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Those-Unidentified-Inner-Promptings · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Two sections of scripture will be our reading this morning. First,
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Speaker 1: from Genesis chapter one. You can place the outline of
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Speaker 1: the message there in that section. Genesis one. I'll read
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Speaker 1: a couple of verses from that first chapter and then
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Speaker 1: locate Psalm number one thirty nine Psalm one thirty nine.
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Speaker 1: Following the reading in Genesis one, I want to read
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Speaker 1: a few verses out of that one thirty ninth Psalm
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Speaker 1: in honor of our Lord and out of respect for
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Speaker 1: his word. Will you join me as we stand together
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Speaker 1: for the reading of the scriptures. First Genesis one, beginning
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Speaker 1: at verse twenty six, and then Psalm one thirty nine.
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Speaker 1: Then God said, let us make man in our image,
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Speaker 1: according to our likeness, and let them rule over the
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Speaker 1: fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky,
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Speaker 1: and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and
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Speaker 1: over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God
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Speaker 1: created man in his own image, in the image of God.
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Speaker 1: He created him male and female. He created them, and
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Speaker 1: then saw one nine, beginning at the first verse. Notice
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Speaker 1: it is a prayer, O Lord, you have searched me
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Speaker 1: and known me. You know when I sit down and
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Speaker 1: when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar.
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Speaker 1: You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are
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Speaker 1: intimately acquainted with all my ways, even before there is
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Speaker 1: a word on my tongue. Behold, o, Lord, you know
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Speaker 1: it all Verse thirteen. For you formed my inward parts,
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Speaker 1: you wove me in my mother's womb. I will give
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Speaker 1: thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
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Speaker 1: Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.
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Speaker 1: May Our God honor the reading of his word, and
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Speaker 1: as we live it out, may he be glorified, Please
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Speaker 1: be seated. We live in a world that's lost its way.
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Speaker 1: We've seen once again the dregs of depravity as they
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Speaker 1: have worked themselves out in a tragedy that has occurred
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Speaker 1: in the land of India as well as in our
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Speaker 1: own land. Random shootings, the killing of an individual as
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Speaker 1: crowds gathered to be involved in shopping, of all things,
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Speaker 1: these things leave us bewildered in many ways, deeply disturbed.
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Speaker 1: I'm convinced that one of the reasons we desire to
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Speaker 1: come together in times like this is to get some
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Speaker 1: sense an order brought back, least in our minds. God's
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Speaker 1: word is timeless, as it is true and our desire
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Speaker 1: is today he would speak to us and minister to
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Speaker 1: us and meet deep needs within us. Join me as
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Speaker 1: we pray before this morning's offering. Lord, When we look
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Speaker 1: at the options around us, we realize that they are few.
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Speaker 1: As we seek to find a place of peace, a
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Speaker 1: reason for life, and the events of life, our hearts
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Speaker 1: go out to those who have lost family and friends
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Speaker 1: to a country now torn by terrorism again, and lives
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Speaker 1: that have been shattered as a result in our own
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Speaker 1: land as well. It is bewildering, Lord, until and unless
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Speaker 1: we look through the lens of your truth. It is
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Speaker 1: an outworking of sin as it runs its course, and tragically,
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Speaker 1: other people caught in the backwash of it lose lives,
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Speaker 1: lose friends, lose family, and for many lose hope. Remind
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Speaker 1: us again, our Father, that there is a place to flee.
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Speaker 1: There is a refuge, and there is a hope, and
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Speaker 1: it is found in you, and you have never changed.
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Speaker 1: You are the same yesterday, today and forever. And on
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Speaker 1: this chilly morning, we pause to thank you for the
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Speaker 1: warmth of your love that is constant, for your plan
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Speaker 1: that unfolds in all of its mystery, for your word
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Speaker 1: that lives and abides forever, even though the grass withers
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Speaker 1: and the flower feeds. The word of our God shall
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Speaker 1: live forever. We stand on it, we trust in it,
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Speaker 1: and we seek to know truth from it. To stay
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Speaker 1: abilize us in this decadent era in which we live.
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Speaker 1: Beyonnored our Father at this place of worship today, in
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Speaker 1: the working of this church, in the life of the
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Speaker 1: people of this church. Not simply here, Lord, but as
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Speaker 1: we move our lives from this building into the dailiness
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Speaker 1: of life, Go before us, and work through us, and
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Speaker 1: work within us. Give others a reason to go on
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Speaker 1: through our witness, Free our lips and our lives to
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Speaker 1: speak openly of you in this time in which so
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Speaker 1: many are searching, longing to find a reason to continue.
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Speaker 1: We pause in this quiet moment to thank you for
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Speaker 1: taking care of us, for watching over those who fight
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Speaker 1: for the cause of right and freedom, or that you
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Speaker 1: would protect them and bring them safely back in our
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Speaker 1: nation's transitional time. Watch over us, Guide clearly, Lord, through
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Speaker 1: wise counsel. For those in high places, May your truth
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Speaker 1: speak through their lips into minds and hearts that will
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Speaker 1: lead and make decisions. Now our Father, we give you
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Speaker 1: our gifts, and we give them gratefully and hilariously, and
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Speaker 1: we give them generously as we invest in that which
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Speaker 1: is eternal, for the glory of Christ, in whose name
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Speaker 1: we worship and we pray. And everyone said, there are
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Speaker 1: times we just don't know how to describe what's going
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Speaker 1: on inside. We have struggles that occur, and because we
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Speaker 1: are not able to get our minds around them, we're
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Speaker 1: at a loss to know the solution, and so we
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Speaker 1: wrestle and we wonder through this uneasiness, how we're going
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Speaker 1: to get through this, How we're going to make this decision.
