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1 Timothy 1, verse 18, just a few short verses here tonight, 18, 19, and 20.

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1 Timothy 1, verse 18.

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Kind of some heavy passages again tonight.

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We had a heavy passage Sunday and we have a little bit of a heavy passage tonight, but

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a good passage nonetheless.

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Let's pray and we'll get started.

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Father God, we come to you, we thank you for your good word, and I pray, dear Lord,

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that we would listen to your word.

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God, perhaps sometimes we are guilty of hearing what your word says, but not really listening,

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not paying attention, not doing what it says, dear Lord.

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So I ask tonight that you would help us not to be hearers of the word only, but doers

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of the word, dear Lord.

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Your word is good for us and sometimes it's kind of heavy, dear Lord.

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Sometimes it's used to correct us and sometimes it's used to encourage us.

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Whatever it may be that we need, dear Lord, I pray that we would listen to it.

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It's good for us, dear Lord.

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We can always grow when we read your word and listen to it.

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I pray that your Holy Spirit would be with us tonight, that you would hide me behind

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the cross and help me to preach and teach in a way that brings glory to you.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

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This is still, I guess we could say, kind of an introduction that Paul is giving to

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Timothy before he really gets into the instruction that he's about to give him.

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And so last week we talked a little bit about, I guess what we would call Paul's testimony,

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kind of telling his story that Paul said, look, I was the worst of sinners.

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I was the chief among sinners, but God was patient with me and God saved me.

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He's an example.

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And what a beautiful example that is, that Jesus died on the cross for us, even though

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we are wretched sinners, that God is patient with us, that even the worst of us, that the

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blood of Jesus Christ can cover our sins.

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And so we saw Paul talk a little bit about that last week.

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And so tonight he begins here with giving Timothy a little instruction in verse 18.

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Timothy, my son, I'm giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies made about

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you so that by them you may engage in battle, having faith and a good conscience, kind of

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reading into verse 19 there a little bit.

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So he mentions there about Timothy, he says, prophecies that were previously made about

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you.

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We don't know much about those prophecies.

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We see some examples in the New Testament where sometimes there are prophecies.

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There's one in Acts that somebody prophesied about a famine that was going to take place.

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And so we see these gifts of prophecy in the New Testament, especially in the time of the

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apostles.

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And certainly there were some prophecies that came true, things that were prophesied that

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occurred.

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So whatever prophecy he's speaking of here, I don't think, at least not to my knowledge

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or anywhere that I've been able to find, it tells us exactly what that prophecy is.

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He just simply says that, hey, Timothy, it's been prophesied about you and this work that

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you're going to do about who you are.

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And so these prophecies certainly are coming true.

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And so he says, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously

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made about you so that by them, you may strongly engage in battle, having faith and a good

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conscience.

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Okay.

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So Paul acknowledges what Timothy's about to go through.

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It's a battle.

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In service for the Lord, whether we're in ministry, whether we're a pastor or missionary

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like Paul or Timothy, we still go through a battle.

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It's a battle to live for the Lord.

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It's a battle against our temptation.

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Sometimes it's a battle to do the work of the Lord because the people that God calls

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us to serve and opportunities that we have, it's not always easy.

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Sometimes it's difficult.

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We got to battle through the difficulties.

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We got to battle through the difficult people that don't want to listen to what we have

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to say.

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We have to battle through our own temptations and our own bad attitudes.

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And all of these things, as we try to live for the Lord, it's a battle.

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It's a battle that we face every day.

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We have to pray to the Lord every day.

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Maybe some days are better than others, but maybe there are other days that we really

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struggle and we're really fighting against it and we're really having a hard time serving

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the Lord in the way that he's called.

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Or we're really having a hard time with a temptation that we are up against.

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And so it's a daily battle when we try to do the work of the Lord.

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And so Paul tells Timothy, look, he says, so that by these instructions, so that by

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them you may strongly engage in battle, having faith and a good conscience.

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So Paul wants Timothy to be strong in these battles that he's about to face.

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And so he's giving him this instruction.

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Now we have a whole Bible full of instruction that helps strengthen us for the battles that

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we are up against so that he may strongly engage in battle with what?

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Having, excuse me, having faith and a good conscience.

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Okay.

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So that's important for us.

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We want to remain strong as we engage in battle.

