Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #137. Holy, Holy, Holy: Isaiah's Vision of God That Changes Everything | Isaiah 3–8

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#137. Holy, Holy, Holy: Isaiah's Vision of God That Changes Everything | Isaiah 3–8 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  Speaker 7: This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  Speaker 7: I'm Stephanie Hickox, As we glean from Isaiah chapters three through eight, I'm in awe of a God that is holy, holy, holy, and yet desires to dwell with us.
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  Speaker 7: and I'm confident that as we reflect on this aspect of His character, we'll be increasingly and reverently transformed, and that will bless our families.
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  Speaker 7: On a less serious note, we're in one book of the Bible today.
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  Speaker 7: Woo-hoo.
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  Speaker 7: We won't be flipping around but there's so much beauty to meditate upon.
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  Speaker 7: In chapter three, God's words continue to speak of the coming judgment, but as is consistent in Isaiah, interwoven are words of hope.
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  Speaker 7: Verses eight through 11 tell us, For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord, defying His glorious presence.
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  Speaker 7: For the look on their faces bears witness against them They proclaim their sin like Sodom.
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  Speaker 7: They do not hide it.
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  Speaker 7: Woe to them, for they have brought evil on themselves.
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  Speaker 7: Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
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  Speaker 7: Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him."
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  Speaker 7: God continually blesses the righteous and the faithful.
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  Speaker 7: In chapter four, it's prophesied, And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes.
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  Speaker 7: Only let us be called by your name.
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  Speaker 7: Take away our reproach.'"
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  Speaker 7: This means so many men will have died in battle and the captivity that women will far outnumber them.
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  Speaker 7: But in 4:2, In that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.
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  Speaker 7: And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy."
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  Speaker 7: This phrase, branch of the Lord, also translates to a shoot or a sprout, and it's exactly what Jesus was referring to in John 15 when he said, I am the vine, and you are the branches.
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  Speaker 7: He who abides in Me will bear much fruit."
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  Speaker 7: in chapter five, God introduces a metaphor that He is the vinedresser, and Israel is the vineyard.
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  Speaker 7: He declares, I worked the vineyard, but it hasn't produced fruit."
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  Speaker 7: instead, it's produced wild grapes.
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  Speaker 7: Now, when I was little, we moved into a home that had a grapevine with wild grapes, and they were pretty good, but that's not what this is referring to.
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  Speaker 7: This means sour grapes that are useless, and it can even be translated stinking things then Isaiah issues six woes.
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  Speaker 7: The first, Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.
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  Speaker 7: The Lord of Hosts has sworn in my hearing, Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses without inhabitant.
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  Speaker 7: For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath.'"
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  Speaker 7: This woe is against those who pursue material wealth and have their focus on accumulating more and more.
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  Speaker 7: Next, Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink."
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  Speaker 7: This is against the pursuit of pleasure and alcohol.
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  Speaker 7: The next woe was against those who mocked the prophet.
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  Speaker 7: In 5:20, we read the fourth woe.
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  Speaker 7: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
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  Speaker 7: Pride is rebuked in the fifth woe.
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  Speaker 7: Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight.
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  Speaker 7: And finally, injustice is condemned.
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  Speaker 7: Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deprive the innocent of his right.
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  Speaker 7: And this is contrasted with God's character if we go back to verse sixteen.
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  Speaker 7: But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness After these woes, Isaiah writes, They have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the
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  Speaker 7: Holy One of Israel.
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  Speaker 7: Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them, and struck them and the mountains quaked."
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  Speaker 7: And their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.
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  Speaker 7: For all this, his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
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  Speaker 7: Often when we think of that picture of God's hand being reached out, it appears to be a merciful gesture that He's continually available for us to reach out and grasp.
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  Speaker 7: But it can also be symbolic of His coming judgment, and that's what it means here because the next verse tells us, He will raise a signal for nations far away and whistle for them from the ends of the
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  Speaker 7: earth."
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  Speaker 7: You'll likely be familiar with chapter six And it's worthy of our outmost attention, so I'll read it in its entirety In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,
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  Speaker 7: and the train of his robe filled the temple.
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  Speaker 7: Above him stood the seraphim: each had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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  Speaker 7: And one called to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."
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  Speaker 7: And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the earth was filled with smoke.
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  Speaker 7: And I said, "Woe is me, for I am lost!
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  Speaker 7: For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
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  Speaker 7: For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
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  Speaker 7: Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
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  Speaker 7: And he touched my mouth and said, Behold, this has touched your lips.
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  Speaker 7: Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for."
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  Speaker 7: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?"
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  Speaker 7: Then I said, "Here I am.
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  Speaker 7: Send me."
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  Speaker 7: And he said, "Go and say to this people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand.
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  Speaker 7: Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
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  Speaker 7: Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'"
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  Speaker 7: Then I said, "How long, O Lord?"
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  Speaker 7: And he said, "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and horses without people, and the land is a desolate waste; and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
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  Speaker 7: And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.
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  Speaker 7: The holy seed is its stump."
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  Speaker 7: This threefold repetition of holy, holy, holy Is called the Trisagion.
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  Speaker 7: It Is the only characteristic of God that is stated three times.
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  Speaker 7: the purpose is to reveal the extent of God's holiness.
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  Speaker 7: Isaiah responds just as he should, recognizing his sinful state.
