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Amen, Thank you Jesus, Thank
you Father. You are daddy, You're

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Abbah. Thank you Lord, your
Lord, you may be seated. Do

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you have some men in the house
this morning, Yes, we have some

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fathers in the house. Yes.
Okay. If you're a dad, stand

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up, stand up. Also,
if you would like to be a dad,

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now, you need a wife first
and all that. But even if

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you're a little boy and you want
to have kids someday, stand please.

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We're standing for dads and those that
want to be dads. Lord, Thank

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you for these men. Thank you
that they are your mighty men. They

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are enlisted in your army and you
them with honor and respect and high rank.

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Thank you, Lord, you do. Thank you Lord for your fifth

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commandment, which says, honor your
father. We honor fathers today. Thank

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you for fathers. Thank you Father, you're our dad. Thank you Father

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that you sent your son to die
for us so we could be with you

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and hang out with you and be
one with you. Thank you for these

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young men that want to be fathers, that you're preparing their wife for them

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even now. Thank you Father.
You're setting them up to have families that

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are blessed and honorable and mighty in
you, and we thank you for this

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house and the father of this house, Pastors Dwayne, and the mother this

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house, Pastor Joel, and we
just celebrate being in this wonderful place with

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each other in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be seated. You get

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me talking about how cool the church
is, I always cry. I'll be

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out in public talking to someone about
how cool is church is. I'll start

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crying. So I guess it's just
the presence of God and such wonderful people

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to serve with. And this is
my son, Drew, my birth and

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he has this beautiful annoying for being
able to just serenade the Lord. It

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just plays these love songs to the
Lord. And it's awesome, son,

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So thank you for And I just
you know, we've done some things lately.

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I mean, we do stuff all
the time, but I don't so

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much he remember what we did.
I just so much enjoy being with him,

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how much as our heavenly Father enjoy
being with us. Think about it.

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Devn Borgan, are you in the
house there? You are back working,

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volunteering as usual. I just wanted
to highlight this young man. The

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word says to know those that labor
among you. He labors among you all

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the time. And I want to
just say, Devin, that you're just

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a mighty man of God. You're
a great father, You're an example of

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a great father. You're a strong
man, you're an overcomer, You've it's

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just awesome to watch how you treat
your wife and children, and that you're

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such an example of a mighty warrior
for Christ, a great leader of your

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family. And we just honor you
today for that. Amen. Amen.

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So we're going to talk about fathering. Begins with prayer and we'll go through

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what fathering is, the leadership aspect
of it, what that is. We'll

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talk about how to pray, what
to pray, about when to pray,

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and we'll finish with a call to
pray. But first, what is fathering?

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What is a father? So creating
a child, impregnating a woman and

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creating a child, that makes you
a father by title, But that's it.

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A father is made through love and
made through caring, and made through

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serving, and made through protecting and
providing and guarding and providing a sense of

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belonging and that you're with me,
so you're important. That's what a father

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is. That's what fathering is,
But how do we do that? All

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starts with prayer, and so that
message will be laced through what we talk

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about today. You know, we
talked about it, the title of a

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father. The Texas Department of Corrections
has a statistic that eighty five percent of

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the men incarcerated, like Pastor Dwayne
said, early, did not have a

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father in the home. And I've
met those people on the street. My

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son and I were in La a
few days a few weeks ago, down

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on skid Row, just helping the
guys that are wandering the streets down there.

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And when you talk to them and
you say, how is your relationship

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with your dad? And they're like
what dad? And so I stand there

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and I hold them. I repent
that they didn't have their dad because they

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need one. And we all had
varying levels of circumstances of emotionally distant fathers,

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even if there was one in the
home. But that's okay, because

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my heavenly father has more than enough
love and emotion to make up what my

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earthly dad didn't get. So I
can turn around and love him and love

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others with that that fatherly kind of
love. Okay, I'll get it.

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Together here. So fathering accepts the
call the leadership because that's what fathering is.

