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Being a Gen Z Christian is Way Scarier Than You Think · Off The Kirb Ministries

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Gen. Z, Gen.
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Z, Gen. Z, Gen.
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ZI have grown so tired of seeing young Christians so excited
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about Jesus only to fall away a few years later.
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So I decided to go on a deep dive on what you need to know to
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stop this from happening to you and most importantly, why you
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must not let Satan deceive you of the same lie that is used on
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millions of young Christians over the years.
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OK, I can hear exactly what some of you are thinking.
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What right do you have to talk to me about being a NZ
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Christian, Joe? You're clearly not in my
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generation and you've got no idea what it is like to grow up
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in my culture. Well guys, believe me, I do hear
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you. But here's the thing, the human
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heart, it doesn't change, does it?
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And you'd be shocked if you knew what I was planning when I was
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in my 20s. You see, I got married very
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young, I was just 22 and I went straight into ministry and
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almost immediately I started seeing things in the church that
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most young people would never have to face.
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So here I was, I was going through really difficult season.
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I'd moved away from my hometown to a new area.
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I had no friends. Well the only friend I had was
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my mentor who was more than 30 years older than me.
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But here's the worst part. I'd open up Facebook and I'd see
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my old school friends, my non Christian friends, and they were
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having the time of their life. They were going to wild parties,
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they were travelling the world, they were all meeting together
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in Australia. They were having so much fun.
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And so this is what Satan started to whisper in my ear.
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You're missing out on your youth.
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You should be having fun like all your other friends from
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school. You shouldn't be worrying about
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church politics. You shouldn't be worrying about
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bills and marriage. You're so young and soon your
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youth will be entirely over and you'll never get it back again.
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So although I'm not proud of this, I started to do something.
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I started to look over my shoulder.
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I started to think that the grass does look greener on the
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other side. And I honestly wondered if I
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actually wanted the things of the world more than I wanted the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Guys, before you judge me,
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you've got to know this. I did feel totally ashamed of
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these thoughts. And so I finally confessed them
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to this older brother in the faith, my mentor.
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And instead of giving me advice or a pep talk, he just said one
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thing. Joe, you need to learn Psalm 73.
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So I did, and I can tell you it became a lifeline to me, so much
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so that I believe every Christian, especially young
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believers, everyone should know this Psalm by heart.
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Why? Well, because it teaches you
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lessons that you will need when you get these very dark
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thoughts. So Are you ready?
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Let's get into it. Now.
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We don't actually know who this Psalm is about.
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We know a man called Asaph wrote the Psalm.
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But there are two schools of thoughts.
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Either Asaph himself wrote it, looking at his own struggles, or
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he wrote it for someone else, IE David.
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Personally, I think it was Asaph who wrote this Psalm talking
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about himself, and you'll probably get a feel for that as
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we go through this. So here we find Asaph and he's
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got a sort of assault on his faith.
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He's got a grievance that's in his heart.
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He's got a thought that he just cannot get out of his mind and
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he's struggling with it. It's there.
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And it's a thought that I do believe every single one of us
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at some point has struggled with in our Christian life.
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It's a thought or a question that I would be very surprised
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if you have never wrestled with before.
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And it's this How can an infinitely powerful God be good,
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be righteous, be holy, and yet let the righteous go unrewarded,
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go through trials, go through difficulties?
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But on the flip side, he lets the wicked, the wicked who hate
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him, he lets them prosper, He lets them be in abundance, He
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lets them have earthly success. So let's answer the question, is
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being a Christian a waste of time?
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Take a look at this Psalm 73 verse 2 says, But As for me, my
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feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped.
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So here Asaph paints as a picture.
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Here he is, and he's standing on the very edge of a slippery
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mountain slope. This is what he can see.
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It's it's like it's raining. It's like there's no steadiness
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there. And he looks over the Cliff
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edge. He looks down and there he sees
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right at the bottom is a sheer drop.
