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Living Waters of Grace 09.01.25 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
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  ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
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  Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
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  Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
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  Word. God gives grace to the humble,
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  not the proud, not someone that says I'm going to just do what I
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  want to do and live my life the way I want to live it.
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  No, the Bible says that God resists the proud.
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  He resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, to
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  that one who will say yes, Lord, I blew it, I was wrong, I
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  sinned, please forgive me. That grace is there for us.
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  That's grace. Imagine what it's like to be in
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  a relationship with someone who constantly betrays us, speaks
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  negatively about us, and does so much more.
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  Would we really choose to stay with someone who treats us that
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  way? That's the difference between US
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  and God. While we struggle to fully
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  understand the depth of God's love for his creation, we can
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  reflect on how he continues to love us unconditionally
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  yesterday, today, and forever. So today, Pastor Lewis invites
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  you to open your heart and let God into your life so you can
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  experience his love. Now.
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  Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of Jude, chapter one with
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  today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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  So if we go back to the third verse of Jude, it just simply
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  says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you
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  concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to you
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  exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which
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  was once for all delivered to the Saints.
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  So as we said last week that Jews sat down with his pen and
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  paper and had the intention to write about our common
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  salvation. Maybe we want to write about
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  justification. Maybe he wanted to write about
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  just the gospel itself. Maybe he wanted to share some
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  truths about the gospel, about sanctification or some things of
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  that nature, or just to rejoice and encourage his readers in the
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  gospel, this common salvation that we have, which brings us
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  and binds us all together. But instead, the Holy Spirit
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  directed him to write concerning or exhorting them to contend
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  earnestly for the faith. Now when we talk about
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  contending for the faith, we're talking about this, this word
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  that basically means to strive or to agonize for the faith.
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  And not only just to contend for the faith, but to do it
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  earnestly, to do it earnestly, to do it fervently, intensely,
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  sincerely, to contend for the faith, which is what you and I
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  should be doing every day. Every day we go into the Word of
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  God and we read the Word of God and we fill ourselves with its
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  truth. It gives us the strength, it
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  gives us the the confidence in Jesus to stand on his word and
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  to be able to contend for it. And we're not talking about
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  quarreling and fighting with people over it.
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  The Bible says that the man of God should not quarrel and
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  should not strive, but we should stand for truth and not waver
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  from the truth and not allow ourselves to be deceived by
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  things that are not true concerning the Word of God.
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  That we would not be deceived to add on to it or not be deceived
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  to take away from it, but to take the Word of God the way
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  it's given to us as it was given to the apostles through Jesus
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  Christ. This is the truth, and we talked
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  about that last week, but we did.
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  We are to seriously and fervently strive, contend
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  earnestly for this truth. So you might ask the question,
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  well, why did he bring that up? Then why is God asking him to do
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  this? And he tells us in verse four,
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  he said because certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago
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  were marked out for this condemnation.
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  Ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and
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  deny the only Lord God, God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  I have it down here saying that creeps crept in, They crept in.
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  So this crep in means that they came in subtly.
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  They came in deceptively, came in through the side door to the
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  back door. You know then, and what that
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  means is that they didn't just come through the front door and
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  say, you know what? I'm a false teacher and I'm
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  about to destroy everything that God is trying to build in this
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  place. They don't come in with that.
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  They don't come in here saying that I have a doctrine that I'm
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  going to bring in that's going to be totally contrary to
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  everything you guys have been listening to.
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  They don't come in that way either, but they come in subtly
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  and deceptively. They actually come in looking
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  and sounding like us. And as I go through this, I
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  don't want this to be a, a, a, a word of condemnation against
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  anybody. It's not that God is giving us
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  these words so that we are warned, just like he gave it to
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  them to warn them. These are tricks of the devil.
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  These are deceptive ways of the evil 1 And unfortunately, he
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  uses people. He uses people that sound like
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  us, that look like us, that act like us, to try to deceive us,
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  to try to get us to step away or to turn away from the truth.
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  That's just the way the enemy is.
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  And Jude is saying here that I want you to be aware of it.
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  But Jude wasn't the only one who tried to warn us or who did warn
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  us about this. Jesus warned us about it.
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  He said back in, in, in, in Matthew 7 and 15.
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  He said they're going to come in like wolves coming in wearing
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  sheep's clothing. That sheep's clothing just
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  simply mean that they're going to all look like sheep.
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  We're all going to look like sheep together.
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  We're sitting beside another person that looks like a sheep,
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  but inwardly, inwardly they're wolves that has an intention to
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  destroy what's being built here. Paul also talked to us and
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  warned us in the book of Acts. In chapter 20.
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  He said men were coming from among you.
