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Thanks for choosing this message podcast by New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East

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Toledo. In this episode, Pastor Dan speaks on prophetic utterances. The sermon entitled

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utterances. Also listen at the inspirational moment for comments about our spiritual discipline

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of study. God bless you today as you reach New Heights in Jesus.

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All right. Good morning.

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Good morning.

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I say good morning, but I don't really feel like it's a good morning. I'm having a rough

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night and morning, but here we are to worship God and that makes everything okay. So I'm

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going to need some help today. We're doing a love theme because tomorrow is Veil Times

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Day, which is my husband would say a dumb holiday, but hey, we're going to celebrate

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love of God and his love for us. So what I need from you is in between songs, I need

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you to find or during songs or whatever, without interrupting worship, find verses in the Bible

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about love, about how we should love about God's love for us. And then in between songs,

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we're going to read a couple. So find a couple or if you have some memorized, I can think

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of three or four off the top of my head. So we can pull those out if we need to.

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Oh, yeah.

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Oh, yeah.

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Oh, yeah.

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All right. Good morning. Good morning. Just real quick announcements. A couple things.

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There is a team leader meeting today. We will start as close to after service as we can.

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So we'll get down in a reasonable amount of time. And thank you so much to Jamie and Tommy,

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who are going to cover the pantry during that time. Anybody else wants to volunteer? If

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you're not wrapped up in team and you're welcome to do that. Hopefully have some folks come

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to help. Also, don't forget on February 22nd, on the evening of October 22nd, which is that

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Tuesday night, the adult Bible study instead of doing Bible study, we'll be doing projects

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and cleanup and fixing things around the church building. So if you know something you'd like

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to do that night from six thirty to seven thirty to fix or clean up something and let

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us know if there's some supplies that are needed or tools in front of we'll try to make

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sure that they're here. And I'm going to be here and I'm going to fix or clean something.

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I haven't decided what it's going to be yet. I got one I'm leaning towards. But so we

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got some things that we can do and hope you'll come and join us for that. If you don't know

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what to come on Tuesday nights, if you've got skills or ability to just willing to help,

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come on. All right. And then there was one more thing. Oh, preschool preschool nursery

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team meeting next week after service. And so that will be coming up. And if you're involved

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like a volunteer or whatever, you want to be at that meeting. So it probably won't take

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too long. But it's a situation where you want to know what's going on and get plugged in

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with that. OK, we're going to pray together and then we'll jump back to work. Don't forget,

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Alicia asked you to look up viva verses or maybe quote a viva verse from memory that

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you may have concerning love. I found what I think is my favorite viva verse concerning

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love. It doesn't have the word love in it. And so I think I might be the only one. So

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I'm excited about that. All right. So let's pray. Father in heaven, this is your time.

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Though we have faced afflictions, though we've dealt with issues with cars and houses and

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health, we're struggling in relationships trying to figure out what's going on, trying

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to make the best decisions we know how, even though all that is true. We come together

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today to rejoice in you. We rejoice that we have faced trials and tribulations. We are

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told in scripture that we should do so. And I sure feel better when I do. When I get wrapped

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up in the things that went wrong, get dwelling on them, complaining about them, frustrated

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and want to punch something, Lord, that doesn't seem to help me at all. In fact, it just seems

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to go in the wrong direction. So as we rejoice in you this morning, Lord, celebrating the

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love of our God for us, may we always remember it's not about the messenger. It's about the

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message. It's not even about the message in this life. It's about the God who sent the

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message of love to us through his son, Jesus. We know that you created the earth so that

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we might live here, that we might have a relationship with you. And we're trying to do that now.

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We believe that you make it all possible. We pray for the one in this room right now

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who's struggling with their health situation or the one that's on the way here and is still

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struggling in some situation. We pray that you'll get the car unlocked. We pray that

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you'll overcome the health concerns, that you'll work it all out, Lord, because you

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are God and you can do it. We pray to you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

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Alright, does anyone have a verse they want to share right now?

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I have one. I have one of my favorite verses on the...I have to look it up because I don't know the first part, but it's

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1 Corinthians 13, 4-5. Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, does not boast, does not

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root, does not self-seeking, does not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrong. I really like that

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verse. It's just really straightforward and tells us what to do pretty much. I love it.

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How long, how high is the love of Christ? How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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How long, how high is the love of Christ? How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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How long, how high is the love of Christ? How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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How long, how high is the love of Christ? How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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More than any heart can measure, more than a heart can hold, is the heart not filled with your trust?

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Well, they all were far, far, far, far high, in the love of Christ. How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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Why is it in the mouth, the teeth of the nail, that we fall within the reach of the sky? Why is it in the mouth, the tongue of the bird, that we pray to the Lord God?

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Why is it in the mouth, the teeth of the nail, that we fall within the reach of the sky? Why is it in the mouth, the tongue of the river, that we pray to the Lord God?

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How long, how high is the love of Christ? How deep, how high is the love of Christ?

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Alright, who's got another verse?

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Luke 6.31 is the golden rule. It's, you have others as you would have done it to yourself. And that's what I saw love as.

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And that's a really generous verse to think about love as. Love is showing others how they should, how you think that people should treat others.

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As Christians we have a different version of love that we are taught, that we're supposed to live by.

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Even in secular schools, at least when I was a kid, I don't think they teach anymore, but the golden rule is treat others the way you want to be treated. Which is where that comes from, not necessarily from the Bible, but that's how it was started.

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It's just a different kind of treatment, different kind of love in some things.

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More love, more power, more human power. More love, more power, more human power.

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More love, more power, more human power. More love, more power, more human power.

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Never wish that you were not my wife. Never wish that you were not my wife. Never wish that you were not my friend.

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That you were my Lord.

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More pain, more passion, more of you in my life. More pain, more passion, more of you in my life.

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Never wish that you were not my wife. Never wish that you were not my wife. Never wish that you were not my friend.

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More you are my love.

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Alright, we've come to that moment in time where we ask ourselves, how's the Lord been speaking?

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Still in the middle of our emphasis on study, we go through May, third weekend in May, to actually 22nd is the fourth Sunday in May.

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So anyway, the fourth Sunday in May. So maybe you've studied something this week, the Lord has spoken to you in some way, maybe you want to share.

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What do you got? I'll go first.

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Okay, so this is an essay written in 2013 by a man named Harry Hain.

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Harry Hain's older, or hot, I don't know how to pronounce the last name for sure.

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The only significance to me, the only reason I even build a map, is because I took a study course studying scripture in Bible college.

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Actually I want to clarify, I think it was in the seminary, but anyway, with this map.

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I'm going to read you a three paragraph opening to this essay.

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And then I'll stop there, and then we'll come back, and I may read one little short snippet later on just so you can kind of see what he's getting at.

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This is what he says, God has chosen to reveal himself and his plan of salvation through the scriptures.

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All scripture is inspired by God, 2nd Timothy 3.16.

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As a result, the Bible is the authority for the people of God concerning doctrine, what we should believe, and ethics, how we should live.

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The Bible is a powerful and life-changing book. It is not merely an historical record or the quest of ancient peoples to understand the mysteries of existence.

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God speaks to us through this book to reveal himself and to change our lives since, quote, the word of God is living and active, unquote.

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It is, quote, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the hearts, unquote, Hebrews 4.12.

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Evangelical Christians say, that's us by the way, Evangelical Christians, Evangelical means Christians who spread the gospel and tell the good news, that's supposed to be us.

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Evangelical Christians say that they believe the Bible's own claim to be God's word.

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They often call their churches, quote, Bible-based, unquote, and they emphasize the preaching and teaching of scripture in both large group and small group gatherings.

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But how does this reflect itself in their daily life?

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How would you recognize a person who loves God's word? Is it not enough just to say the Bible is God's inspired word?

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Is it not enough just to talk about the Bible or to quote the Bible?

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If you really love God's word, it will have an impact on your life.

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A person who really loves the Bible spends regular time reading and studying it.

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As a result, scripture becomes the foundation of this person's worldview.

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He evaluates everything he reads and hears in light of biblical teachings.

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A person who loves the Bible and spends time studying it with a heart open to God cannot help but be changed by the Bible.

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As we listen to God's message and obey it, God shapes our lives so our character becomes more like Jesus Christ.

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The goal of Bible study is not simply biblical literacy in the sense of knowing various facts such as how many good kings were in the northern kingdom of Israel.

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There were none, actually.

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As important as it is to know the theological teachings of the Bible and even to memorize specific passages of scripture,

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that in itself is not a sufficient use of the Bible.

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Since the Bible is God's powerful word, Bible study should transform your life, your thoughts, your values, your attitudes, worldview, and behavior.

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God wants us to become, quote, doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude themselves, unquote, James 1.22.

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Yet even though evangelical Christians often say that the Bible is important to them, the lifestyle of many people reflects a different story.

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A person's true priorities are shown not to be what he says is important, but by how he spends his time.

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If you don't spend time reading, studying, memorizing, meditating on God's word, can you really say that the Bible is important to you?

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In practical terms, do you act as if the Bible really is God's unique and authoritative message to humanity?

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That's the opening part of the essay.

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Now the rest of the essay is different reasons why we should study the Bible.

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I'm going to rattle off a few.

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He says, God commands it.

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Did you know that it is commanded in the Bible to read and study the Bible?

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Even to meditate on the Bible, which is something a lot of people read, some people study, some people read and study, some people read and study and never meditate.

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Some people meditate on the word, something they heard in a sermon or whatever, but never read and study it.

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But it is commanded in the scriptures.

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The Bible is our only sure source of knowledge of God.

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People talk about feeling the Holy Spirit.

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People talk about reading other things, watching something on TV, and going, I think God was talking to me and stuff like that.

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All of that can happen, right?

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But there's one sure place that God can speak to you, and that's in scripture.

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The Bible is food for spiritual growth.

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He's got scripture to back it up, but the bottom line is, like newborn babes, long for milk of the word of the Lord.

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We must long for milk of the word so that by it we may grow in respect to salvation.

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And then it goes on.

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The Bible is food for spiritual growth.

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There is great joy in studying and obeying God's word.

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That's supported with scripture.

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Psalm 119, which is the longest psalm in the Bible, is, you guessed it, entirely about the Bible.

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It's entirely about scripture.

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So if somebody wants to take up the challenge of memorizing all of Psalm 119, by the time you're done, you will know a lot about the Bible

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and probably have a new love for the Bible.

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But studying Psalm 119 is no small task because it is the longest chapter in the Bible.

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Some helpful attitudes in Bible study are, the Bible is God's love letter to humanity.

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We asked the question we were just kind of off the cuff talking to tonight.

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We asked the question, what is the Bible to you?

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We did a recent survey on that. We were talking about it on the morning show.

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They had thousands of answers.

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And one of the answers that regularly came up was the Bible is God's love letter to humanity.

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The most common answer was basic instructions before leaving Earth.

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Which we kind of said we didn't really like that one.

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It's nice, but it's more kind of fluff than true.

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There's so much more in the Bible than instructions.

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So the Bible is God's love letter to humanity.

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And so if someone loved you and sent you a love letter, would you just tuck it away and not read it or study it or not care about it?

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Worship is a reason to study your Bible.

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Psalm 119, 12 basically says, I'm paraphrasing basically to be it right the whole thing here.

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Should stir up your heart to love and praise of God as the psalmist did when he reflected on God's word in Psalm 119.

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And then he mentions that again in 12, 38, 68, 108, and 171.

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And in 171 he says, let my lips utter praise for you teach me your statutes.

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Reliance on the Holy Spirit to give insight.

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I like to be told by God what I should do.

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The Holy Spirit leads me, tells me, or prompts me, makes me feel like I should do something.

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Right? I like that.

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You can get that from the Bible.

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The Holy Spirit inspired the entire book.

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He speaks through every word of it.

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Expectancy.

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We prayerfully read the Scriptures and expect God to teach us what we need to know.

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Willingness to obey.

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We read the Scriptures because we want to do what God tells us to do and in the Scriptures he tells us what to do.

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If you love God and want to follow his directions, you listen to his directions.

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And then the last one that he lists is perseverance.

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Good Bible study takes some work, but it's well worth it.

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We may go back and actually read a few of those chapters in upcoming weeks, but I just wanted to encourage you.

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This just cropped up in my studies this week.

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And it reminded me that we cannot, we can spend a lot of time arguing for study.

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That would probably be a mistake.

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Because the truth is, if you don't want to study, you're just not going to do it.

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And no amount of coursing, no amount of discussion, no amount of pushing is going to make a first do.

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And we really shouldn't.

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Right?

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You can do it out of the love of God.

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Do it because you want to learn.

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Do it because you want to grow.

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Do it because there are things there for you that God has provided.

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Then you'll do it.

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And that's basically it.

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But as I read this, I realized, we talked about it as a discipline.

