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["When the Best of Me is Barely Breathing"]

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When the best of me is barely breathing

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When I'm not somebody I believe in

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Hold on to me

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When I'm missing like a night star

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When I'm a slamming dog, dogs are moving

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Hold on to me

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Hold on to me

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Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you

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When I am sure I have reached the end

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Hold on to me when I forget I need you

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When I have all hope we are here

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When I don't feel right I'm not pretending

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When I'm tired of your not pretending

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Hold on to me

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When I start to break in desperation

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I don't need no weight or expectation

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Hold on to me

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Hold on to me

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Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you

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When I am sure I have reached the end

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Hold on to me when I forget I need you

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I had a strange moment in time some years ago.

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We were planting this church.

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It was in the early days of starting New Heights Fellowships.

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We had a woman in our church at that time who was ill.

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She was supposedly pretty sick, but she didn't come to church.

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So we didn't know exactly how sick she was.

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Then it was brought to my attention where I was reminded

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that there's a passage in the New Testament

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where it talks about the elders should go and pray over a sick person

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and anoint them with oil.

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I wanted to do that.

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I'm like, okay, that's something we need to do.

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I looked at our church and the question that is the title of the sermon for today

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immediately came to mind.

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I thought, where are all of our elders?

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We're planting a new church and no one is an elder.

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No one has been around for a long time.

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So no one's old.

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No one is an old Christian even.

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Then I thought to myself, I don't think I know what an old Christian is.

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There are people in my church that I had come out of, the planting church,

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that were clearly my elder and I respected them as elders in the general sense.

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But I remember sitting across the table at a meeting

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that we were having with one of the men at that church.

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He said something that I felt was almost un-Christian

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even though he was supposed to be God's man

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and he was somebody I had greatly looked up to.

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Then I remembered being chastised by an associate pastor

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very harshly for doing a kind thing, very simple, very kind thing.

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It didn't cost anybody anything.

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He said, you're the reason this generation is being ruined

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even though it's just a simple small kindness.

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I looked at our church and I'm not judging.

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They were Christian men, godly men.

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We all have our issues.

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I make mistakes literally daily.

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Some days I look at my day and I say, I made a mistake literally every hour today.

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So I'm not judging anybody.

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If you think you're perfect, if you could write it down so I can follow your example,

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that would be great because I'm definitely not.

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But what I'm saying is when I look at the church,

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I ask myself where have all the elders gone?

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And we're a relatively young church.

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And if you're sitting there right now saying, I could be an elder,

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I know enough, I'm older and I know a lot out of the Bible and stuff like that,

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then I would caution you.

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I would say rather than making that decision about ourselves,

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we would be wiser to be learning and reaching every day new heights in Jesus Christ.

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That being said, in that moment in time when we wanted to go,

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what we decided an elder was was very generically put,

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somebody who loved the Lord, who was willing to follow the word

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and be obedient to God and go and pray for healing for that person.

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And so we did that.

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And that person was healed.

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I don't know that we could for sure say it was miraculous,

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but within 24 hours they were doing much, much better.

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And I felt like I had made it through the urgency or whatever,

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and I sort of put the concern on the back burner.

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But for 25 years, this has been a concern for me.

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Where have all the elders gone in the church?

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In my church, my old church, every church I've ever been,

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I've had a lot of young men who were trying to follow the Lord.

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We have some, quite a few of us here, who are trying to follow the Lord

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and maybe know the word better than somebody else knows the word or whatever like that.

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But I, for one, would be unwilling to consider myself an elder just generically put.

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So this text that we're going to, it's short, right?

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It's just five verses.

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Yeah, just five verses.

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So if you grab your Bibles and maybe give me an amen or a hoot or a holler or something,

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as we turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31.

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Amen.

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This is God's word.

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We mark that moment in time and we ask ourselves to sort of get a little outside of ourselves

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to remember that what goes on here as we read the word, then this is God's word.

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It's not my word. I didn't write it.

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Had it been written by me, I guarantee you,

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if it weren't for a miracle of God, I would have surely screwed it up.

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But I'm going to read to you from Deuteronomy 31, 9 to 13,

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break down these five verses as we go through and then look at a few key points.

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Based on what I studied, this should go by fairly quickly but fairly intensely.

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So I would ask you to be very engaged.

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All right, here we go.

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Deuteronomy 31, verse 9 says,

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So Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests,

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the sons of Levi who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord

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and to all the elders of Israel.

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So this is a summary statement and it's kind of in an odd place when you think about it.

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We've been reading everything that we've been reading up through 31

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and now we have this statement where it says, well, he wrote all this down

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and he gave it to these certain people.

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And it sounds like, okay, then we're kind of done, except we're not done.

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There's a whole bunch more after that.

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And it also seems like it should be kind of like the culmination of what come before

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and it sort of sticks out a little bit.

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It says Moses wrote the law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi

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who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord and to the elders of Israel.

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So we've got two groups of people, if you will, inside Israel

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who will now be entrusted with whatever it is that Moses just gave them.

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And I say that for a reason and I'll come back to it in a second.

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But the Levites would be the priests.

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They are the descendants of the original priests.

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They will be the priests in theory forever

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as long as Israel would exist and certainly as long as they would be in the promised land.

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And then the elders.

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And that word there literally means older folk.

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So it's nothing special.

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It's not like pastors or laymen or lay priests

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or those who were already well versed in what Moses said.

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It's just old people.

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So he gave it to the older people of Israel and also to the Levites.

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And so at that point in time, I submit to you,

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we've gotten no help whatsoever in our search for where have all the elders gone

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because some of us are older and we certainly know,

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you certainly know people who are older who would not necessarily be qualified as an elder.

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So we don't really have any help in that regards yet.

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Verse 10.

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Then Moses commanded them saying, at the end of every seven years,

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at the time of the year of remission of debts at the Feast of Boots.

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Pause.

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There's a countable pause there before we go to the next verse.

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So Moses is giving them a command.

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Of course, he speaks on behalf of God.

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He's telling them what to do.

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At the end of the seven years, so they had a principle.

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Every seven years, they would give up whatever they had loaned to somebody.

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So if they loan you $1,000 at seven years, they'd say, you don't got to pay me back.

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They loaned you seven coats or seven goats, right?

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At the end of seven years, you don't got to pay me back.

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By the way, I'm of a mind to think and I don't know because I wasn't there for sure,

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but this is the same principle upon which the laws of bankruptcy in the United States of America

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were originally founded and you could file bankruptcy after seven years.

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Most of the men who founded our country claim to be Christians,

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whether or not they were, that's between them and the Lord, of course,

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and of the men who signed, for example, the Declaration of Independence,

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all but one of them was either a deacon or a pastor.

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So if you ever stop and think about where our country came from,

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you'll realize it was authored by God in the hearts of men who thought,

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at least, that they were following God.

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And so Moses wrote the law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi.

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Moses then commanded them, the priests and the elders,

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saying at the end of seven years, at the time of the year of remission of debts,

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at the Feast of Booth.

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So we've got two things going on, the remission of debts.

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Does anybody remember or do you remember why the remission of debts?

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Well, I mean, very simply, without getting into it too deeply yet,

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we can say this is to remember that all that you have, you have from God.

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And so what you've been given by God, you very generously share with anybody else who's in need.

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There should be no poor amongst you because you're ready and willing to loan them

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whatever that they need and then at the seven years, surrender it.

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Now, a modern principle like this in Christianity is basically never a borrower nor a lender be.

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If somebody needs it, you give it and hopefully you get it back.

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If they want to give it back, but if they don't, then you don't worry about it.

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You're not too tied because, by the way, if you borrow from somebody,

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now they have a hook in you and they can kind of control you.