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  They're going to rise up from among you, not sparing the flock
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  and speaking perverse things, perverse things, things that are
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  totally perverted from the gospel truth.
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  And then Peter in second Peter 2 and 1, he says false teachers
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  will come in secretly bringing in destructive heresies,
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  bringing in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord
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  who bought them, denying the Lord Jesus Christ who bought
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  them, bought them. Then it goes when he said that
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  these are ungodly men who turn the grace of our Lord Jesus
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  Christ into something lewdness, into something lewd, into
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  something indecent, ungodly men. That means that these men really
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  aren't even saved. Their ungodly, their thoughts
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  are ungodly and impure. Their ways are ungodly, but they
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  come in looking like us. Verse 19 says over in the later
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  part of Jude, it says that they don't even have the Spirit.
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  And of course, Paul himself said that if any man doesn't have the
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  Spirit of God, that he's none of his.
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  They turn the grace of our God into lewdness, into something
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  immoral and decent. You know, grace is something
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  that has been really misused and abused in the church,
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  unfortunately. You know, grace is a wonderful
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  thing. Jesus came full of grace and
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  truth. It's a wonderful thing, but when
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  you get someone who can pervert it or will pervert the enemy,
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  will try to pervert anything, even the grace of our Lord and
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  Savior Jesus Christ in this situation, because they are
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  Gnostics and they believe that the body is evil.
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  But the mind or the spirit, I'm sorry, is, is, is what's
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  righteous. And that's the only thing that's
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  important is the spirit. But your body, you can do
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  anything you want to do with that, anything you want to do
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  with the body, go and sin as much as you want.
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  This is what they were convincing people.
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  And of course, part of their worship was sexual immorality
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  was, you know, sex, full sex, sex acts.
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  That was part of the Pagan worship.
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  So they were convincing the people, these false teachers
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  will come in and convincing the people that it's OK not to use
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  your body to do anything you want to do with it.
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  Well, you know what stood out to me a couple weeks ago when Clark
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  was teaching on on 1st Corinthians and he talked about
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  the fact that our bodies are not our own.
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  Our bodies are not our own and we're not to use the grace of
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  God to try to cover up our sin. I just want to go back to Romans
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  for a second. Romans chapter 5, Paul talks
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  about this grace. He, he, he, he corrects this
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  false thinking about this grace over in the book of Romans
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  chapter chapter 5 and verse 20. He says, moreover, the law
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  entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abound,
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  grace abound much more. So that is so that as sin
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  reigned in death, Even so grace might reign through
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  righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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  So now we're asking the question, So that means I can
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  just sin then, because we got grace, that will abound anymore.
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  And Paul answered that question, didn't he?
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  Look at verse 1 of chapter 6. He says, what shall we say then?
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  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
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  No, he says, certainly not. How shall we who die to sin live
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  any longer in it? How should we who die to sin
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  live any longer in it? In First Corinthians 619 and 20.
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  Clark eloquently taught about this a couple weeks ago, where
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  he says we are bought with a price.
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  Our bodies are not ours to do anything we want to do with it.
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  And I still remember the example he gave of the of a parking lot,
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  you know, full of cars and they all got the keys in it.
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  And you take somebody who just want to take something that
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  doesn't belong to them and go out in the parking lot, choose
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  the car that they want, go in, take the car, which is called
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  stealing the car and drive it and do what they want to do with
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  it. Because it's because it looks
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  like a sports car. I'll drive it fast because it
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  looks like a luxury car. I'll just lean in it so
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  everybody can see me. Oh, come on, you guys remember
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  to lean. You guys remember the lien, All
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  right? But it's not my car.
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  But I'll still take it to do what I want to do with it.
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  And he talked about the fact that the police will come and
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  they'll arrest them and ask the question, What made you think
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  that you could take someone else's property and do what you
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  want to do with it? What a good illustration of us
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  with the Lord Jesus Christ. This body now belongs to him.
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  He died on the cross for it. He purchased it with his own
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  blood first. Peter 118 and 19.
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  He says, you know, we weren't redeemed, you know, with, with
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  with things like gold and silver, but we were redeemed
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  with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
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  You can't put a price on that. There's no price we can put on
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  that. But yet scripture says over here
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  in Jude that they deny the only Lord God, they deny him and even
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  over in second Peter and I want to take a look at that one too
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  because it even talks about how they deny the Lord who bought
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  them in second Peter. He says this.
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  I got pages that are actually falling out of my Bible.
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  It's time to get a new one. Second Peter chapter 2 and verse
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  one, it says, but there we're also false prophets among the
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  people, even as there will be false teachers among you who
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  will secretly bring in destructive heresies and denying
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  the Lord who bought them and will bring upon themselves swift
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  destruction. You know, we have to really
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  understand what it means that we now belong to Lord Jesus Christ.
