Hey everyone. It's Ian Caden. And welcome back to the day in the life of podcast. We're so excited today. We wanted to talk about breaking chains with you guys. And we have to admit, this has been the hardest one to prepare for because. Coming up with the lesson kind of makes us have to look at our own lives and think about the chains that we have that we need to be breaking. And that's kind of hard. Like the first few days we were just kinda like, did you come up with any. Oh, Mimi there, because it's hard to look at yourself and figure out what deep inside of you needs to be changed. And so I know I was able to. To find at least one chain that needed to be broken. And so I got baptized this last. It was yesterday. Yeah, it was yesterday because I realized that I had just been holding onto this chain of kind of having church hurt and just. When certain things would happen in my life, like I had had so many. Whenever they have baptism calls, I would walk up and then I would talk to somebody and I didn't like the way they would talk to me or like the questions they would ask or how they would go about it. And so I would always just leave, not getting baptized. And it's kind of rare that they don't baptize you that day. I feel like, but it always happened to me. Like they were always like, oh, well they asked me these questions and then they're like, oh, well, we'll plan something. Well, as soon as I would leave, I'd be like, no, I don't have a good feeling about it. And I feel like that's probably because this is the way that God wanted me to get baptized. He. He wanted me to be able to tell other people. But it was just like an ongoing thing. And I suddenly just like resented getting baptized because I was just like, no churches are just worried about the number. They're just worried about this. They're just. But it has nothing to do with the church it has to do with you and your relationship with Jesus. So it doesn't really matter where it happens. It just matters that it does happen. And so I think that goes into one of our points on how like alive that the enemy tells us is that we don't have to go to church, but it's like, you don't have to go to that specific church. That you have been to before, because I didn't necessarily have a home church. I just had a bunch of churches that I'd been in and out of. And so since I didn't have the best experiences, I didn't want to always go back to that church. And I feel like a lot of people go through that. They'll just cut themselves off and they'll be like, oh, well I went that one time and I didn't like it. So I don't think churches for me, but you just haven't found the church that you're supposed to go to. Right. I really agree. And we are so proud of you. Um, it was a big celebration yesterday. Um, I think that is so true about the enemy. Just kinda. Distracting you from what reality is, or he gives you a false sense. And that kind of like, like how we were struggling this week of finding, like breaking those chains. And like finding the change in our life when they're kind of like right in front of you, you think about like the everyday stuff that you do in your life, if it hinders you from. What God has for you, then that's a chain. I think we also think sometimes too. I know for me, I go back to my past. Like, um, I still think about things that I feel like I've already broken, but I haven't. And like you said, like the enemy tries to throw that back on you and you just want to be set free from him. And I think that's so hard for today because most of the time what's the world says. About our chains is that they're good. And that's not what God has to say. God says that. Most of the time that what the world says is not good. He tells us to not conform to this world, but be changed through him. So if we think about like getting rid of our chains and breaking our chains, we have to go to him first and ask like, what are our chains? Because if we don't know how are we going to break them? or you could know, you know, you could struggle with something and you feel like this is, I'm never going to get out of this, but you have to be ready. And to full-heartedly be able to surrender it over to God for him to be able to show you the truth, like you just experienced and be able to break that chain. And get back on the path of what God has for you. Right. I think a lot of also what. Affected me was just that I had believed in God and I had a relationship with Jesus for so long since I grew up in a family that did believe in God, but we were kind of in and out of church because we didn't necessarily have the best experiences with churches. So we would just be in and out constantly. And so a lot of the other people, my age had already. Been saved, been baptized. They had these experiences because that's like the chronological order that it goes around here. Like when you grow up in church, you get saved by a certain age, you get baptized. And then it's like, if you get to a certain age where you haven't done that, it's like, You haven't been saved. You haven't been baptized and I feel like people start to judge you. And so that makes you kind of like scared to be like, because people just think you should have already done it by then. Right. But God doesn't have that. He just, whenever he calls you, you need to obey him. And so a lot of what happens is people get hung up on what other people are going to think about them. But something that kind of has been sticking out to me is like, I think the other day God asked me, he was like, when you see my face, Are you still going to be worried about that person? Like you don't even know these people in this room, but they're hindering you. From growing this relationship