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If you loan to somebody and are worried about getting it back,

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also they have a hook in you and can kind of control you.

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So it's not really a good place to be. We have one master, it's Jesus.

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So be careful about that. If you can't afford to lend it, probably never getting it back,

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then you shouldn't be lending it. This is the bottom line.

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So here is the remission of debts at seven years.

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The idea was we're going to lend generously and then not expect to be paid back,

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at least at the seven-year mark.

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At the Feast of Booths, they were to be reminded that when they came out of Egypt

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and God brought them out of captivity, listen to the symbolism here,

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when God brought them out of captivity and into darkness,

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before he brought them into the promised land, he had them live in tents.

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You hear the symbolism?

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When he brought them out of darkness and out of captivity,

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before he brought them into the promised land, he had them live in temporary shelters.

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So you can hear definite Christian undertones there because if you've been saved in Christ,

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you've been brought out of the darkness, out of captivity,

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and are now living in a temporary shelter pursuant to the promised land.

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So we get that imagery very well. Verse 11,

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When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place which he will choose,

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you shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing.

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So in other words, when they were all gathered together at the Feast of Booths

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and in the remission of debts, so it's every seven years,

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this law, quote unquote, this law, would be read to them.

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Now scholars debate on what exactly he's commanding them to read.

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Was he commanding them to read the entire Torah every seven years?

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The entire Torah would take a long time to read.

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It's 79,975 words and would take between 1200 and 1500 minutes, or 20 to 25 hours,

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to read through straight.

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And it's got some stuff in there that people struggle to communicate.

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And so a lot of times people break that down, they pause, they restate words, things like that,

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to make sure that they're being clear, it could take a long stinking time.

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By the way, that never happened.

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There is no historical record of anybody during the remission of debts at the Feast of Booths

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reading the entire Torah every seven years. That never happened.

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And so that makes me think the other theory, which is that it's the first 30 chapters of Deuteronomy,

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which is 13,223 words and 53 to 66 minutes to read straight through, makes more sense.

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So they'd come together for an hour and they would read for an hour the first 30 chapters of Deuteronomy,

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which is a summary of what has happened and how they got where they are and the law.

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Now that makes a lot of sense.

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Except the problem is there's no historical record of them ever coming together

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at the seven-year remission of debts at the Festival of the Booths

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and reading the entire first 30 chapters of Deuteronomy over and over again every seven years.

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Now we have stories where they've forgotten to do it for quite a while and they find it and they go and read it

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and then people repent and they realize that they've done wrong and they fix it.

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So I submit to you it has happened not only in their life but in the lives of humans ever since humans could read.

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It has happened that those who have the most access to the law have been slow in making it available to all.

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Now this is exactly what they're commanded to do.

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The law is given to the Levites and the elders, the older people,

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and they were commanded that every seven years they're going to read it to all the people gathered at the Festival of Booths

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and the remission of debts, which puts it every seven years.

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Seven, seven, seven, seven. We did it again. We did it again.

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And now, and he's about to explain the purpose for that, but I submit to you that we have seen throughout our history,

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for the largest part of human history, the Word of God was unavailable to the average individual.

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They couldn't read it. In fact, reading wasn't even a skill that most people had.

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And even to this day, we're living in America.

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It's said that in Toledo, for example, roughly 40% of Toledoans have a third grade or below reading level.

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Now Bibles are available in the King James for a dollar at the Dollar Tree.

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Now the King James has a reading level of sophomore in college.

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So the average person with a reading level second grade is going to go to the Dollar Tree

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and buy a dollar at King James Bible, and they're going to look at this and they're going to go,

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I don't get it. Even if they could basically understand it,

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they're going to have a hard time because it's written in a way that it's hard to follow.

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And so for all of humanity, it has happened that people who have the greatest access to the law,

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to the direction of Moses, which remember testifies about Jesus,

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have been slow in delivering it, making it available to all. What are the motivations for that?

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Well, I'll come back to that in a moment and we'll talk about it briefly.

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And we're almost done with the text. So shall read this law in front of all Israel in their hearing.

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Twelve, assemble the people, going to have a little process here, assemble the people,

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the men and the women and the children, and the alien who is in your town.

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Don't forget that it's for all people, and the alien who is in your town

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in order that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord your God.

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And be careful to observe all the words of the law.

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So we've got like four things kind of expected of them.

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Of course, you know, we'll come back to that in the points.

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All of that was to flow out of the fact that they were going to read this law,

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whether it was the entire Torah or Deuteronomy 1 to 30, which mirrors closely Exodus 20, 22 to 23, 33.

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And so it could have been that segment.

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But the bottom line is whatever they were going to read to them was designed

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so that they could do these things that was on this list.

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Then verse 13 says, and their children who have not known will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God

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as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.

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So he's saying as you go while you are living, as you go into the promised land, the grace land, the holy land,

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we talked about that, as you go into that place that I'm going to give you,

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set a principle for yourself, you Levites and elders,

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to make sure that the law is available to everyone so that they can do these things

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and so that your children who have not known.

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Now I submit to you, they not only have not known the law,

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although they would be getting taught that in their homes, hopefully,

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but not only have they not known the law, they have not seen the pillar of fire,

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they have not seen God's presence hovering over the tabernacle,

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they had not seen the parting of the Red Sea, they had not seen the ten plagues, right?

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The children that were with them had not seen any of that.

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They've only been alive to see Israel wandering the desert, living in tents,

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having little access to worldly goods and having God leading them,

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and it's only been fairly recently toward the end of that, okay?

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So the new children in the promised land won't have seen any of that.

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So once they're in the promised land for five years, everybody that's five years and younger

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will not have even seen the parting of the Jordan for them to come into the promised land.

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Well, probably after ten years, none of them will have even seen the ark of the covenant

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being carried before God's people.

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And the solution, Moses says, is every seven years read the law,

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which I'm of a mind to say probably since it says he wrote all the law down

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at this point in time, concluded doing so in verse 9,

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I'm of a mind to say it's probably the first 30 chapters of Deuteronomy.

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Read that every seven years and make it available to everyone.

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That's what Moses said.

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Now even that is not a full solution as we'll see in the chapters we go forward.

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There's the song of Moses coming up and they're supposed to memorize the song

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and that's to help them know about God and so on.

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But we can see that Moses has a passion to make the truth of God

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available to the coming generations.

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And he is commanding the Israelite Levites and elders who have been given the copy

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of this law, probably Deuteronomy 30, into their hands, that they would do the same.

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And I think any person can rightly see that it has happened that those who have

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the most access to the law have been slow to make it available to all.

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What are the motivations behind that?

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Some of them are quite sinister.

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There is a loss of power.

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When the King James Bible was translated, there were a number of words, 173 I think,

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I'm not 100% sure, you can Google that if you're concerned about the exact number,

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but that's about right, that were, it was 170, it was 170 exactly, that were transliterated,

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which means from Hebrew moved into English, they were given an English word that sounded

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like the Hebrew word but that did not previously exist in English language.

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The same thing was done in the New Testament from the Greek or whatever New Testament text,

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it was usually the Koine Greek, into the English, they were given a word.

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So for example, we have the word baptism in English, Bible scholars, which comes from the Greek word,

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anybody? Baptismo or it comes with some different endings, right?

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So if you look at them, they look exactly like the Greek letters, which it's not, it's beta, alpha, row, right?

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Looks like B-A-P, because a row is like a P, that's what it looks like.

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So they took that word and moved it into English.

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I'm not trying to judge anybody or say anything negative, but the bottom line is,

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it could simply say immersion or dunking, because that's what baptism means,

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so, but we know why the Catholic assigned people to baptize or to translate,

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the Bible didn't want to say dunking or immersion, right?

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Because no one had been dunked or immersed for a thousand years.