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What is this deep valley called? It is called the the valley of
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unbelief. And Asaph is saying I'm just one
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step away from slipping down and falling into unbelief.
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But over to you now, what do you think the issue was that Asaph
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was struggling with? Look at verse three.
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He says, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the
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prosperity of the wicked. Here he sees the foolish man,
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the foolish people, the wicked people, the people who have no
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care for God. And later he's going to tell us
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a little bit more about these kinds of people.
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These are the kind of people who laugh at God, who talk about the
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Most High in disrespectful ways. And yet these very people, even
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though they disrespected God, they were thriving, they were
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doing well. It seemed like they were better
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off. So ASAP built a logical
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conclusion in his mind. If you ignore gods, if you
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ignore His commands, you are going to be successful in this
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life. And so when he saw all of this
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and he looked at the exciting life that they were living, Asaf
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was very jealous. All right, jump over to verse 5
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with me. They are not in trouble as other
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men, nor are they plagued like other men.
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Do you see that? Here are these wicked people.
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Here are these unbelievers who mocked God, and yet it seemed
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like they didn't have the same troubles the other men had.
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They didn't have the same trouble as the unbeliever.
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No, quite the opposite. They were in abundance.
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In verse 7, it goes on to say they have more than their heart
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could wish. I mean, could you imagine that
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if every desire in your heart, evil or good, if all the desires
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in your heart were achievable, were within your grasp, that
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look like, and yet we can probably think of people right
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now, maybe famous people, maybe even people we know at our
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school, at our college or at our job.
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And it seems like when we look at them, they have more than
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their heart could wish. They have everything that they
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could ever want, and yet they have no care, no thought for the
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Most High. God, may I be transparent with
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you Again, as I said, when I was younger, in my 20s, I had a sort
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of quarter life crisis where I really did struggle.
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And again, I want you to know, it's not easy to talk about this
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across the entire Internet, but I did feel that I wanted to walk
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away at points. I really did take my hand off
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the plow doing all the wrong things, thinking I wanted to be
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in the world, drinking in all the passing delights of this
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sparkling life, even though I was saved at the time.
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And I did love Jesus. So that was in my 20s, but I
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want to know, am I the only one who's had these feelings before?
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Just be honest with me if I am. I do really want to know because
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in a moment's time we're going to hear the solution of how to
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beat these kinds of thoughts. Because there is a very powerful
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answer in Psalm 73 that I doubt you have ever heard any preacher
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mention before. But first, I want to share one
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more secret with you. As you can probably tell, I am a
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very weak Christian in a lot of areas and one area that I knew
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could potentially ruin me is money.
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So back in 2015 when I started this YouTube channel, I made a
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decision not to run adverts on my channel because I knew for me
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personally, I knew that I couldn't keep my feet on the
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ground if I had that kind of money running through my fingers
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every week. So why have I told you that?
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Well I believe as I'm speaking this very message, I believe God
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has brought something into your very mind.
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You are thinking of something right now that you need to turn
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from something that you need to put guardrails in your life.
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And I would urge you if God has laid something to do on your
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heart right now, don't delay whilst your heart is still
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tender. Don't delay whilst you can still
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hear the voice of God. Oh, and by the way, on a more
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practical note, if you are challenged by this video and
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you're not against ad free content, please do subscribe for
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more. OK, here's a question for you.
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Did Asaph get any relief from his thoughts?
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No, look at verse 14 with me for all day long I have been plagued
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and chastened every morning. In other words, he wakes up in
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the morning and he's he's got these troubles in his mind.
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In the evening he has these troubles in his mind.
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He goes to bed, he wakes up the next day and he's got these
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troubles in his mind. All day.
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He's surrounded by these troubles.
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All day long. He's saying my life, my life is
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just full of trouble. But on the flip side, when he
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looks out and he sees the ungodly, it appears that they
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are on the winning side. And when he looks at his own
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troubles in his own life, it appears that he is on the losing
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side. Now between you and me, I
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believe the greatest tragedy is in verse 13.