with the Lord, just because you're scared of what they might think, but you're not even in their brain. So they're not going to say it to you. Yeah, and you're not going to hear it, so it should not affect you at all because at the end of the day, when we're all gone and we get to go be with Jesus, why would that matter? Right. Um, I think that's a huge chain. Fear is a big chain that I think we also get like, so caught up in is because we're scared of what other people are going to think about us. But when the end of the day, and you're looking at the Lord straight in the face, it's not going to ask you about what everybody else did. And he's going to ask about what you did. And I think it's really important for us to remember that we're not here to please the world. That's not our audience. Our God is our audience. Right. And if we want to, please, God, it's not going to be of this world. And it's so hard because we get wrapped up into so many things and they're bad and bad things are bad things, but that doesn't mean that good can't come from it. Because if you give you, give the Lord your bad things, he's going to change it around and make it good in some type of way. I think it's so important for us to remember that T to start, to be able to break these chains that we have to fully give it to God, because you can't do it by yourself, so you have to give those chains to God, for him to start making your way for them to be broken. That's right. And I think one of the biggest, um, chains that we thought about kind of this week was people having shame. And so I kind of thought I was like, when was the first time that shame was kind of a thing. In the Bible. And so I went back to Genesis three. And this was after Adam and Eve had ate the apple and they realized that they were naked. And so they heard the Lord coming and they hid from him. And so it starts with, but the Lord called to the man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid. And he said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it. And so the first thing that I was looking for was like the shame that they felt. But I automatically was like, wow, because I saw where Adam just outright blamed Eve. He just says, the woman you sit here. She's the reason I did this. She gave it to me. And I think that we do that a lot with other people. We. Feel shamed. And so rather than. It admitting it repenting and giving it to God. We're like, well, they call us, did they? They do this don't you see what they did to me? Don't you see that? It's their fault. Yeah. But God sees all and he knows all, and he knows that, that he still chose to eat the apple. So you can't put it all on the other person, right? I think, um, we sometimes kinda. Hide our shame, but playing the blame game. I was listening to a sermon just a few minutes ago and it was like, the positions you're in influence the decisions you make. So, no matter what position you're in or what chain. You're in right now, you made a decision at some point in your life. To follow that or to you put yourself in a situation that wasn't so good. And you ended up somewhere that was not of God So we kind of sit back and play the blame game because we don't want to face that reality of no, I actually made this decision at some point in my life to start doing these things. And that doesn't mean all of the things, bad things that happened to you or something that you did and you made a decision on. But if we look around at most of our decisions that we make and the most of the chains that we have that need to be broken. Are brought upon ourselves. And it's so hard, so hard to see that, especially like, since we were trying to prepare this this week, like we were trying to look at our own. Chains that we had in our life. And it was hard. It was hard to like actually sit down and think, whoa, Um, I have these traits in my life and it's a hard process to get rid of them. Yeah. It's hard to humble yourself and, but then that's. That's a chain, you know, pride. And so whenever we were talking about it and I was just like, Because obviously our chains are going to be different. Like what we feel like we're struggling with because we're different people and we've done different things, but I started thinking about it and I was like, well, I can't think of anything. And then I was like, oh, there it is. If I can't think of it. Yeah. That's it pride being humble is something that you really have to sit down because pride is a sin in the Bible. And I think sometimes today we kinda misconstrue the word pride because where you're like, you're supposed to have pride in yourself. You're supposed to be like this. In actuality. That's a sin and that's a chain that hinders you from what God has for you, because you're so caught up in yourself. You're not thinking of the bigger picture of what God has for you. And, um, I know that like, We all make mistakes and yes, that's a big part of your chain. It's, you know, you make mistakes and I'm not perfect. I dealt with shame. For probably, I don't know. Um, Four years, five years of my life, because of decisions that I made. That impacted what chains I had. And not to say that every single one of them was my fault. But in the end, I had to sit back and realize that, yes, I did make those decisions. But God made something so much greater out of them, right? Because even though you have that things in your life, God is greater. God is always greater and he's gonna defeat what, um, defeat, what chain you have, because like you were saying earlier, if he defeated death, Then what. What, what makes you say that he can't defeat the chain that you're in right now? What makes you think he can't defeat your spiritual death? Right? Like