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Speaker 1: On the one hand, it looks good this way, but
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Speaker 1: on the other hand, it seems wrong. And then something happens,
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Speaker 1: something occurs in the unseen realm, down deep in our
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Speaker 1: spirit that changes us and we feel this is right,
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Speaker 1: and we go there or we are assured this is wrong,
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Speaker 1: and we don't. Amazingly, we look back on those times
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Speaker 1: and feel so grateful that at the time of decision,
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Speaker 1: that right decision was made. There are other occasions when
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Speaker 1: we can't quite see what the scripture is teaching. We're
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Speaker 1: working on a verse or a section of the scriptures
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Speaker 1: and we can't again get to an understanding of what
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Speaker 1: that's about. And so we pray and we wait, and
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Speaker 1: we check other verses, and we fall back on what
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Speaker 1: we have been taught, and we go to books that
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Speaker 1: we have, or we talk to people we respect, and
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Speaker 1: nothing seems to break through. And then almost out of
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Speaker 1: the blue, like a light flashing on, we get it.
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Speaker 1: We see it. It becomes clear. The first thing I
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Speaker 1: described we could call intuition. We just felt like we
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Speaker 1: should do we should not do that. This which I've
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Speaker 1: just described, we call insight. We get an insight into
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Speaker 1: some truth that we had been wrestling with over a
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Speaker 1: period of time. Can't tell you the times both of
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Speaker 1: those experiences have happened to me. I want to talk
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Speaker 1: about this today, and in doing so, I have to
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Speaker 1: tell you I have never heard it addressed publicly. I've
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Speaker 1: never heard anyone talk about UIPS. I've heard a lot
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Speaker 1: about UFOs. And in fact, let me just say this
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Speaker 1: as a sidebar, I once checked into a hotel. Didn't
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Speaker 1: know it at the time, but a convention of UFO
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Speaker 1: people were there. If you ever find out that that
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Speaker 1: has happened, don't check into that hotel. Trust me, every
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Speaker 1: elevator ride, everybody in the restaurant, everybody waiting for a taxi,
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Speaker 1: every long line to what ever, was filled with people
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Speaker 1: who saw things in the night that, for the life
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Speaker 1: of me, I could not see. Right next to my
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Speaker 1: room was a couple that was, I guess, the ring
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Speaker 1: leaders of the group. So they had people in all
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Speaker 1: the evening and sometime into the wee hours of the
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Speaker 1: morning looking out their window that sometimes opened the door
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Speaker 1: to step on the ledge and oh, look at that,
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Speaker 1: look at that. I mean, one night, it was about
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Speaker 1: two fifteen, I had to get up. I mean, if
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Speaker 1: it was that obvious, I had to see it. And
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Speaker 1: I stood there and I looked and I looked, and
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Speaker 1: I thought, that's it. But it was the reflection from
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Speaker 1: the hall light under my door, on my window, so
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Speaker 1: I didn't see it. If it's there, I've never seen it.
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Speaker 1: We're not talking about UFOs. We're talking about uips, those
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Speaker 1: unidentified inner promptings, those hunches, those uneasy moments that say
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Speaker 1: don't go there, or there's danger lurking, or there's harm
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Speaker 1: or the other side. And is so great when this occurs,
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Speaker 1: this is where you want to go. Now. Having said
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Speaker 1: all of that. Why is it we never give the
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Speaker 1: Spirit of God credit for such things. I know I'm
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Speaker 1: talking about outside our five senses, So this is the
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Speaker 1: extra sensory stuff, and so it's subjective that makes it
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Speaker 1: difficult to address, which may explain why I've never heard
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Speaker 1: a message on it. But it seems to me, thinking
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Speaker 1: about the work of the Holy Spirit, we have an
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Speaker 1: incomplete series without addressing those unidentified inner promptings. And unless
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Speaker 1: I miss my guess, some of you have them. Right now.
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Speaker 1: You are on the verge of a decision, and you
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Speaker 1: don't know what you ought to do. You've prayed, check
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, you've sought the council, and remarkably, in God's
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Speaker 1: time there will be a breakthrough and you'll know what
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Speaker 1: you want to do. How does that happen? Why does
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Speaker 1: that happen? My Bible is open to chapter one of Genesis,
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Speaker 1: and in this chapter we have, of course, the story
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Speaker 1: of creation, and the climax of the creative Week is,
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Speaker 1: of course the creation of humanity. He creates atom, he
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Speaker 1: creates Eve, and up until now, the planets are in place,
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Speaker 1: the sun to rule the day and the moon to
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Speaker 1: rule the night, and the seas are there and land
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Speaker 1: is there, and plants are there, and shrubbery is there,
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Speaker 1: and trees are there in full life and full bloom.
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Speaker 1: But now there is brought on this on the scene humanity.
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Speaker 1: And there is something altogether distinct about the creation of
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Speaker 1: the man and the woman, and you'll read of it
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Speaker 1: in these two verses twenty six and twenty seven. Then
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Speaker 1: God said, let us make man in our image according
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Speaker 1: to our likeness. I've got both of those phrases underscored
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Speaker 1: in my Bible. The plants were not made in his image,
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Speaker 1: the animals were not made in his image. The stellar
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Speaker 1: spaces did not bear his likeness. But the man and
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Speaker 1: the woman did, and do to the next verse, God
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Speaker 1: created man in his own image, in the image of God.
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Speaker 1: He created him male and female created them. Three times.
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Speaker 1: He mentions image, once he mentions likeness. There's something to this.
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Speaker 1: Anyone who does a study of the creation has to
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Speaker 1: pause here and let some of the wonder in what
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Speaker 1: is this image? Well, it is interesting when you go
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Speaker 1: to chapter five that the image changes Genesis chapter five.
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Speaker 1: By the way, when we move from chapter one to
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Speaker 1: chapter five, we have to understand that between the two
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Speaker 1: sin has occurred. Sin has invaded and polluted the human race.
