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Second Chronicles chapter 7. That's in the Old Testament. Second Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14.

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Some of you may have heard this verse before. Others of you may not. It's a pretty popular verse.

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It's used often and I think for good reason. I think that it's a very powerful verse.

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We're going to look at it today. Second Chronicles chapter 7 verses 14 and 15.

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I'll be reading from the New International Version this morning.

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We'll read through the verses then we'll pray.

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If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,

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then I will hear them from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

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Now my eyes will be opened and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. Let's pray.

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Father God, we come to you and we thank you dear Lord for being good to us.

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We thank you for the freedom that we have to come today and to hear your word.

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I pray God that your Holy Spirit would be among us this morning.

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I pray God that you would speak through me to each one of us.

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That we would hear what your word has to say to us dear Lord.

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That this verse today that we look at is a call to action dear Lord for us.

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That we would seek you, that we would call to you and I pray that today this morning in this place God

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that your Spirit would be among us and that we would seek you today.

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I pray that you'd hide me behind the cross.

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Let your Holy Spirit do the work this morning.

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In Jesus name I pray it. Amen.

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I have come to realize this week, well I guess I've already realized this

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and maybe some of you have realized this too, but that is this.

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That is Christianity is quite dangerous.

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Christianity may very well be the most dangerous thing in this world.

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Now this week as I was thinking on that idea and I read I guess you could call it an article

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where somebody had wrote 40 reasons why Christianity is the most dangerous thing

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and they were all a bunch of hogwash.

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But eventually it comes down to this is that our world is full of evil.

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Our world is full of hatred. Our world is full of sin.

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And the truth of God's Word and the gospel of Jesus Christ speaks against that.

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So many people in our world view Christianity as dangerous because Christianity says no to sin.

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It's just that simple.

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Christianity says no to sin and we live in a world today that says yes to sin.

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The world says yes to sin all the time.

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The world says yes to sin and the world forces it upon us.

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The world mocks Jesus Christ. The world mocks Christianity.

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The world mocks the Word of God.

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The world mocks you and I who say that God's Word is true.

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Who say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

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And there was a time in our country at least, I believe, probably before I lived,

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that to be a Christian was something that people would be proud of

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and something that wouldn't be thought anything of.

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But nowadays more than ever, and it's getting worse every day,

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that if we speak up and we say that we are a Christian and we say we're a follower of Jesus Christ

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and we begin to read and we begin to speak and we begin to tell others about God's Word

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that we are under attack more now than I have ever been in my life.

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And the Christian message used to be accepted amongst folks in this country.

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But more and more we see that the message of Christianity is not accepted,

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that God's Word is not accepted, that people would rather believe a lie

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than they would believe the truth of God's Word.

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And so our world is in a bad place, brothers and sisters in Christ.

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It's in a bad place. There's no question about that.

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Now maybe it's the worst it's ever been, maybe not, I don't know.

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There's been bad times before and this is one of them.

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But maybe the difference between the bad times that came 500 years ago

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and the bad times that come now is that we weren't living in those times,

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but we are living in these times.

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And we are in a battle. We're in a battle every day,

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and not just with the people that we encounter that may want to come against us,

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but we are in a battle every day with sin.

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Because we hear every day our world say, well, this isn't that bad.

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Well, this is okay and that's okay.

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And even if we know the Word of God, sometimes we become compromised.

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Sometimes we begin to give in to the lives of the world.

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Sometimes we begin to believe that maybe some of these things are okay,

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and we begin to live for the world and we stop living for God.

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The problem that we see in our world, in our country, in our culture

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is that we have taken God out of everything.

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When God should be what everything is established on and built upon,

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we have begun to remove God in every aspect of our country

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and in every aspect of our world, and our world is collapsing.

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And those in our world that don't know Jesus Christ,

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well, they're trying to come up with all these other reasons why the world is collapsing.

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Oh, it's this. Oh, it's that.

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Oh, the Christians are the reason why our world is collapsing.

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Oh, it's global war. Everything is global war. Everything.

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Our world comes up with all these reasons why everything is falling apart

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and everybody is evil and all these bad things are happening,

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but our world fails to realize it's because we have taken God out of everything.

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We do not seek God. We do not call on God.

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And when you take God out of a situation, things get really bad, really fast.

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Now, we see plenty of evidence of this through the Scriptures.