if he can do all things. He was resurrected so he can resurrect you. Yeah. Um, Um, but I think it's also good to remember that. A lot of your mistakes that you've made. May have been before you necessarily knew that it was. As bad as it is, you know, like if you. Send the certain sins before you were saved and before you became Christian or before you heard all of these stories, Like, yes, it was still bad, but you can't hold yourself to this standard because you didn't know the extent of how bad it was. And so do not. Well, don't think you're unforgivable anyway, but. Just give yourself some grace, because God gives you grace. Right? I think that's one thing I love like about that TISM is. When we also, like, I know for the longest time in high school, I thought that my, every decision I made defines me. Because as girls we are labeled at, from the time we were born. So forever, we are labeled as something of this world. We're beautiful. We're smart. We're ugly where, you know, unathletic, athletic. Like we are always put to such a high standard, whether. Um, we're approved or we sleep around, like we're always labeled as something. And I think that's so hard for us because we carry so much shame as women and half the time. It's not even true. Half the time. It's things that people that know nothing about your life makeup. Yep. And so I feel like it's only gotten worse since social media, because it's like, you're not just competing when you see people you're competing at home, you're competing with these models that make. Millions of dollars and that's their sole job is to look like that and to edit those pictures and to eat those things, to look like that, and to work out at this gym that makes them work out like this and to pay for that personal trainer or to pay for that nose or to pay for those boobs. It's not real. Yeah. It's so not real. And I think. The world disguises our chains as something that we are going to benefit from. We should never think of what the world labels us as is what we are. Yes, we are only what God says we are. So even though we make mistakes and we have a past, we can be set free from those chains because through God and through Jesus, you were saved and you were worthy and you are, you mean so much more than what the world tells you. You are. I think it's so important that we never ever forget that. Yes. Even though we make mistakes and we have chains. We can break those chains and become main new. And that's, that's a good thing about that. Tourism is because when you're dipped in the water, you're a center and then you come back up and you were washed and cleansed through Jesus's blood. Yeah. I think it's so important that, you know, we asked you this to be our Lord and savior, because then that chain really does get break broken because he makes us brand new. Like, yes, we might have bumps and scars and bruises, but when we come out of that water and we asked Jesus, or when we asked you this to come into our heart, we are made new. Yeah. I also want to read this story to you guys out of the Bible, because I think a lot of times people are like, but he doesn't know what I've done. He doesn't, if you knew what I had done, then you would know that there's no way that Jesus loved me. So I'm going to read to you guys about the Samaritan woman. So it is in John four. It says now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John. Although in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back one more to Galilee. Now he had to go through some area. So he came to a town in some area called Sakaar. Give me some gray skies. Near the plot of ground. Jacob had given to his son, Joseph Jacob's well was there and Jesus tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the wealth. It was about noon. The Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, will you give me a drink? His disciples had gone into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, you're a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink for Jews? Do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus answered her. If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink. You would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said you have nothing to draw with. And the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than the father? Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself as did also his sons and his livestock. Jesus answered. Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks, the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed. The water I give them will be. We'll become in them a spring of water welling up in eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming up here to draw water. He told her, go call your husband and come back. I have no husband. She replied, Jesus said to her, you are right. When you say you have no husband. The fact is you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true. Sir, the woman said, I can see that you are a prophet, our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem woman. Jesus said, believe me a time is coming. When you will worship the father, neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship, what you do not know. We worship. What we do know for salvation is from the Jews yet a time is coming and has now come. When the true worshipers will worship the father in the spirit and in the truth for they are the kind of worshipers the father seeks. God is the spirit and his worshipers must worship in the spirit and it is truth. I know that the Messiah called Christ is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us. Then Jesus declares. I, the one speaking to you, I am he. That was the first time that Jesus. Told