Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / My Times Are In His Hand | Pastor Daniel Batarseh | New Year’s Eve

Transcript

My Times Are In His Hand | Pastor Daniel Batarseh | New Year’s Eve · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  I want I want to give you a phrase or sentence in the
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  scripture that you would hold dear to your heart going into
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  2023. You would hopefully hold on for
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  the rest of your life, with whatever years, the Lord, and
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  his goodness would give to you. Psalm 31.
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  And let's begin here in verse 11.
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  Here's what David writes, because of all my adversaries, I
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  have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors and
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  an object of dread to my acquaintances.
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  Those who see me in the street, flee from me, I've been
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  forgotten like one who is dead. I've become like a broken
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  vessel. For I hear the whispering of
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  many Terror on every side as they scheme together against me
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  as they plot to take my life. If you want to know the dominant
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  theme in the Book of Psalms it's lament sorrow, it's not praise,
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  it's not Thanksgiving. It's lament.
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  And that's the honesty of the holy spirit in the Bible to show
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  us what can really occupy the heart of man.
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  Even for those who are Jesus and this is David lamenting
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  lamenting and praising at the same time, but here he is.
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  Experiencing certain level of suffering, that is overwhelming.
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  He's experiencing the slander, the accusation, the
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  assassination of his character even as acquaintances are now,
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  betraying him those who are familiar with him, those who
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  he's probably work with talk with eight with are now also
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  joining with his enemies to try to annihilate him.
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  And so he's overwhelmed, he's overwhelmed, some of you have
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  known what it can do to you. When you even hear somebody
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  who's Told You Secondhand, that so-and-so said something.
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  About you, you lose sleep, you wonder you think you question.
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  You doubt. This man is not only
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  experiencing the trouble of people scheming against him.
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  They're planning to actually kill him.
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  Now, think about what that will do to you and so he can only do
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  what he knows what to do, and that's to come to God.
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  And to pour out his heart to spill his soul, in the presence
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  of the Lord. And as he's crying out to the
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  Lord, something happens, there are sprinkles of Hope and
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  messages of faith in this song. But there's a there's a
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  Monumental statement that he makes and he rehearses over
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  himself and even to us who would read this thousands of years
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  later and verse 14. He Comforts himself by saying
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  but But I trust in you. Oh Lord.
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  I say you are my God. You're not just the god of the
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  world, you're not just the god of the universe, you're not just
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  the god of Israel. You're my God.
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  You're a personal God to me. You're a God.
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  Who sees me? Who knows me and who will do
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  something for me, you are my God.
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  And then this is the phrase that I want you to etch on your
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  heart. It's in verse 15.
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  My times are in your hand. My times are in your hand rescue
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  me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors So, in
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  all of this, what was a bomb to his soul?
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  Was the Revelation that in the hand of God were the times of
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  David. Notice he didn't say, this time
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  is in your hand, he could have said that and I would have been
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  right. But the holy spirit's revealing,
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  something greater than my times plural.
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  What he means by that is the totality of my life.
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  And with all the seasons that color, the timeline of my
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  existence, every chapter of my life is in your hand, you are
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  the author of it, you are the one who determines every single
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  up, every single down the moments of prosperity, the
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  moments of persecution, you were the one who is constantly
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  supervising my days, and this is what comforted him in a time
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  where he seemed like he was going to be swallowed.
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  Up by those who hated him without a cause he looks to his
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  God and says, my times are in your hands.
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  Meaning no one can do anything to me.
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  Unless you allow it, you determine it.
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  And you are the one who keeps me until you think it's necessary
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  for me to not be kept anymore. You know, the picture in the
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  Bible of a hand, speaks of strength, speaks of security,
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  speaks a Power and Jesus to assure us of the security of our
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  Salvation says of us that we are.
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  We're in his what hand? And no one can snatch us away
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  from him. No one can pry.
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  Open his fingers to capture us from his grip.
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  It is settled. It is eternal.
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  It is set and the same hand listen to me very carefully.
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  Who holds secure your Eternal fate, is the same hand who holds
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  together your times on Earth. He's the one who determines.
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  What? What times are we talking about?
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  Well, you know what? We'll do it.
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  Everything that you can think of under the sun.
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  Is under his control of your life.