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They hadn't been doing it for 1500 years.

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With rare exception, they had been pouring or sprinkling,

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and they'd been doing it as a baby because of original sin,

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which also you'll have trouble finding that being ordered in the scripture, right?

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But the bottom line, people were getting poured or dunked.

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And now if you have to baptize the entire church anew because the Bible is becoming available to them,

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you've got the problem, right?

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You've got a church of a thousand people, and now they all have to be dunked because they translated it into English,

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the words actual translation got a problem.

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So I submit to you that those who had the greatest access to the law and understanding of what the word actually meant

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were slow in giving the actual translation or making it available so people could understand it

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because of a loss of power, a loss of control, an exposure of their own evil deeds, feelings of guilt,

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and they might even have genuine concern for the people and say,

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well, look, we can't baptize 150,000 people next month, we can't get everybody caught up to the way it should have been,

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and they're all going to be freaking out because of this concept that we have that if you're not baptized,

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you go to hell, which isn't actually accurate according to scripture, right?

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And so we got that, we're going to have all these people freaking out, we're going to panic,

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and everybody's going to be terrified, we want to keep the peace, we want to be gentle with them,

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all these good motivations as well.

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So the bottom line is there's lots of reasons why that people might actually,

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for concern of the people or for concern of themselves,

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avoid delivering the law as it was delivered to us into the hands of common folk

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that actually need to know it, actually need to respond to it because it is a personal relationship with Jesus.

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If you are sitting here today and you have not personally encountered God through Jesus, His Son,

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you are not saved. That's what the word says.

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There's only one way that a man comes unto God, it is through Jesus.

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I am the way and the truth and the life, no one cometh unto the Father but through me.

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And if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and call upon Him to be saved,

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how feeble your understanding might be, but if you're earnest and true and your heart really wants to be saved through God,

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you could be saved through the name of Jesus literally without even knowing the name of Jesus.

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There are tons of stories, hundreds if not thousands of stories,

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of people who got saved before they ever heard the word Jesus.

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Even though you have to be saved in the name of Jesus, that's how it has to happen.

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I submit to you that Abraham and Moses were both saved without the name Jesus.

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Enoch was saved without the name Jesus because Jesus had not been born yet and the name had not been assigned yet.

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Now it means Yahweh saves essentially, so they were trusting in the way that God would make

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and God made a way and it's Jesus.

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He said, however you want to do it God, that's fine by me.

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And God says, well I'll do it by Jesus.

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And I said, well God, I said that was fine by me, however you want to do it.

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Jesus is fine.

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And they got there and they met Jesus in person for the very first time,

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called him by the name Jesus perhaps, because lots of things are revealed after you die and go to heaven,

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and Jesus saved them.

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People need to respond to this truth and they need the truth displayed to them so they can do so.

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So the first thing I want you to see in this text then is that the text is the defining of elders.

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The text gives us a definition of who the elders are.

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Now I get it, we're talking about old folks who have maybe seen stuff,

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they've been around a while so they're older in the text.

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But I submit to you that the moment that Moses hands them the word of God,

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the moment that he hands them the law, he defines them.

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They are the ones to whom the law was given.

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They have a responsibility.

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Yes, maybe they're 50 or 60 or 80 years old, whatever old was for Israel at that time,

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but the bottom line is once Moses gave them the word, from that point on you were an elder if you had the word.

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You were defined at that moment by having received in the New Testament church when Paul says,

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James says, have the elders go and pray over somebody.

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Nobody in that church was a Christian for 80 years because the church hadn't existed for 80 years yet.

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Until Pentecost, the Holy Spirit hadn't come.

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And six months after that they ordained the first deacons.

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So before we say somebody's got to be a Christian for a long period of time, that's the definition.

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They've got to be old so that they have a wise understanding of the world.

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I submit to you that my understanding in Christianity is the older you get,

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the harder it is to come to a transforming faith.

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When you're younger you're wise to go, hey, this affects me deeply, I'm going to respond to it.

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When you're older you've been affected deeply by the loss of loved ones, by the loss of jobs,

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by the loss of health, by everything you've been through, relationships breaking up, etc.

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And you've been affected deeply by many things and the word comes and affects you deeply

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and you debate with yourself whether or not you want to adjust your entire life 60 years in around this thing.

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But at 15 you get a pimple and you think you're going to die.

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And then the word comes in and you go, look, if I don't accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,

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I'm going to die. And guess what? You're right that time.

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And so you're willing to do it.

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But people make those same radical decisions about things like drinking or drugs or sex

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or relationships with their parents, mom and dad are too strict, etc. when they're young and that's unwise.

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So is it possible for a young person to be unwise and not be an elder? Absolutely.

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Is it possible for an older person to be unwise and not be an elder? Absolutely.

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What defines the elder is they are someone to whom the law is given.

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If you know your Bible, you have reached qualification number one.

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That's the bottom line, which is why the word commands us to study the word.

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It's why we do what we're doing right now. We're breaking down this text to better understand it.

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Here and from this moment on, elders are defined as those to whom the word was given.

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The law was to be made available through them.

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They were to ensure that the law was read.

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So now we have the elders are the people who have the law, love it enough to realize it's a value to other people

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and make sure that it delivers to them as prescribed.

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Well, you can do that in a lot of ways. You can support the pastor, the Bible teachers.

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You can literally take what you know of the Bible and explain it to other people.

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You can do it in a one-on-one conversation. You can talk anytime you get the opportunity.

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People tell you what's going wrong with their life and say, hey, the Bible may have an answer for what you're talking about.

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There's a myriad of ways you can do that.

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But you cannot do it while you're primarily discussing your favorite hobby, your toys, the things that you like to do, etc.

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While your mouth is being used for other things, you will not be talking about God.

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I submit to you that if 90% of what you say is about something else and only 10% of it God enters into it,

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then you are not following the ordered press of God to ensure that the Word of God is delivered into the world.

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As Christians, we speak what we know and what we know is of God.

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So, defining elders would be those to whom the law is given and those who are ordered to ensure that it is read or made available to the common people.

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Those who remember the law then also.

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Now, I'll break this down a little bit more in the next point, but I want to share with you right here.

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Notice that they were the older people in the congregation, so they had a longer record of what God had done.

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They had more first-hand experience of seeing things that God had done.

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But it isn't that they had a longer record, it was that they knew that God had done something.

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As I mentioned, the New Testament church were folks who had been at Pentecost and six months later became deacons.

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So, it wasn't that they were Christians for a real long time and had a notebook full of thousands of journal pages of miracles that God had done,

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but it was that they knew that God had done a miracle, the miracle of their salvation at the very least.

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And from that moment, I've seen people who got saved and got on the phone and were immediately trying to lead other people to Christ.

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If you believe what you believe, then it will transform what you think.

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And if you believe and your thoughts are transformed, your mouth will flow out with truth that can then help others find the way.

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It becomes automatic. Do you remember your salvation? If you don't remember it, it didn't happen.

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It's that simple. Now, sometimes I put my keys somewhere, I don't remember putting them there.

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I will go back and I will stare at them and I'll say, I swear my wife must have done that.

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I can't possibly believe I did that. Okay?

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But it's entirely possible that I did put them there because I also understand that at 53 years old, I'm just a little bit senile when it comes to where I put my keys.

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However, my salvation was a different kind of experience. I didn't put anything anywhere.

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I didn't even put myself at the front of the church building to tell them that I wanted to follow Jesus.

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I was standing back there going, I don't think there's any possible way I'm going to be able to walk forward.

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I'm so intimidated. I can't get up in front of people. I've been avoiding people looking at me for the last 25 years.

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There's no way I can do that. And I said, but I've got to because if I don't, I'm going to go to hell.

