Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240724 - God’s Goodness: Our True Reality - Colossians 1:15-22

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#20240724 - God’s Goodness: Our True Reality - Colossians 1:15-22 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Well, good evening, church. I'm Randy Schofield.
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I'm very blessed to serve in this church and be counted among
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the pastors and elders and the awesome team that we have here.
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And so can we just give the pastors and all the team here a
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quick thanks? You know, they don't ask for
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that, but they deserve it, I believe.
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And they work very hard. And so I also want to just say
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that I appreciate Pastor Ed giving me an opportunity to
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teach tonight. You know, we're very blessed to
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have a man like Pastor Ed who's spirit filled and really seeks
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after the Lord. So just really grateful for him.
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So let's, let's pray real quick. So Father, we just lift up this
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time as we open your word, we ask father that you would speak.
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It's not the messenger that's important, but the message.
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And we pray that your Holy Spirit would have its way here
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tonight. And we love you and praise you
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in the name of Jesus, Amen. So our our text tonight, our
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main text is going to be Colossians chapter 115 through
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22. So if you would go ahead and
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open up your Bibles and read along with me and we'll get
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started. Says he is the image of the
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invisible God, the first born over all creation.
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For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, that
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are on earth visible and invisible, whether Thrones or
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dominions or principles or powers.
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All things were created through Him and for Him.
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And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
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And He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the
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beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things He
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may have preeminence. For it is for it pleased the
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Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, and by Him to
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reconcile all things to Himself, by him, whether things on earth
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or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His
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cross. And you who once were alienated
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an enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has
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reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present
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you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.
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And we have a great God, we really do.
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And he gives us a scripture to assure us and to reassure us of
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how good he is. And I tuttled this message
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tonight. God's goodness, our true
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reality, because I'm trying to give you a glimpse, just a
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little bitty tiny glimpse of how good God is and his goodness.
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And that's difficult sometimes because when we look at the
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world, we don't see that necessarily.
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What we see is we see a lot of horrible things.
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We see horrible things in the world.
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We see sometimes horrible things in our lives and we don't
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understand it, right? But there was a quote from
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Pastor Ed this weekend. It was, it was a truth.
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And that is Pastor Ed said, I quote, our circumstances only
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give us half truths, right? And that is it.
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Our circumstances only give us half truths because we're in
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those circumstances and all we can see is the pain and all we
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can see is what's going on around us.
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And who. Does anybody know what a rose
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colored glasses are? Right.
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Rose colored glasses, you know, basically if you don't know,
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it's kind of, you see the world through rose colored glasses.
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You're always cheery, you're always happy you got those
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glasses on. Doesn't matter what's going on.
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Well, most of the time what we have is we have world colored
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glasses and we're looking at the world through world colored
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glasses, but the Bible tells us that we need to have faith
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colored glasses on. Does that make sense to you
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guys? I'm going to ask that a lot, by
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the way. I do that.
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I do that when I teach Bible studies.
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I do that pretty much anything because I want to make sure I'm
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connecting and then just I guess it gives me comfort.
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So, but imagine with me, if you will, and you guys ever see a
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Twilight Zone? Anybody ever see Twilight Zone?
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There was Rod Steiger. And he'd go imagine with me,
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will, if you will, or something like that, right.
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And, and but imagine with me that you had never seen a train.
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OK, You've never seen a train. And then someone's going to show
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you a train and they show you this gob of steel, this
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disorder, this chaos. And what they're really showing
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you is a train wreck. And you're seeing this train
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wreck and you're going, what in the world?
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Why would anybody ever make a train?
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Why would they make this mess, right?
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Well, you, so you guys got that picture.
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That's our world, right? God didn't make the world like
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this, but the world's a train wreck now.
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And the reason the world's a train wreck is through our free
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will choices. That's me, that's you.
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That's people that come before us, starting with Adam and Eve.
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And when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, and when they chose
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to eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, what
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they chose was chaos. Really.
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They chose death. Does that make sense to you
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guys? You with me?