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Speaker 1: Adam and Eve no longer in innocence. They are now sinners,
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Speaker 1: and they are now distant from God and hiding from
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Speaker 1: him and all that followed that. But now their family
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Speaker 1: comes up, and notice the difference in the likeness in
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Speaker 1: the image. Verse one. This is the book of generations
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Speaker 1: of Adam. In the day when God created man, he
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Speaker 1: made him in the likeness of God. We just saw
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Speaker 1: that He created him male and female. Verse three. When
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Speaker 1: Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became
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Speaker 1: the father of a son in his own likeness. See
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Speaker 1: the difference. The other is in God's likeness. But now
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Speaker 1: when Adam and Eve have a son named Seth, we
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Speaker 1: read in the end of the verse he is in
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Speaker 1: Adam and Eve's likeness according to his image. The verse continues,
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Speaker 1: there's something changed about that image. Before I tell you
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Speaker 1: the change, let me explain what the image may include,
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Speaker 1: though I realize in doing so it's a little presumptuous.
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Speaker 1: Theologians write volume on this, so there's all kinds of
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Speaker 1: controversy over what it would include or exclude. I want
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Speaker 1: to suggest there is a capacity in humans not found
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Speaker 1: in animals. There is an ability for God to communicate
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Speaker 1: with his own people in a way that he does
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Speaker 1: not communicate with animals. Animals have instinct, we have image.
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Speaker 1: Think about it. There are inner, secret chambers within our being.
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Speaker 1: We called it our heart, where the Lord speaks to us.
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Speaker 1: If you will, he prompts us inner promptings. He urges,
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Speaker 1: he moves, he convicts, he directs, he stops, he guards,
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Speaker 1: he guides. That's why I think Solomon writes, guard your heart,
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Speaker 1: for out of it or all the issues of life,
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Speaker 1: watch over that spirit of yours. When God made us,
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Speaker 1: he gave us body, but along with that the immaterial
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Speaker 1: soul and spirit. Animals do not have a spirit. There
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Speaker 1: is no connection between God communicating with animals except by
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Speaker 1: way of instinct in the natural order of things. But
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Speaker 1: humans it's different. Now. We see when Adam and Eve
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Speaker 1: have a child, it's in their likeness. He is in
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Speaker 1: their image. One theologian writes, this sin damage the created ideal,
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Speaker 1: but that damage must not have been complete. For this reason,
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Speaker 1: one may say that the image of God has been defaced,
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Speaker 1: but not erased. It has been tarnished, but not destroyed.
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Speaker 1: What are we saying only this when Adam was a minute.
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Speaker 1: It was originally created. He was created to have that
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Speaker 1: sense of community and connection and communication and with the
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Speaker 1: one who made him. That broke down wasn't erased, it
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Speaker 1: was effaced. Was it destroyed, It was damaged. And the
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Speaker 1: same is true with us today. We live with a
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Speaker 1: defaced and damaged image. Nevertheless, unlike animals, we are able
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Speaker 1: to connect with our God in the inner person. Like
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Speaker 1: our pets never can and never will. I know you
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Speaker 1: think your pet's different, but just accept it by faith,
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Speaker 1: Just take it. Oh the stories I hear about pets,
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Speaker 1: it's another subject. Psalm one thirty nine turned a Psalm
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Speaker 1: one thirty nine. David is all caught up in the
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Speaker 1: magnificent hand of God in his life. I love the
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Speaker 1: way he writes this psalm. It's fast becoming my favorite.
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Speaker 1: You have searched me and known me. You know when
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Speaker 1: I sit down, you know when I wri up. You
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Speaker 1: understand my thought from afar meaning long before I have
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Speaker 1: the thought, you already know it's there. You understand it.
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Speaker 1: You scrutinize my path. That's a wonderful translation of the
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Speaker 1: Hebrew verb. You scrutinize my path and my lying down.
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Speaker 1: You are intimately acquainted with all my ways. When our
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Speaker 1: kids were little, we bought them an ant farm. Ever
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Speaker 1: seen an ant farm? Little plastic sheets on each side,
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Speaker 1: and inside this sand, and then you dump all the
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Speaker 1: ants inside, and you get to watch them as they move,
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Speaker 1: because they're doing that. Normally, in the ground, all you
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Speaker 1: see is a mound and little creatures that bite you
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Speaker 1: on the feet. But in this ant farm, you're able
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Speaker 1: to watch them as they're making their paths and their
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Speaker 1: move That's the thought that comes to my mind. The
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Speaker 1: Lord sees us just that clearly. In fact, more clearly,
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Speaker 1: he not only sees our paths. He knows our motives.
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Speaker 1: He knows our words before we say them, he knows
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Speaker 1: our thoughts before we think them, and he's intimately acquainted
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Speaker 1: with all of our ways. This is our creator. Now
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Speaker 1: go to verse thirteen, and you will move from that
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Speaker 1: general fact into the womb of the expectant mother. Watch
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Speaker 1: how the probe of God's spirit drives us to the
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Speaker 1: very life of the embryo the fetus. David writes, you
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Speaker 1: formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb.
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Speaker 1: I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully
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Speaker 1: and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul
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Speaker 1: knows it very well. One of the old Hebrew scholars
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Speaker 1: writes this about that statement, wonderfully, fearfully and wonderfully made,
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Speaker 1: reflecting upon the marvels of the human body. Even with
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Speaker 1: his elementary anatomical knowledge, the inspired Psalmist is in awe
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Speaker 1: and wonder. As I analyze my makeup, as I realize
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Speaker 1: how you put me together, there is a wonder. There
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Speaker 1: is a fearful realization that I am different. A better
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Speaker 1: word is distinct. Now I know there's a risk. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to make a disclaimer here so that no one
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Speaker 1: goes off in the tangent in this area and live
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Speaker 1: by hunches or intuition or whatever. I realized when I
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Speaker 1: opened the door to this that some of you are
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Speaker 1: given to this kind of thing more than others others.
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Speaker 1: If you are so skeptical, you're going to walk out
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Speaker 1: before I'm through. But there are some of you who
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Speaker 1: are saying, finally, somebody agrees with me. All of the
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Speaker 1: hunches I have are from God. Stop not saying that.
