Psalm 95:1-7)Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. Come, let us sing to the Lord; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also.The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land.Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. The PsalterPsalm 70Deus, in adjutorium1Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; *O Lord, make haste to help me.2Let those who seek my life be ashamedand altogether dismayed; *let those who take pleasure in my misfortunedraw back and be disgraced.3Let those who say to me “Aha!” and gloat over me turn back, *because they are ashamed.4Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; *let those who love your salvation say for ever,“Great is the Lord!”5But as for me, I am poor and needy; *come to me speedily, O God.6You are my helper and my deliverer; *O Lord, do not tarry.Psalm 71In te, Domine, speravi1In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; *let me never be ashamed.2In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; *incline your ear to me and save me.3Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; *you are my crag and my stronghold.4Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, *from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.5For you are my hope, O Lord God, *my confidence since I was young.6I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *my praise shall be always of you.7I have become a portent to many; *but you are my refuge and my strength.8Let my mouth be full of your praise *and your glory all the day long.9Do not cast me off in my old age; *forsake me not when my strength fails.10For my enemies are talking against me, *and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.11They say, “God has forsaken him;go after him and seize him; *because there is none who will save.”12O God, be not far from me; *come quickly to help me, O my God.13Let those who set themselves against me be put to shame and be disgraced; *let those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.14But I shall always wait in patience, *and shall praise you more and more.15My mouth shall recount your mighty actsand saving deeds all day long; *though I cannot know the number of them.16I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God *I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.17O God, you have taught me since I was young, *and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.18And now that I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, *till I make known your strength to this generationand your power to all who are to come.19Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens; *you have done great things;who is like you, O God?20You have showed me great troubles and adversities, *but you will restore my lifeand bring me up again from the deep places of the earth.21You strengthen me more and more; *you enfold and comfort me,22Therefore I will praise you upon the lyre for your faithfulness, O my God; *I will sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.23My lips will sing with joy when I play to you, *and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.24My tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, *for they are ashamed and disgraced who sought to do me harm. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. LessonsEzra 7:11-26English Standard Version11 This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel: 12 “Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven. Peace. And now 13 I make a decree that anyone of the people of Israel or their priests or Levites in my kingdom, who freely offers to go to Jerusalem, may go with you. 14 For you are sent by the king and his seven counselors to make inquiries about Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand, 15 and also to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem, 16 with all the silver and gold that you shall find in the whole province of Babylonia, and with the freewill offerings of the people and the priests, vowed willingly for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17 With this money, then, you shall with all diligence buy bulls, rams, and lambs, with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and you shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18 Whatever seems good to you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and gold, you may do, according to the will of your God. 19 The vessels that have been given you for the service of the house of your God, you shall deliver before the God of Jerusalem. 20 And whatever else is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king's treasury.21 “And I, Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers in the province Beyond the River: Whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the Law of the God of heaven, requires of you, let it be done with all diligence, 22 up to 100 talents of silver, 100 cors of wheat, 100 baths of wine, 100 baths of oil, and salt without prescribing how much. 23 Whatever is decreed by the God of heaven, let it be done in full for the house of the God of heaven, lest his wrath be against the realm of the king and his sons. 24 We also notify you that it shall not be lawful to impose tribute, custom, or toll on anyone of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the doorkeepers, the temple servants, or other servants of this house of God.25 “And you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province Beyond the River, all such as know the laws of your God. And those who do not know them, you shall teach. 26 Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be strictly executed on him, whether for death or for banishment or for confiscation of his goods or for imprisonment.”Revelation 14:1-13English Standard Version14 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. 7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God. Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free.He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David.Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, * from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give his people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins.In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersLord, have mercy.Christ, have mercyLord, have mercyOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. The SuffragesO Lord, show your mercy upon us;And grant us your salvation.O Lord, guide those who govern usAnd lead us in the way of justice and truth.Clothe your ministers with righteousnessAnd let your people sing with joy.O Lord, save your peopleAnd bless your inheritance.Give peace in our time, O LordAnd defend us by your mighty power.Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgottenNor the hope of the poor be taken away.Create in us clean hearts, O GodAnd take not your Holy Spirit from us. Take a moment of silence at this time to reflect and pray for others. The CollectsProper 26Almighty and merciful God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service: Grant that we may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Daily Collects:A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A Collect for GraceO Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Collect of Saint BasilO Christ God, Who art worshipped and glorified at every place and time; Who art long-suffering, most merciful and compassionate; Who lovest the righteous and art merciful to sinners; Who callest all to salvation with the promise of good things to come: receive, Lord, the prayers we now offer, and direct our lives in the way of Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, cleanse our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our minds and deliver us from all affliction, evil and illness. Surround us with Thy holy angels, that guarded and instructed by their forces, we may reach unity of faith and the understanding of Thine unapproachable glory: for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen. General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. A Prayer of St. John ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will grant their requests: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. DismissalLet us bless the LordThanks be to God!Alleluia, Alleluia! BenedictionThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com Year 2 - 1979 Daily Office LectionaryOpening Words:“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”Psalm 19:14 (ESV) Confession:Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen. The InvitatoryLord, open our lips.And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Venite (Psalm 95:1-7)Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. Come, let us sing to the Lord; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also.The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land.Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. The PsalterPsalm 66Jubilate DeoBCP p. 673 Be joyful in God, all you lands; *sing the glory of his Name;sing the glory of his praise.Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! *because of your great strength your enemies cringe before you.All the earth bows down before you, *sings to you, sings out your Name.”Come now and see the works of God, *how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people.He turned the sea into dry land,so that they went through the water on foot, *and there we rejoiced in him.In his might he rules for ever;his eyes keep watch over the nations; *let no rebel rise up against him.Bless our God, you peoples; *make the voice of his praise to be heard;Who holds our souls in life, *and will not allow our feet to slip.For you, O God, have proved us; *you have tried us just as silver is tried.You brought us into the snare; *you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.You let enemies ride over our heads;we went through fire and water; *but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.I will enter your house with burnt-offeringsand will pay you my vows, *which I promised with my lipsand spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.I will offer you sacrifices of fat beastswith the smoke of rams; *I will give you oxen and goats.Come and listen, all you who fear God, *and I will tell you what he has done for me.I called out to him with my mouth, *and his praise was on my tongue.If I had found evil in my heart, *the Lord would not have heard me;But in truth God has heard me; *he has attended to the voice of my prayer.Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, *nor withheld his love from me. Psalm 67Deus misereaturBCP p. 675May God be merciful to us and bless us, *show us the light of his countenance and come to us.Let your ways be known upon earth, *your saving health among all nations.Let the peoples praise you, O God; *let all the peoples praise you.Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *for you judge the peoples with equityand guide all the nations upon earth.Let the peoples praise you, O God; *let all the peoples praise you.The earth has brought forth her increase; *may God, our own God, give us his blessing.May God give us his blessing, *and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.  Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. LessonsIsa. 28:9-16“Whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little." Truly, with stammering lip and with alien tongue he will speak to this people, to whom he has said, "This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose" yet they would not hear. Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them, "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little;" in order that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. Because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement; when the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter" therefore thus says the Lord God, See, I am laying in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: "One who trusts will not panic."The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God. Te Deum laudamusYou are God: we praise you;You are the Lord: we acclaim you;You are the eternal Father:All creation worships you.To you all angels, all the powers of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise:Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,heaven and earth are full of your glory.The glorious company of apostles praise you.The noble fellowship of prophets praise you.The white-robed army of martyrs praise you. Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you;Father, of majesty unbounded,your true and only Son, worthy of all worship, and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide.You, Christ, are the king of glory, the eternal Son of the Father.When you became man to set us free you did not shun the Virgin's womb. You overcame the sting of deathand opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. You are seated at God's right hand in glory.We believe that you will come and be our judge.Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saintsto glory everlasting. Ephes. 4:1-16I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people." (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love. The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God. Benedictus Dominus DeusBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free.He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David.Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, * from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give his people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins.In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersThe Lord be with you.And also with you.Let us pray.Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Suffrages AV. Show us your mercy, O Lord;R. And grant us your salvation.V. Clothe your ministers with righteousness; R. Let your people sing with joy.V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;R. For only in you can we live in safety. V. Lord, keep this nation under your care;R. And guide us in the way of justice and truth.V. Let your way be known upon earth;R. Your saving health among all nations.V. Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;R. Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.V. Create in us clean hearts, O God;R. And sustain us with your Holy Spirit.   The CollectsSt Simon and Jude, ApostlesO God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Daily Collects:A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A Collect for GraceO Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Take a moment of silence at this time to reflect and pray for others. Collect of Saint BasilO Christ God, Who art worshipped and glorified at every place and time; Who art long-suffering, most merciful and compassionate; Who lovest the righteous and art merciful to sinners; Who callest all to salvation with the promise of good things to come: receive, Lord, the prayers we now offer, and direct our lives in the way of Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, cleanse our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our minds and deliver us from all affliction, evil and illness. Surround us with Thy holy angels, that guarded and instructed by their forces, we may reach unity of faith and the understanding of Thine unapproachable glory: for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen. A Prayer of St. John ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will grant their requests: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. DismissalLet us bless the LordThanks be to God! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________Opening Words:“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”Psalm 19:14 (ESV) Confession:Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God. Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. Almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you all your sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep you in eternal life. Amen. The InvitatoryLord, open our lips.And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Venite (Psalm 95:1-7)Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. Come, let us sing to the Lord; * let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods.In his hand are the caverns of the earth, * and the heights of the hills are his also.The sea is his, for he made it, * and his hands have molded the dry land.Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker.For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice! Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him. The PsalterPsalm 131Domine, non est1O Lord, I am not proud; *I have no haughty looks.2I do not occupy myself with great matters, *or with things that are too hard for me.3But I still my soul and make it quiet,like a child upon its mother's breast; *my soul is quieted within me.4O Israel, wait upon the Lord, *from this time forth for evermore.Psalm 132Memento, Domine1Lord, remember David, *and all the hardships he endured;2How he swore an oath to the Lord *and vowed a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:3“I will not come under the roof of my house,” *nor climb up into my bed;4I will not allow my eyes to sleep, *nor let my eyelids slumber;5Until I find a place for the Lord, *a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”6“The ark! We heard it was in Ephratah; *we found it in the fields of Jearim.7Let us go to God's dwelling place; *let us fall upon our knees before his footstool.”8Arise, O Lord, into your resting-place, *you and the ark of your strength.9Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; *let your faithful people sing with joy.10For your servant David's sake, *do not turn away the face of your Anointed.11The Lord has sworn an oath to David; *in truth, he will not break it:12“A son, the fruit of your body *will I set upon your throne.13If your children keep my covenantand my testimonies that I shall teach them, *their children will sit upon your throne for evermore.”14For the Lord has chosen Zion; *he has desired her for his habitation:15“This shall be my resting-place for ever; *here will I dwell, for I delight in her.16I will surely bless her provisions, *and satisfy her poor with bread.17I will clothe her priests with salvation, *and her faithful people will rejoice and sing.18There will I make the horn of David flourish; *I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed.19As for his enemies, I will clothe them with shame; *but as for him, his crown will shine.” Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Lessons2 Kings 23:4-25English Standard Version4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. 7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city. 9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers. 10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. 11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place he pulled down and burned, reducing it to dust. He also burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord that the man of God proclaimed, who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, “What is that monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel.” 18 And he said, “Let him be; let no man move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19 And Josiah removed all the shrines also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger. He did to them according to all that he had done at Bethel. 20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.21 And the king commanded all the people, “Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” 22 For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.1 Corinthians 12:1-11English Standard Version12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. The Word of the Lord.Thanks Be To God. Benedictus (The Song of Zechariah)Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; * he has come to his people and set them free.He has raised up for us a mighty savior, * born of the house of his servant David.Through his holy prophets he promised of old, that he would save us from our enemies, * from the hands of all who hate us. He promised to show mercy to our fathers * and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, * to set us free from the hands of our enemies, Free to worship him without fear, * holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, * for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, To give his people knowledge of salvation * by the forgiveness of their sins.In the tender compassion of our God * the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, * and to guide our feet into the way of peace.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersLord, have mercy.Christ, have mercyLord, have mercyOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. The SuffragesO Lord, show your mercy upon us;And grant us your salvation.O Lord, guide those who govern usAnd lead us in the way of justice and truth.Clothe your ministers with righteousnessAnd let your people sing with joy.O Lord, save your peopleAnd bless your inheritance.Give peace in our time, O LordAnd defend us by your mighty power.Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgottenNor the hope of the poor be taken away.Create in us clean hearts, O GodAnd take not your Holy Spirit from us. Take a moment of silence at this time to reflect and pray for others. The CollectsProper 22Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Daily Collects:A Collect for PeaceO God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A Collect for GraceO Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to the beginning of this day: Defend us by your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin nor run into any danger; and that, guided by your Spirit, we may do what is righteous in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.Collect of Saint BasilO Christ God, Who art worshipped and glorified at every place and time; Who art long-suffering, most merciful and compassionate; Who lovest the righteous and art merciful to sinners; Who callest all to salvation with the promise of good things to come: receive, Lord, the prayers we now offer, and direct our lives in the way of Thy commandments. Sanctify our souls, cleanse our bodies, correct our thoughts, purify our minds and deliver us from all affliction, evil and illness. Surround us with Thy holy angels, that guarded and instructed by their forces, we may reach unity of faith and the understanding of Thine unapproachable glory: for blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen. General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen. A Prayer of St. John ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will grant their requests: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. DismissalLet us bless the LordThanks be to God!Alleluia, Alleluia! BenedictionThe grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen

Sermon Title: Expanding the Circle of CompassionScripture Reference: Mark 10:13-16I. Introduction:Reflect on Jesus welcoming women and children in Mark 10:13-16.Acknowledge how societal norms often exclude the vulnerable.Connect the scripture to real-life experiences of marginalized groups.II. Point 1: Compassion in ActionDavidson UMC's response to the devastation in Western NC is an example of living out Christ's love.Mention financial donations, emergency relief teams, and ongoing efforts to help.Key Takeaway: True compassion is not a one-time act, but a commitment to walking alongside others in their recovery and healing.III. Point 2: Jesus' Radical InclusionIn the Gospel, the disciples attempt to send away women and children based on social norms.Jesus rejects this and welcomes those on the margins.Key Takeaway: Jesus' ministry is not about maintaining order, but about expanding the circle of love and inclusion for all.IV. Point 3: A Call to Transform Our CommunitiesReflect on how modern-day disasters, like Hurricane Helene, disproportionately affect the most vulnerable—those on the margins.We are called to remember these moments and work toward a world where fewer people are left vulnerable.Key Takeaway: Following Jesus means questioning who is excluded in our communities and expanding our circle to include them.V. Conclusion:As disciples, we are called to continually expand our circle, making room for the vulnerable, marginalized, and overlooked.Just as Jesus included women and children, we must challenge our own ideas of order and inclusion.Call to Action: Let's reflect on how we can create a world where everyone is invited to the center, where no one is left behind.Closing Prayer:Ask God for the wisdom and courage to expand our circles of compassion, and to follow Jesus' example in including all people.

