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Let's open the Word of God together to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

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We begin reading in verse 4.

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Our text for today is going to be limited to verse 7, and then we'll take the last

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half of this paragraph next week.

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We know, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you, for our gospel did not come to you in word only,

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but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, just as you know what

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kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

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You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation

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with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in

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Macedonia and in Achaia.

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A few weeks ago I drove through Leadville, Colorado.

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In Leadville, Colorado, there was a famous theater right on Main Street called the Tabor

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Theater.

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It was built about 1890, about 100 years ago, by one of the silver barons of Colorado.

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In its day, the great entertainers of the world performed there.

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As I sat in one of the now faded velvet seats, I tried to imagine what it must have been

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like that opening night, or those years later, as the stars of the world came across that

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high mountain stage in Colorado.

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Now all that remains of the Tabor Theater really is a dusty, little used building that

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echoes the memories that once were.

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In a world that is dominated by sin and consequently decay and death, change is the norm and almost

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nothing is permanent.

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One has observed that for every living thing on earth there is a span of life.

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It varies with different creatures and plants, from a few days to perhaps hundreds of years,

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but at the end are always death and decay.

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Man too attains his full growth soon after his teens.

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He comes to maturity, remains there for some years, and then begins to deteriorate and

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decline until life departs.

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There are no exceptions to this rule.

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The past cannot be done over.

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Today quickly becomes yesterday.

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Monuments crumble, buildings disintegrate, relationships come to an end, people, you

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and me, daily grow older and eventually die.

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Wise is the person who lives with this truth in mind, especially in a culture that desires

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to deny death.

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Some unknown poet has penned these lines regarding the quick passing of life.

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Once in Persia reigned a king who upon his signet ring graved a maxim, strange and wise,

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which when held before his eyes gave him counsel at a glance, fit for every change or chance,

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solemn words, and these were they, even this must pass away.

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Trains of camels through the sands brought him gems from other lands, fleets of galleys

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o'er the seas brought him pearls to rival these, but he counted little gain, treasures

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of the mine or main.

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What is wealth, the king would say, even this must pass away.

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Mid the pleasures of his court at the zenith of their sport, when the palms of all his

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guests burned with clapping at his jests, seated midst the figs and wine, said the king,

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ah, friends of mine, pleasure comes but not to stay, even this will pass away.

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Towering in a public square, forty cubits in the air stood his statue carved in stone,

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and the king, disguised, unknown, gazed upon his sculptured name and he pondered, what

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is fame?

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Fame is like a fleeting day, even this will pass away.

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In a world like that, one might wonder, is there anything that will last?

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And the answer to that is a resounding yes.

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The church of the Lord Jesus Christ will last.

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It is a building, not of brick and mortar, but of born-again people, being united into

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a spiritual body by the Holy Spirit.

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The church is no accident or chance.

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The church is God's eternal purpose.

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And those of us who compose it do not do so by chance, but rather by choice, and that,

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God's choice.

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Our text says, we know, brethren, beloved by God, His choice, His choice of you.

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God has chosen before time began who those are who will be saved and who will be part

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of the church.

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Hear me.

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By election, God graciously selects some to be objects of mercy, while allowing the rest

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to go on their way of choice, their way of rebellion, and ultimately to certain judgment.

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We might ask the question, if that's the case, then why doesn't God choose everybody?

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We don't know the answer to that question, except that it pleases God not to do that,

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but in grace at least to save some.

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The theologian Leon Morris has written, election is not a device for sentencing men to eternal

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torment, but for rescuing them from it.

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Election protects us from thinking of salvation as depending on human whims and roots it squarely

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in the will of God.

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The Lord Jesus Christ is today building His church just as He promised to do.

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He is building it out of living stones, whom the Father has before the foundation of the

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world selected for His use.

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The church that Jesus is building is not a particular denomination, but it is a universal

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congregation of His chosen ones.

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The apostle Paul in our text expresses blessed assurance that God was fulfilling His eternal

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plan to call out a people for salvation, and that the Thessalonians shared in that plan.

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There are four causes for his expression of confidence, that Jesus was in the process

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of building His church in 50 A.D., and that He was building it even there in Thessalonica.

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Today we're going to have a chance to look at the first two causes for His blessed assurance.

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As the apostle looks back upon his experience in that city only a few months before he wrote

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this letter back to them, he expresses the fact that he was sure that God was at work

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in their midst because of how the gospel was proclaimed.