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It is commanded all throughout Scripture.

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And you see examples of people all throughout Scripture who studied the Bible and brought out amazing treasures from that trove of God's good knowledge.

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Okay?

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Alright, so I wanted to share that with you.

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What else?

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Anybody else got something?

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How about another verse on love?

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You got something?

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Alright?

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Alright, let's hear it.

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God, the world so much that he gave, and he said that they do so now.

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Whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.

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Amen.

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And that's why God sent Jesus, right?

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I've got one on 1838-1839, for I am pursued that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things presented, nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depths, nor anything, any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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Amen.

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So what will separate us from the love of God?

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Nothing.

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Nothing.

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Good stuff.

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This is Ephesians 5-31.

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It says, This is why men will leave his father and his mother and be united with his wife, and the two of them will be one body.

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Amen.

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I think love, obviously mostly the love of God, right, provides that for us, but I think the love that God puts in our hearts makes that possible.

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I don't think love between a man and woman can be not there and then be made one.

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Ron?

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In 1 John chapter 3, he's talking about love and hatred.

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And for this is the message you heard from the beginning, we should love one another, do not be like Cain, if you want to be evil or murder his brother.

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And it goes on and on, but I was really focusing on 14.

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We know that we have passed from death to life because we love each other.

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Anyone who does not love remains in death, which is just yet another strong reason for gathering together as a body,

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because we know that you have transcended death when you love, show love to other people, you're loving people inside the body.

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That's another way of confirming inside yourself, confirming that you're safe.

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It's powerful.

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So as to simply put, it's do you love me?

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If you don't, check yourself.

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Alright, over here, Tim?

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If I speak in the terms of men or angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding dawn for a playing symbol. If I have to give a prophecy, it's the battle of all mysteries and all knowledge.

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And if I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I have nothing.

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If I give all I possess to the Lord and give over my bodies and hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

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Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it does not frown, it does not dishonor others, it does not self-seeking, it does not easily anger, it does no record of progress.

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Love does not delight in evil but enjoys the infiltration and always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.

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Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease, where there are times, they will be still, where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

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But we know in part, and we prophesy in part, that when completeness, completeness, this comes, what is in part disappears and goes on to there.

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And now these three remain faithful in love with the greatest of these of love.

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Ok, who else? Tony Zane.

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Revelation 5, 12-13.

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Sing with a loud voice, where these land that was slain receive power and riches and wisdom and light and honor and glory and blessing, and ever create a thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them I heard say, to him who sits on the throne and to the land be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

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Reading that, I just think about how everyone will say it someday, you know, there will be a day of restoration completely, you know, and dealing with, what I would say, just tales of a broken heart at this time.

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Sometimes I seek after selfish justice, selfish righteousness, you know, just selfishness, selfish anger, but not reaching out to God. The thing is, if it wasn't for Christ's affliction, and us going through that affliction with Christ, we could not endure.

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But there will be a day when we will not have to endure anymore, and there will be a day to all those who continue with Him, because God continued with us, that will not last.

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Like I said, the fruit of His Spirit, there will be a day when there will be just love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

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There will be a day in that, but until then God's Spirit is who helps us endure with such sorrow, but in Him there is no sorrow.

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Amen. All right. So we're going to pray together at this time, and then we'll have tithes and offerings, and then we'll have a little more worship, and maybe a couple more verses in between songs.

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Brother Mike, would you pray for me? Oh, go on. Real quick. So my wife made a comment earlier about how I don't like Valentine's Day.

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Oh, you're going to vindicate yourself now? Okay, let's hear it.

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There's one reason that I did, and this is really the only reason I don't like it, and the biggest thing is because I always felt that if you really love somebody, you shouldn't need a specific day to prove it.

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So if we really show love to those people every day, then Valentine's Day is kind of a joke.

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Yeah. I'd say Valentine's Day is more about romance than it is about love. All right. Brother?

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Father God, we want to thank you for this time we come together. Worship you, learn more about you. God, I should be able to go through our service, be the pastor, bring the blessing.

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Be as we lift our voices, the voice of you. God should be entitled and offering as they're collected. I would think we would be able to do that.

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And God, I pray. We want to thank you for loving us enough to send your Son for us.

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And you guys, your blessings, time, blessings, service, you think.

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Hey, did you want to read the post? Did you want to read the post?

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Yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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Oh,

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yeah.

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I'll do my Bible verse now.

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Okay.

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But it says in Genesis 29, 10, and it came about when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother.

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Verse 11, it says, Then Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept.

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What's significant about that, it sounds romantic. The verse sounds romantic, but it's so much more than that. We have to remember that Jacob represents Israel, and Israel represents the church, and Rachel kind of represents the rest of those who are outside.

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So when they come together and he kisses her and he weeps, reminds me that we're to love other people the way God loves us, and that was his image of how he loved her. The love that I have for my wife, like, there's a lot of times where it makes me want to cry, not because I'm sad, but because I have great joy.

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We should be grateful that we have the opportunity to love, and in loving, like, really experience it. Not romance, I bought you chocolate, I bought you card, I'm the best husband in the world, but really love your wife or really love your brother in Christ or really love the kids.

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Love people and really experience that love, and that's what God made us for.

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Amen.

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I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you.

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Oh my soul rejoice, say joy my King, in what you hear.

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May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.

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I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you.

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Oh my soul rejoice, say joy my King, in what you hear.

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May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.

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May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears.

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Jesus, King of my heart, Father, my peace and my life, Spirit, the joy of my soul you are.

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Jesus, King of my heart, Father, I rest in your care, Spirit, the hope of my heart you are.

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The heavens declare you are done, and the mountains we blow,

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the oceans cry hallelujah, and we worship you Lord, for this is our song of the night.

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Jesus, in your spirit my soul, I'll pray you Lord, forevermore, Jesus, the love of my life you are.

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The heavens declare you are done, and the mountains we blow,

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the oceans cry hallelujah, and we worship you Lord, for this is our song of the night.

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Jesus, I am in awe of the love that you show.

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Jesus, how precious you are to me, to me. The heavens declare you are done, and the mountains we blow,

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the oceans cry hallelujah, and we worship you Lord, for this is our song of the night.

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The heavens declare you are done, and the mountains we blow,

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the oceans cry hallelujah, and we worship you Lord, for this is our song of the night.

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Our song of the night, our song of the night, this is our song of the night.

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Our song of the night, our song of the night, this is our song of the night.

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If you figure it out before we get there, you have to write it down.

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Okay, and that way we'll know. Don't just go blurting it out.

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Alright, so I want to ask you just a simple question for a minute.

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And I think, I hope we can come to an agreement on the answer to this question.

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So I'll ask you to kind of like process it and maybe we can all agree.

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And that is, does God speak?

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Now in the Bible, many times in the Old Testament, God has given human attributes.

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In fact, some would say because we are made in the image of God, God must look like a human.

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Right? You know that's not true, don't you?

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That he doesn't necessarily look like a human.

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Obviously Jesus looked like a human, and you could say that then in some sense we were made sort of like in Jesus' image.

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He was occidental, probably had long hair, often dirty feet, and kind of different mannerisms than you might be used to.

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So I don't think that really even holds.

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But we hear things about the hand of God, right? Reaching down from heaven and making different...

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We hear things about the mouth of God, God spoke, right?

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The heart of God.

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The question is, again, back to it, does God speak?

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Now, we know that in the Bible people heard God.

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We have recorded conversations between God and his people.

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Even between God and not his people.

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You know that, right?

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There were people who didn't know God, that God told them that they would be judged or bad things would happen to them because they were fighting against God, rebelling against God, not on God's side.

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Remember when Pharaoh pled with God and said, hey, but how could you do this?

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This man, why am I being punished? Why is my whole house not having babies?

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Because this man passed his wife off as his sister and I took him into my house.

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That shouldn't cause me to suffer, right?

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Because he deluded me, so why am I...

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And God said to Pharaoh, I understand what you're saying.

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That's why I kept you from sinning against me by taking her in intimacy, right?

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That's Pharaoh.

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No follower of God at all.

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But he pled with God because the Israelites followed God and they knew, even though they didn't want to accept it, they knew that God was real and had power.

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And so they had a conversation with God.

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Abraham, Jacob, others, many people, David, right?

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Tons of people had a conversation.

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So, does God speak?

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But does speaking require a mouth?

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And does God have a mouth such as we have?

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I submit to you that speaking does not necessarily require a mouth.

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Not here to answer the question or even ask the question whether God has a mouth or not.

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We're talking about whether God speaks or not.

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So I think based on scripture, because so many people have testified and written down even by the leadership of the Holy Spirit,

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the conversations that they've had with God, I think, I hope, that you can come around to the idea that God does indeed speak.

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Does he speak through his word?

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I think he does.

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But does he speak?

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I think he does.

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That's the question I want to linger on in our mind then.

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And you grab your Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

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Does it say four? No, it says five. Good, yes, alright.

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I mistakenly sent out the wrong reference at first and then had that fixed.

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And she actually fixed it. She did a good job.

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So 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

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And I'm going to begin reading in verse 19.

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Now there is obviously more in this.

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This is talking about kind of the way Christians should behave and how they should handle themselves and things like that.

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But we're going to drill down on a specific part of it.

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And I'm going to begin reading in verse 19.

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It says, do not quench the spirit.

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And depending on what translation you're reading in, most of them have a semicolon there.

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Do not quench the spirit.

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So first of all, when you quench something, you stifle it or you put it out or you make it small.

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And the spirit is God's Holy Spirit.

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In fact, the word here is the word that they always use for God's Holy Spirit.

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There are some other words for spirit.

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A word you might be familiar with like psyche.

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That's where we get psyche from.

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From the Greek, that's that word. That's the human spirit.

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This is not that. This is God's Spirit. God's Holy Spirit.

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So think about it for a minute. We can, we have the ability, written to Christians,

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we have the ability as Christians to quench God's Holy Spirit, to stifle it, to stutter it, to stop it.

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And it is actually a hymn.

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And so if you were trying to do something and I came up and I was pushing you,

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so Ricky, you're going to run out the car, you've got to buy buns for dinner or something, right?

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You forgot to get that maybe.

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And I show up and I'm on your sidewalk and you're heading to the car to buy buns.

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And I'm there and I'm putting my hands on your chest and I'm pushing you back

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because you're trying to walk to the car, right?

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And you're like, damn, what are you doing, man?

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Because you like me, at least I hope you do, you're supposed to love me even if you don't,

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you don't beat me up, right, or whatever.

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You don't kill me. You don't throw me in a ditch somewhere.

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You know, don't stuff me in the trunk and take me to go buy buns with you.

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So you're just like, why are you pushing on my, why are you stopping me from,

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you try to dodge around me, whatever, try to get done what you're trying to get done.

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I'm stifling you, I'm quenching you.

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Eventually you're going to say, dude, I don't need the buns that bad.

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I'm just going to go back in here, we're going to eat the hamburgers without buns, right?

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And then when I turn around to go home, you're going to run to the car and go buy the buns, right, trick me, right?

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Okay, so stifling, quenching, we're talking about smashing it back, putting it down,

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stopping God the Holy Spirit from working.

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The command not to do that means we can do that.

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You understand?

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And Paul is writing here, don't do that.

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Don't stop God the Holy Spirit from working in you.

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Now, if it's God the Holy Spirit that cleanses, if it's God the Holy Spirit that regenerates,

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if it's God the Holy Spirit that seals, and if He can cleanse and regenerate and seal,

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then you don't want to stop Him.

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Understand?

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We don't want to stop Him from doing what He wants to do,

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which is to bring us and keep us in right relationship with God, to heal us and cleanse us internally.

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We don't want to stop Him.

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But the fact remains, based on this verse, we can stop Him.

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Do not quench God's Holy Spirit. Verse 20 then says,

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Do not despise prophetic utterances.

407
00:49:28,200 --> 00:49:34,200
Now, you can tell by the topic of the sermon that we're going to come back here in the points,

408
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:41,200
but to despise something is to think little of it or to make it of no consequence.

409
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:46,200
And a prophetic utterance here is basically, and I'll simply say it now,

410
00:49:46,200 --> 00:49:49,200
and then I'll break it down a little bit more when we come back to it,

411
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:54,200
it basically is when God speaks through someone or someone speaks on behalf of God,

412
00:49:54,200 --> 00:50:03,200
and then to despise that would be to make it little or to make it useless when someone speaks on behalf of God.

413
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:06,200
Again, we'll come back to that in a minute.

414
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:12,200
Then 20, I'm sorry, then 21, but examine everything carefully.

415
00:50:12,200 --> 00:50:17,200
So now to examine something, it might be to get your little magnifying glass out and look at it closely,

416
00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:20,200
like, oh, I see a fingerprint or I see some small detail,

417
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:25,200
put it under a microscope to take a good hard look at something, right, is to examine it.