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  And let me just brush over these real quickly.
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  You might feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose, but
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  it's okay. I want to talk to you about the
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  times of your trials. He is, the determiner, he is the
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  one who writes and etches and creates the curriculum of your
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  sanctification. Can I show that to you in
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  Revelation, 2, and Revelation 2? And I want you to see what he
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  says to this church. Barrett mentioned the two
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  churches that received no condemnation from Christ.
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  And this is one of them, the church in Smyrna, and he says,
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  here in Revelation 2:9, I know your tribulation and your
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  poverty but you are rich and the slander of those who say that
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  they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan do
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  not fear what you are about to suffer behold?
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  The devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may
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  be tested and For 10 days, you will have tribulation.
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  This is, this is one of the most comforting versus when it comes
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  to trials. This, this verse came into my
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  life when I was in during a trial that I thought would never
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  end it, just, I couldn't catch a breath.
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  It was so intense that it felt like I was drowning though.
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  I was perfectly fine in terms of my breathing and my health and
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  on my everything. God in his Providence, put this
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  before me. And this is what he revealed.
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  Do, not fear what you are about to suffer, behold, the devil is
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  about to throw some of you into prison.
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  And here's what bless me because that sounds terrifying.
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  Imagine the Lord writing a letter to us.
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  So this church in sink some of your unit, go to jail and the
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  Jail's of this time did not look like the Jail's of today.
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  That you may be tested and for 10 days, 10 days, who determined
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  that Satan. Who determined that it would be
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  for 10 days, is God? Jesus himself.
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  Satan is going to come, he's going to snatch some of you, a
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  put you in prison, but it's going to only be for this amount
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  of time. How do I know that this is
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  Jesus? Well, not only is he the one
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  revealing it, but because if we know anything about the
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  character of the evil one, he doesn't want to stop tormenting
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  you. He doesn't want to steal from
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  you. He doesn't just want to kill
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  you. Jesus says, he wants to destroy
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  you. I mean, you would think that
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  things would stop at kill. No, he wants to destroy you.
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  And you see that feverish desire in jobs life and it wasn't for
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  the hedges that God put Joe would have been devoured on a
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  moment. Satan would have been eaten up
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  like a bowl of cereal. And so it is the Lord Jesus who
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  says, this trial will only endure for 10 days and then
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  you're coming out. Think about that, every trial, I
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  don't care what it is, I don't care how personal it is.
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  I don't care how much you think, nobody understands.
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  I don't care how unique it may seem.
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  If you were in the hand of Christ, it has a number It has
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  an expiration date at one point, it will come to an end and you
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  will come out of it. If you are faithful like this
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  church, not just with rewards in this life, but Eternal rewards
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  at the end of it all The timing of our trials are set in stone
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  by our savior. But not just that the timing of
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  our deliverance, the timing of our provision I think about that
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  man in Acts chapter 3 who was brought to the gate called
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  Beautiful at the temple and he was their daily daily asking for
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  alms and yet in Luke 21. I also read that when Jesus was
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  on this Earth near the end of his ministry.
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  We are told that every day not not some, you know, days of the
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  week, every day, he was at the temple teaching.
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  He even says that in Matthews version, where he's in court,
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  right? And his trial, and he goes, I
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  am, I was in this Temple teaching every single day.
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  So, even from his own admission, he made his way into the temple,
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  and he taught. And yet, that man who was
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  crippled for so many years would never had never received a
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  healing from the hands of Jesus. Never, I'm sure Jesus walked by,
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  and I'm sure the Lord Jesus heard, the voice of that man,
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  who sat on a mat and cried for some alms, to be given to him,
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  and the Lord would walk by him every single time and yet in
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  Acts 3, when the Lord ascends into heaven, we see that Peter
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  and John were the vessels that God used to bring this man to
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  his feet to see strength. Come to his legs for him to
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  leap, and praise God, in the presence of all.
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  And it says that those who saw him recognize that he was the
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  one who was at the gate. Asking for provision.
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  And I think to myself, well, hold on, let me put the pieces
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  together if the Lord, while on Earth went into the temple every
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  single day. Surely he must have come across
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  this man. At least, once, why didn't the
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  Lord Heal him? Then why wasn't it there?