somebody that he was in the CYA. And so this woman. Had so much shame. Because of her sexual past and the things that she had done, but God used her in an amazing way that is going to let all of you guys know that you're not broken and you can still be used by God. And she had the honor of being the first person that Jesus told he was the Messiah. I think it's so powerful that Jesus comes to us and our lowest points of our life. Is because once we have hit rock bottom and we feel like there's nothing left, I have to give I'm broken. I'm not worthy. I am. I am just dirt. And I think that's when Jesus comes to us and says, no, like, listen to me, I I'm going to give you eternal life and I'm going to make you brand new because we can only become made new through him. So I just think that he uses the broken to glorify his goodness. Yeah. He's always gonna, I know I say this all the time, but he will always use your bad for your good. That's going to be your slogan. I know. I think I ended up two shirts. But I just deal with it, like for my whole life. Like, I think about like in high school, it was, it was so hard for me because every time I've made a turn, I feel like I ended up down the wrong path, like, uh, Just, I did so many things and I'm like, I'm looking back, like, why did you do that? But in reality, like God had a bigger plan and he used every single thing that I did. And he made them for where they made me, who I am now. I have learned from those things and I have broken those chains and he's got me to where I am today. And that's to say too, Um, if you have chains right now, They can always be broken in and to fully break these chains. You have to, for real, let them go. Like you can't hold on. If somebody's done you wrong and somebody has brought upon a chain in your life that you feel like you can't get rid of, you can't hold hate in your heart because that's not fully getting rid of a chain. Like I struggle with jealousy very bad. And I'm going to just go ahead. That's one of my chains. Um, I get jealous of things and I'm like, well, that, that should be happening to me. Why is it happening to her? But it's not happening to me or I'm going through that right now. Like, you can't be going through that right now either. Like it's only, it's not like showing. Yes. I have to really sit back and look like, no, it's not. And that's a huge change in your life and you can't have that hate in your heart, or it'll just consume you because how can we say God's using me, God's using me, but then get mad when he's using somebody else. You know, like he is still going to be using other people, but he's going to be using you in different ways. And so you can't get jealous of. Somebody's life path, because it doesn't look like yours because it's not supposed to. Right. And it's so hard. Cause we like, from the time we're born, where you're taught to compare ourselves to one another, like you said, like. On social media. We see all these girls and we are taught to compare and we're supposed to be the best of the best. And we're always supposed to strive to be on top. And that's not to say that you shouldn't strive to be the best person you can be, but you have to remember to humble yourself because. In reality, we're not, we're not the, we're not the audience. God's the audience. And he's the one that you should be glorifying. Not yourself. I've also, I saw something, um, oh, it was Mike Todd sermon. So he has been doing kingdom and he's been spelling it. D U M B like you're dumb. And so. The one thing that has been sticking, he keeps talking about dominion and how God put us here to rule over everything of the earth. Right. But he had to go back the next week because he was like, I was up here talking so much about how, like, take up your space. We're here to have dominion over everything. He was like, but some of you guys are gonna take that the wrong way and you're gonna run with it and you're going to have pride and you're going to be too proud and you're going to be like, oh, well, I'm here. I'm a queen like, period. Like, you know what I mean? And so. He was also saying that. He told us that we were going to have dominion over other things, but he didn't say we were going to have dominion over other people. Right. So we're not supposed to tell each other what to do. And we're supposed to be rulers of like, We're God's image. So we're supposed to hold the standard for God here, but that doesn't mean that we're supposed to be trying to rule over somebody else because they also have dominion. They're also walking. And so that's where we fight. For power with each other, but we should not be fighting. We should just love each other. And you can't tell somebody what they're supposed to do. You can kind of like remind them of the standard and hope that they feel conviction, but you can't have power over somebody. Right. I think that's where like the chain of judgment comes in. It's because, um, we are not called to judge people. We can be a helping hand and be a helping servant and maybe offer ed. Advice and, but, you know, with love. But we are not called to point fingers and be like, you're doing this because you don't know what chains they're battling either. Yeah. Like their chains. You're not going to be the same as your chains because they're all different, but God is going to use each and every one of us in a different way. So there's no reason to point fingers and say, well, you're not, you're not like this because you do all these other things, but you're sitting back here and. You've got your own. Things in your life that you with day-to-day. So why are you out here judging them for what they're doing? It's all gonna come back around and it's all gonna be