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Children, this is a dancing type song, so feel free to dance.

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I'm trading in my business, I'm trading in my faith, I'm playing in the bountiful joy of the Lord.

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And let me tell you, Lord, yes Lord, yes that's fine, yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes that's fine, yes Lord, yes Lord, yes, that's fine is it?

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I am blessed with not a crash, executed not abandoned

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This hour that I've destroyed, I am blessed with other good

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For I'm proud of still enjoying this joy that be my name

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Though the sorrow may last for the night, this joy comes with the morning

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I'm treating myself, I'm treating my shame

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I'm laying them down, the joy of the Lord

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I'm treating my sickness, I'm treating my pain

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I'm laying them down, the joy of the Lord

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Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord

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I'm trading my sorrows

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I'm trading my sorrows

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I'm trading my sorrows

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I'm trading my sorrows

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I'm trading my sorrows

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I'm trading my sorrows

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That's coming up. And I believe it's on the 31st.

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It's Wednesday.

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So we'll know that when we get closer.

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I'll let that go, and you can take a look at the rest of these.

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I've been trying to be pretty faithful by putting them on our upcoming website.

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So you can check that at 1-2-2.

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And download our app

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That's what I got for now.

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I got her now.

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Does she have any other infections?

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Yes.

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Tiffany got her accident this morning.

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She's currently at six girls.

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Oh that's terrible.

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Oh she just got her license.

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She just got her license like a month ago

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and got in a head on accident this morning.

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Wow.

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Well we're definitely going to pray for her.

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Okay, so let's pray together.

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And then we'll worship a little bit more.

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And then next up after a little more worship

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we'll have an opportunity to share

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testimony or something that you saw this week.

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I'm going to talk briefly at that time

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about can't we can.

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Alright let's pray.

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Father in heaven we are

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grateful for what you do for us.

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It's hard for me

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to look at like a tree

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or a cloud or the stars in the sky

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and not realize that you are the

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awesome God that created all that.

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But it's also true

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that sometimes I get wrapped up in what's going on

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in my own life. I get so busy.

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I get kind of tunnel vision. I'm not even

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noticing what's going on around me.

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Maybe even I get angry or confused

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or distracted.

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And I do forgive. The Lord I ask you to forgive

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me for that.

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And I know that that forgiveness was paid for by Jesus your son.

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We thank you for the

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salvation that you've provided. For the love

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that you have for us.

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For putting us in this place. Giving us this building.

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Giving us the time to be together.

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We pray for those who couldn't be here today

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for whatever reason. We don't know what

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the story of any person's life is.

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We pray for Tiffany.

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Coming out of a situation like that. Just getting her license

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and getting her hold on active.

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That could affect her in a lot of ways. We pray Lord

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that she's okay. She won't be in

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lasting physical harm.

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She'll have psychological effects on it.

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And that she'll be okay.

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We pray Lord that through that terrible event

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one or more individuals might be drawn

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closer to you.

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We pray that you take our worship during this time.

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That it is ordained by you.

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That we as your people can

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worship you. We want to worship you.

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We are made to want to worship you.

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We're created for this act.

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An act of service. An act of love.

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And so Lord we just ask you to

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use this time to glorify

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yourself. We pray all of this in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Alright

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would you please stand and join us?

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Feel free to sway or clap

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or dance or whatever you want to do.

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I'm going to

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be the

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proof

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of the hope that is you

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gonna live what I believe

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so watch me

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fly

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if it costs me everything

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stand for what it's worth

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so that everyone can see

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the truth that is me

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gonna live what I believe

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I'm going to be the proof

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of the hope that is you

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gonna live what I believe

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so watch me

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fly

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if it costs me everything

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stand for what it's worth

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so that everyone can see

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the truth that is me

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gonna live what I believe

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so watch me

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fly

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if it costs me everything

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stand for what it's worth

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so that everyone can see

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the truth that is me

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gonna live what I believe

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so watch me

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fly

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if it costs me everything

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stand for what it's worth

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so that everyone can see

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the truth that is me

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gonna live what I believe

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there's a passion

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deep inside

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gonna live what I believe

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fall in love

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and I feel fine

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but let me be

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as a witness for you

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and to be just

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if it costs me everything

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I will not be ashamed

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to believe but I

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believe

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and i walk out

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lies

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everything

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so

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what does

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cost me everything. I stand for what is right. So that everyone can see. If Jesus has any

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need. Tell him what I believe. Tell him what I believe. Tell him what I believe.

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Alright, it is that time so if we could have you stand on your feet. If I could have some

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young people to this nice open space up front. We're going to do a motion song. If you've

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been here you're probably going to recognize this one but we've never done motions with

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it before. So follow along the best you can. I'm going to mess it up. You can mess it up

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too. That's fine. Here we go.

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They will lie down at your feet. You're the only one I need. I turn to you and you are

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with me. Several times it's you I see. I push you first that's all I need. I have a lonely

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hand. I'm all to you. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You are always always there.

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Every now and everywhere. You raise a mouthful deep within me. You will never ever change.

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You will never ever change. You will never ever change. One word Jesus. You're the only

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one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that

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I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.

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You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can

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rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're

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the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely

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on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on.

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One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only

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one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that

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I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.

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You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can

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rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're

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the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely

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on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only

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one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that

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I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.

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You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can

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rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're

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the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely

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on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only

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one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that

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I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.

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You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can

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rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're

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the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely

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on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only

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one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word

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Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that

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I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus.

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You're the only one that I can rely on. One word Jesus. You're the only one that I can

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any night. But I was gonna sleep between 1 and 2 and get out at 5.15. So by the end of

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camp I was gonna get in. Alright, you guys want to share a story, Jason, Curtis, Ryan?

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Anybody want to share a story, briefly? They have turned Ryan into a fisherman. Ryan is

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awesome, so if he ever has a pole and line and water with fish in it he'll never starve.

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You're gonna have to eat it raw which is terrible. But he'd probably do the whole

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thing if you talked about how he got it and stuff like that. Go ahead. So one of the things I enjoyed about camp was, for one, it helped me out a lot. It taught me a lot because it showed me the lessons I have in my life.

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Being able to have all my kids in my life. At least trying to be a parent for them was the best of my ability. And it taught me that even though I make mistakes, even though I'm not perfect, I have my problems, that I can still do the right thing by God and raising my children.

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And the Sunday before camp, it was a really rough day for me. I was having a really hard time. I was struggling mentally really bad. And I was literally about to dial a number and say I'm not going to camp.

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And Alicia kept telling me, you need to go, you need this, you need this, you need this, you need to go. And I thank God for why I went because it was an amazing experience. And I didn't have a lot of fun even though it was late night, early morning.

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I still had a lot of fun. I got to meet new people. It was really fun. If any gentleman in the room wants to go with a mentor, I highly recommend it. It is an experience that you'll never forget.

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There were very, very, very few personality conflicts or issues with those boys even though many of them come from rough neighborhoods, rough backgrounds, whatever. And the boy, I think I may have to go into this story if I did not apologize, but the boy who was demon possessed last year,

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when he prayed and he accepted Christ was there this year. He did have some minor problems, but overall he was completely transformed. So praise God he's still in it. He came back again this year and he's been going through it. So praise God. That's the decision that did stick. That's pretty cool.

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I think that's a good thing to have a bunch of new people. It was super fun and you can, I like how you can choose your activities. You can do basketball games for people who want to. And at the end of the championship, the mentors listed the champions of the students.

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The mentors won. They played basketball and the mentors won. I'm not sure he was the strongest player on the team. The one guy that was playing on your team, in all fairness, was fast. He had it awkward the day he was supposed to sign a contract and he was going to the NBA. But his knees were messed up. But still he was really good.

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He was a professional NBA player. He gave out pictures of him stuffing Michael Jordan. No, it was Shaq. I'm sorry, Shaq O'Neal. He dunked on Shaq. He was bragging and then he's like, it's okay, Shaq dunked on me like whole times. He did it once. He dunked on Shaq once, but Shaq dunked on him like virgin 14 times.

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He was super good at it too. And there's a bunch of, there's nice people that help you with this stuff. And if you ever need help, please say pray to God or talk to someone.

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That's right. That's one of the beauties of it is the whole time they were there, any young man that had a question, they were facing something that was sort of growth where there was somebody to talk to. And we actually, we were well populated actually, leader to student ratio. Last year was rougher because we had about four students per mentor. This year was more like two to one.

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So it was good. It was really good. There was always somebody around. And if you were as a mentor, like I say, I was getting a little brain fried by the last day. If I needed to just, I did, I went and played for 18 holes by myself. Nobody played with me. I played with myself. And that gave me a break from what was going on.

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Yeah. Which I'll just in case anybody cares. I went, I was two over par after nine holes and it's 17 over par. No one cares. No, seven. Seven over par. And if you do go heads up, most of the kids don't go to the zoo. Yeah, there was a little trouble. So my boys were good. Like I put the lights out and I told them like three, four times to shut up and they would shut up. And then the door was shut and you could, it literally sounded like a zoo out in the rest of the building.

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They had a huge fire going between us and there and I could just hear them like, you hear the leaders like, you've got to go to sleep now. Like I'm looking at my room and all my boys are sleeping. I'm like, ha, praise God. Our dad, one boy, he threatened to smack him, but he didn't smack him. Praise God.

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All right. Transitioning. I just want to share a couple of things. So we have in our, in our church, we have a ton of people like industry around the room who work their butts off. And some of them are very kind of like the scenes.

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Like they don't get up here on Sunday mornings. We often ask them to pray or things like that. And I want to do this brief, won't take long at all recognition. And so the first person I'm going to recognize and there's no warning.

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Nobody's born in his deep zone. So deep Tony has been my defense since we began plant this church. He's your deacon. The job of the deacon essentially is to serve the passion family and then to serve the body.

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So deep into only make sure for example, you have a world supper set up. He works as part of the social sanctuary team with Michael and they they basically the building.

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He and his family, such as whatever, whoever have taken care of my lawn virtually for the last 15 plus years.

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He has gone through spiritual warfare, been under attack a number of times and he's still here. He's gone through physical stuff. He had body parts replaced.

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He had pain in his joints and then he was diagnosed with a condition that would not allow him to have medicine to be able to hurt. And then they told me he couldn't have medicine anymore because he had a condition of his heart that it might be affected by the medicine.

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So in my mind, he's almost superhuman. And I was thinking about that. I thought about how that's how God sees all of us. He's helping us move above and beyond what we are capable of.

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So the next time you do something that is fundamentally just like, oh I did that. I did that. That was cool. God did that through me. And you give God all the glory.

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And if you're trying to do something for God and you're in trouble, maybe something's interfering with your schedule or kind of overcomes some burden or whatever, you call me or call the Deacon Tony and we'll help you.

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We'll be there for you to do whatever we possibly can. Obviously we are human but we do have supernatural resources. And so I just wanted to recognize Deacon Tony for standing up for me for so long.

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And I've recognized you before but I recognize you too. Come up here brother. We're going to briefly say a prayer and I'm going to ask you to pray with me as we bless him and his household.

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Before you do the prayer.

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I need a lot of help from my family. I've raised my kids to help me out. They're kind of eastbound or seven way. One of them is no longer with us. But the ones that are here help me out immensely.

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So I just want to say a prayer to myself. See my crippled wife. I push her to help me. Just do what you can. Do what you cannot do the rest. And that's pretty awesome.

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And I do that because if I didn't, you would be putting on a prayer. Not that she doesn't sit on her back doing that but she just stays in the house. It's pretty cool. I appreciate it.

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Father in heaven we are grateful for the many gifts that you give us. We recognize that you are literally showering down blessings on us every day.

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I was watching a movie just a couple of days ago and I heard you speaking. There was a man in the movie who was frightened, struggling psychologically, hurting.

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And he said to the pastor, he said, why is it that God's not speaking? And the pastor said, well you don't think that's true. God in the universe loves us so much that he sends his son as he's speaking.

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Maybe you're just not listening. And Lord we are grateful for all that you do and I pray that we will always recognize our gifts.

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I'm grateful for Brother Tony. I'm grateful that he's been my deacon. The truth is I've been in other churches but I've never known another deacon. Even deacons who are called deacons by name.

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I've never known another deacon. And I know that every person has their burdens and barriers to overcome. And he's been overcoming. He's been standing firm.

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And I pray that he'll do that and we'll do it together. We as a church will do it together until Jesus comes again. There will be faith when it's found on the earth.

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And I pray that it be found in us. I ask your special blessings upon this man, the father's head, the bottom of his feet. And I pray that Jesus saves you.

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You get a chance to see his gift. It is a version of the Bible. It's got Psalm 55.2 on it. And it says, trust your burden on the Lord and he will make your righteous stand.

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Okay, I got one more. I got two more but I'm just giving you one right now. Alright, so Brother Tony alluded to this one. So Brother Tony's right hand man is also our soldiers and sanctuary team leader.

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And this is Michael Briscoe. So Michael does a lot of things behind the scenes. He mows, he cleans, he works. And he also has his own personal demons overcoming, his own physical issues overcoming.

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And he is overcoming. And I think it's a measure and a standard of faithfulness. That's why I wanted to recognize him.

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This man is your dad. He is a fat knee-dix. Head's feet. Alright, we're going to pray again. Here we go. Ready?

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This is my brother Michael. He is a gift to us. Lord, they hold us up. They are our strong killers. And they also fight the fight. They overcome.

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Lord, I pray for my brother from the top of his head and the bottom of his feet that you would cast aside every demon, every evil spirit, every physical ailment, and you would let him continue to serve you.

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We pray, Lord, that in us you will be found faithfulness in you. So I'm glad this soldier represents you well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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And then the last one, she was just here, where's my wife? Jerry! That's what I do at home.

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So this last one is my wife. And it feels really awkward. I would have to have someone else do this. So I bought this pillow and she opened it at home. And she said, what do you do with these pillows? And I didn't tell her that I was doing this.

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So I didn't lie. So this also shows, so this is a picture I made back when we did a sermon on Psalm 5522, which again is the only 5522 in the Bible that says, trust in the Lord, he will make the righteous stay. He will not let you fall.

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And I'm paraphrasing that, of course. Anyway, Sherry, not only is she our preschool team leader, not only is she my wife, which trust me, is the greatest ministry that she does to you. Because she is your shield and protector.

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You know you may not know it after the Lord. But anyway, she is my wife. She's our preschool team leader. She works at preschool nursery. And those of you who have preschool nursery kids, you know what that can be like.