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  And then, wouldn't that been another awesome testimony to
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  prove his messiahship wouldn't have been a great great.
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  Great testimony for people to realize that this man is
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  unusual. And instead in God's wisdom, he
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  delays this man's deliverance and he waits for him to ascend
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  into heaven to empower his disciples.
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  And for him to be brought to life at that specific time.
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  Do you know why? Yes, it would have been
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  wonderful for Jesus to be able to heal this man.
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  While he was on Earth, it would have been a great great
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  Testament of who he was and where he came from him.
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  Why he came into this world, but he wanted to delay it to say
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  something else. He did enough healing with other
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  He does enough Miracles. And yet with this man, he kept
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  them aside and he waited, why? So that, when the disciples
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  would be used to bring healing to this man, people wouldn't
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  just know Jesus was different, or that this is surely the son
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  of David. They would now know this Jesus
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  has raised from the dead. Wow, because Peter says there in
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  Acts 3 that faith and his name had made this man perfectly.
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  Well, it was a testament to the fact that putting trust in this
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  name, in Jesus name. Mmmmm the name, who is alive the
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  name that has power today, was to make proof of he did conquer
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  death. Do you see the Lord's wisdom?
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  The Lord's, wisdom and delaying. Abraham wanted a son.
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  God wanted a testimony. Abraham wanted the joy of
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  Offspring. God wanted more glory for
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  himself. And so Romans for we are told
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  that when Abraham and the author of Hebrews Echoes, the same
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  phrase when Abraham was As Good As Dead As Good As Dead.
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  I'm gonna wait until your body is so shriveled up.
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  That even the thought of you, having a son will be laughable.
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  And it was because they named their son, Isaac.
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  And it meant something along the lines of laughing.
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  And so, when you have your life in his hand, the timing of your
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  provision is determined, what about the timing of your
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  promotion? This is for those who are
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  serious, about serving God, in your eager, you're eager to
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  serve the Lord. You want to give your life to
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  him and live. Every moment as I said earlier
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  for his pleasure, And if you're a person that really wants to
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  serve God, I'm sure that there's something in that Harpy that
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  says, Lord I want to touch as many lives as possible.
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  Lord, I want to produce as much food as possible.
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  Lord, I'm on ashamed. I'll Harold my voice in any
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  platform. Just give me a platform and I'll
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  make your name known by your grace.
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  And yet, what do you see year after year goes by nobody
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  notices? Your gift your after year goes
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  by and no doors are opening year after year goes by, and there
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  you are still in the same place. Ministering to the same people
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  seeing very little little results.
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  Does God not want to answer that prayer?
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  There's God not want to do something through your life.
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  No, I just because his timing is different and the timing of the
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  promotion is also something that he considers for your life.
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  A lot of this stuff is review, but review is good, especially
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  at the end of the year. And so when I thought about that
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  the timing of promotion, the time of got taking you from one
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  level to the next, I can't help. But think of David, the first
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  king Three Kings of Israel were who this Bible study now?
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  Who are the three first three kings of Israel?
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  I don't have a prize, but I heard different names but I
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  heard the similar name Solomon, Saul and David cracked.
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  Each rain for how long. All of them 40 years.
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  Each of them, 40 years. Did they end the same way?
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  No, two of them ended. An apostasy two of them ended in
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  a tragic way. Tragic way.
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  I mean, just horrible. One married, a bunch of women
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  and they let him into adultery one went to a witch.
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  And summoned, the prophet to get a word about what to do with his
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  Army and the war that he was in. David ended much differently.
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  David's Journey was much different than those two and
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  when you put these three men together, who had the same
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  length in the Kingdom, or the same amount of time on the
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  throne, the same Nation, the same God, the same scriptures.
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  What was it that made? David different?
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  I'm sure. There's many things you can make
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  an in-depth study, especially for leaders of why.
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  It was that David was different. Why the end was different from
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  him in comparison to Saul and Solomon.
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  But can I tell you one thing based on my simple reading of
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  The Bible that sticks out to me. David.
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  Was led through so much of the Wilderness of trial of testing
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  before he was promoted. Both Saul and Solomon were given
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  the Kingdom on a silver platter. The one thing that stands out
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  about David was that God took his time to make his man.