418
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:31,200
And to do so carefully then would be more than just a cursory examination.

419
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:37,200
Oh, it's red. Oh, it has writing here. Oh, writing's kind of faded.

420
00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:41,200
I can see, oh, let's see what, it's going to have to look a little more deeply into this here.

421
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:44,200
Oh, look, it's broke down into chapters and verses,

422
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:48,200
and there's some big words that I might, I don't even know what they mean.

423
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:50,200
I might have to look closely at that, right.

424
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:56,200
To examine something carefully is to pour your effort into examining that thing, right.

425
00:50:56,200 --> 00:51:02,200
Notice then it says, examine everything carefully.

426
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:05,200
Now that's troublesome if it's literally everything,

427
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:09,200
because I've never really taken a long hard look at the insect world.

428
00:51:09,200 --> 00:51:14,200
I've really never turned over leaves on a thousand trees to see what might be found underneath.

429
00:51:14,200 --> 00:51:17,200
I don't really know that much about how a car works.

430
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:19,200
I understand the basic science behind it,

431
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:21,200
and I know if a part's bad and you replace it,

432
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:24,200
unless it's caused some other problem or there is some other problem,

433
00:51:24,200 --> 00:51:26,200
that would generally make the car work correctly,

434
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:30,200
although I am without the skill to replace the parts most of the time.

435
00:51:30,200 --> 00:51:34,200
So if I'm to examine everything carefully, I would say I have failed at that.

436
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,200
But we understand in the context of these verses

437
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:41,200
that he is not talking about literal everything, right.

438
00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,200
Let's go back and look at it for one second.

439
00:51:43,200 --> 00:51:45,200
Come back to where we started.

440
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:47,200
Do not quench the spirit, semicolon.

441
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:50,200
Do not despise prophetic utterances, period.

442
00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:52,200
So those two things go right together.

443
00:51:52,200 --> 00:51:54,200
But examine everything carefully.

444
00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:59,200
So now that's in contrast to the statement, do not despise prophetic utterances.

445
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:01,200
So what is he really talking about looking hard at?

446
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:03,200
What is he really talking about examining?

447
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:09,200
He's talking about examining that which pretends to be or that which actually is a prophetic utterance.

448
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:14,200
If it's a word from God, you better get your butt in gear and look heartily at it,

449
00:52:14,200 --> 00:52:18,200
which means right now if there is a chance that sometime while I'm up here preaching today,

450
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:23,200
I'm going to say something from God, your thinking cap should be on all the time.

451
00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:27,200
You should be taking notes or processing internally that which we're talking about.

452
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:31,200
Somehow or other you've got to get yourself wrapped around the concept

453
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:37,200
that sometime here today God may say something through me or even through you.

454
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,200
Because you can go off on a rabbit trail and be thinking about what I'm saying

455
00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:45,200
and you might go, oh, you know, yesterday when I said or yesterday when I saw or last week when I saw,

456
00:52:45,200 --> 00:52:51,200
I now realize God was saying something to me and I missed it.

457
00:52:51,200 --> 00:52:53,200
And you can't.

458
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:59,200
Because here is a scriptural command to examine everything carefully, semicolon.

459
00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:06,200
Hold fast to that which is good, semicolon, abstain from every form of evil.

460
00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:14,200
So now we have this, the goal of examining everything carefully is to sort it into two piles.

461
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:19,200
Good, bad, simply put.

462
00:53:19,200 --> 00:53:21,200
Hold fast.

463
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:25,200
One of my favorite movies of all time.

464
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:30,200
Master and Commander, if you're not really fond of the period era which is tall ships,

465
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:34,200
sailing ships when the English Navy essentially sailed the world

466
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:39,200
and fought all takers if necessary to deliver justice and righteousness

467
00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:44,200
as was defined by their monarchy.

468
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:47,200
I enjoy that era a lot and I love that movie Master and Commander.

469
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:52,200
I read the series of books, the first 18 or so of them because there's like 20 some.

470
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:57,200
I read the first 18 of those books and one of those books was called Master and Commander

471
00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:59,200
and the movie was called Master and Commander.

472
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:04,200
And in there, there's an old guy and he gets shot in the head during a combat early on

473
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:08,200
and they wind up having the surgeon installs a little metal plate, uses a spoon actually,

474
00:54:08,200 --> 00:54:10,200
takes the end off a spoon and installs it in his head.

475
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:14,200
And then later he starts to get to be okay again and he's doing stuff.

476
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:21,200
And on his hands he is tattooed, hold fast.

477
00:54:21,200 --> 00:54:28,200
Hold fast means don't quit, stand up, grip it, be ready, be diligent, be hard working.

478
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:33,200
You know, you duck when enemy fire comes in but as soon as the fire stops, you go.

479
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:37,200
And the fact is if you have to go while the fire is still coming in, you go.

480
00:54:37,200 --> 00:54:40,200
Hold fast, do what's right.

481
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:45,200
And in this case, it's applying specifically to that which we were to be examining carefully.

482
00:54:45,200 --> 00:54:47,200
And what is that again?

483
00:54:47,200 --> 00:54:49,200
The prophetic utterances of God.

484
00:54:49,200 --> 00:54:53,200
When God speaks, when God says something through His people or through His Word

485
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:58,200
or through your life or through your experiences, you hold fast to that.

486
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:04,200
Once upon a time in my life, for example, I became burned out.

487
00:55:04,200 --> 00:55:07,200
I got to the point where I basically was ready to quit the ministry,

488
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:10,200
not because I didn't think it was what God wanted me to do,

489
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:17,200
not because I was mad at anybody or disappointed in my church or anything like that,

490
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:22,200
but I had just gone so fast and so hard for so long that I got burned out.

491
00:55:22,200 --> 00:55:24,200
It's a chemical reaction that happens in your body.

492
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:26,200
It's akin to depression.

493
00:55:26,200 --> 00:55:29,200
During my depression, if you want to call it that, or my burned out state,

494
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:32,200
I went to Meyers grocery store over on Wheeling and I went to get peanut butter.

495
00:55:32,200 --> 00:55:35,200
Now we have always bought, even Sherry prefers,

496
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:39,200
Jif crunchy peanut butter over any other kind of peanut butter that's out there.

497
00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:41,200
And so we had always bought Jif crunchy peanut butter,

498
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:44,200
except in eras of our lives when Sherry wasn't eating much peanut butter

499
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:46,200
or when we already had Jif peanut butter but I didn't want to rot.

500
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:48,200
Then I would buy the Meyers brand of peanut butter.

501
00:55:48,200 --> 00:55:51,200
This was an era of our lives when Sherry was not eating much peanut butter.

502
00:55:51,200 --> 00:55:54,200
And so for years, by that time, probably two or three years,

503
00:55:54,200 --> 00:55:57,200
I had always gone to Meyers and bought Meyers crunchy peanut butter

504
00:55:57,200 --> 00:55:59,200
because it's cheaper than Jif.

505
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:01,200
I'm not doing commercials for anybody or anything,

506
00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:05,200
but the bottom line is it's cheaper and to me it's basically almost as good.

507
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:09,200
So I tend to err toward being cheap as you might know.

508
00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:12,200
And so I'm standing there in the aisle and it's been about two years

509
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:16,200
since I bought any peanut butter other than Meyers crunchy peanut butter.

510
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,200
And I stood in the aisle in front of the peanut butter for 45 minutes

511
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:23,200
debating with myself which peanut butter to buy.

512
00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:27,200
That's burnout. You can't go any further.

513
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:30,200
I couldn't move my feet to walk toward the shelf

514
00:56:30,200 --> 00:56:34,200
to grab the Meyers peanut butter that I had bought the last seven times

515
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,200
or whatever because I was burned out.

516
00:56:36,200 --> 00:56:38,200
Out of that then, I went back and said,

517
00:56:38,200 --> 00:56:42,200
if I'm going to do this thing that God has set for me to do,

518
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:44,200
and I knew I was supposed to pastor, in fact, I knew I was supposed to pastor

519
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:46,200
this church even back then. It was what God had called me to.

520
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:48,200
I knew that. I had a clear calling from God.

521
00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:51,200
And if I was going to follow that prophetic utterance of God,

522
00:56:51,200 --> 00:56:55,200
I needed another prophetic utterance of God to understand what was going on

523
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:58,200
in my life that led me to a place of burnout so I couldn't spend 45 minutes

524
00:56:58,200 --> 00:57:00,200
picking out the peanut butter.

525
00:57:00,200 --> 00:57:03,200
Because nobody can spend 45 minutes picking out peanut butter.

526
00:57:03,200 --> 00:57:05,200
You don't have that kind of time in life.

527
00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:07,200
Or you do that on peanut butter and you've got seven other products like that.

528
00:57:07,200 --> 00:57:10,200
Next thing you know, they've got that machine out

529
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:12,200
and they're cleaning the floor in the store

530
00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:16,200
and you're still standing in front of whatever product debating what they're going to do.

531
00:57:16,200 --> 00:57:21,200
And so what I did was I sought God. I prayed. I read the scripture and so on.

532
00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:24,200
And God began to lay out for me a strategy for my life.

533
00:57:24,200 --> 00:57:26,200
Starting with a passion statement. He said, this is what you'll do.

534
00:57:26,200 --> 00:57:29,200
Now I've not memorized my passion statement. It's on the website.

535
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:31,200
I can tell you what it basically says.

536
00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:35,200
It says that I will creatively share the gospel in any way that I can think of doing it.

537
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,200
And that's what I have tried to do.

538
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:39,200
Have I been successful? No.

539
00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:41,200
The truth is I've not.

540
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:43,200
I've missed many opportunities to share the gospel.

541
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:46,200
But the truth also is I always come back to that strategy

542
00:57:46,200 --> 00:57:48,200
and I know that that's the prophetic utterance.

543
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:52,200
And so when I have nothing else, when I don't know what else to do, I do that.

544
00:57:55,200 --> 00:57:57,200
Hold fast to that which is good.

545
00:57:57,200 --> 00:58:02,200
Figure out what part of your life is God have you investing in.

546
00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:05,200
And you will get that from the prophetic utterances of the Lord.

547
00:58:05,200 --> 00:58:08,200
You will figure out what your passion is, what you care about, what you can do,

548
00:58:08,200 --> 00:58:11,200
what your talents are, what your direction is, and so on.

549
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:15,200
And when God says things like, let go of your anger,

550
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:17,200
you will work on letting go of your anger.

551
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,200
You will hold that truth.

552
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:21,200
In fact, every time you get angry then, you should say,

553
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,200
okay, is this an anger I need to immediately let go of

554
00:58:23,200 --> 00:58:27,200
because I know that's something I'm supposed to do, and so on.

555
00:58:27,200 --> 00:58:31,200
If you wrote down now, took a blank piece of paper and started numbering them

556
00:58:31,200 --> 00:58:35,200
what are the things I know from Scripture, from what I've been told of God,

557
00:58:35,200 --> 00:58:38,200
what God has said to me, and wrote down what you're supposed to do?

558
00:58:38,200 --> 00:58:40,200
Could you fill the page?

559
00:58:40,200 --> 00:58:44,200
Could you get just one that you're actively doing all the time,

560
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:47,200
that you're always thinking about?

561
00:58:47,200 --> 00:58:49,200
Because that's what this verse is calling us to.

562
00:58:49,200 --> 00:58:52,200
Hold fast to that which is good, that which comes out of the teachings of God,

563
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:54,200
that you know, that you know came from God.

564
00:58:54,200 --> 00:58:56,200
Hold to that.

565
00:58:56,200 --> 00:58:57,200
Grip it with all your might.

566
00:58:57,200 --> 00:58:59,200
Don't let it go no matter what.

567
00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:01,200
Two weeks ago I stood up here and I said,

568
00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:04,200
you need to adopt, if you really want to be passionately serving the Lord,

569
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:06,200
you need to adopt this saying,

570
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:11,200
you'll have to kill me to stop me from doing what God has called me to do.

571
00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:19,200
When I said that, my very heart was chilled.

572
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:20,200
Can we?

573
00:59:20,200 --> 00:59:23,200
Well, to do so, you're going to need to understand

574
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:27,200
when it's a prophetic utterance of the Lord and when it's not.

575
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:32,200
And this verse commands us to examine everything that could be carefully.

576
00:59:32,200 --> 00:59:34,200
Hold fast to that which is good.

577
00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:36,200
Take the pieces of it that you know are right,

578
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:38,200
the things that God would command you to do,

579
00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:40,200
and then dismiss the rest.

580
00:59:40,200 --> 00:59:43,200
It says abstain from every form of evil.

581
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:46,200
Kid yourself not, we have an active enemy,

582
00:59:46,200 --> 00:59:50,200
and he will prod you to do what's wrong.

