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Fruits of the Spirit - Goodness · The Bread of Life with JJ

0:19
SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another episode, The Bread of Life with JJ.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to be discussing the fruits of the spirit, an ongoing segment.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: This fruit that we're going to be discussing today is goodness.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of goodness.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so glad that you join me at this moment to do so, to partake into the bread that only God, Jesus, Himself can provide.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: And I'm so grateful that through me, I can help you guide you through this part and part and give you this morsel of appetizer, bread that's going to sustain and bring life to your spirit, to your mind and body.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: And as you come and join with me, man, we're also going to drink from the well of the living water that only Christ provides.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So we'll never thirst again.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: And with this bread, we'll never hunger.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: We're also going to do communion and get into the sermons and words of the day.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And again, these things that I paraphrase and pick up from are from the great authors and doctors and pastors that have passed and come and gone, that have been influential in my life.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Charles Stanley, Adrian Rogers, the list goes on in different authors.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: C.S.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Lewis.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: These are great, great authors, great men and perspectives.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Things that they've shared in their life.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And I love to pinpoint those things and use them as well to help you on your walk and journey with the bread of life that you will live through day by day when you're with the Lord.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: I also want to talk about Latin.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: We have these cards that we have in the studio, and it was pretty cool.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I want to do different languages and we do different segments and episodes.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: So we have Greek, Latin, of course, some Spanish, but I want to do some really beautiful, you know, exotic type languages that the Lord made through life, right?
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Through other people and this world.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty interesting to me.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: But this one is Latin.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And what this murder today is where it says carpe diem.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: That means seize the day.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Seize the day.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: Hope you're seizing the day today, those listening.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: Hope that you're staying motivated and encouraged to the fact, hey, this season is coming up, a wonderful season.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: 4th of July.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: For those in America that are listening.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: 4th of July.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: So what the meaning is of goodness, because this is good.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: This is very good for our lives, right?
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And where we are today by God's grace.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: Issuing the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776, the 13 American colonies severed their political connections to Great Britain.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: The declaration summarized the colonists' motivation for seeking independence.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: And further down the line, on September 9th, the second Continental Congress adopted a new name for what had been called the United Colonies.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: The work of the Continental Congress and the subsequent creation of the Declaration of Independence had a significant impact on Western history.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: The year 1776 is celebrated as the founding year of America, and the 4th of July remains nationally celebrated as we know that.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: What are the 13 colonies?
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, the unity of the original 13 colonies.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: These things, the old flag back in the day that we have today, of course, the 50 or 51, but we have 13 in 1776, and those were arranged in the circle, and they symbolize the unity of the original 13 colonies.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Each star represented one of the colonies that fought for independence from Britain.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: We were a Judeo country, Christian-valued country.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: We formed when we came here.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: When we originated here.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Those that really know that about the Lord.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: The quality of being good, what's that full meaning?
6:29
SPEAKER_00: It's like a state of being honest, kind, you know, kind, uh generous, helpful.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: And I know there's goodness in everyone.
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SPEAKER_00: Goodness to be polite things.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes it takes more to go out and do more to be good.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that as a believer, those that follow Christ, the Holy Spirit has endowed you to have that.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: To have that patience, that grit, that understanding when circumstances come your way that you do not want to be good in.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Your behavior wants to do actually the quite opposite of that.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: But we have to understand that with those that follow Christ, follow God, that believe in God, listen, Jesus, right, it's a characteristic of God.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Goodness.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: God is good.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: We say that all the time.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Do we really mean that?
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Even when circumstances don't go our way?
7:23
SPEAKER_00: But God is good.
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SPEAKER_00: It's his characteristic.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: It's not flawed.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: But we we ask ourselves those questions.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Like, man, what is that?
7:36
SPEAKER_00: And then we think about the power within.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: We think about the power within.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't call us to serve in our own strength.
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SPEAKER_00: His goodness that he provides, it's the Holy Spirit to empower us.