the gourd for God. And God's gonna use it in some way or form. Yeah. And the scripture that we found for that was Matthew 7, 3 5, where it was like, You're quick to point out the speck in your brother's eye, but you need to look in the mirror and pull out the one in your own eyes before you help your brother with his. So you have to look at yourself and figure out what's going wrong with yours, because if I'm over here trying to pull this out of Eve's eyes, but I can't see, cause I have stuff in my own eye. I'm not going to be much help. Right. Because I don't have myself fixed. And it kind of reminds me of whenever you're on an airplane. And they always tell you if the mother, when the plane starts going down, you have to cover yourself first, before you can cover your children, because you're going to be no help to anybody if you're not alive. Right. And so if your spirit is not alive, you're not going to be a help to anybody. I think that's so, so important that we have to really. Focus on ourself and focus on our change or focus on trying to change through God. And when we get to that point, we have to really focus on, you know, staying broken that chain because it's always going to be work and yes, you're free from that chain. And you're, you're not a slave to send anymore, but you still have to work in your life and try to make things holy. Um, one of the verses I found is if you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. And so if you are in the midst of trying to break a chain, you really have to search deep in your heart. And, um, ask. And give it to God because God's going to know your intentions with your heart and he's going to know your desires. So if you're not being wholeheartedly truthful, then he's, he's not really gonna, you know, give you that change automatically because he doesn't know if you're sincere or not, you know? And we really have to fully surrender it over to him. And when we finally do surrender it over to him, we have to stay in our ground and try to work each and every day to live a holy life. And stay up in our word and, you know, garner heart because this world is not of God. He, since he sent his son to save us all so that we would have the holy spirit in us to guide us through each day. And it's a superpower. It helps you a lot. It does. But I think that since we talked about, um, how you can't judge other people for bad, you also can't put people on a pedestal and so you can't sit there and be like, well, she's a Christian and she does this. Like, if we see. Christian's going out and drinking all the time or hitting their vape and smoking weed. You can't. Be like, well, they're Christian and they do it. So that means that it's okay for me. Yeah. Because it's not what God calls us to do. And so you're not going to sit there and go attack those people and judge them and be like, you're bad. You're bad. But you still can't. Do the blame game and be like, well, God, they do it. Because whenever we're sitting at judgment day, you can't be like, Well, hold on God. They do it. So can they come over here? And can you look at them? Instead of me.'cause you still, everyone has to answer for their own sin. So you can't put that on somebody else. It's not like, Hey, can we get lectured together? Like when you're younger with your parents, like you and your sister. get yelled at at the same time. And it's kinda like the list. You got somebody to go through with you, but no. And just the day it's going to be you and the Lord face to face. And you're going to have to answer for everything that you've done. And I don't want to be like that woman. You sit here with me now. It's kind of like that Bible story of like, you know, this talks to, this goes a little bit into prod and it's like, Lord, I've done all these good works for you. And you know, I've, I've been your servant, but then God looks right at him and is like, but I did not know you, like I did not know your heart. I did not have a relationship with you. So no matter how much, how many good deeds per se that we do. If God doesn't know our heart and does not know that we truthfully want to change, then how in the world is he going to know you when you get to heaven? Like he's not going to know your heart and know where we stand. We were also talking earlier about how. Everyone remembers. David and Goliath, right. Everybody remembers how he defeated the giant and. People are slow to put together. The fact that David is the same king David, who was seeing, uh, but. over there bay than naked. And he was like, I want her cause she's unusually beautiful. And so he sent someone to go find out about her and that person was like, She's married to riot and he was like, Uriah that's off to war and they're like, yeah. And they're like, oh, you're here. And so she came over and he slept with her. So he knowingly slept with a married woman. She leaves, she goes back home. She finds out she's pregnant. She tells him he calls you a ride home because he wants you right. To go sleep with her, to cover up his mess. And he doesn't want everyone to find out that he slept with best Sheba. And so your eye comes back, but he is so loyal to his guys that are out there. He's like, I can't go home and sleep with my wife. All my men are dying on a field. Like I can't do that. And so. He is like, are you sure? Are you sure? David's like, are you sure you don't want to go sleep with your wife and your eyes? Like, no, I'm not. And so. King David made sure that when you're I went back, he was on the front lines and that he got killed first. And so when he died, He sent for Beth Sheba and she came back and she married him, but she was just one of his wives. And so everybody in that. Ruin their lives