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It's leading. And what does leading
mean. It means that you provide

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direction, You set a course,
and you take your people there and they

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follow you and they feel like they're
part of something important. And that's basically

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what leadership is. It's a good
leadership is fathering. It's serving, helping,

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lifting up your people and making them
great, providing them significance. What

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leadership and fathering is not is trying
to please. Sometimes, if we weren't

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raised with fathers, we can get
into mode with our spouses and kids that

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we just want to please them all
the time, and then we're wandering around

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trying to find what pleases them when
we haven't stopped and said, father,

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what pleases you and what pleases you
about my family that I can run down

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line to them. But if I'm
wandering around always trying to please, I'll

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be aimless and without vision and probably
broke after a while. So so how

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do I how do I lead?
Well? First of all, know this

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it's not an option. You were
enlisted into the army of leadership the minute

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you proposed to your wife. You
became the head of the family. Once

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you asked if she would marry you, you stepped into leadership role. It's

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not an option, it's an assignment. It's it's it's a mandate. Ephesians

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four to one. Paul said,
live a life worthy of your calling.

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And sure that could be fivefold ministry. But every man who chooses to be

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in a family be married as a
calling. You have a mission, You

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have a calling for that family.
So how do I do this calling?

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How how do I do all this
stuff? It sounds great, Jeff,

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But how do I do this stuff
you're talking about? Well, there's a

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model in Ephesians chapter five, and
everything you need to know about running,

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leading, and guiding a family is
in that chapter. It starts out in

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verse one, goes about twenty verses
talking about how to clean up your life,

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and probably from age twenty one to
twenty eight. I was there in

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the first twenty chapters. But then
God introduced this beautiful woman to me,

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Karen. But I was ready at
that point, because when you get to

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verse twenty one, it says submit
one to another in the love of God,

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And I was ready to get started
on that journey. So here's how

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it works. Let's do some board
work here. And so here's you men,

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how's that? And here's your wife? And yeah, and let's see

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if I can do a good job
here there there she is. I know

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that's a hat or a hairdoo or
what? Can you see this? Okay

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as our marker? Dark enough?
Okay, let's make the hair a little

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longer there so anyway, all right? Verse twenty two of Ephesians five,

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it says, wives, subject to
your selves to your husband as unto the

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lord, or submit yourself under your
husband as unto the lord. So in

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this marriage connection, the wife gets
the first instruction. And why is that?

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And I thought the husband was supposed
to lead. Well, here's the

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deal. This is verse twenty two. Wives, submit yourself to your husband.

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When the wife does this, the
husband senses that he's being starts with

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an r. Respected. Men want
respect. And if our wife submits to

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us, we feel respect. And
when we feel respect, we can let

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her up into our heart. And
when she's in our heart, she can

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influence my mind. And now we're
equals. All that from submitting yourself unto

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your husband, he has a message
for ladies too, as under the lord.

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This is the way we're supposed to
submit unto Christ. So all that

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happens in that first verse, but
then comes two instructions for men, for

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the one for the wife. The
one over here is verse twenty five.

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Men lay down your life. Lay
it down, guys, and the Holy

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Spirit is there to help you know
what that means day by day by day.

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Sometimes it means you don't argue back
and try and pound her into the

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dust to win the argument. You
just listen and try and understand. Sometimes

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you don't. You cover a fault
or a shortcoming. But we love,

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we serve. This is a posture
of foot washing right here. Humility,

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husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church and laid his life down

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for her. He gave up his
life for us. So that's what you

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get in return, ladies. But
there's more. But wait, there's more.

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There's an over the top assignment.
In verse twenty seven. We are

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to present her, our wives to
the Lord Radiant, without stain, wrinkle,

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or any blemish, Holy and blameness. That's our role as the intercessor.

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Lord. My wife is in you, She's hidden in you. She

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does not deserve this sickness and disease
and challenge he's going through. We rebuked

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that. I declare her perfection in
you. I declare her wholeness in you.

