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I'm working and I'm praying too.

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Glory to God.

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I'm going through.

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Well, he set me free, yes, he set me free.

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He broke the pump of prison for me.

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Well, I'm glory bound, my Jesus, to see.

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For glory to God, he set me free.

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I'm climbing higher each day.

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Well, the darkness of night has drifted away.

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And my feet are planted on higher ground.

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And glory to God, I'm onward bound.

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Well, he set me free, yes, he set me free.

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He broke the pump of prison for me.

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Well, I'm glory bound, my Jesus, to see.

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For glory to God, he set me free.

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Well, he set me free, yes, he set me free.

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And he broke the pump of prison for me.

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Well, I'm glory bound, my Jesus, to see.

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For glory to God, he set me free.

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Oh, if there's anybody in the house free,

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give him another good praise offering.

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Hallelujah.

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That's one of them good ones right there.

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It's one of them old redbacks.

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He set me free, amen.

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I like them.

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Because once you start singing that one,

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you automatically want to go to page 116,

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which declares I'm getting ready to leave this world.

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Laying up my treasures in that home above.

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Oh, trusting, fully trusting in the Savior's love.

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Oh, doing what I can for heaven's holy.

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Well, I'm getting ready to leave this world.

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I'm getting ready to leave this sorrow.

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I'm getting ready for those gates of pearl.

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Well, I'm keeping my record watching.

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Well, I'm getting ready to leave this world.

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Well, to prepare a mansion, Jesus said, I'll go.

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And if it were not true, I would have told you so.

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Just a little while to linger here below.

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Well, I'm getting ready to leave this world.

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Well, I'm getting ready to leave this sorrow.

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I'm getting ready for those gates.

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Well, I'm keeping and I'm watching.

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Well, I'm getting ready to leave this world.

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Hallelujah.

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Getting ready to leave.

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And then our old song leader, he wasn't a choir director,

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he was a song leader, you know.

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It hit page 279.

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As I journey through this land, singing as I go,

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pointing souls to Calvary, to that crimson flow.

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Oh, many arrows pierce my soul from within.

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But my Lord leads me on and through him I must win.

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Well, I want to see him look upon his face.

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Oh, there to sing forever of his saving grace.

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And it's on those streets of glory.

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Let me lift my voice.

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Oh, cares all pass, home at last ever to rejoice.

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Then there's a verse in the old song, it said,

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when before me billows rise from the hangry deep, right?

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Then my Lord directs my bark and he does safely keep.

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And he leads me gently on through this world below,

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guiding me as I onward go.

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Well, oh, I want to see him look upon his face.

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Oh, there to sing forever of his saving grace.

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And it's on the streets of glory.

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Let me lift my voice.

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Oh, cares all pass, home at last ever to rejoice.

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Amen.

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That's that top ten I was telling you about.

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That's about three of them.

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Amen.

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And they just keep going.

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They just keep rolling on.

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If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me.

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I could sing, and I'm trying to discern the weight in the room,

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whether it be bed or off for me to just go ahead and sing about three more,

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call you up for prayer if you need it or want it,

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and let you go about your way.

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Because there's a weight in here like yesterday was Thanksgiving.

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I mean, you just got the dropsies this morning.

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I mean, how many know what I'm talking about, the dropsies?

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I mean, you brought it in here.

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So it's just like, whew, it's hot.

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It's sticky out there.

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Amen.

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If I get started and you don't get with me, I promise I'll quit.

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We'll get it over with early and pick it back up next week.

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Is that okay? Is that fair?

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If you ain't having it, I won't try to force feed it to you.

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Oh, for those of you that showed up, you can start turning to the book of Jude.

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Get to Revelation, hang a short left.

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Go to Revelation, hang a quick left, and you'll be at the book of Jude.

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For those of you that came to camp meeting Wednesday morning and supported me,

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thank you so much for being there on that day.

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Good crowd, good representation.

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I guess the question that was asked the most is, does he preach like that every Sunday?

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Everybody said, yeah, pretty much.

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And so for you to come back every Sunday really just encourages me to keep on going.

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But you know, there are some folks who don't mind the unadulterated,

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the straight version, you know, and I appreciate that.

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Because that's the kind it takes for me to make it, you know.

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I just got to have it.

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If I'm missing it, tell me I'm missing it and let me get straightened up and go on.

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Amen.

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Because my feelings have never been easily hurt.