because one person. Thought that all of the good deeds that he had done before accounted for today. And so it doesn't matter what you've done before. If your heart is not in the right place. You always have to make a new, a new day and you have to conquer today and then get ready for tomorrow because yes, you may have done good deeds in the past, and yes, you always strive to do better, but what are you going to do today that, um, outweigh. I always, I guess, yesterday or yeah. How, I don't know how to say that. Like, What are you doing today? That's going to keep up with. Yesterday or it's going to be better than yesterday, right? And so I think it's also like everybody looks at David and Goliath and they're like, oh man, I wish that I was like king David. But look at his downfall. So just because it may be the reverse, you may be walking in shame right now, but you may be so much greater. You may be the Samaritan woman that gets to go and tell everybody about Jesus or Mary Magdalene. She was possessed by seven demons when she met Jesus and he cast them all out. And she was the first person that he went to when he was resurrected. Like she, she was the first one that got to witness that. And so it's just amazing to know that all of these people. That we're so broken. He used to help spread his message or to show that like, add got you. You're not broken, but then people that get too much of his glory at first. Are quick to forget because they forget how hard life is. And so they. Like abandoned him and start to fall into dark paths. But you need to guard your heart forever and you need to seek him forever. You can't just be like, well, I did that yesterday, so I'm good for awhile. I went to church on Sunday, so I don't need to read my Bible this week out. I'm good for next Sunday. And that goes into, um, you know, defeating your temptations. And, um, I'm going to read a little bit from Rick Warren's. What on earth am I here for? And it's talking about defeating temptation. And it says, um, refocus your, your attention on something else, talking about your temptations. Um, it may surprise you that nowhere in the Bible, we are told to resist temptation. We are told to resist the devil, but that is very different. Instead, we were advised to refocus our attention because resisting a thought doesn't work. It only intensifies our focus on the wrong thing and it strengthens it's our look Owler. Um, every time you try to block a thought out of your mind, you drive it deeper into your memory and by resisting it, you actually reinforce it. This is a special tree with temptation. You don't defeat temptation by fighting the feeling of it. You more fight a feeling the more you think. The more you fight a feeling, the more it consumes in controls, you. You strengthen it every time you think about it. Since temptation is always begins with a thought, the quickest way to neutralize it is to turn your attention to something else. Don't fight the thought. Just change the channel of your mind and get interested in another idea. This is the first step of defeating your temptation. The battle for sin is won or lost in your mind, whatever it gets, gets your attention. Whatever gets your attention and we'll get you. I think that's super important because. We talk about, you know, trying to break your chains or whatever, but you always will have to in patient. The enemy is going to send you something every day to try and to attack you. And, uh, and the world's going to say it's good. Yup. The world's going to tell you it's good. It's going to it is okay. And powering. Yes. It's, it's the best thing for you right now, but it's a lie. Uh, the enemy sends you lies every single day, and it's important to know how to resist that temptation, but we can't resist temptation. We have to learn to refocus our mind on other things. It's a, it's a great trick that you can play on your brain to, you know, play a worship song like automatically. When you think about doing something, you can turn on worship where you can. Pray, pray or go do an activity that you actually liked to do, or, you know, just channel that mind into something else. Chat. I'm channeling your mind into something else. I think they told us, you know, people who struggle with addiction. They tell you to, you know, when that thought enters your mind to replace it with something else. I think it's a truly important for every single one of us is because no matter how hard we try to, you know, think about something else, we're never going to be able to think about something else without thinking of art temptations. So if you go and do another activity that you enjoy, then you will replace that temptation with a good thing. Speaking of addiction. Everyone thought that I was crazy, but I could not go out of this room and walk downstairs without getting on Tik TOK. Right. And so I deleted the app because I was like, I want to grow my relationship with Jesus. So rather than spending five hours a day or more don't lie, you know, how much time you spend on Tik TOK? Rather than mindlessly scrolling through things that the devil is using to keep you locked in there. I saw something that said that the devil doesn't necessarily like have to put, he doesn't want you to be sad or hurt because if that happens, then you're going to turn to something and you're going to turn for something greater and you're going to turn for the Lord. He just wants you to be busy enough to not be in the word and to not have a relationship with Jesus. And so while you're mindlessly scrolling through that for hours and hours, think about all that quality time that you could have been spending with the Lord. Right. And so we think that we're not addicted to it, but