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Speaker 1: I'm saying there are times the only way He can
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Speaker 1: communicate to us whether it is through conviction or assurance,
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Speaker 1: or direction or reassurance or encouragement, is through the unidentified
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Speaker 1: inner prompting. That's all I'm saying, and I'm asking us
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Speaker 1: to stop calling them intuition and coincidence and hunches and feelings,
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Speaker 1: and to identify them as the work of the spirit.
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Speaker 1: Let me show you a couple of three examples. Go
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Speaker 1: from Psalm one nine back to First Kings nineteen, First
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Speaker 1: Kings nineteen. The key person in First King's nineteen is
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Speaker 1: a prophet, Hebrew prophet named Elijah. A little background, he
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Speaker 1: has stood toe to toe against the king named Ahab,
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Speaker 1: Ahab's wife Jezebel. He has dared a hab to stand
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Speaker 1: against the living God. Ahab, with the influence of Jezebel,
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Speaker 1: has done that. It came to a final climax on
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Speaker 1: Mount Carmel, where there was a battle. An altar was built,
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Speaker 1: and Elijah said to the people of the false prophets
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Speaker 1: of bail, you call on your God, and if he
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Speaker 1: comes down and consumes the altar, we'll say that he
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Speaker 1: is God. If he doesn't and mine does, then mine
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Speaker 1: is God. It was some one of those standoffs, and
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Speaker 1: as you would expect they were wrong. Elijah was right,
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Speaker 1: and all four hundred and fifty prophets of bail are
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Speaker 1: wiped off the scene. And this incenses Jezebel. That's what
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Speaker 1: we read about in verse one of chapter nineteen. Now
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Speaker 1: Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how
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Speaker 1: he had killed the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel
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Speaker 1: sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, so may the gods
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Speaker 1: do to me, and even more if I do not
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Speaker 1: make your life as the life of one of them
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Speaker 1: by tomorrow about this time, only the Bible could say
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Speaker 1: it like that, we would say, your history curtains. I'm
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Speaker 1: wiping you off the earth. In twenty four hours, you'll
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Speaker 1: be a past. You'll be in the past tense. Believe me,
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Speaker 1: Elijah understood what she was saying in her threat, and,
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Speaker 1: in a moment of weakness, perhaps exhausted from the stand
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Speaker 1: off at Carmel, perhaps weary himself from the draft that
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Speaker 1: has swept across the land, and it is wearisome to
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Speaker 1: fight against false prophets and demonic forces, Elijah caves in
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Speaker 1: and he runs for his life. Verse three tells us
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Speaker 1: why he did it. He was afraid and he rose
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Speaker 1: and ran for his life and came to Beersheba. If
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Speaker 1: you check the map, that's the southernmost spot in the
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Speaker 1: land of Israel. Couldn't have gone any further south. And
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Speaker 1: when he gets to Beersheba, he leaves his belongings and
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Speaker 1: his servant there, and he goes another another day's journey
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Speaker 1: into the Judean wilderness. And there he sits under a
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Speaker 1: juniper tree and requested for himself that he might die.
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Speaker 1: He said, it is enough now, O Lord, take my life,
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Speaker 1: for I am not better than my father's ever been there.
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Speaker 1: Don't answer out loud. It would probably surprise many people
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Speaker 1: today to know how many would say, yes, I've been there.
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Speaker 1: I remember there being there when I was in school,
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Speaker 1: face and finals. I remember thinking there is no way
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it. I remember thinking, Lord, either take
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Speaker 1: my life or the life of my proth, take one
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Speaker 1: or the other. He chose not to do either one,
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Speaker 1: and by his grace I made it through. But Elijah's
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Speaker 1: at the bottom, and at the bottom he thinks things
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Speaker 1: that are wild and even unbiblical. I have no reason
27:24
Speaker 1: to go on. It's all over. He's in a cave. Ultimately,
27:31
Speaker 1: and in that cave, the Lord says, what are you
27:34
Speaker 1: doing here? Elijen he's he whinds about being the only
27:38
Speaker 1: one that's left, And look closely. Verse eleven, the Lord says,
27:43
Speaker 1: go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord,
27:45
Speaker 1: and behold, the Lord was passing by a great and
27:49
Speaker 1: strong wind, was rending the mountains and breaking the pieces
27:52
Speaker 1: the rocks, breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord.
27:56
Speaker 1: But the Lord was not in the wind. After the
27:59
Speaker 1: wind and earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
28:04
Speaker 1: And after the earthquake of fire, but the Lord was
28:08
Speaker 1: not in the fire. And after the fire, there was
28:14
Speaker 1: a sound of a gentle blowing Stop right there. In
28:21
Speaker 1: the sixteen eleven King James Bible that is rendered there
28:25
Speaker 1: was a still small voice. Many of you and many
28:29
Speaker 1: of us were raised with those words. Listen for the
28:32
Speaker 1: still small voice. That's where it comes from. But the
28:35
Speaker 1: Hebrew doesn't say a still small voice. The new King
28:40
Speaker 1: James renders this a in the footnote, a delicate whispering voice,
28:46
Speaker 1: but voice is not mentioned in the Hebrew text. In
28:49
Speaker 1: the NIV, you'll read a gentle whisper, whispered like I'm
28:54
Speaker 1: whispered like I'm whispering right now, and you're able to
28:57
Speaker 1: hear that. But you've got to be real quiet, dear
29:00
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, otherwise you'll miss it. Maffitt's rendering the
29:08
Speaker 1: breath of a light whisper colin day. It's one of
29:14
Speaker 1: the reliable old commentators on the Old Testament. See if
29:20
Speaker 1: Kyle writes this, it was not in the tempest that
29:25
Speaker 1: Jehovah was, and after the tempest and earthquake, it was
29:28
Speaker 1: not in the earthquake that Jehovah was, And after the
29:31
Speaker 1: earthquake fire, it was not in the fire that Jehovah was,
29:35
Speaker 1: and after the fire, a still gentle rustling. He renders
29:41
Speaker 1: this from the Hebrew text, A gentle rustling. You know what,
29:47
Speaker 1: I call it, a uIP, an unidentified inter prompting. God
29:57
Speaker 1: got through to his capacity, to his spirit, and he
30:04
Speaker 1: touched him as nothing in the sensory perception would have grasped. Earthquake, wind, fire,
30:11
Speaker 1: none of that moved him, but there was this gentle rustling.