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  Speaker 7: And when the coal is touched to his lips, it's a cleansing and a purification students of the word have struggled for millennia that God would blind the eyes and close the ears of the people.
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  Speaker 7: But as has been consistent throughout the word, God doesn't harden people who weren't already hardened Remember, we just read Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall see the fruit of their deeds.
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  Speaker 7: When God allows wickedness to blind and deafen, he's simply removing his grace and his mercy Allowing people to choose.
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  Speaker 7: In essence, he's saying, "You won't seek me?
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  Speaker 7: Then I will let you experience the consequences of life without me."
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  Speaker 7: And it's remarkable to me that Isaiah is told from the beginning of his ministry that it won't bear fruit.
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  Speaker 7: For all of the beauty of his words and the conviction with which he writes and speaks, God tells him, It's not going to work.
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  Speaker 7: These people are going to be judged."
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  Speaker 7: But in the presence of a God that is holy, holy, holy, Isaiah is still committed to the call.
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  Speaker 7: This encourages me to live a life of endurance for the Lord, to have a faith that is greater than the fruit I see before me And when you and I struggle to parent consistently, an attempt to invest in
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  Speaker 7: communication in our marriages or fight to experience growth in work or in ministry.
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  Speaker 7: When it doesn't happen, it's not necessarily an indication that God's favor isn't upon us or that we're not doing what He's asked us to It can be one of the purest calls to follow Christ in something that results
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  Speaker 7: in so much opposition and hardship.
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  Speaker 7: And if we can still say at the end of it, "Jesus, you are worthy of it all," it's one of the most glorifying things we can do for the Lord So when you get into bed at night, on
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  Speaker 7: those days where your kids don't obey, your voice wasn't heeded, when the laundry is piling up and there's a mountain of dishes in your sink, when you feel that you're working so hard but things don't seem to change,
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  Speaker 7: you can ask your Savior, Were you honored today by my life, by the sacrifices I made, and did I become more like you?"
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  Speaker 7: If we keep our eyes fixed on eternity, we can press on.
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  Speaker 7: In chapter seven, God commands Isaiah to go to wicked King Ahaz.
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  Speaker 7: God offers to show him a sign, and he feigns humility, refusing But by God's response, we can tell that the posture of his heart wasn't honoring And to this wicked king with impure motives, God issues the most beautiful
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  Speaker 7: of promises.
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  Speaker 7: you're sure to know it.
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  Speaker 7: In seven fourteen, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
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  Speaker 7: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
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  Speaker 7: He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
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  Speaker 7: For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted."
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  Speaker 7: The Hebrew word here certainly does mean virgin, and so this prophecy couldn't have been fulfilled entirely in Isaiah's time It definitely points forward to Christ The fact that he was eating curds and honey reveals that he will be
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  Speaker 7: born at a time of political and economic oppression This is kind of like a coagulated cottage cheese mixture And as you may already know that the name Emmanuel means God with us.
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  Speaker 7: Isn't it beautiful that that's stated the chapter after we read that God is holy, holy, holy on His throne?
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  Speaker 7: Isaiah continues this emphasis on God's holiness in chapter eight But first, God tells him, "You're going to have a son And you're to name him Mahir-Shalal-Hash-Baz."
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  Speaker 7: Tara-Leigh Cobble says this basically translates to, It's about to get bad."
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  Speaker 7: But I continue to think of Christ In verse twelve, Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.
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  Speaker 7: But the Lord of Hosts, Him you shall honor as holy.
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  Speaker 7: Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.
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  Speaker 7: And He will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense, and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
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  Speaker 7: Peter wrote that Jesus was the rock of stumbling and stone of offense.
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  Speaker 7: He was so clearly God in the flesh, but the Pharisees and the nation of Israel had blind eyes and deaf ears, refusing to see the salvation before them.
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  Speaker 7: In fact, John 12:39 tells us, Therefore they could not believe, for again Isaiah says," He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn, and I would
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  Speaker 7: heal them And verse forty one says, "Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him."
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  Speaker 7: John is quoting right from Isaiah six and saying that Isaiah saw Jesus seated on the throne in his glory But reading on in John, Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees,
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  Speaker 7: they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
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  Speaker 7: For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God."
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  Speaker 7: Let's pray now that that would not be true of us.
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  Speaker 7: Heavenly Father, we rejoice that you are a God that is holy, holy, holy Thank you that when we confess and believe in your Son, He is not a stone of stumbling or a rock of offense, but that He
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  Speaker 7: bestows His own righteousness upon us We're humbled that you have chosen to open our eyes and our ears, and we pray you would continue to transform us into women that bring you glory, even when we tend the vineyard
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  Speaker 7: and still don't see the produce Through the Holy Spirit, enable us to do good works for your glory, and I pray that we would one day see the fruit As we parent our kids and point them toward your
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  Speaker 7: holiness Allow us to have humility and recognize our own sinfulness as Isaiah did.
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  Speaker 7: We pray we would live lives of repentance, not elevating ourselves, and that our children would know that we're pursuing you together may your holiness prevent us from sin, purify our motivations, and strengthen our resolve.
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  Speaker 7: And finally, I ask that we would not fear what the world fears, but that you would be our fear and our praise Jesus, we know you're seated on the throne now interceding for us.
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  Speaker 7: It's in your name we pray.
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  Speaker 7: Amen