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I declare her security in you.
Lord. My wife's feeling threatened and

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unsure about stuff. Lord, I
just pray that you're putting certainty in her

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heart because that's who she is in
Christ. That's our job to go before

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the Lord and present our wife to
the Lord that way. Yep, even

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in the middle of an argument when
we want to be right. Ever wanted

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to be right, Karen. She
likes to be right too. But in

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the middle of an argument where I'm
trying to maybe prove my rightness, the

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Lord's going on, don't you just
pray right now? So we'll stop mid

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argument. And I don't want to
do it, she doesn't want to do

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it. Okay, let's pray,
all right, Lord, we bind a

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spirit of strife. We thank you
Lord that your Lord and Savior over us,

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and we're one and we're in unity, and we rebuke the enemy.

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I'll tell you more than a hundred
times. We're laughing in five minutes because

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it changes the atmosphere. When you
pray, you cannot just battle this stuff

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out and flesh will want to take
over our flesh. This thing is not

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submitted to God. That's why we
have to fast sometimes and pray is to

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tell flesh you will not be in
charge here. Flesh, be quiet.

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You don't have to win this argument. You just need to lead. So

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spirit man lead, and flesh you
be quiet. We need to tell our

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flesh to shut up. This is
you know, you see the coexist bumper

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stickers around here. There's no coexisting
between the flesh and the spirit. There

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is no coexisting either the spirit dominates
or the flesh dominates. And if you're

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going to let your flesh dominate in
marriage, you're going to have war all

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the time with your spouse. That
wonderful lady made the image and likeness of

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Christ. You two will be at
war unless you get control of this flesh

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and run your marriage on the spirit. So this is verse twenty seven up

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here. So it's two to one
man. You have twice the assignment that

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the wife does. She gets the
security, the protection, the love and

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all that. You get the respect
and reverence that you want. But that

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is the model for a marriage.
And it's all about you being the high

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priest in your home and going before
the Lord on her behalf. That's how

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it works. Okay, Okay,
we'll get back to the board in a

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minute. So how am I going
to pray? How do I do this?

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What does it mean to pray?
Because your family needs to see your

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spiritual leadership. They need to see
you up early in the morning and pacing

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the floor and praying and stopping in
the middle of an argument to pray whatever.

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They need to see it. They
need to see it. It can't

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just be something silent. So let's
talk about what prayer is now. We

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won't go into the details of Matthew
five point forty four. But the word

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for prayer prayer there is in the
Strongsucordance. It's Greeks number forty three thirty

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six. And it's a weird by
itself. It's a weird definition. The

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word prayer there means wish. I
thought, that's that's a really at least

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initially, that's a really weak definition
for the word prayer, like a wish

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I mean, oh I wish this
would happen. But it's it's way more

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than that. As you go on
to study the other parts of the word,

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and I won't go into a lot
of detail, but it means.

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It means to a wish mixed with
faith. And you heard Pastor talking about

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that at the beginning of the service, like mix your faith with your giving

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so that you don't lose hope.
Well, to keep life from being more

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than a wish and a hope,
we have to mix faith with it.

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Lord, I believe my wife is
healed of that infirmity. It's already done.

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You've taken care of it. And
I'm up in my place in you,

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seated in heavenly places, declaring that
truth. Just like the son sits

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before you, Father, I sit
before you and declare my wife's healing.

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See that's a wish mixed with faith. That's how they mix together. That

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makes sense. Okay, good,
So how first, as before we go

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into more of what this is,
I want to just give a couple quick

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testimonies to show that God does answer
prayer, and I'll go back to the

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definition for just second. There's this
switching of our wishes for God's wishes.

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The definition of the meaning of prayer. There's a substituting of our wishes where

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the Lord comes in and molds our
desire to his. And I was getting

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into my late twenties, I was
still single. I wanted to be married.

