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ecc job

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Everybody up, shake it off a little bit, and put your hands.

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We're going to focus on how great the Lord is.

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Amen, amen.

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He is great!

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Praise the Lord, he is holy and just, by his power we trust his love.

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Praise the Lord, he is faithful and true, by his love he gives growth to his own.

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Praise the Lord, he is worthy of profit, praise the Lord, and worthy of praise.

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Praise the Lord, now lift up your voice, now lift up your voice.

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Praise the Lord.

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Okay, I need the young people going to the front.

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Good, alright, here we go, everybody.

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Great and mighty is the Lord our God, great and mighty is he.

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Lift up your banner, raise the anthem, sing praises to the King.

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Great and mighty is the Lord our God, great and mighty is he.

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Great and mighty is the Lord our God, great and mighty is he.

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Everyone needs compassion, love that's not a failure.

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Let mercy fall on me.

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Everyone needs forgiveness, kindness from the Savior.

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The love of nations.

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Say your hymns through the mountains, my God is running to save.

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He is running to save the world.

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Awesome of salvation, heroes in God's ever-giving.

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He's the Father of all.

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He's with me.

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So take me as He finds me, all my fears and troubles.

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In the middle of my life I am, making quite the world, everything I believe in.

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Now I surrender.

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The love of nations.

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Say your hymns through the mountains, my God is running to save.

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He is running to save the world.

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You know I love you, and I love you, because the shadow of God.

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You're a friend with all who says we have to meet.

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You know I fall to the nail from the swords of the sun.

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The world tells us that we know you are here, and that you know we are.

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For I have been good and me, and if I have been good,

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you know I will be good and me.

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You know I fall to the nail from the swords of the sun.

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The world tells us that we know you are here, and that you know we are.

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I stand in the night that was for me, for the heart that hold's on.

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That's why it's like we are not content.

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And though we tend to struggle, we tend to have anger.

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We tend to know you're here only because I will be with you.

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For I have been good and me, and if I have been good,

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you know I will be good and me.

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All of you, more than enough for all of me, for every thousand, every day.

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You say it's fine with me, with your love, not having you, you're letting go.

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You are nice to my breath away, still my heart's not let go.

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You are my heroine, you are faithful.

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The trouble with moving barriers is what that says.

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The trouble with moving barriers.

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Before we begin, we're going to start, and we're going to use it a few times throughout

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with a little object lesson on how to make this board flatten so it will be a little easier to see.

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Okay?

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So, we're going to break the board like this.

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The first part, we're just dealing with the left side of the board over here.

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I'm going to draw a little box with arms, little angels on top of it, like that.

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Maybe you'll recognize what that might be.

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That's a pretty kind of creepy little drawing.

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Anybody want to take a guess what that might be?

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The Ark of the Covenant, yep.

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That's the two little angels at two angles on top, going towards the middle.

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Okay, now I need a volunteer, and we can draw stick men at least.

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Yes, I just did.

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Okay, so, I'll go home.

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All right, I need you to draw, in this side, I need you to draw ten stick men in this area.

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Ten stick men, okay?

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And they can be male or female, however you can draw them, you know, if you want to put skirts on them or whatever.

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But all ten have to be unique in some way.

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So, don't make any of the ten the same.

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All right, you have plenty of time, go ahead and do that.

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You guys can watch him do that while we go up here and look at the Bible.

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Okay, so grab your Bibles, if you would.

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Maybe get a little hooter holler in today as we go to Deuteronomy chapter 14.

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All right, praise the Lord.

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We've still got a long way to go in the book of Deuteronomy, and we're getting close to kind of our first break, as we do.

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We're going to be looking at some Christmas stuff coming up here shortly.

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But we have made it as far as chapter 14.

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And we've pretty much done one chapter of the first sermon.

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We will not quite finish 14 today, which means we'll be back at the end of 14 again next week.

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Let me look at this again.

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I might just do the whole thing.

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Just throw it all in there.

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Yep, we're just going to do the whole thing in one shot.

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All right, here we go.

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Deuteronomy 14, beginning in verse 1.

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Here we go.

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You are the sons of the Lord your God.

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You shall not cut yourselves, nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead.

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Now, to us, that sounds like a little kind of weird command, doesn't it?

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Don't cut yourself.

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Don't shave your foreheads for the sake of the dead.

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That's a little weird.

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But that was a cultic thing that they did then, when someone would die in the hope that they would do well in the afterlife.

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They would actually shave their eyebrows, or shave this area of their head, or shave their head back, make a big forehead.

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You can still see that in some Occidental cults today.

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Occidental is the Middle Eastern part of the world.

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And he said, you know, we don't do that, basically.

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And I read that and I thought in our family there are some things we talk about.

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Like we did this, there's a moment today when we had a song and had a cuss word.

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And I said, in advance, children just realized we don't say that.

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And in our family there have always been some things that I didn't even realize we were doing.

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I said, we don't do that.

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And this is the chapter where God says to the Israelites, to the people, we don't do that.

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Okay?

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And one of the things he says is we don't cut ourselves, nor do we shave our foreheads for the sake of the dead.

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We're going to go on.

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Verse 2.

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For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession,

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out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

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And every time you read the word holy in your Bible, I want you to understand the word holy means different.

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How we do it.

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I think we will like to do that.

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We will like to do that.

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I like that guy in the middle with the really big head.

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We can put little skirts on someone.

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At least one.

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We'll make it easy.

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Some women in there.

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Okay, we're doing alright.

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Okay?

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Holy means completely different.

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And notice I told him to make ten completely different people.

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Right?

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So they have to be unique in the drawing.

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Alright?

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He says God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

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Verse 3.

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You shall not eat any testable thing.

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Don't get confused by the word testable.

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It just means duck.

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It would be the kind of thing you'd spit out of your mouth.

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Except that what we're going to find on the list is that maybe there would be some things on the list that wouldn't necessarily be considered duck.

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Alright?

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These are the animals which you may eat.

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The ox, sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep.

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And any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cut among the animals that you may eat.

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In other words, if its hoof is split, they got hoofs on the bottom of their feet.

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If the hoof is split in two pieces or more, then that is included.

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And if they chew the cut, they chew their food and then they regurgitate it in their mouth, they chew it really good, put it down in one stomach, bring it back up, put it in another, like that.

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That's chewing the cut.

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That's the cows' food.

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Chew the grass, put it down in their stomach, spit it back up in their mouth, chew it again.

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By the time they're done, they've chewed it a lot.

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So if these animals are like that, you can eat them.

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Otherwise, you're going to say no.

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Verse 7.

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You shall not eat of these among those which chew the cut or among those that divide the hoof in two.

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The camel, the rabbit, the rock badger.

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For though they chew the cut, they do not divide the hoof.

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They are unclean for you.

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In other words, they chew the cut, spit it, chew it, spit it, chew it, they do that, but they don't have a divided hoof.

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They have one but not the other.

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Can't eat the pig because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cut.

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And it is unclean for you.

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You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

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And notice now not only can they not eat the pig, but they also can't touch its dead body.

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So they're being told basically if they have two traits, they can eat them or have to do with them.

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And if they have one of the two traits, that doesn't qualify, they can't eat them and they can't have to do with them when they're dead.

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They can't touch their dead bodies.

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That's where they're at.

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You're going to be like, this doesn't even apply to us today.

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Oh yeah, it does.

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We'll get there.

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Verse 9.

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These you may eat of all that are in water, anything that has fins and scales you may eat.

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But anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat because it is unclean for you.

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You may eat any clean bird, but these are the ones which you shall not eat.

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The eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, the kite in their kinds, and every raven in its kind,

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and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, and the hawk in their kinds.

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The little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the snork, the heron in their kinds, the hoopie, and the bat.

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And all the teeming life, which now is to talk about insects, with wings are unclean to you.

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They shall not be eaten.

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You may eat any clean bird.

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Now we're in verse 21.

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You shall not eat anything which dies of itself.

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So now, even if it's a clean animal, if it dies on its own, it falls down on its own.

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Can you get 10?

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Okay.

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You shall not eat anything which dies of itself.

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If it falls down on the road dead or gets hit by a carriage or something, you can't eat it.

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It doesn't matter if it was a clean animal to live or not.

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Well, listen to this.

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He says, you may give that animal the diet of itself.

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You may give it to the alien who is in your town so that he may eat it.

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Or you may sell it to a foreigner.

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You can do that.

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For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.

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Now, you can't have it, but you can sell it or you can give it to an alien or a foreigner or sell it.

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Those are opposite.

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You can't eat it.

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You have to be different.

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He says, you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.

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Well, a kid is a baby goat.

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And there is a kind of cultural way, especially over there sometimes and especially in certain circles,

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where they would cook the baby of the baby goat before they eat them.

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The meat of the baby goat would cook it in its mother's milk and then eat it.

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Sounds totally gross to me.

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But that was the thing they did.

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They said, you can't do that.

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You shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow.

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There's everything you grow, everything you put in the ground that comes up.

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You're going to tithe it.

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Pretend you're going to grow it in the offing place.

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It comes out of the field every year.

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And you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where he chooses to establish his name,

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the tithes of your grain, your wine, your oil, your firstborn of your herd and your flock,

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in order that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.

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In other words, you're going to plant, you're going to grow crops, you're going to have flocks, et cetera.

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And out of that, the first 10 percent is always going to go back to when you go there,

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the festival, the youth, the worship, and you can eat while you're there and all that kind of thing.

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It's all for the glory of God's people, tithes, if you will, 24.

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And if the distance is so great that you're not able to bring the tithes,

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otherwise you can't bring that first sheep of 10 and like that,

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where the Lord your God chooses to set his name is too far away from you.

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When the Lord your God blesses you, then you shall exchange it for money

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and bind the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses.

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In other words, if you can't bring one sheep out of 10,

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and can't bring one wagon load of grain out of 10 or whatever,

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can't bring one ton of wine, a big task of wine out of 10

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because it's too much haul all the way up to where the Lord puts his name,

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then sell it all and put the money and says, bind it in your hand.

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In other words, don't risk spending it, don't have a chance to move or anything out

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and take it right up there and then says,

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and then you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires,

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for oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink or whatever your heart desires.

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And there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice you and your household.

228
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And if you get up there, then you can use it for the glory of God in the presence of God's people,

229
00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:44,180
and you shall not neglect the Levite who is in your town

230
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who has no portion of inheritance among you.

231
00:18:46,180 --> 00:18:49,180
In other words, you have to take care of people that are,

232
00:18:49,180 --> 00:18:52,180
the Levites didn't get land, they can't grow crops, they didn't get land,

233
00:18:52,180 --> 00:18:56,180
and they can't, don't have sheep, they can't raise sheep, they don't get land.