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He tells us about that in verse 5.

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He says in the first place, the gospel was proclaimed to you with personal responsibility.

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Notice that he calls it our gospel.

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He is not saying by that that he somehow originated it, but he's saying he has ownership of it.

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It is the gospel that Paul himself had trusted as he bowed the knee to the risen Christ appearing

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to him on the road to Damascus.

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He calls it our gospel because it was the gospel that Silas had believed and Timothy,

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the other members of the team.

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Our gospel.

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And they as a team had a commission to preach it and proclaim it.

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Beloved, this gospel that Paul speaks about is our gospel today also.

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It is not different.

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It is Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary, the God-man come into the world to live a

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sinless life and to die in the place of sinners.

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And to be buried for three days and raised again to prove that his payment had been sufficient

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and to live forever to save those that come to God by him.

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That is our gospel today.

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And as that team had a sense of ownership in it, I hope that we do.

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So that we're not just saying it's the gospel, but it's the one I have believed.

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It's the one we have believed.

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And the one that we have a commission in 1990 to proclaim to our community as the Thessalonians

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did to their city.

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Secondly, he says the gospel was proclaimed with powerful blessing.

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The gospel was operative.

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It was life transforming in its energy.

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He describes the coming of the gospel to them with four phrases.

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He says it came in word, with preaching, with discourse.

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But he says it was more than word.

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It has to start there.

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He didn't say we came and lived the Christian life before you.

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He gets to that.

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But he begins by saying we proclaimed it, and that's where the gospel must always come

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to.

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It's not enough just to live before others.

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There has to come some point when we begin to verbally share the gospel.

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But not just verbally.

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He says it came to you not just in word, but also in power.

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Paul remembers that as he proclaimed the gospel, there was a sense of God's working in an unusual

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way as he spoke.

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This word power is related to our English word dynamite.

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The word dunamis refers to inherent power that is within the message.

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And he says it was in the Holy Spirit that it was proclaimed.

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There's the source of power.

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Zechariah, the Old Testament prophet, reminds all of us that it's not by might nor by power,

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but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

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Paul is reminding us here of what Jesus said in Acts 1-8, that it's when the Holy Spirit

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comes upon us that we can then be witnesses that we'll be fruitful.

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When we're saved, the Holy Spirit comes into our life.

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But it's when we yield unto the Holy Spirit and we are enfilled or empowered by the Holy

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Spirit that our witness, our proclamation of word becomes powerful.

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Because the Spirit of God empowers us.

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He says it was done with full conviction.

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He's talking about his own conviction.

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He says we had a deep assurance as we proclaimed the gospel and the Holy Spirit to you.

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We had an unfailing confidence that our message was true and that God was using it in your

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life.

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Do you feel that way in your own witnessing?

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Oh, let that fill your heart.

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That the message that you are sharing with others is a true message.

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And that whether you immediately see the impact or not, it is effective.

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God is doing something with that word that you are sowing in the life.

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Never forget that.

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He says the gospel was proclaimed to you with personal responsibility and with powerful

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blessing.

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And then he says also with proven character.

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We cannot separate the message from the messenger.

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When there is a dichotomy between the one who proclaims and what he says, it ends up

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being not only a sham, but a disgrace to Jesus Christ.

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We have all seen that sadly witnessed to in the last few years, especially in media ministries.

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We cannot separate the message from the messenger.

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He says in our text, you know what kind of people we proved ourselves to be.

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You see the complications that Paul had in Thessalonica were divinely arranged by God.

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The complications, what were those?

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So you go back and read about it in Acts 17 and you see that there was a hornets nest

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stirred up when Paul went to that city.

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He could only stay there a few weeks, only a few weeks because of Jewish opposition.

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And it was so severe that they stirred up the whole populous of the city against Paul

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and the team.

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But God allowed all of that because you see all of those complications proved the character

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of Paul.

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God oversees your witness too.

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And the complications that may come up in your life in the midst of your trying to witness

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to somebody else.

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In fact, you can almost be guaranteed that when you seek to become an active witness

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for Jesus Christ, your life is going to get complicated some way.

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God oversees all of that.

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Even if the devil is the one instigating it, God's overseeing it so that through that

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complication, through the pressure that comes upon you, you and the message you are proclaiming

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is proven.

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The Thessalonians had witnessed the selfless and faithful devotion of this team.