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OK, and so but we and so we see this world and and we see the
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message send and that's our world colored glasses, right?
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But the like I said, the Bible tells us that we need to look at
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the world through faith colored glasses and and as a matter of
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fact, why don't you turn there real quick.
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It's in Romans chapter 12 verse 2.
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And it says do not be conformed to this world, but be
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transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove
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what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God, right?
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See, when we have to choose something right in our lives and
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we're either going to choose our flesh or we're going to choose
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faith, right? So basically, we're going to put
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on the Rose color that not the Rose color glasses, but the
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glasses of the world or we're going to put on the glasses of
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faith. And that's not just a daily
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choice. It's a moment by moment choice,
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right? And it takes a lot of training
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to train our minds away from the world and into faith.
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OK, so I love reading God's word.
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When I read it, there are a few things that I keep in mind,
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right? And I want to ask you to keep
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this in mind tonight, right? And that is one is God is good.
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Amen. And he's not good some of the
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time. He's good all the time, right?
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So you guys got that. Not good some of the time, but
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all the time. Second thing is the Bible is
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true, not some of it, but all of it from the very beginning of
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Genesis to the very end of Revelation.
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Cool. The third thing is, and this is
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the one that kind of gets me sometimes the Bible is true over
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anything I think over anything you think and over our emotions
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because our emotions are what gets in trouble, right?
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A lot of times we get emotional about something we have stopped
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thinking and but that's the truth is, and it's also over
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anything we've learned. If there's anything that you
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think or anything that you've learned that disagrees with the
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Bible, well, guess what? Guess which one's true?
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The Bible always, right? And one last thing is that
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there's something that I find that I don't understand.
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I go back to what I do understand in the Bible.
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Does that make sense to you guys?
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All right, so let's get into the text.
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Let's let's look at it. So verse 15, he is the image of
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the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
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And so Jesus is the creator, all right, He created everything and
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every dimension. There's nothing that he didn't
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create. That's he's God, right?
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And so turn to John chapter one. You guys can just look at this
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and read it with me short verses, but we're going to read
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one through 3. And I'm trying to not read too
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quick so I know where these verses are.
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And I got them all here. And you guys are turning and I'm
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like reading and you guys are wow.
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So sorry if I do that to you, I'll try to slow down on that.
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But it says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
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God and the Word was God, and he was in the beginning with God.
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And so Jesus is Lord, He is the King, He is everything, He is
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God, He is the actual creator, right?
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And it's very important to know that and to understand it,
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because establishing who Jesus is, that he is God himself,
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establishes everything else, right?
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Because when you know who Jesus is, then you know who to follow,
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you know who to listen to. OK.
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So it's very interesting. I find that if you look in
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there, if you read all the Gospels, you don't find one
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really. You don't find one description
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of what Jesus looked like and say, well, he had brown hair and
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he was about 65. And he, you know, he don't give
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you anything, right? They tell you he was a
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Carpenter. They tell you that he did a lot
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of good works, right? He did miracles.
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He did all these things and all of his actions were amazingly
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good. You know why they were amazingly
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good? Because that's who God is.
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He's amazingly good and he's without sin.
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Verse 16 in Colossians says For by him all things were created
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that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
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whether Thrones or dominions or principal pallities or powers,
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all things were created through him and for him.
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So he created everything and everything was created for him.
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And and so it also tells us that there are worlds out there
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because it talks about different realms there that we can't see.
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One of them is the angelic realm and 2nd Kings.
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You don't need to turn there but in second Kings chapter 2 and
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verse 11, Elijah was with Elijah and they were talking and all of
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a sudden a whirlwind came up and separated them and Elijah saw
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that Elijah was had gotten on a chariot of fire and was whirled
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away. You know, I, I believe after
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reading Kings and reading about Elijah, that Elijah had a
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special gift, right? And that gift was to be able to
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see the angelic realm. Not everybody can see that,
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right? As a matter of fact, there were
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other prophets that were around there and they saw the whirlwind
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and they said they came up and they told him, Hey, you know
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this, this is taking away your master.