234
00:18:56,180 --> 00:18:59,180
God is their portion, but now you have to take care of them.

235
00:18:59,180 --> 00:19:04,180
3.8, at the end of every third year, you shall bring out all the tithes of your produce

236
00:19:04,180 --> 00:19:07,180
in that year and shall deposit it in your town.

237
00:19:07,180 --> 00:19:10,180
Now, people have studied this passage, it's written real heavily,

238
00:19:10,180 --> 00:19:14,180
you got the first one, the tithe for the festival that would take place in God's presence,

239
00:19:14,180 --> 00:19:18,180
you got the tithe for the Levites, and then you got the tithe now every third year,

240
00:19:18,180 --> 00:19:24,180
so now we've got all the Israelite people giving 23 and a third percent of everything they get.

241
00:19:24,180 --> 00:19:28,180
Ten percent for one, ten percent for another, and ten percent every third year for another.

242
00:19:28,180 --> 00:19:31,180
We kind of make a big deal out of tithes in the first ten percent,

243
00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:35,180
they were giving 23 and a third percent of everything.

244
00:19:35,180 --> 00:19:41,180
And it's been studied into to find out, well, could you do the Levite part out of the festival part,

245
00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:46,180
no you can't do that, could you do the festival part out of the every third year part,

246
00:19:46,180 --> 00:19:48,180
no, there's three different things.

247
00:19:48,180 --> 00:19:52,180
And then 29, and the Levite, because he has no portion of the inheritance among you,

248
00:19:52,180 --> 00:19:56,180
and the alien, the orphan, the widow, so these are all the people that would be amongst them

249
00:19:56,180 --> 00:20:00,180
that are not Israelites, aliens, could be orphans, could be Israelites or not,

250
00:20:00,180 --> 00:20:03,180
widows, could be Israelites or not, that are in your town,

251
00:20:03,180 --> 00:20:06,180
they shall come and eat and be satisfied in the words of the Lord,

252
00:20:06,180 --> 00:20:09,180
that God may bless you and all the work of your hands which you do.

253
00:20:09,180 --> 00:20:13,180
Alright, so what we've got here are some rules about how we're going to handle food,

254
00:20:13,180 --> 00:20:16,180
meat, worship, and money.

255
00:20:16,180 --> 00:20:24,180
Alright, I submit to you that there is a net, this points out to us a trouble that arises

256
00:20:24,180 --> 00:20:28,180
when we make distinctions or draw barriers.

257
00:20:28,180 --> 00:20:32,180
Okay, and I'll show you real quick in the text and then I'm going to come back on it in a second.

258
00:20:32,180 --> 00:20:35,180
First of all, realize these are rules that apply to who?

259
00:20:35,180 --> 00:20:40,180
Who's being told these things? God's people, the Israelites, right?

260
00:20:40,180 --> 00:20:42,180
Settled in the New Land, they're being told these rules.

261
00:20:42,180 --> 00:20:46,180
Do these rules apply to the strangers in their midst?

262
00:20:46,180 --> 00:20:49,180
No, not in the same way anyway, right?

263
00:20:49,180 --> 00:20:52,180
So if a stranger wants to be like the Israelites,

264
00:20:52,180 --> 00:20:56,180
say well I want to be a part of your people, I want to be a part of the people of God,

265
00:20:56,180 --> 00:20:59,180
I want to be part of the people that God has chosen for himself,

266
00:20:59,180 --> 00:21:03,180
then they can come and follow the same rule. They can do that if they want.

267
00:21:03,180 --> 00:21:08,180
But notice for example where it says you can't eat an animal that falls down on the side of the road

268
00:21:08,180 --> 00:21:12,180
even if it was a clean animal, an allowable animal, if it falls down on the side of the road and dies,

269
00:21:12,180 --> 00:21:15,180
you can't eat it.

270
00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:19,180
But you can let the alien eat it, you can let the stranger eat it,

271
00:21:19,180 --> 00:21:22,180
you can sell it or you can give it away.

272
00:21:22,180 --> 00:21:25,180
So if an animal falls down on the side of the road and it's my ox,

273
00:21:25,180 --> 00:21:29,180
and I'm allowed to eat this ox, an ox of inedible food,

274
00:21:29,180 --> 00:21:33,180
and it dies, has a heart attack while it's pulling my carriage or whatever,

275
00:21:33,180 --> 00:21:36,180
then I now can't have this ox.

276
00:21:36,180 --> 00:21:39,180
I can't eat this ox. I was thinking, you know,

277
00:21:39,180 --> 00:21:42,180
next couple of years the ox is getting old, we're going to kill it off, we're going to eat it,

278
00:21:42,180 --> 00:21:45,180
we're going to have a big fuse or whatever, and now all of a sudden it died, I can't eat it.

279
00:21:45,180 --> 00:21:48,180
But I can sell it or I can give it to an alien and they can eat it.

280
00:21:48,180 --> 00:21:51,180
And by the way, while I'm not eating that ox,

281
00:21:51,180 --> 00:21:55,180
and I'm not getting as much money out of it because it fell down on the side of the road dead,

282
00:21:55,180 --> 00:21:58,180
by the way, when you sell something that fell down on the side of the road dead, you're not going to be able to eat it for food.

283
00:21:58,180 --> 00:22:01,180
It's not going to do as much as it would have been otherwise.

284
00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:05,180
I'm thinking to myself, it's not all that good to be in Israelite.

285
00:22:05,180 --> 00:22:08,180
Because there's an ox I could eat. It's my ox.

286
00:22:08,180 --> 00:22:12,180
I bought it, I fed it all these years, I kept it safe,

287
00:22:12,180 --> 00:22:15,180
I've used it all this time and now it died on the side of the road.

288
00:22:15,180 --> 00:22:18,180
It's not that good thing to do. It's not good to be in Israelite.

289
00:22:18,180 --> 00:22:21,180
I have this ox that God blessed me with and I didn't kill it.

290
00:22:21,180 --> 00:22:23,180
I never did anything wrong with it, make it die.

291
00:22:23,180 --> 00:22:26,180
And now all of a sudden here's a clean animal, it died on the side of the road.

292
00:22:26,180 --> 00:22:29,180
And I'm in Israelite and I can't eat the Israelite.

293
00:22:29,180 --> 00:22:32,180
Ox. It's my ox. And I can't eat it.

294
00:22:32,180 --> 00:22:39,180
And you might say, well, based on that then, the dismay that God has made for us, it's not good.

295
00:22:39,180 --> 00:22:42,180
I don't really want to eat it.

296
00:22:42,180 --> 00:22:45,180
I don't want to have all these rules.

297
00:22:45,180 --> 00:22:48,180
I'd rather be over here.

298
00:22:48,180 --> 00:22:49,180
Right?

299
00:22:49,180 --> 00:22:52,180
This is the people who can't eat the ox.

300
00:22:52,180 --> 00:22:56,180
Oh, man, just ask. The last guy, the one on the right.

301
00:22:56,180 --> 00:22:58,180
That's just the old guy over here. I don't know.

302
00:22:58,180 --> 00:23:00,180
Okay, yeah, I got it. I can see it here.

303
00:23:00,180 --> 00:23:03,180
This guy's eating, he's got bags.

304
00:23:03,180 --> 00:23:05,180
That's a wheelchair.

305
00:23:05,180 --> 00:23:06,180
What's that?

306
00:23:06,180 --> 00:23:07,180
That's a wheelchair.

307
00:23:07,180 --> 00:23:08,180
Oh, is it a wheelchair?

308
00:23:08,180 --> 00:23:09,180
Oh, I see it now.

309
00:23:09,180 --> 00:23:11,180
Okay, alright. What's this here?

310
00:23:11,180 --> 00:23:14,180
What's he got? Put something in his hand.

311
00:23:14,180 --> 00:23:17,180
We got one fat arm and one thin arm.

312
00:23:17,180 --> 00:23:18,180
That's a cast.

313
00:23:18,180 --> 00:23:20,180
Oh, he's got a cast. Oh, alright.

314
00:23:20,180 --> 00:23:21,180
Alright, cool. Thank you.

315
00:23:21,180 --> 00:23:24,180
Okay, so I want to be this guy out here.

316
00:23:24,180 --> 00:23:26,180
And there's lots of guys out there, right?

317
00:23:26,180 --> 00:23:30,180
I want to be this guy here.

318
00:23:30,180 --> 00:23:32,180
Or this guy here.

319
00:23:32,180 --> 00:23:37,180
I hit an oxbell on the side of the road, and he picked it up, and they had one heck of a feast.

320
00:23:37,180 --> 00:23:39,180
You know what I'm saying?

321
00:23:39,180 --> 00:23:44,180
Or even if this guy's got a cast, or lost an arm, whatever,

322
00:23:44,180 --> 00:23:48,180
but at least he gets to eat the ox when it falls on the side of the road.

323
00:23:48,180 --> 00:23:50,180
I want to be that guy.

324
00:23:50,180 --> 00:23:52,180
Right?

325
00:23:52,180 --> 00:23:56,180
It's tough when there are rules and laws.

326
00:23:56,180 --> 00:24:00,180
When my girls were growing up, Alicia had a tendency to say,

327
00:24:00,180 --> 00:24:02,180
I can't about just about everything.

328
00:24:02,180 --> 00:24:06,180
I can't get my seatbelt on. I can't do this. I can't clean up my room. I can't. I can't. I can't.

329
00:24:06,180 --> 00:24:07,180
And so we made a rule.

330
00:24:07,180 --> 00:24:09,180
In our household, we don't say can't.

331
00:24:09,180 --> 00:24:11,180
And to this day, that's pretty much the rule in our household.

332
00:24:11,180 --> 00:24:12,180
We don't say can't.

333
00:24:12,180 --> 00:24:15,180
Now, it may pass, and we don't make a big deal out of it,

334
00:24:15,180 --> 00:24:18,180
if somebody says it, and what they really mean is they need help like that.

335
00:24:18,180 --> 00:24:21,180
But generally speaking, if it's ours to do, we don't quit.

336
00:24:21,180 --> 00:24:27,180
If it's yours to do, you don't quit until either you're dead or it's done.

337
00:24:27,180 --> 00:24:30,180
Why? Because it was yours to do.

338
00:24:30,180 --> 00:24:33,180
Now you can ask me, you can call on somebody else, whatever.

339
00:24:33,180 --> 00:24:39,180
Somebody lives down the road. Alicia gets in the car. She's five years old.

340
00:24:39,180 --> 00:24:41,180
She's going to go to the store with her.

