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Finally, then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that, as you receive

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from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually

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do walk, that you may excel still more.

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For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

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For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

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that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in

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lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud

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his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, just as

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we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

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For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification.

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Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives his Holy Spirit

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to you.

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Now I ask to the love of the brethren.

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You have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love

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one another.

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For indeed, you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia.

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And we urge you, brethren, to excel still more and to make it your ambition to lead

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a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your own hands, just as we commanded

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you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

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We who are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ have been liberated.

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We are free from the bondage of sin that we might serve the Savior.

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Liberty has been granted to us, but not for self-pleasing, for self-serving existence.

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Rather, we have been freed in order that we might submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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In my reading this last week, I came across a statement by Kenneth Gangel in his book

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Leading and Feeding, in which he says, as he discusses a definition of spirituality,

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quote, link closely with the whole problem of definition is the balance between legalism

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and license.

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On the one hand are those who jump on every opportunity, every rule or standard, to bring

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the church or other Christian institutions into conformity with their own views.

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Those at the other extreme want to push aside all rubrics, tear down all restraints on their

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behavior, raising the flag of God's grace anytime anyone suggests that salvation ought

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to produce a somewhat definitive lifestyle in accordance with New Testament teaching.

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Of course, the biblical position, as always, provides the balanced middle between legalism

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on the right and license on the left.

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Where we find distinctively Christian leadership, there we find liberty, which is clearly related

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to spirituality.

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And there we find the control of the Holy Spirit freeing the believer to serve.

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That is the balance.

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We are freed by the grace of God that we might become what God wants us to be.

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Our lifestyle choices, our lifestyle patterns ought to be rooted in what pleases God.

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We are to live so as to be a delight to him.

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This is not an isolated thought that is wrapped up only in one text in the New Testament and

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added in 1 Thessalonians.

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Indeed, consider these words of the apostle in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 9.

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We have as our ambition to be pleasing to him.

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His thought is, we make this our aim.

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We devote ourselves zealously to this cause, to be pleasing to him.

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In Colossians 2 and verse 6 there is the familiar phrase, or verse rather, as you have received

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Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

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The point that Paul is making is that our conduct should correspond to our confession.

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If this is the message you have received, says the apostle in his argument, then let

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it affect how you choose to live.

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Be consistent.

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Let there be a thorough congruity between what you have professed to believe and how

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you choose to live out your life.

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But how can we live pleasing to God in the 90s?

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The answer to that question unfolds for us in our text.

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In the first place it means that as God sees me, I must live purely.

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Who is it that establishes this standard?

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Often we all heard the phrase, you can't legislate morality.

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Or you read letters to the editor that say, who are these people trying to force upon

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us their morality?

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Who is it that establishes the standard of moral purity?

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Is it the Christian church?

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Is it some fundamentalist preacher?

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Is it some band of zealots?

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The answer is no to all of those.

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It is God, the creator of all men who establishes the standard of moral purity.

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This is not a man-made rule, but it is a clear and specific statement of what God expects

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from all mankind.

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We live in an age of moral relevancy.

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Everything is blurred into some shade of gray, so it seems in our culture.

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That is the work of man.

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But God is very clear when it comes to this matter of sexual conduct.

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What does it mean to be morally pure in the 90s?

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The same thing that it meant back in the first century.

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In the first place, it means to abstain from sexual immorality.

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It means to hold oneself away from that.

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It means any sort of sexual relationship apart from monogamous heterosexual marriage.

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Humanity is not only dangerous, which I think all of us know, but more importantly and at

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the root of it, it violates the holy nature of the creator of the human race.

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It violates, secondly, his expressed will for humanity.

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Notice with me that there is a second part to being morally pure in the 90s.

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He says in verse 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification

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and honor.

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Possess your own vessel, says Paul.

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What does that mean?

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It means that we are to practice mastery over our bodies.

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We are to bring under control those appetites that are given to our bodies by God.

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We are to bring those appetites under control so that sin cannot abuse them and use them

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for its purposes.

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Last week we talked briefly about how to acquire this mastery.

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How do I come to the point of expressing mastery in my body?

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We said that it begins by renewing the mind with the Word of God.

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We cleanse our way by taking heed to the Word of God.

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Secondly, by yielding our wills to the Holy Spirit.

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We make the decision, but it is the Spirit of God that must empower us to follow through

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with the right decision.

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And thirdly, by avoiding places and situations of temptation.

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To Timothy, the apostle said, flee youthful lusts.

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If we expect to be morally pure in the 90s, we must take a third step.

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That step is found for us in verse 6 where he says that we are to respect our friends.

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When he uses the word brother, it's generic.

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It means the other person.