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And praise God for it. And now on top of that, she is one of our most avid volunteers in the pantry. She has literally served hundreds of families in the last few months in our pantry with emergency food.

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And then we have another one also who does not massage you, Tony's wife. And we recognize her, whatever, that she wasn't able to be here today. But you come forward and take this pillow that came from our house.

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Alright, we're going to pray together. Ready? Father in heaven, this is my wife. After my salvation, this is the greatest gift I have ever received.

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She's blessed me. She stands up for what's right when sometimes there is no one else to do so. She's my great right hand, my strength. She's my hope. Of course, all of that after you and after Jesus.

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We are married and truly married because we both recognize that you come first and then she is second to me. And you come first and then I am second to her.

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That's what makes us married. That's what makes us unified and we're able to do that. Thank you for what she does at the preschool, the nursery, the dirty diapers, the cleaning up, the encouraging leaders, providing lessons.

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She does so much more. And some of us know what she does behind the scenes. They like passing out lessons and encouraging people to make sure they're in the right place.

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When there's no one to do something, a lot of times it's either Tony or Mike or my wife. And so I'm grateful for that. I know there's a lot of folks here that serve. I'm grateful for every single one of them.

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But of course, beyond it all, I'm grateful for my wife. I pray for her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. If she has health concerns that she's overcoming, Lord, I'm grateful for what you've done with her neck and her shoulder and her arm in the last few months.

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I pray that that last shot that she got will last for years and she'll not have to have another. Many years, maybe the rest of her life until Jesus comes again.

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Who knows? Jesus may be coming again sooner than we expect. So I just pray, Lord, great blessings to Wanda that she stands firm and may faithfulness be found in the earth as it is going to be found here in the right culture of Baptist church. Jesus, amen.

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Amen.

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I do have another pillar just like that to get in this tune. Okay, and so that being said, maybe this week, God said something to you. You came and you think, wow, I'm sure I share that this week. And so let's hear it.

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Yeah, anybody come to the guy that shares something happened to me. Something I saw something I heard. That moment we talked about already, but you're with me. We're with you. By the way, one of the things that encouraged me to camp you can't was they that the boys were required to stay awake and sit up in their chairs. The whole kind of talk was gone. And sometimes those guys talk for an hour.

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It was pro they got talking and talking and stuff. And then they sat up and they were working. They did a good job except for a few of them falling, sitting in their beds a lot. But other than that, so we're in it. This is our time. We got somebody wants

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to come prepared next week. Okay, go.

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Oh, it's funny because there was this kid that can ask me, he came this year and he won his cousin title. And it really spoke to me that now we can get friends or family come. We can get students.

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Just like speaking the gospel is on them.

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I would say if you share the gospel with somebody and they embrace the gospel and become a follower of Jesus Christ, they are strangers no more. They're family. And then we can definitely can share our lives with them. That is awesome. Well said.

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Would you remind me of something I would share this and then we'll pray and we'll move on. Okay, we were in the car. I just got an echo auto from my car share. I watched everyone on time ago. And I thought, well, we could have on sale. And I know sometimes that cheap.

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I'll buy it. But I'll wait. So I waited for like two years and that was on sale. She saw my way back in the car. They were trying to use the Alexa on the on the echo auto to say play this song or play that song or whatever.

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And then the songs kept playing. Anyway, and they were in the and they would start yelling Alexa Alexa and when they would yell Alexa, she wouldn't respond. And then they would yell it so then they would yell it louder. Alexa.

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And she's still responding. She's not responding because she doesn't hear you. She's responding because you're not speaking clearly.

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I've forgotten this when I was saying that the spirit left inside me and reminded me that sometimes that's the way we are with God.

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We think that God will respond to us a little bit more or do what we want more because we're louder and louder to get louder and sometimes they get what they want in society.

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That's not actually what it works. You talk to God and be truthful. Speak clearly. You can whisper and he'll hear you. You can think and he'll hear you. The demons can't hear your thoughts.

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But God can. All you gotta do is be clear with the Lord and he never fails to show up. I'm going to ask God. Brother Tony, would you pray for us then as we transition?

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You guys offering a little more worship and then let the kids go to their lessons. Do that. You do. Alright, we're praying along with Tony now.

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There's chapter 12 that says that you still will shake the things that are unshakable. Your kingdom is unshakable. So God, truly there is still things that will shake. There are things that even where we think he's going to stand, it's not going to stand. There's growth. There's maturity. There's going to be just times of a good and bad and the ugly.

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There's things there, but your kingdom is unshakable. There is nothing today from the past, the future, the present that has caused you to shake, caused you to stop. Only you yourself was caused to go to the cross to die for everyone.

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God, give your life so that we may live, so that we may go home, so that anyone can turn to you again and turn back to God. And so what we are so thankful for your faithfulness is where we find faithfulness.

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We have always been faithful. Even in Revelation it says he of course has rode on truth and faith. That's the name. It's true and faithful. So God, that's the truth and faith that we have today. God, I thank you for all the amazing things about the gifts that people have.

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The gifts that you receive. Lord, once you receive, you can't. God, it's just all your amazing grace. So thankful for whatever you do and how you do it so that we can do this as well. Not just here, but all around the world, God, someone in these different countries, different cities are worshiping just the same.

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We thank you for your great faith in the Holy Spirit's Church. Strength and grace to us righteous, to you, day and day and to the worst. And the message of this week, in Jesus' name, Amen.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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We are children of the day.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We are the light of the world.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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We sing hallelujah.

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Brother Ron, by way of encouragement to you, this week I rediscovered Huey Lewis and the news, the heart of rock and roll is the beaten.

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And I was thinking about you when I did that.

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So I had kind of like a little discussion we were going to have to open this up and the Lord completely changed what I was going to do to open it up.

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So let me ask you this question.

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Does anybody know what the definition of the word testament is?

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We talk about the New Testament and the Old Testament.

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What is the New Testament?

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And the individuals recounting or their original story?

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And it is very similar, the word is very similar, but testimony is what you would say.

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And this testament, we might think that's an old English word of testimony, but it's not.

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And a lot of people, I think probably in the last 2000 years have said that, but that's not actually true.

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The word testament actually means covenant.

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And so this Bible that we study is the old covenant and the new covenant.

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And today that's going to be really instrumental in what we look at in chapter 6 here.

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That being said, I just wanted to do, just real quick, can anybody tell me how many books are in the Old Testament?

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Thirty-nine, Tanya was the first one.

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Tanya you get the bonus prize for the first one to speak up.

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At least she had a clip in her mouth.

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You had an unfair advantage.

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But the rest of you had the same opportunity to say it as quickly.

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Yes, and how many books in the New Testament?

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Very good, see there we're nailing it.

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And over how many years approximately, because this is an approximation for sure,

368
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was this Bible we have from Genesis to Revelation recorded?

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Anybody know?

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Do you remember?

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Yeah, but it's most likely less than that.

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Between 1400 and 1500 years, which is still a really long time.

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The United States of America has been around for 200 years.

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Columbus gets credit for discovering the Americas and the beginnings of this great land in 1492.

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So that is less than 800 years.

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So it would be as if the Bible were begun to be written in about AD 600, AD 500,

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which there were Bible events taking place at that time and was finished now.

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So it was written over 1400 years.

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How many authors?

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Remember that number?

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Approximately 40, maybe a little over 40 authors.

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And then here's the good one.

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How many themes?

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Genesis to Revelation, say it again.

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One.

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It is the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ from cover to cover.

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The theme is the same.

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There were dozens, and it's not for sure kept track of whatever,

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but there were dozens of different professions.

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Most of the authors come from different parts of the world.

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Contrary to popular belief, everybody thinks that all the authors came from the promised land.

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First of all, let me remind you that to say that someone lived 70 miles away from somebody else

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back in that day was really to say something.

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It would take you a really long way.

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Most of them didn't have horses, and so to go 70 miles was more than almost anybody ever did in their lifetime.

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Unless you were in the military, 90 plus percent of people never went more than maybe about 10 miles away from home.

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So when somebody wrote 70 miles away from somebody else, that meant they never could possibly know that person.

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The only way would be if they served in the military together,

399
01:01:47,840 --> 01:01:50,840
or if it happened to be a port town and they got on a sailing ship,

400
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:53,840
or if they were a traveling merchant or something like that.

401
01:01:53,840 --> 01:01:56,840
But even then, you know when we talk about nomads?

402
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:01,840
People talk about nomads, they wandered from place to place, kind of following the water, following the food and like that.

403
01:02:01,840 --> 01:02:08,840
Nomads, as much as they wandered, rarely ever went more than about 50 miles away from home.

404
01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:10,840
That's a long way, okay?

405
01:02:10,840 --> 01:02:13,840
And if you have animals and you walk them a long way, they get thin.

406
01:02:13,840 --> 01:02:19,840
And then when they get thin, you've got to feed them up to get them healthy again before you can kill them to eat them,

407
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:21,840
because they don't have enough meat on their bones, right?

408
01:02:21,840 --> 01:02:23,840
So they didn't travel real long distances.

409
01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:29,840
But it did happen on occasion, like in the Exodus, it did happen with sailors, merchants, armies, things like that would go.

410
01:02:29,840 --> 01:02:37,840
The promised land, which we talk a lot about, right, is only 70 miles north to south.

411
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:41,840
70 miles, the whole place, all those tribes, right?

412
01:02:41,840 --> 01:02:44,840
So bear that in mind, is it north, south, east, or west? I might have confused that.

413
01:02:44,840 --> 01:02:47,840
But anyway, it's only 70 miles across in one direction.

414
01:02:47,840 --> 01:02:52,840
Alright, so bear that all in mind. Remember I said it's the old covenant and the new covenant and how it ties in today.

415
01:02:52,840 --> 01:02:57,840
We are going to read today, and we usually hoot or holler or say amen as we go to the Bible.

416
01:02:57,840 --> 01:03:00,840
And we're going to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Amen!

417
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:04,840
Thank you. Somebody had caffeine for breakfast and I love it.

418
01:03:04,840 --> 01:03:08,840
Alright, here we go. Deuteronomy 6, beginning of verse 1.

419
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:14,840
We will read the whole chapter, which means, this is going to take a second, and then the points will come fast.

420
01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:15,840
Alright, so here we go.

421
01:03:15,840 --> 01:03:19,840
Chapter 6, verse 1. Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments,

422
01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:26,840
which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it.

423
01:03:26,840 --> 01:03:31,840
Alright, so remember this is Moses. He's recounting the history.

424
01:03:31,840 --> 01:03:34,840
So this is not, he didn't give them the events right now.

425
01:03:34,840 --> 01:03:38,840
He has been retelling the story of when he gave them. This is right before he dies.

426
01:03:38,840 --> 01:03:40,840
Moses is not allowed to go into the promised land.

427
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:46,840
And so he's giving them the big over teaching all over again so they can take it with them when they go into promised land.

428
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:49,840
There's three words in there that you might want to pay attention to.

429
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:51,840
The first one is a commandment. I think we know what a commandment is.

430
01:03:51,840 --> 01:03:54,840
A commandment is when someone tells you to do something.

431
01:03:54,840 --> 01:03:58,840
Drop and give me 20. That's a command. That kind of thing.

432
01:03:58,840 --> 01:04:04,840
Then there's a statute. A statute is kind of like a law or an ordinance.

433
01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:06,840
It's a thing that's ongoing.

434
01:04:06,840 --> 01:04:10,840
For example, we say, well we all will wear clothes to worship.

435
01:04:10,840 --> 01:04:14,840
That would be a rule that we've made and we do pretty much, we have some unwritten rule.

436
01:04:14,840 --> 01:04:16,840
We have that rule so please don't break it.

437
01:04:16,840 --> 01:04:19,840
But that being said, we had that statute. That's a statute.

438
01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:21,840
We all will wear clothing to worship, for example.

439
01:04:21,840 --> 01:04:27,840
And then a judgment is when someone sees something and says, if you break that, this is what will happen.

440
01:04:27,840 --> 01:04:29,840
If you do that, this is what will happen.

441
01:04:29,840 --> 01:04:31,840
Sometimes judgment can be a positive thing.

442
01:04:31,840 --> 01:04:34,840
For example, your paycheck is a form of a judgment.

443
01:04:34,840 --> 01:04:37,840
If you work this many hours, you'll get paid this much money.

444
01:04:37,840 --> 01:04:40,840
That's the judgment. You get that benefit because you did what was right.

445
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:43,840
If you don't work your hours, your paycheck will be less is also a judgment.

446
01:04:43,840 --> 01:04:47,840
If you only work half as many hours, you have as much money, that's also a judgment.

447
01:04:47,840 --> 01:04:51,840
But God gives judgment in the forms of if you break His commands, then you receive the curse.

448
01:04:51,840 --> 01:04:53,840
You receive the bad things.

449
01:04:53,840 --> 01:04:57,840
If you don't break His commands, then you receive the good things that come from those commands.

450
01:04:57,840 --> 01:04:59,840
So He's saying, that's what I'm giving you.

451
01:04:59,840 --> 01:05:04,840
And when you get into the land, I want you to be able to do them.

452
01:05:04,840 --> 01:05:06,840
Do what I'm telling you to do.

453
01:05:06,840 --> 01:05:07,840
And He goes on in verse 2.

454
01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:13,840
He says, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God.

455
01:05:13,840 --> 01:05:15,840
You and your son and your grandson.

456
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:21,840
Now realize that while it is written to men, it wouldn't be a man and his son and his son's son.

457
01:05:21,840 --> 01:05:27,840
That man has a wife and then her son is still his son, so it's expected.

458
01:05:27,840 --> 01:05:31,840
And then his grandson would still be expected.

459
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:33,840
So male and females are involved here.

460
01:05:33,840 --> 01:05:35,840
So it's sons and daughters.

461
01:05:35,840 --> 01:05:38,840
But He uses the words in the Hebrew are the ben and the benny.

462
01:05:38,840 --> 01:05:41,840
So every time you hear that phrase, the son and the son's son, it's ben and benny.

463
01:05:41,840 --> 01:05:42,840
I love that.

464
01:05:42,840 --> 01:05:45,840
It helped me to remember that easily.

465
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:46,840
Ben and the benny.

466
01:05:46,840 --> 01:05:50,840
So that you and your sons and your grandson might fear the Lord your God.

467
01:05:50,840 --> 01:05:52,840
And that fear is a word that means revere.

468
01:05:52,840 --> 01:05:55,840
So it's a love component, but you're going to fear in recognizing who He is.

