Transcript
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We failed to protect the church and to preach good doctrine
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and address those moral and cultural issues
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that everyone else is talking to, but for fear we haven't.
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Just seems like there's a window of opportunity open
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over 2025 for a real spiritual renewal and revival.
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2025 is upon us and we are looking at what is God saying
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for this upcoming year.
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And with me today is Pastor Travis Johnson.
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And we are gonna talk about what God is telling him
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about 2025, but we've got a great story
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that you gotta stick around for,
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but what he's been doing with Christmas trees.
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So stick around with that.
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Pastor Travis, it's great to have you here.
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Hey, it's great to be with you, John.
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So let's talk about what God is saying
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about the year 2025 to you and your church
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and the people that God has you influencing with.
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What is God saying and how do we need to respond to this?
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Absolutely, a couple of things that I'm hearing right now.
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Looking out at 2025 and in the cultural mash
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of this environment that we're in,
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where there's so much, there's like a window
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of opportunity open.
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It feels like to me, I don't know that it's revival,
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but it's a window of opportunity for revival.
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And we see really a revival of the American spirit.
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I feel like we are going to see a revival of the family.
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You know, not necessarily speaking,
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spiritually church revival, but just a renewal
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and a refocusing, a re-gripping of the family
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and a revival of things good and decent and profitable.
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So for me, for the church, it seems like
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there's a window of opportunity open over 2025
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for a real spiritual renewal and revival.
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And so in that context, what I'm hearing in my heart,
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what I'm sensing, what I find myself speaking regularly
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is that in that environment,
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it's not a time for a lot of talk.
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It's not a time for a lot of consensus building.
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It's a time to go.
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It's a time to go.
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And so what I'm hearing is take dominion,
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show up, take dominion.
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The environment's already been prepped.
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Step in, step forward, take dominion and go.
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And then with that, people will come with us.
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People will come along.
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But then there's always a temptation
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to stop and try and bring everyone,
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get everyone deciding with you,
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working through that process.
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And that's good.
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That's who we are, pastors.
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And a lot of Christians are like this
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in that we are conflict avoiders
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because we have a need to be liked.
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And I think some of it's probably natural,
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but some of it's built to just
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from kind of the work that we do.
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But what I would say is go with the goers.
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Go with the goers.
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Praise God we wanna bring everybody along.
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Let me just say this to you, John,
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which I know is no problem.
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And you are alive and vibrant in your faith
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and as enthusiastic as anyone that I've ever met.
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I walk away strengthened in my faith.
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But to you, to my wife, to my friends,
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my children, my church, believers,
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is I would say this, I want you to go with me.
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I want you.
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I'm going to heaven.
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I'm going into the presence of God.
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I'm going to take dominion in 2025.
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I'm gonna move forward and I want you to come with me.
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But if you don't, I'm going.
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I'm going.
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There's this tremendous opportunity.
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I feel like God is orchestrating so much.
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He's done so much look back.
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It's not the way we would have done it.
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I wouldn't have planned it that way.
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All of these little miracles and all of these things
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that have been organized together
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to bring us to this point, I wouldn't have done it.
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But when you look back in retrospect,
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you go, look what the Lord's done.
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And so here's what I'm doing.
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I'm on the threshold.
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I'm walking through the door in 2025.
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I'm not looking back to see who's following.
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I have confidence that as I walk through,
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people are following.
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I know that because I'm following other people
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that are walking through that door as well.
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There are generals.
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There are some sweet little grandmothers
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that have been on their knees before the Lord praying,
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seeking His face, calling out our names out over decades.
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And they're walking through.
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I'm walking through too.
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And I think the Lord's really going to bless the church.
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I think we're going to see revival in 25.
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Amen.
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I love that.
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As you were talking about this, there's
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a window of opportunity to do this as well.
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I just mentally had this picture of an apple orchard.
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And the apples were ripe.
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And there's a time to pick.
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But if you let them sit there too long,
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they're going to rot.
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And they're going to fall off.
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And they're not good for anything at that point.
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So what I'm feeling is that there's a time
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that the fruit is ripe.
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And this is the time to pick.
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And if you wait too long, it's going to rot.
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Oh, 100%.
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Think about this too.
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Let's talk about giving and givers.
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You can't stop a giver from giving.
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Givers, they give.
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All you can do is make sure that you
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have soil that's fertile and productive enough
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that they would want to give into what you're working on.
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And so the Lord is looking for people
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who are a good investment and people who will listen
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and who will follow.
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And so the time between when we see a thing
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and when we act on a thing is important.