583
00:59:50,200 --> 00:59:56,200
Not every spirit that is in the world right now is the Spirit of God.

584
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:59,200
We don't want to quench the Spirit of God, that's where we started at.

585
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:02,200
So when we experience something in the Spirit,

586
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:05,200
we want it naturally, if you don't want to quench the Spirit,

587
01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:08,200
you go, okay, maybe this is something I need to do something about.

588
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:10,200
Maybe this is something I need to move on, right?

589
01:00:10,200 --> 01:00:14,200
Or I just need to say or do this because that's what I feel.

590
01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:18,200
The problem is, much of what we feel is not actually from God.

591
01:00:18,200 --> 01:00:22,200
It's from our flesh, which is one of your chief and foremost enemies.

592
01:00:22,200 --> 01:00:26,200
Or it's from an evil spirit that's messing with your heart, your mind,

593
01:00:26,200 --> 01:00:33,200
your situation, whatever, which is basically the rest of our enemies.

594
01:00:33,200 --> 01:00:36,200
So he says hold fast to that which is good,

595
01:00:36,200 --> 01:00:39,200
and abstain from every form of evil.

596
01:00:39,200 --> 01:00:42,200
We go just a little further in the text, it says 23,

597
01:00:42,200 --> 01:00:45,200
now may the God of peace himself,

598
01:00:45,200 --> 01:00:48,200
why do you think he says the God of peace there?

599
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:50,200
God's a God of a lot of things.

600
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:53,200
Why is he specifically calling the God of peace?

601
01:00:53,200 --> 01:00:58,200
Because out of this process that he is calling us to comes that peace.

602
01:00:58,200 --> 01:01:01,200
Now it doesn't come from you or your best understanding

603
01:01:01,200 --> 01:01:06,200
or your intellectual ability to dissolve the mess and get the rest out of the way.

604
01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:08,200
It comes from God.

605
01:01:08,200 --> 01:01:13,200
The prophetic utterances of God have this purpose that he would instill in us a peace.

606
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:16,200
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify,

607
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:20,200
that means clean you up and set you apart for something special,

608
01:01:20,200 --> 01:01:23,200
sanctify you entirely,

609
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:28,200
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete

610
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:32,200
without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

611
01:01:32,200 --> 01:01:35,200
See, here's what's going on.

612
01:01:35,200 --> 01:01:39,200
Because we understand that there is a new us and an old us,

613
01:01:39,200 --> 01:01:43,200
we want to deal with and embrace the new us, don't we?

614
01:01:43,200 --> 01:01:46,200
We want to be the new person.

615
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:49,200
All old things have passed away, I am a new creation in Christ.

616
01:01:49,200 --> 01:01:51,200
I want to be the new person.

617
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:56,200
Well that new person is soul, body, mind.

618
01:01:56,200 --> 01:02:00,200
See, our body has desires.

619
01:02:00,200 --> 01:02:04,200
And you want to eat too much sweets, you want to stay up too late,

620
01:02:04,200 --> 01:02:09,200
you want members of the opposite sex, whatever.

621
01:02:09,200 --> 01:02:13,200
Our bodies have physical desires.

622
01:02:13,200 --> 01:02:18,200
And we feel like we have to divorce ourselves from those physical desires.

623
01:02:18,200 --> 01:02:20,200
We say, well my body wants this,

624
01:02:20,200 --> 01:02:23,200
but my heart, which is regenerated in the Lord,

625
01:02:23,200 --> 01:02:27,200
knows that's not good for me so I'm going to not do it.

626
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:29,200
I'm not going to go there.

627
01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:34,200
My mind perceives this, I get this, I think this, I'm feeling like this,

628
01:02:34,200 --> 01:02:37,200
so I'm going to do a certain action.

629
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:42,200
Well no, I'm a new creation so my mind is wrong, my heart is what's right.

630
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:47,200
Knock it off, both of you.

631
01:02:47,200 --> 01:02:51,200
I brought you here, I can send you home.

632
01:02:51,200 --> 01:02:55,200
Thank you.

633
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:58,200
My mind wants me to go a certain direction,

634
01:02:58,200 --> 01:03:01,200
my regenerated heart knows better,

635
01:03:01,200 --> 01:03:03,200
so then I'm going to divorce myself.

636
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:09,200
But Paul writes that it is our hearts, our bodies, our minds,

637
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:16,200
all of you completely in entirety without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

638
01:03:16,200 --> 01:03:21,200
So you have to do the work to get your mind doing what it's supposed to do.

639
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:23,200
How do you do it?

640
01:03:23,200 --> 01:03:26,200
By paying attention to the prophetic utterances, the Word of God.

641
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:31,200
Paying attention to what it is that God has said.

642
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:33,200
And then the last verse,

643
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:38,200
Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass.

644
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:42,200
See the burden could be on us, but thankfully it's not.

645
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:46,200
When you're sorting out the utterances, the good and the bad,

646
01:03:46,200 --> 01:03:50,200
the bad might be your utterances but the good are his.

647
01:03:50,200 --> 01:03:56,200
And when you get all the good together, now you've got something to work with.

648
01:03:56,200 --> 01:03:59,200
You've got gas in the tank, your car is fixed,

649
01:03:59,200 --> 01:04:02,200
you're capable of moving forward and doing what it's got to do

650
01:04:02,200 --> 01:04:09,200
because if something that's bad presses in, then you can dismiss it.

651
01:04:09,200 --> 01:04:11,200
You can abstain from it.

652
01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:14,200
Alright, so we're in the points then.

653
01:04:14,200 --> 01:04:18,200
First of all let me ask a couple of questions.

654
01:04:18,200 --> 01:04:23,200
What does it mean to despise prophetic utterances?

655
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:27,200
Remember we said that the word despise means to make something small.

656
01:04:27,200 --> 01:04:31,200
Despise means to make it look little or be insignificant.

657
01:04:31,200 --> 01:04:37,200
Why would anyone ever despise or make insignificance or make it look small

658
01:04:37,200 --> 01:04:40,200
the teaching, the speaking of God?

659
01:04:40,200 --> 01:04:42,200
Why would anyone ever do that?

660
01:04:42,200 --> 01:04:45,200
Well, there is an obvious first answer, right?

661
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:51,200
What is the obvious first answer to why anyone would ever despise the teachings of God?

662
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:55,200
Not rhetorical, go ahead and answer it.

663
01:04:55,200 --> 01:05:00,200
They don't believe in God, they're not a follower of God, they don't care about God, they hate God.

664
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,200
You say, well no, they don't hate God, they just don't care.

665
01:05:03,200 --> 01:05:06,200
There's love and there's hate and they're opposites, you're in one camp or the other.

666
01:05:06,200 --> 01:05:11,200
So if they're refusing God who sent his own son to die for them, they hate God.

667
01:05:11,200 --> 01:05:15,200
They may not act out in their hate, but they will just passively resist

668
01:05:15,200 --> 01:05:18,200
and continue to hate God as they go on, it's one or the other.

669
01:05:18,200 --> 01:05:21,200
If you go up to somebody who just flat out does not believe in God

670
01:05:21,200 --> 01:05:24,200
and they say I'm not a Christian and you tell them they hate God,

671
01:05:24,200 --> 01:05:27,200
they will get mad at you.

672
01:05:27,200 --> 01:05:29,200
I understand that, so I'm not saying you should do that.

673
01:05:29,200 --> 01:05:34,200
But what I am saying is there's love and there's hate, that's it.

674
01:05:34,200 --> 01:05:36,200
Say I like God, I just don't want to follow him.

675
01:05:36,200 --> 01:05:40,200
No, that's hate, that's not like.

676
01:05:40,200 --> 01:05:44,200
Because God did everything necessary already and is waiting in the wings

677
01:05:44,200 --> 01:05:47,200
with all the power of creation, all the power of resurrection,

678
01:05:47,200 --> 01:05:52,200
all the power of God himself waiting in the wings to be unleashed in your life,

679
01:05:52,200 --> 01:05:56,200
to perform, to do what you've got to do, and you're saying no.

680
01:05:56,200 --> 01:05:58,200
You're stifling him.

681
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:02,200
The moment that Ricky is trying to walk down the pathway to his car to go buy buns

682
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:06,200
and I show up and start pushing him or tackling him or shoving him around,

683
01:06:06,200 --> 01:06:09,200
he's going to get worked up.

684
01:06:09,200 --> 01:06:13,200
Because my actions are not loving, unless I happen to know, of course,

685
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:15,200
that when he gets in the car he's going to get hit by a semi

686
01:06:15,200 --> 01:06:18,200
that's about to roar by a Dreard in Rochester, and I know this somehow,

687
01:06:18,200 --> 01:06:20,200
and I'm stopping him because of that now,

688
01:06:20,200 --> 01:06:22,200
but to him it wouldn't seem loving no matter what.

689
01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:27,200
And that's how people who don't know God, don't like God, don't care about God,

690
01:06:27,200 --> 01:06:29,200
don't want to follow God, that's how they see it.

691
01:06:29,200 --> 01:06:32,200
When God resists them in their lives, when they face wrath,

692
01:06:32,200 --> 01:06:37,200
we were once objects of wrath, when they face that, they see it as either

693
01:06:37,200 --> 01:06:45,200
A. a completely random force, or B. God is against me, and they just resist even more.

694
01:06:45,200 --> 01:06:46,200
So they hate God.

695
01:06:46,200 --> 01:06:53,200
The point is, that is one very good reason why one might despise the prophetic utterance of the Lord,

696
01:06:53,200 --> 01:07:01,200
but if someone is a believer, why might someone despise the prophetic utterance of the Lord?

697
01:07:01,200 --> 01:07:04,200
Well, first of all, it goes into what are the prophetic utterances.

698
01:07:04,200 --> 01:07:06,200
What is it actually? What is a prophetic utterance?

699
01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:14,200
Well, the word that's actually here is the word profeteria, like cafeteria, profeteria.

700
01:07:14,200 --> 01:07:17,200
So it's like cafeteria, right?

701
01:07:17,200 --> 01:07:22,200
You go through the cafeteria line, and here's, you can have Salisbury steak today,

702
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:24,200
or you can have chicken parmesan, your choice, which one you want.

703
01:07:24,200 --> 01:07:27,200
We're going to have one of each, right?

704
01:07:27,200 --> 01:07:29,200
And so it's just like that.

705
01:07:29,200 --> 01:07:30,200
Now, that's not what it means.

706
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:35,200
What it means is the full body of God's prophetic teachings, the full body of God speaking.

707
01:07:35,200 --> 01:07:42,200
So we have some collected permanent storage of literal prophets, people who had the job.

708
01:07:42,200 --> 01:07:45,200
They actually got hired, and you say who hired them?

709
01:07:45,200 --> 01:07:50,200
Well, God selected them, and then they got hired by the general populace, right?

710
01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:53,200
You know who called Jonah a prophet of God?

711
01:07:53,200 --> 01:07:55,200
Well, you know God did, right? But who else?

712
01:07:55,200 --> 01:07:58,200
Everybody in Israel, right?

713
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:02,200
Everybody who was a follower of God saw Jonah as a prophet of God.

714
01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:09,200
Okay? So we can go to Micah, we can go to Joel, we can go to Amos, we can go to Daniel,

715
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:11,200
we can go to Isaiah, we can go to Jeremiah.

716
01:08:11,200 --> 01:08:13,200
They're all literal prophets of God.

717
01:08:13,200 --> 01:08:19,200
So everything that they said that was later recorded by the Holy Spirit, that is profiteria.

718
01:08:19,200 --> 01:08:22,200
Propheteria. Okay?

719
01:08:22,200 --> 01:08:27,200
However, so is every time you're going down the road and you see something happening on the side of the road

720
01:08:27,200 --> 01:08:34,200
and you think, God, that's pretty significant, and God says, yeah, I want you to do something about that.

721
01:08:34,200 --> 01:08:37,200
And you keep, go right on driving.

722
01:08:37,200 --> 01:08:43,200
You just ignored the prophetic utterance of the Lord, right?

723
01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:47,200
Why would someone who is a believer ignore the prophetic utterance of the Lord?

724
01:08:47,200 --> 01:08:49,200
Well, it comes down to a few things.

725
01:08:49,200 --> 01:08:52,200
So the first reason might be, you don't know what it is.

726
01:08:52,200 --> 01:08:54,200
You know how to tell the difference.

727
01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:59,200
And you are commanded to know what it is, we just read it, and to be able to tell the difference.

728
01:08:59,200 --> 01:09:01,200
You're commanded to.

729
01:09:01,200 --> 01:09:09,200
If you don't know when it's a prophetic utterance and when it's not, and you're not applying yourself

730
01:09:09,200 --> 01:09:13,200
to be able to sort them, you're in sin.