once that's gone, I realized how much more time I have in my day. It's crazy. And whenever I was telling people what I was doing, they'd be like, I can never do that. And I was like, that was the point. I thought that I could never do it, but y'all I had to delete the app off my phone. I was like, no, And so now I'll have to like purposely disobeyed what I felt like God was putting on my heart and I'll have to read, download the app in order to get back on it. And so it's a lot easier to just. Keep it there and be like, oh, well it's just right there. But to go out of my way to search tick, talk on the app store, download again, put in all my information. Is a lot harder than to just click. Right. I think that's, it's so powerful to once you falling, like, I'm sure you feel so much better that you're using your tongue. I am more wisely than you would be spinning. Five plus hours on your phone scrolling through something that doesn't matter, like. It's, it's a funny, it's a funny app, but like, what are you getting out of it? What's the purpose? What is this going to do to help you in the long run? And it's most likely getting you upset that you don't have as many followers as these people getting you upset that you can't live their life. Or it's a bunch of negativity because it's people talking about like, guess what I had happened to me today and they just spit a bunch of negativity out and it's not. Good things. And I was even like, I feel like a lot of times some stuff that is good gets shadow banned or people don't get to see it as much because it's pushed down because they don't want you to see. Like they don't want you to get off tick talk. So if I posted a video about how you need to take a brain break from Tik TOK, they'd be like, oh, Zero likes. Zero views. Yeah. Algorithm, but like we said earlier, like anything of this world is not of God. So they're going to try anything and everything to get you away from it. I think. That social media is probably a chain within itself. And we, every single one of us struggle with it. I know, I struggle with it. My mostly scroll all the time. But if we think about it, like we are spending so much time on this app and for what? Like for what, like we see, yeah, it can be fun and it can be used for good things. But if you were consumed by it or you're consumed about how many likes you get. Or if this boy likes your picture, if he comments on it or if he even hard-on, is it like, I it's so crazy to me that we get so obsessed over this thing that does not matter. And it will not matter once we go to heaven. Like social media. Could be used for such good things. It can be used for spreading the word and it can be used to spread positivity. But if you really sit back and look on what are you using social media for, it could be a big chain in your life and that you may need to say. Hey, I need a break from this. Like I need to step back, spend more time in the Lord and regenerate my mind and restore. My health to maximize my potential in life. I'd also encourage you to think, because I know that like, when I was younger and we hear adults talking about how you need to put boundaries on to talk and like, oh the devil's after you, but it's true guys. And so if you aren't willing to guard your heart and you're accepting the things that the world is saying, like, I would encourage you to do some self reflection and be like, where does my relationship with Jesus stand? Right. How long have I just been saying, I believe in God, but not have relationship with him. Right? Because once your relationship with him is. Full force swinging. You don't want to hear nasty words. You don't want to watch a bunch of sex scenes, like you don't want to see that stuff. And so I think that's important to kind of look at that and be like, cause I. Would always listen to like rap music when I was working out. But lately I've been like, get that off. Yeah, get it away from me. I do not want to hear that because why would you want to hear that negativity? So if you make fun of people from wanting that off, Do some self-reflecting and be like, why do I think that it's okay. To listen to that. And why do I make fun of this person for guarding their heart and not hearing it? I think that kind of goes back to once again, you reap what you sow. So if like, I know that's something that I had been struggling with is I used to live. I used to listen to rap like every day. And like now I literally find myself listening to country music and worship music. No people would laugh at me if I want a video where it's like, what people think she's listening to the gym versus what she's actually. And I'm sitting there like, oh God, Awesome. Kayla picks on my phone. He's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, it is good. Yeah, like this is going to help me. That you think about it? Like you listen, if you really listen to what you're saying in those lyrics, like you were sticking that over your life, why would you want that negativity put on over your life? And you're gonna be like, oh, but it's just fun then the beats good or whatever. And I'm guilty of it too. Cause I'm like, heck yeah, let's get, let's get pumped up. Let's go. It's got a good beat. But like in the end, that's something that you're speaking over your life and it's not good. And once you find something that is good and you, you just want to hear more of it. Like, yeah. I love listening to my marshy music everyday because it feels me, it fills me up rather than bringing me down. And what do you think that the Lord thinks when he hears you singing about three baby mamas, having a big butt and killing somebody? Well at Hurley. Hello. And then you're in church. Like Jesus. Jesus. Yeah. And