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I really find this very heartbreaking.
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Verse 13 says, surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and
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washed my hands in innocence. In other words, Asaph is saying
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here I am as a man who trusts in God and I've sought to keep my
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hands clean from sin. I've sought to stop letting
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unclean things come into my mind and my heart.
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I've tried everything to cleanse myself.
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I've tried to be a holy vessel for you, Lord God and yet what
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was the point? What is the point in having a
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clean heart? What is the point in purity?
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There's no gain in being pure. There's no advantage in trying
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to be a pure vessel for God. There's no reward in it.
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In fact, it seems like when I look at the ungodly, it seems
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like the complete opposite. It seems like I'm struggling
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even though I'm trying to keep myself pure.
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And yet the unrighteous, they're prospering when they don't care
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about purity. They dive head first into sin.
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They do everything they want and more.
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I do wonder, did anyone else pick up on this?
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It almost feels like he's asking this question.
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Is it even worth continuing in the ways of God?
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But now can I ask you this? Have you ever felt like that
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before? Why am I doing this?
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There's no end to my trouble. I've tried to be pure.
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I've tried to guard what I watch.
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I've tried to be a godly person. And yet, Lord, why are there so
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many problems in my life? But my unbelieving neighbors, my
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friends, they don't care about you and yet they are at ease.
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All right, so here's the answer we've been waiting for.
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How do we escape this mindset? How did Asaph get out of this
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valley that he was in, and how did he manage to deal with all
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of this trouble in his mind? Look at verses 16 and 17 because
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the answer is very simple. When I thought about how to
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understand this, it was too painful for me until I went into
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the sanctuary of God. Then I understood their final
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end. So what is the answer?
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How did he overcome all of this? Went into the House of God, He
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went into the sanctuary of the Lord and it was there that he
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got clarity. He got peace.
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The ill of Oxford once said the greatest gift a man could ever
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receive is to receive something called cubicle thinking.
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Now when I told my wife Emma about this, she said what on
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earth is cubicle thinking? Cubicle thinking is this just
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like a cube has many different sides to it, so there are many
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different sides to a truth. And here we find Asaph, and he's
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only been looking at one side of the cube.
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He's only been looking at one side of the truth, and that's
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the unrighteous are doing well. They're prospering even though
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they're doing evil. But the godly man, the godly
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woman is struggling and going through all kinds of
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difficulties. But when Asaph goes into the
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sanctuary of God, what happens? Suddenly he sees all the sides
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of the cube. He realizes the truth.
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Now, this next part's a little bit important, so you might just
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want to catch this, but one of the greatest truths in the Bible
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is this. Your life, my life, will one day
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end. All of us are going to die one
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day, and we're all going to be judged by a holy God.
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That is a vital truth that many of us forget, and it's what
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Asaph has forgotten. Did you know that this Psalm
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actually has a sister? And it's called Psalm 37.
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And in Psalm 37, the writer says, I have seen a wicked and
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ruthless man spreading himself out like a green Laurel tree.
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In other words, this evil man, he's prospering, he's
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successful, he's abundant, he's doing well, he has riches and
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success, and it's spreading everywhere.
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But then the psalmist goes on to say, but he passed away, and
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behold, he was no more. Though I sought for him, he
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could not be found. In other words, this man, he had
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his time of fun, but eventually the Lord dealt with him and he
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was gone. I used to work in a high school
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as a classroom assistant with pupils who were aged 11 to 16
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years old. And I used to ask these students
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that I work with, what do you want to do when you grow up?
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And the most common answer was I want to be a YouTube or they'd
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say I want to be a celebrity. OK, so at the time that this
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video is being recorded, I want to ask you, what do you think?
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Which kind of people do you think young people aspire to be
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like? Maybe I show speed.
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Is someone the young men like or is it clavicular?