731
01:09:13,200 --> 01:09:15,200
Let's be frank, right?

732
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:17,200
The Bible says, do it, so do it.

733
01:09:17,200 --> 01:09:19,200
You're not doing it.

734
01:09:19,200 --> 01:09:20,200
You're not preparing yourself to do it.

735
01:09:20,200 --> 01:09:22,200
You're not taking the necessary steps to be able to do it.

736
01:09:22,200 --> 01:09:25,200
You're in sin.

737
01:09:25,200 --> 01:09:30,200
There's a reason why somebody would not, why somebody would despise the prophetic utterance of the Lord.

738
01:09:30,200 --> 01:09:34,200
Why they would not listen to them, because they're in sin.

739
01:09:34,200 --> 01:09:37,200
They're in sin, have not equipped themselves to be able to do it.

740
01:09:37,200 --> 01:09:40,200
They're not actively examining everything to sort out what it is.

741
01:09:40,200 --> 01:09:44,200
And so they're not doing it.

742
01:09:44,200 --> 01:09:49,200
Once you're in sin like that, you're confused about what is a prophetic utterance and what isn't.

743
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:57,200
Then it's pretty easy to follow voices, direction, promotional advertising, whatever, to go some way

744
01:09:57,200 --> 01:10:00,200
other than the way that God would have you to go.

745
01:10:00,200 --> 01:10:02,200
There is a body of teachings delivered by everybody.

746
01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:04,200
Don't think that the enemy doesn't have a message.

747
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:05,200
It's anti-God.

748
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:08,200
There is not an inch of terrain anywhere in the mega-verse

749
01:10:08,200 --> 01:10:12,200
that God has ever claimed that Satan didn't also claim it.

750
01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:17,200
And think about how he could take it away.

751
01:10:17,200 --> 01:10:24,200
So, how do you, number one, know when it's a prophetic utterance and when it isn't?

752
01:10:24,200 --> 01:10:28,200
Number two, how do you actively examine the prophetic utterances

753
01:10:28,200 --> 01:10:33,200
to determine when they actually are and when they aren't?

754
01:10:33,200 --> 01:10:40,200
And then we'll get on in a moment to how do you hold fast to the ones that you find out are good

755
01:10:40,200 --> 01:10:44,200
and dismiss the ones that you find out are not of God.

756
01:10:44,200 --> 01:10:48,200
So, first of all, basic steps, I'm not going to dwell on any of this,

757
01:10:48,200 --> 01:10:51,200
basic steps of how you can know what a prophetic utterance is.

758
01:10:51,200 --> 01:10:59,200
Number one, if you compare whatever it is that you think might be a prophetic utterance to this book in the text,

759
01:10:59,200 --> 01:11:03,200
use the little concordance in the back, use your little electronic Bible,

760
01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:07,200
sort out verses that talk about the same thing, what you think might be a prophetic utterance from God,

761
01:11:07,200 --> 01:11:10,200
and you find something that is contrary to what you're hearing.

762
01:11:10,200 --> 01:11:17,200
God says, I should put my job and go over here and take this job instead.

763
01:11:17,200 --> 01:11:20,200
And you're like, well, I don't think my job is talked about in the Bible.

764
01:11:20,200 --> 01:11:23,200
But then you think about why am I actually thinking about quitting my job?

765
01:11:23,200 --> 01:11:28,200
Well, I'm having a personality conflict with so-and-so and it just makes my job kind of unbearable.

766
01:11:28,200 --> 01:11:31,200
This job over here doesn't have that, so that's why I'm thinking about it.

767
01:11:31,200 --> 01:11:34,200
Okay, God, should I quit? Yeah, quit, go over there.

768
01:11:34,200 --> 01:11:43,200
Then you go in the scripture and you find words or commands that say, no, stand your ground, be a light for Christ, etc.

769
01:11:43,200 --> 01:11:47,200
Now there's a substantial possibility that it is not a prophetic utterance of God.

770
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:53,200
So you can't just as easily say, I'm going to do that, just what the heck, it's in the will of the Lord, He wants me to do it.

771
01:11:53,200 --> 01:11:58,200
Because you have to drill down on it, examine it, think about it, it's my personal motivations.

772
01:11:58,200 --> 01:12:05,200
Clearly examine both jobs, for example, in that analogy, and decide at which one can I most serve God?

773
01:12:05,200 --> 01:12:08,200
I'm serving the Lord, will I be able to over there?

774
01:12:08,200 --> 01:12:10,200
I don't actually know because I don't know what it's like over there.

775
01:12:10,200 --> 01:12:13,200
I'm witnessing, I get this guy I've been talking to.

776
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:17,200
Oh, that's a big deal, well, I'm helping people, I'm making a difference.

777
01:12:17,200 --> 01:12:21,200
If I go over here, will I be able to do that? I don't actually know because I don't work over there.

778
01:12:21,200 --> 01:12:25,200
Now you have to, that's what it means to examine it.

779
01:12:25,200 --> 01:12:30,200
First you start by, is there something contrary in scripture?

780
01:12:30,200 --> 01:12:34,200
Just tell, the person says, why weren't you at work yesterday?

781
01:12:34,200 --> 01:12:39,200
You say, well, I was sick. You weren't sick, you had another problem going on, but you don't want to talk about that other problem.

782
01:12:39,200 --> 01:12:45,200
You say, well, I was sick. And in the moment you feel justified in saying that.

783
01:12:45,200 --> 01:12:49,200
Say, well, I think God would have me just say I was sick rather than get into all those details.

784
01:12:49,200 --> 01:12:53,200
It's actually complaining, right? If I complain about what was going on in my life, then that's all complaining.

785
01:12:53,200 --> 01:12:56,200
I don't want to do that, so God don't want me to get into all that, so I'm just going to say I was sick.

786
01:12:56,200 --> 01:13:00,200
So if you feel like God is telling you to say you're sick, or you saw somebody tell you,

787
01:13:00,200 --> 01:13:04,200
or somebody else do that and get away with it, or you know people do that and get away with it,

788
01:13:04,200 --> 01:13:08,200
you think that that might be something God would allow, but scripture says, basically,

789
01:13:08,200 --> 01:13:13,200
thou shalt not bear false witness. So it's a lie. So now you know you can't do that.

790
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:18,200
It's as simple as working with sin. Anything the Bible says you cannot do that is not good for you,

791
01:13:18,200 --> 01:13:21,200
it's not good for the kingdom, not good for God, you can't do it.

792
01:13:21,200 --> 01:13:26,200
So you examine the prophetic utterances first in the light of what the scripture says.

793
01:13:26,200 --> 01:13:31,200
Secondly, once you get to the point where now you start to have doubts, you look very seriously at each course of action

794
01:13:31,200 --> 01:13:35,200
and figure out which one will honor God the most.

795
01:13:35,200 --> 01:13:40,200
So you see somebody on the side of the road and you feel like there's a prophetic utterance to stop and do something about it,

796
01:13:40,200 --> 01:13:43,200
and you say, well, could that honor God? Is there some way God could use that?

797
01:13:43,200 --> 01:13:46,200
Well, yeah, he could, because you get a new relationship, could share the gospel,

798
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:52,200
could mitigate someone's suffering, could deal justice, could show mercy, kindness, love,

799
01:13:52,200 --> 01:13:57,200
all these people are driving by and I can be different from the world because I can stop and do something about it.

800
01:13:57,200 --> 01:14:03,200
So now you've got all the possibilities on the table that it could be that God is telling you to stop and do something about it.

801
01:14:03,200 --> 01:14:09,200
And over here are some restrictions, some reasons why, well, I don't want to be delayed, I don't want to face trouble,

802
01:14:09,200 --> 01:14:15,200
I could be in danger, so-and-so is waiting on me, right, and certain reasons why not to do it.

803
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:21,200
Now, you know what those sound like? I mean, you can hear it. They're excuses.

804
01:14:21,200 --> 01:14:24,200
They sound like excuses because they are excuses.

805
01:14:24,200 --> 01:14:28,200
And when you start to realize, okay, in this pile I've got excuses, in this pile I've got the possibility of glorifying God,

806
01:14:28,200 --> 01:14:32,200
then that's a pretty good way to think that that is a prophetic utterance from the Lord,

807
01:14:32,200 --> 01:14:37,200
to do what it is that God has called you to do.

808
01:14:37,200 --> 01:14:43,200
Why would a person ignore or make small the prophetic utterances of God?

809
01:14:43,200 --> 01:14:48,200
First of all, because they are not a believer at all, they despise, they hate the Lord.

810
01:14:48,200 --> 01:14:54,200
Secondly, it could be because they're not willing to do the work to figure out what is a prophetic utterance and what isn't.

811
01:14:54,200 --> 01:15:01,200
If you find that you're sitting in this room right now and you're not sure when God is speaking and when God is not,

812
01:15:01,200 --> 01:15:09,200
that's not on God. It's on you because you're switching the channel too often.

813
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:16,200
You're listening to too many other things. You're doing too little work in Scripture or in prayer time with the Lord.

814
01:15:16,200 --> 01:15:22,200
It's on you. And you need to repent and turn back to God as Scripture calls us to do and say,

815
01:15:22,200 --> 01:15:26,200
okay, I'm going to look for these teachings, these speakings of the Lord.

816
01:15:26,200 --> 01:15:33,200
I'm going to figure out when God is telling me what to do and I'm going to do what He has commanded me to do.

817
01:15:33,200 --> 01:15:38,200
The third reason, and I'll stop with this one, but I'm going to do some case studies in a moment here.

818
01:15:38,200 --> 01:15:42,200
Some of them stepped on my toes a little bit, but we're going to do that in a second.

819
01:15:42,200 --> 01:15:52,200
The third reason is because following a prophetic utterance of God will change everything and people do not like change.

820
01:15:52,200 --> 01:16:00,200
We don't like change. It causes us stress. Your heart rate goes up, your problem solving, your adrenal gland kicks in

821
01:16:00,200 --> 01:16:03,200
and you start thinking, I don't know, this is going to be more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

822
01:16:03,200 --> 01:16:11,200
I don't want to go that way. And so we resist the change.

823
01:16:11,200 --> 01:16:16,200
Now, if the God of the universe speaks, what happens? And when God said, let there be light, what happens?

824
01:16:16,200 --> 01:16:23,200
The light began to exist, right? Every time God says something, something happens.

825
01:16:23,200 --> 01:16:31,200
Everything can be changed by one little thing. If you do manage to get in the car and you do go to the corner

826
01:16:31,200 --> 01:16:36,200
and you do get hit by a semi, at the best you'll be dealing with that for years.

827
01:16:36,200 --> 01:16:41,200
But if you respond to the prophetic utterance and you don't get in the car and you don't get hit by the semi,

828
01:16:41,200 --> 01:16:46,200
now your life is a clean slate and all kinds of things that can happen that wouldn't have happened.

829
01:16:46,200 --> 01:16:50,200
If you stop the car and involve yourself in what's going on on the side of the road

830
01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:53,200
when you normally would be just like, I'm turning my head, but God wants you to do something.

831
01:16:53,200 --> 01:16:56,200
So you go and you do something about it and you lead somebody to Christ.

832
01:16:56,200 --> 01:17:02,200
Now we have a Christian and we can begin to multiply and the world can be reached for Christ.

833
01:17:02,200 --> 01:17:09,200
The prophetic utterances of God are about change. God is trying to change you.

834
01:17:09,200 --> 01:17:17,200
That's why he says we must be not only a hearer, but a doer of the word.

835
01:17:17,200 --> 01:17:21,200
Jesus' brother James wrote that. You know why?

836
01:17:21,200 --> 01:17:25,200
Because for his whole life he had heard the prophetic utterances of God.

837
01:17:25,200 --> 01:17:29,200
He went to temple every Saturday and they would read the Scriptures.

838
01:17:29,200 --> 01:17:33,200
They would read the prophetic utterances of God.

839
01:17:33,200 --> 01:17:37,200
And then Jesus stood up one time and he said, they read a prophetic utterance,

840
01:17:37,200 --> 01:17:40,200
or Jesus I think read it himself or quoted it from memory, and then he said,

841
01:17:40,200 --> 01:17:47,200
this is fulfilled today.

842
01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:52,200
James didn't get it. Not until after they crucified him and he came back to life again.

843
01:17:52,200 --> 01:17:56,200
After that James got it and everything was changed.

844
01:17:56,200 --> 01:18:04,200
And so he said, we must be doers and not only hearers of the word of God.

845
01:18:04,200 --> 01:18:11,200
You must pitch yourself to discovering when God is speaking and doing what God is saying.

846
01:18:11,200 --> 01:18:17,200
It's a two part process, but the doing never comes until the discovering has been done.

847
01:18:17,200 --> 01:18:21,200
Except the doing is at least part of the time doing the wrong thing.