Connect with me here! Send me a text message! Psalm 119:11-16I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees.With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.Let's talk about reading your Bible more! Be encouraged today!! Grab your downloadable scripture cards here>> https://stan.store/mrsangelapitnikoff/p/30-scripture-cardsBe encouraged, challenged and blessed today!!✨Come hang with me on IG- https://www.instagram.com/mrsangelapitnikoff/✨Join our FB sisterhood!- https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingdomdaughterssisterhood✨Be more amazing and leave a review!- https://lovethepodcast.com/LoHGyj✨Want some fun free resources? Click here- www.thekingdomdaughters.com✨ Connect with me! thekingdomdaughterspodcast@gmail.com ✨Get some KD Cuties- https://www.etsy.com/shop/KingdomDaughters✨Let's see if we are a good fit! thekingdomdaughters.com/coachingSupport the Show.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost The Collect: O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Old Testament: 2 Kings 4:42-44 42A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.'” 44He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. Psalm: 145:10-19 10 All your works praise you, O Lord, *        and your faithful servants bless you. 11 They make known the glory of your kingdom *        and speak of your power; 12 That the peoples may know of your power *        and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; *        your dominion endures throughout all ages. 14 The Lord is faithful in all his words *        and merciful in all his deeds. 15 The Lord upholds all those who fall; *        he lifts up those who are bowed down. 16 The eyes of all wait upon you, O Lord, *        and you give them their food in due season. 17 You open wide your hand *        and satisfy the needs of every living creature. 18 The Lord is righteous in all his ways *        and loving in all his works. 19 The Lord is near to those who call upon him, *        to all who call upon him faithfully. Epistle: Ephesians 3:14-21 14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Gospel: John 6:1-21 1After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, “Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” 15When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.16When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________LentLet my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.Psalm 141:2 ConfessionOfficiant: Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.People: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws.We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.Officiant: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Invitatory & PsalmsOfficiant: O God, make speed to save us. People: O Lord, make haste to help us. Officiant & People: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. O Gracious Light Phos hilaronO gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life,and to be glorified through all the worlds. Psalm 132Memento, Domine1Lord, remember David, *and all the hardships he endured;2How he swore an oath to the Lord *and vowed a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:3“I will not come under the roof of my house,” *nor climb up into my bed;4I will not allow my eyes to sleep, *nor let my eyelids slumber;5Until I find a place for the Lord, *a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”6“The ark! We heard it was in Ephratah; *we found it in the fields of Jearim.7Let us go to God's dwelling place; *let us fall upon our knees before his footstool.”8Arise, O Lord, into your resting-place, *you and the ark of your strength.9Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; *let your faithful people sing with joy.10For your servant David's sake, *do not turn away the face of your Anointed.11The Lord has sworn an oath to David; *in truth, he will not break it:12“A son, the fruit of your body *will I set upon your throne.13If your children keep my covenantand my testimonies that I shall teach them, *their children will sit upon your throne for evermore.”14For the Lord has chosen Zion; *he has desired her for his habitation:15“This shall be my resting-place for ever; *here will I dwell, for I delight in her.16I will surely bless her provisions, *and satisfy her poor with bread.17I will clothe her priests with salvation, *and her faithful people will rejoice and sing.18There will I make the horn of David flourish; *I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed.19As for his enemies, I will clothe them with shame; *but as for him, his crown will shine.” Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The LessonsJeremiah 28:1-2English Standard Version28 In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.Jeremiah 28:10-17English Standard Version10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke-bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke them. 11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years.” But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.12 Sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke-bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 “Go, tell Hananiah, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. 14 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field.'” 15 And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.'”17 In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet Hananiah died.Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Mary - MagnificatMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation.He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as It was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. John 12:20-33English Standard Version20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Simeon - Nunc dimittisLord, you now have set your servant free * to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, * and the glory of your people Israel.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersOfficiant: The Lord be with you.People: And also with you.Officiant: Let us pray The SuffragesThat this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, We entreat you, O Lord.That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses, We entreat you, O Lord.That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may depart this life in your faith and fear, and not be condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.Take a moment at this time to reflect and pray for the needs of others. Fifth Sunday in LentAlmighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.A Collect for PeaceMost holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.A Collect for Aid against PerilsBe our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.For MissionKeep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen. ThanksgivingsThe General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.A Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. ConclusionMay the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. - Romans 15:13