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Being prayer for Pastor Brian's family over the next few days,

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visitation for his grandfather begins at 2 o'clock this afternoon,

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2 to 8 at Jim Rush Funeral Home.

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And then tomorrow I think the service starts at 11.

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Service will be at 11.

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And then Tuesday, as he is a Vietnam veteran,

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he will be buried in the military graveyard in Chattanooga.

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So that will be on Tuesday.

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So just remember Pastor Brian, his mother, and his uncles, his family, his aunt.

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Amen.

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His grandmother so deeply needs a touch from the Lord.

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The Book of Jude, I know that's kind of an odd place to go,

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but I would like to say that this isn't part of a carryover from Wednesday,

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but I can't because it is.

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The Lord has really stirred me this week as I've listened to some of the messages

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through camp meeting and I know what the Lord laid on my heart.

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And to me it seemed like the theme is for the church for us to kind of wake up

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and get our act together, kind of what I got out of camp meeting.

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You know, Monday night, Brother Morgan preached that wonderful message,

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don't run from your resource, you know, run to it, not away from it.

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And I know what the Lord laid on my heart.

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And that was just a Holy Ghost blow up.

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The man didn't really get to preach.

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He just kind of exhorted a little, pulled his coat off,

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and got an altar and went to work.

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Hallelujah. Amen.

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And then the fellow Wednesday morning, I don't know what he did,

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but it got cleaned up good Wednesday night.

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Amen.

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Number three out of the book of Jude.

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Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,

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it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly

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contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

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Yesterday afternoon, as my mind's just kind of getting wrapped around today,

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the Lord began to deal with my heart.

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On the message from Wednesday morning, a word for the watchman,

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where Isaiah, the Lord moved on him, and the man from Edom came

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and asked him, watchman, what of the night?

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That really stirred my heart.

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Watchman, what of the night?

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How much longer? What's going on?

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Do you see anything? What's happening outside the gate?

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And he says, well, it's not long.

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Day's coming, but the night is to follow.

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And so pondering that and some of the theme and the other word that went out this week,

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the Lord began to deal with me on this thought, contending for the faith.

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Contending for the faith.

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And y'all know me, you've been around here long.

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I'm not much of a series type preacher,

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but we're going to do a little summer series on contending for the faith.

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Amen?

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And just see what the Spirit of the Lord has to say to us,

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because I know it's vacation season and you need them,

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so you take them and you rest and you enjoy,

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or you just have so much fun you're worn out and have to come to church and sleep

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to rest when you get back. Just come back.

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Amen?

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Summer's a tough time for your pastor.

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It's a tough time, because I know you're out and I'm here

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and this stuff's still burning and you're not getting it.

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Amen?

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I'm not, I just don't do homilies.

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I think I need to entreat the Lord on our behalf as a church.

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Amen?

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And see what the Spirit of the Lord's saying to us,

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and I know you're going to be gone.

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I think, boy, they need this, but they're gone this week.

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That's just me.

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Because I love you.

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You know that? You know that?

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If I didn't love you, I'd just let you go about your business

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and play church and yada and probably end up in hell one day.

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I mean, that's what's going to happen if that's what you're doing,

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just playing with God and you ain't going to make it.

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Well, I better start preaching and quit meddling.

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Lord, I love you. Thank you for your word.

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Help me now, Lord, to be expedient.

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Lord, don't let me go past the time that is productive

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in the hearts and minds of your people.

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Please, Lord, let us hear what the Spirit's saying to the church today,

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and we will praise you for your goodness, praise you for your mercy,

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glorify you for who you are, for you are good.

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In Christ's name, amen.

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You can be seated.

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I think we as the Watchmen need to be alert on our posts

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for the hour in which we're living

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and things that are surrounding and going on in our time.

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This little small letter from the Apostle Jude is a powerful instruction.

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It's very short, 25 little verses,

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but man, they are so packed for the believer and for the church today

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that we are to be mindful of what his instruction is.

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In his day, he's talking about people who have crept in

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with a false doctrine, with a false gospel.

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He's talking about them and wanting them to contend for the faith,

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which we'll talk about just a little bit in a moment,

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because you've got some immorality going on,

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and they're saying these things are okay.

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And so Jude is addressing the issues of the church,

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and he's wanting the true church, the believer, to fight, to contend.

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That word contend means the meeting of effort by effort,

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the effort of something coming against you

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by the effort that you're putting back forward

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to turn the tide of whatever's coming against you.