30:20
Speaker 1: Kyle adds, it was in a soft, gentle rustling that
30:25
Speaker 1: God revealed himself to Elijah. The result is that Elijah
30:34
Speaker 1: wraps his mantle around him and walks toward God rather
30:38
Speaker 1: than from him, comes to the mouth of the cave
30:40
Speaker 1: and has led ultimately to meet up with Elisha, and
30:44
Speaker 1: they together as partners, make their way right on until
30:47
Speaker 1: Elijah's taken off the earth. But the point I want
30:51
Speaker 1: to make is the turning point was this unidentified inner
30:56
Speaker 1: prompting gentle quiet. If there's anything that troubles me about
31:07
Speaker 1: our culture and our times, it is the noise of
31:10
Speaker 1: it all and the pace of it all, because I
31:15
Speaker 1: think it works against the voice of God quietly speaking
31:21
Speaker 1: to reach us. There's an old hymn we don't even
31:27
Speaker 1: have it in our hymnal that says, speak Lord in
31:29
Speaker 1: the stillness, while I wait on thee hushed my heart
31:34
Speaker 1: to listen in expectancy. I warn you before the Christmas
31:43
Speaker 1: event unfolds. And we've already seen the tragedy occur in
31:49
Speaker 1: just recent hours, as people were pressing to get into
31:53
Speaker 1: a building, to the point where one man is killed.
31:57
Speaker 1: Of all things, you about being so busy you will
32:02
Speaker 1: miss his voice or in crane right, slow me down, Lord,
32:09
Speaker 1: is the pounding of my heart, by the quieting of
32:13
Speaker 1: my mind, Steady my hurried pace with a vision of
32:17
Speaker 1: the eternal reach of time. Give me amid the confusion
32:21
Speaker 1: of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills, break
32:25
Speaker 1: the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing
32:29
Speaker 1: music of the singing streams in my memory. Let me
32:33
Speaker 1: look upward to the towering oak and know that it
32:37
Speaker 1: grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.
32:44
Speaker 1: Take time, Take time to listen. God's voice may be
32:53
Speaker 1: in the earthquake or the fire, there are messages there,
32:58
Speaker 1: but often his inner prompting will come in the deep
33:04
Speaker 1: well of our spirit, where he simply says, yes, go there,
33:16
Speaker 1: or wait or no, stay away from that. Turn from
33:24
Speaker 1: First Kings nineteen to Acts Chapter twenty. Acts twenty is
33:30
Speaker 1: an altogether different setting and a different person. No longer
33:34
Speaker 1: the prophet Elijah, but now the apostle Paul. He is
33:38
Speaker 1: meeting for his swan song with the elders of Ephesus,
33:43
Speaker 1: and in saying goodbye to them, he reveals to them
33:47
Speaker 1: what he's convinced is God's leading in his life. But
33:52
Speaker 1: it's going to be trouble ahead. I love the way
33:55
Speaker 1: Paul expresses this, and Luke, of course, is the one
33:59
Speaker 1: who is this account Verse twenty two of chapter twenty
34:05
Speaker 1: of Acts, Paul says, and now bound behold bound in spirit.
34:12
Speaker 1: I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what
34:16
Speaker 1: will happen to me there, except look closely that the
34:22
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying
34:29
Speaker 1: that bonds and afflictions await me. I find that intriguing.
34:37
Speaker 1: What was that? It was an iu? It was a uIP.
34:43
Speaker 1: I've been with the Lord, and I've met with him,
34:45
Speaker 1: and I've sought his guidance, and he's told me You're
34:48
Speaker 1: to go to Jerusalem, Paul. But there's also been that
34:52
Speaker 1: inner sense, that spoken voice of the spirit saying, but beware,
34:58
Speaker 1: there's trouble ahead. Sure enough, there was. It was there.
35:01
Speaker 1: He was arrested more than once. It was from there
35:05
Speaker 1: he was sent to Rome, where ultimately he was imprisoned,
35:08
Speaker 1: had an audience before Nero, and finally beheaded. But all
35:11
Speaker 1: the troubles started in Jerusalem. The Spirit told him that
35:14
Speaker 1: what happened, saying, testifying to me in every city, saying
35:21
Speaker 1: that bonds and afflictions await me. But look at his response.
35:26
Speaker 1: But I do not consider my life of any account
35:30
Speaker 1: as dear to myself, what does that sound like? How
35:33
Speaker 1: about Philippians won twenty one? For me, to live is
35:36
Speaker 1: Christ and to die gain. I'm not troubled knowing there's
35:41
Speaker 1: there are trials ahead. My goal is to finish my
35:45
Speaker 1: course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus,
35:48
Speaker 1: to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
35:51
Speaker 1: Ken't just stood back having read about the persecuted believers
35:55
Speaker 1: not only in the first century, but in the twentieth
35:57
Speaker 1: and twenty first century, and wondered how could they have
36:00
Speaker 1: gone through it. That's how the Spirit of God gave
36:05
Speaker 1: them not only an awareness of danger, but also the
36:08
Speaker 1: confidence that they could bear up under it. That explains
36:12
Speaker 1: how some of the reformers could be burned at the stake,
36:15
Speaker 1: and while being burned, offer up their prayer to God
36:19
Speaker 1: that God would forgive those who were taking their lives.