not to say that we all don't struggle with it because we do. And that's, what's ridiculous. I know. No, but it's like, you have to give it to the Lord and because you have to come before and be like, look, yes, I have flaws. And I'm not really wanting to change them right now, but I'm going to give them to you anyways, so that I can work on that change.'cause I know that's something that like, when I first had that thought about like, because you see the videos of people like stopping, like stop listening to rap music. And you're like, I don't know about that. Like, It's just so fun. I'm here to tell you you're not missing out on anything. You know, what's happening instead of you singing about murdering people, you feel the holy spirit in your car and you're sweating with chills and you're just in God's presence because you're getting to worship on your way to work rather than. Being filled with all the things that Satan agrees with. I can't tell me how many times I will put on my favorite song is king of Kings. That is my absolute favorite song in the whole world. And when it hits that chorus far, I like raising my hands in my car. I'm ready to start my day. Like I go into school, I'm like, okay, well, you've got this today. Yeah. Instead of listening to something that's going to put me down. Yeah. And I think it also like the Bible says, and this is, um, first theologians, four, seven through eight, and it says, God has called us to live holy lives, not into your lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching, but it's rejecting God who gives us hope, who gives his holy spirit to you. And so I think it's so important that we're not here to police the world. Like. No matter what the world tells you and what the world like gives you to be fulfilled with. It's not gonna fulfill you for very long. It's going to give you that temporary fix. And that quick high. And you're like, oh, I feel good after that. But then in the long run, It's going to be so bad for you. And I think it's also really important to remember too. God does not put these rules. In line to stop you from having fun. Like he doesn't put things. He doesn't put things in place to. Not let you have a good time or, you know, he he's just protecting you. He's, he's wanting to protect you from the things that come with the certain, you know, Yeah, come with the sin. You know, if we talk about take drinking for an example, Um, it, it's not a set until you become drunk. And what happens when you become drunk is you make decisions that are not good. And I think it's something that our generation has completely normalized and. I mean, once again, we all struggle with it because the world has normalized this. And to saying that it's, it's a good thing. And it's, you know, it's fun to have that quick little satisfaction, but in the end you wake up with a headache every morning, it destroys your liver. And like, it's just not good for your, your holy spirit life. And it's, it's not good for your body. Like, so I just think that we have to keep in mind, like the Lord puts things in place, not to hinder us, but to grow us. I think that's also a good example of how people cherry pick things out of the Bible, because you know, it talks about how like, Drinking is okay if it's for celebration and if it's like communion with people, but it's a problem when it becomes a coping mechanism or it's supposed to be your comfort. Or. It takes you to a drunken state. And so I think that people here will, Jesus drank wine. Jesus's first miracle was turning water to wine, but its limitations with things, anything that you put on a pedestal or for something that you go to when you cope with is a chain that needs to be broken because you're not filling it with the Lord. So, whether it's drinking vaping, boys, boys. Sex like anything that you do to feel avoid when you're hurt? Is a chain that needs to be broken. And I think that's, it's so hard for us to see, like anything that we turn to that is not Jesus. You've got to get it. You gotta let it go. Like you gotta let it go and give it to God and let him work on you to break that chain. Yep. You got any closing remarks for others, but really long today? That's okay. Hopefully everybody sticks around. Yeah. Just that we love you guys and oh, Jesus prays for you. Yes. That was what our sermon was on last week. And I just think that that was really cool to think about the fact that. He cares about us enough to pray for us. Yeah. So when you think that nobody in your life is praying for you notice the one that matters the most is yeah. He's always praying for you and. You know, we've been talking about chains, all this, this whole episode and. Even though we've been very honest in this conversation. If you were hurting or if you were dealing something with like dealing with something right now, just please remember your worth, that you are not, not worthy. You are not whatever the world tells you. You are. You're what God says you are. And I know we say this after every episode about saying how you were more precious than rubies, but we don't just say that just to say that we really truly do mean it. And you, if you think about it, like God designed each and every one of us. He gave each and every one of us a purpose and he gave each and every one of us a plan. So please, please, please do not ever think that you were worthless because you're not your mistakes. Do not define who you are. Yeah. Um, we love you all. And this has been a really, really good conversation. It's been a really honest conversation, but we hope you all learned something from it. And we hope you all have a great week. And we want you to truly remember that you are more precious than rubies.