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It's a stirring against opposition.

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It means to enter into the battle, if you will.

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And so when we think about contending for the faith,

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there's only one faith, the faith.

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He makes that distinction very clear.

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We need to understand that I think I heard or read somewhere

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that there are over 10,000 religions in the world,

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not just the big three.

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There are over 10,000 different religions.

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That means different faiths, different articles,

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different belief systems.

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But Jude is saying there's only one true faith,

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and we know that that is the faith that is in Jesus Christ,

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the Son of the Living God.

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We know that, and that's what he's writing to the church,

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and he said, don't let the creepers come in.

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Don't let them slip in and deceive you from the faith.

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Don't let these things arise.

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You be aware, and I want you to contend.

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I want you to stand firm.

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I want you to stand against the opposition with and for

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and through and by the faith.

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I want you to contend for it.

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Sometimes we do so very well physically,

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as in battle in Deuteronomy 2 and 9.

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We hear the Lord tell Moses not to engage.

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Distress not the Moabites.

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Don't go against Moab.

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Neither contend with them in battle

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because they were protected.

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They had been given to Lot, Abraham's nephew,

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for the descendants of Lot.

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That land had been given.

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Later, God would change his mind,

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and he had put some stipulations on Moab and some others

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and draw a line for them.

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They couldn't even come in to worship

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because they received not his children when they came out.

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When they got out there, they didn't bless them.

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They didn't provide for them,

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and so God said, well, I've got a rule for you.

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Amen?

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And so sometimes we have to go in battle,

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but sometimes not.

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The Lord said don't engage them in battle

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because the word is over them.

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At times we see there is a contention with horses.

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And you read Jeremiah 12 and verse 5,

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and the Lord said to Jeremiah,

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if thou hast run with the footmen,

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and they have wearied thee,

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then how canst thou contend with the horses?

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Jeremiah is making a complaint about everything

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he's having to deal with and he's having to go through,

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and the spiritual battles he's having to fight,

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and then God says, look, if you're tired and weary now

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just because you've been contending with the footmen,

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how in the world when the battle increases,

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is the symbolism here, when the battle increases

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and the battle picks up,

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how do you think you can contend with the horses

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if you're having struggles

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just dealing with the normal things of life?

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When you put it that way, we are to contend for the faith,

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but when we think about engaging,

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if we struggle with some of the minute things of life,

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how are we gonna contend when the battle really gets turned on,

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when the heat really gets cranked up,

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if we get offended because folks just don't like this or that about us

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and we're ready to quit church because we overheard somebody say this

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or somebody say that, you know, it's gonna take a little bit more than that

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to keep me out of the house of the Lord.

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Amen? It's really gonna take a little bit more than my,

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I've already told you, my feelings aren't easily hurt,

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I may be a greater offender than I am an offende from time to time,

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but if we can't contend with some of the simple things, if you will,

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some of the everyday mundane things of life that the enemy brings against us,

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then how are we gonna continue to contend for the faith

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when the heat really gets turned up like we've sung about this one?

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How are we gonna contend for the faith when the flood comes rushing in?

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You remember when the enemy comes in like a flood,

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are you gonna be washed away by the flood

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or are you gonna be able to take hold of the standard

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that is raised up against the flood?

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We've gotta get our minds made up as to whom it is we believe

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and the trust that we have in him and the confidence that we have in him,

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and we've gotta see evildoers coming in.

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We gotta know that our faith's not gonna be perverted

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because we're not gonna be easily seduced

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because we know what the faith really is and what it's all about.

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You've gotta learn to contend.

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Don't be so wimpy, don't give up so quickly.

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Come on now. Why can you say that, pastor?

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Because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world

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because we do not contend by our own strength and by our own going on.

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We don't just contend in our own might and power.

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We contend, as the ruble heard the word of the Lord when he was told this,

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it's not by might nor by power, but it's by my spirit, saith the Lord.

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Oh, the ruble that you can speak to the mountain

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and it be cast like a plane before you.

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I'm here to tell somebody this morning, don't be so quick to give up.

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Don't be so quick to wanna quit because you've gotta contend.

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You've gotta be willing to do battle when battle is required.

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You've gotta be willing to run with the horses when it's required

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to have strength and stamina to go into not every battle is won in a day.

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Not every victory comes tomorrow.

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There are times as the apostle Peter would tell us,

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we may have to suffer for a little while.