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You look at the Old Testament, God's people, God's chosen people called by His name,

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and God wanted to bless them and so many times He did,

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but it was always the case that they would begin to worship other gods,

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that they would begin to live in sin.

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And what happened? Everything fell apart.

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When God is removed from the equation, when God's blessing is removed,

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when God's protection is removed, everything begins to crumble and begins to fall apart.

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And we see it time and time again in God's Word,

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that God's people get to these places where things are so bad,

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where they are so wicked, where things are falling apart,

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that they come to their senses and they humble themselves before God.

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And God is so good and God is so gracious that God will hear the prayers of those who will come to Him.

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This passage we look at today, it comes at a beautiful time in Israel's history.

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There are a few beautiful times in their history in the midst of all their sin.

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And there was a king by the name of Solomon. You may have heard of him before.

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He was the son of David. And before David died,

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he had this desire that he was going to build a house for God.

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Now, before this time, during the time of David and before,

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there was what was called a tabernacle. We've talked about that, I know,

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as we talked about the book of Hebrews.

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It was this tent that they would build and had these specific measurements.

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Everything had to be in a lot of gold and all these particular materials.

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And it was in this place that God would come and dwell among His people.

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And David, as David became king, said, Look, I need to build a house for God.

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And God said, Look, in all the time that I've been with my people,

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I've never once asked for a house.

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But nonetheless, God said, A house for me will be built,

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but you won't be the one who builds it.

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It'll be your son who will build the house for me.

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And Solomon comes onto the scene.

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And as we see in 2 Chronicles, if you begin to read in chapter 5 and chapter 6,

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that can be your homework this week,

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you begin to see that Solomon and the people have built this magnificent temple.

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It is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

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And in preparation to using this temple, they begin to lead up to this,

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and Solomon and the people begin to celebrate,

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and Solomon prays a beautiful prayer to God in chapter 6.

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And he begins to call out to God, and he repeatedly says to God,

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God, hear our prayers, hear our prayers, God who dwells in heaven,

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God, hear our prayers, God have mercy on us, God protect us, God take care of us,

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God, even if we sin, God, would you bless us, God, would you be with us,

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God, would you forgive us, God, you are great, you are merciful.

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We're building this temple, and we're going to use it for you.

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And it's a beautiful prayer that Solomon prays.

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And then we flip the page to 2 Chronicles chapter 7.

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And here we see God's response to Solomon's prayer.

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And at the beginning of 2 Chronicles chapter 7,

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we see some of the very things that Solomon had prayed for,

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that God, even if we're the worst of the worst,

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even if we get in the worst of the worst places,

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if we're the worst of the worst people, God, would you have mercy on us,

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God, would you have grace on us, God, if we sin and we are wicked

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and we are horrible and we are disobedient to you,

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would you have mercy on us?

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To which God responds in 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14.

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God says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves

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and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways,

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then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin,

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and I will heal their land.

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Now, let's stop for a second here and realize the context in which this is written.

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This is written to God's people Israel.

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And they had a specific land that God had given them at that time,

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and they were removed from that land because of their disobedience,

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but ultimately God returned them to that land.

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We see that at the end of the Old Testament.

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And certainly this promise in the context is speaking to God and His people Israel.

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Now, I'm not for a second saying that the United States is Israel

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or that this promise is to the United States

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or any other promise in Scripture for that matter.

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What I am saying this is God has not changed,

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and I believe that any people in any country at any time

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who would seek God and call on Him, that God would hear them.

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I believe that that is true for us today.

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And what does it say in this passage?

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He says, If my people...

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Now, we look around our world and we say we need to pray for our nation.

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We need to pray for our world.

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We need to pray for all the evil and wicked people there for things to change.

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But where does God start?

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He says, If my people...

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It must start with you and I.

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We must begin to examine our hearts.

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We must begin to take the log out of our own eye

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before we try to take the speck out of our brothers.

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We want to see our world change.

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We want to see our world revive.

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We want to see the gospel of Jesus Christ preached throughout the land

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that people's lives will be changed.

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And that's what will change our world.

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But where does that start at?

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It needs to start with us.

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As 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 17 says,

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the judgment begins in the house of God.

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Perhaps we need to begin to look at our lives.

