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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

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All right day four of our deep dive here on the Daily Blade, in Matthew, chapter 14, verse 22,. And immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And when evening came he was there alone. But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified and said it is a ghost and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying Take heart, it is, I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And Jesus said come on. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. And here's our key verse of the day. But when Peter saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to sink. You see, as long as Peter was focused on Jesus, everything was fine. Peter was actually walking on the water, and the Bible does not say how many steps he took, but he is the only person outside of Jesus recorded in the scriptures of walking on the water. And so again, as he's focused on Jesus, he's able to do what Christ called him to do. And then he takes his eyes off of Jesus and he puts his eyes on the wind and on the waves and fear begins to overtake him, because he takes his eyes off of the sovereign king of our circumstances and he fixes his eyes on the circumstances.

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So let me ask you this what are the things that take your eyes off of Jesus? You see, we've got to constantly fix our eyes on Jesus. On day one, I said there's going to be some combination of God's presence, god's people and God's word that help you fix your eyes on Jesus. You got to have a combo in your life of prayer and worship, fellowship and serving, sermons and study. All of these are very important, but it will not be enough.

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We also have to cut the things out of our life that take our eyes off of Jesus. Whatever those things are, you must get rid of them ASAP. Hebrews chapter 12 says this. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Okay, so there are some things that are just weighing us down. They may not be sinful, but they're just stupid, and if they take our eyes off Jesus, it's really, really dumb.

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Is Netflix a sin? Well, I don't know. Maybe it is in and of itself. Depends on what you're watching.

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But if you're so consumed by some dumb show but you don't have time to be in God's word, this is something that you've got to cut out of your life. If your hobbies have become, if they've become to consume you and they take your eyes off Jesus, you need to cut these things out, because what it'll do is it will begin to fill you with fear instead of seeing Jesus for who he really is. But he also says there is also sin which clings so closely, and so sin is not to be tampered with, it's not to be tamed, it's not to be petted, sin is to be killed, because you can either be killing sin or it will be killing you. And the reason that you do this, the reason that you lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, is so that you can run, with endurance, the race that is set before you, and the way that you do that is, you look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, and so all of us are on a journey. I mean, this is what it means to follow after Jesus, like we are literally called followers of Jesus.

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If we don't have our eyes fixed on Jesus, then we're not going to be able to follow him, and so maybe there are some things in your life that have taken your eyes off of Jesus. You've got to consistently lay aside the stupid things and kill the sinful things so that we can set our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Now, if those things come to mind, I would highly, highly encourage you to share what those things are that take your eyes off of the Lord. Share it with one of your foxhole brothers, one of your Mack carriers, so that that person can love you enough to hold you accountable, to make sure that you are getting rid of any entanglements in your life, so that you can run the race that Christ has marked out for you, keeping your eyes fixed on him, the author and the finisher of your faith.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you wanna help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.