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________LentLet my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.Psalm 141:2 ConfessionOfficiant: Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.People: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws.We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.Officiant: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Invitatory & PsalmsOfficiant: O God, make speed to save us. People: O Lord, make haste to help us. Officiant & People: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. O Gracious Light Phos hilaronO gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life,and to be glorified through all the worlds. Psalm 116Dilexi, quoniam1I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication, *because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him.2The cords of death entangled me;the grip of the grave took hold of me; *I came to grief and sorrow.3Then I called upon the Name of the Lord: *“O Lord, I pray you, save my life.”4Gracious is the Lord and righteous; *our God is full of compassion.5The Lord watches over the innocent; *I was brought very low, and he helped me.6Turn again to your rest, O my soul, *for the Lord has treated you well.7For you have rescued my life from death, *my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.8I will walk in the presence of the Lord *in the land of the living.9I believed, even when I said,“I have been brought very low.” *In my distress I said, “No one can be trusted.”10How shall I repay the Lord *for all the good things he has done for me?11I will lift up the cup of salvation *and call upon the Name of the Lord.12I will fulfill my vows to the Lord *in the presence of all his people.13Precious in the sight of the Lord *is the death of his servants.14O Lord, I am your servant; *I am your servant and the child of your handmaid;you have freed me from my bonds.15I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving *and call upon the Name of the Lord.16I will fulfill my vows to the Lord *in the presence of all his people,17In the courts of the Lord's house, *in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.Hallelujah! Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The LessonsIsaiah 55English Standard Version55 “Come, everyone who thirsts,    come to the waters;and he who has no money,    come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk    without money and without price.2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,    and delight yourselves in rich food.3 Incline your ear, and come to me;    hear, that your soul may live;and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,    my steadfast, sure love for David.4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,    a leader and commander for the peoples.5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,    and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,    for he has glorified you.6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;    call upon him while he is near;7 let the wicked forsake his way,    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven    and do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;    it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.12 “For you shall go out in joy    and be led forth in peace;the mountains and the hills before you    shall break forth into singing,    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;and it shall make a name for the Lord,    an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Mary - MagnificatMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation.He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as It was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. John 6:41-51English Standard Version41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven'?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Simeon - Nunc dimittisLord, you now have set your servant free * to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, * and the glory of your people Israel.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersOfficiant: The Lord be with you.People: And also with you.Officiant: Let us pray The SuffragesThat this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, We entreat you, O Lord.That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses, We entreat you, O Lord.That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may depart this life in your faith and fear, and not be condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.Take a moment at this time to reflect and pray for the needs of others. Fourth Sunday in LentGracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.A Collect for PeaceMost holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.A Collect for Aid against PerilsBe our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.For MissionKeep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen. ThanksgivingsThe General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.A Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. ConclusionMay the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. - Romans 15:13