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Perhaps instead of looking out among us today in our world

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and saying the world is so bad,

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maybe just maybe God's not working in us

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and God's not working in the world because we are not living for God.

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Maybe today we need to look at our life and we need to say,

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God, I'm not living for you the way I should be living for you.

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He says, If my people who are called by my name,

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if we are here today and we profess to be Christians

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and we say we are children of God,

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then we cannot live like the devil.

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But too many times that's exactly what we do.

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We profess to be Christians,

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but we don't live like we're God's people called by God's name.

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We live like the devil and like the rest of the world.

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And how are we going to reach the world

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with our message of the truth of the gospel

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if we're living like the world

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and not living like the word of God calls us to?

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And so God says to his people,

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If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.

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When is the last time that you've humbled yourself before God?

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When is the last time that you have really took some time

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to stop looking at everybody else

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and pointing the finger at everybody else

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and seeing everybody else's problems and everybody else's sin?

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When is the last time you've read God's word

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and you've sit before God and you've prayed to God

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and say, God, help me to see my own sin in my own life.

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God, help me to overcome these things.

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God, I repent of these things.

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God, help me to see the evil that's in my heart.

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God, help me not to live for the world,

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but to live for you.

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And maybe today we need to take a moment

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and we need to look at our own lives.

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And we need to say maybe it's not just the people in the world

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around us who are wicked.

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Maybe it is us who claim to be God's children.

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Maybe we are living in some wickedness ourselves.

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So maybe today we need to listen to God's word.

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And maybe you're a brother and sister in Christ today.

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Praise God, that's good.

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But I suspect even in this room today,

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even those of us who are children of God,

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maybe there are some times that we're not living like it.

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Maybe the Holy Spirit's been convicting us.

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Maybe the Holy Spirit's working on you today.

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And maybe today is the time that you need to call out to the Lord

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and you need to seek him

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and you need to humble yourself before him.

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If my people who are called by my name

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will humble themselves and seek my face,

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we need to humble ourselves before the Lord today

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and recognize that we are those who need God,

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that we are sinners in need of grace,

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that we need God every day to give us the strength

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and to give us the guidance to help us to be the men

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and the women that he wants us to be.

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That he would begin to work in our life,

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that he would begin to transform our life,

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that he would begin to revive our soul.

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So then we would be ready to go out into the world

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and do his work.

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Perhaps today we're not ready.

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Maybe there are some of us today

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who are not ready to do the work of God.

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And it's not because we're not children of God,

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but it's because there's too much sin in our life.

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And we're living for our sins,

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we're living for God,

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and today is the day that we need to repent of that

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and we need to seek God,

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and we need to call out to God,

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and we need to humble ourselves before God

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and say, God, I am a mess,

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and our world is a mess,

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but God, you are good, and your word is good.

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And God, I want to be faithful to you

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so that I can be a light in this world of darkness.

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And God says, if my people who are called by my name

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will humble themselves and seek my face,

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what does he say?

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I will heal their land.

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I will heal them.

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Now, this is not a message for the lost.

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This is a message that God says,

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this is for my people.

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These are for my people who are called by my name.

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God says, if you would seek me,

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even in the worst of the worst times,

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even if you have strayed,

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even if you have sinned,

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even if you are wicked and rotten and wretched and horrible,

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even still, God says, if you would seek me,

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if you would call on me,

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if you would humble yourself before me,

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I will hear your prayers.

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I will hear your prayers.

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We have to decide today

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if we are ready to lift our prayers up to God.

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God will certainly hear our request.

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When our hearts begin to seek him

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and we begin to repent of our sins

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and we call out to God,

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he will hear our prayers,

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but we have to be ready to stop living in sin

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and to start living for God.

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Now, I don't know where your heart is today.

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I don't know if your heart's ready to do that or not.

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Maybe you're in this building today

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and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ.

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Maybe you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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Well, I want to tell you today

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that that is the only way which we will receive salvation

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is through Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected.

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So we need to pray that God would have mercy on our soul today.

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We need to pray that God would let the Holy Spirit work in our heart

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and work in our life today,

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that we would be those who seek God

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and put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ,

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and that we would be those that once we have done that,

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that we would live for him and not live for the world,

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because there is only one thing that's going to change our world

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if God sees fit to change our world,

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and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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That is the truth of God's Word.