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  And he ground him and he put him through the fire and he allowed
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  him to taste a little bit of a promotion and pull them right
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  back down and have some small victories here and there and you
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  can just read the roller coaster at all through the book of
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  Psalms. And yet, it was through that, I
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  believe that routes were developed.
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  So that longevity would be known and greater fruit could be
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  experienced. And you if you think I'm
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  imposing that on the text, it is true.
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  It's a true principle throughout the Bible.
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  Romans 5 tells us, that endurance produces character.
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  And before endurance comes suffering has to come suffering
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  endurance character. That's the school of God.
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  He takes those that he's going to use greatly and he takes his
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  time with them. And so perhaps you're here,
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  coming up to 2023 and you're wondering, where is this leading
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  to? I want to be used by, I want to
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  see things happen and nothing seems to be happening.
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  In fact, all them experience hearings a sting after sting.
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  Waiting after waiting suffering after suffering, you're in a
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  good class. You're in a good place when God
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  doesn't dish things off to you immediately.
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  He takes his time, believe that as you go into 2023 he might
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  take his time even more before you see something happen trust
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  in the Lord. And then there is the timing of
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  our death. The timing of our death.
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  I love this in John 21. Jesus, prophesies how Peter is
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  going to die and Peter like many curious Christians and verse 20
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  of John 21, Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved
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  following them. The one who was also leaned back
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  against him during the supper and had said, Lord, who is it?
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  That is going to betray you when Peter saw him, he said to Jesus
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  Lord, what about this man? What about this, man?
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  We always do that as Christians, right?
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  He's around my age. Why are you doing it that way
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  for him? She's around my age.
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  Why is she getting married before me?
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  That church started around when we started.
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  Why do they have more people than us?
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  We always do that. We always compare ourselves to
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  other viewers wondering why God is doing things in different
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  peoples, lives of, and then it causes us to question God's
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  goodness in our lives. So, Peter saw him and said,
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  Lord, what about this, man? And Jesus set them if it is, my
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  will that he remain until I come.
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  What is that to you? I love Jesus answers.
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  That it's none of your business. It's none of your business.
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  If it is, my will that he remain until I come.
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  What is that to you? You follow me.
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  So, the saying spread of spread abroad among the brothers that
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  this disciple was not to die. Jesus did not say to him that he
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  was not to die. I love that.
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  It was all, he's not gonna die. Misinterpreting the words of
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  Jesus. Like how people do today.
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  Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die but if it is my
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  will that he remain until I come.
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  What is that to you? What is that to you?
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  Great practical lessons here. But here's the thing that I pull
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  out, in terms of understanding my times in his hand, if it is,
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  my will that he remain until I come.
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  You know what that means? It's up to Jesus, how long I
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  Stay? It's up to Jesus.
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  How long I'm here? It's the will of Christ that
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  determines whether or not I stay, or I go and that's true
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  for you if you belong to Christ. And guess what?
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  I wouldn't want to have it any other way.
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  I wouldn't want to have it any other way.
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  What's the alternative you want to give your future up to Blind
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  fate? Is that what you want?
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  Oh, no Satan. So powerful.
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  He can determine when you depart, right?
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  Two people have trouble with this.
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  The sovereignty of Jesus. The sovereignty of God.
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  So also, what else would you have is, man?
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  So powerful, do you want to give your future to the possibility
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  of men's envy overpowering your will to live It is a blissful
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  thought to know that it is up to the will of my master.
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  That determines whether or not I breathe another breath.
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  And I'm glad that he is the one who determines it all.
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  And what if he does give us 20 23.
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  What if all of us here live until 2024?
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  I'm going to end here. You know what blesses me?
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  when I read the Apostle Paul, who Was under the impression
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  that he might die very soon but he didn't God prolonged his
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  life. But you have the words of him
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  who had this tension between living and dying and in
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  Philippians 1:21, you know, this for to me to live is Christ and
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  to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh,
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  that means fruitful labor for me.
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  Pay attention to that. That's glorious.
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  That's glorious for to me to live is Christ and to die is
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  gain fine to live in the flesh. That means fruitful labor for
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  me, meditate on that. What is he saying?
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  He goes look if I am to live. The only reason why I would want
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  to remain here, the only reason why I would want Christ to
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  preserve my neck. From being chopped.