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SPEAKER_00: It comes through us.
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SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 3, 14 through 21 says that it's a sobering truth.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: In our own strength, we'll never become better people.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: We can't improve our fallen nature through willpower or good intentions.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: But the good news is, God never intended for us to try.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: See how good he is?
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Like he knew we couldn't transform ourselves.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So he sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us, believers.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: As the Spirit releases his supernatural power in our life, we are able to go beyond what comes naturally to us.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: This is God's plan for every believer.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: The work of the Holy Spirit in us is multifaceted.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: Four aspects are foundational to the life of faith.
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SPEAKER_00: The Spirit illumines our mind and enables us to understand truth.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: He energizes our body to serve the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: He strengthened our will to follow through on doing right.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: He transforms our emotions so we can feel and express the fruit of the spirit we're discussing, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: You'll find that in Galatians 5, 22.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: On the Holy Spirit, only the Holy Spirit living inside us has the strength and wisdom to live out the Christian life victoriously.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: That's why God gave us his spirit so we can experience all the benefits of a godly life.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Not through our own effort, but his strength and his strength.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: So I try to do everything on my own.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna pan out like we want it to.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Cool thing about this is that he gives us a privilege of this.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: The privilege of knowing him.
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SPEAKER_00: What he's about, because he is good.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: We're delving into this, like the privilege of knowing God.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: God wants a relationship with you.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: Those listening, hear me out.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: God wants a relationship with you and has left unmistakable evidence.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: As we go into this further, there's a book of Psalms we're gonna talk about, 1 Peter.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about different Bible uh books, but we're but right now in Psalm.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: David wrote this, King David.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: There is no greater privilege than knowing God.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: So I want to explain this to you.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: And there's no greater tragedy than missing out on developing a relationship with him.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: There is no greater privilege than knowing God.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: No greater tragedy than missing out on developing a relationship with him.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: While on earth, both believers and unbelievers enjoy the benefit of God's goodness and kindness.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: It says that in Matthew 5 and 45, some people seem unaware of what scripture teaches about eternity.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Others have simply never heard the good news.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Yet Romans 1, 18 through 20 makes it clear that everyone has access to evidence of God's existence.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Everyone does.
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SPEAKER_00: And we can see that today, believe you and me, because we have social media, phones, missionaries, access.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: Creation itself, its design, beauty, and order, as we all know, point to a creator.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: So that you know there is.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: There is a creator.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: God also reveals Himself through the human conscience.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Romans 2, 14 through 15.
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SPEAKER_00: Even people without access to scripture recognize that certain behaviors like murder, theft, and betrayal, adultery, are wrong.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: There's a moral law written on every heart.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Every heart.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: And for those willing to look deeper into the testimonies of Scripture, we have God's fullest revelation.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: His Son Jesus Christ.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: John 14, 7 through 9.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: The life of our Lord, who was fully God and fully man, perfectly demonstrates the Father's heart towards us.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: His goodness towards us.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: The Almighty has made himself known through creation, through the sense of morality written on your conscience, and most fully through Scripture and Jesus' life.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: God desires a relationship with you.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: Answer with a seeking heart and watch as he reveals himself to you day by day.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: And some people probably say, Well, how is how do I do that, but I don't I don't hear anything?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: Well then my answer to you would be, what are you doing to block his voice?
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Is there something you're doing in your life, living the way you're living?
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Because you have to understand God is a holy, true, only God.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: He cannot be around sin.
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SPEAKER_00: That's that's the devil, that's what he casted out from heaven.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: So he cannot be around it.
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SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't want you in it.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: So he waits there desperately to say, can you please just just I he's not gonna go against his law that he has designed and created in this life.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: He is holy and perfect.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: If he did do that, then he would not be God.
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SPEAKER_00: He has designed a law to say you cannot do these things, terms and conditions.