469
01:05:55,840 --> 01:06:00,840
To keep all His statutes, that's that same thing, the rules, if you will, and His commandments,

470
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:04,840
that's what He tells you to do, which I command you all the days of your life,

471
01:06:04,840 --> 01:06:06,840
and that your days may be prolonged.

472
01:06:06,840 --> 01:06:08,840
Now we talked a lot about that before, so we don't need to dwell on it right now.

473
01:06:08,840 --> 01:06:10,840
If you have questions about it, come back to me and it's okay.

474
01:06:10,840 --> 01:06:11,840
I'll fill you in.

475
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:14,840
Verse 3, Oh Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it,

476
01:06:14,840 --> 01:06:20,840
that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly just as the Lord,

477
01:06:20,840 --> 01:06:24,840
the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey.

478
01:06:24,840 --> 01:06:27,840
Two different things there that they would multiply greatly,

479
01:06:27,840 --> 01:06:30,840
and they would multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey,

480
01:06:30,840 --> 01:06:31,840
which means a very prosperous land.

481
01:06:31,840 --> 01:06:34,840
Do you know why that's so significant?

482
01:06:34,840 --> 01:06:38,840
Have the Israelites as a people ever lived in a land that was not flowing with milk and honey?

483
01:06:38,840 --> 01:06:40,840
Absolutely. Where?

484
01:06:40,840 --> 01:06:41,840
In the desert.

485
01:06:41,840 --> 01:06:44,840
In the desert, and? Before that? Egypt.

486
01:06:44,840 --> 01:06:48,840
So the history of their nation is not, for over 400 years,

487
01:06:48,840 --> 01:06:50,840
is not to live in a land flowing with milk and honey.

488
01:06:50,840 --> 01:06:54,840
But while they were in Egypt, did they multiply?

489
01:06:54,840 --> 01:06:56,840
They did. A lot.

490
01:06:56,840 --> 01:07:00,840
So much so that Pharaoh became afraid of them and began destroying,

491
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:03,840
or having destroyed, every male child born,

492
01:07:03,840 --> 01:07:07,840
because they said these people are multiplying so fast that they're going to overcome us.

493
01:07:07,840 --> 01:07:09,840
They're going to get to be too many and we're not going to be able to put them down anymore.

494
01:07:09,840 --> 01:07:12,840
They're going to be the kings and we're going to be the slaves instead of the other way around.

495
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:15,840
So he was freaked out and he said, kill off all the male children.

496
01:07:15,840 --> 01:07:20,840
They started doing that because they were multiplying in a land that was not flowing with milk and honey.

497
01:07:20,840 --> 01:07:24,840
Which means to say, God's people multiply.

498
01:07:24,840 --> 01:07:26,840
That's what we do.

499
01:07:26,840 --> 01:07:30,840
And then, on top of that, he says, but now I'm going to have you multiplying in a land flowing with milk and honey.

500
01:07:30,840 --> 01:07:35,840
Which means you're going to have a great land instead of those yucky lands that you had before.

501
01:07:35,840 --> 01:07:36,840
We're in verse 4.

502
01:07:36,840 --> 01:07:39,840
Here, oh Israel, listen here, this is important.

503
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:41,840
The Lord is our God.

504
01:07:41,840 --> 01:07:43,840
The Lord is one.

505
01:07:43,840 --> 01:07:46,840
That phrase right there, the Lord is one, is going to be important by the time we're done.

506
01:07:46,840 --> 01:07:48,840
So kind of remember, it's an easy one.

507
01:07:48,840 --> 01:07:49,840
The Lord is one.

508
01:07:49,840 --> 01:07:51,840
They use that in support of the Trinity.

509
01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:53,840
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, but just one God.

510
01:07:53,840 --> 01:07:55,840
That's all true.

511
01:07:55,840 --> 01:07:59,840
But there is a point that God is making here when he says the Lord is one.

512
01:07:59,840 --> 01:08:02,840
Because they didn't really even understand God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

513
01:08:02,840 --> 01:08:04,840
This is before that was understood.

514
01:08:04,840 --> 01:08:06,840
God the Son had not yet come.

515
01:08:06,840 --> 01:08:07,840
Jesus had not yet come.

516
01:08:07,840 --> 01:08:12,840
And while he'd been prophesied, they didn't really understand the prophecy.

517
01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:14,840
This is way before that.

518
01:08:14,840 --> 01:08:18,840
So he's making a point to say the Lord, your God, is one.

519
01:08:18,840 --> 01:08:20,840
And we'll come back on that in the points.

520
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:25,840
And it says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

521
01:08:25,840 --> 01:08:31,840
And a lot of people make a lot out of the heart, soul, and mind.

522
01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:33,840
I'm sorry, heart, soul, and might that's in this.

523
01:08:33,840 --> 01:08:35,840
And then in the New Testament it says mind.

524
01:08:35,840 --> 01:08:39,840
But the bottom line is, you don't have to make a lot out of that.

525
01:08:39,840 --> 01:08:43,840
But you do have to make a lot out of loving the Lord your God.

526
01:08:43,840 --> 01:08:44,840
We are supposed to love God.

527
01:08:44,840 --> 01:08:47,840
In fact, the command is that we love God.

528
01:08:47,840 --> 01:08:48,840
Now that's a problem, right?

529
01:08:48,840 --> 01:08:51,840
Because if I went to a woman and I said, you're going to love me.

530
01:08:51,840 --> 01:08:55,840
And if I was dating before I got married and said, you must love me.

531
01:08:55,840 --> 01:08:56,840
How well is that going to go over?

532
01:08:56,840 --> 01:08:58,840
Probably won't get another date.

533
01:08:58,840 --> 01:08:59,840
That's probably about it for that.

534
01:08:59,840 --> 01:09:02,840
You're overbearing, you're yelling at me, whatever.

535
01:09:02,840 --> 01:09:05,840
You can't command people to love.

536
01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:08,840
Except God has commanded us to love him.

537
01:09:08,840 --> 01:09:13,840
But the command to love God is to be kept by who?

538
01:09:13,840 --> 01:09:15,840
I'll leave that question hanging there for a second.

539
01:09:15,840 --> 01:09:18,840
Listen, who is he commanding to love him?

540
01:09:18,840 --> 01:09:20,840
It says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

541
01:09:20,840 --> 01:09:22,840
with all your soul, with all your might.

542
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:26,840
And these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.

543
01:09:26,840 --> 01:09:29,840
And you shall teach them diligently to your sons.

544
01:09:29,840 --> 01:09:31,840
And shall talk of them when you sit in your house,

545
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:34,840
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

546
01:09:34,840 --> 01:09:35,840
And so we'll stop there for a second.

547
01:09:35,840 --> 01:09:36,840
There's a little bit more.

548
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:39,840
Notice that he's giving a kind of like a what do you do with the word?

549
01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:41,840
And it should be on the wall.

550
01:09:41,840 --> 01:09:43,840
We have a dry erase board on the side of the door.

551
01:09:43,840 --> 01:09:45,840
I don't always update it as often as I should,

552
01:09:45,840 --> 01:09:47,840
but there's always a Bible verse written there.

553
01:09:47,840 --> 01:09:49,840
You should have it somewhere, you should see it all over the place.

554
01:09:49,840 --> 01:09:51,840
Everybody that ever talks about memorizing verses,

555
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:54,840
one thing you can do is you can write it on a note card and put it on the mirror.

556
01:09:54,840 --> 01:09:56,840
That way when you're getting ready in the morning you see it.

557
01:09:56,840 --> 01:09:57,840
You're memorizing it.

558
01:09:57,840 --> 01:10:02,840
And God through Moses was telling them, put the word where you can see it.

559
01:10:02,840 --> 01:10:04,840
Okay?

560
01:10:04,840 --> 01:10:05,840
And then teach it to your sons.

561
01:10:05,840 --> 01:10:07,840
And I talked to a number of times about how in Iwana,

562
01:10:07,840 --> 01:10:10,840
the greatest time I have ever had, even better than Bible college,

563
01:10:10,840 --> 01:10:14,840
the greatest time I have ever had learning the word is when I was teaching it to little kids

564
01:10:14,840 --> 01:10:17,840
and they were repeating it back to me over and over again.

565
01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:18,840
And I was memorizing the verses.

566
01:10:18,840 --> 01:10:23,840
And I went through the Sparky book in like three days because I was working with Sparky's that time.

567
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:28,840
And they did the whole, all the verses were being said to me hundreds and hundreds of times.

568
01:10:28,840 --> 01:10:29,840
So you need to be teaching it.

569
01:10:29,840 --> 01:10:32,840
And as you're teaching it, you're also receiving it.

570
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:34,840
That's what he's telling them.

571
01:10:34,840 --> 01:10:39,840
But he said also when you walk by the way, in other words, we're going places.

572
01:10:39,840 --> 01:10:42,840
We're driving in our car, crank up a little bit of music or whatever.

573
01:10:42,840 --> 01:10:45,840
There ought to be music that is edifying to the soul and you can learn something.

574
01:10:45,840 --> 01:10:49,840
So I recommend some kind of Christian music and then listen for the message.

575
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:50,840
Listen for the word of God.

576
01:10:50,840 --> 01:10:51,840
Pick it out.

577
01:10:51,840 --> 01:10:52,840
Study your Bibles.

578
01:10:52,840 --> 01:10:54,840
Then when you listen to your music go, oh, that's that verse that I saw.

579
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:59,840
Or at least you did an inspirational moment a couple months back about songs that we sing

580
01:10:59,840 --> 01:11:02,840
and ask people like, you know what verse that comes from and vice versa.

581
01:11:02,840 --> 01:11:03,840
And that's powerful.

582
01:11:03,840 --> 01:11:05,840
When you as you go, the word should be there.

583
01:11:05,840 --> 01:11:08,840
There's so many people want to talk about everything else, but he's saying, no,

584
01:11:08,840 --> 01:11:11,840
you should be talking about the word of God as you go.

585
01:11:11,840 --> 01:11:15,840
And then he says, and when you lie down and when you rise up and you shall bind them,

586
01:11:15,840 --> 01:11:19,840
that's the word of God or writings of the word of God, as a sign on your hand

587
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:23,840
and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

588
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:26,840
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

589
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:31,840
Now, you may be thinking in the back of your mind it's possible if you've read the New Testament a lot.

590
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:36,840
That in the New Testament it says that we shouldn't do that with the phylacteries,

591
01:11:36,840 --> 01:11:39,840
shouldn't write on there and hang them on our wrists.

592
01:11:39,840 --> 01:11:41,840
But actually it doesn't say that.

593
01:11:41,840 --> 01:11:42,840
We're not going to go to the reader right now.

594
01:11:42,840 --> 01:11:49,840
What it actually says is he's accusing them of hypocrisy because he says you make your phylacteries larger

595
01:11:49,840 --> 01:11:52,840
so that you keep making them larger than everybody else's.

596
01:11:52,840 --> 01:11:53,840
So here's the problem.

597
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:57,840
Yes, you study the word, but don't get prideful and say, well, I study more than anybody else

598
01:11:57,840 --> 01:11:59,840
or I know better than someone else or whatever.

599
01:11:59,840 --> 01:12:00,840
And that's what they were doing.

600
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:04,840
They would put that there and they would go to worship and then somebody's phylactery was larger than theirs

601
01:12:04,840 --> 01:12:06,840
and then next week they'd make theirs even larger.

602
01:12:06,840 --> 01:12:10,840
They got to the point where they're carrying the word written on poster board hanging from their arms.

603
01:12:10,840 --> 01:12:12,840
I know the word of God and carrying it around.

604
01:12:12,840 --> 01:12:13,840
And we can't do that.

605
01:12:13,840 --> 01:12:15,840
He said don't be prideful, don't be arrogant.

606
01:12:15,840 --> 01:12:16,840
But that's what Jesus said.

607
01:12:16,840 --> 01:12:19,840
But at the same time he said, yes, you should have them everywhere.

608
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:23,840
To say that it's a frontal on your forehead would mean it would be in front of your eyes.

609
01:12:23,840 --> 01:12:28,840
So you should be seeing the word of God when you're seeing the world that God made.

610
01:12:28,840 --> 01:12:32,840
If you're not seeing, I'm going to say this as a little aside here.

611
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:35,840
If you're not seeing the word of God when you see the world that God made,

612
01:12:35,840 --> 01:12:40,840
pretty soon you're going to be worshiping something in the world that God made rather than worshiping God.

613
01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:44,840
You should be seeing every one of the situations in your life, everything that you're facing,

614
01:12:44,840 --> 01:12:47,840
the way you're dealing with your spouse, your kids, your house, your money, everything.

615
01:12:47,840 --> 01:12:50,840
You see that through the word of God.

616
01:12:50,840 --> 01:12:51,840
That's what he's saying.

617
01:12:51,840 --> 01:12:52,840
Verse 10.

618
01:12:52,840 --> 01:12:59,840
Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

619
01:12:59,840 --> 01:13:03,840
to give you great and splendid cities which you did not build.

620
01:13:03,840 --> 01:13:07,840
So God's going to take them in, they're going to get whole cities that they didn't build.

621
01:13:07,840 --> 01:13:10,840
And houses full of all good things which you did not fill.

622
01:13:10,840 --> 01:13:14,840
And hewn cisterns, which are like wells, which you did not dig.

623
01:13:14,840 --> 01:13:17,840
Vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant.

624
01:13:17,840 --> 01:13:23,840
The first year there were crops already growing on the vineyards and olive trees that they captured.

625
01:13:23,840 --> 01:13:26,840
It says, and you shall eat and be satisfied.

626
01:13:26,840 --> 01:13:28,840
In other words, it's going to go good.

627
01:13:28,840 --> 01:13:29,840
It's going to be fine.

628
01:13:29,840 --> 01:13:31,840
Everything's going to be taken care of.

629
01:13:31,840 --> 01:13:34,840
But then he says in verse 12, then watch yourself,

630
01:13:34,840 --> 01:13:41,840
lest you forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.

631
01:13:41,840 --> 01:13:44,840
In other words, when things start going good for people,

632
01:13:44,840 --> 01:13:49,840
people start kind of like taking it for granted.

633
01:13:49,840 --> 01:13:52,840
And like tomorrow, some of us are going to get up and go to work, right?

634
01:13:52,840 --> 01:13:55,840
And when you get up and go to work, you're going to earn an hourly wage

635
01:13:55,840 --> 01:13:57,840
or maybe a salary if you're in that kind of position.