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  Is fruitful labor? That's the only reason why You
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  know what that means? Lord, the only reason why I
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  would want 2023 to be lived out so that I can serve you.
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  Ah, Do you think Christians think like that these days?
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  What are you looking forward to? In 2023 vacations.
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  Vacations, are good. Updates on your house.
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  It's nice. What making memories with
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  people. You love wonderful.
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  That's a gift from God to Can I tell you what was consuming this
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  man of God, all Lord, I just want to serve you.
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  Because I want to tell you something, when you and I go to
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  heaven, we will glorify God for all of eternity.
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  We will glorify him perfectly, but let me tell you there's
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  going into 2023. You will not be able to glorify
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  him. You will not be able to glorify
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  him in the way that you can while you live on this planet.
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  Because there is no temptation to say no to in heaven.
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  There are no trials to endure and to say I will still serve
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  him even though he slay me. There is no opportunity to sing
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  to the Lord Jesus, even though you've been whipped by Sinners
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  and Satan throughout that week, when you crawl into this place
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  on Sunday morning, when everything in your body was
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  screaming, stay at home, watch it live and intermingle with
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  Netflix in the process. You will sing because God will
• 22:57
  give you the grace to sing and the body to sing, and even the
• 22:59
  voice to sing, and that's a great thing for me.
• 23:03
  You will be able to say no to Temptation because there won't
• 23:05
  be Temptation you will be perfectly.
• 23:07
  Holy you'll be perfectly kind perfectly loving perfectly
• 23:12
  forgiving because your resurrected body will enable you
• 23:15
  and you will have the option otherwise but only in this life
• 23:19
  only in this segment of this life.
• 23:22
  Can you glorify God in a way that when you enter into
• 23:26
  eternity' morning? You won't be able to again,
• 23:32
  think about that. That's profound.
• 23:36
  And so I want to challenge you, come tomorrow and God willing
• 23:39
  there will be a comforting message coming in to 2023, but I
• 23:43
  want to challenge you on the eve of 2022 or 2023.
• 23:51
  Serve god with everything in you.
• 23:54
  I'll say this before I end. Our family was together on
• 23:59
  Wednesday night and there was a big box filled with pictures so
• 24:04
  we open it and we just had a laugh looking at some of these
• 24:07
  men reason, we tried our best to organize the pictures until the
• 24:11
  nieces and nephew came in and rearranged everything.
• 24:15
  So we're going through pictures and we spent an hour or two
• 24:17
  doing that and something caught my attention in that ancient
• 24:21
  box. It's a piece of paper.
• 24:26
  There's a white piece of paper and I slipped it out and I
• 24:27
  looked at and I realized it was my handwriting.
• 24:32
  And I looked at the back and there was some verses that were
• 24:34
  repeating. That's how you use your
• 24:35
  memorize. I take a piece of white paper,
• 24:37
  have the verse in front of me. I just write it over and over
• 24:38
  again before I repeat it on my mouth, but on the back of it,
• 24:42
  there is half of the page written with my handwriting and
• 24:46
  I looked at, and I quickly realized what it was, it was a
• 24:48
  prayer. It was a written prayer.
• 24:54
  And after a long drive, being exhausted in the emotions of
• 24:57
  what was why we were in Canada loss of our grandfather.
• 25:00
  All that, seeing our loved ones upset.
• 25:04
  I look at that. And my heart started to race.
• 25:09
  My heart started to beat and I just kept it to myself until
• 25:12
  now. Obviously and I looked at that
• 25:14
  and it tears to things that came to my mind.
• 25:18
  The first thing was this You made some vows to God that that
• 25:24
  piece of paper was probably I'll say between 8 and 10 years old.
• 25:31
  I don't know how it got there but it was there and I take take
• 25:33
  it to God's Providence for how it arrived in my hands.
• 25:36
  I look at and I totally forgot about this.
• 25:38
  And here's the thing that came to my mind.
• 25:39
  You made some vows to God. Did you keep them?
• 25:43
  Did you keep them? And I looked at that, and I
• 25:47
  realized there is a fervency. In those words, there was a
• 25:51
  fervent. Seen those words?
• 25:52
  It was like a personal letter to Jesus.