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He says that no man transgress and defraud his brother in this matter of sexual behavior.

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To transgress means to step across the bounds of propriety.

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That is so important to remember in your dating.

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There is a proper way to behave when you're with another person on a date.

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And it's important that one not go across the bounds of propriety.

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Or he says to defraud or to wrong the other person.

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What that means is to excite in another person desires which cannot be righteously fulfilled.

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If we would live purely in the 90s, it means that we must treat other people with consideration.

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That we must honor the bodies of other people that we're with.

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That we must respect their minds and their thoughts so that they can remain virtuous

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as well as we ourselves.

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God is very clear about what his standards are for living morally pure.

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Why should we do this?

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Is it because we're afraid of getting AIDS or an STD of some sort?

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That's a pretty good reason.

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Is it because we're afraid of discovery?

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Is it because we do not want some undesired consequence to come to us?

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Well, for the Christian, God provides two other reasons here as to why we should live

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morally pure.

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In the first place, because of God's warning.

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God warns us that he is the avenger of those who are wronged sexually.

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In other words, God takes it upon himself to bring judgment in these cases.

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It may be that there will be some temporal consequences that will take place.

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Galatians 6-7 is still in God's word and it says that whatsoever we sow, we reap.

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God forgives sin, but he doesn't necessarily interrupt the process of sowing and reaping.

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There are times when God judges by allowing natural consequences to take place because

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of that sin that was involved.

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But then beyond that which is temporal, there's that which is final, that is the judgment

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of God.

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I want to tell you that at the final judgment, God is going to bring justice.

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God is going to declare what has happened and he is going to pour out judgment based

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upon his sense of righteousness, perfect righteousness.

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So why is it that we ought to live morally pure?

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Because we know that God has warned us regarding judgment and the consequences of sin.

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But there's another reason, that's God's calling.

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He says God has called us not for impurity, verse 7.

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God did not call us to become his children so that we might then live impurely, but so

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that we might live in sanctification.

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In other words, in purity.

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God has called us that we might lead clean lives.

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That's why we ought to live this way.

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What if I choose not to live that way?

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What if I don't feel like living this way?

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What if I choose to disobey what God says?

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Well, God gives us a warning here.

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He says in verse 8, he who rejects this is not rejecting man, but God.

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That is, he who looks down upon this, he who despises this standard of moral purity, is

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not despising man, but the God who establishes the standard.

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To treat moral purity as something secondary and unimportant in one's life is to slap

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God himself in the face.

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Someone asked, well what if I want to live this way, but I'm afraid that I can't.

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There are just too many pressures.

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Well notice that he says God gives his Holy Spirit to you.

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Yes, there are pressures.

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We live in an overly stimulated society when it comes to sexual matters.

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And God has given us his Holy Spirit so that by the Spirit we can put to death the deeds

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of the body, the appetites that the body has that want to be expressed in an impure way.

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God has given us his Spirit and he will enable us.

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But then there's that question that we hear, but what if it's two willing adults who are

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involved?

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Then in that case I would ask you to check back with point number one that says abstain

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from sexual immorality.

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But what if I was taken advantage of, someone says.

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What if I was taken advantage of as a child or as an adult, I was coerced.

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You are not responsible before God if you participated in something that was against

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your will.

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I think that is important to underscore in this day when there is so much sexual abuse

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that is coming to the surface.

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You need not feel guilty for the sin of someone else.

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God does not hold you accountable for that if you were taken advantage of by someone

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else.

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God still looks upon you as morally pure and nothing less than that.

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Someone says what if I've already blown it?

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Well the fact is that you can repent of that and God calls upon you to repent of it and

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to acknowledge your sin to Him and to that person that you have sinned against or those

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persons you have sinned against so that your conscience can be clear.

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To acknowledge your sin and to determine from this point on to be a morally pure individual.

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What does it mean to live so as to please God?

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It means as God knows me, and God knows a whole lot more about all of us than anyone

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else, as God knows me to be morally pure.

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But our text continues into another realm.

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It also means as my brother knows me to live lovingly.

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If I am to live so as to please God it means that I must practice the love of others, especially

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those in the family of God.

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This is expected of me and there are two reasons why it's anticipated.

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In the first place, we who are in the family of God are what he calls brethren.

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That word literally means those who come from the same womb.

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We who are the children of God have come from his womb as it were to be born again by his

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spirit.

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And because we are of the same family and the same nature, the same spiritual genetics

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if you please, because of that we are to love one another.

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There are some times when kids are small you wonder if they will ever love one another.

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My wife asked me this last week, do you think our kids will ever love one another?

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And I assured her that they would, by faith.

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There are those natural rivalries and other kinds of disputes and spats that take place

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as children grow up.