848
01:18:21,200 --> 01:18:27,200
You understand that? If you don't spend your time examining the prophetic utterances of God,

849
01:18:27,200 --> 01:18:32,200
you won't find the utterances. Sort them out and hold on to them.

850
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:38,200
Instead, you will inject yourself with the philosophies and doctrines of the world.

851
01:18:38,200 --> 01:18:42,200
You will think it is just as okay to do what the world does with their pastimes,

852
01:18:42,200 --> 01:18:45,200
or do what the world does on their job, or do what the world does in their car,

853
01:18:45,200 --> 01:18:48,200
or do what the world does behind their closed doors.

854
01:18:48,200 --> 01:18:52,200
Because you have not heard and hung on to the prophetic utterance of God,

855
01:18:52,200 --> 01:18:57,200
who wants you to be holy as he is holy, sanctified, set apart, and different in your body,

856
01:18:57,200 --> 01:19:02,200
in your mind, and in your soul at the coming of his son Jesus Christ.

857
01:19:02,200 --> 01:19:06,200
What are we required to do then with prophetic utterances?

858
01:19:06,200 --> 01:19:11,200
One of these is not as clear in the text as the other. Number one, we have to utter them.

859
01:19:11,200 --> 01:19:13,200
You understand you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

860
01:19:13,200 --> 01:19:18,200
God wants to speak, yes, and he wants to speak through you.

861
01:19:18,200 --> 01:19:23,200
He wants to speak through every person in this room. He wants to speak through you.

862
01:19:23,200 --> 01:19:27,200
While you are busy despising prophetic utterances and not learning how they sound,

863
01:19:27,200 --> 01:19:32,200
and not doing what they say, God actually wants to speak through you.

864
01:19:32,200 --> 01:19:37,200
You are to utter prophetic utterances. You are supposed to be speaking on behalf of God.

865
01:19:37,200 --> 01:19:42,200
Go ye therefore and make disciples.

866
01:19:42,200 --> 01:19:44,200
You are supposed to be speaking on behalf of God.

867
01:19:44,200 --> 01:19:50,200
But Christians, church-wide, worldwide, struggle with the ability to speak on behalf of God,

868
01:19:50,200 --> 01:19:54,200
because somebody else could do it, and they can't follow the example,

869
01:19:54,200 --> 01:19:59,200
because they can't sort out when it is a prophetic utterance and when it isn't.

870
01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:01,200
And you have to. You are commanded to.

871
01:20:01,200 --> 01:20:05,200
And as soon as you know what one is, then you are going to be sitting in a room,

872
01:20:05,200 --> 01:20:09,200
in a meeting, or on the job, or in the car, or on the phone,

873
01:20:09,200 --> 01:20:12,200
and the Spirit is going to urge you, God's Holy Spirit,

874
01:20:12,200 --> 01:20:17,200
he is going to urge you to say something. It could be something silly or dumb.

875
01:20:17,200 --> 01:20:22,200
The first snippet of the 13 or 30 or however many ever it was things,

876
01:20:22,200 --> 01:20:26,200
I stopped counting it like in the teens, when I was at Seneca Lake,

877
01:20:26,200 --> 01:20:31,200
the first one of those was God telling me to walk over to the drink fountain at Burger King,

878
01:20:31,200 --> 01:20:35,200
and say hi to somebody that was there. And I didn't do it.

879
01:20:35,200 --> 01:20:39,200
And like 40 seconds later, they walked out the door and they were gone.

880
01:20:39,200 --> 01:20:43,200
But when God was showing me, I said, God, you tell me what to do and I'll do it.

881
01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:47,200
And God was showing me what he had told me to do that I didn't do.

882
01:20:47,200 --> 01:20:51,200
That person walking out the door without me saying hi to them,

883
01:20:51,200 --> 01:20:54,200
was the first vision that he showed me.

884
01:20:54,200 --> 01:20:59,200
You may think that these things that God tells you to do are insignificant, but they are not.

885
01:20:59,200 --> 01:21:05,200
God loves you and he loves them. And he is sending you to them to express his love.

886
01:21:05,200 --> 01:21:12,200
You must utter what God tells you to utter. Speak up. Speak out.

887
01:21:12,200 --> 01:21:19,200
And he will tell you, you must utter it. We'll come back to that in the conclusion.

888
01:21:19,200 --> 01:21:23,200
Number two, we must respect the prophetic utterances.

889
01:21:23,200 --> 01:21:27,200
You're talking about a lot of work. I've got a lot going on.

890
01:21:27,200 --> 01:21:29,200
I don't know that I'm going to really be able to do what you're asking me to do,

891
01:21:29,200 --> 01:21:32,200
to study, to work, to scrutinize, really look closely at the things,

892
01:21:32,200 --> 01:21:35,200
sort out what's an utterance of God, what I'm really supposed to do with that.

893
01:21:35,200 --> 01:21:38,200
And so I guess I'll get around to it because I do love the Lord,

894
01:21:38,200 --> 01:21:40,200
but I don't know how I could possibly do this.

895
01:21:40,200 --> 01:21:42,200
Listen to me. This is a command of the Lord.

896
01:21:42,200 --> 01:21:47,200
It is a prophetic utterance that Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica.

897
01:21:47,200 --> 01:21:50,200
You are supposed to do this.

898
01:21:50,200 --> 01:21:55,200
You need to decide right now in this room that it's more important than your job,

899
01:21:55,200 --> 01:21:59,200
it's more important than your family, it's more important than your money,

900
01:21:59,200 --> 01:22:02,200
it's more important than your hobby.

901
01:22:02,200 --> 01:22:04,200
Now, if you take your job, your family, and your money out,

902
01:22:04,200 --> 01:22:09,200
you'd have plenty of time to study, plenty of time to sort out what God's saying and do it, wouldn't you?

903
01:22:09,200 --> 01:22:15,200
Now, think in your mind, if I didn't have to work, if I had nobody, no family whatsoever,

904
01:22:15,200 --> 01:22:21,200
if I had no money whatsoever, I'd have plenty of time to read my Dollar Tree Bible,

905
01:22:21,200 --> 01:22:25,200
listen to pastors preach, walk around thinking,

906
01:22:25,200 --> 01:22:29,200
okay, God, what do you want me to do, and doing that.

907
01:22:29,200 --> 01:22:32,200
Now ask yourself, do you want God to take out your family, your job, and your money

908
01:22:32,200 --> 01:22:37,200
so you can have time to do what he told you to do or not?

909
01:22:37,200 --> 01:22:42,200
He gave you your job, your family, and your money so that you can represent him

910
01:22:42,200 --> 01:22:47,200
and say the things that you're supposed to in those circles.

911
01:22:47,200 --> 01:22:51,200
Not maybe. It's a fact.

912
01:22:51,200 --> 01:22:54,200
The message is important.

913
01:22:54,200 --> 01:22:57,200
To God, the messenger is more important.

914
01:22:57,200 --> 01:22:59,200
He wants to work through you to speak.

915
01:22:59,200 --> 01:23:01,200
You need to respect the utterances.

916
01:23:01,200 --> 01:23:04,200
Say what you need to say when he wants you to say it.

917
01:23:04,200 --> 01:23:11,200
Respond to the utterance and do what you're told to do when he tells you to do it.

918
01:23:11,200 --> 01:23:14,200
And then discern or sort the utterances

919
01:23:14,200 --> 01:23:17,200
because sometimes you're going to get some garbage in there,

920
01:23:17,200 --> 01:23:20,200
and you're going to say no.

921
01:23:20,200 --> 01:23:21,200
You've got to say no.

922
01:23:21,200 --> 01:23:23,200
You've got to do more than say no.

923
01:23:23,200 --> 01:23:26,200
You're going to hold fast to that which is good and be busy doing that

924
01:23:26,200 --> 01:23:30,200
while you cut out that which is bad and abstain from it completely.

925
01:23:30,200 --> 01:23:35,200
And then the last thing, of course, is to hold on and to abstain.

926
01:23:35,200 --> 01:23:38,200
You won't ever have to abstain from a prophetic utterance,

927
01:23:38,200 --> 01:23:41,200
but you do have to sort out what is a prophetic utterance

928
01:23:41,200 --> 01:23:44,200
so that you can not abstain from it.

929
01:23:44,200 --> 01:23:49,200
You're like, you're honestly saying to me that I might have to walk into a very dangerous circumstance

930
01:23:49,200 --> 01:23:52,200
and say something that nobody wants to hear.

931
01:23:52,200 --> 01:23:54,200
Have you read the Bible?

932
01:23:54,200 --> 01:23:57,200
This is literally the definition of the kingdom since Adam and Eve.

933
01:23:57,200 --> 01:24:01,200
People saying what nobody wants to hear,

934
01:24:01,200 --> 01:24:05,200
but actually in their spirit they do want to hear it

935
01:24:05,200 --> 01:24:07,200
because they're being convicted.

936
01:24:07,200 --> 01:24:12,200
Nobody wants to hear, you've sinned against the Lord, now you're going to die.

937
01:24:12,200 --> 01:24:18,200
Nobody wants to hear, well, you actually are the man who stole the lamb.

938
01:24:18,200 --> 01:24:23,200
Nobody wants to hear, we're all sinners in need of a Savior

939
01:24:23,200 --> 01:24:26,200
which we can't come up with by ourselves,

940
01:24:26,200 --> 01:24:30,200
so God the Father is going to send His Son to die like this.

941
01:24:30,200 --> 01:24:32,200
Nobody wants to hear that.

942
01:24:32,200 --> 01:24:36,200
Nobody wants to hear, yeah, you're a wretched soul on your way to hell,

943
01:24:36,200 --> 01:24:40,200
but there is grace, you can be saved if you'll believe in Jesus.

944
01:24:40,200 --> 01:24:43,200
Nobody wants to hear the first part.

945
01:24:43,200 --> 01:24:46,200
And we're leaving it out because nobody wants to hear it.

946
01:24:46,200 --> 01:24:49,200
Yes, exactly, God wants you to go wherever He wants you to go

947
01:24:49,200 --> 01:24:55,200
and say whatever it is that you need to say, and He's going to give you the words.

948
01:24:55,200 --> 01:24:58,200
But you're going to have to do the work to know when it's the Lord.

949
01:24:58,200 --> 01:25:01,200
Don't squander your life for some foolish pursuit,

950
01:25:01,200 --> 01:25:07,200
but don't resist spending your life on the grandest pursuit of all.

951
01:25:07,200 --> 01:25:09,200
Okay, we're going to do a couple case studies.

952
01:25:09,200 --> 01:25:12,200
Some of these will hit close to home, there are no names.

953
01:25:12,200 --> 01:25:16,200
In my time in ministry I have seen all of the four things I'm about to share with you,

954
01:25:16,200 --> 01:25:19,200
real people, but I'm not naming any names.

955
01:25:19,200 --> 01:25:26,200
Number one, there was a man who was sometimes ignored because he spoke a lot.

956
01:25:26,200 --> 01:25:29,200
Every time he got in a group he had a word to say.

957
01:25:29,200 --> 01:25:33,200
He was always saying something, talking a lot, all the time.

958
01:25:33,200 --> 01:25:36,200
And people basically, every time he got up to speak or every time he said,

959
01:25:36,200 --> 01:25:39,200
hey, I've got something I want to say or whatever, people would dismiss it.

960
01:25:39,200 --> 01:25:41,200
Because he's talking so much all the time.

961
01:25:41,200 --> 01:25:48,200
Yeah, everything he says is good, but he says so much, and they dismiss it.

962
01:25:48,200 --> 01:25:50,200
How do you solve that problem?

963
01:25:50,200 --> 01:25:56,200
Well, number one, you remember that God may be speaking.

964
01:25:56,200 --> 01:26:02,200
In the midst of that man's drawn out overly long story,

965
01:26:02,200 --> 01:26:06,200
while you're going, huh, I really need to get on to get done what I've got to get done,

966
01:26:06,200 --> 01:26:11,200
God may be speaking.

967
01:26:11,200 --> 01:26:14,200
So listen, and actively sort.

968
01:26:14,200 --> 01:26:18,200
Actively sort what he's saying and go, is this?

969
01:26:18,200 --> 01:26:20,200
Oh, it is.

970
01:26:20,200 --> 01:26:22,200
Now I've got a gem.

971
01:26:22,200 --> 01:26:30,200
Now I've got to figure out how do I hold on to that and use it going forward.

972
01:26:30,200 --> 01:26:37,200
The worst thing is, because people had, past tense, gotten into not listening to that man,

973
01:26:37,200 --> 01:26:40,200
he began to think he was talking too much.

974
01:26:40,200 --> 01:26:44,200
So a lot of times he was speaking on behalf of the Lord.