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You talk about apples, but hey, when God opens the door,
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it's not the time to second guess and to say,
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well, I wouldn't have structured it like this.
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Are you sure?
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Is this the right time?
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No, when you see it, you walk through that opportunity
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as quickly as possible.
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I can't tell you how many times I've seen people approach
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an opportunity.
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And then they overanalyze it, analyze it so long
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that then the opportunity was gone.
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Someone came along and took it.
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So our ability to respond and say yes to the Lord
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is powerful.
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I'll say this, but a parent, when talking to their child,
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if the child obeys but is delayed obedience,
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delayed obedience is disobedience.
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There's a window of opportunity the Lord's open for us.
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And I just want to be as early on in walking
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through that as possible.
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I feel it.
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I feel I can see it.
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Yeah, that is really encouraging about this 2025 year.
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What else is God saying to you about this?
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For maybe nationally, I know you have some influence
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with other Christian leaders nationally.
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What are some other things that maybe God is saying about that
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that you can share?
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Well, I do think that one thing that's happened over the last,
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not just the last year, but really 2020
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was kind of a dividing line.
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A lot of the people that we look to, a lot of the voices
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have changed.
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People were forced to pick a side or a path.
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And then so many of us were radicalized.
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You're surprised at the pace at which things happened.
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So there's a kind of a reorganizing of voices
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that God's raising up.
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I'm thankful for that.
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I am.
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So there's some of that conversation.
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But within this, my mind and heart
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is going to Revelation chapter 3 when Jesus is talking
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to the church at Sardis.
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And the Lord says, strengthen that which remains.
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Well, we don't have a lot.
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The church is so compromised.
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There is compromise in the church.
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I mean, look, we have been hammered by woke gender
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ideology, our kids have.
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In school, the pronoun hospitality, the restrooms,
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all of that stuff, it's crazy talk.
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It's happening in every state.
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You think we're aborting our unborn children?
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There are so many things.
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Religious liberty is at stake, free speech has been at stake.
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And think about how many pastors said nothing, said nothing.
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Here's what the Lord says to the church at Sardis.
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He said, you are known for your good reputation.
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So we're nice, respectable churches.
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We're nice, polite churches.
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We have this nice veneer, and good things are being said.
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But we failed to protect the church
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and to preach good doctrine and address those moral and cultural issues
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that everyone else is talking to, but for fear we haven't.
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And so the Lord says to that the way to approach that
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is to strengthen that which remains.
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It's not to go back and try and get consensus,
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but it's to build up what is good and righteous.
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And when we do that, that's what would have moved the church at Sardis
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through.
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And so my prayer is that we as a church step into that moment.
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And I see that organizationally.
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I see that in groups like National Faith Advisory Board,
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the people that are coming together, the courage that has really come up.
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Man, I think about pastors like Jensen Franklin.
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I'll never forget him, a 19-year-old boy, 18-year-old boy at a youth camp.
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And Jensen was much younger, playing his saxophone.
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He's doing an altar call.
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He pulls me up onto the stage, and he's prophesying over me.
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He looks at me, says, you were not made for small things.
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And I'm just going, of course, I was a mess at that age.
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And seeing those, in my mind, heroes in the faith,
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consistently, faithfully through the years, moving on through,
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and seeing so many of those people rallying together.
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And their voices from different streams, too, coming together.
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Moving into me, it feels like there's a real mustering taking place.
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And there are people all over looking for someone
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to wave that standard on the battlefield so that people can muster to that.
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It feels like that's already happened and is happening even more.
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I feel like you've seen some of that stuff just politically,
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a reassertion of goodness in leadership.
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But spiritually, I see it.
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I believe God's raising up some great voices in this moment.
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Amen, amen.
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Pastor Travis, one of the things that God is raising you up to do
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is actually changing lives by buying Christmas trees
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and giving those around.
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And you told me before we started this recording
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that you had a very unique experience with this outreach
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that you've been doing, which has started off in your church
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whenever your church was in the Miami area
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and has grown to many, many states.
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And you've been able to give away millions of dollars through this.
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But in responding to some of the disasters that have happened recently,
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God brought you to a very unique place.
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Can you tell us this story?
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So, John, that's called ByatreeChangeAlife.com.
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It's a small group missions project that just got out of control.
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We were paying for raising money for an adoption
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for a little girl from Ethiopia into a Coast Guard family.
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Now it's across America.
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This last year, it's amazing.
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All of us together, it's not like one big person, but all of us together,
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tens of thousands of families have helped us to give away over $13 million
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to help children.