636
01:13:57,840 --> 01:14:08,840
And when you do that, are you remembering that it's not your work that's yielding those wages?

637
01:14:08,840 --> 01:14:10,840
It's God.

638
01:14:10,840 --> 01:14:11,840
God is the one who created you.

639
01:14:11,840 --> 01:14:13,840
God is the one who made you strong enough.

640
01:14:13,840 --> 01:14:15,840
He's the one who made you smart enough, made you capable.

641
01:14:15,840 --> 01:14:17,840
He put that job in place.

642
01:14:17,840 --> 01:14:21,840
I know we've come a long way, but the bottom line is God still does all of that.

643
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:25,840
And we cannot forget when we are blessed by whatever blessings we have

644
01:14:25,840 --> 01:14:27,840
that we didn't create those blessings.

645
01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:28,840
I know there's smart people in here.

646
01:14:28,840 --> 01:14:29,840
I know there's strong people in here.

647
01:14:29,840 --> 01:14:30,840
You might go, I'm strong.

648
01:14:30,840 --> 01:14:31,840
I can get this job done.

649
01:14:31,840 --> 01:14:33,840
You're nothing without God.

650
01:14:33,840 --> 01:14:34,840
And that's what he's saying.

651
01:14:34,840 --> 01:14:35,840
He said, God brought you to us.

652
01:14:35,840 --> 01:14:37,840
Now, if you're here in the room and you're,

653
01:14:37,840 --> 01:14:39,840
and I'm going to be a little blunt for a minute,

654
01:14:39,840 --> 01:14:40,840
you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

655
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:41,840
You don't know Jesus.

656
01:14:41,840 --> 01:14:42,840
You're not following Jesus.

657
01:14:42,840 --> 01:14:45,840
You've not accepted him as Lord because he tells you what to do and you do it.

658
01:14:45,840 --> 01:14:47,840
And Savior means he paid the price for your sins.

659
01:14:47,840 --> 01:14:50,840
Then yeah, you're doing everything essentially on your own.

660
01:14:50,840 --> 01:14:53,840
But even while you're doing that, God's still blessing you

661
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:56,840
because he makes the rain to fall on the good and the bad alike

662
01:14:56,840 --> 01:14:57,840
and the sun to shine on the good and the bad alike.

663
01:14:57,840 --> 01:14:59,840
He still gave you everything that you have.

664
01:14:59,840 --> 01:15:00,840
You're just not recognizing it.

665
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:02,840
You're not accepting that.

666
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:03,840
And so you're facing the curse.

667
01:15:03,840 --> 01:15:06,840
You're facing the problems because you're not in the kingdom.

668
01:15:06,840 --> 01:15:09,840
But now if you're in the kingdom, realize you were a slave to sin.

669
01:15:09,840 --> 01:15:10,840
You were lost.

670
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:11,840
And now God made you new.

671
01:15:11,840 --> 01:15:12,840
God made you reborn.

672
01:15:12,840 --> 01:15:16,840
So everything that you have now, you should be counting as a blessing from the Lord.

673
01:15:16,840 --> 01:15:20,840
And he says, watch yourself lest you forget who brought you from the land of Egypt

674
01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:22,840
out of the house of slavery.

675
01:15:22,840 --> 01:15:26,840
And I submit to you, we weren't in Egypt, but we were in the house of slavery.

676
01:15:26,840 --> 01:15:30,840
Thirteen, you shall fear only the Lord your God,

677
01:15:30,840 --> 01:15:32,840
and you shall worship him and swear by his name.

678
01:15:32,840 --> 01:15:35,840
Now you may be remembering a verse from the New Testament where Jesus says,

679
01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:41,840
don't swear by the name of the altar or by gold or by God even.

680
01:15:41,840 --> 01:15:43,840
Don't swear. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no.

681
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:47,840
Tell the truth and say, I'm going to do it and then do what you said you're going to do and so on.

682
01:15:47,840 --> 01:15:49,840
So maybe remembering that.

683
01:15:49,840 --> 01:15:51,840
But here is Moses commanding them to swear.

684
01:15:51,840 --> 01:15:54,840
You say, well, that's because this is the Old Testament and the New Testament.

685
01:15:54,840 --> 01:15:58,840
Well, before we're done, we're going to come back and I'm going to break this down for you in the points.

686
01:15:58,840 --> 01:16:00,840
So bear that. Remember that phrase.

687
01:16:00,840 --> 01:16:01,840
Swear by his name.

688
01:16:01,840 --> 01:16:06,840
Verse 14, you shall not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who surround you.

689
01:16:06,840 --> 01:16:10,840
There are always going to be other ways of religion and worshiping and thing and they're not good.

690
01:16:10,840 --> 01:16:12,840
And you shouldn't have anything to do with it.

691
01:16:12,840 --> 01:16:16,840
For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.

692
01:16:16,840 --> 01:16:20,840
Someone I read recently said that every time God is described as a jealous God,

693
01:16:20,840 --> 01:16:25,840
it's always in the context of idolatry of worshiping or thinking something else is important other than God.

694
01:16:25,840 --> 01:16:27,840
And nothing else is important other than God.

695
01:16:27,840 --> 01:16:30,840
Everything else is like a million times lower.

696
01:16:30,840 --> 01:16:33,840
Now, if God says, take care of your spouse, you get married, God says, take care of your spouse.

697
01:16:33,840 --> 01:16:35,840
Now you have to do that. Right?

698
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:39,840
Like I told you, Sherry and I, we believe that we're married for this one primary reason.

699
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:42,840
As we both recognize, the other person has to put God first.

700
01:16:42,840 --> 01:16:46,840
And then after that comes me. I'm a distant second to God in my wife's life.

701
01:16:46,840 --> 01:16:49,840
And if she ever starts to put me over God, I hope I'll stop her.

702
01:16:49,840 --> 01:16:52,840
And vice versa. That's what it means to be married.

703
01:16:52,840 --> 01:16:54,840
Your spouse really has to have God first.

704
01:16:54,840 --> 01:16:58,840
Otherwise, the miracles that are required to make you one, it's not going to happen.

705
01:16:58,840 --> 01:17:01,840
15. For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God.

706
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:07,840
Otherwise, the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you and he will wipe you off the face of the earth.

707
01:17:07,840 --> 01:17:10,840
Whoo! That's scary.

708
01:17:10,840 --> 01:17:12,840
Just leave that one hanging there for a minute.

709
01:17:12,840 --> 01:17:17,840
16. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at Massa.

710
01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:19,840
Or that also could be Meribah.

711
01:17:19,840 --> 01:17:24,840
They tested him in the wilderness and they were punished for it.

712
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:30,840
17. You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and his testimonies and his statutes which he has commanded you.

713
01:17:30,840 --> 01:17:35,840
And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you,

714
01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:40,840
and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give you, give your fathers.

715
01:17:40,840 --> 01:17:42,840
We talked about that last week.

716
01:17:42,840 --> 01:17:46,840
By driving out all of your enemies from before you as the Lord has spoken.

717
01:17:46,840 --> 01:17:50,840
When your son asks you in time to come, saying, this is really important here,

718
01:17:50,840 --> 01:17:54,840
what do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?

719
01:17:54,840 --> 01:17:56,840
So this is what they're going to do.

720
01:17:56,840 --> 01:17:59,840
Their sons and their grandsons are going to come to them and they're going to ask them.

721
01:17:59,840 --> 01:18:04,840
Those things that Moses gave us, the testaments, the commandments, what do they mean?

722
01:18:04,840 --> 01:18:09,840
Then you shall say to your son, we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.

723
01:18:09,840 --> 01:18:13,840
And I submit as Christians we can say, we were slaves to sin in this life.

724
01:18:13,840 --> 01:18:17,840
We can put that right there. It would mean the same thing for us as it did for them.

725
01:18:17,840 --> 01:18:23,840
We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt and the Lord brought us up from Egypt with a mighty hand.

726
01:18:23,840 --> 01:18:24,840
He did it.

727
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:29,840
Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt,

728
01:18:29,840 --> 01:18:34,840
Pharaoh and all his household, and he brought us out from there in order to bring us in,

729
01:18:34,840 --> 01:18:38,840
to give us the land which he had sworn to our fathers.

730
01:18:38,840 --> 01:18:40,840
In other words, God did all that.

731
01:18:40,840 --> 01:18:42,840
That's what those commands and precepts and all that's about.

732
01:18:42,840 --> 01:18:48,840
24 says, so the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God,

733
01:18:48,840 --> 01:18:54,840
for our good always and for our survival as it is today.

734
01:18:54,840 --> 01:19:03,840
And the last verse, and it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment

735
01:19:03,840 --> 01:19:06,840
before the Lord our God just as he commanded us.

736
01:19:06,840 --> 01:19:08,840
Look at that. It will be righteousness for us.

737
01:19:08,840 --> 01:19:11,840
Or you could translate that rightness.

738
01:19:11,840 --> 01:19:13,840
Alright, so here we go.

739
01:19:13,840 --> 01:19:16,840
Three things I want you to see in there and they break down pretty neatly.

740
01:19:16,840 --> 01:19:21,840
In fact, I think the text may be tough, hard to swallow,

741
01:19:21,840 --> 01:19:24,840
but the bottom line is it's so simple a child can understand it.

742
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:30,840
Alright, so the first thing I want you to see in there is that loving God is commanded.

743
01:19:30,840 --> 01:19:36,840
God says, love me with all of your heart and your soul and your might and later the mind.

744
01:19:36,840 --> 01:19:42,840
All that you are, everything that you are is supposed to be pitted to this one task, loving God.

745
01:19:42,840 --> 01:19:48,840
Now I understand first of all that a lost person who doesn't know Jesus doesn't necessarily understand what love is.

746
01:19:48,840 --> 01:19:53,840
Love is a choice. It affects you. It costs you.

747
01:19:53,840 --> 01:19:59,840
Its outcomes are based on your commitment to it.

748
01:19:59,840 --> 01:20:04,840
Are you willing to do it? Are you willing to really hang yourself out there, put yourself all in?

749
01:20:04,840 --> 01:20:09,840
When a man and a woman stand up and get married, as Erin and Caitlin did two weekends ago,

750
01:20:09,840 --> 01:20:13,840
they commit all that they are and everything that they will go through,

751
01:20:13,840 --> 01:20:17,840
everything that they're going to do into caring for that other person.

752
01:20:17,840 --> 01:20:22,840
They now take all that God is pouring into them and say they're going to turn around and pour it out

753
01:20:22,840 --> 01:20:25,840
as God would have them to do for their spouse and then through their spouse,

754
01:20:25,840 --> 01:20:31,840
together the unified couple is going to affect and change the world.

755
01:20:31,840 --> 01:20:36,840
Love. Loving God is commanded.

756
01:20:36,840 --> 01:20:43,840
It's a problem because before we got saved, before we became a Christian and didn't really know what love was,

757
01:20:43,840 --> 01:20:45,840
we weren't very good at it.

758
01:20:45,840 --> 01:20:50,840
I had all kinds of relationships. I had family relationships. I had parents. I had a brother.

759
01:20:50,840 --> 01:20:54,840
I had friends at school. I had girlfriends that I dated.

760
01:20:54,840 --> 01:21:00,840
And I don't remember as an unsaved person really knowing how to love them well.

761
01:21:00,840 --> 01:21:03,840
Now, I knew what acts of romance looked like.

762
01:21:03,840 --> 01:21:07,840
I'm training Ariana. She's eight. She's young to be dating. Thank God.

763
01:21:07,840 --> 01:21:09,840
I'm not really looking forward to that day.

764
01:21:09,840 --> 01:21:14,840
But I'm training her on the difference between romance and love.

765
01:21:14,840 --> 01:21:20,840
Now, this is a problem because a lot of people want to romance God, but they don't want to love God.

766
01:21:20,840 --> 01:21:24,840
Remember, I said love is commitment. It's sacrifice. You're putting everything on the line.

767
01:21:24,840 --> 01:21:26,840
You're putting yourself out there. You're willing to risk everything.

768
01:21:26,840 --> 01:21:31,840
You're spending your strength, your blood, your sweat, your tears, nothing held back.

769
01:21:31,840 --> 01:21:35,840
You're all in. That's what love actually is.

770
01:21:35,840 --> 01:21:39,840
Now, it may play itself out in small acts of service and kindness that cost you something.

771
01:21:39,840 --> 01:21:42,840
You may buy somebody a gift. You may show up for them when they need you.

772
01:21:42,840 --> 01:21:46,840
You may encourage them when they're down. Those are all acts of love.

773
01:21:46,840 --> 01:21:52,840
But love is the total cumulative of your total sacrifice to a commitment to someone or,

774
01:21:52,840 --> 01:21:56,840
and this gets really scary, something. And there are people who do that.

775
01:21:56,840 --> 01:22:00,840
They love things. They love hobbies. They love things that they do, whatever.

776
01:22:00,840 --> 01:22:06,840
And it's very scary because that love is for who? It's for God.

777
01:22:06,840 --> 01:22:10,840
So people want to romance God. So yeah, I want to do a little something for God.

778
01:22:10,840 --> 01:22:12,840
I'm going to give a little something. I'm giving God a little lip service.

779
01:22:12,840 --> 01:22:15,840
I'll say something positive about God. I'll try to witness for God.

780
01:22:15,840 --> 01:22:18,840
I'll pray to God now and then when I'm in trouble.

781
01:22:18,840 --> 01:22:22,840
People want to romance God, but they don't want to love God.

782
01:22:22,840 --> 01:22:27,840
In fact, I submit to you, in the world, people who are capable of romance

783
01:22:27,840 --> 01:22:32,840
and not so capable of love, which is why we have 52% divorce rate,

784
01:22:32,840 --> 01:22:37,840
because they can romance. They can show that they love people by actions and stuff.

785
01:22:37,840 --> 01:22:41,840
And then they get married and it all sort of dwindles and falls away.

786
01:22:41,840 --> 01:22:46,840
And when the romance dies off, they're like, why do we even do this again?

787
01:22:46,840 --> 01:22:50,840
But when you make that choice to make a commitment, you put yourself all on the line

788
01:22:50,840 --> 01:22:52,840
and you do it the way God showed us how to do it.

789
01:22:52,840 --> 01:22:55,840
And the man loves his wife as Christ loves the church.

790
01:22:55,840 --> 01:22:57,840
And the woman submits to your husband as the church submits to Christ.