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  We now belong to Him. We are the slaves.
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  Jude himself said I'm a bond slave, which actually means that
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  I am a slave. I'm a bond servant.
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  I'm a slave of Jesus Christ, a willing slave.
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  We're not forced to be slaves to Jesus Christ.
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  We are willing slaves. We give ourselves to Him, to be
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  slaves to him. Lord, remember when I got saved
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  and when I finally realized and looked back on my life and
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  looked at how much time I wasted?
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  I remember saying, Lord, I don't know how much time I got left.
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  I've wasted so much of my life doing what I wanted to do, so
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  much of my life looking for my own will, expressing my own will
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  and not surrendering to His will.
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  Lord, I don't know how much time I got left, but whatever I have,
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  Lord, I want to give it to you. Whatever I have left, I want to
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  commit it to you, submit it to you.
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  And we're not perfect in this walk.
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  We blow it. There's still times when I still
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  do what I want to do. I've shared those with you
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  before. But because of the Holy Spirit
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  who's in us, we can be convicted of those things, and we turn our
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  hearts and our minds back to Jesus Christ in repentance.
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  Lord, I'm sorry I sinned once again.
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  I blew it. Please forgive me.
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  That's the grace that we have in Jesus Christ when we humble
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  ourselves and admit our sin and confess our sin.
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  He is gracious and He's good and He is faithful to forgive us of
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  our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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  That's the grace that we have in Jesus Christ.
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  God gives grace to the humble, not the proud, not someone that
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  says I'm going to just do what I want to do and live my life the
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  way I want to live it. No hit.
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  The Bible says that God resists the proud.
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  He resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, to
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  that one who will say, yes, Lord, I blew it, I was wrong, I
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  sinned, please forgive me. That grace is there for us.
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  That's grace. That's grace.
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  And then in verse 5, he goes on and he says, but I want to
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  remind you that once you that that you know, they want to
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  remind you though you once knew this and we talked before about
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  how Peter even talked about always reminding, you know, we
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  do. That's why we come here every
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  every Sunday because we want to be reminded of what the word of
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  God says, you know, and, and that's why I love coming to a
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  church like this, because you guys come every Sunday and you
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  bring your Bibles, which means that you intentionally come to
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  hear the word of God and to read the word of God and to study the
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  word of God, to understand the word of God intentionally.
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  You do. And that's why you bring your
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  Bibles. That's why you bring them.
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  But this is remind you when, when, when Pastor Clark stands
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  up here so many times and I hear him teaching the word of God, It
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  reminds me of things I may have read a while ago and haven't
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  read in a while. And I make a mental note to
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  myself and I go back and I look at those things again because he
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  reminded me. He reminded me.
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  Or when you're in a study, a men's study in the morning, or
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  you women in your women's study on your Bible class, you know,
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  your Bible studies that you do the men's studies from time to
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  time. You'll hear a scripture that
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  maybe you haven't read in a long time and it reminds you and you
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  go back and you read that Scripture again.
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  But this is what Judah saying. Judah said.
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  Look, I know that you know this. I'm not saying this to you
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  because I don't think that you know it, but I'm saying it to
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  you because I want to remind you.
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  And when he's reminding them of his, as he said, though you once
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  knew this, that the Lord having saved the people out of the land
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  of Egypt. Now I want to go back here for a
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  second. He's going to give 3 examples of
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  those who through self will, pride, rejection of authority,
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  rejection of God, have sinned. Cosmopostates, they sin, and
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  because of their sin there was judgement.
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  Sometimes it's really good to go back and see the historical
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  record because the Old Testament does give us a good picture of
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  the righteousness of God, a righteousness that we can't live
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  up to ourselves, which is why Jesus came.
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  But I'll get to that in a minute.
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  But he says here, I'm going, he says my first example I'm going
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  to use is going to be the people who God delivered.
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  He saved them out of the land of Egypt.
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  You guys know the story because of Joseph being, you know, sold
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  by his brothers and he end up going into Egypt, ending up in
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  Egypt and and when he ended up in Egypt because of God's favor,
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  he ended up being like second in command in Egypt.
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  I don't want to go through the go through the whole story.
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  You guys know the story. But he end up being second in
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  command because God's favor was upon him because he was a
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  righteous man. But while he was there, after he
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  died, the Bible says there arose a new Pharaoh who knew not
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  Joseph. You know, there was a new boss
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  in town and he didn't know anything about Joseph and didn't
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  know anything about these people When and all of a sudden the
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  people of Israel became a, a thorn in that guy on in on the
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  new Pharaoh's side. And he oppressed them and he put
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  them into slavery and he oppressed them for for many
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  years, many, many years. And then he sent a deliverer.
