Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #10243 - The Abundant Graciousness of God - Exodus 34

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#10243 - The Abundant Graciousness of God - Exodus 34 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Take your Bibles, open them.
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Exodus chapter 34 is where we are.
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Exodus chapter 34 and I've been taught at our Bible study the
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abundant graciousness of God. He's so abundantly gracious to
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us. We see this part of His
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character lived out in the life of Moses and the children of
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Israel. During this season of the
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history of the nation, our focus has been and will continue to be
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on Moses through Exodus. Moses was an amazing man with an
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incredible heart. I, I would say as I've studied
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his life, you do a character study on Moses.
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One thing you will see is that he had a heart for the Lord.
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He had a heart for the Lord. He loves God and because he
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loves God, he loves God's people.
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He serves them, gave himself for them.
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Later on in his life, he'll write what's become known as the
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Shema prayer in Deuteronomy. You can turn there.
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You can jot it down, but listen to what he writes.
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This is how God used him to record this prayer in
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Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 4.
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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1.
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You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your
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soul and with all your string. Moses lived this before he ever
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wrote it. He could say with great
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confidence, with all of his faults and all of his failures.
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You, you listen to loving God with all your heart right now.
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And there's so much hesitation, so much.
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Well, but Ed, you don't understand where I'm at or you
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don't know what I've been into or you don't know what I'm
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struggling with. You don't and, and all of the
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areas where I, I just don't know that I could love the Lord God
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with all my heart. But you can.
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It's the love that God has given to you.
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And you can bring all your baggage if you're willing and
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open, you'll bring all your baggage to the Lord and you'll
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leave with much less, if not all of it as you cast your cares
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upon the Lord. But Moses wasn't perfect.
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He he wasn't a man that got it all right.
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He, he lived this out though. You, you, if you get to, if you
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got to interview him and talk to him, maybe after a big failure,
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you go MO, what's going on, man? What happened?
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He said, but I love the Lord. I love him with all my heart.
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And this was a failure or a mistake or a slip up.
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Over the years we've seen Moses change and change for the good.
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Turn over to since we're in Exodus just to chapter 2.
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Notice in chapter 2, pick up in verse 11.
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We've seen Moses change, but we've also seen him in order to
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change. There's been great failure and
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notice what he says, what the Bible says in verse 11.
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Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that
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he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens and he
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saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.
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So he looked this way and he looked that way and when he saw
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no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
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I would say that's a big failure.
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I would say that's a great difficulty.
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He has this burden for the people of God.
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He has a great love for God. He wants to be used by God.
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He, he's desiring to do the right thing, the wrong way.
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And it's a significant wrong way.
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It's going to cost him a third of his life.
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I, I know when we talk about failures and we talk about
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difficulties, we talk about consequences.
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We would rather not have the consequences, but we can't
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control that part. That's, that's the, that's the
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difficulty with sin. You see, we, we think we can
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control the sin. We think we can control the
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narrative, we think we can control the outcome.
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But once we step into sin, we're out.
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It's done. The consequences roll in and he
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lost a third of his life. I'm sure if you interviewed him,
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he's like, yeah, I mean, I, I, God used it in my life, but I, I
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wish I didn't do it. I, I, I wish I would have had
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that changed in my life. It was a dark mark in my life.
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How, how does, how does a man that has a heart to deliver,
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loves God has a heart to deliver the nation?
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How does a man go from wanting to kill the enemy to then
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wanting to lay his life down in order to save the nation of
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Israel for Moses? We're told what happened.
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We're not told how it happened, but we're told what happened.
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And that was he got 40 years in the backside of the wilderness.
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Time alone with God, time of obscurity, time of faithfulness,
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time of Hey Lord, here I am, I'm going to live my life.
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Time of consequence, time of difficulty.
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He gets he gets times of trying and testing pain, but there's
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progress, just like Peter said in first Peter chapter 4 and
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verse 12. Beloved, don't think it's
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strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as
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though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to
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the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings.
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And when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with the
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exceeding joy. The 40 years in the wilderness
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really worked. These were God's tools.
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They really worked, first of all, for what God had for Moses,
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but second of all, what God received or Moses received from
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God. It's one thing to be in the
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wilderness, but you could be in 40 years in the wilderness right
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now, kicking, screaming, upset, complaining, and, and never let
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God do his work like you're in the wilderness.
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Like what? Just stick it out and see what
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God wants to do. This is where you're at.
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Or you can complain about him, be upset about it and fight God
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and kick against the goads and, and never really find out what
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it is that God sees in us that he wants to develop in our lives
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through trials, through difficulties.
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It's been said that you know, the, the time of trials and
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difficulty and hardship in our lives can either make us better
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or can also make us bitter. It's your response.
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It's the same trial. What makes the difference?
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You and me abiding in Christ or not allowing God to develop us
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or not embracing the process that God has in our lives or not
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looking back on the life of Moses.
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Paul, when he writes to the Hebrews, says this in Hebrews
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Chapter 11 verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he became
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of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
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choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of
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God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
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That was before the murder. That choice was pre failure.
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He made a good, hard choice. My heart is with God, and
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therefore my heart is with His people.
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My people He chose before the failure.