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SPEAKER_00: If you do, these are the consequences.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: I love you, I'm here for you.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Call upon me, and you will be saved.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Turn away from those things that draw you from me, and I will draw near to you, and I will save you because I love you.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: And I'm giving you free will.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Not robots.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Free will.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Make a choice.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Choose me or choose not, don't choose me.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: But it hurts me to know that you won't choose me because you'll be gone from me forever, and I don't want that.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Love is awesome, man.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: It's not like what other people think, or these religious people that do the things they do that give Christianity a real bad name, an ugly name.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: That's just keep it real, you know.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: If if Christianity, we're not perfect.
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SPEAKER_00: So if people just start off the bat, even as pastors, and be like, hey man, listen, I'm not perfect.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: I have bad thoughts.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: I should not be doing the things I do, saying the things I say sometimes.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: But my heart, it belongs to Jesus for sure, because you know what?
15:11
SPEAKER_00: I get checked continuously if I'm doing something wrong.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: I start having horrible feelings.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: I feel uncomfortable.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: I feel, you know, guilty.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: I have these, like, man, I shouldn't have talked that way, you shouldn't have acted that way.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, I get reminded of stuff, you know, and I'm like, all right, it's not condemnation, it's conviction that I'm like, yeah, I need to be better.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: That's that's how you know the Holy Spirit's working in your life.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you know you got to change some things because you're willing.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: It just needs that willing part in you to blossom and open up to be the light.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: It's those that keep their heart hardened, that don't care, and that say, you know what?
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Psh, whatever.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Even like I told you, and I read earlier about the moral law in the conscience of man, I know there is.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: You know it's wrong to slap a baby.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: You get pissed off though and you do it.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Excuse my language.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You get upset and you do it.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Right?
16:04
SPEAKER_00: That's wrong.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Like you, you, you know, there's a moral law that you know, like you overstepped your boundaries a little bit, man.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: So enough said of that.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: I you know, I I don't rarely cuss like that, so those listening, you know, don't hold that against me.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It just came out.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: See?
16:27
SPEAKER_00: Pray for me.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: Pray for me.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you, what is what here's a question.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: I I love opening up with the sermons of the questions I have to ask.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you this.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: What is your view of God?
16:50
SPEAKER_00: Is it important enough that you know exactly what you believe, at least to some degree?
16:56
SPEAKER_00: And some aspect of God.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Is it important enough that you're able to share it with someone else?
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Is God important enough that you keep on pursuing your understanding and knowledge of Him to help you know how to relate to this God whom you serve?
17:17
SPEAKER_00: You see, the truth is that it affects every aspect of your life.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Your view of God is either going to strengthen your faith or it's gonna cause a lot of uncertainty.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: It's either going to give you courage, or you're going to end up with lots of fears.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: It's either going to cause you to want to obey, or going to rebel, or even seek his will, or choose to do it your way.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And either going to cause you to draw close to him or separate yourself from him, whatever it is, your choice, like I was saying before.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: Your view of God is the highest concept of your life, the most important view you have in all your life.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: It is.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: It's your view of God.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's the reason why we take the time to open God's word and find out what he does and what he says about himself.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Because there's lots of people who have lots of ideas about God.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: But what does God say about himself?
18:17
SPEAKER_00: And the best place to find out is in his word.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: So those listening, uh, the you can read uh Psalm 118, first verse, um, verse Psalm 106, 107.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: It says pretty much all of them, like, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his love-kindness is everlasting.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: He is good.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: His love-kindness is everlasting.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: And as we think of all the attributes of God, we've been thinking about his greatness and how he works and what he does.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: I I one think about it, it's a privilege of knowing the goodness of God.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, a privilege it is.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: The privilege of knowing the goodness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, when we usually think about it, most people think about just being good.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: They think about being, they don't think about him as being omniscient, omnipresent, and all the rest.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, he is a good God.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And when you think about the Bible, what it talks about, when the Bible speaks of his goodness, this is God, there's something about God that he desires to be benevolent to us, something in his character and his makeup.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be good.