791
01:22:57,840 --> 01:23:01,840
And they become one. Now there's no going back.

792
01:23:01,840 --> 01:23:06,840
Some people do go back after that or go back after a partial commitment like that.

793
01:23:06,840 --> 01:23:09,840
And it's extremely painful. It will rip you apart.

794
01:23:09,840 --> 01:23:13,840
Just ask somebody who's been going through a divorce and pray for anybody who's in that situation

795
01:23:13,840 --> 01:23:17,840
because it is an extremely painful situation.

796
01:23:17,840 --> 01:23:21,840
The Lord God has commanded us to love him.

797
01:23:21,840 --> 01:23:25,840
Loving is tiring. Loving is costly.

798
01:23:25,840 --> 01:23:30,840
Loving will cost you your life eventually.

799
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:33,840
You realize that if Jesus doesn't come again, we're all going to die.

800
01:23:33,840 --> 01:23:37,840
Hopefully, I hope faithfully serving the Lord until Jesus comes again.

801
01:23:37,840 --> 01:23:41,840
We're all going to die. You're going to die for Jesus Christ,

802
01:23:41,840 --> 01:23:46,840
either of old age or of some traumatic incident or disease or sickness or something.

803
01:23:46,840 --> 01:23:50,840
If Jesus doesn't come again, and if you're a follower of the Lord,

804
01:23:50,840 --> 01:23:53,840
then you're going to die for Jesus. That's a fact.

805
01:23:53,840 --> 01:23:56,840
God is not slow as some men count slowness.

806
01:23:56,840 --> 01:23:59,840
Rather, he is patient with us that all men might come to repentance.

807
01:23:59,840 --> 01:24:03,840
So in other words, we're supposed to be working our butts off, living out this love for God.

808
01:24:03,840 --> 01:24:06,840
And we'll do that right up until we die and our heart stops beating and our brain stops waving

809
01:24:06,840 --> 01:24:09,840
and we go to heaven instantly after that.

810
01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:13,840
That's the equation. That's what he's asked of us.

811
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:18,840
And I submit to you to a degree that's what you committed to if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

812
01:24:18,840 --> 01:24:21,840
And we'll come back to that in a second.

813
01:24:21,840 --> 01:24:28,840
Notice in this text, he gives us the process of how to prolong love.

814
01:24:28,840 --> 01:24:32,840
Remember I said it's hard, it's tiring, it's exhausting, it'll kill you in the end.

815
01:24:32,840 --> 01:24:36,840
It's difficult because that's not who we were before we got saved.

816
01:24:36,840 --> 01:24:42,840
He gives us the process of how to prolong love because they were going to face some challenges.

817
01:24:42,840 --> 01:24:47,840
And they are essentially warriors. He says this, he says, number one, know the Word of God.

818
01:24:47,840 --> 01:24:51,840
Are you tired? Study the Word of God.

819
01:24:51,840 --> 01:24:54,840
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.

820
01:24:54,840 --> 01:24:58,840
And you know what comes by faith? Grace.

821
01:24:58,840 --> 01:25:01,840
You say, no, no, no, that's not right.

822
01:25:01,840 --> 01:25:03,840
Actually, it's not by, it's through.

823
01:25:03,840 --> 01:25:09,840
But in the Greek, the word is dia. It means by, on account of, or through, regardless of how you want to say it.

824
01:25:09,840 --> 01:25:14,840
Ephesians 2 says, we are saved by the grace of God, we're saved by grace through faith.

825
01:25:14,840 --> 01:25:18,840
You want the grace of God to cover your sins, then you respond to Him in faith.

826
01:25:18,840 --> 01:25:20,840
And how do you get faith? Through the Word of God.

827
01:25:20,840 --> 01:25:23,840
Faith comes by hearing and hearing, but it's the Word of God.

828
01:25:23,840 --> 01:25:26,840
Billy Graham says, I was struggling in my faith.

829
01:25:26,840 --> 01:25:29,840
I was going through a difficult time and I was praying, so I was praying every day.

830
01:25:29,840 --> 01:25:32,840
Every day I was begging God, God, give me more faith. God, give me more faith.

831
01:25:32,840 --> 01:25:35,840
And he said, and I really should have known this already.

832
01:25:35,840 --> 01:25:39,840
He said, so one day God said to me, you want more faith?

833
01:25:39,840 --> 01:25:42,840
And he asked me, how do you get more faith?

834
01:25:42,840 --> 01:25:44,840
And Billy Graham's like, well, that's what I'm asking you, God.

835
01:25:44,840 --> 01:25:47,840
How do you get more faith? And God says, well, you already know.

836
01:25:47,840 --> 01:25:53,840
And the Bible verse pops into his head. It says, you get faith by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God.

837
01:25:53,840 --> 01:25:55,840
So you get faith from the Word of God.

838
01:25:55,840 --> 01:25:57,840
And then you can trust God to do what needs to be done.

839
01:25:57,840 --> 01:26:01,840
And when you can trust God to do what needs to be done, the natural outflow of that is,

840
01:26:01,840 --> 01:26:03,840
you're going to love it. You're going to put it out.

841
01:26:03,840 --> 01:26:07,840
If I spend myself on this and die, right?

842
01:26:07,840 --> 01:26:11,840
If I spend myself on this and die, then I'm done.

843
01:26:11,840 --> 01:26:14,840
I can't do that. I can't take that risk.

844
01:26:14,840 --> 01:26:18,840
I can't risk that this is all the money I'll ever have, or this is all the strength I'll ever have,

845
01:26:18,840 --> 01:26:21,840
or that this, if I put my best effort in here, I'm going to look like an idiot.

846
01:26:21,840 --> 01:26:24,840
I can't risk that, right? Yes, I can. Yes, I can.

847
01:26:24,840 --> 01:26:27,840
The problem, when I think I can't risk that, is a lack of faith.

848
01:26:27,840 --> 01:26:31,840
You need the Word of God so you can believe that God has got you,

849
01:26:31,840 --> 01:26:34,840
so that God is the one orchestrating your life.

850
01:26:34,840 --> 01:26:38,840
And when you have that faith, suddenly God shows up and acts.

851
01:26:38,840 --> 01:26:41,840
Just immediately. As soon as you believe.

852
01:26:41,840 --> 01:26:44,840
It's not when you actually undertake the action.

853
01:26:44,840 --> 01:26:46,840
I've told a couple of stories a couple of different times,

854
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:50,840
so I'm going to tell them real short here, and if you need more details later, ask me later.

855
01:26:50,840 --> 01:26:54,840
But when Sharon and I first decided to tithe, we realized we were only tithing on the net,

856
01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:56,840
and our money never worked out.

857
01:26:56,840 --> 01:27:01,840
The night, it was a Friday night, and the first night we decided to tithe at like 11 p.m.

858
01:27:01,840 --> 01:27:03,840
We said, okay, we're just going to do it.

859
01:27:03,840 --> 01:27:07,840
It's going to put us $311 behind in our budget every week, or every year.

860
01:27:07,840 --> 01:27:10,840
Every month, there we go, I got it. Every month we'd be $311 behind.

861
01:27:10,840 --> 01:27:12,840
And we said, but we're going to do it.

862
01:27:12,840 --> 01:27:14,840
Tomorrow, we're writing the check. We didn't write the check.

863
01:27:14,840 --> 01:27:16,840
Tomorrow, we write the check. We're going to tithe.

864
01:27:16,840 --> 01:27:18,840
And now we tithe on the gross. We're going to do it.

865
01:27:18,840 --> 01:27:22,840
The next morning, the loan officer called me, and he said,

866
01:27:22,840 --> 01:27:25,840
you've got to refinance your house, if we're trying to save our house from foreclosure.

867
01:27:25,840 --> 01:27:28,840
We're going to refinance your house, and we're going to have to put your car loan in there.

868
01:27:28,840 --> 01:27:30,840
When we do that, it's going to reduce your payment by,

869
01:27:30,840 --> 01:27:34,840
you're going to eliminate your car payment by $311, and that will get it done.

870
01:27:34,840 --> 01:27:38,840
So before we ever wrote a check, before we ever did it, we tithed on the,

871
01:27:38,840 --> 01:27:41,840
we just committed to it, the very next day, God did it, balanced the budget.

872
01:27:41,840 --> 01:27:43,840
For the first time, we were married for almost 10 years,

873
01:27:43,840 --> 01:27:46,840
our budget had never balanced, for the first time it balanced just like that.

874
01:27:46,840 --> 01:27:49,840
All we did was commit to it. That's just an example.

875
01:27:49,840 --> 01:27:51,840
Judy Bolton did the same thing.

876
01:27:51,840 --> 01:27:54,840
I was, there was a night when I was talking to a woman, I said,

877
01:27:54,840 --> 01:27:56,840
I was listening, and a spirit was speaking through me, I said,

878
01:27:56,840 --> 01:27:59,840
God is going to decide between us who is right or wrong within three months.

879
01:27:59,840 --> 01:28:04,840
That person, I believed in God, that person wound up with cancer less than three months later.

880
01:28:04,840 --> 01:28:07,840
When I was at East Littledo Baptist Church, there was a man who accused me of being,

881
01:28:07,840 --> 01:28:11,840
like, that which ruins the next generation, because I gave two little girls a cup of water,

882
01:28:11,840 --> 01:28:13,840
because they were puffing, their face was red and they were sweating,

883
01:28:13,840 --> 01:28:16,840
I gave them a cup of water, and he said, you're what's ruining the next generation.

884
01:28:16,840 --> 01:28:20,840
And I was attacked, I was hurt, and I said, Lord, if I'm wrong here,

885
01:28:20,840 --> 01:28:22,840
help me repent and change my heart.

886
01:28:22,840 --> 01:28:24,840
But if he's wrong, then show him.

887
01:28:24,840 --> 01:28:28,840
Within three weeks, a man was diagnosed with cancer in his throat and couldn't speak.

888
01:28:28,840 --> 01:28:31,840
Then the Lord convicted me to pray for him, for healing.

889
01:28:31,840 --> 01:28:34,840
I prayed for him for healing, and he was miraculously healed and could speak again.

890
01:28:34,840 --> 01:28:38,840
I'm not making that stuff up. I couldn't make that stuff up if I wanted to.

891
01:28:38,840 --> 01:28:40,840
You believe, God shows up and he does it.

892
01:28:40,840 --> 01:28:46,840
God has called on us to love him, to put yourself out there, to spend yourself, to sacrifice yourself.

893
01:28:46,840 --> 01:28:49,840
You're going to have to give up. The world wants to watch a lot of TV.

894
01:28:49,840 --> 01:28:53,840
The world wants to do a lot of social media. The world wants to be wrapped up in sports

895
01:28:53,840 --> 01:28:57,840
and recreational activities and hobbies and all these things that we do.

896
01:28:57,840 --> 01:28:58,840
The world wants to do a lot of that.

897
01:28:58,840 --> 01:29:02,840
When we got saved, we began to realize that that stuff, the wants that we have,

898
01:29:02,840 --> 01:29:04,840
listen, I'm going to burst your bubble.

899
01:29:04,840 --> 01:29:07,840
You just can't do what you really want to do,

900
01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:11,840
unless what you want to do is what the Lord wants for you.

901
01:29:11,840 --> 01:29:15,840
I realized it was a form of abuse that my parents told me when I was growing up,

902
01:29:15,840 --> 01:29:17,840
they told me all the time, they said, you can be anything you want to be,

903
01:29:17,840 --> 01:29:20,840
you can be anything you want to be, and they always put that little tag on the end there and say,

904
01:29:20,840 --> 01:29:22,840
if you would only apply yourself.

905
01:29:22,840 --> 01:29:27,840
And I began to realize I felt terrible, like I was worthless, like I wasn't doing a good job,

906
01:29:27,840 --> 01:29:30,840
I was getting all A's and B's in school, but that wasn't good enough, nothing was good enough.

907
01:29:30,840 --> 01:29:34,840
So you can be anything you want to do, if only you would just apply yourself.

908
01:29:34,840 --> 01:29:36,840
But in Christ, this is what I found out.

909
01:29:36,840 --> 01:29:42,840
I can be anything I want, as long as what I want is what God wants for me.

910
01:29:42,840 --> 01:29:44,840
Lift up prayers to the Lord and he will answer.

911
01:29:44,840 --> 01:29:46,840
Ask and ye shall receive.

912
01:29:46,840 --> 01:29:51,840
The problem is, you've got to believe and know who he is in the first place.

913
01:29:51,840 --> 01:29:54,840
And that starts with loving him back the way he has loved us.

914
01:29:54,840 --> 01:29:59,840
Did Jesus hold anything back from you in his love?

915
01:29:59,840 --> 01:30:00,840
Did he hold anything back?

916
01:30:00,840 --> 01:30:05,840
He literally was present at the creation of the world.

917
01:30:05,840 --> 01:30:08,840
Nothing was created except that which was created through him.

918
01:30:08,840 --> 01:30:09,840
John 1.

919
01:30:09,840 --> 01:30:14,840
And then came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and died a sinner's death.

920
01:30:14,840 --> 01:30:19,840
Beaten, mocked, scorned, thorned, beaten about the head.

921
01:30:19,840 --> 01:30:20,840
We were doing Bible trivia camp.

922
01:30:20,840 --> 01:30:24,840
I said, after they put the crown of thorns on Jesus' head, what did they beat him with?

923
01:30:24,840 --> 01:30:27,840
Does anybody know?

924
01:30:27,840 --> 01:30:28,840
Nobody there knew.

925
01:30:28,840 --> 01:30:29,840
They beat him with a rod.

926
01:30:29,840 --> 01:30:33,840
They put a crown of thorns on his head, and then they beat him about the head with a rod,

927
01:30:33,840 --> 01:30:35,840
driving the thorns into his head.

928
01:30:35,840 --> 01:30:39,840
Did Jesus hold back anything from you in his love for you?

929
01:30:39,840 --> 01:30:42,840
Then what can you righteously hold back from God?

930
01:30:42,840 --> 01:30:48,840
We are required to love God, and by this process that he gave them was just know the word,

931
01:30:48,840 --> 01:30:51,840
know what it says, and then share it with others.

932
01:30:51,840 --> 01:30:53,840
Jesus came that all might be saved.

933
01:30:53,840 --> 01:30:55,840
Not some.

934
01:30:55,840 --> 01:30:57,840
He came to save everybody.

935
01:30:57,840 --> 01:31:02,840
But then we get people who are saved, and then they start doing, okay, listen, I was a hot mess.