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So I took a day out to
fast and pray and say, Lord,

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things aren't happening. I've got to
break through. I tell you,

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Fasting is a key to add to
prayer. Prayer sometimes is like a twelve

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gage shotgun. You can go fifty
to one hundred yards down range to hit

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something, but beyond that you won't
hit it. But when you mix fasting

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with your prayer, it's like high
octane. It's like shooting with a sniper

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rifle that can go ten thousand yards
and you can hit the bullseye. There's

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a movie called The Patriot, and
I love that movie. We watch it

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every fourth of July with mel Gibson
and his son gets taken prisoner who is

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fighting for the revolutionary cause by the
British, and so mel Gibson and his

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young sons hunt these guys down.
So he tells his little boys, who

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he's trained, how to shoot.
He gets down, he goes, remember

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aim small, miss small, Aim
small, miss small. In other words,

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go exactly to the target, focus
on the button on his coat instead

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of him when you aim your gun. And that's what it's like when we

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fast, we aim small, miss
small, and we can shoot down range

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a long way. So anyway,
I just slipped that in for free,

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right there. Don't make it some
big legalistic deal if I mean, if

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fasting means that you're going to skip
dessert or you're going to skip one meal.

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When I do a one meal fast, I skip dinner because I can

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make it through the day that way, I say, okay, I can

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get to bed and fall asleep and
wake up in the morning and all gone

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over twelve hours. And especially,
and what really makes it powerful is when

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you load the bullet in that gun
of fasting. Is when you add a

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little bit of prayer and studying of
the word to it, you do serious

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damage to the enemy's kingdom. He
fast and pray. So I fasted and

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pray today, and talk to God
about my wife, like God, who

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is she? What is she?
How can I receive her? And my

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desires? I had some new desires
that day. It's like he was mixing

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his desires with mine. I thought, you know, I want a wife

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that's tall. I want her tall, and I want a wife that has

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a big laugh, you know,
and my wife can laugh. I mean

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in an office environment, it echoes
down the hallways and in the house.

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It's just the house circulates when she's
home. When she's gone, it's like,

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oh, I don't Karen, and
my wife's gone. When she's home,

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it's siding and fired up. So
anyway, God gave me the desire

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of my heart and I prayed for
her. Also, God let me to

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pray for Karen before I met her. God put me in that leadership role.

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I had received my wife, so
before the Lord, I'm the leader

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of my family. This hadn't met
it. Do I have to meet her

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yet? The leader? No,
But the Lord says, she's in the

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midst of making some big decisions.
Pray and sure enough, after we met.

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During that time I was praying for
her, she was considering taking a

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coaching job in the Midwest, which
would have led us apart, and I

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never would have met her. We
never would have had Drew and the other

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two kids. This stuff's important.
So and then kids come along, and

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we have our older two, Drew
an Abbey, and I'm in the laundry,

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the laundering room, doing laundry,
and this is the conversational part of

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prayer, and I'm talking all of
you. I'm so excited to have another

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girl. And her name is going
to be so and so, and this

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would be great. And I have
two girls and the boy and the Lord

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just like arrests me. It's like
he stuck a rod up my backbone.

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And I hear this inside of me. He says, you do not have

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a girl. I mean you do
not have a Yeah, you do not

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have a girl. You have a
son. And he's a leader of leaders,

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and stay out of his way.
And you know, from what he's

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been through in life, there's some
things where we had desires for him that

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were really caring and my personal desire
and not our son's desire, and we

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just had to back off. And
now this morning I get a text from

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his his fiance. It was the
best Father's Day greeting I've ever had,

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you know, and his life is
progressing and doing fine. But it wasn't

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a daughter. It was the son. Alcah's prayer. We're having a conversation

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with God, and so I focus
on my kids. During Daniel Fast,

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I'll take a day during each week
with the Daniel Fast, I'll pray for

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one and then the other, and
then the next week the other one,

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and so forth. That's nothing you
can do. So there's just and God's

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a provider. We were at at
Karen's farm, her parents farm, and

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it was a drought year and the
crop wasn't coming in. So we walked

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down the lane and prayed for rain. And in the middle of a high

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pressure system. The following week,
there's a little squall that came in,

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not a big front or anything.
It dropped an inch of rain and saved

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the crop. So God, God
answers prayer. And then I'm running out

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of But there's miraculous things about finding
stuff, like Pastor Dwayne's found stuff and

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gotten stuff return. But you know, sometimes things don't work out the way

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you want them to. You have
questions, you have dilemmas. Prayer doesn't

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seem to get answered. And so
if we go to Satan Corinthians four Versus

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seven, eight, and nine,
Paul said, this, go to verse

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eight. We are hard pressed on
every side, but not crushed, perplexed

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but not in despair, persecuted but
not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.

