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Living Waters of Grace 08.27.25 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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  Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
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  of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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  continues teaching through God's Word.
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  God's comfort is everlasting. There's never a day when you
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  won't have God's comfort. All we have to do is just
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  entreat him forward and Good Hope by grace.
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  And of course, that Good Hope, it's seeing Jesus Christ return
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  and also having that eternal life, that's our Good Hope, He
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  said. May He comfort your hearts in
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  verse 17 and establish you, comfort your hearts, or
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  encourage your hearts, and establish you or strengthen you
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  in every good work. Believers in Christ have a
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  comfort from God that includes a true freedom from guilt.
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  For Christians, our righteous judge is also our loving Savior,
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  which is a sharp contrast with the terrifying assortment of
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  distant, cruel, or unappeasable deities of the ancient world.
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  Today, Pastor Lewis will be reminding you that whenever you
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  need help and comfort, you can go to your Father in heaven.
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  Don't run back to the world when things get tough.
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  Instead, run straight to Jesus. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
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  Book of Second Thessalonians Chapter 2, with today's edition
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  of Living Waters of Grace. We do have a kind of a
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  challenging topic because we're going to talk a little bit about
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  church discipline. We're going to be talking about
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  those who don't want to work in busy bodies and things of that
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  nature. These are things that aren't
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  popular to talk about, but the Lord does have a opinion on
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  those things. I mean he, he, he talks very
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  strongly about those things. Charles Spurgeon had to say this
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  about busybodies and and those who are lazy and don't want to
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  work. Charles Spurgeon says I am not
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  the only one that condemns the idol for once.
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  When I was going to give our minister a pretty long list of
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  the sins of one of our people that he was asking after I begin
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  with, he's dreadfully lazy. That's enough, said the old
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  gentleman. All sorts of sins are in that
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  one. All sorts of sins are in that
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  one. So we're going to talk about
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  some of those things Now we have, we're, we're on the end of
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  Second Thessalonians. So we have, you know, we, we've
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  covered, we're, we're covering the three chapters that it's
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  involved in. So the first chapter we covered
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  two weeks ago, we covered the Lord's final judgment and glory.
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  And that was on the heels of talking about the rapture that
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  we covered in First Thessalonians chapter 4.
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  In chapter 2, Paul assures the church that they didn't miss the
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  rapture and that they're not currently living in the times of
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  the great tribulation. There's a couple things have to
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  happen. First, he said there has to be
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  an apostasy or that falling away, that rebellion, and it has
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  to be the revealing of the man of sin.
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  And this week he concludes this, that this epistle or this letter
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  to the Thessalonians, he, he includes it by requesting
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  prayer, first of all for his ministry for himself, Silas and
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  Timothy. And also he gives a warning
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  against idleness and being a busy body.
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  So let's get into these scriptures, OK?
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  We look at verse 1, chapter 3, verse one, and it reads like
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  this. It says finally, brethren, pray
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  for us that the word of the Lord runs swiftly and be glorified
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  just as it is with you. If we can just stop there for a
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  second. Parenthetically, we get a chance
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  to hear Paul coming off of the end of chapter 2 where he prayed
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  for them and this was Paul's prayer for them.
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  At the end of chapter 2, verse 16, he says, now may our Lord
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  Jesus Christ himself and our God and Father who has loved us and
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  given US everlasting consolation, everlasting
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  comfort. We talked about last week how
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  God's comfort is everlasting. There's never a day when you
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  won't have God's comfort. All we have to do is just
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  entreat him forward and Good Hope by grace.
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  And of course that Good Hope is seeing Jesus Christ return and
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  also having that eternal life. That's our Good Hope.
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  He said may he comfort your hearts in verse 17 and establish
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  you. Comfort your hearts or encourage
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  your hearts and establish you or strengthen you in every good
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  work with word and work. So he ended his prayer and
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  talking about him, strengthening them and, and, and, and
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  comforting them in every good word and work.
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  So here in chapter 3, Paul now asked for them to pray for him
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  because Paul understands the significance of prayer.
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  He understands the significance of prayer.
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  We understand the significance of prayer here.
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  And we have a lot of different groups that are always praying.
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  I'm always talking about the group that we have on Thursday
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  nights because that intercessory group prays for you individually
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  and that group play prays for us as teachers.
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  It prays for us and we need the prayers of the people because
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  there is some everything that happens good in this church.
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  It comes on the heels of prayer. It comes on the heels of prayer.
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  It's men and women that are humbling themselves and going
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  before God and crying out to God for the things that we are
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  requesting of him. And what a privilege it is.
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  Excuse me to be a man of God or a woman of God, a child of God,
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  or be loved by God that we can go before him in prayer.
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  We have that privilege as children of God.
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  So we do that and we pray for each other.