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Notice what he says as he says, that he choosing rather to
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suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
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passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ
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greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
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For he looked to the reward by faith.
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He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he
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endured as seeing Him who is invisible even before the
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wilderness in his heart was a love for the people of God.
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As any true leader will agree. Any true leader, any true
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servant of the Lord will say that a motive in their heart is
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not just to please God, but because they love the people.
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I mean, if you have a leader in your life that doesn't love you
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or they love the people, then you've, you need to find
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yourself another leader. I mean, this is a man or a woman
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in tune with the Lord is going to make decisions even in their
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own lives. Some you may know about, most
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you'll never know that they will make decisions of self sacrifice
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because they're thinking of you. I mean that that's a pretty
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amazing thing to to consider how God would put people on our
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lives that would think of us more than they think of
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themselves. And that's the work of God.
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That's the church. Can you imagine with your holy
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imagination if the whole church live like that and we're all
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thinking of each other more than we think of ourselves and we're
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just like, no, you first, no, you nothing ever get done
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because we're always 1. You first.
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No, you first, no, you first, no, you first like, but, but
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what a sweetness that God can do in your heart to love people.
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But it wasn't just the lovely that Moses loved.
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That would be too easy. Just the good ones, just the
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easy ones, just the ones that do and walk and and are.
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No, no Moses, you'll see it throughout his life.
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He also loved the unlovely. He also loved the difficult.
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He also loved the murmurs and complainers.
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Because there's another 40 years of his life yet to take place
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that is still yet in the future. Well, he'll be in the wilderness
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again, but not because of his sin.
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He's in the wilderness again because of the unfaithfulness
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and unbelief of the people. And what does he do?
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He loves them, intercedes for them.
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Again, not perfectly. Let's not paint a picture like
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he was a perfect leader. He was in no way a perfect
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leader, but he loved and he loved deep and he loved those
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that perhaps were more difficult to love at times.
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He stuck it out with these guys and didn't give up.
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Yes, he did let his anger get to him and he suffered great loss
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because of his anger. He misrepresented all these
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years. He represented God well until
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the end and it finally got him and he struck the rock, rock
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twice. He disobeyed God, he
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misrepresented God to the people, and he didn't get into
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the go. He didn't get to enter into the
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promised land with the nation, with the second generation.
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But even then, God was so gracious to give him the
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opportunity to be with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
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So he did get in in a physical way.
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By the grace of God, He did take them all the way.
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So encouraging. Now in chapter 34, we gained a
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little bit greater insight into the prayer life of Moses, how he
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prayed for them, how he had them close to his heart.
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Like the priest, he wasn't a priest, but like the priest
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would carry the nation and stones, the names of the tribes
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on their breastplate near their heart.
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We can learn a lot from the prayer lives of people, prayer
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that time of burying our heart before the Lord, opening the
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windows into the very heart of the matter in our own lives.
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If you were, you can if you want, but if you were to record
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your prayers and listen to them later, you would be able to tell
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how you were feeling on that day just by your prayers.
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You would be able. So let's say you had a prayer
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from 1986, and you have to bring a cassette for that, but you
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have a cassette tape, your prayer life in 1986.
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You kind of forgot what that day was like.
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But if you listen to the prayer of that day, it would tell you a
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lot about that day. The Bible says out of the
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abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
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And how much more when you're speaking to God in Luke 6:45, it
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says a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings
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forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his
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heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the
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heart his mouth speaks. I quote that all the time, but
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here's the address, Luke 6:45 so you can memorize it.
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So as we're praying, our hearts are exposed.
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Our prayers will reveal whether we're selfish or selfless.
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Whether I'm laying my life down or I'm rising up, my prayers
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reflect whether I'm walking in the spirit or walking in the
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flesh. And it's so good to talk with
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the Lord. Notice verse 1 of chapter 34.
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And the Lord said to Moses, cut 2 tablets of stone like the
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first ones, And I'll write on these tablets the words that
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were on the first tablets which you broke.
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Isn't that great? This is God.
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He doesn't waste his words. He says, oh, by the way, I'm
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going to redo the tablets, the ones you broke.
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You know who else is going to break them?
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It was just him and Moses. I thought that that's funny.
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Verse 2. So be ready in the morning and
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come up in the morning to Mount Sinai.
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Present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain, and no
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man shall come up with you. And let no man be seen
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throughout all the mountain. Let neither flocks nor herds
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feed before that mountain. So carve some more stones, come
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back with them. I'll write, I'll write the law
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over again and and be careful, nobody can be there.
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Nobody can feed their verse 4. So he cut 2 tablets of stone
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like the first ones, and roses rose early in the morning, and
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went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him.
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And he took in his hand the 2 tablet tablets of stone.
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Then the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there
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and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
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And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord.
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The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
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abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
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forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no
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means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
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fathers upon the children and the children's children to the
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3rd and the 4th generation. This is powerful stuff.
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And this is in the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant,
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powerful stuff. This is the nature in the heart
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of God of Yahweh. This Jehovah's saying, this is
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who I am. This is how you relate to me,
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the name. We don't know the exact
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pronunciation, but generally vowels are vowels are added to
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it. So it is either Yahweh or
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Jehovah. That's when you see if you're
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looking closely in your new King James Version Bibles is what I'm
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using. You'll notice in verse, in verse
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5 there then the Lord, you might see all the letters capitalized.