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And so I turned my foot like this. Next thing I know, I was six inches nose to nose with a pastor who had three hairs between his eyebrows.

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And he's telling me how to go to heaven. And I'm going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Saying I'll do stupid things that I knew I wasn't wanting to do, but because I wanted to follow Jesus, I was going to do them because that's what it meant to follow Jesus.

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I'm never going to forget that. I remember the miracle that God has done.

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Do you remember the miracle that God did when he saved you? Because if you don't, you aren't saved.

436
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:09,000
It doesn't even matter if God actually tried to save you in that moment.

437
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:15,000
Your lack of faith and ability to recognize what God was doing inhibited him from doing what he was trying to do.

438
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:21,000
When Jesus was walking through Galilee and he could only do a few healings there, only cast out a few evil spirits.

439
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:28,000
Jesus, God, God the Son, limited in what he could do because the people didn't believe.

440
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:36,000
And it's like that for us too. If you believed and he transformed your life starting at your salvation, then you remember your salvation.

441
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,000
If you remember your salvation, it should affect what comes out of you.

442
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:50,000
You are the one to whom salvation was given. You are the one ordered that salvation should be spoken of, lived out and made available to others.

443
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:54,000
And you are the one who must remember.

444
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,000
Brings us to the second point, which is essentially they were those who remember.

445
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:04,000
God brought them to the promised land, to the grace land, to the holy land.

446
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:09,000
We talked about all of that in three separate sermons and gave them everything.

447
00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:17,000
Notice that the reading of the law would take place at the Festival of Boots and the Remission of Debt.

448
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:21,000
At that time, there's an interesting combination of things going on.

449
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,000
The remission of debts is remembering that God gave us everything.

450
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:30,000
And the Festival of Boots is remembering that when God brought us out of the darkness, brought us out of captivity,

451
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:37,000
that he caused us to live in tents for quite a while, before he brought us into the promised land.

452
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:42,000
If you know where you're going and you know you're going to heaven, when you get there,

453
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:49,000
you will never forget that after God saved you for a while, he put you to work, sharing the Gospel,

454
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,000
living out the truths that you knew before you were fully transformed.

455
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:58,000
Now, it won't be a sort of mourning. It'll be a sort of admiration and glorification of God

456
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
about the awesome and powerful thing that God was able to do.

457
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:10,000
When we were living up in Michigan, a small puppy, which we would eventually name Penny, a Yorkie,

458
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:14,000
which is not really a poodle, it's a different kind of a thing, it was a kind of copper color,

459
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,000
came wandering up to Alicia while I was working on my truck on the driveway,

460
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,000
and it was 38 degrees outside and raining, and the dog's nose felt warm, and it was sick, it was clear it was sick.

461
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:29,000
And so Alicia started playing with it, and I'm like, don't play with that dog, and she did.

462
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,000
And then next thing you know, okay, we're going to own the dog.

463
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:36,000
So we couldn't put the dog back out in the rain, and we drove the neighborhood.

464
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:40,000
We couldn't find anywhere the dog belonged. The dog didn't have tags, had a collar, but no tags.

465
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,000
And so we took the dog in. But the dog was sick.

466
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:47,000
Now, from the moment we took the dog in, we knew if we were going to take care of the dog,

467
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000
we were going to have to deal with its issues.

468
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,000
And I'm thinking, you know, I don't really have money to go to the vet, but the dog's got to go to the vet,

469
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000
because I don't know how to make its nose not warm anymore.

470
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000
I don't know how to do that. I just knew enough to know that it was sick, a little snot dribbling out its nose.

471
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:04,000
I can't have that, and it's snot dripping all over my house. We've got to do something.

472
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:10,000
And so the next day we made an appointment, and we took the dog to the vet.

473
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:18,000
Now listen, the dog lived in my house with a snot dripping, warm nose for 36 hours before it got to the vet.

474
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,000
Now that's what we are.

475
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,000
If you're a Christian, God already owns you. He's taken you to the promised land.

476
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:29,000
He will one day make you perfectly healthy, perfectly wealthy,

477
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,000
but He does not promise either one of those things here on the earth.

478
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,000
You have a responsibility to maintain your body, you have a responsibility to maintain your mind,

479
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,000
you have a responsibility to maintain your finances, all of that.

480
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,000
It's all given back over into your stewardship because it's all a gift from Him.

481
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000
That's what they were remembering with the remission of the debts. We ought to be generous.

482
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:53,000
Every dollar you've ever given, 100%, 100 pennies out of every dollar, is for you to be generous with.

483
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:58,000
That you can take care of the people around you, your family, your friends, your everybody.

484
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,000
Now, do you need to take care of yourself along the way? Yes, you do.

485
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,000
But if for you it's all about getting better off, better off, better off,

486
00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:10,000
and just kind of occasionally handing out scraps, that's not the generosity that they were called for.

487
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:17,000
They were to be living at that festival remembering that God gave them everything,

488
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:21,000
but yet there was more to come. That's where that festival was.

489
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:25,000
The booths, the tents were about, we're not there yet,

490
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:30,000
and we must not forget that after God called us out and brought us into His ultimate protection,

491
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:35,000
He told us, we're not there yet.

492
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:40,000
God had His tents stay in the wilderness even because they did not listen,

493
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000
and they stayed there for a long time.

494
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:48,000
And then finally, finally, He brought them in.

495
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:51,000
Now, the New Testament says of us as Christians in 2 Corinthians chapter 4,

496
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,000
that we have this truth in earthen vessels.

497
00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:57,000
So the law has been given to you.

498
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,000
The law has been ordered for you to disperse it and share it with everyone you possibly can.

499
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:06,000
And the law is something that you must remember, but not only the law,

500
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:11,000
the miracles that God has done that you have seen, and those things ought to drive you and motivate you.

501
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,000
And you have all of that truth in earthen vessels.

502
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:18,000
Your body is falling apart.

503
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000
It will die if Jesus does not come again first.

504
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:30,000
The only question is, can you ensure that when it dies, it dies for Jesus rather than for your pleasure?

505
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:34,000
Because if it dies for your pleasure, you and your pleasure will rot in hell for an eternity.

506
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:38,000
But if it dies for Jesus, you will be resurrected into a new body,

507
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:42,000
glorified in heaven and then ultimately the new heaven and the new earth for an eternity.

508
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:46,000
It's a little different way between the two possible endings.

509
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:49,000
We have this truth in earthen vessels now.

510
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:54,000
They had their festival of the booths to remember that when they were called out of Egypt,

511
00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:00,000
out of the darkness, out of ignorance, out of slavery, they were first put in a holding pattern, if you will, in tents.

512
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:05,000
We have that too. This is my tent.

513
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:09,000
Also in that moment in the festival, they were remembering that they got everything from God.

514
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:15,000
1 Corinthians 4-7, I think it's really neat that it's 2 Corinthians 4-7 and also 1 Corinthians 4-7.

515
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:22,000
We have these truths in earthen vessels, 2 Corinthians 4-7, and then that we got everything from God.

516
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:25,000
It says, if you got everything, I'm paraphrasing, if you got everything from God,

517
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:29,000
why do you behave as if you did not receive it? That's 1 Corinthians 4-7.

518
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:33,000
That's the crux, that's the moment, the conflict, the point.

519
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:42,000
They were remembering they got everything that they had from God and yet for a while they had it in temporary housing, if you will.

520
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:46,000
That's the moment at which the law was to be delivered.

521
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:50,000
Also at the remission of debts, generosity was called for.

522
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:55,000
Debts were forgiven and debts should be forgiven.

523
00:37:55,000 --> 00:38:06,000
God's love, the Holy Land, the promised land, the grace land, is for all people, not just for you.