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You may have to go through a season,

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but if we're so easily and readily to surrender the faith,

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do we really have the faith to start with?

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We need to learn to contend that we are able to run with the horsemen

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and do battle when battle is required.

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Sometimes we do so verbally, Nehemiah 13 and 11.

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Then contended I with the rulers and said,

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why is the house of God forsaken?

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And I love the rest of that verse.

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You need to go read it.

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If you're a note taker, go back and read some of these.

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I'm just hitting the highlights of them.

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But he said, and I took them and I set them down and I put them in their place.

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Oh, my, my.

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Every now and then we just need to be sat down and just put in our place.

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You don't need to be fearful.

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You don't need to be wondering.

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You don't need to allow this fright to come over you.

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Let me set you down and tell you this morning to earnestly, diligently, faithfully,

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keep on keeping on contending, engage in the battle for the faith that you have in Jesus Christ.

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Don't allow the enemy so easily to remove you from the pain.

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Paul said that he said, how is it that you're so easily removed from the faith that has been preached to you?

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The gospel that had been delivered to you?

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How is it you're so quickly to surrender that and just go back to your wondering?

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We got to contend for this faith.

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We got to engage the meeting of effort by effort.

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So sometimes we do so verbally.

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Other times we do so spiritually.

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Isaiah 57, verse 15 and 16.

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For thus saith the high and the lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy,

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I do well in the high and holy place with him also.

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Listen to this, that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble

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and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

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For I will not contend forever.

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Neither will I be always wrought.

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Oh, my Lord, the Lord's trying to let us know something.

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You keep contending for the faith.

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I'm not always going to keep contending for you in my wrath.

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But one thing I want you to know is I am the high one.

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I am the holy one.

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I am the lofty one.

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And I am endeavoring to contend for you.

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But I'm not always going to do that.

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You got to make up your mind that you're going to surrender to he who is putting forth effort

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against the effort that's being put against you.

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God is the one who was high.

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He is the one who is holy.

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He is the one that is lifted up.

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And spiritually, where is Jesus today?

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Where is the son of the living God today?

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Isn't he at the throne of the right hand of the Father there ever making intercession

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every day contending on your and my behalf?

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He's contending for us because we are in the faith.

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You are in the faith.

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And he's contending for you on your behalf.

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But he said, I'll not always do that.

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So you better come on while the coming is good.

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Don't ever think of God running out of patience with us because he is long suffering.

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But I'm here to tell you there's an end to his patience.

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He's not just eternally long suffering.

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He won't just keep on suffering long for you.

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There's a line that he's got drawn somewhere in eternity in the time span.

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And when he gets there and you're not on his side, it's not a good place to be.

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I know we don't in our culture today, I know we don't hear about this side of God,

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but we have to comprehend the fact that he is a just, he is a holy, he is a pure,

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and he is a true God.

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And we've got to get that in our mind.

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And it's hard for us to fathom those attributes of God because we don't see those things demonstrated.

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Those attributes are not demonstrated in the leadership of our nation like any other place.

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But God wants you and I to know he is righteous, he is true, he is holy,

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and there is a time when I will say enough is enough.

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We read about it throughout scripture, judgment came upon Israel,

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but I love it so much when judgment came, his grace was still there,

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and he offered for them the alternative to come back to himself.

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Amen.

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Contend for the faith.

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We think about this faith, it's not something abstract, but it's in the uniqueness of itself.

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There's no other faith like the faith.

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The belief, the confidence, the trust in who God is.

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And that all that God has said comes to pass and is reality for the life of those who believe it.

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Hebrews 11, 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

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Drop down to verse 6.

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For without faith it is, say that again, it is without faith it is impossible to please him.

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But he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek after him.

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And I'm telling you now a contender diligently seeks after.

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If you're the number three contender in the world in the boxing arena,

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all you want is to get inside the ropes with numero uno.

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Right?

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Come on now, if you're number three, you're going to contend with all comers.

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Give me number two, give me number four, give me anybody who'll get in here.

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But the one that I'm after is really number one.

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That's who I won't end the ring with.

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And so you contend with all opponents until you face the one in whom you're seeking after.

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My God, just relate that to the world.

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The one that I don't fight against and beat against the air is one without purpose.

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But I do it so that I bring my own body under subjection so that I may continue to contend for the faith.

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My contention is this, that I see God.

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Hallelujah that I see him.

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He would declare I have not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me.

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This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, somebody needs to hear it again.