975
01:26:44,200 --> 01:26:50,200
And so now he doesn't want to utter anymore.

976
01:26:50,200 --> 01:26:54,200
And the word of the Lord is not spoken by anybody in some of those groups.

977
01:26:54,200 --> 01:26:58,200
Because that man is unwilling to say what he was going to say,

978
01:26:58,200 --> 01:27:05,200
because he can tell that the people are there don't really want to hear it anyway.

979
01:27:05,200 --> 01:27:09,200
Number two, case study.

980
01:27:09,200 --> 01:27:15,200
A man who had no right speaking for God, because he was obviously unclean.

981
01:27:15,200 --> 01:27:17,200
He had sin in his life.

982
01:27:17,200 --> 01:27:19,200
He knew he wasn't doing what was right.

983
01:27:19,200 --> 01:27:22,200
And so he's like, I can't speak for the Lord.

984
01:27:22,200 --> 01:27:24,200
Why would God use me?

985
01:27:24,200 --> 01:27:26,200
I'm a dirty vessel.

986
01:27:26,200 --> 01:27:28,200
I'm a vessel meant for dishonor, right?

987
01:27:28,200 --> 01:27:30,200
That's why I still struggle with my sin all the time.

988
01:27:30,200 --> 01:27:32,200
That's why I get angry when I shouldn't.

989
01:27:32,200 --> 01:27:34,200
That's why I get out of control when I shouldn't.

990
01:27:34,200 --> 01:27:41,200
Except God can speak literally through anyone.

991
01:27:41,200 --> 01:27:46,200
Jonah was disobedient to the Lord, ran and, let me say it in a funny way,

992
01:27:46,200 --> 01:27:53,200
hid in a fish for three days to not share the prophetic utterance of the Lord.

993
01:27:53,200 --> 01:27:57,200
And yet, he was eventually vomited on the shore, walked to Nineveh,

994
01:27:57,200 --> 01:28:02,200
shared the prophetic utterance of the Lord, and they repented like God's people were not doing.

995
01:28:02,200 --> 01:28:08,200
The entire story of Jonah is about how some people who are dirty and unclean will get it.

996
01:28:08,200 --> 01:28:11,200
Once Jonah told them, remember what the king said?

997
01:28:11,200 --> 01:28:15,200
He got down off his throne, got in sackcloth and began to repent.

998
01:28:15,200 --> 01:28:17,200
And he told all the people, he said, we're all going to...

999
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:19,200
This guy didn't know God.

1000
01:28:19,200 --> 01:28:20,200
He wasn't a Christian.

1001
01:28:20,200 --> 01:28:22,200
He didn't have the Holy Spirit.

1002
01:28:22,200 --> 01:28:23,200
He wasn't a follower of the Lord.

1003
01:28:23,200 --> 01:28:28,200
He told all the people, everybody, all the cows even, I want everybody in sackcloth.

1004
01:28:28,200 --> 01:28:34,200
We're going to repent in the off chance that God may spare us.

1005
01:28:34,200 --> 01:28:38,200
All it takes is one little encounter, one moment, one spark from the Lord,

1006
01:28:38,200 --> 01:28:40,200
and you can say what it is you need to say.

1007
01:28:40,200 --> 01:28:43,200
It doesn't matter how unclean you are.

1008
01:28:43,200 --> 01:28:49,200
A member of this church was walking down Main Street contemplating some harmful behavior,

1009
01:28:49,200 --> 01:28:57,200
and a man sitting on a park bench, a man sitting on a park bench, drunk as all get out, couldn't stand.

1010
01:28:57,200 --> 01:29:07,200
Looked up at him and spoke scripture word for word to him and said what the Bible said on the topic that was in that man's heart.

1011
01:29:07,200 --> 01:29:10,200
And he immediately had to repent and he realized if he can do that,

1012
01:29:10,200 --> 01:29:16,200
if God can use a drunk to tell me what I need to tell, then how could he ever fail to use me if I'm willing?

1013
01:29:16,200 --> 01:29:20,200
So what does the man do who had no right speaking for God?

1014
01:29:20,200 --> 01:29:25,200
Well, he remembers this first and foremost, that we all have no right.

1015
01:29:25,200 --> 01:29:29,200
It's about grace. Salvation is about grace. You have no right. I have no right.

1016
01:29:29,200 --> 01:29:32,200
I have no right to be a pastor or to preach. I didn't earn it.

1017
01:29:32,200 --> 01:29:35,200
It's not because I went to school for crying out loud.

1018
01:29:35,200 --> 01:29:38,200
The first time I ever preached, I had never been to school.

1019
01:29:38,200 --> 01:29:41,200
The only studying of the Bible I had ever done was reading the book of Daniel.

1020
01:29:41,200 --> 01:29:44,200
And first I couldn't understand it, then I got saved and then I could.

1021
01:29:44,200 --> 01:29:49,200
And I began to realize that when you're saved, you can understand the Bible and read it and apply it to your life.

1022
01:29:49,200 --> 01:29:53,200
That was as far as I had gotten the first time I was called to preach.

1023
01:29:53,200 --> 01:29:56,200
You have no right. I have no right.

1024
01:29:56,200 --> 01:30:02,200
How can we despise the prophetic utterances that comes out of someone that seems to have no right to speak?

1025
01:30:02,200 --> 01:30:04,200
The answer is you can't.

1026
01:30:04,200 --> 01:30:07,200
If God speaks through a cricket, you listen.

1027
01:30:07,200 --> 01:30:13,200
If God speaks through a guy who's had 74 concussions and told, look, this, you listen.

1028
01:30:13,200 --> 01:30:16,200
If God speaks through a drunk, you listen.

1029
01:30:16,200 --> 01:30:18,200
If God speaks through a rapist, you listen.

1030
01:30:18,200 --> 01:30:22,200
That's why you have to do the work to be prepared to hear God.

1031
01:30:22,200 --> 01:30:26,200
That's why you have to be able to examine the teachings and go, OK, this is clearly from God.

1032
01:30:26,200 --> 01:30:31,200
Because God, by His grace, will use the fools and the fallen of this world

1033
01:30:31,200 --> 01:30:37,200
because those who are supposedly risen up, those who are supposedly saved, are doing it.

1034
01:30:37,200 --> 01:30:39,200
And so God will speak through whoever He wants to.

1035
01:30:39,200 --> 01:30:44,200
In one of our earliest meetings as a would-be eventually church body, we were a church plan at the time,

1036
01:30:44,200 --> 01:30:46,200
we were discussing the core values.

1037
01:30:46,200 --> 01:30:50,200
And Brother Tony Brister got called out of town, and so he wasn't able to be there.

1038
01:30:50,200 --> 01:30:52,200
We were selecting our core values.

1039
01:30:52,200 --> 01:30:54,200
Arden was four and a half years old.

1040
01:30:54,200 --> 01:31:00,200
And he was sitting in the room, I would say fairly patiently actually, sitting in the room.

1041
01:31:00,200 --> 01:31:02,200
And he was participating in the conversation.

1042
01:31:02,200 --> 01:31:05,200
And we got to a point where we were debating on four of the core values.

1043
01:31:05,200 --> 01:31:10,200
So we really need to cut out two of these, and then we can get down to the number that we were targeting.

1044
01:31:10,200 --> 01:31:12,200
And the room got quiet. Nobody had an idea.

1045
01:31:12,200 --> 01:31:14,200
We all were favoring of those four.

1046
01:31:14,200 --> 01:31:19,200
We were all like, yes, well, we believe that needs to stay or whatever.

1047
01:31:19,200 --> 01:31:25,200
And Arden said, well, you know, it occurs to me these four are actually kind of two.

1048
01:31:25,200 --> 01:31:26,200
They're very similar.

1049
01:31:26,200 --> 01:31:30,200
You can put this one with this one, you can put this one with this one, and then they're basically the same thing.

1050
01:31:30,200 --> 01:31:34,200
If you think of it the right way, why don't we just keep them all and just make them into two?

1051
01:31:34,200 --> 01:31:39,200
And it was like a golden gong went off, and everybody went, that's what God is saying.

1052
01:31:39,200 --> 01:31:41,200
That's exactly what we're supposed to do.

1053
01:31:41,200 --> 01:31:46,200
And to this day, now 15 years later, those four core values are combined into two core values and are core values.

1054
01:31:46,200 --> 01:31:56,200
You can go read them on our website or look them up later, and the bottom line is that God used a four and a half year old child to say to a bunch of men and women who had worked their butts off for six hours to try to figure out what God was saying about core values,

1055
01:31:56,200 --> 01:32:05,200
and he used a four and a half year old child to lead them, to lead us.

1056
01:32:05,200 --> 01:32:15,200
We have no right speaking for God, and we certainly, having received the grace of His salvation, have no right not speaking for God.

1057
01:32:15,200 --> 01:32:25,200
He can use you. Do the work of figuring out what the prophetic utterances are, when they're of God and when they're not, and then share them.

1058
01:32:25,200 --> 01:32:31,200
Speak on behalf of the Lord, and let no man think he is not good enough to be used by God.

1059
01:32:31,200 --> 01:32:34,200
Let no woman think she is not good enough to be used by God. You can be.

1060
01:32:34,200 --> 01:32:37,200
In fact, you may be the only person within the sound of my voice right now.

1061
01:32:37,200 --> 01:32:43,200
It might be everybody else in the room thinks that you're messed up, used up, don't say anything, or all you ever do is get in trouble.

1062
01:32:43,200 --> 01:32:47,200
It doesn't matter. And you might be the only person within the sound of my voice right now that will say,

1063
01:32:47,200 --> 01:32:53,200
absolutely, I'm in. I'm going to listen to God and tell people what it is that God wants them to hear.

1064
01:32:53,200 --> 01:33:01,200
Out of my mouth, I will speak up, because I know I am not worthy, but I also know God wants to use me.

1065
01:33:01,200 --> 01:33:07,200
And you can start being used. What are you waiting for?

1066
01:33:07,200 --> 01:33:15,200
Case study number three. There was a man who did strange things. He was kind of bizarre, kind of odd.

1067
01:33:15,200 --> 01:33:21,200
Made some bad choices, someone might say. I mean, they weren't horrible choices. He wasn't a murderer, a rapist, or anything like that.

1068
01:33:21,200 --> 01:33:25,200
But he was probably angry at times. He was probably...

1069
01:33:25,200 --> 01:33:29,200
There was a man who did strange things, strange enough to make people wonder about him.

1070
01:33:29,200 --> 01:33:37,200
Like, why did he do that? That's a little odd. And so they didn't listen to him.

1071
01:33:37,200 --> 01:33:43,200
They said, yeah, he's just a little over the top, or he's too much, or he's a little strange for me to follow his ways.

1072
01:33:43,200 --> 01:33:53,200
Listen, you're not asked to follow the prophet. You're asked to follow the God of the universe who delivers the message to the prophet, through the prophet, to you.

1073
01:33:53,200 --> 01:33:59,200
There's an old saying that says, don't do as I say. Don't do as I do, but do as I say.

1074
01:33:59,200 --> 01:34:07,200
That's actually true when you're talking about the prophet. When somebody speaks up on behalf of God, you don't have to follow their example.

1075
01:34:07,200 --> 01:34:12,200
You don't have to be like them. You don't have to go, oh, I'm going to start dressing like them and looking like them every day so I can go to heaven too.

1076
01:34:12,200 --> 01:34:21,200
No, you don't have to do that. You have to listen for the utterance of God in what they're saying and do what they're telling you to do, because it comes from God.

1077
01:34:21,200 --> 01:34:30,200
Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees in his day, and the Pharisees would teach people to do right, but they themselves weren't doing right.

1078
01:34:30,200 --> 01:34:35,200
Does anybody know what Jesus said to the people about what they should do, about what the Pharisees were telling them?

1079
01:34:35,200 --> 01:34:40,200
Does anybody know what they said? What did Jesus tell people to do with the teachings of the Pharisees?

1080
01:34:40,200 --> 01:34:43,200
Don't follow them, but you can listen to them.

1081
01:34:43,200 --> 01:34:52,200
He said, do what they're meant to be. Don't follow their example, but you can listen to them.

1082
01:34:52,200 --> 01:35:01,200
Listen to what they're saying because they're teaching you the Scripture, but don't follow the Pharisees.

1083
01:35:01,200 --> 01:35:07,200
So that man who does strange things just may have something for you to hear today or tomorrow.

1084
01:35:07,200 --> 01:35:17,200
That woman who you go, she's all messed up, she's just kind of quirky, or she's too young or too old,

1085
01:35:17,200 --> 01:35:23,200
or clearly screwed up doing this or that or the other thing, the prophetic utterances may be coming from there.

1086
01:35:23,200 --> 01:35:30,200
So instead of judging people about whether or not God has made them sane or not, we need to listen to what God is saying.