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That's the translator's way of trying to show you this specific
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Hebrew word, YHVH. It's trying to show you the
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reality of that word Yahweh. It speaks of His character and
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His nature. It's His name.
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And so notice how, what, what does His name mean?
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What, what, what is He trying to reveal to us about Him?
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Notice first of all, it says that the Lord God is merciful.
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He's merciful toward us. How does that live?
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Doubt. We don't get what we deserve.
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Can I get any men on that? Like, don't be praying for
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justice. I know you're always looking for
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justice, but the justice that we deserve is eternity apart from
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him. And he says, no, no, I don't
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want you to experience justice. Jesus taking the full wrath and
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pain of my justice upon himself. And you can experience it by
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faith. He's not only merciful, but
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notice He's also gracious. Gracious is getting what we
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don't deserve and that's what we God be gracious to us.
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Merciful he is as you're praying for that.
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He won't answer that prayer because this is who he is.
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He can't be anything other than who he is.
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I remember the verse in, in in my life that comes up over and
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over again is God put it in the Bible for me.
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I mean, perhaps He put it in for you too, but He put it in for
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me. If we are faithless, He remains
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faithful. And then what does it say?
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He can't deny himself. So when you pray according to
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his character and his nature, God, be merciful to us.
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Be merciful. He will answer.
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That's who He is. Be gracious, He will be
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gracious. Know what's next.
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He's long-suffering. You don't even need to me to
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prove that to you. God is patient with you.
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He is patient with me. Many times God is so patient for
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with us that we misinterpreted as approval.
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We misinterpret his his patience with us, like He let us get away
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with something. I think of so many kids.
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Oh, well, you know, I did something five years ago, but I
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got away with it. No, you didn't.
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God is being patient with you. His long-suffering, the Bible
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says is for what? Salvation.
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He wants to save you. He's not letting get out,
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letting me get away with anything.
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He's not overlooking those things that he will, he will
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bring to light everything that's hidden.
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Jesus said now what he's what you're experiencing is patience.
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God says I'm not impatient with you.
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I'm not impatient with you. I'm not ungracious.
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I'm not unmerciful. I don't get exasperated by you.
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I'm patient with you. Not only that, notice it says
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He's abounding in goodness. He's not just good, he's
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abounding it. He overflows.
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That word abounding in the Hebrew speaks of overflowing.
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He's overflowing in goodness. His cup of goodness never runs
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empty, always overflowing. Not only that, notice he's
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abounding in goodness. And what truth Jesus came in
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grace and truth. He's abounding in truth.
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You can trust God to share the truth with you every single
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time. You will only get the truth from
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God. He will only reveal that which
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is right, just, and true to you. Not only that, notice what he
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says in verse 7. He's the Lord God, the Lord.
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He keeps mercy for thousands, and He forgives iniquity,
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transgression, and sin. He's the God who forgives all
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our trespasses and sins, no longer covering them like in the
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old covenant in Jesus, the Lamb of God, he what takes away the
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sins of the world. He doesn't just cover them.
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Every year you have to offer a new sacrifice.
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The Bible declares Jesus wants for all was delivered for the
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Saints. He takes away our sins and he
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cast them away. And here's the thing, this is an
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important aspect I want to share with you before we move into the
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next verses here. This section of Scripture is so
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beautiful and so glorious and so wonderful.
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And so just just, if you just came here on a bad day, you'd be
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encouraged by the goodness of God.
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Your heart would melt and it's all lost because of a fake
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doctrine that's created right here.
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And now. Everybody wants to argue about
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the fake doctrine. Everybody was worried about the
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fake doctrine. Everybody's concerned that that
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they're never going to get out of their sin because of somebody
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taking these these verses after the true character of God and
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misinterpreting them and mis teaching them and we go, what is
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that Ed Well, right here he visited the iniquity of the
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fathers upon the children and the children's children to the
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third and 4th generation. Verse 7 has been twisted and
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contorted to say something that it really doesn't say.
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Listen carefully, please, I beg you.
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This will set some of you free whether you're in the sanctuary
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right now, listening online, watching online, listening on
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the radio. You could be in the middle of
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Delaware like we received a call today and God will set you free
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with this truth right here from Colorado because it came from
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heaven and from God himself. You ready?
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Are you listening? You got your listening ears on.
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There is no such thing as generational curses.
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That's not what this verse teaches.
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No such thing. It is not true or biblically
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accurate to say or to teach or to lay some heavy trip on
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someone that there are generational curses and that you
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are bound by the sins of your father, mother, grandmother,
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grandfather for generations. There's no such thing.
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It's man made teaching. Reject it.
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Reject it. That's not what this teaches.
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What this teaches is that God will always visit iniquity on
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the Father's and the children's children of the 3rd and 4th
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generation in their sin. Of course He will.
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Of course He will. The Bible explicitly teaches.
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I'm going to show you in a moment, the Bible explicitly
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teaches. You don't have to figure it out.
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You don't even need a dictionary.
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You don't need to know the Greek or the Hebrew.
