89: Bible Study With Mari - Luke 4:1-13

Speaker: 00:00:06

Hey, I am your host, Mari Wagner,

and you're listening to The Ever Be

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Podcast where Faith Meets Lifestyle.

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I'm so excited you're here.

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Whether you're a new listener

or a longtime follower, I know

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there's something here for you.

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Pull up a chair and listen in for

insightful, real life conversations and

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actionable steps on how to claim the.

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Full life God created you for.

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If you're a woman desiring to live

a Christ-centered life in today's

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modern world, then this is for you.

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Welcome to ever be.

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Welcome back to the Ever Be

Podcast and, Welcome to Mexico.

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If you are watching this on

video, you can see my background.

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We are not home anymore.

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We're back in my favorite place ever and

this time we're gonna be here for a while.

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We're gonna be in Mexico for

a month because Trey is doing

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a Spanish immersion program.

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So it's kind of been a bucket

list item for us ever since we

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met, like before we even started.

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When we were dating, but before we even

got engaged or got married, um, my family

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is Colombian and is fluent in Spanish and

Trey really wants to be fluent in Spanish

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and just like have that part of our

family culture, um, be a part of his life.

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So he's wanting to do an immersion

program for a while and it just

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hasn't worked out until now.

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And this is the perfect time for us.

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So.

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We're here for a week, vacationing

with some friends, and then the

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last three weeks of the month

is gonna be full immersion.

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Trey's got school from eight to

1:00 PM and he's like literally

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just gonna be around Spanish

a hundred percent of the time.

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Um, so I really hope that it helps

him, that it really just sets a really

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solid foundation for conversational

Spanish and we think we'll probably

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do this again in the future, probably.

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Either in Columbia where my family's

from, or maybe we'll go to Spain or maybe

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we'll come back to Mexico and do it here.

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Um, but yeah, so that's exciting.

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So yeah, so I'm recording outside on

the balcony right now and I really doubt

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my microwave is picking up the sound of

the waves, but I can hear them and it's.

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Which is absolutely beautiful.

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It's amazing.

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Um, make sure that you get to

watch the reels recaps on Instagram

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so you can at least see a little

glimpse of the beautiful ocean.

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If you're not part of the Kingdom

Club and are watching this full video.

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Well, today we are gonna do

just a little Bible study.

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So I've done this a couple times When I'm

recording a podcast on vacation, I like to

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try and bring my Bible or devotional and

just spend some quiet time in the morning

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when I can before the day gets started.

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So I'm gonna do that with you guys today.

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Just gonna dive into some lexio,

and I know last time I did this or

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one of the times that I did this,

I got a lot of feedback saying that

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it was really helpful for people

who maybe just didn't really know.

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How to approach scripture,

how to pray with scripture.

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So I hope it's gonna

be helpful in that way.

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We're gonna be doing Luke

four verses one through 13.

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It's the tempting of Jesus in

the desert and I thought that

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was fitting for Lent clearly.

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Since we're all in Lent, I hope

y'all are doing well in Lent.

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I feel like this one's been a

little bit of a tough one for me.

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I've definitely been tempted multiple

times, and so it's just been, it's just

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reiterated that my fast was a good fast.

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I give up sweets.

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Um, and I've also just felt like what has

already been going on for like a month and

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it's only been like 12 days, so, so yeah.

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Hang in there.

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You guys hang in there.

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Okay.

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Luke four.

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Let me just open up to that.

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Verses one through 13.

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Grab your Bibles or just listen

along if you're driving or

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cleaning or something of the sort.

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So first I like to start out in a

little prayer, so let's pray together.

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Name of the Father, son, holy Spirit.

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Amen.

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Come Holy Spirit.

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We just ask you, Lord, to be

present here with us today.

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We ask that you lend us a spirit of peace

and wisdom and understanding of your word.

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We thank you for this moment of prayer

and being able to dive into your word

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and just learn from you and be encouraged

by you, and be formed by your word.

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We pray that today you would open our

hearts in a special way to hear you.

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To hear a specific message that

you might have for us in our lives.

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Um, and I just pray for all the listeners

today that you would just bless their day

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and, um, give them an increase of faith.

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Give them the gift of faith, and

just a desire to meet you in prayer

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and desire to know you more deeply.