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Clavicular, I can't say his name, and some of you are
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cringing as I say that HS Tik Tokie or Caden Cottier, who's in
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this country. But not that long ago, Andrew
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Tate would probably be a name that was mentioned because in
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2022 and 2023, he was the most Googled man on earth.
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He had money, he had cars, he had muscles, the women, and he
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had influence. So much influence that schools
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in the UK had to run special assemblies warning their
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students not to idolize him. And many young men, they would
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look at that lifestyle and they would think, I'd love to live
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like that. And to the girls who are
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listening, maybe they look at the the actress who played
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Barbie, Margaret Robbie, or maybe they look at Addison Ray
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or Taylor Swift. Because these ladies, they've
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got beauty, they've got fame, they've got money, they've got
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success. You see all of us, we're all
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drawn to the surface of these lifestyles.
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We look at the beginning, but we rarely ask, how does this life,
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how will it end? So I'm going to give you 2
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examples. And I will not be surprised if
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you've never heard of these two celebrities, especially if you
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are in Genz, because they were certainly around before your
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time. But as you can imagine, I needed
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examples of celebrities that we can watch.
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How did they end? The first one is Jack Nicholson.
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Jack Nicholson was an amazing actor, full of charisma,
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charming, rich, famous. He won an Oscar for One Flew
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Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and not only that, he makes claims that
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he had 2000 lovers, 2000 women. That was his claim.
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Now, many men would look at Jack Nicholson's life and think, I
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would give anything to have his life.
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I'd love to have all of that money, all of the girls, all of
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that fame. Those things would make me so
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happy. But here's the big question, how
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did Jack Nicholson an end? In an interview in 2014 at age
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77, Jack Nicholson said I regret florandering around when I was
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younger because now no woman will trust me and I'm terrified
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of dying in the house on my own. So in other words, this very
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lifestyle that people envied of him had actually been the life
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that he'd regretted living. OK #2 Elizabeth Taylor.
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Now I'll be very surprised if the teenagers and 20 year olds
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have heard of her name before. Let me know in the comments if
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you have. In the 1950s, she was rich, she
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was famous, she was beautiful, and she had all of Hollywood
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doting over her. Why?
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Because all the men thought she was just so beautiful.
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Elizabeth Taylor. When we look at her life, she
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had a great beginning, but still the question needs to be asked,
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how did she end? Well, when her looks began to
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fade, like happens to all of us, when she began to gain weight
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and get wrinkles, suddenly Hollywood gave her career over
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to the younger models, to the younger crop, if you like, to
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Jane Fonda, to Julie Christie, because casting directors and
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the viewers just became bored of her.
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But here's the saddest part. Do you know what Elizabeth
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Taylor was most famous for? Do you know how many marriages
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she had? Did she have one?
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No 234? No.
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After 8 marriages, did Elizabeth Taylor ever find true love?
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No. She spent most of her life on
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medicated things, just trying to keep herself going because if
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she was honest with herself, in her very epicenter, there was an
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unspeakable sadness, an emptiness.
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Eventually, she died completely alone, with no husband, at 79
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years old. Totally broken.
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But does the media portray that? No.
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Do we ever see these kinds of things on the highlight reels on
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Instagram? No.
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Does the world show us what a life rebelling against God?
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Does it show us how it will really end?
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No, and it certainly doesn't show us that death and
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destruction come to all those who reject the living God.
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My dear friends, never forget this warning from the Bible.
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The way of the Sinner is hard. It's not an easy life to live a
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lifestyle of sin. It might look enticing on the
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surface, but in the end, it's far harder to be a rebellious
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Sinner against a holy God than to live a life of obedience to
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the same God. So I beg you, please, please
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never forget this. The death of the ungodly is a
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terrible thing. Imagine all of that unrest, all
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of that misery, all of that regret.