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The Bible is so clear on this that God will hold you
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responsible for your sin and hold me responsible for my sin
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and my children. My grandchildren will not pay
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for my sin by living it out the rest of their lives now.
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They may suffer the consequences of my sin for sure.
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They may learn bad habits from me that will hurt them in the
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future for sure. For some of you, you've had a
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father that has abandoned you and left you, and now you are
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wounded with a father heart wound in your life of
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abandonment. And so you kind of see things
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through abandonment. You are hurt because of what
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your dad did, but that is not a generational curse.
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It's the consequences of sin. You are not bound by it.
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You can be set free. God can heal that heart that's
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hurt from abandonment. God can heal that heart that you
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watched your dad drink and be violent.
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God can heal that heart where you heard or saw things in your
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home that no child should ever hear or never no child ever
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experience. God can heal that the blood of
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Jesus Christ is sufficient that He is doing a work.
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You are not bound. You are.
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No, you do not need somebody to come into your life and go.
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I know it's exactly what your problem is.
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You have a generational curse and guess what?
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God sent me into your life because I'm a professional
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deliverer. No, Jesus Christ is the only
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true deliverer, capital D, and He has delivered you, and He
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will deliver you, and He will continue that work in your life.
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Let me give you a couple verses, OK?
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Just turn back. For example, in Exodus 34 or
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excuse me, in Ezekiel chapter 18.
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I'll just read it to you, Ezekiel chapter 18, The soul who
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sins shall die. OK, you guys with me so far, you
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do you understand that? Do you need an explanation on
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it? I know you don't.
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We're all it's that simple. Listen to the next one, it's
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even simpler. The son shall not bear the guilt
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of the father. Do you guys hear that?
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The son, and that would be daughter as well, will not bear
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the sin of the father of the mother, nor the father bear the
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guilt of the son. The righteousness of the
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righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked
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shall be upon himself. Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse
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16. Fathers shall not be put to
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death for their children, nor children be put to death for
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their fathers. A person shall be put to death
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for their own sin. Look back at Exodus chapter 32.
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For me, I don't even need to turn the page.
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Exodus 32 When you get there, notice with me in verse 30.
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Now I came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the
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people, You have sent a great sin.
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So now I'll go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for
23:53
your sin. And Moses returned to the Lord
23:55
and said, Oh, these people have sent a great sin and have made
23:59
themselves a God of gold. Yet now if you will forgive
24:02
their sin, but if not, I pray blot me out of the book which
24:06
you have written. But the Lord said to Moses, no,
24:12
whoever has sinned against me, I'll blot their name out of the
24:15
book. Moses, that's not how it works.
24:20
I'm not going to accept you as an offering for the sinful
24:23
people. They're going to have to pay for
24:26
it themselves. That principle was important
24:29
because if we then can take the full bearing weight of our sin,
24:33
and we must, then when we place our faith in Jesus, we
24:37
understand that he took the full weight of our sin.
24:42
He didn't take the full weight or the partial weight of our
24:45
sin. And then leave some generational
24:46
curse in your life and say, all right, I saved you, but you're
24:50
really still in trouble. You're not going to change.
24:54
You're just going to be stuck because of the family you were
24:56
born into. You don't have any choice in
24:58
that matter either, did you or the family you were adopted
25:01
into. I didn't really have much choice
25:03
in that matter or or the neighborhood you lived in.
25:05
You didn't have much choice in that matter or what food you ate
25:08
or like that. All the things that you had no
25:10
choice, just a little kiddo living life born.
25:12
You have no choices. I'm going to save you.
25:15
But the way you were raised in the family you're in, that's
25:17
going to play you the rest of your life.
25:18
There's no way to get that. Does that even sound like God
25:21
who is merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in
25:29
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving,
25:32
iniquity, transgression? But of course he's not going to
25:35
clear the guilty, the unrepentant.
25:38
Of course he's not the unrepentant, even among us now,
25:42
those hiding sin or whatever you're into, of course you don't
25:46
have a peace. Of course you're always looking
25:49
over your back. Of course you're wondering about
25:52
the future, and you're all upset because you're not in
25:56
relationship with God. You you've broken relationship
26:01
and that's not going to be an easy life to live.
26:04
God said as much. Thankfully.
26:07
My faith in Jesus Christ breaks the cycle of sin.
26:11
He took the curse upon himself. He did it in my family, my
26:16
generation, and I pray that in my children as well and my
26:19
grandchildren. But my generation changed the
26:22
whole course of my family. I did God doing a work in my
26:27
life changed the whole course of my family.
26:29
It enabled me to serve my family that was older than me, my dad,
26:32
my mom, the people that were still alive.
26:35
But it also changed my whole household and how my kids were
26:38
raised and and what my home was and the altar unto the Lord and
26:42
how we handled things. We weren't just going to be a
26:45
moral family. We weren't just going to try to
26:47
do good for culture. We became a home through the
26:50
blood of Jesus Christ, breaking the cycle in my life, breaking
26:54
the cycle of my family. My parents were wonderful,
26:56
beautiful, wonderful people, but we didn't live a a life to honor
26:59
God. But not in my house.
27:02
It changed generational change. It's important.