341
00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:42,180
She says, I can't put my seatbelt on.

342
00:24:42,180 --> 00:24:46,180
Alicia says, around here, we don't say can't. You can do it.

343
00:24:46,180 --> 00:24:49,180
And I'll help you if you need it, but you're not allowed to say can't.

344
00:24:49,180 --> 00:24:51,180
That's not really true.

345
00:24:51,180 --> 00:24:54,180
That girl's not a stevenson. She's not part of this house.

346
00:24:54,180 --> 00:24:56,180
She doesn't live with us. It's not really true.

347
00:24:56,180 --> 00:25:00,180
So then I can say, well, Alicia, that's not necessarily really true for everybody.

348
00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:06,180
Now Alicia's thinking, huh, I think I don't want to be a stevenson.

349
00:25:06,180 --> 00:25:08,180
It's kind of hard being a stevenson because you can't say can't.

350
00:25:08,180 --> 00:25:11,180
I want to be the little girl that lives down the street.

351
00:25:11,180 --> 00:25:17,180
See, when there are lines and barriers drawn, then it starts to get hard for anybody that's included.

352
00:25:17,180 --> 00:25:27,180
When Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will follow the Lord, Joshua's kids who were there that day went, oh, what daddy just said.

353
00:25:27,180 --> 00:25:32,180
They didn't just go, yeah, I want to follow my dad. I love my dad.

354
00:25:32,180 --> 00:25:36,180
I go on him. He was my standard. I want to live like my dad.

355
00:25:36,180 --> 00:25:40,180
They didn't just do that. They said, man, what daddy just said.

356
00:25:40,180 --> 00:25:47,180
I don't know exactly what all that means, but it shakes me a little bit to think I got to be like that.

357
00:25:47,180 --> 00:25:54,180
And as for when he says, as for me and his house, he means me.

358
00:25:54,180 --> 00:26:00,180
Now, I got to be like that. So sometimes when there's a barrier comes up, it gets to be tough for those who are inside the barrier.

359
00:26:00,180 --> 00:26:02,180
And I submit to you that that's exactly what God's saying.

360
00:26:02,180 --> 00:26:04,180
Now, I ask you why? Why is that saying?

361
00:26:04,180 --> 00:26:09,180
Well, he says over and over again in the passage of scripture, he says, because you are a holy people.

362
00:26:09,180 --> 00:26:15,180
You are a holy people. And what did I say is the first thing you need to remember when everything is holy and all?

363
00:26:15,180 --> 00:26:20,180
What's the word? Different. Different.

364
00:26:20,180 --> 00:26:27,180
God is different from all his creation. And he made so much variety and everything is incredible.

365
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:32,180
Don't get me wrong. But God, the God of heaven is different from all of his grace and his chief.

366
00:26:32,180 --> 00:26:36,180
Great. Is he omnipresent? Yes. Great. He's everywhere he wants to be.

367
00:26:36,180 --> 00:26:39,180
Is he omniscient? Does he know everything he wants to know?

368
00:26:39,180 --> 00:26:41,180
Does he know he has access to all knowledge? Yes. That's awesome.

369
00:26:41,180 --> 00:26:46,180
But chiefly, he is different. By the way, it's different to be omnipresent or to be omniscient.

370
00:26:46,180 --> 00:26:50,180
Right. That's different. Chiefly, before everything else, he's different.

371
00:26:50,180 --> 00:26:54,180
He will always be different for me. No matter how much I become like him, he will always be different.

372
00:26:54,180 --> 00:26:59,180
God is different. And then so God says, well, each of you is unique.

373
00:26:59,180 --> 00:27:01,180
One is in a wheelchair. One has got a cast. Right.

374
00:27:01,180 --> 00:27:09,180
What one is tall, one is short, one is a headset, one is thin, one is that dark hair, one is that light hair, one is created with art.

375
00:27:09,180 --> 00:27:16,180
If he is not, and everybody, if he took a full sheet of everybody's traits, it would be completely unique.

376
00:27:16,180 --> 00:27:21,180
There's no two people in all creation ever, even though you have your mom and dad's DNA.

377
00:27:21,180 --> 00:27:26,180
We joke about this in my house, because like in our house, it's kind of like you can see who follows certain DNA.

378
00:27:26,180 --> 00:27:32,180
Right. And people like look at art from behind and mistake it for me fairly frequently because he gets stuck with my DNA.

379
00:27:32,180 --> 00:27:35,180
And with regards to like his hair and body shape and stuff.

380
00:27:35,180 --> 00:27:41,180
But the bottom line is it's real. DNA makes you more like your parents.

381
00:27:41,180 --> 00:27:44,180
But even the scientists know that we get right down to it.

382
00:27:44,180 --> 00:27:47,180
You're 100 percent accurate in DNA. That's only one person.

383
00:27:47,180 --> 00:27:52,180
And then from that build something. And it happens to be a little like what something else is, but it's not the same.

384
00:27:52,180 --> 00:27:56,180
It'll never be the same. Every person is unique. So how is it right?

385
00:27:56,180 --> 00:28:06,180
Can you tell me how close together do people have to be to be allowed to be a sneak or a man or a take?

386
00:28:06,180 --> 00:28:09,180
Right. How close together do people have to be?

387
00:28:09,180 --> 00:28:13,180
Well, guess what? Because a marriage not that close. Right.

388
00:28:13,180 --> 00:28:20,180
Maybe 60, 80 percent match, 90 percent match. I don't know where the line is drawn.

389
00:28:20,180 --> 00:28:25,180
But but now let's apply that same standard to Christians or to God's people.

390
00:28:25,180 --> 00:28:31,180
How much like God do you have to be to be allowed to be part of God's family?

391
00:28:31,180 --> 00:28:38,180
We were created in God's image, but that doesn't mean we were created to look like him or even necessarily to have all the abilities and capabilities he has.

392
00:28:38,180 --> 00:28:42,180
It actually means that we were created to represent him when it says he created his image.

393
00:28:42,180 --> 00:28:46,180
It's like an idol, like the Star Wars figurine represents Luke Skywalker. It's like that.

394
00:28:46,180 --> 00:28:51,180
You're created to represent God. So we represent him again in our generation.

395
00:28:51,180 --> 00:28:59,180
That's what we do. And we were created to do that. But how much like God do you have to be to be allowed to go to heaven when the time comes?

396
00:28:59,180 --> 00:29:06,180
How much like God you have to be to be part of his family? How much can you get away with and still get in?

397
00:29:06,180 --> 00:29:11,180
The answer to that question is, don't you? You can't get away with anything. Nothing.

398
00:29:11,180 --> 00:29:15,180
The Bible says one smallest sin you could possibly commit would be enough.

399
00:29:15,180 --> 00:29:17,180
And you will commit that sin without fail.

400
00:29:17,180 --> 00:29:22,180
Every human being is born with the tendency to our sin. As soon as you're able, you will do it.

401
00:29:22,180 --> 00:29:25,180
Everyone does it. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

402
00:29:25,180 --> 00:29:32,180
So if you get to go in, if all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, who gets to go in?

403
00:29:32,180 --> 00:29:34,180
Who gets to live on God's side?

404
00:29:34,180 --> 00:29:43,180
The people who can't eat the ox that fell on the side of the road. These are the people that God calls holy.

405
00:29:43,180 --> 00:29:45,180
And who put this fence here?

406
00:29:45,180 --> 00:29:53,180
Well, he said, you are his people that he chose. God put the fence there.

407
00:29:53,180 --> 00:29:59,180
Now, it's a double fence because this is where you get a certain amount of correctness.

408
00:29:59,180 --> 00:30:05,180
Because the outside fence, the outside part of the fence is actually owned by the people out here, isn't it?

409
00:30:05,180 --> 00:30:09,180
If you have a fence in your yard, let's say your neighbor puts up on the right on their property line,

410
00:30:09,180 --> 00:30:16,180
they put up a privacy fence, got a big dog and so on. And he's got to run around the yard.

411
00:30:16,180 --> 00:30:22,180
So he puts up a privacy fence. You don't see his dog or his daughter when she sunbathing or him when he's out growing underwear and whatever.

412
00:30:22,180 --> 00:30:24,180
He puts up a privacy fence, right?

413
00:30:24,180 --> 00:30:28,180
And every time he goes out and grows in his underwear, you're so grateful for that privacy fence.

414
00:30:28,180 --> 00:30:30,180
You know what I'm saying? Because you don't really want to see that.

415
00:30:30,180 --> 00:30:34,180
Every time you go out in your yard, he's got dogs in the inside fence. He doesn't know you're there.

416
00:30:34,180 --> 00:30:37,180
So he's not barking up the storm. You're like, man, I like that. That's a good fence.

417
00:30:37,180 --> 00:30:41,180
And that's the way it gets to be. Here's the problem with barriers.

418
00:30:41,180 --> 00:30:44,180
They essentially feel like they're owned by the people of both sides.

419
00:30:44,180 --> 00:30:48,180
Now, the people on the outside over here, people that are over here, they need that ox.

420
00:30:48,180 --> 00:30:55,180
In fact, so, you know, if you're walking along the road, you have the mast, the mast pack falls down, whoop, 200 gold walking.

421
00:30:55,180 --> 00:31:00,180
But now it's only worth 50 because it falls down. Plus it's laying on the side of the road.

422
00:31:00,180 --> 00:31:05,180
And by the way, to move a 1500 pound ox off the side of the road is almost impossible.

423
00:31:05,180 --> 00:31:09,180
You got to move it with big animals and winches or bunches of man.

424
00:31:09,180 --> 00:31:15,180
We don't realize they weigh what cars weigh. They weigh like a car does walking down the road.

425
00:31:15,180 --> 00:31:20,180
So you come walking down, you're walking down the road, like, yeah, you got that ox on the side of the road that fell.

426
00:31:20,180 --> 00:31:23,180
You're an Israelite, aren't you? Oh, yes, yes, I am.

427
00:31:23,180 --> 00:31:29,180
Oh, well, I'll buy that ox off you for 20 gold and I'll make sure it gets off the side of the road. I'll take care of everything.

428
00:31:29,180 --> 00:31:32,180
So this day I'm going, yay me!

429
00:31:32,180 --> 00:31:37,180
I got me an ox that fell on the side of the road, 20 gold. Me and my friends are going to party for a month on the meat from that bad boy.

430
00:31:37,180 --> 00:31:41,180
Plus I'm going to put some back in salt and have it for next spring.

431
00:31:41,180 --> 00:31:46,180
And it's, I am now wealthy because the Israelites are too stupid to eat the ox that falls on the side of the road.