936
01:31:02,840 --> 01:31:04,840
My marriage would not have lasted.

937
01:31:04,840 --> 01:31:06,840
I was ruining my eldest daughter.

938
01:31:06,840 --> 01:31:13,840
I was $30,000 in debt on top of a house loan, even though I didn't have a car loan.

939
01:31:13,840 --> 01:31:14,840
I did have a car loan.

940
01:31:14,840 --> 01:31:15,840
I had a car loan.

941
01:31:15,840 --> 01:31:16,840
That was it.

942
01:31:16,840 --> 01:31:17,840
I had a car loan, house loan, $30,000 worth of debt.

943
01:31:17,840 --> 01:31:19,840
I was ruining my life.

944
01:31:19,840 --> 01:31:21,840
It was terrible to my wife.

945
01:31:21,840 --> 01:31:25,840
She was on the verge of divorcing me multiple times, walking out at least.

946
01:31:25,840 --> 01:31:31,840
There were times where I walked out thinking that I had been somehow wounded.

947
01:31:31,840 --> 01:31:34,840
You know, the night she was going to go to party, I was feeling all jealous,

948
01:31:34,840 --> 01:31:36,840
and I left thinking I wasn't going to come back because,

949
01:31:36,840 --> 01:31:40,840
how dare she go to party without me because she was invited, and I wasn't.

950
01:31:40,840 --> 01:31:43,840
That night, I was ruining my life.

951
01:31:43,840 --> 01:31:47,840
And God came in and turned it all around, turned it all around.

952
01:31:47,840 --> 01:31:51,840
And I became born again, and all old things got old real fast, gone.

953
01:31:51,840 --> 01:31:54,840
And all things became new.

954
01:31:54,840 --> 01:31:56,840
And now I'm going to get wrapped up in my prosperity.

955
01:31:56,840 --> 01:32:00,840
I'm going to hold a little too tight to a dollar bill.

956
01:32:00,840 --> 01:32:04,840
Or when I start to get sore or tired, I'm going to say, God, that's enough?

957
01:32:04,840 --> 01:32:10,840
What are you going to hold back from God, the God who held nothing back from you?

958
01:32:10,840 --> 01:32:15,840
Loving God is commanded, knowing the Word, and then we ought to be sharing that with other people.

959
01:32:15,840 --> 01:32:18,840
We've got to go outside our comfort zone.

960
01:32:18,840 --> 01:32:23,840
The problem is, you know why a lot of Christians aren't sharing God with other people?

961
01:32:23,840 --> 01:32:25,840
This will hurt you. It'll hurt me.

962
01:32:25,840 --> 01:32:28,840
You know why a lot of Christians aren't sharing God with other people through Christ?

963
01:32:28,840 --> 01:32:30,840
Because they don't believe in God.

964
01:32:30,840 --> 01:32:33,840
You say, that doesn't make any sense.

965
01:32:33,840 --> 01:32:34,840
How can that be?

966
01:32:34,840 --> 01:32:37,840
Jesus said to the disciples, oh, ye of little faith, how long will I have to put up with you?

967
01:32:37,840 --> 01:32:43,840
And they walked with him, and they saw him heal the blind man, and the leper, and the cripple.

968
01:32:43,840 --> 01:32:47,840
They saw him cast out evil spirits over and over and over again.

969
01:32:47,840 --> 01:32:50,840
And he said, oh, ye of little faith, how long will I have to put up with you?

970
01:32:50,840 --> 01:32:54,840
I submit to you, if you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to trust Him.

971
01:32:54,840 --> 01:32:57,840
And to trust Him, you need to know His Word and share it with others.

972
01:32:57,840 --> 01:33:00,840
As you're sharing it with others, by the way, it will become a frontlet to your eyes.

973
01:33:00,840 --> 01:33:02,840
It will be hanging around your house.

974
01:33:02,840 --> 01:33:06,840
It will be everywhere you look, and you'll constantly be going, oh, yeah.

975
01:33:06,840 --> 01:33:09,840
By the way, earlier I paraphrased Psalm 55 22.

976
01:33:09,840 --> 01:33:16,840
What does it say?

977
01:33:16,840 --> 01:33:20,840
Yes, yeah, because he will not allow the righteous to fall.

978
01:33:20,840 --> 01:33:22,840
There's a second part of it. Good.

979
01:33:22,840 --> 01:33:24,840
But why don't we all know that?

980
01:33:24,840 --> 01:33:26,840
It's the only 55 22 in the Bible.

981
01:33:26,840 --> 01:33:28,840
What does John 3 16 say?

982
01:33:28,840 --> 01:33:30,840
Now, why do we all know John 3 16?

983
01:33:30,840 --> 01:33:32,840
Because it largely encapsulates the Bible.

984
01:33:32,840 --> 01:33:34,840
It encapsulates the entire theme of the Bible.

985
01:33:34,840 --> 01:33:36,840
It's a verse that covers almost everything,

986
01:33:36,840 --> 01:33:38,840
and that's why leaders are constantly teaching it to kids.

987
01:33:38,840 --> 01:33:43,840
But the verses that you learn from your kid as a kid or when you used to teach, it's not enough.

988
01:33:43,840 --> 01:33:46,840
You need the strength to walk with God every day.

989
01:33:46,840 --> 01:33:48,840
You need to be constantly filled.

990
01:33:48,840 --> 01:33:53,840
You're an empty cup unless there's something in you.

991
01:33:53,840 --> 01:33:56,840
And by this faith, we open a channel to God, and he delivers his grace.

992
01:33:56,840 --> 01:33:58,840
God does not have to do squat for you.

993
01:33:58,840 --> 01:34:02,840
He does not owe you anything.

994
01:34:02,840 --> 01:34:04,840
He doesn't have to do squat for you. He doesn't have to provide for you.

995
01:34:04,840 --> 01:34:07,840
He does it all because he loves you.

996
01:34:07,840 --> 01:34:11,840
That's called grace, because you don't deserve that love, and I don't deserve that love.

997
01:34:11,840 --> 01:34:12,840
We don't deserve it.

998
01:34:12,840 --> 01:34:17,840
But by believing in him and trusting in him, knowing his word and sharing his word,

999
01:34:17,840 --> 01:34:21,840
that as things come against us and surround us that will distract us, et cetera, we'll be ready.

1000
01:34:21,840 --> 01:34:29,840
Also notice there was one third point that they put in there, and that they were forewarned about prosperity.

1001
01:34:29,840 --> 01:34:32,840
Again, I told you what my life was like before I got saved.

1002
01:34:32,840 --> 01:34:34,840
I was messing it all up.

1003
01:34:34,840 --> 01:34:39,840
And then after I got saved, miraculously, God was fixing it all.

1004
01:34:39,840 --> 01:34:41,840
Since then, there have been time and time again.

1005
01:34:41,840 --> 01:34:44,840
The story that I tell you about when I was driving to Michigan and we were in a snowstorm

1006
01:34:44,840 --> 01:34:48,840
and everybody else was sleeping and I sat back like this driving, and I couldn't see the gas gauge.

1007
01:34:48,840 --> 01:34:52,840
I look up and the wheels below empty and I've been driving for like 50 miles since the light came on,

1008
01:34:52,840 --> 01:34:53,840
or however long it was.

1009
01:34:53,840 --> 01:34:57,840
Didn't know how far, still had 30 miles to get home, and we prayed, and God essentially put gas in the tank.

1010
01:34:57,840 --> 01:35:00,840
The needle literally went up like that to three-eighths of a tank.

1011
01:35:00,840 --> 01:35:03,840
We drove all the way home and unloaded and everything, and I drove the next morning, got gas,

1012
01:35:03,840 --> 01:35:07,840
got more gas than I possibly could in the tank.

1013
01:35:07,840 --> 01:35:15,840
Well, that's a great story about God and trusting God and asking God and receiving from God.

1014
01:35:15,840 --> 01:35:19,840
Whose fault was it that there was no gas in the tank?

1015
01:35:19,840 --> 01:35:23,840
Whose fault was it that I didn't know the light came on?

1016
01:35:23,840 --> 01:35:25,840
Right? That's where we're living.

1017
01:35:25,840 --> 01:35:31,840
And in the midst of prosperity, it's really easy to go, oh, God's not giving me enough.

1018
01:35:31,840 --> 01:35:35,840
I'm going to be blunt here and I apologize if I step on anybody's toes, but this is what I've heard.

1019
01:35:35,840 --> 01:35:36,840
I've heard, for example, sometimes about tithing.

1020
01:35:36,840 --> 01:35:37,840
I say, I don't have enough money to tithe.

1021
01:35:37,840 --> 01:35:40,840
Tithing is 10% of your income. I can kind of get that.

1022
01:35:40,840 --> 01:35:43,840
I had a sister tell me I don't have enough money to buy gas to go to church.

1023
01:35:43,840 --> 01:35:46,840
You know how much money it costs to buy gas to go to church?

1024
01:35:46,840 --> 01:35:50,840
About 25 bucks a month if you live kind of far away.

1025
01:35:50,840 --> 01:35:52,840
If you live here in East Toledo, it costs about five.

1026
01:35:52,840 --> 01:35:55,840
Five dollars a month. You don't have enough gas to get to church?

1027
01:35:55,840 --> 01:35:58,840
And I'm not trying to convict anybody any more than necessary, but that's in the notes.

1028
01:35:58,840 --> 01:36:04,840
It was there since I wrote it Friday.

1029
01:36:04,840 --> 01:36:07,840
I don't have time to read my Bible.

1030
01:36:07,840 --> 01:36:12,840
Do you know how much time it takes to read your Bible five minutes a day?

1031
01:36:12,840 --> 01:36:15,840
Five minutes? You don't have five minutes?

1032
01:36:15,840 --> 01:36:17,840
Cut your stinking sleep short.

1033
01:36:17,840 --> 01:36:21,840
Like, oh, I can't do that. If I cut my sleep five minutes short, I'll be tired in the morning.

1034
01:36:21,840 --> 01:36:25,840
Really? FYI, you're going to be tired in the morning anyway.

1035
01:36:25,840 --> 01:36:28,840
People are tired in the morning.

1036
01:36:28,840 --> 01:36:30,840
Get up five minutes early. Oh, I couldn't do that. I couldn't get up five.

1037
01:36:30,840 --> 01:36:35,840
If you actually get up five minutes before you need to get up to get where you're getting,

1038
01:36:35,840 --> 01:36:38,840
when it comes time to get up to get where you're getting,

1039
01:36:38,840 --> 01:36:41,840
you'll already be up and you'll actually get there on time.

1040
01:36:41,840 --> 01:36:43,840
Amazing, isn't it?

1041
01:36:43,840 --> 01:36:47,840
With the possible exception of if you plan five minutes in the Word and wind up spending ten,

1042
01:36:47,840 --> 01:36:48,840
then you might be late.

1043
01:36:48,840 --> 01:36:54,840
And if you were, it'd be actually for a good reason for the first time ever.

1044
01:36:54,840 --> 01:36:56,840
You have the time. You have the money. You have the resource.

1045
01:36:56,840 --> 01:37:00,840
You have the people because God put them in your life because God did it by His grace.

1046
01:37:00,840 --> 01:37:02,840
We are to love Him back.

1047
01:37:02,840 --> 01:37:05,840
The process is this. Know His Word. Share it with others.

1048
01:37:05,840 --> 01:37:11,840
Live it out. Make it like your guide, your most important thing in your life.

1049
01:37:11,840 --> 01:37:14,840
I'm not saying worship it. God is the one we worship.

1050
01:37:14,840 --> 01:37:18,840
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. That's all of it.

1051
01:37:18,840 --> 01:37:22,840
But what He's saying is you must love Me.

1052
01:37:22,840 --> 01:37:25,840
Now He's saying that because we've become His children.

1053
01:37:25,840 --> 01:37:29,840
In the Old Testament, there were a number of prophecies about how they weren't following God.

1054
01:37:29,840 --> 01:37:31,840
They didn't get it right. Ultimately, they did wrong.

1055
01:37:31,840 --> 01:37:33,840
They were suffering the curse. They were carried off to captivity.

1056
01:37:33,840 --> 01:37:35,840
All that kind of stuff was going on.

1057
01:37:35,840 --> 01:37:42,840
And there were prophecies about how God would then write the commandments on the hearts of a people.

1058
01:37:42,840 --> 01:37:47,840
And that that people, that God would be their God.

1059
01:37:47,840 --> 01:37:49,840
He would be our God.

1060
01:37:49,840 --> 01:37:51,840
And we would be His people.

1061
01:37:51,840 --> 01:37:53,840
What do you think that's talking about?

1062
01:37:53,840 --> 01:37:55,840
It's talking about the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit God would send.

1063
01:37:55,840 --> 01:37:59,840
After His own Son came and gave His life, then Jesus went back to heaven.

1064
01:37:59,840 --> 01:38:01,840
He said, if I go to prepare a place for you, it's really good.

1065
01:38:01,840 --> 01:38:04,840
I'm going to send somebody back, a new comforter, to be with you.

1066
01:38:04,840 --> 01:38:05,840
And you'll be taken care of.

1067
01:38:05,840 --> 01:38:06,840
And the Holy Spirit comes in us.

1068
01:38:06,840 --> 01:38:08,840
And He convicts us when we're not doing it right.

1069
01:38:08,840 --> 01:38:13,840
But a lot of times, we don't hear the Holy Spirit because we're not walking in the Word in the first place.

1070
01:38:13,840 --> 01:38:16,840
The Holy Spirit says, remember that verse you read 17 years ago that said?

1071
01:38:16,840 --> 01:38:19,840
And you're like, no, I don't remember that verse. Why?

1072
01:38:19,840 --> 01:38:22,840
Because you read it 17 years ago.

1073
01:38:22,840 --> 01:38:23,840
Remember what it says here?

1074
01:38:23,840 --> 01:38:26,840
It gives you a little phrase that you're supposed to remember from the Word of God.

1075
01:38:26,840 --> 01:38:28,840
And you don't remember it because you haven't been doing it.

1076
01:38:28,840 --> 01:38:32,840
There's nothing about the Word of God in you or in your life.

1077
01:38:32,840 --> 01:38:34,840
And here it was saying, do that.

1078
01:38:34,840 --> 01:38:35,840
It's an act of love toward God.

1079
01:38:35,840 --> 01:38:38,840
Put this in there. Live it. Share it.

1080
01:38:38,840 --> 01:38:39,840
And be forearmed.