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You know, we went through a
trial twenty four twenty five years ago

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that was rough. It was like
being dropped into a cat five hurricane on

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his deserted island with no shelter.
Our finances, our friends, our business,

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and our health all at the same
time were just blown away. And

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it was hard. But can you
put that scripture back up verse eight and

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nine. We were hard pressed on
every side, but you know we were

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not crushed. We were perplexed,
but not in despair. We were persecuted,

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we had some friends walk away,
but the Lord never abandoned us.

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We were struck down and not destroyed, and when the waters receded, we

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were standing on solid ground. Fact
Proverbs eighteen ten says that our God is

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a stronghold, a very present help
in trime of trouble. He is a

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fortified tower righteous run to it and
we're safe. And that's what we did.

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So there's the tower in the middle
of that hurricane, you know,

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the light beaming out of it,
and we came out of that trial over

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into the safe place. That's where
we ended up in that. But the

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00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:26.519
way we got through it is you
know, someone had given me one of

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00:27:26.519 --> 00:27:33.559
those worship flags on a long pole
and it was bright red, was the

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color of Trell's shirt over here,
you know, like the blood of Christ.

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And I don't have the flag on
it here, but this is the

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pole. So they had this big
pole, and I wasn't a flag waiver

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at church. I thought, that's
kind of weird the wave flags at church.

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I don't think that now. But
but I got my flag out and

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I started. We had this long
basement that I walk in during this trial,

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and I get my flag out and
I'd start waving it. I said,

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I got the vic in the name
of Jesus. I'd start waving that

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flag and then I'd flip it around
when I use it as a spear,

300
00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:12.160
and I'd be wrong and say,
Satan, you will not have my family.

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No way, no way, you
can't have us. I have the

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sword of the Spirit, the word
of God that sharpened any tuigids sword,

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and I'm taking you out. And
I would just pace and fight. I

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would just fight and fight and fight. And the circumstances were totally contrary.

305
00:28:33.480 --> 00:28:40.119
But my God was faithful, and
you know, the apostle Paul said,

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00:28:40.519 --> 00:28:45.240
fight with me. Paul asked for
help five times in scriptures. Jesus asked

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for help in the garden. So
you're in good company asking for help.

308
00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:56.400
So I fought and fought and fought, and I swung my flag and wielded

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my sword in the army, you
know, in God's army. It's like

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Israel. Everyone goes into the military. Once you're saved, you're in the

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military. With God. You better
decide what weapon you're going to fight with.

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But He's given us all his sword
to fight with his word, and

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so I ended up. We ended
up in the strong tower, and then

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we ended up here. So anyway, what do I pray about? Just

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00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:34.279
a few minutes left. So here's
what you do. Ask for courage,

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00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:38.759
first man, ask for courage.
Do the hard things, but ask God

317
00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:41.960
to help you do the hard things. I've got some stuff I don't want

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00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:45.480
to do next week, but I'm
going to do them because I've asked for

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00:29:45.559 --> 00:29:48.920
prayer. I've asked for prayer with
other men here about it, and so

320
00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:52.319
I'm on the hook to go deal
with it. I'm going to do it.

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00:29:55.440 --> 00:30:00.559
Ask for wisdom, patience, grace, kindness, finances. Ask your

322
00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:04.440
wife what you need to pray for
and about. Ask her what's troubling her?

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00:30:06.759 --> 00:30:08.480
Where does she need you to be
the high priest of your home and

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00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:11.440
cover her? Where does she need
covering? Where does she need help,

325
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:17.920
Where does she need support? Have
a Sunday night meeting or a night of

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00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:21.559
the week where you rally as a
family. You put your kids in the

327
00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:23.839
same room with you and you just
go around the room and say, Okay,

328
00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:26.119
Drew, what do you need,
Abby, what do you need?