27:05
Replace this idea of generational curses with what
27:08
really happened. You were born again.
27:10
What really happened when you were born again is God exploded
27:13
in your family with generational change.
27:17
That you as a man or a woman of God now following Jesus has
27:20
brought generational change into your family forever and ever and
27:24
ever. Amen.
27:26
You are not stuck and bound. I've done other Bible studies
27:30
much deeper than that, but we couldn't get past this because
27:32
here's the thing, Christians in general, at least in our
27:36
generation, they love to argue about things and miss the whole
27:38
point. They miss the whole point that
27:41
that even the time that I've spent to explain this, I could
27:44
have just read you a scripture and moved on.
27:46
That's how you guys are well taught you.
27:48
You receive the word of God. But I know people listening to
27:51
me need to be convinced, and I'm ready to convince them.
27:53
I'm ready to show them. Right here.
27:55
You tell me what it means that you don't pay for the sin of
27:57
your dad. Tell me what it means.
27:59
I'll tell you what it means. You are set free.
28:02
That's what it means. Right now.
28:04
You can lay before you. And I know the habits are hard
28:08
to break. It's an interesting thing, you
28:10
know, You grow up and go. I'll never be like my mom.
28:13
And then you look in the mirror like, oh, my gosh, I'm a little
28:15
bit like my mom. Yeah.
28:18
You grew up in her home. I'll never be like my dad.
28:21
Well, you know, you look and you go, I am a lot like my dad, but
28:27
you're also a lot not like him and a lot lighten and a lot not
28:31
like her. Why?
28:33
Because of the grace of God, because he's gracious and he's
28:35
merciful and he's patient and he's long-suffering.
28:40
That is what you can see now, the fruit of the spirit.
28:43
Now you look at your life and go, OK, wait a minute, I'm
28:45
wrestling with some areas in my life and it's because my family
28:48
or whatever. But then you look and go, wait a
28:49
minute, There's I'm loving, I'm gracious.
28:53
Where did that come from? I've never been loving or
28:55
gracious. Yeah.
28:56
But the Spirit of God lives in you now.
28:58
And now you're a man and a woman, Lovejoy.
29:02
Peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control,
29:09
faithfulness, all these characteristics that have come
29:11
in your life, come in your life because of the grace of God, and
29:17
you're going to sit around blaming A generational curse for
29:20
something that God has already delivered you from.
29:24
He's already replaced that reckless life with self-control.
29:28
It's already yours. Live by faith, trust the Lord.
29:33
He's intervened in my life. He stopped the pattern.
29:38
He stopped the pattern and it would have been, quite frankly,
29:43
my home would have been much worse than the home I lived in
29:47
apart from Christ. It already was.
29:50
It already was a disaster. It was already going to be a
29:55
divorce. It was already going to be
29:58
having very little input in my son's life.
30:00
It was already going to be that way.
30:03
But the Lord is able to do what man cannot do and he's able even
30:08
in the brokenness. You sit here today, but you get,
30:10
you say, my, my life is still broken and it's still hard and
30:14
I'm sorry. But even in the worst situation
30:17
it is right now, there is improvement on the way.
30:20
There is improvement on the way. You turn your heart back to the
30:23
Lord and he'll begin the work of restoration and redemption
30:27
already. And if it hasn't happened yet,
30:29
well, but that I've been waiting for that for a long time.
30:32
Will you just keep waiting because the Lord is faithful and
30:36
in the waiting, your strength is being renewed, your prayer life
30:39
is stronger. You're crying out to the Lord,
30:41
and even in the worst situations, what's happening?
30:44
You're becoming a better man of God.
30:46
You're becoming a better woman of God, and you're watching God
30:49
work. Not in the situation.
30:51
We were just praying. That was one of our prayer
30:52
requests. Get our eyes off of the
30:54
situation and get our eyes back on the Lord.
30:57
Let Him do that deep work in your heart.
30:59
So with that in mind, come back to Exodus 34 verse 8.
31:03
So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and
31:06
worshipped. And then he said, if now I found
31:09
grace in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray go among us,
31:13
even though we are a stiff necked people, and pardon our
31:17
iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.
31:20
If you missed our time and our study last time, you should
31:23
listen to it. We talked about stiff necked,
31:27
stubborn people and the Lord did a great work.
31:29
It was a great response. It was really good.
31:31
So you can have a great response even now to confess that
31:35
stubbornness and stiff neckedness before the Lord verse
31:38
10 and he said, behold, I make a covenant before all your people.
31:43
I will do marvels such as not been done in all the earth nor
31:46
in any nation, and all the people among you are among you
31:50
shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that
31:53
I will do with you. Observe what I command you this
31:56
day. Behold, I'm driving out from
31:58
before you, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
32:01
Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
32:05
What was the response from Moses here?
32:07
OK, again, I just want to build a little bit so you understand
32:10
when you're reading the Bible. This is a real response.
32:13
What was the response to Moses when he hears the character of
32:17
God revealed, merciful, kind and visiting the iniquity upon them
32:21
for generations? Did Moses say no, do not put on
32:25
us a generational curse, don't do it.
32:28
No, that's not what he said at all, is it?
32:30
It's nowhere. You know what he did?