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But the natural, the normal thing is for brothers and sisters to love one another.

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And it's a blessed time in life when that becomes the practice as well as that deep

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hidden feeling that somewhere down in the heart you're pretty sure.

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They begin to practice it and to show that love and so it is with the family of God.

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And he says because we are brothers.

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Not only that he says God has taught you to love.

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God has put his spirit within you and the spirit of God is instructing you to love,

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you're God taught to love others.

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The expression of this love is important.

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It's not just enough to feel it.

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In fact there are some times you don't feel it when you nonetheless practice it.

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There are some people in the family of God that make it very tough to feel love for them.

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You know what I'm talking about.

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There may be certain characteristics that at least with your own personality there's

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just a grating and there isn't the natural kind of bonding that you find with other personality

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types.

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Even so the word of God says we are to practice love.

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We're to do what is good for the other person.

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You see love is not just a matter of feeling it's a matter of doing.

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Doing and I guess the challenge I'd like to present to all of us today is what can

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we do this week to show love to someone and especially to someone who is unlovely.

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For that's where it really becomes love.

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That's where it really becomes love.

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When it's somebody that we don't naturally take to and yet we go out of our way to show

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kindness.

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I noticed that Don in his prayer this morning mentioned the need for forgiveness.

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That is such a need among the family of God.

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We need to forgive each other when there is failure.

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When there is offense.

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We need to express the willingness to lay that aside as something that's no longer

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important between you and another because just as Christ has forgiven us we're to

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forgive one another.

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Is there someone against whom you have a grudge this morning?

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If that be the case then I challenge you to practice what God says here.

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To love that person by laying aside the offense.

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As my brother knows me to please God I must live lovingly.

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And finally he says as outsiders know me I must live honorably if I am to live to please

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God.

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In the last part of verse 10 he says we urge you brethren to excel still more and more.

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Take it your ambition to lead a quiet life, attend to your own business, and work with

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your own hands.

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As outsiders know me, outsiders of the family of God, they must know me to live honorably.

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In verse 12 he says so that you may behave properly.

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Properly.

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That word means to live in a balanced way.

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That means well formed, a well rounded balanced life is in view, or we might say it this way,

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a grace filled life.

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Notice the four exhortations here.

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In the first place he says we must excel still more and more.

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The point is don't be satisfied where you are.

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Be the kind of a person who's always stretching out.

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Don't be content with just getting by in your Christian life, but go for it.

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Beware of complacency and self satisfaction.

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That's unbecoming to a Christian.

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Be at your best as you push, as you brush shoulders rather with non-Christians.

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Let them see the growth in your life, the competence in your life, the determination

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in your life.

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That's the point.

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There are some people who have retired with 20 years yet to work.

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They've decided that they're done pushing.

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They're not going to grow, they're not going to develop anymore, they're just going to

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put in the time until finally they can get out of that situation.

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Oh God says look if you want to live to please me, live honorably by excelling.

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Being all that you can be in every situation that I the Lord bring into your life.

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Secondly he says aim to lead a quiet life.

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Make this your ambition.

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Live eagerly to lead a quiet life.

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He's not necessarily talking about the noise, the den of life.

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He's talking about the pace of life.

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Sometimes noise is unavoidable, but we can have some control over the pace of our lives.

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He's saying don't push yourself to seek to be noticed.

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Don't be the one who's always got to be in the center of the conversation.

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But make it your aim to lead a quiet life.

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Be willing to stand in the background and to come forward when you're called upon.

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But don't be the kind of a person who pushes yourself on other people.

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Aim to lead a quiet life.

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Adjust the pace of your life.

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He says thirdly attend to your own business.

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We might put it this way in our own language.

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They mind your own business, except it's not said in a gruff, unkind way.

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He's saying that we need to beware of being idle meddlers in matters that are not our

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concern.

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That's a normal tendency at least for some children in the family, isn't it?

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Does your family have a reporter?

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Most families have at least one reporter.

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Mom, you know what so-and-so did.

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I'm going to tell.

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Now there are times when that may be not unappropriate or inappropriate.

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So often at least in our situation we have to say look, mind your own business.

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We adults do the same thing, don't we?

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We begin sticking our nose into situations that we really have no business inquiring

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about.

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And sometimes we use pretty good reasons for that.

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Well, it's so I can pray more intelligently, we say.

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Well, we all need to pray more intelligently, no question about that.

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We have to be careful our motive is right and pure in that.

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He says if you want to live to please God in your social relationships with other people

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in the church, in the outside, at work where you are, in your neighborhood, then learn

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to attend to your own business.

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Doesn't mean we shouldn't be loving when someone needs help.