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  But he asked for something specific here.
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  Paul asked for something specific.
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  He said not just pray, OK, that God will, that God will bless us
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  or help us, but he said he wants to pray that the Word will run
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  swiftly and be glorified. Pray that the Word of God will
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  run swiftly or rapidly spread, rapidly spread just as it did
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  with you, Thessalonians, just as it did with you.
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  We pray that that word will rapidly spread and be glorified,
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  just as it was with you. How is the Word of God
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  glorified? The Word of God is glorified
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  through US who hear the Word of God, who obey the Word of God,
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  who walk in the Word of God. The people who are unbelievers
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  get a chance to see God's power working through US, and it
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  glorifies not us, but it glorifies God.
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  Let your light so shine before man that he sees your good
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  works, and glorify God who is in heaven.
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  It glorifies him when we walk in the things of the Lord.
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  So he said, let the word run swiftly or quickly.
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  Let it spread rapidly and be glorified just as it is with
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  you. When Paul went to the
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  Thessalonian church and he preached the gospel, the Bible
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  says that they listened and received that word just like it
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  was in truth, not that it came from men.
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  They didn't take it like this was just somebody coming who has
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  some good ideas. This is a man with some good
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  theories, some good philosophies and what it makes sense, so
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  we'll listen. No, that's not how they took it.
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  They took it as it was in truth, Paul said, as the word of God.
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  When we hear the word spoken and we understand the authority of
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  that word that is coming from God, it has an impact on us.
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  That's a lot different than if someone said, listen what Lewis
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  said, who cares? Most people probably say who
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  cares, but when you hear that God said it, that gives
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  authority to it. So that's why we teach what thus
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  says the Lord and not what we said.
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  OK, So he said that this, he said that this word be glorified
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  as it was with them, and it was glorified in them.
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  When they heard the word, they turned, they turned, they
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  changed. They had a work of faith, they
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  had a labor of love and they turned away from their idols
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  and, and, and they were patiently, they became patient
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  waiting on Jesus Christ, a patience of hope, waiting on
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  Jesus Christ. That's how the word worked in
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  them, so much so that they became examples to other
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  churches. That's how effective the word
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  worked in them. And that's what we hope for our
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  church, that the word works in us to the point where we become
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  an example or we become effective in, in, in, in, in
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  dealing with our community, that the community can see the
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  difference between US and unbelievers and they want what
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  it is that we have. That's what we would love to see
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  the word working in US effectively.
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  So he says here be glorified just as it is with you.
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  And then verse 2, he says, and that we may be delivered from
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  unreasonable and wicked men. One of the things that we have
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  to understand is that whenever we are serving the Lord,
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  whenever we are serving the Lord and whatever, whatever capacity
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  you are serving the Lord in, it doesn't matter.
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  You don't have to be up here. You can be doing any kind of
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  ministry that you have. You're serving the Lord.
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  You are going to get opposition. Please do not be surprised when
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  you get opposition. Don't don't be surprised.
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  Don't back away from your ministry because you're getting
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  opposition. It should be a, a confirmation
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  to you that you're doing something right, that you are
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  doing what you're supposed to do.
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  There are always going to be people out there that are going
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  to oppose God's work. That's just the truth of the
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  matter. It's an unpleasant truth, but
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  it's the truth nonetheless. And here Paul says, I want you
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  to pray. This is the second part of his
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  prayer, he said, in that we be delivered, or in other words,
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  that we be rescued from unreasonable and wicked men,
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  from unreasonable and wicked men or troublesome, troublesome men,
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  men who have the capacity to do harm to us, harmful things, not
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  necessarily to us physically, but even to our ministries.
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  And wicked men, evil men, men who have a desire to corrupt
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  other men, that's evil. That's evil, have a desire to
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  corrupt other men. And he was talking here about
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  these unbelieving Jews who were persecuting the apostles because
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  of what they were teaching, always going to be persecution.
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  Nehemiah, he witnessed persecution from Sambalit and
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  Tobiah. Jesus Christ witnessed
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  persecution from the Pharisees. And Paul, once he became, once
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  he stopped being, when he was converted from being a Pharisee
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  to being saved, he became a Christian.
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  He began to experience persecution and opposition from
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  the unbelieving Jews. So we know there's always going
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  to be opposition. We know that, but we trust in
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  God. We look for God to help us to
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  get through that. And in verse three, he tells
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  them, he said, but the Lord is faithful.
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  Yes, there's going to be opposition to your ministry.
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  There are going to be people who are opposing you when you are
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  trying to do the right thing. There are going to be people
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  opposing you. But God is faithful.
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  God is faithful. And why did he say that?