32:32
He worshipped. It's like God, this is amazing.
32:37
He it says right here that as He he bowed and worshipped at this
32:42
verse, at this revelation, he didn't argue about it, create
32:46
some fake doctrine about it or add a tablet.
32:48
So you got to add this one to the tablet.
32:50
You know, I know I came down with two, but you need to add
32:53
this one as some do today. You need to make sure you want
32:56
it. No, no, no.
32:57
He's worshipped because he heard the Lord and he experienced the
33:03
grace of God and he had a relationship with God.
33:07
And he says, I know we're stiff necked, but pardon us, Lord, we
33:12
throw ourselves on your mercy. And he says in verse 12, take
33:18
heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants
33:21
of the land where you're going, lest to be a snare in your
33:24
midst. But you shall destroy their
33:26
altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their
33:29
wooden images. Verse 14 For you shall worship
33:32
no other God. For the Lord whose name is
33:35
jealous is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the
33:39
inhabitants of the land. And they play the harlot with
33:41
their gods and make sacrifice to their gods.
33:45
And one of them invites you and eat to eat of his sacrifice.
33:49
And you just pause for a second here.
33:51
This is a good warning to them because even without the
33:53
enemies, they already did this with the calf.
33:58
All it took the first time was no temptation and no temptation
34:01
with false gods, no sexual sin, although they participated
34:04
sexually, I think, around this golden calf.
34:07
But they haven't even met the enemies yet.
34:09
They haven't even dealt with the land yet.
34:11
And all it took early on, all it took for them was what?
34:15
Impatience. That's all it took for them.
34:18
Hey, can you make this, you know, impatience with a poor
34:21
leadership? Those two things led to great
34:23
sin. That's all it took.
34:25
But now he's warning them. You're going to go into the
34:27
land. I'm going to drive these people
34:29
out, but they're still going to some remain.
34:31
So when you get there, no covenants with them, No
34:35
covenants with them, No covenants.
34:38
Why? Because their idols will entice
34:40
you. It will be very tempting what
34:43
you see in the land. Isn't it sound like a
34:46
conversation with your kids? It'll be very tempting what you
34:49
see in this world. It'll be very tempting when you
34:52
have that phone or that browser open.
34:54
It'll be very tempting when you go off to school.
34:56
It's going to be very tempting. But here's what's going to be
34:59
best for you. Stay true to the Lord with all
35:04
that you see. Stay true to the Lord.
35:09
And what would you say, parents with your kids, You probably
35:11
also add as we did, and talk to us.
35:16
Come and talk to us. Just come and talk to us.
35:19
It'll be hard. You'll be scared, but just come
35:21
talk to us. We'll help you navigate through
35:23
it. We won't pounce down down on you
35:26
because the temptation will help you.
35:27
And even if you have big failure, come to us because
35:30
we're the ones that can help you get out.
35:33
And can't you hear God say, and OK, if you have temptation,
35:35
wherever you just come to me, we'll work it out.
35:39
Let's talk about it. Let me show you.
35:41
Let me reveal your heart to you because you don't even know your
35:44
own heart. So just come to me.
35:46
I could just hear the Father saying, just come to me.
35:49
I can hear Jesus say, just come to me.
35:50
If you're all weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
35:54
I'll give you clarity. I can just hear God say trust in
35:58
the Lord, trust in me with all your heart and don't lean on
36:01
your own understanding. Don't try to figure your way out
36:03
of it. Try to cover it.
36:04
Try to just trust in me with all your heart.
36:07
Don't lean on your own understanding and just
36:09
acknowledge me in all your ways and I'll direct your paths.
36:13
I'll help you out. Can't you hear God saying that?
36:15
Oh, he did say that. Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and
36:19
6. He did say that that that is the
36:22
pathway to help and strength and wholeness.
36:26
So he's warning them and they it's a good warning because
36:29
they've already done this without the temptations.
36:32
Verse 16 and be careful, he says that you do not take your
36:36
daughters for you and and take of his daughters for your sons
36:41
and his daughters Play the harlot with their gods and make
36:44
your sons play the harlot with their gods.
36:46
That's do not be unequally yoked in the Old Testament because it
36:50
will have an effect on you. Evil company corrupts good
36:55
habits. Verse 17 you shall make no
36:58
molded gods for yourselves. That's a given.
37:00
That's a that's a slam dunker. Don't do it.
37:04
You just drank the you drank the last one you made, So don't do
37:07
it. Verse 18, the feast of
37:10
unleavened bread, you shall keep seven days.
37:12
You shall eat unleavened bread as I command you in the
37:16
appointed time of the month of Abib.
37:19
For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt, all that open
37:25
the womb or mine. Verse 19 And every male first
37:27
thing among the livestock, whether ox or sheep, but the
37:30
first thing of the donkey, you shall redeem with the lamb.
37:33
And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck.
37:37
All the first born of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall
37:41
appear before me empty handed. Verse 21 Six days you shall
37:46
work, but on the 7th day you shall rest in plowing time, and
37:49
in harvest you shall rest. And you shall observe the feast
37:53
of weeks and the first fruit of the wheat harvest and the feast
37:56
of the end gathering at the year's end.