• 25:55
  Is that fervency still there? And here's the third thing that
• 25:59
  ran through my mind, I said to. But here's the third, the third
• 26:01
  thing was this, God answered your prayer.
• 26:07
  God answered your prayer. That's as though, the Lord
• 26:10
  wanted to put it in my face. You wrote this down and I can
• 26:16
  guess where I wrote it, you wrote this down.
• 26:22
  And I read it. Here you are 10 years later and
• 26:29
  you're living the very thing that you prayed for.
• 26:35
  That's a scary thought. Scary in a good way.
• 26:38
  I'm telling you. If you are, if you have no
• 26:41
  reservation in your heart tonight, if you're dead serious,
• 26:45
  about fruitful labor for the Lord, he will scare you and how
• 26:50
  he will answer that prayer. He will and maybe you will give
• 26:56
  you the opportunity 10 years from now to remind you how he
• 27:00
  answered it. Maybe not.
• 27:04
  But I just had a fresh jolt of Faith to see.
• 27:07
  Oh God, you answered this. You answered.
• 27:10
  I took it. It's with me.
• 27:11
  I brought it back with me. You answered this.
• 27:16
  God will answer you tonight but he's not going to answer a
• 27:20
  prayer of the end. They'll use me and he went, no,
• 27:25
  it's not. That's not the kind of prairie
• 27:26
  answers. And so in these next few
• 27:30
  moments, I am fully aware that there can be some people who
• 27:34
  will pray for 5 minutes and for the rest of the 25 minutes,
• 27:37
  we'll talk. And catch up with people.
• 27:42
  If you that's you do it just don't distract other people.
• 27:45
  I'm talking to the person. no matter how you live up to this
• 27:50
  point, there's a new year, new Mercies and even if you have to
• 27:54
  get on your knees, You would say Lord, if you're giving me 2023,
• 28:02
  make it all about fruitful labor.
• 28:05
  You'll answer it. He will answer it.
• 28:09
  Your times are in his hand that comforts me but let me challenge
• 28:13
  you, what will you do with your time?
• 28:16
  Serve the Lord. Jesus Christ, There's No Greater
• 28:18
  Joy. No Greater blessing, no greater
• 28:20
  Delight. Here's what we're going to do.
• 28:23
  In this moment, I'm going to give you the time to seek the
• 28:25
  Lord on your own. And you can do that in any way
• 28:28
  you would like, as long as it's not distracting, you can come up
• 28:31
  to the front. You could kneel here, if you
• 28:33
  want, you can kneel your pupil put your elbows on the chair,
• 28:36
  you can Pace back and forth on the side.
• 28:38
  If that helps you get just focused, you can do whatever you
• 28:40
  need to do to seek the Lord. At a certain point, I will come
• 28:45
  up and ask you to pray with maybe two or three people.
• 28:47
  And what you're going to do is you're going to pray for this
• 28:49
  church and then 20:23 we would see a move of the spirit and
• 28:54
  that God would do incredible things that will just make us
• 28:56
  feel as though, We are dreaming and so I'm going to stop here, I
• 29:00
  can say much more. I'm going to trust that, you
• 29:01
  know, how to pray and you know, in your own way how to pour out
• 29:04
  your heart to God, but all I ask is I again, I'm fully aware that
• 29:08
  some will not take this seriously, and if you are that
• 29:11
  person, just please keep to yourself and allow the Holy
• 29:15
  Spirit to work on the person who might be sitting beside you.
• 29:19
  That needs you not to distract them so that they can do what
• 29:22
  they need to do with God. And so I invite you to pray.
• 29:28
  And it's going to be short as you're by yourself because we're
• 29:30
  going to pray in groups. We're going to sing and we're
• 29:32
  going to count down hug each other, love each other and go
• 29:34
  back home and trust that God is going to start 2023 and amazing
• 29:38
  ways. So would you do that?
• 29:40
  Please find a place to pray seek the Lord And it's going to be
• 29:29
  short as you're by yourself because we're going to pray in
• 29:31
  groups. We're going to sing and we're
• 29:32
  going to count down hug each other, love each other and go
• 29:34
  back home and trust that God is going to start 2023 and amazing
• 29:38
  ways. So would you do that?
• 29:40
  Please find a place to pray seek the Lord