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Let's go look for him. And he said, we'll go look if
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you want. But you know, I know what
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happened to him. And, and they went and looked
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and he came back and he said, I told you, right.
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Later he was surrounded by an army and his servant got up and
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saw the army and, and panicked and, and he was like, what do we
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do? And and he was like, Lord, open
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his eyes so he can see and he sees all these Chariots of fire
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all around him. See, Elijah had an ability to
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see the angelic realm. I've never met anybody who has
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that gift. I don't have that gift.
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I'd love to see it, right? But I know it's real because I
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know that there are times when things are not going on that are
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what I want. You know what need to be going
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on. And I start praying and it
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immediately changes so that, you know, I, I firmly believe that
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there's a battle that's going on around us that we can't see.
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And our prayer, our prayers change things when we're praying
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in the will of the Father, right?
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I can tell you, I've seen that happen right here in this church
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where there's been people that, you know, just kind of acting a
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little off. And we get together and pray for
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him. Not we don't ever even talk to
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him. We're just saying that, yeah,
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he's looking a little weird, you know?
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And and so we pray for him and all of a sudden they change
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their behavior, right? It happens every time.
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So God is so good to us that he listens to our prayers those.
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So it's not just that, but you know, there are Thrones, there's
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kingdoms, there's rulers, there's authorities in an unseen
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world. That's what we've been talking
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about. And in this unseen world,
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there's battles raging on. That's what we're talking about,
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right? And so therefore in Ephesians,
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so turn to Ephesians chapter 6. I was joking with my wife, by
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the way, and I, she's down in the nursery and I told her
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tonight before service, I was like, well, you know, who's
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teaching tonight? So we'll, we'll probably get out
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early. She goes, yeah, I know who's
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teaching tonight. I don't know if we're getting
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out early or not. She was only kidding me.
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But you know. So Ephesians 6 and then ten
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through 12, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
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and in the power of His might. You know, the power of His might
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is His Holy Spirit. We need to be powerful in this
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Holy Spirit. We need to be prayed up, and we
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need to be full of His Spirit. It's what the Bible tells us,
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right? It says, put on the whole armor
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of God that you may be able to withstand the Wiles of the
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devil. For we do not wrestle against
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flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
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against the rulers of the dark age, against the spiritual host
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of wickedness in heavenly places, right?
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And so if you're not familiar with the armor, well, it's the
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next, you know, it's up to from 12 to 18 basically, right?
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So I would advise you to get that, you know, putting on the
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helmet of salvation, right, the breastplate of righteousness,
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putting on the belt of truth, shooting your feet with a piece
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of Goth, the gospel of peace, right?
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And and having your sword, which is the word of God.
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So I would study those, I would learn those, I would put them on
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every day. That's what I do.
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And next is you were created for a purpose.
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That's the last part of these verses here, right?
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You were created for a purpose. Jesus is your purpose.
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That's why you were created was to worship Jesus.
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No matter what's happening in your life, if you have Jesus,
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you have everything that you need.
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And the reason you have everything that you need, it's
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because Jesus is life. Jesus is life itself, right?
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We are full of life. If you're a believer, you have
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life inside of you. You are full of life.
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You are full of his Holy Spirit because you have Jesus.
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If you don't have Jesus, you don't have life.
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You might say, well, what are you talking about?
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I don't have life. Well, you don't have life.
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You're not born again inside you're dead.
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You may look like you're alive on the outside, but on the
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inside you're dead. That's what the Bible says and
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we're going to talk about that in a minute.
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John four one verse four says in him was life and life and the
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life was the light of men. John 1010 says the thief does
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not come except to steal, to kill, to destroy.
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I have come that they might have life and they might have it more
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abundantly. Isn't that cool?
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If you have Jesus, you know, only just have life, you have it
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abundantly. I think that's awesome.
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Verse 17 of Colossians. It says He is before all things
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and in all things. In Him all things consist.