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  Because at the end of verse 2, he says for not all men have
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  faith. All men don't believe in Jesus
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  Christ. All men aren't working in the
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  faith of Jesus Christ. But Paul said, but the Lord is
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  faithful. And trust me, it may not seem
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  like it sometimes it may seem like you're by yourself in that
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  ministry, but God is with you. He's with you, He's helping you.
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  He will give you the grace and the strength to persevere even
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  against the opposition. Does He always deliver us from
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  persecution and opposition? No, He gives us opportunity to
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  trust Him in it. That's what He does.
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  And He gives us the grace to be able to stand in the midst of
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  it, stand flat footed and trust him.
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  Trust his word, trust His promises, trust Him, His
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  strength, His wisdom, His knowledge.
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  Trust him. Don't trust our own.
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  This is the way I'm going to deal with it.
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  First I'm going to take him out. And then when I come back from
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  taking him out, I'm going to ask him to come outside with me and
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  I'm going to take him out. Now, that's man's wisdom.
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  That's man's Wiz. I know sometimes we may feel
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  like doing that sometimes like physically helping God to get
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  rid of our opposition. People are people that are
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  opposing us. I know sometimes we feel like
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  that, you know, I mean, that's when we get to the point.
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  Sometimes we got, I think I'm hearing God.
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  No, God ain't telling you that. God ain't telling you that, but
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  we trust God. He handles those things in our
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  lives, so he said, but the Lord is faithful who will establish
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  you and that means to strengthen you.
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  Just as we said, He will give us the strength to endure those
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  opposition's and guard you, guard you.
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  That means that He'll protect you.
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  He'll protect you from the evil 1 and that's what it's important
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  to be protected from is the evil 1, the influence of the evil 1,
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  Not even necessarily what they do physically.
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  What's the influence of the evil 1?
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  He protects us from that. The lies of the evil 1, the
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  deception of the evil 1. He protects US against those
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  things. And then he goes on in verse 4
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  and he says, and we have confidence in the Lord
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  concerning you both that you do and we'll do the things that we
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  command you, the confidence in the Lord.
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  We know that we are maturing in Christ Jesus when we no longer
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  walk by the confidence that we have in ourselves to do what the
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  Lord has called us to do. You want to know what maturity
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  is? That's what maturity is in the
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  Lord. For me to know that I can't
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  count on me to accomplish the work of the Lord, I can't do
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  that. I can't count on you to give me
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  what I need all the time to help me to do the work of the Lord.
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  We can't count on flesh. Jeremiah 17 and five says this.
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  He says curse. It is the man who trusts in man
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  and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the
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  Lord. We can't count on that.
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  We have to put our confidence in the Lord.
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  In everything that we do, we put our confidence in the Lord.
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  Philippians one and six says, being confident of this very
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  thing, that the good work that he has begun in me, he will
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  continue to do it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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  In Philippians 2 and 13, he says it is God who works in you, both
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  to will and to do of His good pleasure.
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  We can't count on ourselves, We can't count on men on the arm of
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  flesh, but we can count on the Lord.
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  Some believe in Chariots, right? Some believe in horses.
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  But I will remember the name of the Lord.
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  That's what I'm trusting in to help me.
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  Amen. So then we move on in here in
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  verse 5, we we're going to get to the crux of this.
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  In verse 5. He says, now may the Lord hears
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  another prayer. Here's another prayer.
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  Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and
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  the patience and into the patience of Christ, into the
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  love of God. May the Lord direct your hearts.
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  May the Lord lead your heart. May the Lord guide your heart
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  into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
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  May the Lord remove the obstacles that's in your way
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  that stops you from understanding or experiencing
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  the love of God. May He remove those things in
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  your life that causes you to question the love of God.
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  My point is that the love of God is there.
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  We have to ask God to work in our lives so that we understand
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  and we that we we experience that love to know all beyond a
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  shadow of a doubt. The love of God is there for us.
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  Now. There's God loving us and
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  there's us loving him, us loving him.
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  Let's not do anything to break fellowship with the love of God.
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  We've already been told that nothing's going to separate us
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  from the love of God. We've been told that right over
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  in Romans 8. Nothing can separate us from the
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  love of God. It's us understanding that the
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  love of God is always there for us, always there for us, that
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  that's encouraging that regardless of how you feel, you
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  can't even trust your own feelings.
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  You can't trust man. You can't trust your own
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  feelings. You have to trust His Word.
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  We have to trust His word. He is always there for us and
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  Jude, Jude said that he said, how, how do we keep ourselves in
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  the love of God? He says praying in the Holy
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  Ghost, praying in the Holy Spirit, praying that keeps us in
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  the love of God because when we're praying, our focus, our
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  attention and our hearts are directed toward God and it's on
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  God. It's not on what's over here and
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  it's not on what's over there. It's upward.
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  My vertical relationship with the Lord, Amen.