37:59
Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the
38:02
Lord, the Lord God of Israel. Who is the Lord God of Israel,
38:05
by the way, who is that gracious, merciful,
38:10
long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping
38:13
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression?
38:16
Remember that. That's the God.
38:20
He says, I want you to come with me.
38:21
And the men need to come three times a year and worship and
38:24
Remember Me. Verse 24, I'll cast out the
38:26
nations before any man are before you and enlarge your
38:30
borders. They came out of Egypt with
38:33
literally nothing. They don't have any land, no
38:35
real estate, nothing. They came with the plunder of
38:37
the Egyptians, of course, but they don't have anything.
38:40
They came out with nothing. And now God's saying no, I'm
38:42
going to enlarge your borders. You just follow me, stay close
38:46
to me, obey me. And it's going to be a blessing.
38:48
You're going to live a blessed life.
38:50
It's not going to be without battles or temptations.
38:53
You're going to see bizarre, weird things.
38:55
You didn't ask to see them, but you're going to see them.
38:58
They're going to be people going after you, going after your
39:00
kids. There's going to be people
39:01
discouraging you. And like, you're going to,
39:03
you're going to see some stuff God says, but Remember Me and
39:07
you're going to be fine. Obey me and you'll be blessed.
39:13
And isn't it true? There's always blessings for
39:16
obedience and consequences for disobedience.
39:20
It's always that way. And so he says, I'm going to
39:24
cast out the nations. I'm going to enlarge your
39:26
borders. Neither will any man.
39:28
Verse 24 covet your land. When you go up to a pier before
39:31
the Lord your God three times in the year, you shall not offer
39:34
the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice
39:38
of the feast of the Passover be left until morning.
39:42
The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring to the
39:45
House of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat
39:49
in its mother's milk. And the Lord said to Moses,
39:52
write these words. For according to the tenor of
39:54
these words, I've made a covenant with you and with
39:57
Israel. So it was there with the Lord 40
39:59
days and 40 nights. He neither ate bread nor drank
40:03
water. And he wrote on the tablets the
40:05
word of the covenant, the 10 commandments.
40:08
So he's basically saying, when you guys get into the land in
40:11
your prosperity, Remember Me? It's a powerful way of checking
40:16
our own personal dedication to the Lord is seen with what we
40:20
do, with what God has given us. It is not the amount that God
40:26
has given us, but rather what have we done with what God has
40:30
given us. If God has given you less than
40:33
he expects less. If God has given you more than
40:37
he expects more. But it's really how has God been
40:41
drawing from you with the possessions that you have?
40:46
And what do you do when He enlarges your border?
40:50
Do our possessions possess us, or do we possess them for the
40:55
glory of God? Are they distracting us from the
40:59
deeper things? It's that what we're sold out to
41:01
for the things? When I give God the first, my
41:04
heart will follow afterward. It's a silly thing.
41:08
I know it's not too significant, but I remember how important the
41:11
first iPhone was to me. I had this clunky little thing
41:15
with a keyboard on it, and one of the brothers here came in.
41:19
One of the elders at the time came in and was showing off.
41:23
He was the only guy in the church that I knew that was
41:26
showing off his iPhone. And I remember I made fun of it
41:30
and I only because I didn't have one and we were bantering back
41:35
and forth and he wrecked me by bringing that thing in the
41:38
building because from that moment on, I wanted one.
41:42
But I knew that it was a clunker and they needed a few more to
41:46
improve because it was brand new and I knew it wasn't all that it
41:49
could be. And it was just they were
41:50
testing things and and it would be better to wait a few
41:53
versions. It would have been better to
41:55
wait a few versions. So what did Ed do?
41:57
He didn't wait another a few versions.
42:00
He saved. He saved and toward the end, not
42:03
even really knowing, I didn't really even know the process.
42:06
Even though I'm not a dumb man, I had still had something to
42:09
learn and I didn't know the process.
42:10
I brought it. He bought it early and I bought
42:12
it maybe six months later. Oh, guess what?
42:15
The new one came out nine months or whatever.
42:19
I'm like, Oh well, guess what? My brother did got the new one
42:23
and now he's got a better one than me and I'm like, well, this
42:26
one's a conquer. I knew it was a conquer, but
42:27
that one that has Internet connection there, whatever,
42:32
whatever it was. And how many years are we?
42:35
We're not even 1213 years later and I've got a couple of those
42:40
in my drawer. They don't work, they're not
42:42
charged. It's nothing, just a hunk of
42:46
metal. Do your possessions possess you?
42:50
Like, is that something simple like that as an indicator?
42:54
Is that what you really want? Is that are you going to be
42:56
thinking about now? Is that, is that what you want?
43:00
You, you're saving up. Got to get it, got him in only
43:03
maybe not even saving up. We live in a culture we're not
43:06
don't even save just you got a credit card, just do it.
43:09
I know it's 45% interest, but we'll deal with that later.
43:14
And the world has just taught us and influenced us to not think
43:18
of the Lord when we make purchases, to not think of the
43:22
Lord when we're blessed, to not think of the Lord.