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We ask this all in your most

holy name, Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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The temptation of Jesus.

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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned

from the Jordan and was led by the

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Spirit in the wilderness, where for

40 days he was tempted by the devil.

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He ate nothing at all during those days,

and when they were over he was famished.

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The devil said to him, if you

are the son of God, command this

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stone to become a loaf of bread.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is written one does

not live by bread alone.

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Then the devil led him up and showed him

in an instant, all the kingdoms of the

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world and the devil said to him, to you,

I will give their glory and all this

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authority for it has been given over

to me and I give it to anyone I please.

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If you then will worship

me, it will be all yours.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is written.

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Worship the Lord your

God, and serve only him.

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Then the devil took him to Jerusalem

and placed him on the pinnacle of

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the temple, saying to him, if you

are the son of God, throw yourself

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down from here, for it is written.

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He will command his angels concerning

you to protect you and on their hands.

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They will bear you up so that you will

not dash your foot against a stone.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is said, do not put the

Lord your God to the test.

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When the devil had finished every test, he

departed from him until an opportune time.

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Just take a moment to

allow that to sink in.

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And if you're reading along with a

Bible, just glance over the words

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again and see if any words or phrases.

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Just kind of clinging to you

or resonate more deeply or

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just lingering in your heart.

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And you can feel free to pause the podcast

here if you need more time to reflect.

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I'm gonna read it a second time.

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And this second time, if you're able

to, you can sit back and close your

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eyes and engage your imagination and

enter just into an Ignatian experience,

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an Ignatian prayer of this passage.

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So close your eyes and

imagine yourself in the scene.

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Maybe put yourself in Jesus' shoes,

or maybe a bystander watching, or

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maybe it's you in the place of Jesus.

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Um, uh.

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Don't put yourself as Satan

just because we don't want that.

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Right?

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I feel like that's pretty obvious,

but sometimes you just gotta say it.

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So, all right, let's read it again.

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Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned

from the Jordan and was led by the

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Spirit in the wilderness, where for

40 days he was tempted by the devil.

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He ate nothing at all during those days,

and when they were over, he was famished.

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The devil said to him, if you

are the son of God, command the

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stone to become a loaf of bread.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is written one does

not live by bread alone.

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Then the devil led him up and showed him

in an instant, all the kingdoms of the

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world and the devil said to him, to you,

I will give their glory and all this

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authority for it has been given over

to me and I give it to anyone I please.

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If you then will worship

me, it will be all yours.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is written, worship the Lord

your God, and serve only him.

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Then the devil took him to Jerusalem

and placed him on the pinnacle of

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the temple, saying to him, if you

are the son of God, throw yourself

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down From here, for it is written.

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He will command his angels

concerning you to protect you.

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And on their hands, they will

bear you up so that you will not

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dash your foot against a stone.

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Jesus answered him.

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It is said, do not put the

Lord your God to the test.

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When the devil had finished every test, he

departed from him until an opportune time.

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Amen.

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So what are we getting from this passage?

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I'm just gonna scan through it

again and just kind of share

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some things that stood out to me.

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Just some reflections.

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So first thing that stands out

to me is that the evil one tempts

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him in three different ways.

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He tempts him.

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With desires of the flesh, those

like basic needs food, right?

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Jesus had been fasting for 40 days

and then the devil said to him, if

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you're the Son of God, command the

stone to become a loaf of bread.

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He tempted him with food, which is

just such a basic like carnal need.

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It's such a basic human need of

survival that I think it's so fleshy.

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It's just so easy.

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To be tempted with food and that's,

it just reminds me of our Lenin fasts.

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A lot of us are fasting

from food in different ways.

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Like I said earlier,

I'm fasting from sweets.

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Um, we fast on Fridays from meat

ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

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We, um, fast from.

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Our usual meals of the day

and have a reduced meal that

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we're consuming during the day.

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And so we feel this like physical

hunger that reminds us, just like

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of our humanity and our weakness.

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And I don't know about you guys,

but the days that we are required

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to fast as a church are the

days that I feel the hungriest.

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But the days that are just a

regular day, I'll go until like 10,

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11:00 AM without eating anything

and I'll not even realize it.

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And so.

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Yeah, it's just a

reminder of our humanity.