432
00:31:46,180 --> 00:31:49,180
Now, you do it. I like that.

433
00:31:49,180 --> 00:31:52,180
It's a good fence. You just keep right on being an Israelite.

434
00:31:52,180 --> 00:31:58,180
I'm just keep right on paying 20 bucks, 20 gold for 1500 pounds of meat. Sounds good.

435
00:31:58,180 --> 00:32:00,180
I'll do that all day long.

436
00:32:00,180 --> 00:32:03,180
And by the way, this is the same thing that's happening in the church.

437
00:32:03,180 --> 00:32:10,180
If this was the church over here, this is God's presence, people in the world are going, well, they got rules that I don't want to hear nothing about.

438
00:32:10,180 --> 00:32:12,180
I don't want to do what they do.

439
00:32:12,180 --> 00:32:19,180
I don't want to make sure I get a good night's sleep on Saturday night or Sunday so I can work with God on Sunday morning.

440
00:32:19,180 --> 00:32:22,180
I don't want to sit quietly and listen to some guy talk about the Bible.

441
00:32:22,180 --> 00:32:25,180
I don't want to sing praise songs when I don't feel like it.

442
00:32:25,180 --> 00:32:30,180
I don't want to give 10 percent of my money on top plus some more as an offering.

443
00:32:30,180 --> 00:32:32,180
I don't want to do that.

444
00:32:32,180 --> 00:32:39,180
I don't want to come out on my day off and serve God's church building or work in a festival or go try to show people the love of Christ.

445
00:32:39,180 --> 00:32:42,180
I see they're doing all that. That's a lot of work.

446
00:32:42,180 --> 00:32:46,180
It's too much work to be a people of God. I'm kind of glad I live out here on this side of the fence.

447
00:32:46,180 --> 00:32:52,180
See, the problem with barriers is kind of threefold.

448
00:32:52,180 --> 00:32:56,180
First of all, someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.

449
00:32:56,180 --> 00:33:03,180
In other words, this land right here is owned by somebody.

450
00:33:03,180 --> 00:33:05,180
But it's contested, isn't it?

451
00:33:05,180 --> 00:33:09,180
It's owned by the person who put up the fence, which we said was God.

452
00:33:09,180 --> 00:33:13,180
We began here on 14. That's God who put up that fence.

453
00:33:13,180 --> 00:33:16,180
But these people out here feel kind of like it's their property.

454
00:33:16,180 --> 00:33:19,180
They're getting the advantage of it and so on.

455
00:33:19,180 --> 00:33:22,180
But you know what they're missing?

456
00:33:22,180 --> 00:33:25,180
They can't go over your ear if they want to.

457
00:33:25,180 --> 00:33:28,180
They can't become an Israelite. They can't be with God.

458
00:33:28,180 --> 00:33:30,180
They can't walk with God. They can't talk with God.

459
00:33:30,180 --> 00:33:33,180
They're excluded from being God's people.

460
00:33:33,180 --> 00:33:39,180
No matter what they look like, if they look just the same as God's people or not,

461
00:33:39,180 --> 00:33:45,180
no, or pretty much like God's people,

462
00:33:45,180 --> 00:33:48,180
or not, they can't go past the fence.

463
00:33:48,180 --> 00:33:53,180
So in the case before Deuteronomy 14, in the case of God's people,

464
00:33:53,180 --> 00:33:57,180
the fence is owned by God. He erected the fence.

465
00:33:57,180 --> 00:33:59,180
He did it to collect these people.

466
00:33:59,180 --> 00:34:03,180
And it's both inclusive, including God's people,

467
00:34:03,180 --> 00:34:07,180
and exclusive, excluding those who are not God's people.

468
00:34:07,180 --> 00:34:12,180
The property the fence is on is owned by the person who built the fence.

469
00:34:12,180 --> 00:34:16,180
And to this moment in time, right here in Deuteronomy 14,

470
00:34:16,180 --> 00:34:19,180
the fence and that property is owned by God.

471
00:34:19,180 --> 00:34:23,180
He has roped in the Israelites and made them His people.

472
00:34:23,180 --> 00:34:27,180
The second problem is, if you go to move that fence,

473
00:34:27,180 --> 00:34:30,180
you're going to have an issue, aren't you?

474
00:34:30,180 --> 00:34:33,180
You got this guy right here.

475
00:34:33,180 --> 00:34:38,180
What if God said, because we do realize God owns both sides technically, right?

476
00:34:38,180 --> 00:34:39,180
He owns it all.

477
00:34:39,180 --> 00:34:43,180
What if He said He wanted to move the fence back here and move this guy now?

478
00:34:43,180 --> 00:34:46,180
The people that are inside are going to go, no, but wait a minute,

479
00:34:46,180 --> 00:34:48,180
He doesn't have Israelite blood.

480
00:34:48,180 --> 00:34:51,180
He's not been worshipped at the Ark of the Covenant, whatever.

481
00:34:51,180 --> 00:34:54,180
I don't want to deal with him. He's a Gentile.

482
00:34:54,180 --> 00:34:58,180
And he's going to go, well, now I got to follow the rules?

483
00:34:58,180 --> 00:35:02,180
What? It's like the mouse who said, who moved the cheese?

484
00:35:02,180 --> 00:35:06,180
Suddenly you go where the cheese used to be and it's not there anymore.

485
00:35:06,180 --> 00:35:09,180
Fact is that trained mice who know right where the cheese is

486
00:35:09,180 --> 00:35:12,180
get lost when someone moves the cheese.

487
00:35:12,180 --> 00:35:14,180
God doesn't want to keep moving that fence around,

488
00:35:14,180 --> 00:35:17,180
so He laid it out in His law what it looks like.

489
00:35:17,180 --> 00:35:19,180
This is what it looks like to be a people of God.

490
00:35:19,180 --> 00:35:23,180
He said, you will be different, and this is how you will be different.

491
00:35:23,180 --> 00:35:25,180
And that's part of what's in here.

492
00:35:25,180 --> 00:35:28,180
Notice that those on the other side of the fence

493
00:35:28,180 --> 00:35:32,180
can really only see the fence and the stragglers of the fence.

494
00:35:32,180 --> 00:35:35,180
So we've got this guy sitting on the fence here.

495
00:35:35,180 --> 00:35:39,180
He was born an Israelite, but he's living like the world.

496
00:35:39,180 --> 00:35:41,180
Before you say that can't possibly be true,

497
00:35:41,180 --> 00:35:43,180
but he's got a lot of enthusiasm,

498
00:35:43,180 --> 00:35:45,180
so here's the smartest thing you can ever do.

499
00:35:45,180 --> 00:35:48,180
Live with one foot in the world and one foot in the people of God.

500
00:35:48,180 --> 00:35:50,180
That way you get the greatest blessing of both.

501
00:35:50,180 --> 00:35:53,180
Later he said, oh, that was the stupidest thing I ever thought.

502
00:35:53,180 --> 00:35:55,180
He said, I tried it, and it about ripped me in two.

503
00:35:55,180 --> 00:35:57,180
I said, I'll never try that again.

504
00:35:57,180 --> 00:35:59,180
He said, here's what you really need to do.

505
00:35:59,180 --> 00:36:01,180
Jump fully in the people of God and live there

506
00:36:01,180 --> 00:36:03,180
and let God sort out all the rest of it.

507
00:36:03,180 --> 00:36:05,180
Put your feet both firmly in the people of God

508
00:36:05,180 --> 00:36:07,180
and let God sort out all the rest of it.

509
00:36:07,180 --> 00:36:10,180
Why? Because partly that ox that falls on the road,

510
00:36:10,180 --> 00:36:13,180
there's good reasons why not to eat the ox that falls on the road.

511
00:36:13,180 --> 00:36:18,180
But the chiefest of all good reasons is the people for whom you belong,

512
00:36:18,180 --> 00:36:21,180
is where you're going, what your destination is like.

513
00:36:21,180 --> 00:36:24,180
You might go, you know, I lost 380 gold pieces of value

514
00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:26,180
when my ox fell on the road,

515
00:36:26,180 --> 00:36:29,180
and that kind of makes it sucky to be an Israelite.

516
00:36:29,180 --> 00:36:32,180
But when you get to heaven, the food there is going to make you forget

517
00:36:32,180 --> 00:36:34,180
what it was like to eat ox meat,

518
00:36:34,180 --> 00:36:37,180
even when you cooked it the best you possibly could.

519
00:36:37,180 --> 00:36:39,180
The wealth and riches of heaven are going to make you forget

520
00:36:39,180 --> 00:36:43,180
what that 380 gold piece loss felt like that one day.

521
00:36:43,180 --> 00:36:45,180
You can have everything then.

522
00:36:45,180 --> 00:36:47,180
Truly have everything. You can't have everything.

523
00:36:47,180 --> 00:36:49,180
It's not even possible.

524
00:36:49,180 --> 00:36:51,180
But you can literally have everything then.

525
00:36:51,180 --> 00:36:54,180
And if you're a people that has everything then,

526
00:36:54,180 --> 00:36:57,180
God is saying it should affect who you are now.

527
00:36:57,180 --> 00:37:01,180
There are some rules. There are some guidelines.

528
00:37:01,180 --> 00:37:04,180
But it's not exactly what you think.

529
00:37:04,180 --> 00:37:10,180
It's not difficult, burdensome, troublesome,

530
00:37:10,180 --> 00:37:15,180
because actually, the fence is alive.

531
00:37:15,180 --> 00:37:19,180
But notice that there are still people in the picture

532
00:37:19,180 --> 00:37:22,180
that are far from God. They think the fence is there.

533
00:37:22,180 --> 00:37:24,180
There are people in the picture that are close to God.

534
00:37:24,180 --> 00:37:26,180
They think the fence is there.

535
00:37:26,180 --> 00:37:31,180
Jesus came to prove the fence is alive.

536
00:37:31,180 --> 00:37:34,180
God loves you. God loves me.

537
00:37:34,180 --> 00:37:36,180
He wants to draw all people unto Himself.

538
00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:40,180
The sacrifice of Jesus was as real as if it had already happened

539
00:37:40,180 --> 00:37:43,180
thousands of years before it ever happened.

540
00:37:43,180 --> 00:37:46,180
What went on near the Ark of the Covenant?

541
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:48,180
So we've got these guys.

542
00:37:48,180 --> 00:37:50,180
We see them walking over here now right by the Ark of the Covenant.

543
00:37:50,180 --> 00:37:53,180
They're like priests and servants in the temple.

544
00:37:53,180 --> 00:37:55,180
Right?

545
00:37:55,180 --> 00:37:57,180
What did they do?

546
00:37:57,180 --> 00:37:59,180
They put on sacrifices.