329
00:30:26.200 --> 00:30:29.559
Troy? What do you need?
What are you looking forward to this week?

330
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:33.000
What's the challenge in front of you? That's all it takes to lead.

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You don't have to do anything more
than that except lead them and find

332
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:44.640
out how to serve them and how
to help them. And we'd bring those

333
00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:47.880
requests before the Lord. And you
know, I don't remember what all the

334
00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:52.079
requests were, but I sure remember
the feeling of closeness and togetherness and security

335
00:30:52.119 --> 00:30:55.400
we got from hanging out with each
other. You know, there was too

336
00:30:55.480 --> 00:30:57.720
much, There was too many,
too much to do, too much homework,

337
00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:00.519
too much of everything that wants to
crowd it out. But we just

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00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:11.640
made it a priority and we jumped
in and went for it. So pray

339
00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:15.640
before you sign the contract, before
you buy the car, before you choose

340
00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:18.559
the school, Pray at home,
at the store, on the plane,

341
00:31:18.359 --> 00:31:23.920
all private and public places, pray. Pray, Pray for each other.

342
00:31:25.079 --> 00:31:27.960
First pray for strangers. If you
walk around, you'll see people say,

343
00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:33.039
God, what's your heart for them? What is your What is your heart

344
00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:37.000
for this person sitting next to person
on the plane? Lord, what's up

345
00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:40.160
with this person? What's your heart
for them? Now you've got the Holy

346
00:31:40.200 --> 00:31:42.720
Spirit working with you, with your
evangelism and our each it makes it easy.

347
00:31:44.519 --> 00:31:47.079
Super I could. I could stand
here for an hour and tell you

348
00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:53.960
stories about that. How about when
you don't feel close to God? God,

349
00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:59.119
you are my refuge and strength,
a very present help in time of

350
00:31:59.160 --> 00:32:04.119
trouble. That's some forty six one. God, you are my refuge and

351
00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:09.640
strength, a very present help in
time of trouble. In other words,

352
00:32:09.640 --> 00:32:14.079
He never leaves you nor forsake you. And first of all, when we

353
00:32:14.119 --> 00:32:16.119
say stuff like it, don't feel
close to God, that's not a feeling,

354
00:32:16.200 --> 00:32:20.440
that's a thought, and that thought
could be introduced by the enemy.

355
00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:27.400
But the word settles it. God
has not left us nor forsakenness. He's

356
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:34.079
right there. So what do I
do in a practical sense to feel closer

357
00:32:34.119 --> 00:32:39.799
to God? In prayer? Get
a routine, have a place, you

358
00:32:39.839 --> 00:32:43.359
know, we fixed up. We
put a new floor in a room in

359
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:45.160
our house, where I had my
chair where I'd go and we had to

360
00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:50.519
move the chair out to get the
flooring done. We haven't moved it back.

361
00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:52.559
So I tell my wife, I
feel like a man without a country.

362
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:55.480
I don't have my chair to go
sit in because she was sitting in

363
00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:02.920
it in the living room. But
get a quiet place, walk and pray.

364
00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:07.240
I like to walk and pray.
You can just okay, okay,

365
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:09.839
Lord, God could head of it. You know, you're just praying in

366
00:33:09.880 --> 00:33:14.599
tongues. You're just walking and praying. That's what Jesus did. He walked

367
00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:16.759
up mountains in the morning and prayed
and met with a father and walked down

368
00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:24.759
and prayed. Personalized scriptures. Make
scriptures your own and confess them. Okay,

369
00:33:27.279 --> 00:33:31.359
join corporate prayer. You know,
there's a lot of men that show

370
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:37.240
up on Tuesday and Thursday morning sometime
between five point thirty and seven am,

371
00:33:37.720 --> 00:33:39.640
And sometimes I just make it the
last half hour, but I try and

372
00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:45.480
come because there's so much strength being
with men, and I love it.