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So as a part of that, we were sponsoring Christmas at Chimney Rock.
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And Chimney Rock had really captured America's imagination.
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During Hurricane Helene, a 20-foot wall of water comes through that town.
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And just a lot of devastation.
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Homes wiped out.
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Businesses wiped out.
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Four feet of silt in downtown Chimney Rock.
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And so there's so many stories there.
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Bottom line, we were there for the Christmas tree lighting,
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just that little area.
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And then the next day, I was standing outside, and I met two families.
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Some kids run up to the Christmas tree, and they're seeing decoration
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on the Christmas tree.
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We had decorated the tree with items that had been scavenged downstream
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from the flood.
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And they were shoes.
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They were little toys.
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They were little guitars that had been lost from people's homes.
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So these little kids come up, and they're seeing their toys and clothing
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in the tree.
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It was the most joyful, tearful moment.
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Really?
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These items were in your house?
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Really awesome.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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What?
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What?
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What?
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What?
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All right.
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So what all's yours?
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That's what.
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Like everything.
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Like everything?
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Let's see you guys.
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I was so glad to be there for that.
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It led to some prayer.
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I love you.
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Bottom line, one member of the family is actually
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moving to our area just above Orange Beach here in Alabama.
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By the way, it's like heaven.
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It's beautiful.
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Get to heaven, John.
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But if you can't, come on to Orange Beach.
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But they're moving down.
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And so tomorrow, we have a bunch of people from the church
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that are meeting them with their moving van,
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and we're unloading their house.
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It was just this amazing thing.
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And I felt like God had just bent down to kiss the earth,
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and I got caught right in the smack.
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I thought, this is really heaven.
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So it was a wonderful time.
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So these little kids were seeing their own toys
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on this Christmas tree.
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And I think one of the questions that everybody's
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going to ask in the comments, and let us know in the comments.
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Make sure you're subscribed to this channel and everything.
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Did these kids get to just like, that's my toy,
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and then actually get to receive that,
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or is it just staying for decoration?
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Tell us about getting those things back.
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I mean, obviously, they want to take those down.
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But I watched them.
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The kids didn't even ask.
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They were just, if you see the video,
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it's euphoria and tears, and the family
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is bouncing around trying to take all the pictures.
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Actually, when that happened, I was behind the tree
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taking some video of the tree, because it was so remarkable.
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I mean, I don't know.
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It was like seeing something in color in the middle of a black
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and white TV show.
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And so that all happened.
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I actually have some other footage where I just say, hey,
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if you'd like, I can take a picture.
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I didn't even realize what was going on at that moment.
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So I stepped over to take the picture.
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And then that's when all of this euphoria starts to come out.
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So hey, my family went through Hurricane Andrew.
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We lost our home.
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My dad lost his church.
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I don't have a lot of pictures from when I was little.
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He slept under a picnic table for a week
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while he's pastoring the church as National Guard.
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And that sort of thing came in.
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He got an RV.
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And I tried to talk him out of staying.
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I wanted him to leave.
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But he's like, I would be a terrible pastor
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if I left my church right now.
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But if you ask my dad, he would say
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that was the best time of his ministry,
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because it was so terrible.
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Nobody should have to go through that.
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Those dams breaking upstream and just wiping everybody out.
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Nobody should go through that.
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However, when people come together
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and they help one another, it's extravagant.
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It's actually a fulfillment of scripture
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that the world will know us by our love for one another.
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And I've seen that over and over.
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Even in the comments of this video that's gone viral,
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you see non-Christians saying, this is what it's all about.
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This is beautiful.
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Thank you for letting us know that there's still
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people that care.
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So John, it was awesome, man.
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It was just awesome.
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That's beautiful.
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Pastor Jarvis, thank you for sharing that story with us.
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That's very touching, especially this time of year.
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We know that we're celebrating the greatest gift
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that God has ever given us, Jesus coming to this world
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to eventually die on the cross for us.
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But he had to come as a baby as the greatest gift
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that God has ever given us.
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And we do that to each other.
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We give gifts to each other to honor that.
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And what you've done is give us a great gift as well.
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So Pastor Jarvis, thanks so much for joining us here today.
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Thank you so much.
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And let me say this.
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If anybody wants to be a part of By a Tree, Change a Life,
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you can host a site at your church.
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It's amazing what's done.
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It's so much more than anything that you can imagine.
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You end up making some incredible friends.
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You can fill out an interest form at By a Tree, Change a Life.com.