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Our faith needs to stay strong.

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We need to be grounded in our faith.

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And what else does he say?

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He says a good conscience.

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Now it's important for us that we have a good conscience.

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What is a good conscience?

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A good conscience is when we feel that there's something wrong and we don't do it.

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And we all have a conscience, whether we are saved or unsaved, everybody has a conscience,

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that voice, that gut feeling, whatever you want to call it.

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There's something within us, is humanity, that there's something that when we're doing

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wrong it tells us that it's wrong.

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It doesn't feel right.

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And perhaps we listen to that conscience.

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Perhaps sometimes we don't listen to that conscience.

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So when we begin not to listen to our conscience, we don't have a good conscience.

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And our consciousness becomes seared.

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We see that later on in 1 Timothy chapter four, verse two, where it talks about some

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who have a seared conscience.

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So we must be on guard because we can get to that state where there's a sin that we

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just continually give into and give into.

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And we know it's wrong and our conscience is strong at the beginning.

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But then after we give into it the first time, the second time comes around, we give into

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it again, and the third time comes around.

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And pretty soon it's really easy to give into that sin.

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And our conscience doesn't convict us in the same way.

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And when our conscience becomes seared, we're in a bad state.

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We're not in a good place when we get in that state.

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And maybe some of you have been there before, or maybe some of you are there now.

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But it's important for us to really call out to God and say, okay, God, I'm not in a good

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place right now.

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My heart is beginning to harden.

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And that's what happens when we give into our sin and when we don't listen to our conscience.

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So what does Paul tell Timothy?

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He says, look, you need to have a strong, a good faith, and you need to have a good

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conscience.

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And so we need to listen to our conscience.

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Every time we don't listen to our conscience, it weakens us spiritually.

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It weakens our relationship with God.

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It weakens our faith.

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But the opposite is true too.

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If you want to strengthen your conscience, then listen to it.

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Next time, no matter how small that little urge, that little sensation, that feeling

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may be that this is wrong, then listen to it.

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And the more we begin to listen to our conscience, the more our conscience is restored, the more

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our faith is strengthened, the more we grow in God.

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And so this is a very important command for us to listen to because maybe we do a great

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job of listening to our conscience.

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But then again, maybe we don't.

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Maybe there are some areas we do a really good job of listening to it, but there's one

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or two areas that sin that so easily ensnares, as Hebrews would call it.

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We all probably have that sin.

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You know what it is in your life, that thing that it's easy to give up all the rest of

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them, but there's always that one or two things that it seems like it's really hard.

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And so we need to ask God to help us to have a good conscience.

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And if we don't have a good conscience, we need to call out to the Lord and say, look,

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I need you to soften my heart.

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I need you to help me, dear Lord, because I'm in a bad place.

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And we are in a bad place when our conscience is seared, as Paul would say in 1 Timothy

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chapter 4.

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All right, so he encourages Timothy to have faith and a good conscience.

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And then in the next part of verse 19 there, he says, some have rejected these and suffered

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the shipwreck of their faith.

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Now that's pretty strong language.

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Paul says, look, you need to be strong.

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You need to be ready for battle.

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You need to have a good faith.

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You need to have a good conscience.

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He said there are some out there that have rejected these things.

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They've rejected their faith.

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They're not living by their conscience.

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They've made a shipwreck of their faith because they have not been living well.

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And so Paul is giving Timothy, I guess we could say a warning here and some encouragement.

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Okay, be ready for battle so that you don't fall into this trap.

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This is good message for us that we need to be ready.

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We need to be ready for the battles that come against us with our sin.

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We need to be ready so that our faith will be strong, so that our consciousness will

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not be seared, so that we don't make a shipwreck of our faith.

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That's a bad place to be.

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If you've ever been anywhere close to that place, you know that that's a bad place to

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be.

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And sometimes we get there, but we don't want to stay there.

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We don't want to get there.

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But if you're there tonight, then we can only call on Jesus Christ.

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That's the only hope we have.

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He's the only one who can right the ship.

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So when we call out to God, he hears our prayers.

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He answers us and he can restore us.

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But we really have to be diligent to seek him and show him that, God, we want you.

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We want to hear from you.

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We want to live by you.