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And what comfort do these people have when they come to the end
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of their life? What hope do they have in the
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future? The only comfort they have is a
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handful of memories, memories of the past they can barely
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remember. That's all they have to comfort
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them. But now contrast that with the
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life of the believer. On the surface, it looks narrow.
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It looks boring. The men and women of the world,
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they laugh at us. They say, you really believe
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this storybook. You go to church every single
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Sunday. You give up your holidays to do
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missions and things like that. What a boring way to live.
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But the question needs to be asked, how do we end Oscar
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Wilde? Have you heard that name before?
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Well, he was a very famous writer, and let's just say he
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was a very evil man, very sinful, very prideful.
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He mocked Christians and encouraged others to mock the
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Bible with him. And yet there's something that
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many people don't realize about Oscar Wilde.
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On his deathbed, he asked for a minister to come and convert
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him, Balaam from the Bible. You know, Balaam, that godless
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prophet, Do you know what he said?
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He said let me die the death of the righteous and let my end be
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like his. In other words, he could see
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that the man or the woman of God, he sees that they die
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peacefully, but the unbeliever, they do not.
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And as every man's life draws to a close, I think we all have to
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ask this very question. Who truly prospers?
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Is it the wicked or is it the godly?
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Well, I think the famous evangelist John Wesley has our
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answer. Speaking about Christians that
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he's watched time and time again step into eternity, He once
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said, our people die well. So young Christian or older
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Christian, never forget this. You are on the winning side.
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I also want to say this for anyone who's been sitting here
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thinking throughout this whole message, but Joe, it is a real
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joy to be a Christian. Well, you're absolutely right.
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There is nothing greater in the world than knowing that the
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living God who made me, who made the universe, he speaks to me
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through his words. There is no greater joy than
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praying when you have nowhere else to go, nowhere to run, and
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yet God hears you when you cry out to him.
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There is no greater joy than knowing that my sins, all of
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them past, present and future, have been nailed to that cross.
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I have no guilt anymore, no shame, because Jesus took my
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shame on the cross. And there is no greater joy than
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having fellowship with other Christians, than having a peace,
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having a mission, having this beautiful task of sharing the
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gospel with others. It is a great life being a
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Christian. But if you're not a Christian,
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what would I say to you? I would say this.
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You might look good now, but how will you end?
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Have you ever thought I'll become a Christian when I'm
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older? Once I've had some fun, once
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I've done all that I want to do, once I've lived my life, then
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I'll become a Christian. Friends, for many people, at the
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very end of their life, their faculties have gone.
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You might be lying on a hospital bed alive, but you're not with
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it anymore. And not only that, right now, as
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a young person, your heart is so tender to God.
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You will never have a more tender heart to God than you
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have right now in your youth. Why?
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Because as you go on in life. Sin hardens your heart and the
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Bible warns us that we should not be hardened by the
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deceitfulness of sin because your conscience, it does get
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duller with age, sadly. So, my dear friend, come to him
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right now, whilst you can hear His voice calling to you before
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the time of spiritual hearing loss sets in.
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Come to Him right now. Come to the One who died on that
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cross. For all of our waywardness, for
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all of our sin, for all the times he failed God, He died in
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our place so that we could have our sins washed away.
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Trust in Him, Him, trust in the one who rose from the dead,
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because He is the way, He is the truth.
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He is the life, and He gives every Christian a glorious
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future. Yes.
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So okay, right now as a young Christian, your life might be
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very tough, but I don't want anyone to forget this one key
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fact. You are on the winning side.
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And friends, I do believe for many of you, these dark thoughts
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will come like they came to me. And if that's you, I want you to
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remember this Bible study of Psalm 73, and I want you to
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learn it off by heart. OK, before you go, one more
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thing. I showed you celebrities who
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ended very badly, and some of them I imagine you'd never heard
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of. But what about the world's most
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famous preacher who in my opinion, he ended very well.
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Have you heard of this preacher? Well, go and check out this
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video right now and tell me on the other side if you do know
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who he is, yes.