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SPEAKER_00: He wants to express good things to us, he wants to do good things for us, he wants to reveal us the good things in life.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: And there's something about his very nature.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: That's who he is.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the very nature of God, remember that he is infinite in all his attributes.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: He is eternal in all his attributes.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: He's always good.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: He's always been good.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: He's good now, he's always been good.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And because he is infinitely and eternally good, everything God does is good.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Now you and I may look at some aspects of life and say, well, there's nothing good about this.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing good about that.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't say that everything happens, that everything happens is good.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say that.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say everything that happens is good.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: I said that God is always expressing good, and everything that God does is good because he is good by his very nature.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: And you and I operate.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: The way you and I respond to him may cause things to happen in our life that we don't feel very good at all.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: But God is good.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: He is a good God, and God is up to good in every single person's life.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he says that every good thing that comes our way, every good thing that is in here in this life, is a result of his goodness.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: James chapter 1.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: He says there's no variableness, no shadow of turning with him.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: That in every good thing comes from the Father who is a father of lights, he is a father of heaven.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Every good thing comes from him.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: So when we think about it, we have to think in terms of being good, of being a good God.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we need to think in our thinking, not only is that he's omnipotent and just holy, he's just a good God, he desires to be benevolent.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: He desires to express the goodness of all of us in all kinds of different ways.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: And so someone says, Well, I don't understand that, but one of the things that has always bothered me is that I see people, I see God being good to this person, that person, the other person, but I don't think he's very good to me.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, what you're saying is that you're looking at the ways in which God expresses his goodness to this group of people.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: At the person of persons, he hasn't expressed his goodness to you in the same way.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, it looks like you've come up short.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, you haven't come up short.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God isn't good.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love more or more less or or love less.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: God is just good by his nature.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: It's his, it's his character to be good.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: He says he's good to all.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's some particular requirements, for example, that God makes for us.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to turn to Psalm 84 for just a moment to see what he says in the passage.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Because God is good, no question about that, but there are some requirements.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Some requirements to express the fullness of his goodness towards us in verse 11.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord God, God is the Son of the Shield.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: The Lord gives grace and glory.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: No good thing does he withhold.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Listen from those who walk uprightly straight.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Those who walk uprightly, obey God.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And listen to what he says in the Passage of Scripture.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: How blessed is a man who takes refuge in him.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Fear the Lord, you saints.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Fear that.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: For to those who fear him, there is no want.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: To fear God is to obey him.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: So he says, God doesn't withhold any of his goodness to those who walk uprightly, those who obey him, those who walk in his will.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: God taught us goodness and does not, and doesn't he say, not in Romans 8.28, God is working everything for the good of those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: So the truth is that to see his fullness of goodness, we need, we need to walk uprightly.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: We need to obey him.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Pathway of goodness, and the pathway requires that we walk obediently before him, submissive to him, pathway of goodness.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: And that pathway requires that we obediently become as we should.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: We are obedient before him, yielded to him, submissive to him.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: All the goodness of God that he has provided for us and available to us.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: If I get off the path, what I'm doing is I'm saying that there's no better way than God's way.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think that there's something good over there that God is keeping me from.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Something God's good, and that's God, depriving me.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: That's what you think.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: So you're getting off of that.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting off of what good or something good or something good over here.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Adam and Eve did.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: That's what Adam and Eve did.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: In God's goodness, we think of having, right?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: When you think of God's goodness, some people, they think of, you know, I'm not I'm gonna say some people, even me.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: When sometimes you think of God's goodness, right?
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SPEAKER_00: This is what you think of.
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SPEAKER_00: You think of a new car, a new house, right?
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SPEAKER_00: Um, for those women, new dresses or men, new suit, new education, more, more, more.
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SPEAKER_00: New this, new that.
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SPEAKER_00: There was all this good.
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SPEAKER_00: But God is good.