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It is the truth that our world does not want to hear

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because our world wants to say that every sin is okay

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and we all need to celebrate it,

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but God's Word says sin is not okay and we must stand against it,

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and that is why Christianity is so dangerous in our world today.

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So if we want to stand for God,

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then we've got to get ourselves ready.

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We've got to get our own hearts ready.

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We've got to get revived ourselves.

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We have revival coming up. What a beautiful time.

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There's no more perfect time than for God's Spirit to begin to work in our life,

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than for us to begin to seek God,

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for us to begin to let God change our hearts

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so that we can see how God may want to use us

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and serve us to his kingdom to change the world.

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But it's got to start with us.

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If we are God's people who are called by God's name,

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then we need to humble ourselves before him today and we need to seek him.

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He says in verse 15,

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Now my eyes will be open and ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

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Perhaps today in this place there are some prayers that need to be offered to the Lord.

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Oh, his eyes are always open, praise the Lord.

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His ears are always attentive.

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But he doesn't always hear our prayers because we don't always lift him up to them.

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But we come here today with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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We come here today with the truth to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God

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who gave his life so that our sins could be forgiven.

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We come here today with the truth of God's word that says there is sin in this world,

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that there is sin in our life, that every one of us is a sinner in need of a Savior.

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That is the truth that we want to recognize today.

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That is the truth that we want to humble ourselves before God and say, God, I need you.

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God, I need you in my life. I need you in this struggle with my sin.

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I need you with these things in this world I'm up against.

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I need your strength. I need your mercy. I need your grace.

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So God, I come before you today and I seek you.

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And when we come before God with all of our heart and seek him,

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he'll hear those prayers.

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But if we want healing in our land, if we want healing in our world,

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it may be that this morning that healing needs to begin in your heart.

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Let's pray.

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Father God, we come to you today, we thank you for this verse that is so powerful, dear Lord.

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Such a wonderful reminder, God, of who we are.

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God, we are wicked and wretched sinners.

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Dear Lord, we are not deserving of your grace.

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Dear Lord, we are tempted by the evils of this world and the sins of this world.

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And more often than we would care to admit, dear Lord, we give in to it.

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And these sins of this world, they grab their claws into us, dear Lord.

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But dear Lord, I pray that this morning that we would no longer desire to live in our sin,

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to no longer desire to live for the ways of the world,

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but dear Lord, that this morning that we would seek Jesus Christ,

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that we would seek to live for you.

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Dear Lord, I pray that we would never compromise the truth of your word.

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God, sometimes we're tempted to do that, and sometimes we do it, dear Lord.

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Sometimes we hear what the world would call truth and we compromise what your word says, dear Lord.

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But I pray, God, that we would never give in to the lies and the deceit of this world,

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that we would never give in to the lies of sin that the world wants to celebrate and call truth.

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But God, we would stand by the truth of your word.

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God, it's a dangerous word to those who do not know you.

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But dear Lord, I pray that they would hear the truth of God's word,

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that they would see the beauty and the love and the peace and the joy,

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to know that it is not danger, dear Lord, but it is freedom.

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God, maybe there are some here today that do not know you.

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They do not know you, dear Lord. They don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

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Maybe they've been living in sin. Maybe they've been living in a lie.

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But maybe today the Holy Spirit has convicted them and they know that they need to repent

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and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

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Dear Lord, maybe there are some in here today and they're yours.

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And God, we are called by your name, but dear Lord, we don't always live like it.

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So God, I pray today that there are some that are called by your name,

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not living by your name, that dear Lord, we'd be better representatives of you, dear Lord.

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If we say we're yours, we've got to represent you in your word, dear Lord,

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and the way that it's written.

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Too many times, dear Lord, we find ourselves caught up in the things of sin and the ways of sin.

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And God, I pray that you would just be with us this morning,

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that if there are any who are yours who hadn't been living by your name,

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that today that they would.

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Dear Lord, you just, your Holy Spirit would work on our hearts, God,

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that you would help us to be a people that call on you.

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Dear Lord, you will hear us.

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You will answer us, dear Lord.

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You will be with us if, if we call out to you, God, with all of our heart.

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So dear Lord, I pray that if there are any in this room today that are struggling in any way,

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dear Lord, we all need you, that we would all call out to you, dear Lord,

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that we would seek you to transform our life,

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that we would be a willing vessel, dear Lord, to be used by you to bring light into the world.

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