547
00:37:59,180 --> 00:38:01,180
Now we know that no sacrifice has ever been suitable

548
00:38:01,180 --> 00:38:03,180
to completely wash away the sins of men.

549
00:38:03,180 --> 00:38:05,180
But why aren't they doing it?

550
00:38:05,180 --> 00:38:07,180
Doing it is an act of worship and understanding.

551
00:38:07,180 --> 00:38:09,180
It's what God told them to do.

552
00:38:09,180 --> 00:38:11,180
Now if they really understand what God is doing

553
00:38:11,180 --> 00:38:13,180
and understand what God ordered them to do,

554
00:38:13,180 --> 00:38:16,180
then they understand that it is a picture of a coming sacrifice

555
00:38:16,180 --> 00:38:19,180
that will once and for all be perfect. Right?

556
00:38:19,180 --> 00:38:22,180
Easy enough for us to see that because we're on this side of the cross.

557
00:38:22,180 --> 00:38:25,180
We're on this side of that perfect sacrifice.

558
00:38:25,180 --> 00:38:28,180
Because of that truth, because of this sacrifice

559
00:38:28,180 --> 00:38:30,180
that went on here in God's presence,

560
00:38:30,180 --> 00:38:35,180
was pointing for all of these people that there would ultimately be a sacrifice

561
00:38:35,180 --> 00:38:38,180
that would be sufficient to pay for the sins of all people.

562
00:38:38,180 --> 00:38:42,180
Because of that, the fence is alive.

563
00:38:42,180 --> 00:38:50,180
And people can go, well, whether this guy lets the one eternal sacrifice stand for him or not

564
00:38:50,180 --> 00:38:52,180
is really what determines whether he's in or not.

565
00:38:52,180 --> 00:38:56,180
So that would be true for this guy and this guy as well.

566
00:38:56,180 --> 00:39:01,180
Wherever you're asked, the question is whether or not you will accept

567
00:39:01,180 --> 00:39:06,180
the one true permanent eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

568
00:39:06,180 --> 00:39:12,180
Now unfortunately, because of some of the choices that the Israelites had made,

569
00:39:12,180 --> 00:39:18,180
they missed out on the opportunity to understand what I'm describing to you.

570
00:39:18,180 --> 00:39:22,180
I'm going to read how Luke wrote it in the book of Acts.

571
00:39:22,180 --> 00:39:28,180
It's going to be following along in the Bible. Flip with me to Acts chapter 28.

572
00:39:28,180 --> 00:39:34,180
Now he's actually quoting Isaiah, but I chose this passage to read

573
00:39:34,180 --> 00:39:39,180
because now this is after the sacrifice of Jesus, after the coming of the Holy Spirit,

574
00:39:39,180 --> 00:39:43,180
after they have seen it, most of them with their own eyes,

575
00:39:43,180 --> 00:39:46,180
or they've talked to people who have seen it.

576
00:39:46,180 --> 00:39:49,180
So it's a fact they know that Jesus was sacrificed.

577
00:39:49,180 --> 00:39:52,180
They know that he lived after he died.

578
00:39:52,180 --> 00:39:57,180
And this is what it says. I'm going to start in verse 24 of chapter 28.

579
00:39:57,180 --> 00:39:59,180
Actually, I'll go 23. It says,

580
00:39:59,180 --> 00:40:02,180
And when they had set a day for him, they came to him at his lodging,

581
00:40:02,180 --> 00:40:05,180
so they were coming to ask him questions.

582
00:40:05,180 --> 00:40:08,180
Okay, he came to him at his lodging,

583
00:40:08,180 --> 00:40:13,180
and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the Kingdom of God

584
00:40:13,180 --> 00:40:18,180
and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses

585
00:40:18,180 --> 00:40:21,180
and from the prophets from the morning until evening.

586
00:40:21,180 --> 00:40:23,180
I submit to you, you know, it doesn't say it right there,

587
00:40:23,180 --> 00:40:28,180
that what he's actually trying to persuade them about is that the fence is alive.

588
00:40:28,180 --> 00:40:31,180
Okay, I'll demonstrate how I know that in a minute.

589
00:40:31,180 --> 00:40:36,180
24. And some were being persuaded by the things spoken, but others would not believe.

590
00:40:36,180 --> 00:40:40,180
So all these people are coming, they're hearing about Jesus, his eternal sacrifice,

591
00:40:40,180 --> 00:40:44,180
salvation, how it's now available, God having won people a new Kingdom,

592
00:40:44,180 --> 00:40:49,180
a Kingdom of God reigned over by God, and some were being persuaded by the things spoken,

593
00:40:49,180 --> 00:40:51,180
but others would not believe.

594
00:40:51,180 --> 00:40:53,180
And when they did not agree with one another,

595
00:40:53,180 --> 00:40:57,180
they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word.

596
00:40:57,180 --> 00:40:58,180
And this is what he said,

597
00:40:58,180 --> 00:41:03,180
The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying,

598
00:41:03,180 --> 00:41:06,180
Go to this people and say,

599
00:41:06,180 --> 00:41:09,180
You will keep on hearing, but will not understand,

600
00:41:09,180 --> 00:41:13,180
and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive.

601
00:41:13,180 --> 00:41:16,180
For the heart of this people has become dull,

602
00:41:16,180 --> 00:41:19,180
and with their ears they scarcely hear,

603
00:41:19,180 --> 00:41:23,180
and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes

604
00:41:23,180 --> 00:41:26,180
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,

605
00:41:26,180 --> 00:41:29,180
and return, and I should heal them.

606
00:41:29,180 --> 00:41:32,180
Verse 28, Let it be known to you therefore,

607
00:41:32,180 --> 00:41:36,180
that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles,

608
00:41:36,180 --> 00:41:40,180
and they will also listen.

609
00:41:40,180 --> 00:41:45,180
And when they have spoken these words, they are part of having a great dispute among themselves,

610
00:41:45,180 --> 00:41:48,180
and the story goes on.

611
00:41:48,180 --> 00:41:51,180
So in other words, they came to him,

612
00:41:51,180 --> 00:41:54,180
our advanced Lord in time,

613
00:41:54,180 --> 00:41:57,180
and Paul was over here,

614
00:41:57,180 --> 00:41:59,180
there's Paul,

615
00:41:59,180 --> 00:42:01,180
the head of the key for Paul,

616
00:42:01,180 --> 00:42:04,180
and he's explaining to them what they now know,

617
00:42:04,180 --> 00:42:08,180
that the fence is a lie.

618
00:42:08,180 --> 00:42:14,180
Some of them believe this guy up here,

619
00:42:14,180 --> 00:42:17,180
and this guy over here,

620
00:42:17,180 --> 00:42:21,180
and all these, this girl, and this guy that was by the Ark of the Covenant,

621
00:42:21,180 --> 00:42:25,180
not this guy, that guy in the wheelchair believed,

622
00:42:25,180 --> 00:42:29,180
and this guy didn't.

623
00:42:29,180 --> 00:42:33,180
And then there were some other people that Paul called Gentiles,

624
00:42:33,180 --> 00:42:37,180
oh wait, so this guy believes, and that guy believes,

625
00:42:37,180 --> 00:42:41,180
and this person over here believes, but this one didn't.

626
00:42:41,180 --> 00:42:45,180
And there's some stranger down here, who just waters in, just at that right moment he hears the story,

627
00:42:45,180 --> 00:42:48,180
and then there's a stranger here, who will make her a girl,

628
00:42:48,180 --> 00:42:50,180
do I have enough girls in the picture?

629
00:42:50,180 --> 00:42:54,180
What's a comfortable girl look like? Let's see, let's do that.

630
00:42:54,180 --> 00:42:58,180
And she believes, she's in, and of course Paul believes,

631
00:42:58,180 --> 00:43:01,180
but this guy here doesn't believe,

632
00:43:01,180 --> 00:43:06,180
and then the background here, the Ark of the Covenant is in,

633
00:43:06,180 --> 00:43:11,180
and it goes like that.

634
00:43:11,180 --> 00:43:14,180
The fence is a lie,

635
00:43:14,180 --> 00:43:19,180
but the line between God's Kingdom and not, is not a lie.

636
00:43:19,180 --> 00:43:23,180
It's real, but it's not founded or based on geography,

637
00:43:23,180 --> 00:43:27,180
or rules, or stricture.

638
00:43:27,180 --> 00:43:30,180
It's based on one thing and one thing alone.

639
00:43:30,180 --> 00:43:34,180
It's based on believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

640
00:43:34,180 --> 00:43:39,180
When you have faith in God and the way that God provided, which is Jesus Christ,

641
00:43:39,180 --> 00:43:44,180
then that opens up a channel of grace where God can name you as his people.

642
00:43:44,180 --> 00:43:49,180
And so then this place inside there is Kingdom of God.

643
00:43:49,180 --> 00:43:52,180
But notice, when you move a barrier, you have issues,

644
00:43:52,180 --> 00:43:58,180
because someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.

645
00:43:58,180 --> 00:44:02,180
Well, who owns the property on which the barrier is built?

646
00:44:02,180 --> 00:44:04,180
God does.

647
00:44:04,180 --> 00:44:08,180
People outside the barrier...

648
00:44:08,180 --> 00:44:10,180
Better to be outside.

649
00:44:10,180 --> 00:44:14,180
Don't want those rules, don't want to have to live right,

650
00:44:14,180 --> 00:44:17,180
don't want to have to read the Bible or pray or do any of those things.

651
00:44:17,180 --> 00:44:19,180
Better to be outside.

652
00:44:19,180 --> 00:44:21,180
And then of course we get the Great Commission,

653
00:44:21,180 --> 00:44:27,180
which says that the task of everybody on the inside is to go to everybody on the outside

654
00:44:27,180 --> 00:44:31,180
and explain to them that the fence is a lie.

655
00:44:31,180 --> 00:44:35,180
The question is this, is God an inclusive God?

656
00:44:35,180 --> 00:44:39,180
Does God want literally everybody inside the fence?

657
00:44:39,180 --> 00:44:40,180
Yes.

658
00:44:40,180 --> 00:44:45,180
But based on this passage of Scripture and so many others like it, is God a holy God?

659
00:44:45,180 --> 00:44:47,180
Yes, he is.

660
00:44:47,180 --> 00:44:52,180
And does God expect the people inside to be holy because they are inside?

661
00:44:52,180 --> 00:44:55,180
Yes, he does.

662
00:44:55,180 --> 00:44:58,180
Hold on a minute, because the fence is a lie,

663
00:44:58,180 --> 00:45:02,180
does God expect the people who are outside to be holy?