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SPEAKER_00: Or, hey, you know, I need to lose weight.
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SPEAKER_00: I want to look better.
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SPEAKER_00: Goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I want to.
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SPEAKER_00: God is good, yeah.
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SPEAKER_00: He'll make that happen.
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SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't question that.
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SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to do is I want you to talk about something that are expressions of God's goodness that are absolutely and totally beyond my help of my strength of yours to do anything about whatsoever.
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SPEAKER_00: The goodness of God is expressed in more ways than material and physical things.
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SPEAKER_00: Listen, the best of God's goodness is expressed in ways that only God can express it.
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SPEAKER_00: There's gifts of his goodness that only could be from Almighty God.
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SPEAKER_00: No amount of manipulation, no amount of anything that you and I could do possibly could never bring about this.
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SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to think about these three aspects, three expressions of God's goodness to you and to me, that we cannot do anything about and can't get them unless God provides them.
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SPEAKER_00: And he certainly has.
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SPEAKER_00: And all this is on the pathway of his goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: One of the paths, or one of the ways that God expresses his goodness, is in his mercy.
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SPEAKER_00: One of the expressions of God's goodness is his mercy.
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SPEAKER_00: There's significant things outside of God's mercy that I want us to think about.
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SPEAKER_00: Because usually when we think about the mercy of God, we think only in terms of salvation.
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SPEAKER_00: But just remember, when the Bible talks about mercy, usually it's talking about God's tender-hearted, loving care, concern for people who are suffering, people who are needy, or people who are in distress.
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SPEAKER_00: And you recall, for example, in the fourth chapter of Hebrew, most of the probably know that if you have your Bibles, you can turn to it, but it's very important because it reminds us just how tender-hearted he is.
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SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 15, but we have a high priest speaking of Jesus, who can't sympathize, who can with our weakness.
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SPEAKER_00: Everyone who does one has been tripped and tempted and tried in all things, just as we are.
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SPEAKER_00: But this is Jesus, yet he was without sin.
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SPEAKER_00: So let us therefore draw near to him with confidence, assurance to the throne of grace, that we may receive what mercy is, that we may find mercy and find grace to help us, to help in a time of need.
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SPEAKER_00: He says the throne of grace is where we find mercy.
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SPEAKER_00: We find God's tender-hearted being, caring, concern for us.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, at the throne of God, that's where.
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SPEAKER_00: Mercy of God.
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SPEAKER_00: You have to always connect it with God's patience.
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SPEAKER_00: So turn to 2 Peter chapter 3 for a moment and look at the verse 9, the ninth verse.
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SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9.
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SPEAKER_00: And he is warning us, but he says, for example, the Lord is not slow about his promises.
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SPEAKER_00: It's not like he's behind some count slownesses, but he's patient.
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SPEAKER_00: He's patient towards us, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
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SPEAKER_00: When you think about the mercy of God, you think about uh the people, for example, who are not saved until they're very late in their life.
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've been alcoholics, maybe they've been on drugs, done all types of evil, vile, and wicked things.
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SPEAKER_00: They look at themselves and say, How in the world would God possibly save me?
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SPEAKER_00: Listen, you may be thinking in that about yourself.
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SPEAKER_00: You said, Look, I've lived most of my life away from God.
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SPEAKER_00: And some said, I've been toward God.
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SPEAKER_00: I've done this, I've done that.
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SPEAKER_00: You can listen numerous things, numerous things.
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SPEAKER_00: They're catastrophic to you.
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SPEAKER_00: You say, well, how could God, who is so good and be so merciful to me?
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SPEAKER_00: Because listen, you're thinking to yourself and saying to yourself, there's nothing in me that's good, everything about me, and how could God be so good to me?
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SPEAKER_00: Because it's his nature to be merciful to people like you and like me.
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SPEAKER_00: It's his nature.
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SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for something within you that requires, demands, is worthy of mercy, you'll never find it.