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________LentLet my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.Psalm 141:2 ConfessionOfficiant: Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.People: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws.We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.Officiant: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Invitatory & PsalmsOfficiant: O God, make speed to save us. People: O Lord, make haste to help us. Officiant & People: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. O Gracious Light Phos hilaronO gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life,and to be glorified through all the worlds. Psalm 71In te, Domine, speravi1In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; *let me never be ashamed.2In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; *incline your ear to me and save me.3Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; *you are my crag and my stronghold.4Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, *from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.5For you are my hope, O Lord God, *my confidence since I was young.6I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *my praise shall be always of you.7I have become a portent to many; *but you are my refuge and my strength.8Let my mouth be full of your praise *and your glory all the day long.9Do not cast me off in my old age; *forsake me not when my strength fails.10For my enemies are talking against me, *and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.11They say, “God has forsaken him;go after him and seize him; *because there is none who will save.”12O God, be not far from me; *come quickly to help me, O my God.13Let those who set themselves against me be put to shame and be disgraced; *let those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.14But I shall always wait in patience, *and shall praise you more and more.15My mouth shall recount your mighty actsand saving deeds all day long; *though I cannot know the number of them.16I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord God *I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.17O God, you have taught me since I was young, *and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.18And now that I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, *till I make known your strength to this generationand your power to all who are to come.19Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens; *you have done great things;who is like you, O God?20You have showed me great troubles and adversities, *but you will restore my lifeand bring me up again from the deep places of the earth.21You strengthen me more and more; *you enfold and comfort me,22Therefore I will praise you upon the lyre for your faithfulness, O my God; *I will sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.23My lips will sing with joy when I play to you, *and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.24My tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, *for they are ashamed and disgraced who sought to do me harm. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The LessonsJeremiah 7:1-15English Standard Version7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!'—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Mary - MagnificatMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation.He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as It was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Mark 10:17-31English Standard Version17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Simeon - Nunc dimittisLord, you now have set your servant free * to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, * and the glory of your people Israel.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersOfficiant: The Lord be with you.People: And also with you.Officiant: Let us pray The SuffragesThat this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, We entreat you, O Lord.That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses, We entreat you, O Lord.That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may depart this life in your faith and fear, and not be condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.Take a moment at this time to reflect and pray for the needs of others. Third Sunday in Lent (Anglican Prayer Book)ALMIGHTY God, consider the sincere desires of your humble servants, we humbly pray, and stretch out the right hand of your power to defend us against our enemies; through Jesus Christ our LORD. Amen.A Collect for PeaceMost holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.A Collect for Aid against PerilsBe our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.For MissionKeep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen. ThanksgivingsThe General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.A Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. ConclusionMay the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. - Romans 15:13

Support Common Prayer Daily @ PatreonVisit our Website for more www.commonprayerdaily.com_______________SeptuagesimaO Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.Psalm 104:25 (BCP) ConfessionOfficiant: Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.People: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws.We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us. O Lord, have mercy upon us. Spare all those who confess their faults. Restore all those who are penitent, according to your promises declared to all people in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we may now live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of your holy Name. Amen.Officiant: Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life. Amen. The Lord's PrayerOur Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Invitatory & PsalmsOfficiant: O God, make speed to save us. People: O Lord, make haste to help us. Officiant & People: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. O Gracious Light Phos hilaronO gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life,and to be glorified through all the worlds. Psalm 132 Memento, Domine1Lord, remember David, *and all the hardships he endured;2How he swore an oath to the Lord *and vowed a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:3“I will not come under the roof of my house,” *nor climb up into my bed;4I will not allow my eyes to sleep, *nor let my eyelids slumber;5Until I find a place for the Lord, *a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”6“The ark! We heard it was in Ephratah; *we found it in the fields of Jearim.7Let us go to God's dwelling place; *let us fall upon our knees before his footstool.”8Arise, O Lord, into your resting-place, *you and the ark of your strength.9Let your priests be clothed with righteousness; *let your faithful people sing with joy.10For your servant David's sake, *do not turn away the face of your Anointed.11The Lord has sworn an oath to David; *in truth, he will not break it:12“A son, the fruit of your body *will I set upon your throne.13If your children keep my covenantand my testimonies that I shall teach them, *their children will sit upon your throne for evermore.”14For the Lord has chosen Zion; *he has desired her for his habitation:15“This shall be my resting-place for ever; *here will I dwell, for I delight in her.16I will surely bless her provisions, *and satisfy her poor with bread.17I will clothe her priests with salvation, *and her faithful people will rejoice and sing.18There will I make the horn of David flourish; *I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed.19As for his enemies, I will clothe them with shame; *but as for him, his crown will shine.” Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The LessonsAmos 2:6-16 English Standard VersionThus says the Lord:“For three transgressions of Israel,    and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,because they sell the righteous for silver,    and the needy for a pair of sandals—those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth    and turn aside the way of the afflicted;a man and his father go in to the same girl,    so that my holy name is profaned;they lay themselves down beside every altar    on garments taken in pledge,and in the house of their God they drink    the wine of those who have been fined.“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,    whose height was like the height of the cedars    and who was as strong as the oaks;I destroyed his fruit above    and his roots beneath.Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt    and led you forty years in the wilderness,    to possess the land of the Amorite.And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,    and some of your young men for Nazirites.    Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”declares the Lord.“But you made the Nazirites drink wine,    and commanded the prophets,    saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.'“Behold, I will press you down in your place,    as a cart full of sheaves presses down.Flight shall perish from the swift,    and the strong shall not retain his strength,    nor shall the mighty save his life;he who handles the bow shall not stand,    and he who is swift of foot shall not save himself,    nor shall he who rides the horse save his life;and he who is stout of heart among the mighty    shall flee away naked in that day,”declares the Lord. Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Mary - MagnificatMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation.He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit.He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *as It was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. Galatians 2:1-10 English Standard VersionThen after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.Officiant: The Word of the LordPeople: Thanks be to God. The Song of Simeon - Nunc dimittisLord, you now have set your servant free * to go in peace as you have promised; For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, * whom you have prepared for all the world to see: A Light to enlighten the nations, * and the glory of your people Israel.Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. The CreedI believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The PrayersOfficiant: The Lord be with you.People: And also with you.Officiant: Let us pray The SuffragesThat this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful, We entreat you, O Lord.That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and goodwill, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins and offenses, We entreat you, O Lord.That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole world, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may depart this life in your faith and fear, and not be condemned before the great judgment seat of Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in the communion of all your saints, entrusting one another and all our life to Christ, We entreat you, O Lord.Take a moment at this time to reflect and pray for the needs of others. Septuagesima (Anglican Prayer Book)LORD God, we ask you favorably to hear the prayers of your people; that we, who are justly punished for our offenses against you, may be mercifully delivered by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the HOLY Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.A Collect for PeaceMost holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.A Collect for Aid against PerilsBe our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.For MissionKeep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. Amen. ThanksgivingsThe General ThanksgivingAlmighty God, Father of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up our selves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.A Prayer of St. ChrysostomAlmighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. ConclusionMay the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. - Romans 15:13

Today's episode emphasizes the importance of seeing yourself as God sees you. It discusses the negative impact of self-hatred, self-rejection, and low self-esteem and encourages listeners to adopt God's beliefs about themselves. By aligning your thoughts with God's perspective and rejecting negative self-talk, you can experience spiritual freedom and embrace your true identity as a loved and valued individual. Please leave me a review on Apple Podcast! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-liz-show/id1629109236Here is a sampling of what God says about you:I am a new creation in Him! 2 Cor. 5:17I am reconciled in Christ! My message is reconciliation and freedom. 2 Cor 5:18-19I am righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:24I have been born again by the Holy Spirit: John 3:3-6I am saved by grace as a gift, not because of my performance. Ephesians 2:8I radiate light wherever I go. Matthew 5:14I am a child of the light and the day. 1 Thessalonians 5:5I am the salt of the earth. Matthew 5:13I am a vessel of Divine Light.2 Corinthians 4:6I am chosen and called by God to produce fruit. John 15:16I am a co-heir with Christ. Romans 8:17I have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16I am a disciple of the Most High. Acts 16:17The shadow of your wings protects me. Psalm 17:8 ***LET'S CONNECT:*** Website: ElizabethLouis.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethLouisCoachingInstagram: instagram.com/elizabethlouiscoachingYoutube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ElizabethLouis Linkedin personal profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louiselizabeth/