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  And it was Moses who he he sent, who delivered these people.
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  He used to deliver the people from Egypt and, and, and he, but
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  he delivered them all. This is the point of this
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  example. He delivered them all, all of
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  them. And they all went into the
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  wilderness on their way going to the promised land.
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  They all did. But while they were in the
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  wilderness, he destroyed those who did not believe because of
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  unbelief. They were judged and they were
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  destroyed and because of their, and it came in a lot of
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  different ways. It came in rejection, it came in
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  rebellion, it came in sexual immorality, all kind of ways of
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  just not trusting the those Caleb and and Joshua, when they
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  went in to spy out the land. And when they went to spy out
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  the land, they came back and gave a report and said, look, we
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  can go in and take it. The other people that was there
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  said no, we can't take it because they're too much for us.
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  And because of their unbelief, they didn't go in.
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  So the first generation of that group in Egypt, none of them
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  went in besides Joshua and Caleb.
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  It was their children who ended up going into the promised land.
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  Their children. None of them went in because
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  they were judged because of unbelief.
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  Let's not have unbelief in our hearts to miss what it is God
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  wants to do for us. Even as the the centurion said
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  one day, he said, look, I believe, but help my unbelief.
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  And we all have some areas of unbelief, if we're honest with
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  ourselves. And you find out those areas of
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  unbelief whenever adversity hits US and it hits US hard sometimes
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  and it's hard for us to believe that God will pull us out of
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  this or even can pull us out of this like, oh, I'm doomed.
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  This is not going to end right? And we take our eyes off of him
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  and we started looking at people who can help me with this.
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  What can I do for myself to pull myself out of this?
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  Let's not be caught in unbelief. And then the next example he
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  uses, he uses the example of the angels.
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  And he said then the angels who did not keep their proper domain
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  but left their own abode. He has reserved an everlasting
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  chains under darkness. So you went from the children of
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  Israel to now he and, and how they were judged because of
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  their unbelief. And now he goes to the angels,
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  these angels and, and, and what we have to understand is that
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  angels have free will. Angels have free will and, and
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  Satan himself have free will and he chose to rebel against God,
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  to rebelled against God. And because of that, he and the
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  angels who rebelled with him, which was 1/3 the Bible tells us
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  we're cast out of heaven. We're cast out of heaven.
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  They decided that they wanted their will and not God's will.
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  They wanted to do what they wanted to do and not do what God
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  wanted them to do. Oh, they had a proper domain.
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  They had a place in heaven. They were there, but they turned
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  away from them, turned away from God to follow their own will, to
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  follow their own heart. And the Bible says as a result
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  of that, He now has done reserved in everlasting chains
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  under darkness for the judgment of the great day.
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  Just think about that. Because they were looking to
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  have a life of freedom to do what they wanted to do, to live
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  their own free will and not surrender to the will of God.
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  They still end up in bondage. They still don't have any
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  freedom. They're in the darkness chain
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  darkness because of their decisions to live their own life
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  the way they want to live it. But you know what?
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  That's no different than what we have and where we are.
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  You've been listening to Living Waters of Grace with Pastor
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  Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA.
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  As Pastor Lewis continues to preach through the book of Jude,
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  he wants you to realize that you can't be a part time Christian.
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  If you're going to follow Jesus, he is going to ask for your
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  undivided loyalty. If you try to serve your own
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  interests while following Jesus, you find that you can't do
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  either one successfully. But if you run after Jesus with
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  everything you have, you'll be amazed at how He provides for
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  you and sustains you on the journey, even when you have no
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  idea of where your provision will come from.
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  If today's message has encouraged you, we'd love to
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  hear your feedback. You can visit
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  ourwebsite@calvarychapelonline.com where you'll find our contact
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  information as well as links to our social media pages.
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  And while you're there, we ask you to consider giving to
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  support the ministry of Living Waters of Grace at 91.7.
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  Grace FM continues to minister to our community in Westmoreland
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  County. Your gifts help us keep the
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  gospel on the airwaves, reaching those who may never set foot
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  inside the doors of a church building.
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  Encourage others to listen online at Grace Radio dot FM.
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  You can also find our mobile app so you can take these great
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  teachings with you wherever you go.
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  And if you're not in Westmoreland County, you could
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  still be part of our service by subscribing to our YouTube
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  channel. You'll get notified of new
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  content in live streams and past teachings from Pastor Lewis and
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  Pastor Clark Laufer. We hope you'll TuneIn next time
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  for Living Waters of Grace.