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And it just reminds me here the way the

devil tempts Jesus in all these ways

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that Jesus, too was human, and the devil

tried to tempt him as he would a human.

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So it reveals to us how the

devil can tempt us and trick us

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one with earthly things, with th

desires of the flesh like food.

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Um, two, the devil led him up and

showed him in an instant, all the

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kingdoms of the world and said

to him, I will give you glory and

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authority over all these kingdom.

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He tempted Jesus with power, which

is just hilarious given that Jesus

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is the literals son of God, God

himself, and the devil knows this.

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Um, yet he also knows Jesus is fully

human and he tries to tempt him There.

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And so this, I feel like, represents

those kind of more intangible attachments

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that we tend to have as human beings,

whether that's power, status, riches,

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um, control, fame, you know what I mean?

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Like those kind of more intangible

temptations that we feel

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like lured towards sometimes.

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And then he says, in return, right, if

you worship me, I'll give you all of this.

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So the first one here, the first.

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Temptation was tempting of food, and

that was a temptation to break his

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fast right, to break his commitment

to the Lord, to disrupt his faith.

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The second temptation here is a temptation

of power and worship, so he's not only

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tempting him with, um, wanting more power.

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As if the devil actually had

authority to give him all of that.

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And then he says, if you worship

me, then it'll all be yours.

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So now he adds a stipulation and

he tries to get Jesus to fall by

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worshiping someone other than the Lord.

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And.

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It might not be so obvious in our

lives, like we might not have the devil

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appearing to us, I hope, saying, if

you worship me, you'll have everything.

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But in different ways, the world

does tempt us, and that's the the

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evil one through the world, right?

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That the world says, if you do

this, then you'll have it all.

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If you become this person,

then you'll have happiness.

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If you do.

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You know, it just tempts us with different

things and makes us believe that if

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we do certain things or act certain

ways or value certain things or become

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certain people, then all happiness or

power or status will be given to us.

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So that's an example of how we may

encounter this in our life and choose to

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actually worship something other than God.

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Then lastly, the devil took him to

Jerusalem and placed him on the pinnacle

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of the temple and said to the son,

said to him, if you are the son of God,

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throw yourself down from here, for it

is written, the angels will protect you.

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So here, I feel like he is tempting Jesus.

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With, I mean like physical safety,

like just me as a human being.

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I'm like, that would be scary if

I'm like sitting on the top of

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the temple, no protection, and

I could fall off at any moment.

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And, and the devil is saying like, fall

down and the angels will catch you.

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Like there's definitely an element

of fear and coercion there that the

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devil is trying to instill, but he

also, what's really happening, he's

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trying to get Jesus to test God.

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and to shake his faith.

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Right?

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But Jesus responds with so

much confidence in the Lord.

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Gosh, it's just admirable like

I wish we could have that He's

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in this compromising situation.

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And Jesus himself could save himself.

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We know this.

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He's miraculous.

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He could save himself.

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He could push the devil

down, like, but he doesn't.

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He has an opportunity here and he takes

this opportunity to make a statement and

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to show us what true faith and confidence

in God his heavenly Father looks like.

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All he says to him is, it is said, do

not put the Lord your God to the test.

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He doesn't even flinch At this

threat because he knows his

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father is already protecting him.

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He knows that evil one doesn't

have power over the Lord, so

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he doesn't fall into that fear.

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The evil one tries to trick us with fear.

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So often you guys, we just fall

into this fears of like, what if?

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What if?

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What if?

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What if?

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What if?

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What if this happens?

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What if this happens?

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And that those spiraling

thoughts are not of the Lord?

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So I think that is another thing that

really resonates with us as humans.

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This fear that grips us sometimes.

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We all have different fears, we all

have certain fears, and it grips

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us and it pulls us away from the

Lord whether we realize it or not.

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Um, and so in those moments of

fear, just turn towards the Lord.

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Say, Jesus, I trust in you.

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I surrender myself to you.

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Take care of everything.

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Um.

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Yeah, and just give it all to

the Lord and don't give into

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those spiraling thoughts of fear.

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And then when the devil finished

every test, he departed from

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him until an opportune time.

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And so the devil was like,

all right, I tried and I left.

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And another thing I wanna note here

is that one of these efforts the

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devil made was to counteract Jesus.

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So he even like.