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And the more that we begin to live by God and begin to be obedient in the smallest things

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and begin to listen to our conscious, then healing and restoration can begin in our life.

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But Paul tells Timothy, hey, some haven't followed this advice.

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Some haven't kept the faith.

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And some haven't had a good conscious and listened to their conscious.

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And as a result of that, they've made a shipwreck of their faith.

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Continuing on in verse 20, he says, hominias and Alexander are among them and I have delivered

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them to Satan so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

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So not only does he give him some warning and some instruction and encouragement here,

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but he also gives him an example.

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He doesn't just say, hey, watch out for this.

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He says, oh, and by the way, here's a couple of people that you know and these people are

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guilty of what I've just told you about.

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They have not kept the faith.

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They have not had a good conscious.

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They have made a shipwreck of their faith.

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And he lists these two characters, hominias and Alexander.

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Now we know a little bit about hominias from later on in the book, some of the things that

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he does as we read on into 1 and 2 Timothy.

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It's hard to know about this Alexander, who he is, or several Alexander's mentioned, but

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regardless of who they are, it doesn't really matter.

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But what we see is the shape that they're in.

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And what we see is what Paul says that he's doing to them here.

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And what does he say?

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He says, I have delivered them to Satan so they may be taught not to blaspheme.

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What does it mean that he delivered them over to Satan?

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Does it mean that they're done, that they're hopeless?

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Well, I don't think so.

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I don't think that's what Paul means because he uses similar language in 1 Corinthians

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chapter 5 verse 5.

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In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5, there's a situation going on in the church where there's

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somebody caught up in sexual immorality.

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And Paul's giving some instruction to the people of Corinth on how to deal with this

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person.

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This person is professing to be a believer.

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They're in the body of Christ, but yet they're living in this sinful way.

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So Paul says, look, you need to deal with this situation.

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They don't need to be part of the fellowship.

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And what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 is he tells the people of Corinth,

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turn that one over to Satan for destruction of the flesh.

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Okay, so very similar language there.

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The idea that, hey, this person, they claim to be in the body of Christ, but they're not

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living like they're in the body of Christ.

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So there needs to be some discipline here.

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You need to turn that one over to Satan.

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You need to say, you're not part of this fellowship.

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You want to live for the world, then I'm giving you back to the world.

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I'm giving you back to Satan.

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I'm giving you over to your sin because that's not good for a brother or a sister in Christ.

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Someone who professes to be a Christian, but is continuing to live in blatant, unrepentant

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sin, Paul says you cannot allow that to take place.

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You have to deal with it.

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So he says in this case, you need to turn that one over to Satan.

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Same language we see here in 1 Timothy.

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But what does that mean?

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Well, I don't know exactly what that means.

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I don't think it means in a physical sense, like Satan's going to come up and grab them,

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but there's some idea of separating them from you, sending them back to their old ways.

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If they want to live in sin, then so be it.

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Separate from them and let them go back to the ways of the devil.

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I think maybe what he's saying there.

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But he doesn't end there.

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Now in the Timothy passage, he kind of ends there, you know, I'm going to turn this one

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over to Satan so that they, so that they learn not to blaspheme.

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But in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, he continues on and there's a little bit after that.

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He says, turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit

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may be saved in the day of the Lord.

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Okay.

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So that's a little more encouraging there.

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There's some hope there.

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It's not encouraging that someone has to be turned over to the devil.

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But it is encouraging that Paul has a purpose here.

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He's not just saying somebody is really sinning and they're sinning bad.

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So I'm done with them.

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I'm done with them.

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Send them away.

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That's it.

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Instead, Paul has a purpose.

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He says, you need to send them away.

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You need to turn them away to Satan.

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And what's the purpose?

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The purpose is so that they would be restored so that their spirit would not be destroyed

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in the day of judgment.

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So hopefully the act of saying, you can't claim to be a Christian and be part of this

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body of Christ and live this way.

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You've got to repent.

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You've got to turn from your ways.

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And hopefully in telling them that and saying, you have to separate from us.

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We have to separate from you.

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This is not right.

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Hopefully in that action, Paul is hoping that they are going to repent, that they're going

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to learn error of their ways, that they're going to see their sinfulness and they're

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going to repent of it so that their spirit is going to be saved.

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And so there's some discipline that is taking place here in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse

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5.