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SPEAKER_00: And the truth is we all have to humble ourselves before him and acknowledge.
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SPEAKER_00: There's not a single solitary one of us, it doesn't make any sense what you like, it doesn't make sense to you.
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SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense to how you lived, what you've done.
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SPEAKER_00: There's not a single one of us that can say that we deserve any of his mercy, compassion, or love.
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SPEAKER_00: God is, he's kind and tender.
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SPEAKER_00: That's an expression of his goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: His goodness is that God, yes, God.
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SPEAKER_00: And all of his goodness and all of his love and his kindness and his caring taught us mercy is an expression of his goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, let me just say something to be very clear and careful here.
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SPEAKER_00: God's mercy never ceases.
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SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
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SPEAKER_00: God's mercy never ceases.
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SPEAKER_00: But if you choose to disobey God and disobey God and rebel against God and refuse God and deny God, and you die in your sins, God does not cease to be merciful.
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SPEAKER_00: God does not cease to be merciful because it is in his nature to do so.
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SPEAKER_00: But God in his sovereign choice will allow you to die without Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: He will allow you to be eternally separated from him.
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SPEAKER_00: And from that point there is no mercy.
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SPEAKER_00: You said God is eternally merciful, is he?
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SPEAKER_00: God in his nature is eternally merciful.
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SPEAKER_00: Does he express that mercy eternally in person's life when they absolutely defy him, deny him, curse him, reject him, rebel against him?
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SPEAKER_00: Though he does not exist?
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SPEAKER_00: He has to cease to be merciful.
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SPEAKER_00: No.
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SPEAKER_00: He's not ceased to be merciful.
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SPEAKER_00: He has ceased to express his mercy towards that person who is absolutely refused and denied to listen to the acceptance of his mercy.
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SPEAKER_00: There is a difference.
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SPEAKER_00: Grace is God looking upon us and seeing what?
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SPEAKER_00: Seeing our helplessness, seeing our hopelessness, seeing the absolute depression which we find ourselves in and desperation.
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SPEAKER_00: And doing what?
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SPEAKER_00: Seeing all that, knowing that you and I could do nothing for ourselves, God chose to justify us and declare us no longer guilty.
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SPEAKER_00: He chose to forgive us, he chose to redeem us, sanctify us, in essence, save us from the guilt of the penalty of our sinfulness.
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SPEAKER_00: He assumed full responsibility there.
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SPEAKER_00: And what do you mean by that?
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SPEAKER_00: Well, let's take an illustration.
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SPEAKER_00: It's very important for you to get this.
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SPEAKER_00: For example, if I were a store owner, a store owner, I own a store, and you came to mine, you said, and you realize, hey, be out$1,000 out.
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SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
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SPEAKER_00: You owe$1,000, you come in, and I say this to you, I cancel the debt.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm a store owner.
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SPEAKER_00: I have full authority in my store.
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SPEAKER_00: I want to cancel your debt.
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SPEAKER_00: All I got to do is say, debt canceled.
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SPEAKER_00: And the debt's over.
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SPEAKER_00: Or the president, for example, the country.
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SPEAKER_00: He could say to someone, I'm going to pardon you, which he has, right?
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SPEAKER_00: He has the authority and a position and the power to pardon someone.
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SPEAKER_00: And that person is free simply by an act of his thinking, an act of his choice.
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SPEAKER_00: Listen, God cannot assume responsibility for your sin.
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SPEAKER_00: Penalty and guilt by simply saying no longer guilty.
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SPEAKER_00: He cannot, God, he cannot do everything this way.
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SPEAKER_00: God can do everything but violate his own law.
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SPEAKER_00: I've always said that God can do anything but fail, but yeah, he can do everything but violate his own law.
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SPEAKER_00: And here I want you to see, because the emphasis is what I'm trying to express to you, um, the the core of this Christian life.
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SPEAKER_00: So listen carefully.