1081
01:38:39,840 --> 01:38:45,840
Because when prosperity comes, it's going to be tough.

1082
01:38:45,840 --> 01:38:50,840
Remember when I said that we would talk briefly about the swear on the Lord?

1083
01:38:50,840 --> 01:38:53,840
And there seems to be a conflict between that and the command of the New Testament.

1084
01:38:53,840 --> 01:38:58,840
So the word in Hebrew for swear is, I'll try to do it.

1085
01:38:58,840 --> 01:38:59,840
I'm not a Hebrew scholar.

1086
01:38:59,840 --> 01:39:02,840
I'm a little bit of a Greek scholar, but not so much Hebrew.

1087
01:39:02,840 --> 01:39:05,840
But I did look it up. It's sheba.

1088
01:39:05,840 --> 01:39:08,840
Does anybody know what that word means?

1089
01:39:08,840 --> 01:39:10,840
In English you say it means swear, right?

1090
01:39:10,840 --> 01:39:12,840
But it has a literal meaning in the Hebrew.

1091
01:39:12,840 --> 01:39:15,840
It means to seven yourself.

1092
01:39:15,840 --> 01:39:17,840
What the heck does that mean? Seven myself?

1093
01:39:17,840 --> 01:39:21,840
Well, okay, so somebody tell me what in the Bible, what seven is.

1094
01:39:21,840 --> 01:39:27,840
What's the first seven in the Bible?

1095
01:39:27,840 --> 01:39:28,840
Seven days of creation, right?

1096
01:39:28,840 --> 01:39:32,840
God created what in seven days?

1097
01:39:32,840 --> 01:39:33,840
Everything.

1098
01:39:33,840 --> 01:39:35,840
But actually he only created for six days.

1099
01:39:35,840 --> 01:39:37,840
What did he do on the seventh day?

1100
01:39:37,840 --> 01:39:41,840
He rested and he made a covenant.

1101
01:39:41,840 --> 01:39:44,840
Covenant to remember that seventh day and all that God had created, right?

1102
01:39:44,840 --> 01:39:47,840
You were nothing. I brought you out of nothing.

1103
01:39:47,840 --> 01:39:49,840
Don't forget I made you something.

1104
01:39:49,840 --> 01:39:52,840
That's what happened on the seventh day.

1105
01:39:52,840 --> 01:39:53,840
That's where we all started at.

1106
01:39:53,840 --> 01:39:55,840
You were nothing. I made you something.

1107
01:39:55,840 --> 01:39:59,840
Don't forget I brought you out of nothing and made you something.

1108
01:39:59,840 --> 01:40:01,840
That's the covenant that God made on the seventh day.

1109
01:40:01,840 --> 01:40:06,840
To seven yourself is to remember that you were nothing and God made you something.

1110
01:40:06,840 --> 01:40:09,840
And now he brought you out of nothing and made you something.

1111
01:40:09,840 --> 01:40:12,840
Don't forget it.

1112
01:40:12,840 --> 01:40:14,840
It's not a promise.

1113
01:40:14,840 --> 01:40:19,840
It's not like swearing on God's name like a curse.

1114
01:40:19,840 --> 01:40:20,840
It's a covenant.

1115
01:40:20,840 --> 01:40:25,840
You were nothing. I made you something out of nothing.

1116
01:40:25,840 --> 01:40:28,840
Now let's go forward together.

1117
01:40:28,840 --> 01:40:29,840
That's what he did.

1118
01:40:29,840 --> 01:40:30,840
And God is a covenant God.

1119
01:40:30,840 --> 01:40:31,840
He covenanted all throughout the...

1120
01:40:31,840 --> 01:40:32,840
He covenanted with Abraham.

1121
01:40:32,840 --> 01:40:33,840
He covenanted with David.

1122
01:40:33,840 --> 01:40:34,840
He covenanted with Noah.

1123
01:40:34,840 --> 01:40:35,840
He covenanted with Samuel.

1124
01:40:35,840 --> 01:40:36,840
God is a covenant God.

1125
01:40:36,840 --> 01:40:39,840
And when God makes a promise and God makes a covenant with somebody,

1126
01:40:39,840 --> 01:40:42,840
he always keeps his side.

1127
01:40:42,840 --> 01:40:47,840
When we are living in the Lord and following the Lord and doing what we're supposed to be doing

1128
01:40:47,840 --> 01:40:51,840
and we commit ourselves to something, your yay must be yay, your nay must be yay,

1129
01:40:51,840 --> 01:40:54,840
because you are a child of God.

1130
01:40:54,840 --> 01:40:56,840
God is your God.

1131
01:40:56,840 --> 01:40:57,840
The only God.

1132
01:40:57,840 --> 01:40:58,840
There are no others.

1133
01:40:58,840 --> 01:41:00,840
There may be some demons that masquerade as God.

1134
01:41:00,840 --> 01:41:02,840
Satan may try to masquerade as God.

1135
01:41:02,840 --> 01:41:04,840
Money may try to become a God in your life.

1136
01:41:04,840 --> 01:41:06,840
Sex may try to become a God in your life.

1137
01:41:06,840 --> 01:41:11,840
Relationships, social media, games.

1138
01:41:11,840 --> 01:41:16,840
Whatever, any of it might try to become a God in your life.

1139
01:41:16,840 --> 01:41:18,840
But there are no other gods.

1140
01:41:18,840 --> 01:41:19,840
Only God.

1141
01:41:19,840 --> 01:41:20,840
And when he said your God is one, that's what he's talking about.

1142
01:41:20,840 --> 01:41:21,840
There is only one God.

1143
01:41:21,840 --> 01:41:26,840
There is one God and he sevened himself with you.

1144
01:41:26,840 --> 01:41:29,840
From the beginning, he said, you are nothing.

1145
01:41:29,840 --> 01:41:34,840
I made you something so that we can be together.

1146
01:41:34,840 --> 01:41:37,840
And then mankind, the form of Adam and Eve, and we were all in there,

1147
01:41:37,840 --> 01:41:40,840
broke that covenant.

1148
01:41:40,840 --> 01:41:42,840
But God didn't break his part of it.

1149
01:41:42,840 --> 01:41:45,840
He ultimately promised he would send his own son, and he did,

1150
01:41:45,840 --> 01:41:47,840
and his son sacrificed himself.

1151
01:41:47,840 --> 01:41:49,840
Now, last text of the day, and we're about done.

1152
01:41:49,840 --> 01:41:53,840
Go with me, if you will, to Revelation chapter 21.

1153
01:41:53,840 --> 01:41:58,840
So we're going all the way to the back of the Bible.

1154
01:41:58,840 --> 01:42:01,840
Almost to the end.

1155
01:42:01,840 --> 01:42:04,840
Revelation 21.

1156
01:42:04,840 --> 01:42:07,840
It will be the end, essentially, or nearly the end,

1157
01:42:07,840 --> 01:42:11,840
of the story of all that God has been doing in all creation, all time.

1158
01:42:11,840 --> 01:42:13,840
Revelation 21, beginning of verse 1, says this.

1159
01:42:13,840 --> 01:42:15,840
And this is John speaking.

1160
01:42:15,840 --> 01:42:17,840
And he says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth,

1161
01:42:17,840 --> 01:42:20,840
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,

1162
01:42:20,840 --> 01:42:25,840
and there is no longer any sea.

1163
01:42:25,840 --> 01:42:30,840
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

1164
01:42:30,840 --> 01:42:34,840
made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

1165
01:42:34,840 --> 01:42:37,840
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying,

1166
01:42:37,840 --> 01:42:40,840
Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men.

1167
01:42:40,840 --> 01:42:44,840
He shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people,

1168
01:42:44,840 --> 01:42:46,840
and God himself shall be among them.

1169
01:42:46,840 --> 01:42:49,840
And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes,

1170
01:42:49,840 --> 01:42:52,840
and there shall no longer be any death.

1171
01:42:52,840 --> 01:42:56,840
There shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.

1172
01:42:56,840 --> 01:43:00,840
The first things have passed away.

1173
01:43:00,840 --> 01:43:02,840
And he who sits on the throne said,

1174
01:43:02,840 --> 01:43:06,840
Behold, I am making all things new.

1175
01:43:06,840 --> 01:43:10,840
And he said, Right, for these words are faithful and true.

1176
01:43:10,840 --> 01:43:13,840
And he said to me, It is done.

1177
01:43:13,840 --> 01:43:18,840
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

1178
01:43:18,840 --> 01:43:23,840
I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water, of life, without cost.

1179
01:43:23,840 --> 01:43:26,840
He who overcomes shall inherit these things,

1180
01:43:26,840 --> 01:43:30,840
and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

1181
01:43:30,840 --> 01:43:34,840
That's what we think we're claiming as a Christian, isn't it?

1182
01:43:34,840 --> 01:43:38,840
That's the end that we're foreseeing, isn't it?

1183
01:43:38,840 --> 01:43:41,840
The living water in us, us in the new heaven and new earth,

1184
01:43:41,840 --> 01:43:45,840
with all this crap that's down here, passed away, finally gone.

1185
01:43:45,840 --> 01:43:47,840
That's the end that we're foreseeing.

1186
01:43:47,840 --> 01:43:49,840
But I want you to notice the phrase in the middle.

1187
01:43:49,840 --> 01:43:51,840
It says, For the one who overcomes.

1188
01:43:51,840 --> 01:43:52,840
He says, I will do it.

1189
01:43:52,840 --> 01:43:54,840
And then he says, For the one who overcomes,

1190
01:43:54,840 --> 01:43:57,840
he who overcomes shall inherit these things.

1191
01:43:57,840 --> 01:44:01,840
Love the Lord your God that you are commanded.

1192
01:44:01,840 --> 01:44:03,840
Be prepared to overcome.

1193
01:44:03,840 --> 01:44:06,840
Prolong that love and be prepared to overcome the things of this life

1194
01:44:06,840 --> 01:44:09,840
that you also are commanded in the way that has been given to you.

1195
01:44:09,840 --> 01:44:14,840
Know his word and share it, and be careful of the prosperity that you experience

1196
01:44:14,840 --> 01:44:18,840
that it does not distract you or tempt you from your loving of God.

1197
01:44:18,840 --> 01:44:20,840
Whatever you get, as much as you may have,

1198
01:44:20,840 --> 01:44:24,840
be ready to put it on the line as an act of love with God.

1199
01:44:24,840 --> 01:44:28,840
And if you will not, then I submit to you, you need to stop claiming that promise

1200
01:44:28,840 --> 01:44:30,840
because you ain't got it.

1201
01:44:30,840 --> 01:44:34,840
You can say, I'm going to heaven one day, and there will be no more tears,

1202
01:44:34,840 --> 01:44:37,840
no more sorrow, no more sighing, no more pain, etc.

1203
01:44:37,840 --> 01:44:42,840
But unless you overcome, you will not have the promise to inherit these things.

1204
01:44:42,840 --> 01:44:45,840
That's what God said.

1205
01:44:45,840 --> 01:44:46,840
It's the one on the throne.

1206
01:44:46,840 --> 01:44:49,840
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the being the end.

1207
01:44:49,840 --> 01:44:53,840
I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of water of life

1208
01:44:53,840 --> 01:44:54,840
without cost.

1209
01:44:54,840 --> 01:44:56,840
That's what he has done through his son, Jesus Christ,

1210
01:44:56,840 --> 01:44:59,840
and we are being saved if we are accepting.

1211
01:44:59,840 --> 01:45:03,840
And then he says, he who overcomes shall inherit these things,

1212
01:45:03,840 --> 01:45:06,840
and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

1213
01:45:06,840 --> 01:45:08,840
You know what? He actually doesn't stop there.

1214
01:45:08,840 --> 01:45:10,840
I stop there, but he doesn't stop there.

1215
01:45:10,840 --> 01:45:11,840
He goes on to say this.

1216
01:45:11,840 --> 01:45:13,840
He says, but for the cowardly...

1217
01:45:13,840 --> 01:45:16,840
Hang on, because before I got saved, I was a coward.

1218
01:45:16,840 --> 01:45:18,840
I was afraid of what people thought of me.

1219
01:45:18,840 --> 01:45:20,840
I was afraid of fights. I ran most of the time.

1220
01:45:20,840 --> 01:45:23,840
I got in a lot of fights, but I ran when I could.

1221
01:45:23,840 --> 01:45:24,840
Right?

1222
01:45:24,840 --> 01:45:26,840
A coward would be somebody who says, I love God,

1223
01:45:26,840 --> 01:45:28,840
but I'm not willing to put my all on the line.

1224
01:45:28,840 --> 01:45:31,840
You got a little money you're holding back just in case the God don't show up?

1225
01:45:31,840 --> 01:45:33,840
You're a coward.

1226
01:45:33,840 --> 01:45:35,840
Got a little time you're holding back to spend it on yourself

1227
01:45:35,840 --> 01:45:37,840
because you don't want to use it for what God wants you to do?

1228
01:45:37,840 --> 01:45:39,840
Coward.

1229
01:45:39,840 --> 01:45:40,840
You know why?

1230
01:45:40,840 --> 01:45:43,840
Because you're not trusting God if I spend this time.

1231
01:45:43,840 --> 01:45:44,840
This is God's economy.

1232
01:45:44,840 --> 01:45:46,840
He says, you give, and I give back.

1233
01:45:46,840 --> 01:45:49,840
I give back more than you ever gave or ever could give

1234
01:45:49,840 --> 01:45:51,840
because I gave you all of what you have in the first place.

1235
01:45:51,840 --> 01:45:55,840
If I give you more than that, when you give, I'll give back.

1236
01:45:55,840 --> 01:45:57,840
But we don't.

1237
01:45:57,840 --> 01:45:58,840
Sometimes.

1238
01:45:58,840 --> 01:46:00,840
And when we don't, we've got to be real.

1239
01:46:00,840 --> 01:46:02,840
We're being cowardly.

1240
01:46:02,840 --> 01:46:06,840
If you won't give of yourself, your time, your talent, your blood, sweat, tears, money, etc.

1241
01:46:06,840 --> 01:46:07,840
You're coward.

1242
01:46:07,840 --> 01:46:10,840
Because you're not trusting God that God will do what he said he would do.

1243
01:46:10,840 --> 01:46:11,840
And this is what he says.

1244
01:46:11,840 --> 01:46:15,840
He said, but for the cowardly and the unbelieving, also you're lacking in faith.

1245
01:46:15,840 --> 01:46:18,840
You say, well, I can't trust God to do it for me, so I'm lacking in faith.