373
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It's like we're Pastor Dwayne's dogs.
You know. We're like we're like bulldogs

374
00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:53.720
with a bone. We don't let
go. We just we pray hard and

375
00:33:53.880 --> 00:34:01.200
we pray. And that's why his
name is wolf where the dogs in the

376
00:34:01.240 --> 00:34:07.159
wolf pack. You know football players, when they're talking about their teammates,

377
00:34:07.159 --> 00:34:10.559
a sign of respect is to call
them a dog. Oh yeah, he's

378
00:34:10.599 --> 00:34:15.119
a dog man. He just works
so hard. He's a dog. But

379
00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:20.079
we need to be dogs for God. Sometimes when it comes to prayer,

380
00:34:20.159 --> 00:34:22.519
man and fight, fight, fight. We don't let go of that bone

381
00:34:23.039 --> 00:34:32.039
until we see the answer. So
so pray before bed, pray in the

382
00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:37.360
morning. Well, I pray and
speak the Word over my family and protection.

383
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:43.519
When we start doing that on a
consistent basis, we stopped having nightmares

384
00:34:44.440 --> 00:34:46.400
and stuff. They ended because I
don't let the devil into my room at

385
00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:51.119
night. I kick him out.
He's not welcome. And when you wake

386
00:34:51.199 --> 00:34:53.719
up in the middle of the night, pray and we talk about fasting.

387
00:34:58.480 --> 00:35:01.559
One Timothy four to eight says,
I'm want men to pray, lifting up

388
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:07.559
holy hands. So there's a conscription
of requests by the Lord for men to

389
00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:12.519
lead in prayer. It doesn't have
to be women all the time leading the

390
00:35:12.559 --> 00:35:17.679
prayer meeting. It can be men. So ask for prayer. Remember Paul

391
00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:22.960
requested prayer, fervent prayer in Romans
fifteen thirty. He said, fight with

392
00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:28.159
me, Struggle with me. Now
Paul had the victory, but we have

393
00:35:28.239 --> 00:35:32.320
to fight to enforce the victory.
Paul said, fight with me. Jesus

394
00:35:32.360 --> 00:35:37.239
asked for prayer in the garden.
You know, the man's side of Jesus

395
00:35:37.400 --> 00:35:42.519
almost died, didn't even make it, hardly barely made it through the garden

396
00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:46.440
experience. There was so much stress
on him. It is not a sign

397
00:35:46.639 --> 00:35:51.880
of weakness to ask for prayer.
Maybe some cultures that some of us have

398
00:35:51.960 --> 00:35:55.519
come out of us said that's weak
to admit that you need prayer for something.

399
00:35:57.320 --> 00:36:00.320
Well, it's not weak. That
is not true. That is not

400
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:06.199
Bible. If you want to shoot
down range a long way and get victory,

401
00:36:06.719 --> 00:36:14.679
pray with other men. That's the
answer. I don't think Jesus and

402
00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:20.920
Paul were weak or that they lack
faith. Sometimes we need to just repent

403
00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:24.760
of pride. Pride. Sometimes they'll
try and keep me from coming to the

404
00:36:24.760 --> 00:36:28.199
front for prayer. Oh yeah,
these people around you are going to think

405
00:36:28.199 --> 00:36:34.719
you're weak. No, that's the
liar, that's the devil, you know.

406
00:36:37.559 --> 00:36:45.159
So, So to build a family, a home, a business,

407
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:53.800
a ministry, a nation, you
must lead on Timothy two to one to

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four. It asks us to pray
for everybody and then pray for leaders and

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kings all in authority. Why that
you may lead a quiet and peaceable family

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life. That's what it says.
It's all tied together. It's all tied

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together. When the pilgrims hit the
shores of America, it wasn't separate like

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that. It was everything, the
family, the government, it was all

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00:37:19.559 --> 00:37:27.639
connected. So we want to pray
first, We want to pray often,

414
00:37:28.599 --> 00:37:34.360
we want to pray hard, We
pray with others, and we pray for

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our nation. The First Continental Congress
in seventeen seventy four, when Britain,

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00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:45.760
the Deep State, Britain was putting
the clamps on the United States. That

417
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:51.400
meeting happened because one guy, Sam
Adams stood up and said, no,

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00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:54.119
We're going to start the meeting with
prayer. And they brought in a guy,

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00:37:54.639 --> 00:38:00.280
a preacher, and who read Psalms
thirty five, and the anointing fell

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00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:04.559
in the room, and the old, older, stodgy men were all weeping

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and crying as the presence of God
filled the room of the First Continental Congress.