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So after this, if Jesus is holding everything together,
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He's holding this universe together.
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He's ever been holding everything that has ever been
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made together. If He didn't hold this together,
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it would all fall apart, period. Just like my life.
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If he didn't hold my life together, it would fall apart.
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And if he didn't hold your life together, it would fall apart.
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Who? Who's I've been there?
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Who's been there? Yeah.
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I just want you to take a second.
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Think about how big the universe is.
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Does anybody know how what they measure, what they say the
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measurement of the universe is across?
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I don't know how they measure it, but but they say that it's
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46 billion light years across, right?
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Light travels at 186,000 miles per second miles.
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You know, I was in the Army for a long time.
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We had these. I was on the Abrams, the M1A1
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tanks and our main gun is 120mm, right?
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And this gun when you fire it, the round and it's a sabo round
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actually goes one mile per second, right?
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It's pretty fast. I mean, it's amazingly fast.
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And and when you see that you're like, wow.
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And but think about when you turn on a light switch, how fast
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is that, right? 186,000 feet or miles per second
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right? Now think about this.
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God is in all that. There's no part of the universe
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that he's not because he's infinite.
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He created it. He's in every every nook and
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cranny of the universe. Isn't that amazing?
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You want to tell you what's even more amazing?
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What's more amazing is that he knows your name.
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What's more amazing is that he cares for you.
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What's more amazing is that he's working all things together for
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good. And that means everything in my
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life. Everything in your life, good
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and bad. He's all weaving it all together
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for good. He didn't say everything was
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good, but he's weaving it all together for good.
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Isn't that amazing? I mean, that's how we have a God
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that's that big that's in the universe like that.
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And then we have a God that cares about us so much that in
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First Peter, go ahead and turn there.
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First Peter, First Peter 5, First Peter chapter 5.
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First Peter chapter 5 verse 7, not only does not only does
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Jesus know your name, but he says casting all of your care
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upon him because he cares for you.
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He cares for me. That blows me away.
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And Psalm 37, verse 23, the New Living Translation says the Lord
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directs the steps of the godly and He directs every detail of
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their lives. He cares for you.
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He's deeply interested in you. His thoughts about you are more
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than the grains of sand, and every one of those are good.
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He has good thoughts towards you.
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He doesn't have bad thoughts towards you.
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He doesn't have bad thoughts towards me.
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I'm so glad. I'm so glad.
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Let's go on to verse 18 of Colossians.
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And he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning,
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the first born from the dead, that in all things he may have
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preeminence. You know, I don't know if you
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ever thought about this, but everybody that's ever risen from
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the dead. I mean, like, like when Jesus
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pulled Lazarus out of the out of death, right when Jesus met the
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widow who had a son that were coming out of the city and he,
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he brought that guy back to life.
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The guy that Elijah laid the kid that Elijah laid him or Elijah
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laid hands on the young man that was sitting in the window when
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Paul was preaching and fell and, and, and Paul went down and laid
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hands on him and he came back to life.
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Dorcas, all of those people died again.
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All of them 100% right? You know who didn't die again?
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Jesus. Jesus rose from the dead.
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He didn't have to have somebody lay hands on him.
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He came back and he came back and he is the first born of the
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dead. He is the first born from the
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from the dead, and he's alive. He will never die.
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And that's the promise for us that we will one day join him.
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We will leave this tent. This body is often referred to
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in the Bible as a tent, you know, because a tent is
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something that you don't want to stay in forever, right?
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When I was young, I thought I could do everything.
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I could run fast, I could do all kinds of stuff.
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Now my knees hurt, my elbows hurt, my back hurts.
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Sometimes my feet hurt, my head hurts.
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Is there anything that really doesn't hurt?
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No, I don't know. My hands hurt.
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I mean, everything hurts, right? As I get older and it's just a,
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it's just a fact because when I live in a tent, you know, that
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tent wears out, right? You don't want to stay there
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forever. It's just, it's an
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accommodation, but it's not the greatest one.