36:23
Speaker 1: It had come from this inner prompting of the Spirit
36:27
Speaker 1: saying it is going to be dreadful for you, but
36:32
Speaker 1: I will give you the strength to endure. And the
36:38
Speaker 1: glorious reality is that God is not through giving that
36:42
Speaker 1: kind of strength in hard times. I've experienced them in
36:47
Speaker 1: the last two years of my life right here at times,
36:53
Speaker 1: not knowing how I could go on. Most of you
36:57
Speaker 1: knew nothing of it. My wife knew all about it,
37:02
Speaker 1: My family knew most of it. But during those times
37:07
Speaker 1: I had to rely on the presence and the assurance
37:14
Speaker 1: of the Spirit of God to stay at it. Some
37:19
Speaker 1: of you are there right now. I couldn't point you out,
37:23
Speaker 1: nor would I if I could. But you're there, and
37:28
Speaker 1: you know that if you take the journey that's in
37:30
Speaker 1: front of you, there will be trials. Speaking of that,
37:33
Speaker 1: look at Acts twenty seven. Here's another example. The spirit
37:37
Speaker 1: of God is at work even when danger is upon us.
37:42
Speaker 1: If you love sailing, you owe yourself the reading of
37:45
Speaker 1: Acts twenty seven. This is the perfect storm that sweeps
37:49
Speaker 1: into the Mediterranean. The unfortunate part of it is that
37:52
Speaker 1: Paul is on a ship with over two hundred people,
37:56
Speaker 1: and he has the sense from the Holy Spirit that
37:59
Speaker 1: there is going to be not only tragedy, but there's
38:02
Speaker 1: going to be damage to the ship. However, not one
38:05
Speaker 1: loss of There will not be one loss of life.
38:07
Speaker 1: Look at verse ten of chapter twenty seven. Paul speaks
38:11
Speaker 1: to his fellow companions, the other sailors. He said to them,
38:14
Speaker 1: men I perceive that offweight stop uIP in progress. I
38:20
Speaker 1: perceive there's another one of our words. I sense. How
38:25
Speaker 1: did he sense it? The Spirit of God communicated it
38:29
Speaker 1: to it, because he is given. He is built in
38:32
Speaker 1: the image of God, in the likeness of God, and
38:35
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God connects with him, saying, Paul, you
38:38
Speaker 1: need to know something. This is what's a hit. Look
38:40
Speaker 1: at what he perceives. I perceive that the voyage will
38:44
Speaker 1: certainly be with danger and great loss, not only of
38:48
Speaker 1: the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.
38:51
Speaker 1: Look at the next verse. But the centurion was more
38:54
Speaker 1: persuaded by the pilot and the captain of the ship
38:58
Speaker 1: than by what was being said by Paul. The reason
39:01
Speaker 1: I said no one was killed is because ultimately they
39:04
Speaker 1: did listen to Paul. Ultimately there was a shipwreck. Ultimately
39:08
Speaker 1: they all got off on the island and they were
39:11
Speaker 1: all safe and rescue. They were all wet, but they
39:15
Speaker 1: were all safe when they got there. The good news.
39:18
Speaker 1: In times of potential or present danger, the spirit of
39:22
Speaker 1: God can bring peace. In fact, Paul has such peace.
39:25
Speaker 1: He sits down and has a meal with others on
39:28
Speaker 1: the very deck of that ship and Finally they make
39:31
Speaker 1: their way through verse thirty four, end of the chapter,
39:34
Speaker 1: or toward the end. Therefore, I encourage you to take
39:37
Speaker 1: some food, for this is for your preservation. For not
39:41
Speaker 1: a half from the head of any of you, For
39:45
Speaker 1: not a half from the head of any of you,
39:48
Speaker 1: we'll perish. Verse thirty seven. All of us in the
39:51
Speaker 1: ship were two hundred and seventy six persons. Look at
39:55
Speaker 1: the end of verse the last verse we read, it
39:58
Speaker 1: happened that they all were brought safely to land. That's
40:02
Speaker 1: exactly what Paul had said would happen in verse twenty two.
40:07
Speaker 1: Keep your courage. There will be a loss. There will
40:10
Speaker 1: be no loss of life among us. How did he
40:12
Speaker 1: know it in her promptings? One more is worth our time,
40:17
Speaker 1: and that's it. Look at Second Corinthians, Chapter twelve. Second Corinthians,
40:25
Speaker 1: Chapter twelve. Paul has been given incredible revelations from God
40:34
Speaker 1: in the third heaven. As a result, he could have
40:37
Speaker 1: been exalted in his own pride and puffed up. And
40:40
Speaker 1: the Lord said, no, I'm not going to let that happen.
40:43
Speaker 1: So he sent a foreign in the flesh for whatever
40:46
Speaker 1: it was, And there are kinds of surmisings. It was
40:49
Speaker 1: a very physical, painful thing, and it certainly kept him humble.
40:55
Speaker 1: Look at what follows verse seven, Second Corinthians twelve, because
40:59
Speaker 1: of the passing greatness of the revelations. For this reason,
41:03
Speaker 1: to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me
41:07
Speaker 1: a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that
41:09
Speaker 1: was permitted by the Way, by the Lord to torment me,
41:13
Speaker 1: to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored
41:19
Speaker 1: the Lord three times that it might leave me. Still't
41:23
Speaker 1: go any further. You've been there, haven't you haven't you
41:27
Speaker 1: had a situation happened that you pray about and nothing happens,
41:30
Speaker 1: and you pray again, and nothing happens, and you pray
41:33
Speaker 1: again and nothing happens. I think every hand would go up.
41:37
Speaker 1: We've all been there. In this case, the answer came, no, no, no,
41:46
Speaker 1: I'm not going to take away the thorn. You're going
41:48
Speaker 1: to live with that. Somewhere between the reality of that
41:53
Speaker 1: and Paul's getting the message in verse nine, there is
41:57
Speaker 1: an unidentified inter prompting, and the message came in this form.
42:02
Speaker 1: Verse nine, verse ten, he has said to me, up,
42:08
Speaker 1: there's a uIP at work. He has said to me.
42:13
Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected
42:17
Speaker 1: in weakness. And his response, why what a great attitude,
42:23
Speaker 1: most gladly Therefore, most gladly, Therefore, I will rather boast
42:30
Speaker 1: about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may
42:35
Speaker 1: dwell in me. And I am well content with weaknesses.
