Hi, this is Joel in Victoria. Thanks for listening to our podcast and thanks for supporting the ministry.

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I like to start with something funny each week and I heard about this man. He was the only Protestant in a large Catholic neighborhood.

Every Friday during Lent, while all of his neighbors were eating cold fish, he would be in his backyard grilling a steak.

They just couldn't stand the temptation and they decided to convert him to Catholicism.

He finally agreed the priest sprinkled water over him and said, you were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, but now you're a Catholic.

The next year on the first Friday of Lent, the neighbors smelled the same smell in the air.

They rushed to his house, he was in the backyard sprinkling water over his steak.

Saying, you were born a cow, you were raised a cow, but now you're a fish.

Alright, hold up your Bible, say it like you mean it. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, I can do what it says I can do.

Today I will be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I will never be the same.

In Jesus name, God bless you.

I want to talk to you today about how valuable you are. One of the greatest needs we all have is to feel a sense of self-worth.

Deep down we need to know that we're important, that our life matters and that we have something great to offer.

But so often we base our self-worth on our looks, on what we've achieved, and what we own, and how perfect of a life we've lived.

The problem with this is those things can change. If you're basing your self-worth on your looks, your accomplishments, your popularity, then if that goes down, your self-worth will go down.

If you base your sense of value on how somebody else treats you, and how they make you feel, then if they hurt you, if they disappoint you, very likely you'll turn it on yourself and think there must be something wrong with me.

He wouldn't have left me if I was pretty enough, they wouldn't be treating me badly if I had a better personality, or I wouldn't have gotten laid off if I was just more talented.

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