524
00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:10,000
Now I understand, maybe you might think, well, if only so many people go to heaven,

525
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,000
let's say if only a million people go to heaven and there's a hundred million acres there,

526
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:19,000
then we each get a hundred acres, whereas if a hundred million people go, we each only get an acre.

527
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,000
It doesn't work like that. Those are earthly thoughts.

528
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:27,000
So they were warned not to think about, okay, next year I have to forgive this guy's debts,

529
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:32,000
so I want to make sure I don't loan him too much because in a year I have to forgive the debts.

530
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,000
They were warned not to think earthly thoughts about what God would bless them with.

531
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:42,000
You can give your salvation away to someone else every moment of every day for the rest of your life,

532
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:47,000
and when you get to the end of that act, you will have more salvation than you had when you started.

533
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:52,000
Spiritual realm, salvation, truth of God, does not work like anything else.

534
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:56,000
When you give it away, you actually get more of it.

535
00:38:56,000 --> 00:39:00,000
However, even though as I say that, I am reminded that in the kingdom of God,

536
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:04,000
it actually works that way with everything. When you give your time away, you get more time.

537
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:12,000
When you give your money away, you get more money because everything we were given was given for the generosity of God.

538
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:19,000
Now to prove that point, that everything was given, Jesus tells a story of a man with two sons in Matthew 21.

539
00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:22,000
We won't go there and read it, but in Matthew 21, he tells the story of two sons.

540
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,000
Both sons were asked to go and work in the man's garden.

541
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:32,000
The first son says, yeah, sure, dad, I'll go work, but he doesn't because he's got too many things going on.

542
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:35,000
You know what I'm saying? Or he thinks he does.

543
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:40,000
The second son says, no dad, I'm sorry, I can't. I can't go work in the garden today, dad.

544
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:45,000
But then later, he recognizes that he kind of owes it to his dad. It's the right thing to do.

545
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:48,000
It's justice. And he goes and works in the garden.

546
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:53,000
And Jesus says that the second man is so much better off than the first.

547
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:59,000
In fact, he even goes on to say, because of the attitude that were in the Jewish people of that day,

548
00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:06,000
and I submit, he doesn't say this, but I submit in parenthesis there, you could put that they were not delivering the truth to people who needed to hear it,

549
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,000
because of their attitude about what they had been blessed with,

550
00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:15,000
he says that the tax collectors and the whoremongers would come and sit down in the kingdom of God before them.

551
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:22,000
So let me tell you this. If a tax collector or whoremonger comes and sits down in the kingdom of God before you do, you're not an elder.

552
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:31,000
Surprise! They might be, because they will have received the word, they will have been ordered to share the word,

553
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,000
and they'll be passionate about doing so because they came and sat down in the kingdom of God.

554
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:39,000
They will have remembered the miracle that God has done, so they'll be going around as a whore,

555
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,000
somebody who may be still breaking out of prostitution, or as a tax collector,

556
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:48,000
somebody who's still cheating people, manipulating, stealing from people whenever he can to survive, right?

557
00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:52,000
And the tax collectors were allowed to take whatever taxes they wanted, the more they took, the more they got to keep.

558
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,000
And they had Roman soldiers to enforce it, so they were hated people.

559
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,000
So we're talking about hated people that nobody wants, they come and sit down in the kingdom of God,

560
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:05,000
but then by the time, if you even do get around to accepting real salvation, by the time you do so,

561
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:10,000
they'll have been there for a while and seen additional miracles, had God's presence have been growing in Jesus.

562
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:15,000
They'll be the elders. So you look at somebody that's in your life right now that's a really bad person,

563
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000
you can hardly stand to be around, or maybe they're in jail right now because of actual crimes they committed.

564
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,000
They really did do what they were charged for, and that's why they're there.

565
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:29,000
And you look at them, they accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus doesn't look at the crimes they committed.

566
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:35,000
Jesus doesn't look at their present situation. There are people living for the Lord, elders of the church.

567
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:39,000
Where have some of them gone? Some of them are in prison.

568
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:45,000
Some of them are not allowed or able to minister to the people that they want to minister to the way that they want to,

569
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
and they're just wishing that you would get around to it.

570
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:55,000
That we would get around to ministering because they are the elders, because they have genuinely accepted Christ,

571
00:41:55,000 --> 00:42:00,000
and they're still living in a temporary domicile, unable to do what they really want to do,

572
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:10,000
and they may not be able to do it until they get to heaven, but we have the opportunity.

573
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:17,000
Defining elders is here, to whom the word is given, ordered to ensure that it should be read or known by all,

574
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:23,000
not restricting its spread. Those who remember the miracles of God, and those who remember,

575
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:29,000
remember that God brought us out into temporary dwellings, that God has His people stay in those temporary dwellings

576
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:34,000
until He finally brings us in into the true promised land, the true grace land, the true holy land,

577
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:40,000
which will be for an eternity. Generosity is called for every day, not just when you feel like you have an abundance,

578
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:48,000
but every day. God's love is every day, and it is for all, and it is our responsibility to deliver it to all.

579
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:54,000
If you're busy and distracted by the things of this world, then you can pretty much guarantee you're not an elder,

580
00:42:54,000 --> 00:43:03,000
because that's not what it was set up to be. The third thing to see in here is that all people should have the ability to hear.

581
00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:09,000
It's very clear that Moses was making a provision for every generation to come, and because he said also all of the aliens

582
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:14,000
who will be within striking distance, if you will, or live in your communities, it was for everybody, all people,

583
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:19,000
which is fortunate for us, because most of us, and probably all of us, are not Jews or do not have Jewish heritage,

584
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:27,000
and therefore you were brought in under the principle that Moses said, everybody should have the opportunity to hear.

585
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:34,000
Not just to hear, right, but also to learn, which is what you're doing right now, and what you're doing Tuesday night Bible study,

586
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:38,000
and what you're doing on your lunch hour when you break out your Word and sit down and study it.

587
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:44,000
It becomes study when you read it and you write something down and you're digesting, you're figuring it out, right?

588
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:48,000
They all were supposed to have, all of us were supposed to have the opportunity to hear.

589
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:54,000
Did you know by the time I was 25 years old that I had not heard five Bible verses?

590
00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:00,000
I saw people at sporting events on the TV with a big poster that they held up or a phone board or whatever back in the day

591
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:04,000
that said John 316, and I didn't know what that was.

592
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,000
I'm like, was that John 316? I didn't know it was a Bible verse.

593
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:13,000
One time, it was probably about the 10th time I saw it on TV, one Sunday afternoon or something, and my dad just happened to be there,

594
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,000
and I said, Dad, what is that? I see that all the time. What is that?

595
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:22,000
He said, oh, that's a Bible verse. It's a Bible verse?

596
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,000
So I said, so what's the 3 and the 16? What does that mean?

597
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:30,000
He said, well, that's where you find it at in the Bible, like the third chapter in the 16th verse in that chapter.

598
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,000
And I was like, oh, okay, and I went on with my life.

599
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,000
But I had seen it all those times before and never even knew what it meant.

600
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:39,000
Never knew that it was a Bible verse or anything.

601
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:43,000
I give credit to that guy because that guy who's at the sporting event may or may not have been an elder,

602
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:52,000
but at least he was trying to make sure that there was an opportunity for somebody to hear he had at least one of the qualifications of being an elder.

603
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:55,000
We are supposed to make sure not hold back.

604
00:44:55,000 --> 00:45:00,000
Listen, if you go out and tell people that to truly honor God, they ought to use their mouth in a God-honoring way,

605
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,000
the next time you see them, they're going to expect you to be using your mouth in a God-honoring way.

606
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:09,000
Oh, gosh, well, now maybe I'm not so sure I want to tell people they should use their mouth,

607
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:12,000
because then when I get caught not doing it, then it looks bad for me.