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But one day we're going to move up, right?
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We're going to be with Jesus and then we're going to get a brand
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new body. And it's going to be so good
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because it isn't going to have all these defects that I have,
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all these defects you have. And it's not going to have all
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the problems you have. And you know why that's going to
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be true? Because God is good, because he
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loves you, He cares for you, He wants the best for you because
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you are his child. And so and not only that, it's
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not only that he did he rise from the dead and everything,
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but you just have to know that he is the not just a way, but he
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is the only way. He is the only way, right?
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John 14 six Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the
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life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
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Verse 19 says it for it please the Father, that in Him all the
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fullness should dwell. He is everything we need, and
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immeasurably more than we need, right?
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He is more than we need, but we have to rely on Him.
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In Ephesians 320, it says now to Him who is able to do
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exceedingly, abundantly above all, we ask or think according
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to the power that works in US. And what is that power?
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The Holy Spirit, Right. The Holy Spirit is who is
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working inside of us and who is the Holy Spirit?
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It's God's Spirit. Jesus sent his Spirit to be with
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us as a guarantee that we're of our salvation.
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That's why he sent us here, or that's why he sent him here to
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be in us as a guarantee of our salvation.
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You guys get that? Yeah.
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All right, so now verse 20 and by him to reconcile all things
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to himself by himself, whether things on earth or things in
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heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
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You know, when Adam traded, got a given Adam everything on this
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earth, he had given him ownership, right?
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He had given it all to Adam and said you manage it.
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And when the devil came along and tripped Eve and Adam
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willingly went along, he gave all that ownership over to the
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devil and everything was lost. That's why we have the mess we
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have, right? Because of our choices, again,
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our free will choices we made. But when Jesus went to the
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cross, when he did what he did on the cross and he said it was
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finished, he redeemed it all. He bought it back and He's not
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constrained by time, so he knew what was going to happen the
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whole time. Revelations 18 says that he is
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the beginning and the end. So he knows the beginning or the
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end, just like the beginning, right?
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So in verse 21, it says now you were once alienated and enemies
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in your mind by wicked works. Yet now he has reconciled.
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And what that means is he's redeemed you.
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He if you're a believer, he is he paid the price.
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He bought you back, you know, and and to understand how good
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God is is really to begin to understand how corrupt we are,
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right? Because when it wasn't until I
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started getting next to Jesus that I started understanding
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that I was jacked up, right? And that I needed a savior.
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It wasn't until I started getting next Jesus,
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understanding who Jesus was, that I realized that I was just
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a Sinner. And I mean bad, just like you,
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right? Just like you.
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And you might be arguing with me right now.
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I'm not a bad ass. Well, let me ask you a few
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questions. Have you ever lied even once?
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Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever looked at
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something you shouldn't have looked at?
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Have you ever gotten drunk? How about high?
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It's legal now, right? But you've lost control of your
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mind, regardless of whether it's legal or not.
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Drinking is legal too. How about pride?
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You ever been proud? I'm not accusing you, I'm just
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saying facts, right? But if you've done any of those
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things, but maybe you haven't done any of those things, but
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have you thought those things and desired those things in your
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heart? Jesus says that what you desire
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in your heart, it's the same deal, right?
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In Genesis chapter 8 verse 21, it says the Lord smelled.
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That's back in. This is all the way back in
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Genesis, right? It says the Lord smelled a
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soothing aroma because Noah had made an offering to him.
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And it says, Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again
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curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of
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man's heart is evil from his youth.
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Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I've done.
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This was right after the flood, and the world had become so evil
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that God destroyed it, except for Noah and his family and all
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the animals. It's a sad thing, right, that we
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become so corrupt that we become so evil and there's not a good
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thing in US. Romans 323 says for all of
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sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and according to
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Romans 623 for the wages of sins, death, but the gift of God
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is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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So we're totally corrupt. There's nothing good in US,
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right? And yet all the money in the
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world, all the gold, all the dollars, all the yen,
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everything, if you brought all of it together, it wouldn't buy
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the redemption of one person, right?