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And we have a nation today where
we get to sit here in freedom

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00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:22.920
in a meeting like this, because
prayer was first. So there's the model.

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00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:24.960
We pray first, we pray often, we pray hard, and we

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00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.320
pray with others, and we pray
for a nation. So men, I

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00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:34.760
invite the men, Prayer Warriors,
Destiny Team guys to come up, and

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00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:37.920
I'm going to ask you to come
forward for prayer. Maybe it's prayer for

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00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:44.599
something beside yourself. Maybe it's for
yourself. Maybe you want that prayer language

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00:38:44.639 --> 00:38:47.039
and you want to be released in
that. It could be prayer for anything.

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00:38:47.400 --> 00:38:52.039
But take a look. Make sure
pride is not holding you in your

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00:38:52.079 --> 00:39:00.039
seat. Make sure that you're not
being controlled by people around you. That

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00:39:00.280 --> 00:39:07.000
as leaders, we're controlled by the
Lord only by him alone. We're controlled

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00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:13.280
by the Lord alone. And if
he's nudging you to get up out of

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00:39:13.320 --> 00:39:19.280
your seat and come down here and
to be in agreement with another man for

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00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:22.519
what your needs are or what someone
else's needs are, that you're standing in

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00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:34.280
the gap for, do it.
Maybe you've never come up before. Now's

437
00:39:34.280 --> 00:39:40.519
a good first time. If I
sound like I'm pressuring, I'm not trying

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00:39:40.519 --> 00:39:45.840
to be that way. What I'm
trying to do is introduce you to freedom.

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00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:52.280
Freedom like never before. So we
thank you for this ministry time.

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00:39:52.360 --> 00:39:58.960
Lord, we thank you for what
you're doing in men. Thank you Father.

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00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:01.679
We can go to a highl place
and our commitment to lead our families

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00:40:02.800 --> 00:40:10.599
as the spiritual leaders of our home, to pray, to intercede, to

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00:40:10.679 --> 00:40:15.320
be the high priest of the home. Help us to cover our wives,

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00:40:15.440 --> 00:40:20.800
help us to cover them. Cover
our wives, Lord, cover our children,

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00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:27.480
cover those we love. We stand
in the gap for them. Thank

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00:40:27.519 --> 00:40:44.119
you Lord, Thank you Lord,
Thank you Jesus. Thank you Lord,

447
00:40:52.440 --> 00:41:00.159
Thank you Lord. Want you everyone
stand and just this stand. This might

448
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:06.400
make it easier. And reach your
hand out towards the front for these men

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00:41:06.440 --> 00:41:10.719
who are coming up to stand with
their brothers. Lord, we thank you

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00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:15.960
for these men. Just reach your
faith how towards them right now. Church,

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00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:27.679
Thank you Father, Thank you Father. Thank you Father. Thank you

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00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:37.199
Father for humility and freedom. Thank
you Father, Thank you Father. We

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00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:42.320
don't have to feel spiritual, We
just have to decide to be spiritual.

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00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:50.280
Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

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00:41:52.920 --> 00:42:02.920
Thank you, Jesus, Thank you
Jesus. Ose. I'm going to ask

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00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:07.920
you a question. You're going to
Mexico, right would you come up and

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00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:13.400
pray with Tony for the Mexico trip
and for all the people that are going.

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00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:20.679
Would you just be the spiritual father
right now over that spiritual Papa,

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00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:30.360
over that trip and intercede. Thank
you, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord,