Shadowing Practice: Addressing the Steve Lawson Controversy - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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And here's the problem.
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We live in a world where it's fast paced.
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Like scroll, scroll, scroll, shorts, TikTok, and all the rest.
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And everyone wants to be first.
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But you know what?
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Wisdom is not necessarily trying to be first.
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Wisdom is trying to be right.
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Many of you guys know that sadly,
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Steve Lawson was disqualified from pastoral and Christian ministry due to issues of infidelity and unfaithfulness to his wife.
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And so we're not going to go into all those details now.
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But this is something that is rather recent in our history.
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And after Steve Lawson essentially was caught, he came out with a letter of repentance and pleading for forgiveness,
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confession of sin, and he essentially disappeared from the public view.
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However, last week, Protestia said, Steve Lawson has returned and will be speaking at a Christian conference.
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And there's a picture of the conference webpage, Meet the Speakers, Lawson's picture is there.
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So Protestia posts this.
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This went wild.
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Many people were talking about this.
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And then Protestia had to come out with Steve Lawson not speaking at upcoming preaching conference,
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exclusive regarding Steve Lawson we can confirm that the conference organizers advertised Lawson's participation without his knowledge or consent.
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They invited him to be a speaker, but before hearing that he intended to decline, there was an internal misunderstanding that he would agree.
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As soon as he found out about it, he informed them of his declining the offer and they promptly removed him from the lineup.
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All right, so here's what happened.
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Protestia posts this, that he's speaking at a conference, everybody just started sharing this and vilifying Lawson,
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just dragging him, just dragging him.
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And what actually was true was that Lawson had not agreed to be in the conference,
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but the people who were organizing the conference had put him up assuming he would come, but he wasn't coming.
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Protestia shared this.
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And apparently Protestia, when they shared it, had not actually contacted the conference itself to ask the question,
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the simple question, is it true that Steve Lawson is speaking at your conference and he has confirmed?
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It's as simple as that.
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Simple phone call, simple email before it's shared.
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Is this true that he's going to be there because it's a big deal.
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Look, okay.
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Steve Lawson is disqualified for ministry.
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Then you see him pop up in a conference website.
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Okay.
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That's crazy.
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But shouldn't we do the checks and balances first to make sure that we have integrity, journalistic integrity, which would just be basic Christian integrity,
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that what I'm about to share with everybody is actually the truth.
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It was unfortunate because man, were people, did you see some of the stuff no i was on my sabbatical
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and i did not see any of it dragging him i
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mean you just said the reform world we love to eat our own for sure oh yeah um
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and every you know there's every category of christianity does but man the reformed world loves to eat our own
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and um and you just saw in all the reform pages
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and everything else just dragging lawson i mean he just got vilified for at least 24 hours i think
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and even men that we love and respect like Justin Peters.
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Like, you know, he saw what Protestia did.
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He immediately posted on it.
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He had things to say.
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Since then, after Justin Peters learned that it was an error, Justin Peters scrubbed his page of that.
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And then he gave an explanation on his X account as to why he posted what he did.
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And he said here, I've taken down my post about Steve Lawson speaking at the Contending for the Faith Conference.
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Protestia's reporting of Steve being listed as a speaker being the result of an internal misunderstanding
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that led him to assume he would agree is still puzzling to me.
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So then Justin, who we love, we love Justin, deep love, low respect for him.
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Then he goes on to explain, you know, the understandable, like he saw the post.
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The assumption is, is that this is actually true.
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It's actually happening.
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It seemed real.
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But then Justin goes on to apologize later for, you know, sharing something that wasn't true.
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But see, here's the problem.
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So many people did.
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So many people just shared something that wasn't in fact true.
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And Lawson got dragged for something that he didn't even do.
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And here's the problem.
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We live in a world where it's fast paced, like scroll, scroll, scroll, shorts, TikTok, and all the rest.
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And everyone wants to be first.
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But you know what?
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Wisdom is not necessarily trying to be first.
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Wisdom is trying to be right.
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Wisdom is trying to be righteous and godly, not first.
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And everyone today wants to just be first.
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Oh, look, I saw it.
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Share it.
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Before you've done your checks and balances.
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You hear a story about pastors or somebody else and you just go, oh my goodness, share.
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right?
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I mean, we've been, we've been on the butt end of that many, many times where somebody will make a claim,
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they'll say something, they'll do a message on it or a program on it, or they'll write an article about it and they'll share it and we'll see it and we'll go, where in the world?
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This guy, this is false.
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This is complete fiction.
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I've even had people write things about me and I've contacted them.
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What you're saying is not true.
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It's provably not true.
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I can share the witnesses to you.
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This is, this never happened.
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You are lying about us.
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You're lying about our ministry.
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You're lying about me.
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And they didn't care.
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They just shared it anyway, because it just shares too dang good.
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And, um, and those, that's, that's the really just over the top example of how people will do this in this day and age, but everyone just wants to be first rather than being wise.
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There's a reason why tabloids and TMZ and stuff like
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that have existed all these years and done well
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because sinful hearts just really want to just participate in
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that kind of garbage and right sadly it's a problem within the church
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and social media has made that so accessible
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and um it's just gross it is and it's gross
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and jesus said on the last day people are going to
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be held to account for every idle word every idle word and that i think counts
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especially of course to social media and the things
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that you type with your little fingers
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and then i type with my little fingers big fingers in my case big fingers in your case for sure
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there was there's a pastor
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that i know jerry doris i just shared what he said
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about this i saw what he said was good i just shared what jerry said about this
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and i'm gonna i'm gonna share it with you right now
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because i thought this was perfect jerry did a fine job with this He said this, Here's how you publicly repent for piling on Steve Lawson.
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I deleted my post about Steve Lawson.
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I failed to believe the best of him, 1 Corinthians 13, 7, and spread information I had not verified, Proverbs 18, 13.
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That's a book of wisdom, by the way.
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I sinned against him and against God by hearing only one side, Proverbs 18, 17, and being too quick to speak, James 1, 19.
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Because my sin was public, my confession must also be public.
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Proverbs 28, 13.
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Please forgive me.
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Luke 17, 3 through 4.
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He said, feel free to copy and paste.
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Good on you, Jerry.
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Look what Steve Lawson did.
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It's heartbreaking, discouraging, painful, without question.
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But the man put out public confession of sin and his repentance.
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He says he's trying to get his life back together right now and trying to restore his marriage with his wife.
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Okay.
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What if your sin and sanctification was public?
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How would you feel?
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Would you want people to be merciful to you and gracious to you?
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You were trying to trust in God, that God who actually forgives me for my heinous sins in life.
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Wouldn't you want people to say, we're going to believe best about you, that God is doing something in you?
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I mean, we're all wretches.
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Not one of us is beyond face plants and sinning and falling short.
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Okay, so what he did is a blight upon the Christian church.
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Amen.
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Agreed.
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Completely.
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But he wasn't stubborn about it and obstinate.
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He was saying, you're right.
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I'm sinful.
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God, forgive me.
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Please pray for me.
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Please pray for me that God restores all this that I destroyed.
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Please pray.
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Okay.
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Praise the Lord.
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Thank you, God for your mercy.
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Thank you, God.
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We all need that mercy.
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But most of our sins are not, and sanctification is not public like his.
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Okay.
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So we can't feel the weight of that, many of us.
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And then just to get dragged, dragged by people who never even picked up the phone or sent an email to the conference to say,
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is that true?
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Is he really speaking at your conference?
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because I would respect the person who published something that said, no, I talked to the conference.
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I've got the record.
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I talked to them.
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They confirmed he's coming.
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That's not your fault.
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You shared something with confirmation.
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You didn't just listen to one side.
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You checked it out.
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You did all your checks and balances.
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The scripture calls you to do.
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Okay, fine.
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You shared it.
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Maybe it was turned out to be error later, but you did your homework and you did what you're supposed to do.
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You were wise.
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In this case, you didn't do it.
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People didn't do it.
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That's the difference between real journalism and TMZ.
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Yes.
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Just do what wisdom calls you to do.
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If you're going to share a story about somebody that's going to have them slandered and vilified, you have to make sure that you've checked the witnesses and the evidence.
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Nobody would want this done to themselves, and that's the point.
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What is Jesus' standard?
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Treat others the way you want to be treated.
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Would you want or would I want somebody sharing a story about us publicly
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and he gets legs on it without checking with us first
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or checking to see if it was actually true to begin with?
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it sucks.
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It does.
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We've been in ministry for a long time, long time, many years of ministry.
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And I can't tell you at this point how many articles
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and videos and things have been shared about us and yours truly that we look at and go complete fiction, false.
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God help them.
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God help them.
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It hurts.
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It hurts really bad.
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And nobody would want that done to themselves.
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And so we shouldn't do it to Steve Lawson or anybody else.
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There's a book in the Bible that tells you exactly how to manage these things.
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And we'd be all better off by following it.
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And so my prayer is for Steve Lawson, restoration, redemption of this whole situation for his family.
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I know it hurts.
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I know painful, but God saves sinners, not the righteous.
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And some of our greatest heroes in scripture had catastrophic collapses of their lives and God restored and redeemed them.
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And that's what I want for him.
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Jerry said it right.
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Thank you for that, Jerry.
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If you see this man, that was excellent.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 222 sentences and 2206 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:46. The speaker talks at a natural 173 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| wisdom noun | /ˈwɪzdəm/ | An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. |
| drag verb | /dɹæɡ/ | To pull along a surface or through a medium, sometimes with difficulty. |
| scroll noun | /skɹoʊl/ | A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll. |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| sin noun | /ˈsɪn/ | A violation of divine will or religious law. |
| confirm verb | /kənˈfɝm/ | To strengthen; to make firm or resolute. |
| pray verb | /pɹeɪ/ | To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to a deity or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc. |
| painful adjective | /ˈpeɪn.fl̩/ | Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental. |
| forgive verb | /fɚˈɡɪv/ | To pardon (someone); to waive any negative feeling towards or desire for punishment or retribution against. |
| integrity noun | /ɪnˈtɛɡɹəti/ | Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. |
| restore verb | /ɹɪˈstoɹ/ | To reestablish, or bring back into existence. |
| confession noun | /kənˈfɛʃən/ | The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad). |
| necessarily adverb | /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ | Inevitably; of necessity. |
| gross adjective | /ɡɹoʊs/ | remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive. |
| fiction noun | /ˈfɪkʃən/ | Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| come out with verb | To say (something) unexpectedly. |
| drop off verb | To fall asleep. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
| put out verb | To blind (eyes). |
| take down verb | To remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has returned · has confirmed · I've taken |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was disqualified · was caught · is disqualified |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who were · people who never · person who published |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 52 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, didn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: confession /kənˈfɛʃən/, fiction /ˈfɪkʃən/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, participation /pɑːˌtɪs.ɪˈpeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: integrity /ɪnˈtɛɡɹəti/, necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, longevity /lɒnˈd͡ʒɛv.ɪ.ti/, explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like wisdom, drag, scroll.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.