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  And he said then to the patients of Christ, we know that there's
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  that patient that he talked about over here in First
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  Thessalonians 1 and 10, which talks about the, the, the, the,
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  the patience of hope. That means that patience that we
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  have and waiting for Christ to return.
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  We should do that patiently. And waiting for Christ to return
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  patiently means that we don't get to the point where we give
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  out and we just give up on Christ.
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  And go to the things of the world and do what we no, but we
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  wait patiently upon him being steadfast and what Christ has
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  given to us and what Christ has told us and being steadfast in
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  the work that Christ has for us. That's what he's talking about
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  when he says the patience of Christ the way patiently.
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  But there's also that patience of Christ, which talks about the
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  patience that Christ himself demonstrated when he was here
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  with us in on earth, when he was being persecuted, when he was
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  being reviled, when he was being threatened.
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  The patience that he had to continue to keep his eyes on the
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  Lord, keep his eyes on the Father.
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  He kept his eyes on the Father and he did the work of the
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  father the entire time he was here.
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  Nothing moved him. And that's the patience that
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  he's talking about. We know, you know, and we look
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  at what he says. We look at what he says over
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  here in verse where we had here verse five.
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  I've gotten above, I've gotten ahead of my notes here, but we
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  know that he says in, in first Peter 2 and 23, Peter says that
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  when he was reviled, meaning Christ, because Peter witnessed
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  it, Peter witnessed it when he was reviled, he reviled not
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  again. And when he suffered, he
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  threatened not, but he committed himself to him who judges
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  righteously. He was patient and waiting for
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  the time that he would be glorified to be back with the
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  Father, to be back with the Father.
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  That's a blessing. We need that patience to wait
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  for him. And then in verse 6 it says, but
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  we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly.
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  So now we're getting into the very meat of what this study is
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  about. And he starts that off with a
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  command. And verse 6 he says, we command
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  you. We give you strong instruction,
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  strong instruction that you withdraw.
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  But we don't do that in ourselves, brother.
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  We do that in the name or the authority of our Lord and Savior
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  Jesus Christ. And He said that you withdraw
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  from every brother. That means withhold your
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  fellowship, withhold your fellowship, withhold your
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  communication, your communion. Hold that from this brother who
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  is walking in a disorderly fashion and this, this word
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  disorderly means that he's walking in a way that's he's
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  idle. He's walking in a divisive way
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  or disruptive or unruly. This is difficult because it's
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  us seeing a brother who is not walking in the things that we
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  have received from the Lord. And Paul says, OK, after so many
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  warnings, you have to just separate yourself for a while.
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  You got to withdraw from that brother to let him know that
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  what he's doing is not approved of in this community.
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  And this is not the first time that he gave those kind of
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  warnings that we go over. We go back, as a matter of fact,
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  the First Thessalonians chapter 5, First Thessalonians chapter
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  5. And look at verse 14.
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  He says now we exhort you and this is in the 1st letter, in
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  the first letter he said we exhort you brethren, warn those,
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  warn those or admonish those who are unruly, comfort the faint
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  hearted and uphold the weak. So he told him about that.
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  He wrote about that back in the 1st letter.
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  He knew what was going on and he said, look, you need to go in
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  and deal with those brothers that are unruly because they
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  will be a disruption in your community.
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  Thank you for joining us here today on Living Waters of Grace.
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  You might have noticed a different voice teaching this
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  message and that's because Pastor Lewis Harrell is coming
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  alongside Pastor Clark sharing in the teachings through Calvary
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  Chapel of Westmoreland. Pastor Lewis has been going
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  through 1st and 2nd Thessalonians verse by verse in
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  this series found in the Pauline Epistles.
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  These books are jam packed with wisdom and instruction for the
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  Christian life. If you haven't been challenged
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  by this book, you must not have been listening.
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  If that's you, I'll tell you in just a moment how to listen to
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  this message again. But for now, think about someone
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  that has been a mentor to you and your relationship with
• 24:46
  Christ. How much did that person invest
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  in your faith and how critical were they in a time when you had
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  more questions than answers? Now think of someone you can
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  invest in. It's important to share your
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  faith and be there for others who are going through the same
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  thing you did when you were first saved.
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  Now for those of you who need to go back and listen again, head
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  on over to calvarychapelonline.com.
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  That's Calvary Chapel online.com.
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  Everything you need to know about listening to past messages
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  you'll find there. You'll also find a way to invest
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  in the ministry of sending the Word of God to the world.
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  Just click on the Giving tab. And for more messages like this
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  one, subscribe to our YouTube channel.
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  Living Waters of Grace is a ministry out of Calvary Chapel
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  Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. You can also hear us on Grace
• 25:39
  Radio dot FM. That's all for today, but we'll
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  connect with you again on Living Waters of Grace.