43:26
If one of the temptations of our culture, it's the bizarre things
43:29
we see. It's one of the bizarre things
43:31
that we see in our culture is that our culture teaches every
43:35
single one of us not to think of others more highly than
43:37
ourselves. I know there's some benevolent
43:40
thing organizations and some charities out there.
43:43
I, I commend them and appreciate them for their love of our
43:46
community. But they're the exception, not
43:49
the rule. They exist because most of the
43:52
culture doesn't care. That's why charities exist.
43:57
Must much of them. They want to help because they
44:00
don't see help. And yet the church is totally
44:04
different motives. We help because we see need, but
44:07
we also help because we love God and we love people.
44:13
We love God and we love people. I think of how much benevolence
44:17
is in the room right now that nobody else in the room knows
44:21
because you didn't do it. Do it to tell us you didn't do
44:24
it to announce it. You didn't send out a blast
44:28
e-mail. You will not.
44:29
You will. I had an amazing weekend.
44:30
What do you what do you do? Well, I gave out 322 1/2
44:34
burritos. It took me 72 hours to make
44:37
them. I I actually had 1300 beans and
44:41
you're just letting us everything.
44:42
You know, you don't do it that way.
44:44
You make a batch of burritos, you go downtown, you love
44:46
people, go home, pray for them. Why you're not blasting on
44:51
Instagram so everybody can know how good of a person you are.
44:54
You're not letting, oh, look what I did.
44:56
No, because of the lawyer. You did it for the Lord.
45:00
I think of this church in general, not only us
45:02
individually, but also this church in general.
45:05
We don't blast on the screens all the things this church does
45:10
in the community. We don't want you to go look at
45:13
this. Look at us.
45:15
They just know that the church as a whole, not only
45:18
individually, but the church as a whole, we do what the Lord
45:22
leads us to do in the community and it's a beautiful thing.
45:27
It's a beautiful thing that to not let your right hand know
45:30
what your left hand is doing. It's a beautiful thing just to
45:33
step into someone's life and say, hey, I know this is going
45:37
on, but just if anybody asks what happened, just tell him the
45:39
Lord did it because he did. You tell him the Lord did it.
45:43
You just point him back to the Lord and his faithfulness.
45:45
It doesn't matter how it happened.
45:47
I mean, personally, I, we'd love to do things super anonymously,
45:50
but it's not super. It's not really possible that
45:53
way. But for the most part, we, we
45:55
aren't going to draw attention to ourselves.
45:56
It's not about us. It's about the Lord taking
46:00
territory and enlarging borders and helping.
46:04
And whether we do it as a church corporately or you today, you
46:10
just help somebody with a meal, or you paid someone's Starbucks
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drink or you, whatever, the church living in community,
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loving people in Jesus name, don't you underestimate even the
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smallest kind thing you do in Jesus name.
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God will bless it. He will multiply it.
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And you will find that when you possess your possessions and
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they belong to the Lord, you'll be surprised just how much will
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flow through you, right? Because when it stops with you,
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it seems like the flow stops, but when you are just a conduit
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and and God says that's a man and that's a woman I can trust,
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then it just and it just comes through you as fast as you can
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get it through. And all these people start
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showing up that God says, this is the one, this is the one,
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this is the one. You go, Lord, you're also going
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to be up in line with that brother that does the marriage
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ministry. You know, we're I'm going to be
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waiting the back on. How did you get up there?
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Said go on. Never said anything yet, but
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just wait, wait till you see what I do with my crown.
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I was like, what are you going to do with your crown?
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Cast it at the feet of Jesus because it doesn't matter.
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We're not going to be bragging in heaven.
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You know, Well, you know, I did this much and I did that.
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If we're not going to be bragging in heaven, we shouldn't
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be bragging on earth. You know, just point people to
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the Lord. That's what God's saying.
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That's what he's telling them. I know there's some guide rails
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and I know there's some things in, but where he's really saying
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is just look, I'm going to prosper you.
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You're going to be blessed. Be a blessing.
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Be a blessing. Just just give it away.
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Give your time. Give your prayer.
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Give your effort. I know we talked a lot about
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sacrifice, but man, it's really not sacrifice.
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It's normal Christian living. It's normal.
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It's normal. Yeah, I know we can't do
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everything, so let's be careful here.
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What? We can't do everything, but
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we've got to do something in our lives toward others.
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That's the heart of God as we wrap it up here.
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You see, Moses had a heart for God.
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When he writes, love the Lord God with all your heart, soul,
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and mind. He's writing it as a man who
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loved God with all his heart, soul, and mind.
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I believe that's one of the reasons God chose him to write
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it. You understand it?
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Write it down. Yes, Sir, write it down.
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Let the people pray this way so they'll know that this is what I
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want from them. I want their love because I've
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given them my love and it all points to Jesus, all points to
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him. So Father, thank you for your
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word for the privilege of being conduits of all that you have.
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I just remember our pastor Chuck Smith and then to my pastor Jeff
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that would say that somebody taught him one day God that he
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he that you cannot give God and his heart was just pricked to
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try to and just to be generous, not for competitive sake, but to
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experience the blessings of being submitted and surrendered
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to you. So I pray for our church.
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I thank you for their faithfulness.
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May you do wonders in their lives in Jesus name, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
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prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
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877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
49:50
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
49:54
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
49:59
Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.