Alarms are Sounding, Stop Hitting the Snooze Button!

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Welcome to A Word in Season with Doug Strinker and friends.

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We share good news and godly wisdom to empower you to be salt in light in every season of life.

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We need a leadership awakening like never before.

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There is an erosion and unraveling of many of our moral foundations.

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Doug has been sharing this message for years, and now more than ever,

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we need to recognize that alarms are sounding and we can't afford to hit our snooze buttons any longer.

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After the episode, consider leaving a review and follow us on your favorite streaming service.

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If you've cleaned anything from this podcast, consider paying it forward with a gift at SomebodyCares.org.

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Now let's join our host, Doug Stringer.

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The founder of Salvation Army, William Booth, said over a hundred plus years ago,

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I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost,

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Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.

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There is no doubt an erosion and an unraveling of so many of our moral foundations.

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We need an awakening in America.

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We need a church-wide awakening if we're going to reach the soul of a nation or a generation.

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In fact, we need a leadership awakening.

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We need a leadership awakening for the vacuum of godly and courageous leaders that exist today.

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Education alone doesn't make or produce great leaders.

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Diplomas don't prove them. Character does.

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We need a revival of character from preachers to politicians, from pulpits to political offices.

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We need a revival of character.

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In fact, the character of revival in Christ Jesus will emanate from the character of the King Jesus,

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and it will emanate through us to the culture in which we live.

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Degrees on leadership are only worth the paper that they're written on without the substance of character to go with it.

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I remember what A.W. Tozier once said.

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He said, self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us.

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Too much of what we call leadership today and too much of what we see is about self, self, self, self-adulation,

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self-centeredness, self-righteousness, so much self.

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And we've got to get back to a place of saying, God, we need you.

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You know, the book of Joel consists of only three chapters, yet it was written as a wake-up call to a nation in crisis.

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We've got to quit pushing our snooze buttons.

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Joel pleaded for his nation to gather before God in a great sacred assembly.

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Their time of great need called for a corporate response,

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response of corporate prayer, repentance, and renewed consecration before God.

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They recognized that they could not save themselves from the circumstances of the day.

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It would take God's intervention himself.

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I believe America is in such a state of crisis today.

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The epic crises that face us as a nation and around the world is threatening our future, demands an epic response.

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Today we are living in a very challenging, critical, and volatile time.

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Every day you and I look at the news and it's filled with more human tragedy or disaster, human and natural disasters.

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Crises are escalating at an unprecedented rate.

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We hear so much fodder on the news and so many things can be overwhelming of heart.

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As the body of Christ, we must respond.

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We can no longer afford to hit our snooze buttons and ignoring the sounding warnings and alarms around us, we must respond.

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We must respond in a posture as the church, humbling ourselves and crying out before God.

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Our private posture affects our public influence.

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You've heard me say before that our private choices have public consequences.

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I believe the heart of the nation should be the church.

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We the church need a corporate heart awakening if we're going to see the soul of our nation healed.

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If we're going to see another great awakening and revival that is sustainable,

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we need an individual and corporate church-wide heart awakening.

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We must respond in humility, repentance, renewed consecration before God.

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Some of the areas that we as a church must take responsibility and pray for according to Isaiah 1 is the shedding of innocent blood, unrighteousness, injustice.

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We must stand against these things like human trafficking and the areas of injustice in the criminal justice system.

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We as a church are the plumb line of bringing healing and the racial divide.

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The nation divided cannot be healed if the church is divided.

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The church united can heal a nation divided.

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We need a church awakening. We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

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We need to pray the blessing of Israel as well as the peace of God's presence throughout the Middle East.

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There are so many things that we need to take responsibility for.

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2 Chronicles 7-14 is a clear picture.

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If my people, God speaking, would humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal the land.

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We take responsibility. It's not about everyone else.

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It's our responsibility to cross our racial, denominational, and generational divide if we're going to see healing in our generation.

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Would you join me, agree together, to take our private time before God in humility, not in self,

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but in humility for revival of character from the pulpits of America to political offices, from preachers to politicians, and all in between.

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If the shoe fits, let's wear it. Let's take responsibility.

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Let's repent and walk in humility before God so that God will hear from heaven.

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America needs the Lord.

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The world is in desperate need of the presence of the peace, the Prince of Peace.

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And the only way they're going to see it is reflected through you and me,

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intentional about crossing our racial, denominational, and generational lines.

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There are so many great things that God is up to.

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Let us get on with God and not try to lead God in our ways.

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It's not about us. It's about Him.

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While men reach for thrones to build their own kingdoms, Jesus reached for a towel to wash men's feet.

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While men pursue high and exalted places, Jesus the exalted one left the highest of places to pursue us.

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Why do we take Christ's example? Because the characteristics of the Kingdom of God emanate from the character of the King, King Jesus.

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Let's be that example. Let His light so shine in us that others may see Christ in us and bring glory to our Father in heaven.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and friends,

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and ask you to prayerfully consider supporting the ministry at SomebodyCares.org,

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by texting your donation amount to 805-422-7348.

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Please join us again for A Word in Season with Doug Stringer and friends.