1087
01:35:30,200 --> 01:35:37,200
The last one, this one hurt me probably the most because it was exactly who I was before I got saved.

1088
01:35:37,200 --> 01:35:41,200
These are all stories about real people that God brought to mind.

1089
01:35:41,200 --> 01:35:50,200
The last one is, there was a man who had to train himself not to speak because when he spoke, he spoke from his flesh,

1090
01:35:50,200 --> 01:35:55,200
or he spoke from his ideas. So he trained himself not to speak.

1091
01:35:55,200 --> 01:36:01,200
And then God made him a person who was supposed to speak up, was supposed to say something,

1092
01:36:01,200 --> 01:36:05,200
but he had so trained himself not to speak that he couldn't speak up.

1093
01:36:05,200 --> 01:36:11,200
And he missed opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to say what it was that God wanted him to say

1094
01:36:11,200 --> 01:36:15,200
because he had so trained himself not to speak up.

1095
01:36:15,200 --> 01:36:19,200
I don't want to say something. I've got something to say. I just don't know exactly how to say it.

1096
01:36:19,200 --> 01:36:26,200
I'm afraid if I say it, I'll sound crass or I'll sound irritated or whatever.

1097
01:36:26,200 --> 01:36:28,200
So I'm not going to say it.

1098
01:36:28,200 --> 01:36:32,200
But when you get a prophetic utterance, Lord, what is that man supposed to do? He's supposed to speak up.

1099
01:36:32,200 --> 01:36:37,200
You've got to speak up. They'll think I'm mad or they'll think I'm hurt or they'll think I'm goofy

1100
01:36:37,200 --> 01:36:39,200
or they won't like what I have to say.

1101
01:36:39,200 --> 01:36:42,200
But if it's what God has given you to say, you have to learn to say it.

1102
01:36:42,200 --> 01:36:48,200
How do you do it? You go back to step one. You read the scripture and pray and sort out what God is actually saying.

1103
01:36:48,200 --> 01:36:52,200
You learn to sort these things that might be prophetic utterances

1104
01:36:52,200 --> 01:36:56,200
so that when one comes into your head and you're supposed to say it, you just say it.

1105
01:36:56,200 --> 01:36:58,200
Stop thinking about it at that point.

1106
01:36:58,200 --> 01:37:04,200
But you get to the point where you can recognize it for what it is and do what you're supposed to do and speak up.

1107
01:37:04,200 --> 01:37:08,200
Boy, we could get there so many ways.

1108
01:37:08,200 --> 01:37:15,200
When I was younger, my self-esteem was weak.

1109
01:37:15,200 --> 01:37:21,200
I was told I could be anything, do anything. I could be president of the United States or a lawyer or a doctor or anything.

1110
01:37:21,200 --> 01:37:27,200
If only I would just apply myself.

1111
01:37:27,200 --> 01:37:33,200
And in my heart, I knew I wasn't going to apply myself, which meant I really couldn't be anything at all.

1112
01:37:33,200 --> 01:37:39,200
So I was stuck. My parents weren't bad people. They were great people. They raised me in a great way. I helped the home.

1113
01:37:39,200 --> 01:37:44,200
We had some difficulties. I was taught to do some things I never should have learned to do.

1114
01:37:44,200 --> 01:37:47,200
But the bottom line is they were good people trying to raise me the best they knew how.

1115
01:37:47,200 --> 01:37:54,200
But I was taught that I would never amount to anything because I was told I could amount to anything if only I would apply myself.

1116
01:37:54,200 --> 01:37:59,200
But clearly I was not applying myself. Therefore, I would never be anything. Therefore, I had no right to speak up to anyone.

1117
01:37:59,200 --> 01:38:03,200
I couldn't talk out in a crowd. I would go to a restaurant and I would order a sandwich.

1118
01:38:03,200 --> 01:38:09,200
And I couldn't even tell the person behind the counter that I didn't like mayonnaise and didn't want any because I was afraid of what they would think of me.

1119
01:38:09,200 --> 01:38:12,200
That's where I wound up at.

1120
01:38:12,200 --> 01:38:20,200
I'm saying to you, God wants to use you. Do you need to learn how to speak? Then learn how to speak.

1121
01:38:20,200 --> 01:38:24,200
Do you need to learn what to say? Then learn what to say.

1122
01:38:24,200 --> 01:38:32,200
But God wants to use you to affect the world. And He can, no matter how messed up you think you are.

1123
01:38:32,200 --> 01:38:35,200
You should do what Scripture says you should do.

1124
01:38:35,200 --> 01:38:43,200
Sort the prophetic utterances. Then hold fast to what is good and abstain from what is evil.

1125
01:38:43,200 --> 01:38:46,200
That brings us to our conclusion of conclusions.

1126
01:38:46,200 --> 01:38:49,200
Now you'll notice, did you catch it Josh? Did you figure it out?

1127
01:38:49,200 --> 01:38:52,200
You'll notice that the title is on the board.

1128
01:38:52,200 --> 01:38:56,200
Now they used a font that sort of messes up my object lesson just a little bit.

1129
01:38:56,200 --> 01:39:02,200
Does anybody notice anything about this? If you have your bulletin, you'll see it.

1130
01:39:02,200 --> 01:39:05,200
The title in the bulletin is different from the title on the screen.

1131
01:39:05,200 --> 01:39:09,200
What's different?

1132
01:39:09,200 --> 01:39:11,200
Two T's.

1133
01:39:11,200 --> 01:39:17,200
This title has one cross missing.

1134
01:39:17,200 --> 01:39:23,200
The utterances of God will never leave out the cross of Jesus Christ.

1135
01:39:23,200 --> 01:39:28,200
Those who utter on behalf of God will never leave out the cross of Christ.

1136
01:39:28,200 --> 01:39:36,200
The sacrificial sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is the way that people get to heaven.

1137
01:39:36,200 --> 01:39:40,200
So if what you are testing, and we can go to 1 John 4 and look at it.

1138
01:39:40,200 --> 01:39:44,200
But if it does not declare that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and came in the flesh.

1139
01:39:44,200 --> 01:39:47,200
And therefore by extension died on the cross, rose again on the third day.

1140
01:39:47,200 --> 01:39:51,200
He's now standing at the right hand of the Father in heaven making intercession for us.

1141
01:39:51,200 --> 01:39:53,200
And has set His Holy Spirit into us.

1142
01:39:53,200 --> 01:39:59,200
That we can live and reign and be strong and exercise our spiritual gifts.

1143
01:39:59,200 --> 01:40:03,200
If what you're about to say does not accept that as true.

1144
01:40:03,200 --> 01:40:07,200
Does not testify in some way to that. Does not include that in your thought process.

1145
01:40:07,200 --> 01:40:09,200
Then it is probably not a prophetic utterance from God.

1146
01:40:09,200 --> 01:40:12,200
It's probably just an idea you got.

1147
01:40:12,200 --> 01:40:17,200
But if it does include that, if it is based on that or somehow leads to that.

1148
01:40:17,200 --> 01:40:24,200
That is a pillar holding it up, then it could be a prophetic utterance of God.

1149
01:40:24,200 --> 01:40:29,200
And by despising it, and despising it could be you not saying it.

1150
01:40:29,200 --> 01:40:32,200
It could be you not hearing it. It could be you not living it.

1151
01:40:32,200 --> 01:40:38,200
By despising it, you are despising the cross of Christ.

1152
01:40:38,200 --> 01:40:42,200
The sacrifice of the Lord.

1153
01:40:42,200 --> 01:40:47,200
If Jesus Himself, the creator of all the universe who died on the cross for your sins.

1154
01:40:47,200 --> 01:40:48,200
And rose again on the third day.

1155
01:40:48,200 --> 01:40:50,200
Showed up in this room right now.

1156
01:40:50,200 --> 01:40:52,200
Would you spit in His face?

1157
01:40:52,200 --> 01:40:54,200
Would you smack Him and say, what were you thinking Jesus?

1158
01:40:54,200 --> 01:40:57,200
That's just too stupid. I can't believe it.

1159
01:40:57,200 --> 01:41:03,200
That is exactly what people are doing when they are despising the prophetic utterances of God.

1160
01:41:03,200 --> 01:41:06,200
You say, I've never read much in the minor prophets.

1161
01:41:06,200 --> 01:41:09,200
Shame on you. Repent and turn to the Lord.

1162
01:41:09,200 --> 01:41:11,200
You say, I don't have time to study my Bible.

1163
01:41:11,200 --> 01:41:14,200
Shame on you. Repent and turn to the Lord.

1164
01:41:14,200 --> 01:41:16,200
You say, I don't meditate much on Scripture.

1165
01:41:16,200 --> 01:41:19,200
Shame on you. Repent and turn to the Lord.

1166
01:41:19,200 --> 01:41:23,200
The God of heaven has given you His voice.

1167
01:41:23,200 --> 01:41:26,200
He has spoken to you now.

1168
01:41:26,200 --> 01:41:31,200
He has spoken through you at every opportunity that you have allowed Him.

1169
01:41:31,200 --> 01:41:36,200
He has used a dirty, unclean vessel that needs grace.

1170
01:41:36,200 --> 01:41:42,200
To deliver a message in which is the power of salvation.

1171
01:41:42,200 --> 01:41:45,200
First, unto the Jew, and then unto the Gentile.

1172
01:41:45,200 --> 01:41:49,200
And thank God for that because that's us.

1173
01:41:49,200 --> 01:41:53,200
I am asking you today, does God speak?

1174
01:41:53,200 --> 01:41:56,200
I am telling you today, He does.

1175
01:41:56,200 --> 01:42:03,200
To you and through you, despise not when the God of heaven speaks.

1176
01:42:03,200 --> 01:42:07,200
This time I ask the praise team to come forward and we're going to have a closing hymn of imitation.

1177
01:42:07,200 --> 01:42:13,200
But I would ask you to address in yourself, if you've heard something from the Lord today,

1178
01:42:13,200 --> 01:42:17,200
do not despise that prophetic utterance.

1179
01:42:17,200 --> 01:42:19,200
Not from me, I'm not saying, did you hear me speak?

1180
01:42:19,200 --> 01:42:22,200
Because I know everybody in this room heard me to some extent.

1181
01:42:22,200 --> 01:42:30,200
But I'm asking you today, do not despise the prophetic utterance of the Lord.

1182
01:42:30,200 --> 01:42:35,200
What did He tell you? What is He saying? Are you prepared to repeat?

1183
01:42:35,200 --> 01:42:37,200
Do you need a sordid? Do you need some time to sort it?

1184
01:42:37,200 --> 01:42:42,200
Then do that. Don't just walk out here and go, I didn't quite get it, but I'm going to sort it when I get around to it.

1185
01:42:42,200 --> 01:42:47,200
No. Before you play another game, before you eat another meal, before you put your shoulder to the wheel,

1186
01:42:47,200 --> 01:42:51,200
before you earn another dollar, you figure out what it is that God is saying to you,

1187
01:42:51,200 --> 01:42:55,200
and what it is you're supposed to be saying, and you begin to do that.

1188
01:42:55,200 --> 01:42:57,200
Would you stand with me as we sing this song?

1189
01:42:57,200 --> 01:42:59,200
And then you respond as the Lord lays in your heart.

1190
01:42:59,200 --> 01:43:02,200
If you're here accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior for the first time today,

1191
01:43:02,200 --> 01:43:04,200
then you come and share that with us.

1192
01:43:04,200 --> 01:43:08,200
If you're here today and say, I need to speak up for the Lord, I need to not let myself be held back,

1193
01:43:08,200 --> 01:43:10,200
then you come and share that with us.

1194
01:43:10,200 --> 01:43:28,200
I have decided to follow Jesus.

1195
01:43:28,200 --> 01:43:35,200
I have decided to follow Jesus.

1196
01:43:35,200 --> 01:43:43,200
I have decided to follow Jesus.

1197
01:43:43,200 --> 01:43:50,200
No turning back. No turning back.

1198
01:43:50,200 --> 01:43:57,200
The Lord come with me. I still will follow.

1199
01:43:57,200 --> 01:44:05,200
The Lord come with me. I still will follow.

1200
01:44:05,200 --> 01:44:12,200
The Lord come with me. I still will follow.

1201
01:44:12,200 --> 01:44:18,200
No turning back. No turning back.

1202
01:44:18,200 --> 01:44:41,200
My cross I'll carry till I see Jesus.

1203
01:44:48,200 --> 01:44:50,200
I have decided to follow Jesus.

1204
01:45:18,200 --> 01:45:20,200
We're pursuing trying to get a church app set up,

1205
01:45:20,200 --> 01:45:23,200
and so maybe that God will work that out in the upcoming weeks.

1206
01:45:23,200 --> 01:45:52,200
God bless you today as you reach new heights in Jesus.