608
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:15,000
Why is it that people don't share again?

609
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:21,000
Why is it that people who have the most access to the law are slow to make it available to all?

610
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:26,000
Well, one of the reasons is because I think they may hold me to the very standard that I'm teaching them.

611
00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:31,000
And I frankly know I'm not doing a very good job meeting it, except what?

612
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:37,000
The real standard of all the law is just one thing. Jesus.

613
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,000
It's not about whether you keep every one of these points correctly or not.

614
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:48,000
Now, I was watching, I saw a reel, which I quickly deleted, by the way, but I saw a reel on Facebook this week,

615
00:45:48,000 --> 00:45:53,000
a guy talking about how he's a Christian living for the Lord and he wants to try to get the word out, whatever.

616
00:45:53,000 --> 00:46:00,000
And he was talking about how people who were not saved were debating whether they were saved or not because they had sin in their life.

617
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:03,000
And he goes, well, you've seen my girlfriend, right?

618
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,000
And he said, we do some getting busy, but I still consider myself a Christian.

619
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,000
And I went, delete.

620
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:16,000
If you will willingly sin against God after becoming a Christian, then you ought to have serious questions about who you are in Christ.

621
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:24,000
Now, if you will incidentally, or if you will because you yield to temptation, but at the same time forewarned is forearmed.

622
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:27,000
There is no kind of temptation except that which is common to man.

623
00:46:27,000 --> 00:46:30,000
So if you know you're going to be tempted, you ought to be ready to be tempted.

624
00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:34,000
And when you're tempted, you should resist the temptation.

625
00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,000
Flee if necessary.

626
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:39,000
We have those commands. We know better.

627
00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:48,000
But that being said, when we teach somebody not to yield to temptation, even as I say that, I know tomorrow I will probably give into some kind of a temptation and I'll be repenting and turning back to the Lord.

628
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,000
So don't teach the gospel like this.

629
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:54,000
If you follow Jesus, you're going to be all fixed up and you'll never do anything wrong again.

630
00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:56,000
Like I never do anything wrong.

631
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,000
That is not the Bible.

632
00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:02,000
That's somebody's idea of how to make friends, win friends and influence enemies.

633
00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:03,000
Right.

634
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:07,000
You're trying to get people to like you because you want them to see you got it all together.

635
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:11,000
But if you've actually got it all together in this lifetime, you're probably not a Christian.

636
00:47:11,000 --> 00:47:12,000
Somebody's got it all together.

637
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:19,000
There's some pretty wealthy people out there and they own everything they want and they've got lots of people chasing after them to serve them and love them and all these kinds of things.

638
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:20,000
All in a worldly fashion.

639
00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:21,000
None of it matters.

640
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:22,000
It means squat.

641
00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:24,000
They all go to hell when they die if they don't have Jesus.

642
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:32,000
But if you can have Jesus and teach the law that it all points to Jesus and the person gets saved, why on earth would you not want to teach them that?

643
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:33,000
It's our responsibility that they hear.

644
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,000
It's our responsibility that they learn.

645
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:37,000
It's been entrusted to us.

646
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:38,000
Written on our hearts.

647
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,000
Not just in a book.

648
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,000
But written on our hearts.

649
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:49,000
All people should have the ability not only to hear and to learn but also to fear the Lord.

650
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:55,000
When you look at what God has done and you're intentionally going against Him.

651
00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,000
That scares the crap out of me.

652
00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:02,000
That I would stand before anyone and flat out lie about what God has done.

653
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:05,000
I would be scared.

654
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:07,000
I'd be like God could crush me.

655
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,000
And He can.

656
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:13,000
There's literally nothing stopping Him except His love.

657
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:14,000
He could do it.

658
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:15,000
He has done it.

659
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:17,000
There are people in this room who tell you stories.

660
00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:25,000
I have been there where I have intentionally sinned against God, made a choice, and then felt such conviction when the first time I was ever asked to preach.

661
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:27,000
I could not eat.

662
00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:28,000
I could not sleep.

663
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:29,000
I was sick to my stomach.

664
00:48:29,000 --> 00:48:30,000
And I didn't have a virus or a cold.

665
00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:31,000
I was just sick.

666
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:34,000
Sick because God had said to do something and I told Him no.

667
00:48:34,000 --> 00:48:36,000
For 48 hours.

668
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:42,000
When we were living up in Michigan, Sheri had a similar circumstance where she went to a Bible study that they taught to the kids at our church.

669
00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:44,000
And they taught something that was wrong.

670
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,000
It was not what the Bible meant.

671
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:51,000
They poorly exegeted the passage, told the kids what it meant, and they were wrong.

672
00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:52,000
And my wife was there.

673
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:57,000
It was her first time ever at the children's ministry in our new church.

674
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,000
And she said, I've got to say something.

675
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:00,000
I can't.

676
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:03,000
And she went home and she said, I'm just not going to go anymore.

677
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:06,000
I can't say anything because it was the children's pastor right hand.

678
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:07,000
It wasn't children's pastor.

679
00:49:07,000 --> 00:49:09,000
It was her right hand man that did the teaching.

680
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:13,000
I can't say anything against it because I'm rocking the boat.

681
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:14,000
I'll be causing trouble.

682
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:15,000
The church will probably kick me out.

683
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:16,000
I don't know.

684
00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:17,000
Whatever.

685
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:18,000
She was scared.

686
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:19,000
And she's like, so I'm just not going to go to children's ministry anymore.

687
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:20,000
And she went home.

688
00:49:20,000 --> 00:49:21,000
She's pregnant.

689
00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:24,000
Now, six months pregnant is bad enough.

690
00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:25,000
That's bad enough.

691
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:26,000
I'd have done it.

692
00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:28,000
I've had sympathy pain, but I've never been through it.

693
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:31,000
But I can tell you, six months pregnant is already pretty uncomfortable.

694
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:35,000
And for 48 hours, she could not eat.

695
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:36,000
She could not sleep.

696
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:39,000
She was in pain, the kind of pain that was unrelated to her pregnancy.

697
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:40,000
Her feet hurt.

698
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:42,000
I mean, I guess that's technically not unrelated.

699
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:43,000
But you know what I'm saying.

700
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:45,000
Anyway, every kind of pain, she couldn't sleep.

701
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:46,000
She couldn't sleep overnight.

702
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:50,000
She got up in the afternoon about 1 o'clock after trying to sleep for like 13 minutes.

703
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,000
She was trying to sleep for like 13 hours.

704
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:52,000
And she said, I'm going to call.

705
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:55,000
I'm going to call this lady right now because she had the number of the children's pastors.

706
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:56,000
I'm going to call right now.

707
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:57,000
She went to walk.

708
00:49:57,000 --> 00:49:58,000
She was afraid.

709
00:49:58,000 --> 00:49:59,000
And she walked away.

710
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:00,000
And she tried to lay on the couch.

711
00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:01,000
And she lay on the couch.

712
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,000
And she said she felt like she was being poked.

713
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:05,000
Like there was like, come on.

714
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:08,000
Aging her on, she felt nervous and anxious.

715
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:09,000
She couldn't take a nap.

716
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:13,000
Six months pregnant, hasn't slept in 48 hours, and she couldn't fall asleep on the couch.

717
00:50:13,000 --> 00:50:14,000
Finally, she got up and went and called.

718
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,000
And she said, I got to talk to you.

719
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,000
I was at the children's lesson.

720
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:18,000
And you weren't in the room at the time.

721
00:50:18,000 --> 00:50:20,000
But this was taught, and it is not godly.

722
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:21,000
And I can't stand for it.

723
00:50:21,000 --> 00:50:24,000
And she said, if you can't fix it, that's OK.