664
00:45:02,180 --> 00:45:04,180
Yes, he does.

665
00:45:04,180 --> 00:45:05,180
The fence is a lie.

666
00:45:05,180 --> 00:45:07,180
They think they own the fence.

667
00:45:07,180 --> 00:45:09,180
They think they own the property on which the fence sets.

668
00:45:09,180 --> 00:45:11,180
They think they are choosing not to be a follower of God.

669
00:45:11,180 --> 00:45:14,180
They think that they are choosing to have free will.

670
00:45:14,180 --> 00:45:16,180
They're choosing to stand away from God.

671
00:45:16,180 --> 00:45:25,180
But the truth is this territory out here is owned by somebody who is, you could say, is occupied,

672
00:45:25,180 --> 00:45:32,180
maybe a better way of saying it, by somebody who made that mistake in the first place, which is the devil.

673
00:45:32,180 --> 00:45:38,180
And if you're outside the fence, outside the barrier, if you're not part of the people of God,

674
00:45:38,180 --> 00:45:44,180
if you've got a way to say it, then you are a slave to the one who owns the area outside.

675
00:45:44,180 --> 00:45:50,180
And that fence, the fence around his kingdom, is not a lie.

676
00:45:50,180 --> 00:45:53,180
And he owns the property on which it sits.

677
00:45:53,180 --> 00:45:55,180
And given the opportunity, he will lock you in.

678
00:45:55,180 --> 00:45:57,180
He will trap you in.

679
00:45:57,180 --> 00:46:02,180
That's why it says he stalks around like a lion, roaring lions, seeking to see who he may devour.

680
00:46:02,180 --> 00:46:07,180
By the way, a lion never roars when devouring.

681
00:46:07,180 --> 00:46:12,180
He just threatens and makes you think that you're close to being devoured.

682
00:46:12,180 --> 00:46:16,180
Lions typically stalk and sneak and jump on their prey.

683
00:46:16,180 --> 00:46:21,180
He's looking for you to be on the outside edge, away, as far to the edge as possible,

684
00:46:21,180 --> 00:46:24,180
except the edge is not a circle.

685
00:46:24,180 --> 00:46:27,180
It's not like a yard. It's a square that's got a fence around it.

686
00:46:27,180 --> 00:46:33,180
It is defined as those people who are in the kingdom of God.

687
00:46:33,180 --> 00:46:38,180
The distinction is a man, not a barrier.

688
00:46:38,180 --> 00:46:41,180
A couple of times in the history of our church, we wanted to do something.

689
00:46:41,180 --> 00:46:44,180
We decided as a church that something was the right thing to do.

690
00:46:44,180 --> 00:46:48,180
And we elected someone to do it.

691
00:46:48,180 --> 00:46:52,180
So someone said, yeah, I think it's right that I'll do it, and we chose that person to do it.

692
00:46:52,180 --> 00:46:56,180
Knowing that we were choosing somebody's self-will, we were choosing somebody's ability,

693
00:46:56,180 --> 00:46:59,180
we were choosing their creativity, we were choosing their strength,

694
00:46:59,180 --> 00:47:01,180
we were choosing by their faithfulness.

695
00:47:01,180 --> 00:47:04,180
In the early church, when the disciples were having trouble taking care of the widows,

696
00:47:04,180 --> 00:47:06,180
they said, well, we shouldn't be doing this.

697
00:47:06,180 --> 00:47:08,180
We should be praying, seeking God, teaching people like that.

698
00:47:08,180 --> 00:47:10,180
Let's raise up some men. And they called up deacons.

699
00:47:10,180 --> 00:47:14,180
They chose them by the fact that they were following God, doing what God would have them to do.

700
00:47:14,180 --> 00:47:15,180
They were in the kingdom of God.

701
00:47:15,180 --> 00:47:20,180
Clearly, they were thrown into the spirit by everyone's assertion, and so on.

702
00:47:20,180 --> 00:47:23,180
The fence is a lie.

703
00:47:23,180 --> 00:47:25,180
The distinction is a man, not a believer.

704
00:47:25,180 --> 00:47:28,180
He is the gate.

705
00:47:28,180 --> 00:47:30,180
He is the shepherd.

706
00:47:30,180 --> 00:47:32,180
He is the door.

707
00:47:32,180 --> 00:47:34,180
He is the bread of life.

708
00:47:34,180 --> 00:47:38,180
And unless you take him wholly and completely as your Lord and Savior,

709
00:47:38,180 --> 00:47:40,180
you are outside the kingdom.

710
00:47:40,180 --> 00:47:44,180
There is nobody inside the kingdom who is partly inside the kingdom.

711
00:47:44,180 --> 00:47:51,180
There is no such thing as a guy in there, yes, oh yeah, I'm in, but one toe is sleeping out.

712
00:47:51,180 --> 00:47:53,180
No such thing.

713
00:47:53,180 --> 00:47:54,180
Right?

714
00:47:54,180 --> 00:48:00,180
Or there is a guy who is out here and says, yeah, I'm not saved, but he's got one foot in.

715
00:48:00,180 --> 00:48:01,180
One really big foot.

716
00:48:01,180 --> 00:48:03,180
That's what happens when a foot sticks in the kingdom of God.

717
00:48:03,180 --> 00:48:05,180
You're in or you're out.

718
00:48:05,180 --> 00:48:08,180
You believe or you don't.

719
00:48:08,180 --> 00:48:11,180
Do you believe?

720
00:48:11,180 --> 00:48:17,180
If you believe, then you realize our God is a holy God and he's taking us to a holy place.

721
00:48:17,180 --> 00:48:22,180
He's holy, first of all different, and he's taking us to a different place.

722
00:48:22,180 --> 00:48:27,180
We talk, we say things like the food there will taste so much better than the food here.

723
00:48:27,180 --> 00:48:29,180
Well, what the heck does that even mean?

724
00:48:29,180 --> 00:48:31,180
What does it mean, the food there?

725
00:48:31,180 --> 00:48:36,180
When your body is spiritualized and resurrected and you have a perfect brand new body,

726
00:48:36,180 --> 00:48:39,180
a perfect age, perfect strength, perfect appearance, perfect everything,

727
00:48:39,180 --> 00:48:44,180
you can think about being in one place and appear there, and you have a body like Jesus had,

728
00:48:44,180 --> 00:48:47,180
what does it mean to say, well, the food will taste so good?

729
00:48:47,180 --> 00:48:51,180
It's outside fully our knowledge, but here's what is not outside our knowledge.

730
00:48:51,180 --> 00:48:53,180
You're in or you're out.

731
00:48:53,180 --> 00:48:55,180
You've got to stop playing games with it.

732
00:48:55,180 --> 00:48:56,180
You're in or you're out.

733
00:48:56,180 --> 00:49:03,180
When God says, when we're in, this is what we do, we should be going, oh, well, you know, man, that's so tough.

734
00:49:03,180 --> 00:49:05,180
That's not my personality.

735
00:49:05,180 --> 00:49:06,180
I don't like to do that.

736
00:49:06,180 --> 00:49:09,180
I get butterflies in my stomach.

737
00:49:09,180 --> 00:49:11,180
God doesn't care about your butterflies in your stomach.

738
00:49:11,180 --> 00:49:14,180
He cares about whether you're in or you're out.

739
00:49:14,180 --> 00:49:21,180
And if you're in the butterflies in your stomach, that's the stupid part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.

740
00:49:21,180 --> 00:49:26,180
Part of you that doesn't want to give up the money or give up your time.

741
00:49:26,180 --> 00:49:30,180
That's the stupid part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.

742
00:49:30,180 --> 00:49:31,180
Wait for it.

743
00:49:31,180 --> 00:49:34,180
The part of you that throws a fit when things are going wrong,

744
00:49:34,180 --> 00:49:36,180
you get mad or angry or frustrated.

745
00:49:36,180 --> 00:49:41,180
That's the part of you that doesn't realize how awesome it is to be in.

746
00:49:41,180 --> 00:49:44,180
It's that awesome to be in.

747
00:49:44,180 --> 00:49:53,180
Then no matter what we go through in this life, as long as we count it as for him, it's awesome.

748
00:49:53,180 --> 00:49:58,180
That's why James would write, honey, pure joy when you face all manner of trials and tribulations.

749
00:49:58,180 --> 00:50:00,180
Did Jesus face trials and tribulations?

750
00:50:00,180 --> 00:50:02,180
I mean, he's the son of God in the flesh.

751
00:50:02,180 --> 00:50:03,180
Did he face trials and tribulations?

752
00:50:03,180 --> 00:50:08,180
He was whipped within an inch of his life and then hung to take the rest of it.

753
00:50:08,180 --> 00:50:09,180
Did he face trials and tribulations?

754
00:50:09,180 --> 00:50:13,180
Have you faced anything like he ever faced?

755
00:50:13,180 --> 00:50:17,180
He went 40 days without food, which most of us could not even physically do.

756
00:50:17,180 --> 00:50:19,180
We weren't sustained by a miracle of God.

757
00:50:19,180 --> 00:50:20,180
We couldn't go 40 days without food.

758
00:50:20,180 --> 00:50:22,180
We would die before then.

759
00:50:22,180 --> 00:50:26,180
He went 40 days without food, at the end of which the enemy came and said to him,

760
00:50:26,180 --> 00:50:27,180
you hungry?

761
00:50:27,180 --> 00:50:29,180
Turn these rocks into bread.

762
00:50:29,180 --> 00:50:31,180
Was that within his power to do so?

763
00:50:31,180 --> 00:50:34,180
Absolutely. He could turn rocks into bread.

764
00:50:34,180 --> 00:50:38,180
And he said, no, I won't do it.

765
00:50:38,180 --> 00:50:45,180
Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word he proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

766
00:50:45,180 --> 00:50:46,180
What is he saying?

767
00:50:46,180 --> 00:50:48,180
He's saying, listen to me.

768
00:50:48,180 --> 00:50:51,180
I know you think it's better to be on your side of the fence.

769
00:50:51,180 --> 00:50:55,180
I know you think it's better to be free willed away from God.

770
00:50:55,180 --> 00:50:57,180
I know you hate God.

771
00:50:57,180 --> 00:50:58,180
You're angry at God.

772
00:50:58,180 --> 00:51:01,180
You want to bring down any prophet or any person who stand up for God.

773
00:51:01,180 --> 00:51:02,180
I know you want them all to go your way.

774
00:51:02,180 --> 00:51:08,180
And you'd like to see man whose God's crowning achievement of creation come over to your way of thinking.

775
00:51:08,180 --> 00:51:13,180
And that you've won many before me, but you will not win me because I live in the kingdom of God.