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Paul says, you know what kind of people we were for your sake, for your sake.

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That's one of the highest motives of serving Jesus Christ, the sake of others.

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He talks to us here about how the gospel was proclaimed, doesn't he?

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Evangelist Billy Graham was writing a year ago in the magazine Ministries Today.

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And sharing from his perspective as the greatest evangelist perhaps of this century, Billy

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Graham says there are some things to remember when you're talking to any audience, whether

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it be one or whether it be many.

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First of all, that the life needs of that audience cannot be totally met by social improvement

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or affluence.

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Even though the people think that their life needs can be met that way, it can't be.

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He says secondly, remember there is an essential emptiness in every life without Jesus Christ,

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everyone.

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We talk about people of affluence being hard to reach, they still have an emptiness, every

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life does.

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He says in the audience you're speaking to there are lonely people.

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Fourthly, he says in the audience remember that there are people who have a deep sense

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of guilt and finally remember that in that audience you're speaking to there is a universal

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fear of death.

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In light of that, Billy Graham suggests the following principles of communication.

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It's amazing how these align with what Paul says.

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He says in the first place, communicate your message with authority.

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Secondly, preach it with simplicity.

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Third, use repetition.

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Fourth, preach with an urgency.

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Number five, live a life of integrity.

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Number six, have genuine love for your fellow human beings and make it visible.

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Number seven, unite with the Holy Spirit in the presentation.

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Now in those seven principles that Billy Graham gives you see an alignment with what the apostle

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Paul said.

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The apostle Paul said I have blessed assurance that Jesus is building his church right there

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in your city because of how the gospel was preached among you.

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But there's a second cause for his blessed assurance, it's because of how the gospel

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was received by the Thessalonians.

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He says now this is what we were like but you on your part, this is how it really begins

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verse six, you on your part received the gospel he says with deliberate choice.

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In other words, it was with a careful consideration of the facts.

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These Thessalonians were not superficial believers.

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Their response to the message had not been impulsive.

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As he looks back he remembers that they had received the word, a meaningful term.

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The verb means that they embraced it.

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It means that they appropriated it, they welcomed it and it was a definite action on their part.

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Enthusiastic but not impulsive.

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And the tense of the verb he uses signifies that when they did it, they did it forever.

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It was a final action on their part, you received the word once and for all he says.

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The idea is that they had welcomed and embraced it so as to make it their gospel too.

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It was their own possession.

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And isn't that what brings salvation?

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It's not just hearing the gospel, it's not just being a member of a church that preaches

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the gospel, but it is making that message one's own possession by personal faith.

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Paul thanks God as he looks back that that's exactly what happened in the city of Corinth.

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They had received the message secondly with diverse conditions.

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He says you received the word in much tribulation.

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Externally he says you received the word with a lot of persecution.

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If you don't have time to read about it we will cover it as we proceed through the book.

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Paul talks about the kind of stress they were under.

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The word tribulation in its verb form means to press hard on something.

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The word refers to the pressure of circumstances and the antagonism of people.

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People attempted to make life miserable for the Thessalonians.

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Did that happen to you when you became a Christian?

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I know it has to some people in our church because they've shared it with me.

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It hasn't been in the immediate family.

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It's been perhaps the in-laws or the outlaws.

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Someone has put pressure on them in the family circle.

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Sometimes it comes from work or those that we study with in school.

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But suffering for Jesus Christ is to be expected by those who choose to follow him.

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There will be attempts of an opposition to force us to recant or to compromise what we

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say we have come to believe.

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The Thessalonians knew about that.

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They had believed with external persecution.

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But internally what was the condition?

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Did they become bitter?

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Did they become discouraged because there were those in their city viciously opposed

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to them?

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No.

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He says, much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

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Their lives were filled with joy internally even as externally they faced pressure and

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stress.

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This really defies a natural explanation.

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It goes against what one would normally think.

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There is a supernatural attitude of cheerful acceptance which the Holy Spirit has stimulated

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in their lives.

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That's just what Jesus promised.

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He said, in the world you will have what?

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Right, tribulation.

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The very same word.

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Stress, pressure, opposition.

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Jesus said in the world you will have tribulation.

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But be of good, what?

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Good cheer.

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Why?

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For I have overcome the world.

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How can we have an attitude of courage, of cheerful fortitude when it seems like everybody

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has turned against us that we were once a part of our circle of friends?