1246
01:46:18,840 --> 01:46:21,840
He says, the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable,

1247
01:46:21,840 --> 01:46:23,840
that means the things that God gets sick of.

1248
01:46:23,840 --> 01:46:27,840
And the murderers, an immoral person, and sorcerers,

1249
01:46:27,840 --> 01:46:31,840
that means people that try to force God's hand or force things in the spiritual realm

1250
01:46:31,840 --> 01:46:35,840
to do what they want by certain means other than being found faithful.

1251
01:46:35,840 --> 01:46:40,840
Sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, he says,

1252
01:46:40,840 --> 01:46:45,840
their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone,

1253
01:46:45,840 --> 01:46:49,840
which is the second death.

1254
01:46:49,840 --> 01:46:50,840
It's very simple, isn't it?

1255
01:46:50,840 --> 01:46:52,840
You have one choice to make.

1256
01:46:52,840 --> 01:46:59,840
God says, love me the way I love you and we'll be together for an eternity.

1257
01:46:59,840 --> 01:47:01,840
It's like a marriage.

1258
01:47:01,840 --> 01:47:06,840
Love me who I love you and we'll be together for our entire life,

1259
01:47:06,840 --> 01:47:11,840
and our entire life is an eternity because I'm God and you're recreated as my son.

1260
01:47:11,840 --> 01:47:12,840
That's what he says.

1261
01:47:12,840 --> 01:47:15,840
But if you will not love God that way, if you're going to lie about it,

1262
01:47:15,840 --> 01:47:18,840
if you're going to be cowardly about it, you're not going to trust him,

1263
01:47:18,840 --> 01:47:21,840
not going to follow him in faith after he's already presented himself in your life

1264
01:47:21,840 --> 01:47:24,840
and begun to give you stuff, make things better.

1265
01:47:24,840 --> 01:47:31,840
If you're not going to do that, there is still a place for you reserved

1266
01:47:31,840 --> 01:47:35,840
in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone,

1267
01:47:35,840 --> 01:47:37,840
which is the second death.

1268
01:47:37,840 --> 01:47:40,840
I'm not making this stuff up.

1269
01:47:40,840 --> 01:47:43,840
I couldn't if I wanted to because it hurts too much.

1270
01:47:43,840 --> 01:47:46,840
It's time we were no longer cowardly.

1271
01:47:46,840 --> 01:47:50,840
It's time we were people of faith, that we receive the Word of God,

1272
01:47:50,840 --> 01:47:53,840
we study it, we learn it, and say, I don't read that good.

1273
01:47:53,840 --> 01:47:54,840
Okay, well then you've got two choices.

1274
01:47:54,840 --> 01:47:58,840
Number one, anybody that doesn't read that well knows they have to work harder

1275
01:47:58,840 --> 01:48:00,840
than anybody else who can read better than they are.

1276
01:48:00,840 --> 01:48:02,840
And by the way, when you do that, what will that be?

1277
01:48:02,840 --> 01:48:04,840
That will be you given to God, and what will that be?

1278
01:48:04,840 --> 01:48:05,840
That will be rewarded by God.

1279
01:48:05,840 --> 01:48:06,840
So guess what?

1280
01:48:06,840 --> 01:48:08,840
If you're somebody in this room who doesn't read all that well,

1281
01:48:08,840 --> 01:48:10,840
you've got the higher road.

1282
01:48:10,840 --> 01:48:11,840
You've got it easier than anybody else.

1283
01:48:11,840 --> 01:48:13,840
You can get blessed easier than anybody else.

1284
01:48:13,840 --> 01:48:15,840
You can be faithful easier than anybody else.

1285
01:48:15,840 --> 01:48:18,840
Somebody who can read a lot better than you, you go and read the same amount

1286
01:48:18,840 --> 01:48:23,840
that they read, and you'll get twice the blessing.

1287
01:48:23,840 --> 01:48:26,840
Because you'll have done more work to get where they're trying to get to.

1288
01:48:26,840 --> 01:48:28,840
And God will bless you back because of it.

1289
01:48:28,840 --> 01:48:30,840
So you've got to read it.

1290
01:48:30,840 --> 01:48:33,840
But there's also in our great day, listening to it.

1291
01:48:33,840 --> 01:48:34,840
Get the Bible app on your phone.

1292
01:48:34,840 --> 01:48:36,840
You can listen to the Bible anytime.

1293
01:48:36,840 --> 01:48:40,840
From now on when you get the car, at least think about for one split second,

1294
01:48:40,840 --> 01:48:44,840
think about putting the Bible on instead of music.

1295
01:48:44,840 --> 01:48:48,840
And then you'll be doing it as you go, which is what we're commanded.

1296
01:48:48,840 --> 01:48:53,840
When you get up in the morning, I want you to think about putting the armor of God on

1297
01:48:53,840 --> 01:48:56,840
before you put your clothes on.

1298
01:48:56,840 --> 01:49:00,840
Delve into the truth and say, no, I want to get my clothes on before I study.

1299
01:49:00,840 --> 01:49:01,840
Then that's fine.

1300
01:49:01,840 --> 01:49:07,840
But I want you to think about the Word of God first before clothes.

1301
01:49:07,840 --> 01:49:10,840
Because the best clothes on the earth will not get you into heaven.

1302
01:49:10,840 --> 01:49:13,840
The best of anything on the earth will not get you into heaven.

1303
01:49:13,840 --> 01:49:17,840
But your faithfulness in the Lord, trusting God and loving Him with all that He has,

1304
01:49:17,840 --> 01:49:21,840
believing in Him, being filled up by His Word, sharing His Word with others,

1305
01:49:21,840 --> 01:49:26,840
and being forewarned to overcome the prosperity that you will experience,

1306
01:49:26,840 --> 01:49:30,840
you have entered into a covenant with God.

1307
01:49:30,840 --> 01:49:36,840
God has been working for us from the beginning, before we were ever born.

1308
01:49:36,840 --> 01:49:39,840
And He's asking you to do nothing less than to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord.

1309
01:49:39,840 --> 01:49:41,840
That means He tells you what to do and you do it.

1310
01:49:41,840 --> 01:49:44,840
And your Savior, that means He paid the price for your sins.

1311
01:49:44,840 --> 01:49:48,840
He sacrificed Himself for you and held literally nothing back.

1312
01:49:48,840 --> 01:49:53,840
And yet, Christians all over the world, while they may be doing more than non-Christians are doing,

1313
01:49:53,840 --> 01:49:57,840
or more than some other Christians are doing, we're still holding back.

1314
01:49:57,840 --> 01:50:00,840
And it must stop.

1315
01:50:00,840 --> 01:50:03,840
You cannot behave as a coward in the Kingdom of God.

1316
01:50:03,840 --> 01:50:08,840
You cannot do abominable things, things that make God sick to His stomach in the Kingdom of God.

1317
01:50:08,840 --> 01:50:12,840
You cannot try to play the game of manipulating God,

1318
01:50:12,840 --> 01:50:14,840
or manipulating the spiritual realm just to get what you want.

1319
01:50:14,840 --> 01:50:16,840
You cannot.

1320
01:50:16,840 --> 01:50:22,840
You must trust God with all that you are, everything you have, and put it all on the table.

1321
01:50:22,840 --> 01:50:24,840
As if you could hold it all in your hands and say,

1322
01:50:24,840 --> 01:50:27,840
Here you go, God, I give it to you.

1323
01:50:27,840 --> 01:50:30,840
Trust the Lord God with all your burdens,

1324
01:50:30,840 --> 01:50:35,840
or He will make it so that the righteous will stand.

1325
01:50:35,840 --> 01:50:39,840
They would go into the Promised Land and experience great prosperity,

1326
01:50:39,840 --> 01:50:42,840
and sometimes great difficulty, they would be tempted by the gods around them.

1327
01:50:42,840 --> 01:50:45,840
They were forewarned not to have anything to do with those false gods,

1328
01:50:45,840 --> 01:50:50,840
not to let their prosperity distract them, and yet they will fall away.

1329
01:50:50,840 --> 01:50:54,840
But we must not be like those who fell.

1330
01:50:54,840 --> 01:50:57,840
We must be like those who endured to the end.

1331
01:50:57,840 --> 01:50:59,840
And that's what I'm asking of you today.

1332
01:50:59,840 --> 01:51:02,840
I'm asking you to repent of your own weakness.

1333
01:51:02,840 --> 01:51:06,840
That means turn to God and turn away from your own weakness.

1334
01:51:06,840 --> 01:51:09,840
I'm asking you to repent of your own cowardliness.

1335
01:51:09,840 --> 01:51:12,840
That means turn to God and turn away from your own cowardliness.

1336
01:51:12,840 --> 01:51:17,840
I'm asking you to love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might.

1337
01:51:17,840 --> 01:51:21,840
And that's going to mean putting the Word of God in you,

1338
01:51:21,840 --> 01:51:24,840
and delivering the Word of God out to anybody who will listen,

1339
01:51:24,840 --> 01:51:30,840
and being aware of that prosperity and that idolatry that we so easily slip into when we're doing well.

1340
01:51:30,840 --> 01:51:32,840
Stay firm.

1341
01:51:32,840 --> 01:51:36,840
God gives you a million dollars, give Him a million in one.

1342
01:51:36,840 --> 01:51:42,840
Because by the time you get done giving Him a million, He'll give you another, give Him that.

1343
01:51:42,840 --> 01:51:47,840
God gives you 24 hours in a day, give Him 24 hours of the day.

1344
01:51:47,840 --> 01:51:52,840
And He'll keep giving, because that's the kind of God He is.

1345
01:51:52,840 --> 01:51:55,840
And if you love Him, you'll enter into that covenant with Him,

1346
01:51:55,840 --> 01:52:03,840
because you were nothing, and He made you something, so that you can be with Him.

1347
01:52:03,840 --> 01:52:07,840
I ask the praise team to come forward at this time, and lead us in our closing hymn.

1348
01:52:07,840 --> 01:52:11,840
This is both our last hymn of our service, the last song of our service,

1349
01:52:11,840 --> 01:52:13,840
and also a decision.

1350
01:52:13,840 --> 01:52:16,840
If you're here today and you've not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

1351
01:52:16,840 --> 01:52:18,840
it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks.

1352
01:52:18,840 --> 01:52:20,840
Don't worry about anybody else in the room on that decision.

1353
01:52:20,840 --> 01:52:24,840
If you know you haven't, if you're willing to today, then you just find, come here and say,

1354
01:52:24,840 --> 01:52:28,840
look, I want to live for Jesus the way He wants me to live for Him.

1355
01:52:28,840 --> 01:52:34,840
If you're here today and you say, I've been holding back, I've got stuff that I keep back from,

1356
01:52:34,840 --> 01:52:38,840
I don't give God my money, I don't give God my time, I don't give God my worship, whatever.

1357
01:52:38,840 --> 01:52:41,840
If you've been holding back, and you want to repent of that today,

1358
01:52:41,840 --> 01:52:45,840
put it all on the table and give it to God, then you just find and come forward and share that

1359
01:52:45,840 --> 01:52:47,840
with me and we pray together.

1360
01:52:47,840 --> 01:52:52,840
Say, I need a new church home, or I need to be baptized, or I need to go forward with this thing

1361
01:52:52,840 --> 01:52:55,840
God is calling me to do, whatever that might be, and you want to make that commitment today,

1362
01:52:55,840 --> 01:53:00,840
publicly so people can help you, so people can pray for you, then you do that.

1363
01:53:00,840 --> 01:53:04,840
Whatever it might be that God is laying on your heart, this is your chance to respond publicly

1364
01:53:04,840 --> 01:53:08,840
and everybody can see it, everybody can hold you up.

1365
01:53:08,840 --> 01:53:10,840
Love God.

1366
01:53:10,840 --> 01:53:13,840
Don't sit there and go, well, I'm afraid of what people think.

1367
01:53:13,840 --> 01:53:15,840
If you care what people think, you are a coward.

1368
01:53:15,840 --> 01:53:18,840
When it comes to your relationship with Jesus Christ, with the God of heaven,

1369
01:53:18,840 --> 01:53:22,840
if you care what people think, well, I've been saying I've been a Christian for a long time now,

1370
01:53:22,840 --> 01:53:25,840
and if I give my life over to the Lord in earnest now, people are going to think I was a liar.

1371
01:53:25,840 --> 01:53:28,840
You were a liar. Let's be honest.

1372
01:53:28,840 --> 01:53:31,840
Now you're just a coward, you don't want to be telling the truth.

1373
01:53:31,840 --> 01:53:35,840
Or if you say, well, I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but I've not been putting it all in line,

1374
01:53:35,840 --> 01:53:39,840
I've been giving it over to God, and you're worried about what that's going to look like.

1375
01:53:39,840 --> 01:53:41,840
Nobody cares about what that's going to look like.

1376
01:53:41,840 --> 01:53:44,840
All we care about is getting where God's taking us.

1377
01:53:44,840 --> 01:53:46,840
Commit yourself to the Lord.

1378
01:53:46,840 --> 01:53:51,840
Don't sit there and go, but, but, but, excuses are just that, they're just excuses.

1379
01:53:51,840 --> 01:53:54,840
Really, they're only useful for cowards.

1380
01:53:54,840 --> 01:53:56,840
You say, but no, there are real reasons.

1381
01:53:56,840 --> 01:54:00,840
The reason is the reason that excuses and excuses are different.

1382
01:54:00,840 --> 01:54:04,840
If God closes the door, then He has always made another way.

1383
01:54:04,840 --> 01:54:07,840
There's always something else that you can do to glorify Him.

1384
01:54:07,840 --> 01:54:13,840
But if you close the door and say, I'm not going to do it, make an excuse, that's powerless.

1385
01:54:13,840 --> 01:54:16,840
So as we sing this song, I ask you to stand with me.

1386
01:54:16,840 --> 01:54:18,840
Come on, you got it in you. Stand up here.

1387
01:54:18,840 --> 01:54:22,840
And you respond, the Lord is giving you your heart.

1388
01:54:22,840 --> 01:54:30,840
As we sing.

1389
01:54:30,840 --> 01:54:38,840
Just as I have with the one thing

1390
01:54:38,840 --> 01:54:48,840
But the earth I've won, worship for me

1391
01:54:48,840 --> 01:55:10,840
And that Thou best me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.

1392
01:55:10,840 --> 01:55:22,840
As we sing this next verse, God is speaking to you.