776
00:51:13,180 --> 00:51:17,180
Yes, I have the power to turn stones into bread because I am God in the flesh.

777
00:51:17,180 --> 00:51:19,180
And I don't know that Satan knew that at that time.

778
00:51:19,180 --> 00:51:20,180
And Jesus didn't say that.

779
00:51:20,180 --> 00:51:24,180
He just simply said, no, it is better to understand this,

780
00:51:24,180 --> 00:51:29,180
that man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

781
00:51:29,180 --> 00:51:31,180
That's it.

782
00:51:31,180 --> 00:51:35,180
And that is the definition of what it means to be a person in the kingdom of God.

783
00:51:35,180 --> 00:51:37,180
To understand that you answer to God.

784
00:51:37,180 --> 00:51:38,180
You are owned by God.

785
00:51:38,180 --> 00:51:39,180
You are for God.

786
00:51:39,180 --> 00:51:41,180
You walk by the strength of God.

787
00:51:41,180 --> 00:51:44,180
You do things in the creativity that God has given you.

788
00:51:44,180 --> 00:51:47,180
Your free will is a gift from God if you have it.

789
00:51:47,180 --> 00:51:51,180
And if you don't have God, you don't have it.

790
00:51:51,180 --> 00:51:53,180
Jesus is the way.

791
00:51:53,180 --> 00:51:55,180
He's not a guardian to the way.

792
00:51:55,180 --> 00:51:56,180
He's not at the door.

793
00:51:56,180 --> 00:51:57,180
Jesus didn't come to condemn.

794
00:51:57,180 --> 00:52:02,180
He's not like standing here right here on this little plot and saying,

795
00:52:02,180 --> 00:52:05,180
hey, you can't get in unless you say 17 Hail Mary's.

796
00:52:05,180 --> 00:52:08,180
Or you can't get in unless you're awkwardly big enough.

797
00:52:08,180 --> 00:52:13,180
Like a little guardsman there standing there with a sword and a shield saying, no way.

798
00:52:13,180 --> 00:52:15,180
You can't get in.

799
00:52:15,180 --> 00:52:17,180
Now, that's not our Jesus.

800
00:52:17,180 --> 00:52:21,180
Our Jesus is the guy who died on the cross saying,

801
00:52:21,180 --> 00:52:26,180
everybody come, everybody come, come on.

802
00:52:26,180 --> 00:52:27,180
Is he inclusive?

803
00:52:27,180 --> 00:52:28,180
Yes.

804
00:52:28,180 --> 00:52:32,180
But to be inclusive will always be to be exclusive.

805
00:52:32,180 --> 00:52:34,180
There is this which defines us.

806
00:52:34,180 --> 00:52:38,180
That we are a follower of the Lord God and his son, Jesus Christ.

807
00:52:38,180 --> 00:52:40,180
And if you are that, you are saved.

808
00:52:40,180 --> 00:52:43,180
And if you are saved, then act like it.

809
00:52:43,180 --> 00:52:47,180
Start saying no to the things that don't belong in the kingdom of God.

810
00:52:47,180 --> 00:52:51,180
Start putting your foot down as if God were putting his foot down

811
00:52:51,180 --> 00:52:54,180
to exercise his authority in your life.

812
00:52:54,180 --> 00:52:58,180
He is the way, not a guardian to keep people out.

813
00:52:58,180 --> 00:53:05,180
People are kept at bay in the kingdom of God by their unwillingness to repent.

814
00:53:05,180 --> 00:53:07,180
They see the fence is electrified.

815
00:53:07,180 --> 00:53:09,180
They know they don't want to go there.

816
00:53:09,180 --> 00:53:10,180
They want what they want.

817
00:53:10,180 --> 00:53:12,180
And they don't want to cross the line.

818
00:53:12,180 --> 00:53:14,180
And they don't want anybody to look at them.

819
00:53:14,180 --> 00:53:15,180
They want anybody to think about them.

820
00:53:15,180 --> 00:53:17,180
They want to get away with whatever they want to get away with.

821
00:53:17,180 --> 00:53:19,180
And as long as I can get away with that, I'm fine.

822
00:53:19,180 --> 00:53:20,180
But you're not fine.

823
00:53:20,180 --> 00:53:23,180
If you're outside the kingdom of God, you're not fine.

824
00:53:23,180 --> 00:53:24,180
Oh, you're different.

825
00:53:24,180 --> 00:53:26,180
But you're not any different than anybody that's outside the kingdom of God.

826
00:53:26,180 --> 00:53:29,180
Because you're united in this choice out there.

827
00:53:29,180 --> 00:53:31,180
While you are a unique personality out there,

828
00:53:31,180 --> 00:53:34,180
you are the same as everybody else that does not choose God.

829
00:53:34,180 --> 00:53:38,180
In here when we choose God, we are even more unique.

830
00:53:38,180 --> 00:53:40,180
Because the Holy Spirit looks up to the payers,

831
00:53:40,180 --> 00:53:42,180
the unique creation of God in the kingdom of God,

832
00:53:42,180 --> 00:53:48,180
and He gives them exactly what gift they need to build up the kingdom.

833
00:53:48,180 --> 00:53:50,180
I'm going to read one last passage of Scripture, and then I'll be through.

834
00:53:50,180 --> 00:53:51,180
Verse 65, I said 66.

835
00:53:51,180 --> 00:53:53,180
It's 65, I apologize.

836
00:53:53,180 --> 00:53:55,180
And it says this, beginning of verse 24,

837
00:53:55,180 --> 00:54:01,180
He says, It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.

838
00:54:01,180 --> 00:54:03,180
That's how you get in the kingdom of God.

839
00:54:03,180 --> 00:54:06,180
God has already answered you before you call.

840
00:54:06,180 --> 00:54:07,180
Say, Lord, save me.

841
00:54:07,180 --> 00:54:09,180
He's already said yes.

842
00:54:09,180 --> 00:54:12,180
If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

843
00:54:12,180 --> 00:54:14,180
you're distracted by something else.

844
00:54:14,180 --> 00:54:17,180
If you're pulled away by what you think is your free will,

845
00:54:17,180 --> 00:54:19,180
which is actually submitted to Satan, whatever.

846
00:54:19,180 --> 00:54:23,180
If that's what's happening to you, you say, God, save me through your son Jesus Christ.

847
00:54:23,180 --> 00:54:24,180
And He has already answered.

848
00:54:24,180 --> 00:54:26,180
He will save you.

849
00:54:26,180 --> 00:54:29,180
It says, It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer.

850
00:54:29,180 --> 00:54:31,180
He answered 2,000 years ago.

851
00:54:31,180 --> 00:54:33,180
He settled the matter on the cross.

852
00:54:33,180 --> 00:54:36,180
And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

853
00:54:36,180 --> 00:54:37,180
Verse 25 says this, listen.

854
00:54:37,180 --> 00:54:42,180
It says, The wolf and the lamb, the wolf, that's the predator, and the lamb, that's the prey,

855
00:54:42,180 --> 00:54:46,180
shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

856
00:54:46,180 --> 00:54:48,180
You know why the lion will eat straw?

857
00:54:48,180 --> 00:54:52,180
And the wolf and the lamb can graze together because God is going to put even death to an end.

858
00:54:52,180 --> 00:54:54,180
He's essentially already done it on the cross.

859
00:54:54,180 --> 00:54:56,180
But once it's all over, there will be no more death.

860
00:54:56,180 --> 00:54:58,180
The wages of sin is death, and it will be done.

861
00:54:58,180 --> 00:55:02,180
If He puts death to an end, it will be because He's taken care of sin.

862
00:55:02,180 --> 00:55:06,180
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

863
00:55:06,180 --> 00:55:10,180
And the dust, wait for it, shall be the serpent's food.

864
00:55:10,180 --> 00:55:12,180
The dust shall be the serpent's food.

865
00:55:12,180 --> 00:55:19,180
And the wolf and the lion and the serpent, He says, they shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountains, says the Lord.

866
00:55:19,180 --> 00:55:21,180
This is how it will be settled.

867
00:55:21,180 --> 00:55:24,180
The serpent will eat dust for food.

868
00:55:24,180 --> 00:55:25,180
I wouldn't think it's happening there.

869
00:55:25,180 --> 00:55:29,180
I mean, he's eating here, he's taking himself, and they will have dust for food.

870
00:55:29,180 --> 00:55:34,180
And if you choose to be out here, outside the line, outside God's people,

871
00:55:34,180 --> 00:55:37,180
then you too will have dust for food.

872
00:55:37,180 --> 00:55:40,180
I don't know what that's going to be like, but it doesn't sound good.

873
00:55:40,180 --> 00:55:45,180
But this I do know, all of us that are inside the line,

874
00:55:45,180 --> 00:55:48,180
not a line that God draws to try to keep people out,

875
00:55:48,180 --> 00:55:52,180
the way is Jesus.

876
00:55:52,180 --> 00:55:55,180
People who will not accept Jesus, people who will not believe in God,

877
00:55:55,180 --> 00:55:58,180
through Jesus Christ, His Son, will be outside that line,

878
00:55:58,180 --> 00:56:01,180
and those people will eat dust with the serpent.

879
00:56:01,180 --> 00:56:04,180
But those who are inside the line will be Satan.

880
00:56:04,180 --> 00:56:05,180
That's what it says.

881
00:56:05,180 --> 00:56:11,180
It says, they, meaning the lion, the wolf, the serpent,

882
00:56:11,180 --> 00:56:14,180
all images used to represent demons, evil spirits, Satan,

883
00:56:14,180 --> 00:56:19,180
they shall do no evil or harm in all My holy mountains, says the Lord.

884
00:56:19,180 --> 00:56:20,180
It's settled.

885
00:56:20,180 --> 00:56:23,180
The only question is, are you settled?

886
00:56:23,180 --> 00:56:24,180
Am I settled?

887
00:56:24,180 --> 00:56:29,180
Are we willing to decide that we are a holy and different people?

888
00:56:29,180 --> 00:56:33,180
When someone moves the barrier, the problems are,

889
00:56:33,180 --> 00:56:35,180
someone owns the property on which the barrier is built.

890
00:56:35,180 --> 00:56:37,180
Listen to me.

891
00:56:37,180 --> 00:56:40,180
God owns it all.

892
00:56:40,180 --> 00:56:44,180
But those who are outside the enemy, they are convinced

893
00:56:44,180 --> 00:56:48,180
that that fence gives them some value.

894
00:56:48,180 --> 00:56:51,180
That fence practically protects them from what God is trying to do,

895
00:56:51,180 --> 00:56:53,180
that kind of thing.