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We can have a good attitude, be filled with confidence and joy because Jesus has already

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overcome the opposition.

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We need not fear.

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Paul says, I thank God for what happened there, the way you received the gospel in those diverse

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conditions, the external, the internal.

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He says, I thank God that you received the gospel with definite change in your lifestyle.

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He says, you became an example yourselves, an imitator, he says, to all the believers

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in Macedonia and Achaia.

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What an exciting thing that these Thessalonians began to pick up the lifestyle of the Apostle

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Paul.

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They began to imitate or to mimic him, to do what he did.

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Several years ago our family was in Boston and as we were at the Thaneuil Square, I believe

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it was, there was a large open courtyard and there was a mime working in that courtyard.

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It was fun to watch him.

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One of the most interesting things and humorous things that he did, humorous for those of

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us watching, was when he would pick an unsuspecting person strolling across the square, sneak up

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behind him and walk right with him about that far from his body.

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He did that to numerous people and they had no idea he was behind them and he was walking,

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mimicking everything that they did.

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It was absolutely hilarious.

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The idea is here, Paul says, you became imitators of us, you walked right behind us.

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You did the same thing that we did and he commends them for it.

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They imitated not only the team, but the Lord and the team was imitating the Lord.

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A question, who is following your pattern?

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And as they follow you, what will they look like?

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The Apostle says, I thank God that as you received his word, it was with dynamic consequences.

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You became an example yourselves to others.

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Jesus is building his church.

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He is doing it today in Roseville, Minnesota.

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Building his church has been Jesus' agenda for the last 1900 years.

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He gave his life to lay the foundation and now he lives in heaven so that eventually

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he might finish the superstructure of the church.

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The proof that he is building his church is found in its continuance.

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Through persecution and plenty, through dark ages and through the Enlightenment, through

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the isms, the asims, and even the spasms that have come at times to the church to undermine

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or sidetrack it, Jesus keeps on building his church.

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The proof of it is found in changed lives today as in Thessalonica.

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Wave after wave comes, generation after generation, century upon century, and movement upon movement,

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but the church of Jesus Christ is being built today as it was then.

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And his work will continue until he has completely finished.

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One of the great underlying fears that every person has is the fear of insignificance,

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of making no difference in this world.

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God wants us to make a difference.

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The philosopher Kierkegaard said, one lives only once.

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If when death comes, the life is well spent, that is, spent so that it is rightly related

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to eternity, then God be praised eternally.

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If not, then it is irremediable.

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And only one only lives once.

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Life is still before us, at least today.

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Tomorrow, perhaps, maybe many years.

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But if we really want our lives to have significance, we need to invest our lives in building the

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church of Jesus Christ.

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For many things pass away as that Persian king learned, but the church of Jesus Christ

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is going to last forever.

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For our lives to mean something and to make a difference, let's pour them into building

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the church of Jesus Christ and give ourselves to what is eternal so that whenever death

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comes and we then stand before God, we may be glad for the way that we have lived our

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one life.

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Let's pray.

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Father, I don't know exactly how you want to apply this message to the life of these

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three or four hundred people here, but you do have a personal application for each one.

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Someone may need to be saved.

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I pray that someone today will trust the Savior.

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Trust Him alone for eternal life.

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The first Father of us need to consider how we're investing our time and our money, our

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gifts and our talents.

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I pray that we might leave here with our hearts determined to live our only life for Jesus

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Christ and to invest it in building up what will last forever, the church.

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Let's stand together, please.

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We sing acapella just the chorus once more.

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In my life, Lord, be glorified, be glorified.

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In my life, Lord, be glorified today, in your church, Lord.

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In your church, Lord, be glorified, be glorified.

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In your church, Lord, be glorified today.

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God is working in our midst, too.

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Let's not miss out on what God is doing, but be fully involved in it and have blessed assurance

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in our lives that what we're doing is counting forever.

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God bless us with that determination in our hearts as we leave today.

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May I ask you to help us?

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We need to bring a new congregation in here fairly quickly.

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So this morning, if you would exit through the two front doors, we'll leave the back

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one so that folks can come in the back and begin filling in.

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Thanks for doing that and to kind of free up this door, I'm going to shake hands over

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here by the pulpit.

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If you're visiting, would you please be sure to come by so that I can meet you.

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You're dismissed and the Lord bless you abundantly.