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SPEAKER_00: God cannot simply say forgive and redeem, reconcile, sanctified.
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SPEAKER_00: He cannot.
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SPEAKER_00: Why?
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SPEAKER_00: Because God is a just God.
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SPEAKER_00: And being just, he must.
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SPEAKER_00: He is truthful.
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SPEAKER_00: And being truthful, God abides by only his own character and his nature.
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SPEAKER_00: There is nothing the Bible that says God overlooks sin, God ignores sin or God bypasses sin.
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SPEAKER_00: Every single solitary sin and every single sinner, their sin must be dealt with.
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SPEAKER_00: That sin is not just pardoned and forgiven by a great grandfatherly God who decides I'm going to do that.
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SPEAKER_00: It's good for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Listen carefully.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot explain grace.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot explain forgiveness.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot explain salvation.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't even express the goodness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: Grace apart from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't, there is no goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: There is no goodness of God that is expressed in grace apart from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: It is the only way God can assume full responsibility for your sin.
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SPEAKER_00: My sinlessness and the penalty and the guilt.
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SPEAKER_00: It is to do something about what he has done.
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SPEAKER_00: He can't say forget it and forgive because he said the soul, it's the soul that shall die because God has decreed the soul that it shall die, and it's a responsibility for God to do something.
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SPEAKER_00: So, what did he do?
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SPEAKER_00: He chose to come to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ as that and die on a cross, shedding his blood, paying a full, absolute, total, adequate, sufficient penalty for your sin and mine and for the sins of the whole world.
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SPEAKER_00: It is in the death of Jesus Christ that God's goodness is able to be expressed through grace that brings about our forgiveness and our salvation.
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SPEAKER_00: You cannot have grace apart from the cross.
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SPEAKER_00: The goodness of God cannot be expressed in grace apart from the cross.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't have salvation, redemption, you can't have sanctification, justification, glorification.
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SPEAKER_00: You can't have anything of the goodness of God expressed in grace apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: That is the law.
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SPEAKER_00: That's it.
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SPEAKER_00: That is the law of Almighty God, and that is the heart and the core.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the foundation of the whole Christian life, and that whole foundation cannot express that adequately enough.
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SPEAKER_00: So when someone says, Well, God is good, well, if God is good, now you know.
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SPEAKER_00: And if he is going to be good, he just he forgives me of my sins.
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SPEAKER_00: He has assumed full responsibility for your sins.
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SPEAKER_00: So how does he do it?
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SPEAKER_00: He does it by sending his only begotten son to the cross.
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SPEAKER_00: He says, Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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SPEAKER_00: My response, my responsibility is to receive the grace of God.
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SPEAKER_00: How do I receive the grace of God?
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SPEAKER_00: I receive the grace of God the moment I accept his son Jesus Christ and his death at the Calvary as full payment for my sin.
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SPEAKER_00: Until I do that, there's no forgiveness.
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SPEAKER_00: And as good as God may you want him to be to you, you cannot receive the goodness of his salvation until you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.
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SPEAKER_00: No man comes to the Father but by me and the pathway of goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Listen, the pathway of goodness is paid to the blood of Jesus Christ.
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SPEAKER_00: And that isn't just some idea, some biblical terminology.
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SPEAKER_00: That is the reality of life.
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SPEAKER_00: And when I think about the fact that anyone could live their life and they ignore God, when it is absolutely crystal clear in this book that he is the source of every single good thing.
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SPEAKER_00: And that he's expressing his goodness in his verses and expressing his goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Not only his mercy, but expressing it with his grace and his love for us.
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SPEAKER_00: And I was so close sometimes, you know, and overthinking things in my life.
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SPEAKER_00: But then I got to see and be reminded when I was listening to a song, like the goodness of God, like his goodness, no matter where I've been at in this life, how he has saved me, how he has provided for me, how he has loved me.
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SPEAKER_00: When no one else is loving me, man, when when I was down and out at my lowest low, he still showed me love through people, mind you.