896
00:56:53,180 --> 00:56:55,180
And it just isn't so.

897
00:56:55,180 --> 00:56:59,180
When the fence was moved, people got confused.

898
00:56:59,180 --> 00:57:03,180
Notice that there were people that were worshipping God,

899
00:57:03,180 --> 00:57:05,180
and they wound up outside of the fence.

900
00:57:05,180 --> 00:57:06,180
They're not even human God.

901
00:57:06,180 --> 00:57:09,180
There were Levites and Israelites and priests,

902
00:57:09,180 --> 00:57:12,180
and there have been pastors and deacons and Sunday school teachers

903
00:57:12,180 --> 00:57:19,180
who wound up outside and will not see the King of God on this earth or in heaven.

904
00:57:19,180 --> 00:57:23,180
Also notice that those who are on the outside can only see the straddlers,

905
00:57:23,180 --> 00:57:25,180
the hypocrites, those who are not really living.

906
00:57:25,180 --> 00:57:28,180
And so understand that if you are not living for the Lord,

907
00:57:28,180 --> 00:57:31,180
but you're claiming to be the King of God, you're doing a lot of damage

908
00:57:31,180 --> 00:57:34,180
because there are a lot of people that are looking at you,

909
00:57:34,180 --> 00:57:38,180
thinking you're a Christian, and you're leading them in the wrong way

910
00:57:38,180 --> 00:57:43,180
to be like you instead of being like Jesus, and you're not being like Jesus.

911
00:57:43,180 --> 00:57:50,180
Get off the fence, because nobody on the fence winds up in the kingdom.

912
00:57:50,180 --> 00:57:51,180
They all wind up outside.

913
00:57:51,180 --> 00:57:55,180
And if you're here in this room and you're following somebody who professes to be a Christian,

914
00:57:55,180 --> 00:57:57,180
but you know that they're not living like a Christian,

915
00:57:57,180 --> 00:58:00,180
then you decide who you are in Christ.

916
00:58:00,180 --> 00:58:05,180
You decide to follow Jesus with all that you are, not follow your friend,

917
00:58:05,180 --> 00:58:08,180
your brother, your sister, your cousin, your mom or your dad.

918
00:58:08,180 --> 00:58:11,180
There are no grandchildren of God.

919
00:58:11,180 --> 00:58:15,180
Every time anyone enters the kingdom, it is God asking them,

920
00:58:15,180 --> 00:58:19,180
will you come to me through my son Jesus?

921
00:58:19,180 --> 00:58:24,180
And if you will come, then you say, please Jesus,

922
00:58:24,180 --> 00:58:27,180
and know that he has already answered you.

923
00:58:27,180 --> 00:58:29,180
He has already paid.

924
00:58:29,180 --> 00:58:34,180
Whether I make it in or not, you want to make it in.

925
00:58:34,180 --> 00:58:41,180
And you will make it in by Jesus or not at all.

926
00:58:41,180 --> 00:58:44,180
The fence was a lie.

927
00:58:44,180 --> 00:58:48,180
The whole purpose of the Israelites was to bring the rest of the world close to God.

928
00:58:48,180 --> 00:58:50,180
So they would be different.

929
00:58:50,180 --> 00:58:53,180
So people would look at them and go, hey, they're different.

930
00:58:53,180 --> 00:58:56,180
And God acted on their behalf and did amazing things.

931
00:58:56,180 --> 00:59:00,180
And then people would want to come and become like the Israelites and close to God.

932
00:59:00,180 --> 00:59:03,180
That was the whole purpose. And they didn't do it.

933
00:59:03,180 --> 00:59:06,180
And then God erased the fence and said, it's not about being an Israelite.

934
00:59:06,180 --> 00:59:10,180
It's about this decision about what you'll do with my son Jesus Christ.

935
00:59:10,180 --> 00:59:13,180
What is the work of a father to believe in the one who he has sent?

936
00:59:13,180 --> 00:59:17,180
Will you believe in Jesus and what Jesus has done?

937
00:59:17,180 --> 00:59:20,180
And now the church is here.

938
00:59:20,180 --> 00:59:24,180
And in some cases, the church is not doing what the church is supposed to be doing.

939
00:59:24,180 --> 00:59:29,180
And there will be people, God forbid, but there may be people sitting in this room right now,

940
00:59:29,180 --> 00:59:34,180
who will be in hell for an eternity because they refuse to follow Jesus with all that they are.

941
00:59:34,180 --> 00:59:37,180
The fence is a lie.

942
00:59:37,180 --> 00:59:39,180
You just have to decide.

943
00:59:39,180 --> 00:59:42,180
Do you believe in God through Jesus Christ his son?

944
00:59:42,180 --> 00:59:45,180
Do you believe in what God has done through Jesus?

945
00:59:45,180 --> 00:59:48,180
Will you be saved and will you follow him with all that you are?

946
00:59:48,180 --> 00:59:51,180
I'm not talking about following him with your strength. That would be good.

947
00:59:51,180 --> 00:59:54,180
Or following him with your intellect. You may be smart. That would be good.

948
00:59:54,180 --> 00:59:58,180
I'm talking about following him with all that you are and letting him be Lord of your life.

949
00:59:58,180 --> 01:00:00,180
And that's what it takes to be saved.

950
01:00:00,180 --> 01:00:04,180
No one else is standard but the Bible and God himself.

951
01:00:04,180 --> 01:00:08,180
We're going to have a hymn of invitation at this time, meaning as we sing this song,

952
01:00:08,180 --> 01:00:13,180
you're going to have the opportunity to let it know what you're deciding today in response to God.

953
01:00:13,180 --> 01:00:21,180
You have to decide, are you willing to cross the line by the way that Jesus is made, by the way that Jesus is?

954
01:00:21,180 --> 01:00:25,180
And if you are, then as we sing, you will respond.

955
01:00:25,180 --> 01:00:28,180
I'm living for Jesus from this moment on.

956
01:00:28,180 --> 01:00:32,180
Whatever I said before, whoever I thought I was, I'm letting all that go.

957
01:00:32,180 --> 01:00:34,180
I'm living for Jesus from this moment on.

958
01:00:34,180 --> 01:00:38,180
I know some of us in this room have a long time to live. Yeah, we think we do.

959
01:00:38,180 --> 01:00:41,180
If you're a follower of Jesus, you get a lot longer than that.

960
01:00:41,180 --> 01:00:46,180
A hundred years of misery and suffering, God forbid, would still be worth it for an eternity in heaven for God.

961
01:00:46,180 --> 01:00:48,180
But that's not what you get.

962
01:00:48,180 --> 01:00:51,180
Jesus came and you have life and life more abundantly.

963
01:00:51,180 --> 01:00:57,180
And even if you're in trouble, have great joy, that's what you get.

964
01:00:57,180 --> 01:01:05,180
Asking you, would you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and then live for him for the rest of your days?

965
01:01:05,180 --> 01:01:09,180
And yes, you will be asked to be different.

966
01:01:09,180 --> 01:01:13,180
So will you be different? Are you afraid to be different?

967
01:01:13,180 --> 01:01:18,180
Don't be, because there's a lot at stake.

968
01:01:18,180 --> 01:01:21,180
Let yourself be different as a follower of Jesus.

969
01:01:21,180 --> 01:01:46,180
Just stand with me and sing this song, let the Lord speak into your heart and you respond.

970
01:01:46,180 --> 01:01:59,180
We fall down, lay on our crowns, at the feet of Jesus.

971
01:01:59,180 --> 01:02:07,180
We pray this song of mercy and love at the feet of Jesus.

972
01:02:07,180 --> 01:02:11,180
This is Pastor Daniel Stevenson of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of East Toledo.

973
01:02:11,180 --> 01:02:17,180
You've been listening to our podcast from October 16th.

974
01:02:17,180 --> 01:02:20,180
We sure do appreciate you joining us.

975
01:02:20,180 --> 01:02:24,180
If the Lord might be leading you to become a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,

976
01:02:24,180 --> 01:02:28,180
even though there may be some glaringly obvious barrier to keep you from doing that,

977
01:02:28,180 --> 01:02:37,180
perhaps you live in another state far away or whatever it might be, financially you have a barrier, transportation you have a barrier, whatever,

978
01:02:37,180 --> 01:02:43,180
you should be aware that God has moved in our hearts to set up a program called non-resident membership.

979
01:02:43,180 --> 01:02:50,180
Basically, if you can testify saying that you believe that God is expecting you to be a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,

980
01:02:50,180 --> 01:02:56,180
then regardless of where you may live, you may apply to be a non-resident member,

981
01:02:56,180 --> 01:03:02,180
regardless of what your financial situation might be, or you could be in jail listening to this podcast, or whatever it might be.

982
01:03:02,180 --> 01:03:07,180
If God is calling you to be a member of this church, then we want to open the way for that to be possible,

983
01:03:07,180 --> 01:03:10,180
and we believe that there are people out there that are like that.

984
01:03:10,180 --> 01:03:14,180
So, go to our website on the membership page.

985
01:03:14,180 --> 01:03:16,180
It says, what does it take to be a member of New Heights?

986
01:03:16,180 --> 01:03:24,180
And look at the non-resident member requirements if you're sure that there are things standing in the way for you coming to become an active member in the church.

987
01:03:24,180 --> 01:03:27,180
And then we'll talk about it. We'll figure it out.

988
01:03:27,180 --> 01:03:34,180
So, God bless you as you search out the church home in which you belong, and I pray that there is one near you geographically

989
01:03:34,180 --> 01:03:40,180
that you'll easily be able to participate with, and that God will get all the glory if you're joining together in that community.

990
01:03:40,180 --> 01:03:45,180
And in the meantime, if the Lord is leading you to become a member of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church,

991
01:03:45,180 --> 01:03:49,180
regardless of whatever barriers may exist, you must be a professing Christian.

992
01:03:49,180 --> 01:03:53,180
If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do that now.

993
01:03:53,180 --> 01:04:01,180
And then whatever barriers may exist between where you're at now and becoming a member of the church, those can be dealt with.

994
01:04:01,180 --> 01:04:06,180
We can pray that God miraculously will work it out, and we know that He is that kind of God.

995
01:04:06,180 --> 01:04:14,180
Thank you so much. Reach out to us via communication on our website or in our app if you need other services of New Heights that we are able to provide.

996
01:04:14,180 --> 01:04:18,180
And we'll be praying for all the listeners all the time.

997
01:04:18,180 --> 01:04:22,180
And you pray for us as we continue to serve the Lord and reach New Heights in Jesus.

998
01:04:22,180 --> 01:04:24,180
Thanks and God bless.