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Nothing in this world could buy your salvation except for one
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thing. And it says, For God so loved
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the world, John 316 and 17 For God so loved the world that he
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gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should
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not perish, but have everlasting life.
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For God did not send this world, send His Son into the world to
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condemn the world, but that the world through him might be
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saved. See, only the blood of Jesus
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could pay for the redemption. That is what a high price God
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put on you and me. Not amazing that He holds such
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about us and such value that only the blood of His Son could
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redeem us and buy us back from the slavery of sin and death.
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So let me ask you, I know a lot of you have already accepted
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Jesus and know Him and know his salvation, right?
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But maybe there's somebody here tonight that doesn't.
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And I would ask you to, to receive him as Lord, that
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feeling that you got inside. Maybe maybe it's like, you know,
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I, I feel an urge, but I'm not going up there.
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I'm not doing this. I'm not not going to stand up.
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I'm not going to. I'm not no.
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And I'm, I know that feeling because when I was a kid, I was
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about 13, I went to church and I was standing up in the balcony
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and they gave an invitation. And I remember gripping the
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chair. I was like, oh, no, I'm not
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going to be one of those religious guys, right?
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And I'm not, I'm not a religious guy.
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I'm a Jesus guy. I follow Jesus, right?
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I'm a child of the most high God, right?
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And I'm loved by him and I walk with him and I talk with him
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daily because of a relationship with him.
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And I'm loved by him and I and you know what?
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He loves you when it says for God so loved the world that was
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you he's talking about. He might have the word, the word
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world in there, but really I just replaced that with Randy.
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So if you've never accepted Jesus, I want to give you an
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opportunity. Would you just stand up and
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we'll pray a prayer? Then it might be that it's
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somebody on the radio, might be somebody that's listening to
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this in the future, might be somebody downstairs.
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But we'll wait a minute and I just want to tell you that God
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loves you. He cares for you, He has the
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best in store for you, but He is not going to force you to choose
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him because that wouldn't be love.
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And God is love. All right, so let's pray.
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So Father, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your
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kindness, for your mercies, Lord, and we thank you for your
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joy. And Father, I just, if there's
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anybody out there that needs to ask Jesus in their life, Lord,
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I, I pray and just ask him to pray with me.
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Father, I Lord Jesus, I ask you, forgive me in my sins.
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I ask you to come into my life and be Lord.
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I will follow you all the days of my life.
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Thank you for loving me. And Lord we praise you and we
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thank you in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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So in verse 22, we got one verse left.
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That was the verse 21. It says, I'm just going to read
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the new living translation. It says, Yet now he has
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reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in
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his physical body, and as a result.
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He has brought you into his own presence and you are holy and
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blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
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Did you hear that? Without a single fault?
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That's really blows me away because I'm like, when I look at
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it, I'm like, yeah, I know me, right?
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I know every fault. Well, I think I do.
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God knows more, but you know, I, I know that I got, I got issues
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still, right? I'm not perfect.
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And he's telling me that I'm going to stand before him
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without a single fault. See, that's how God sees us.
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That's how God sees you and that's how God sees me.
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And he loves you so much that he would do that, that he would
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make it like that so that you could stand before him without a
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single fault. And again, I just think if you
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feel that tug, that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
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That's not me. It's not somebody else up here,
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that's the Holy Spirit. And I would just encourage you
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to come on up after the service, after, after the music is come
41:35
up. There will be pastors up here
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and they have a gift for you and you just talk with them and they
41:43
would help you. So let's just pray and thank
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God. So Lord, we thank you for your
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goodness. We thank you for your kindness.
41:51
We thank you, Lord, that you saved us.
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And Lord, just amazingly, that we would one day stand before
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you without a single fault. And we just lay this all down
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before you, and we praise you in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
42:14
prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
42:19
877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
42:25
integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
42:29
online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
42:34
Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
42:37
this week.