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SPEAKER_00: Through little acts of kindness through people, or things I would find because he knew I needed something.
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SPEAKER_00: I would always find cash on the ground.
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SPEAKER_00: You can ask my wife one day on when we talk in these podcasts are our encounters that we have had on the streets of Los Angeles, California, and the goodness of God.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, he knows whose is his and he takes care of his.
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SPEAKER_00: But there's going to be a point in time where we go through some things.
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SPEAKER_00: Testing of our metal, a refining, crucible experience, a season that you can't explain because I don't, I couldn't explain why.
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SPEAKER_00: But he had his reasons.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's when that moment comes where you understand you've seen his goodness and how he's blessed you.
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SPEAKER_00: But then when you see some turmoil come in your life, you're like, wait a minute, a minute, is this God?
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SPEAKER_00: Like, what am I doing?
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SPEAKER_00: And you could be doing everything right, as I'm saying, and stuff still happening.
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SPEAKER_00: As the Bible says, hey, uh rain falls on the wicked and the righteous.
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SPEAKER_00: So it, you know, whatever a man sows, they reap too in life, right?
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SPEAKER_00: So no matter what, you can see God's goodness even for some of the mistakes that I've made.
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SPEAKER_00: I see his love.
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SPEAKER_00: As the Psalm says, His love for me still.
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SPEAKER_00: And him saying, Come on, go this way.
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SPEAKER_00: Everything's gonna be alright.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful for that.
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SPEAKER_00: And for that reason, and for the example, that's why we're gonna break bread right now as we close.
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SPEAKER_00: And this is from 1 Corinthians 11, what Paul wrote the letter to the Corinth, the church of Corinth.
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SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk about what he said and what the Lord did at the supper, the last supper that he had before he went to Calvary for our sins.
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SPEAKER_00: So he said, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
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SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, he took bread.
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SPEAKER_00: And when he had given things, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
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SPEAKER_00: Taking his body.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord God.
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unknown: Thank you, Jesus.
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SPEAKER_00: And in the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.
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SPEAKER_00: Do this whenever you drink it.
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SPEAKER_00: In remembrance of me.
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SPEAKER_00: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death.
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SPEAKER_00: Until he comes.
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SPEAKER_00: I proclaim the Lord's death.
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SPEAKER_00: I proclaim that.
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SPEAKER_00: Until he comes.
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SPEAKER_00: I am his.
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SPEAKER_00: So whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink the cup.
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SPEAKER_00: Examine yourself, those that are listening.
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SPEAKER_00: Get your heart right before you decide to do this loyalty of dedication you feel to the Lord.
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SPEAKER_00: This moment of communion and church that we have together and gathering.
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SPEAKER_00: Examine your spirit and your heart.
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SPEAKER_00: Know God's goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Remember the things that He's done to you in your life and for you.
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SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about the people and the choices that people have made to you and how they've hurt you.
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SPEAKER_00: See how God's goodness came out of these things and how he's working these things out for you, as it says in Romans.
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SPEAKER_00: And if there's prayer that you need or anything in that nature, please reach out.
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SPEAKER_00: Bread of Life with JJ at gmail.com, the bread of life with JJ at gmail.com.
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SPEAKER_00: Things will be updating soon.
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SPEAKER_00: More events, more donations, more things that we're going to be doing for our community and for God's people.
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SPEAKER_00: So please be looking forward to that and reaching out and video to come very soon.
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SPEAKER_00: But for now, I'm grateful for y'all tuning in and hear my voice.
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SPEAKER_00: Please take heed and remember God's goodness.
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SPEAKER_00: Examine your heart.
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SPEAKER_00: Know that He loves you and He's for you.
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SPEAKER_00: And He wants nothing but the best.
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SPEAKER_00: Believe that.
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SPEAKER_00: So until next time, know that God loves you.
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SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
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SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves you.
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unknown: Thank you.