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Doesn't mean that we shouldn't say a word of encouragement, but it means that we ought

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not to be meddlesome troublers of others.

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Kind of reminds you of Peter and John, doesn't it?

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Jesus took John aside and was telling him what was going to happen and Peter said, but

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he wondered, what about me?

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And Jesus rebuked him gently and said, hey, Peter, you mind your business, I'm dealing

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with John right now.

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Finally he says if you and I want to behave in an honorable way so as to please God, it

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means that we must work with our own hands.

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We have here a strong affirmation of manual labor.

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Never look down upon someone who works with their hands.

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Work with your own hands, but there's a broader application than that.

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What it means is be responsible for your own needs.

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Don't allow yourself to fall into a pattern of being a freeloader.

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Don't expect someone else to support you if you're able to care for your own well-being.

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That's the point.

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I am glad that in some places in our country at least there is an emphasis upon this when

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it regards the welfare system.

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The people who can work should work.

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Work fair.

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Work with your own hands.

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That is the command of God.

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And if you and I want to live honorably, we must be careful not allowing ourselves to

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live off of other people.

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Listen these are practical and relevant commands for living in the 1990s.

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A person who will live this way will in the first place be a testimony to non-Christians.

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He says that, so that you may behave honorably toward outsiders.

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But there's more than that.

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There's a tendency on the part of people who obey this counsel to be adequate.

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They won't have needs arise that others will.

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He says that you may not be in any need.

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This is practical stuff.

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Living to please Jesus Christ in our day is the same as it was in the apostolic times.

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As far as God knows me, I am to live purely.

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As my brothers know me in the family of God, I am to live lovingly.

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As outsiders know me, I am to live honorably among them.

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Understand that this kind of living is not legalistic living.

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On the other hand, neither is it demanded of us apart from the power of the Holy Spirit

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who is resident within us.

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If we have the Spirit of God living within us as the children of God, then we have the

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capacity to do what God tells us to do.

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Whether it be with our moral purity, our loving actions toward others, or our proper behavior

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in the world, we have the capacity.

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The question is, is that capacity released?

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Is the Holy Spirit's power enabling us?

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How do I get that?

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I hear a lot about it, but how do I know whether the Holy Spirit is in control in my life?

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That is not a hard thing to know.

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If I have consciously yielded myself to God and have asked the Holy Spirit to control

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me and strengthen me, He is doing it.

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It is that simple.

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It is a matter of faith.

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It is not something we feel.

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There is not some experience that we get when the Holy Spirit is in charge.

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It is a matter of faith.

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Because you have received Christ Jesus the Lord by faith, so walk ye in him by faith.

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The real point is whether or not I have yielded myself fully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,

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as fully as I know how to do.

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When I do that, then the Spirit of God immediately begins to empower me by releasing His power

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in my life.

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We can do all of the right things, but if we do it in our own strength, it is only so

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much rubbish.

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It will not pass the test of God.

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Living morally pure and loving in our actions and honorably, living that way must be done

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in the power of the Spirit of God for it really to please the Lord.

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You are like me, and on occasion when I was to fill out a paper, a form, and rather than

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read carefully the heading at the top, I just began to fill it out.

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When I got it all done, I looked back and decided I would read what I said at the top

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of the page, and I said, please fill this out in black ink, and I had used a blue pen

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through the whole form.

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I had done all the right things, and every answer in there was right, but the form wasn't

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acceptable.

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You and I can live morally pure.

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We can express love to other people.

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We can be honorable in our lives, but if we haven't consciously yielded to the Holy Spirit

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and allowed Jesus Christ to be the Lord of our lives, then all that action is for naught.

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It's to be under His Lordship.

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That's His direction.

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Let's read the directions first, and then go out to live.

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Let's pray.

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Would you stand with me please as we close our service?

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Just before we close in prayer, I wonder if where you're standing there, you would respond

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to God in some way.

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Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior?

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If not, would you trust Him this morning, believing on Him alone for the salvation of

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your soul?

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If you've trusted Jesus Christ, is He truly the Lord of every area?

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You know, there used to be a bumper sticker that went around.

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It was popular for a time.

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The people put on their cars, and they said, God is my co-pilot.

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The friend God isn't interested in being anybody's co-pilot.

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He wants the pilot job.

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He's not interested in shared leadership.

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He wants to be the Lord.

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Will you yield yourself to Him and determine in your heart by His strength and His enabling

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to live so as to please God?

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Father, I pray that that will be a desire burned deeply within our hearts, that we might

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make it our zealous aim to live every day so as to please the Lord, and empower us by

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your Spirit to do that as we go from this place of worship.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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God bless you.

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Word is missed.

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God bless you.