724
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:25,000
But I'm not coming back.

725
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:28,000
And I'm not going to be involved in this because it's not godly.

726
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:30,000
And she said, but I think it should be.

727
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:32,000
And this was the children's pastor.

728
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:36,000
She said, OK, can you teach it the right way next week?

729
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:39,000
And Sherry was like, and all she wanted to say was no.

730
00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:40,000
That's all she wanted to say.

731
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,000
But for 48 hours, she hadn't slept.

732
00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:43,000
She'd been uncomfortable.

733
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:44,000
She'd been convicted.

734
00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:45,000
She'd been pushed.

735
00:50:45,000 --> 00:50:46,000
She didn't dare say no.

736
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:47,000
There's no way.

737
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:48,000
She needed some sleep.

738
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:50,000
She's like, I'm not going to get any sleep.

739
00:50:50,000 --> 00:50:51,000
And she's like, OK, fine.

740
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:54,000
So then for the next week, she pushed.

741
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:59,000
And she'd locked out time to study and make sure she wrote a lesson so she could teach

742
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:00,000
it right.

743
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:01,000
And she went and taught it.

744
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:05,000
And then when she taught it, the person who taught it wrong walked in and stood in the

745
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:06,000
back of the room.

746
00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:09,000
Now, my wife's not really big about crowds or getting up in front of people or certainly

747
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:11,000
not when people are thinking negative thoughts of her.

748
00:51:11,000 --> 00:51:13,000
She's a normal person with regards to that.

749
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,000
I don't think any of us like that.

750
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:17,000
And she had to teach the lesson to the kids.

751
00:51:17,000 --> 00:51:18,000
They had about 12 kids.

752
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,000
It wasn't a huge room.

753
00:51:19,000 --> 00:51:22,000
With that person standing in the back of the room the whole time, knowing that she was

754
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:25,000
teaching the exact opposite of what the person taught.

755
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:28,000
And at any time, they might pull out their car keys and throw them at her or slam the

756
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,000
door on the way out or say something nasty or whatever.

757
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:32,000
And they didn't.

758
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:35,000
And right after the lesson, they came up and she said, listen, I want to explain something

759
00:51:35,000 --> 00:51:36,000
to you.

760
00:51:36,000 --> 00:51:39,000
After I taught that lesson last week, I was under such conviction.

761
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:41,000
I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger out.

762
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:42,000
I couldn't figure it out.

763
00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:44,000
And when you taught it, retaught it today and taught it today, I was like, OK, fine.

764
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:45,000
I've got it.

765
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:46,000
I've got it.

766
00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:47,000
I'll retought it today and taught it correctly.

767
00:51:47,000 --> 00:51:48,000
She said it was probably good for the kids.

768
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:50,000
I don't know how much they even absorbed last week or this week or whatever.

769
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,000
It's probably good for the kids.

770
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:55,000
But you saved my life.

771
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:58,000
God is not, turn it off.

772
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:02,000
God is not a teddy bear God.

773
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:05,000
He's not somebody you can curl up on his lap and just keep doing what you're doing.

774
00:52:05,000 --> 00:52:08,000
And the world ought to have the right to fear him.

775
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:12,000
Some of what the world is doing is because they just don't know enough to fear him.

776
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:16,360
Lastly, they ought to observe. They ought to be able to observe it. Everyone should

777
00:52:16,360 --> 00:52:20,580
have the ability to observe the law and what God has commanded us to do and be

778
00:52:20,580 --> 00:52:25,320
and especially as points to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. As we talked about

779
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:29,160
in the sermon last week, that word to observe there means a lot of different

780
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:35,940
things, but simply put it means to do. The world needs to have the chance to do

781
00:52:35,940 --> 00:52:41,000
what God wants them to do. And they're busy doing what God doesn't want them to

782
00:52:41,000 --> 00:52:44,400
do and in many cases it is because they have not heard, they have not learned,

783
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:48,480
they do not fear the Lord, and they have not been given the opportunity to do.

784
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:55,560
That brings us to our conclusion. Interestingly enough, it has happened

785
00:52:55,560 --> 00:53:00,600
that those who have the most access to the law have been slow to make it

786
00:53:00,600 --> 00:53:08,480
available to all. We talked about many motivations that bring us to that, but

787
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:13,240
all of those motivations pale or fall apart when we realize this one important

788
00:53:13,240 --> 00:53:21,080
truth. The law is not a set of rules. It's not a governing set of restrictions.

789
00:53:21,080 --> 00:53:25,440
It's not a set of punishments to be delivered if people don't listen even

790
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:33,080
though it does contain those things. The law is a clearly marked out road to

791
00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:42,240
freedom. It delineates the edges of the highway of holiness, as Isaiah put it,

792
00:53:42,240 --> 00:53:49,040
the road that is narrow, but if you travel upon it you will arrive in

793
00:53:49,040 --> 00:53:56,840
eternity and live in peace and hope and joy in a kingdom reigned by a master,

794
00:53:56,840 --> 00:54:04,720
benevolent, possibly the only benevolent master to ever exist, God our Father.

795
00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:11,720
Paul wrote to Timothy, entrust these things that I am sharing with you and

796
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:18,160
trust them to some faithful men that they may then deliver them on to others.

797
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:24,840
Those brothers and sisters are the elders. They are the ones who will receive

798
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:32,520
the Word of God. They will ensure that that Word of God is spread to anyone who

799
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:37,200
will listen, even those who may not want to listen. They will remember the amazing

800
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:47,120
things that God has done. They may be nine. They may be 80. There will surely be

801
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:53,000
80 year olds who have thought about it, wished they could do it, been through

802
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:58,200
miraculous interventions by God and never told anybody about it, and there

803
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:03,320
will surely be nine year olds who know nothing about what it means to be saved.

804
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:11,080
But regardless of your age, regardless of your current circumstances, you can be an

805
00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:18,400
elder in the faith if you will receive the truth of the Lord our God, if you

806
00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,280
will remember how good he is and that all people should have access to this

807
00:55:22,280 --> 00:55:27,200
Word. If you will remember that he has given us these treasures in earthen

808
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:33,640
vessels, that means we're never gonna quite be right this side of heaven, but

809
00:55:33,640 --> 00:55:38,760
we can be right in who we know and who we relate to and who he is. Salvation is

810
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:42,560
not about you or how well you deliver it. It is about God's character and whether

811
00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:47,360
or not they accept it, whether or not they believe. All they got to do is

812
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:51,440
believe. Being a human and believing is all you got to do. The parable of the

813
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:55,320
four soils is about that and the number one qualifier for everybody gets saved

814
00:55:55,320 --> 00:55:59,920
when the seed comes in is they encounter the seed and Jesus said, and the seed is

815
00:55:59,920 --> 00:56:06,360
the Word of God. Will you be an elder? Will you be someone who receives the

816
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:10,400
Word of God and is willing to make sure that everyone has access to it, who is

817
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:16,040
ready or willing to have access to it? Will you tell others, your family members,

818
00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:20,200
your friends, everyone that you encounter, anywhere that you encounter them and who

819
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:23,960
is willing to hear anything from you, ought not to hear football stats before

820
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:27,400
they hear the truth of Jesus. Ought not to hear about your personal hobby or

821
00:56:27,400 --> 00:56:31,280
what you're working on or what the weather is going to be like before they

822
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:36,720
hear the truth of Jesus. Now, once you've brought up the truth of Jesus, whether

823
00:56:36,720 --> 00:56:41,320
they're saved or not, all of those other topics are perfectly fine. They're all

824
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:45,640
perfectly fine, but they ought not to be your priority. If you are an elder, if

825
00:56:45,640 --> 00:56:49,120
you're a person who loves the Lord, then you will be someone who ultimately

826
00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:55,240
testifies of how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the law. Jesus said, I

827
00:56:55,240 --> 00:57:00,280
did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. You did not come to abolish

828
00:57:00,280 --> 00:57:06,160
it or to fulfill it. You came to receive it and then if possible to deliver it.