42:40
Speaker 1: Most of us have learned in our years of walking
42:42
Speaker 1: with the Lord that he blesses times of our great
42:46
Speaker 1: weakness with great favor. If you have ever carried out
42:52
Speaker 1: His will and his work in a weak manner, you
42:56
Speaker 1: have seen him come through and bless him. The Lord
43:02
Speaker 1: has used messages I have preached in a situation in
43:06
Speaker 1: which I was struggling with something that this was years
43:10
Speaker 1: ago and I could hardly get my words out, And
43:13
Speaker 1: later found out that message ministered to people like many
43:17
Speaker 1: of the others I'd preached had never touched them, But
43:20
Speaker 1: there was something about the message delivered in weakness. Richard
43:25
Speaker 1: Halverson left his long term, long term pastorate from a church,
43:30
Speaker 1: a Fourth Presbyterian Church, to become the chap of the Senate.
43:35
Speaker 1: He felt inadequate. In his words, I felt like a
43:38
Speaker 1: non person among the congress. I felt like a mascot
43:44
Speaker 1: to one of the most powerful political bodies in the world.
43:47
Speaker 1: I wondered what I was doing there that evening he
43:52
Speaker 1: read the words of Jesus. All authority in heaven and
43:56
Speaker 1: on earth has been given to me, and surely I
43:59
Speaker 1: am with you always, he adds. As I meditated on
44:03
Speaker 1: those words, I realized I am a garment which Jesus
44:08
Speaker 1: Christ wears every day to do what he wants to do.
44:13
Speaker 1: In the United States Senate, I don't need power. My
44:19
Speaker 1: weakness is an asset. If Christ is in me, what
44:24
Speaker 1: more do I need? And I say that to you
44:28
Speaker 1: who feel like you don't have great gifts or you
44:31
Speaker 1: haven't been used in a great way, here is hope
44:35
Speaker 1: for all of us. Have you known weakness? If the
44:40
Speaker 1: scripture is true, and it always is, there is a
44:43
Speaker 1: contentment with weakness, knowing that He ends the verse when
44:46
Speaker 1: I am weak, then I am strong. How can I
44:52
Speaker 1: be assured of that? The inner prompting of the spirit,
44:58
Speaker 1: the inner prompting, that unidentified inner prompting that says, it's
45:04
Speaker 1: okay that you're weak. It's okay if you're losing your
45:07
Speaker 1: voice and you're the soloist for the day. It's okay
45:12
Speaker 1: if you don't feel like you're as well prepared as
45:14
Speaker 1: you should be. It's okay. In your weakness. God will
45:18
Speaker 1: make up the slack a couple of very practical issues.
45:24
Speaker 1: And we close with this number one. When we're not
45:29
Speaker 1: sure it's from the spirit, what do we do? Two words?
45:32
Speaker 1: Back off? That wasn't hard, was it. You sense this
45:36
Speaker 1: is contradicting the written word of God. Get away from it.
45:40
Speaker 1: You sense this may not be coming from the spirit.
45:43
Speaker 1: Don't mess with it. You sense that there might even
45:47
Speaker 1: be demonic influence. Get away from it.
45:52
Speaker 2: That is a.
45:52
Speaker 1: Prompting you don't need and you don't want to mess with. However,
45:57
Speaker 1: the other side is when we are confident and it's
46:00
Speaker 1: from the Lord, go for it. And let me add
46:03
Speaker 1: one thing. Be ready for a surprise. Correction, be ready
46:08
Speaker 1: for a lot of surprises. Listen to this story. It's
46:14
Speaker 1: a true one. It's about a seventy two year old
46:20
Speaker 1: Baptist preacher named Charles McCoy. McCoy was pastoring a Baptist
46:26
Speaker 1: church in Oyster Bay, New York, when, at age seventy two,
46:32
Speaker 1: he was mandated by his denomination to retire. A lifelong bachelor,
46:39
Speaker 1: he had cared for his mother for as long as
46:42
Speaker 1: she lived. In his spare time, he had earned seven
46:45
Speaker 1: university degrees, including two PhDs, one from Dartmouth, the other
46:52
Speaker 1: from Columbia. But now, at age seventy two, he was
46:57
Speaker 1: being forced to retire from the ministry, and he was depressed.
47:02
Speaker 1: I just lay on my bed thinking that my life
47:04
Speaker 1: is over. I haven't really done anything yet. I've been
47:08
Speaker 1: a pastor of this church for so many years, and
47:11
Speaker 1: nobody really wants me that much. What have I done
47:15
Speaker 1: for Christ? I've spent an awful lot of time working
47:18
Speaker 1: for degrees, but what does that count for? I haven't
47:21
Speaker 1: won very many to the Lord. A week later, he
47:25
Speaker 1: met a Christian pastor from India, and on impulse, uIP
47:34
Speaker 1: I've written in my notes on impulse, I asked him
47:37
Speaker 1: to preach in my church. After the service, the Indian
47:41
Speaker 1: brother asked him, matter of factly, to return the favor
47:46
Speaker 1: another up of my dad, since he had preached for McCoy.
47:50
Speaker 1: Would McCoy come to Indian preach for him. McCoy told
47:54
Speaker 1: him he was going to have to retire and move
47:57
Speaker 1: to a home for the elderly down in Florida, but
48:00
Speaker 1: the pastor insisted, informing McCoy that where he came from,
48:04
Speaker 1: people respected a man with white hair. Would he come?
48:09
Speaker 1: McCoy thought and prayed about it, and then uIP decided
48:14
Speaker 1: he would. The members of his church were aghast. Dire
48:21
Speaker 1: predictions were made. The young chairman of the Board of
48:23
Speaker 1: Deacons summed up the attitude of the congregation when he asked,
48:27
Speaker 1: what if you die in India? I love McCoy's answer.