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And I believe that's probably the same type of thing we see in 1 Timothy.

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Paul gives us similar discipline in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 14 and 15.

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And if anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take note of that person.

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Don't associate with him so that he may be ashamed.

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Okay, now that's pretty strong language.

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Now Paul gives us some instruction here for church discipline.

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We probably don't like these things.

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We see passages like these or we see people maybe that are really involved in some unrepentant

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sin and we say, well, who am I to judge?

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You know, I'm a sinner too.

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But nonetheless, Paul gives instruction and he says, look, there are situations sometimes

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that have to be dealt with.

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They have to be addressed.

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And in the verses prior to the verse we just read in 2 Thessalonians, one of the problems

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Paul had just talked about is there were some who were not working, but yet they wanted

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to freeload off of everybody else.

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And Paul says in the verses before, he says, if there's any among you who will not work,

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that person should not eat.

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And then he proceeds to say what the verses we just read, you need to separate from that

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person.

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They need to be ashamed.

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They need to realize that what they're doing is not acceptable.

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Now, again, this is pretty harsh language that Paul is saying and something that's probably

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difficult for us to do.

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And perhaps it should be difficult for us.

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We shouldn't be willy-nilly just happy to see one person do one little thing and run

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them out of the church.

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That's not the way it should be.

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We should get no joy in that.

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Our real goal should be restoration.

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And I think that's Paul's goal.

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And we see at the end of that passage that I just read from verse 14, he said, don't

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associate with that person so that he may be ashamed, but listen to what he says in

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verse 15.

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Yet, don't treat him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

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So these actions that Paul is giving instruction to, to the people of Thessalonica, to the

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people of Corinth, and here to Timothy, is to try to get the attention of these brothers

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or sisters in Christ, whoever it may be that sent him, that they would come to their senses,

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that they would, that they would be restored, that they would come back to a good faith

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and a good conscience.

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Now, maybe today some of us need to be restored.

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Maybe we read this story about Hymenaeus and Alexander, and maybe we can look at our life

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and say, my life is shipwrecked or it's on, it's on course to be shipwrecked.

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But we need to follow the instruction of Paul.

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We need to know that the battle of Tuck is tough, and maybe we've lost some of our battles.

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We need to pray tonight that God would help us to be strong in our faith and to have a

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good conscience.

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And if we haven't been listening to our conscience, then we need to ask God to help us to be strengthened

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in that area, that we would begin to listen to our conscience, that we would begin to

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listen to the Holy Spirit, that we would begin to say yes to God and no to sin, so that we

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don't find ourselves in this shape, so that we don't find ourselves in a situation where

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discipline is necessary, where we have to get to a spot where we're so low to feel so

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ashamed to realize where we are.

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Let us learn those lessons before we get to that spot, that our faith may be strengthened,

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that our conscience may be good, and that we may be ready for battle in Jesus Christ.

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Let's pray.

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Dear Lord, we thank you for these good words, and they are pretty heavy in a sense, but

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in a way they're real, dear Lord.

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Perhaps for some of us they're more real than for others, God.

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Maybe some here tonight that are struggling, and maybe tonight they feel as though their

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conscience is seared.

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Maybe tonight they just want to call out to you, and I pray that they will, dear Lord,

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if your word is spoken to them, if your Holy Spirit is spoken to them.

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I pray, dear Lord, that we would call out to you, dear Lord, if you've called out to

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us in your word.

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Dear Lord, I pray that we would be those who would strive to have a good conscience, that

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we would be those who strive to be strong in the faith.

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God, if our faith is weak tonight, I pray that you would strengthen it.

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God, I pray that you would help us to be ready to engage in the battles that we engage in,

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that you'd give us strength, dear Lord, because we cannot battle any of the battles, and we

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cannot overcome any of the temptations without your strength, God.

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So I pray for restoration, dear Lord, if there are any that need restoration tonight.

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I pray that they would come to you and find it in you.

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Dear Lord, maybe there are some in here tonight, and they're doing really good.

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I pray that even these words would be a good warning and encouragement to them, dear Lord,

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that we would listen to what your word says, that we would strive to be strong in the faith

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and continue to grow, and listen to you, dear Lord.

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Be obedient with what our conscience says, dear Lord, so that we would be strengthened

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and not weakened by the choices that we make.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.