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Fought with Jesus, like bartered

with Jesus after tenting him.

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And Jesus retaliating.

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He uses scripture.

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The devil even uses scripture

to combat Christ's arguments.

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So yeah, in verse nine, the

devil literally says, For it is

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written, he will command his angels

concerning you to protect you.

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So the devil is trying to use

scripture to tempt Christ even more

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and trying to use it as a reason

for Jesus falling into his trap.

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He's saying, no, the, if you command it,

the angels will come and protect you.

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You just have to command it.

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But Jesus responds again with

scripture and says, do not put

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the Lord your God to the test.

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I think what this reveals about this

is that even the devil knows the truth.

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Even the devil knows scripture.

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Even the devil knows the Lord.

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So us just knowing scripture, just

knowing the Lord isn't enough.

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Right.

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And this is again, I think where.

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Our Catholic and Protestant brothers

and sisters differ a little bit,

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um, because I know in the Protestant

denomination, the belief is that

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you are just saved by your faith in

Jesus, just by believing in Jesus.

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And that is absolutely a component.

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We have to believe that Jesus

is true, is our savior, and has

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opened the gates of heaven for us.

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But Even Satan believes in Jesus.

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Even Satan knows the power of the

Lord, and he knows who the Lord is.

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He knows he's got Almighty, and so us

just having this faith and believing.

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The Lord is not enough.

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We need to believe in him and we need

to walk in his ways and we need to

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live in accordance to how God wants

us to live, how he created us to live.

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And we learn this through scripture

and through tradition of the church,

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through the teachings he left us with,

with the apostles that have been passed

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down for 2000 years, and through the

word that he left us in scripture, so.

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Let that be your reflection for

the day, your encouragement,

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know the Lord and follow him.

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We need both.

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I hope that this was helpful to you.

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I hope that it just gave you some

nuggets to really chew on and

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reflect on during the rest of Lent.

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In what ways are we being tempted?

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In what ways do we relate, um, to

the conversation that we had today.

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And I'm also just gonna leave you

with some reflection questions that I.

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Wrote down here.

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So this was actually the Bible study

that we did for our Kingdom Club.

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So our Patreon group meets once a month

on Zoom and we do a Bible study together.

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Our Kingdom Club Bible study, we actually

did this Bible study together and I have

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some questions that I pulled out for them

to reflect on during our Bible study.

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So I'm just gonna read them to you

guys as well in case you want further

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reflection in case you wanna journal with

them later or pause and pray with them.

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Here you go.

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The spirit led Jesus into the desert.

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Why do you think God sometimes

leads us into hard or dry seasons?

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What does desert look like

in your life right now?

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What feels busy, lonely,

distracting, quiet or uncomfortable?

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The first temptation

is about comfort bread.

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What do you tend to turn to when

you're stressed or uncomfortable?

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Jesus responds to

temptation with scripture.

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: 00:20:29

What does that tell us about

how we can fight temptation?

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What is one thing your lentin fast

might be revealing about you so far?

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If this lent is your desert, what do

you hope God does in you before Easter?

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And then just to wrap it up, a little

takeaway that I had written here

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in my notes from our Bible study

was that the takeaway from this is

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that the desert is not punishment,

but it's actually preparation.

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The spirit led Jesus to the desert on

purpose for a purpose, and we are walking.

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Through Lent with purpose for a

purpose or we should be right.

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We're called to.

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And so harder dry seasons are

not a sign that God is distant,

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but it's actually often where

he's doing his most intentional

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work, stripping us of our earthly

attachments and bringing us closer.

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Into union with him.

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Um, and this desert specifically

reveals what we reach for when we

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are uncomfortable, what we rely on

for comfort or validation or control.

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Um, and Lent is doing that in us.

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This desert, this season of

Lent is doing that in us.

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So this is our call to have deeper

dependence with God, um, and if we really

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lean in and keep our fasts and our prayer.

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We will see a shift in our faith, in

our heart, this land, and we will see

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a shift in our relationship with him.

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So I just pray that for all of you, keep

leaning in and hopefully this was helpful.

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Um, love doing Bible study with you guys.

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If you guys like this kind of

episode, please let me know.

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: 00:22:05

In the Ever be podcast, it's at Ever

be podcast on Instagram and, and, yeah.

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Thanks for joining Bible study today.