829
00:57:06,160 --> 00:57:10,920
And it is not your place being someone who has, if you're here today, I will

830
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:16,440
guarantee you that there are less than a thousand people in the world who have a

831
00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:23,040
better understanding than you do of Deuteronomy 31, 9 to 13. It's only five

832
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:31,080
verses. It ain't much, but it's everything. You take it and deliver it to anyone who

833
00:57:31,080 --> 00:57:36,840
hear it. This is how the church works. We receive it, we deliver it, they receive it,

834
00:57:36,840 --> 00:57:41,080
they deliver it. You couldn't save the world ever by addition, but you can save

835
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:45,080
it by multiplication because if we go out and share it and if we manage to

836
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:50,440
share it with just 20 people and they share it with 20 people and they share

837
00:57:50,440 --> 00:57:53,680
it with 20 people and meanwhile the first 20 people are still going to be

838
00:57:53,680 --> 00:57:58,680
sharing it and it multiplies and it goes on and it goes on and it goes on. But you

839
00:57:58,680 --> 00:58:03,000
are a person who has received the Word of God and you have a responsibility to

840
00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:08,120
deliver that Word of God to anyone who will listen and having done so they have

841
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:13,840
they need to have the right to hear, learn, fear, and obey. That's what I want.

842
00:58:13,840 --> 00:58:19,120
That's what I want for me. I want to be somebody who gets something, whatever God

843
00:58:19,120 --> 00:58:28,600
decides to give me, and delivers it wherever He'll let me. What about you?

844
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:34,400
Where have all the elders gone? Well, maybe they're afraid that their evil deeds

845
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:38,880
will be exposed. Maybe they have feelings of guilt which are not brought on by God.

846
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:42,560
Maybe they're afraid of loss of power or loss of control. Maybe they're afraid

847
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:46,400
that a tax collector or a whore or a whoremonger or whatever will come and sit

848
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:50,120
down in the Kingdom of God before they will if they go tell somebody and that

849
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:53,440
person will actually start living for Jesus. I can't tell you the number of

850
00:58:53,440 --> 00:58:56,560
times that as a Christian pastor I've shared the gospel and seen people's on

851
00:58:56,560 --> 00:59:00,120
fire for Christ within the first week of their Christian life and been ashamed of

852
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:04,120
my own walk and had to repent and say Lord you know what I'm taking for

853
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:09,120
granted the amazing thing that you did in me. Don't put yourself there repeatedly

854
00:59:09,120 --> 00:59:13,840
but don't be surprised if you share it with somebody who just you go no they're

855
00:59:13,840 --> 00:59:17,360
not gonna listen there's no way and then you share and they're utterly and

856
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:22,200
completely transformed and take off for Jesus and therein is the work of the

857
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:25,440
Holy Spirit therein is the work of the church there in his salvation for all

858
00:59:25,440 --> 00:59:31,840
who will have it. Where have all the elders gone? They're right here. You're it.

859
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:37,880
I'm it. This is our job. Let's do it. It's not about some apostle. We don't need an

860
00:59:37,880 --> 00:59:41,800
apostle to hear the word of the Lord and share it. They were just ordinary people

861
00:59:41,800 --> 00:59:48,000
just like us. Father in heaven help us. We can do this. I'll ask the praise team to

862
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:52,400
come forward at this time and lead in our final song. If you're here today and

863
00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:57,360
you realize that Jesus is calling upon you to be saved, be a Christian. Say I can't be an

864
00:59:57,360 --> 01:00:02,080
elder because I've not dealt with the first matter which is trusting him in my life.

865
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:07,520
Then you trust him. Trust him right now and say okay God we do whatever it is you want to do in

866
01:00:07,520 --> 01:00:13,040
me. I'll trust in the way that you've made and you'll be saved. If you're saved

867
01:00:13,040 --> 01:00:17,840
you say I already know. I already trust him. But you've been holding back. I've

868
01:00:17,840 --> 01:00:21,480
been sharing the truth. I've been studying your word to know the truth and

869
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:28,280
not been sharing it. You've been reluctant to live it out. Repent. Turn to the Lord.

870
01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:32,720
Make your commitment public and tell it in front of everybody. Look this is me. I

871
01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:39,720
may be some days worthless but this much I know. God is real. His son died for me.

872
01:00:39,720 --> 01:00:46,080
I'm gonna deliver that truth to anybody who will listen. And let's start. Let's start

873
01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:50,400
being what it is that we're called to be. Maybe there's something God's calling

874
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:54,680
you to specifically. You already know God's calling you to be baptized, be a

875
01:00:54,680 --> 01:00:59,560
member of a church or start a ministry or be aggressive in doing what

876
01:00:59,560 --> 01:01:03,200
something that he has for you. Maybe talking to your mom or your dad or your

877
01:01:03,200 --> 01:01:08,200
brother or your sister or cousin or uncle or person you work with. Very specifically about Jesus.

878
01:01:08,200 --> 01:01:11,800
He's calling you to that. This is your opportunity to publicly say look I know

879
01:01:11,800 --> 01:01:18,800
God wants me to do X and from here from this moment I'm saying I will do X. I will do what God's calling me to do.

880
01:01:18,800 --> 01:01:25,440
They got it and I told you. In all the history of Israel at the

881
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:30,200
remission of debts and the festival of booths they did not read the whole law

882
01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:37,000
every seven years. See how that went. It got worse and worse and spiral of sin and then it got

883
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:39,600
better for a while and had a leader who stepped up and said no we're gonna do it

884
01:01:39,600 --> 01:01:44,840
God's way and then when that leader died it got worse and worse and worse. Then one

885
01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:47,440
stepped up said no we're gonna do it God's way and it got better for a while

886
01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:51,040
but every time they lost their leader and went back in sin it got worse and

887
01:01:51,040 --> 01:01:57,260
worse. And I'll be us too until our leader is Jesus and we're following Him and Jesus doesn't die

888
01:01:57,260 --> 01:02:02,360
and he doesn't fade and he doesn't go away when he comes he stays. Will you let

889
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:08,080
him come and stay? I'm gonna sing this song with me and let's give praise to God.

890
01:02:08,080 --> 01:02:11,240
But if you're making some kind of decision you can respond and I'll be keeping the front.

891
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:21,400
Euros

892
01:02:41,240 --> 01:02:48,240
I'll be there, I'll surrender all.

893
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:49,240
That's all.

894
01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:51,240
That's your relationships.

895
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,240
I'll surrender all.

896
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:56,240
That's you on the job, the money that you earn.

897
01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:57,240
That's your health.

898
01:02:57,240 --> 01:02:59,240
All the things you want.

899
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:02,240
The use of your time, the use of your time.

900
01:03:02,240 --> 01:03:04,240
You surrender all.

901
01:03:04,240 --> 01:03:13,240
I surrender all.

902
01:03:13,240 --> 01:03:20,240
All to Jesus I surrender me.

903
01:03:20,240 --> 01:03:26,240
Be a slave to the Holy One.

904
01:03:26,240 --> 01:03:34,240
Let me feel thy Holy Spirit.

905
01:03:34,240 --> 01:03:39,240
To me know that thou art mine.

906
01:03:39,240 --> 01:03:45,240
I surrender all.

907
01:03:45,240 --> 01:03:52,240
I surrender all.

908
01:03:52,240 --> 01:03:58,240
All to thee my flesh and shame,

909
01:03:58,240 --> 01:04:14,240
I surrender all.