48:33
Speaker 1: He told him, he reckoned. It's as close to Heaven
48:35
Speaker 1: from there as it is from here. Sold most of
48:41
Speaker 1: his belongings and put what was left in a big trunk,
48:45
Speaker 1: booked a one way passage to India, his first trip
48:49
Speaker 1: ever out of the United States. When he arrived in Bombay,
48:53
Speaker 1: he discovered, to his horror that his trunk had been lost,
48:58
Speaker 1: never to be found. All he had were the clothes
49:01
Speaker 1: on his back, his wallet, his passport, and the address
49:04
Speaker 1: of missionaries in Bombay he had clipped from a missionary magazine.
49:09
Speaker 1: When he left. He asked for directions, got on a
49:12
Speaker 1: street car headed for their house. When he got there,
49:15
Speaker 1: he discovered while on the street car his wallet and
49:19
Speaker 1: passport had been stolen. He went to the missionaries, who
49:24
Speaker 1: welcomed him in but told them that the man who
49:27
Speaker 1: had invited him. They told him, the man who had
49:30
Speaker 1: invited him to come to India was still in the
49:32
Speaker 1: United States and would probably remain there indefinitely. What in
49:40
Speaker 1: the world was he going to do now? Unperturbed by now,
49:45
Speaker 1: McCoy told them he had come to preach and that
49:50
Speaker 1: he felt uIP He felt that he would try to
49:55
Speaker 1: make an appointment with a mayor of Bombay. They warned
49:59
Speaker 1: him the mayor's very busy and important. In all the
50:01
Speaker 1: years the had been missionaries there that had never succeeded
50:04
Speaker 1: in getting an audience with the mayor. Nevertheless, McCoy set
50:08
Speaker 1: out for the mayor's office the next day. He was
50:11
Speaker 1: invited in. When the mayor saw McCoy's business card listing
50:15
Speaker 1: all the degrees, he reasoned McCoy must be not only
50:18
Speaker 1: a Christian pastor, but someone much more important than that.
50:22
Speaker 1: Not only did he get an appointment, the mayor held
50:25
Speaker 1: a tee in his honor, attended by all of the
50:28
Speaker 1: big officials in Bombay. Old Doctor McCoy was able to
50:33
Speaker 1: preach to those leaders for half an hour. Among them
50:36
Speaker 1: was the director of India's West Point, the National Defense
50:40
Speaker 1: Academy at Punah. He was so impressed at what he
50:43
Speaker 1: heard from McCoy he invited him to the academy to
50:47
Speaker 1: preach there to the students. Thus was launched, at age
50:51
Speaker 1: seventy two, a brand new sixteen year ministry for doctor
50:56
Speaker 1: Charles McCoy. Until he died at age eighty eight. This
51:00
Speaker 1: dauntless man circled the globe preaching the gospel. There's a
51:05
Speaker 1: church in Calcutta today because of his preaching, and a
51:10
Speaker 1: thriving band of Christians in Hong Kong because of his
51:14
Speaker 1: faithful ministry. What's interesting is he never had enough money
51:17
Speaker 1: than to get him to the next place he was
51:20
Speaker 1: to go. He died one afternoon in a hotel in Calcutta,
51:24
Speaker 1: resting for a meeting he was to preach at that evening.
51:28
Speaker 1: He had indeed found himself as close to Heaven there
51:30
Speaker 1: as he would have been at his church in Oyster
51:33
Speaker 1: Bay or some retirement home in Florida. I love that story,
51:38
Speaker 1: not because I'm planning to retire, but because God has
51:42
Speaker 1: a way of working and moving if we'll only listen
51:46
Speaker 1: to his voice, which sometimes comes in that still gentle, rustling,
51:53
Speaker 1: and sometime on the deck of a ship at sea,
51:56
Speaker 1: and sometimes when other people around you were saying there's
52:01
Speaker 1: no way you want to go there, And sometimes when
52:05
Speaker 1: in your weakness, he plans to use you in an
52:09
Speaker 1: incredible way. The story of our lives, isn't it? Now?
52:16
Speaker 1: You're hit with me? Are you aware today that that
52:22
Speaker 1: inter prompting in your life is the work of God?
52:27
Speaker 1: For many of you, it's a simple fact that you've
52:30
Speaker 1: never met Jesus as your savior, and that inter prompting
52:34
Speaker 1: is called the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't
52:39
Speaker 1: matter that you can't explain that. The fact is you're
52:42
Speaker 1: experiencing it. That means you're lost. You've never met the
52:48
Speaker 1: Savior who not only died for you, he died and
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Speaker 1: paid the complete penalty for your sin's past, present, and future.
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Speaker 1: And he holds out the gift of eternal life, saying,
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Speaker 1: that's why I brought you to this place today. This
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Speaker 1: is the place you can receive the gift and know
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Speaker 1: my leading like you've never known before. For others of you,
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Speaker 1: it's God's way of saying, pay attention, I'm speaking to you.
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Speaker 1: Quite hiding behind the fact that you're weak or that
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Speaker 1: you feel like you're in danger. Or it's not a
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Speaker 1: fire or an earthquake or a windstorm, it's a gentle rustling.
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Speaker 1: Be still and learn again that he is God. Be
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Speaker 1: still if we can help you in any way, That's
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Speaker 1: why we exist. There are prayer rooms outside each exit,
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Speaker 1: and they're occupied with a few people who would love
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Speaker 1: to talk with you about your soul, your struggle, your decision.
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Speaker 1: Come today, let us hear from you. Slow us down, Lord,
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Speaker 1: guard us from always increasing our speed thinking there's something
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Speaker 1: good and godly about the pace we're keeping up. Quiet
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Speaker 1: our hearts so that we hear what you're saying. Deliver
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Speaker 1: us from closing doors that you are opening, or trying
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Speaker 1: to push open doors that you have closed. Give us
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Speaker 1: a reminder again and again that your inner promptings are
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Speaker 1: reliable and they represent your spirits working. Thank you for them,
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Speaker 1: Thank you for this time of learning, growing and worshiping together.
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Speaker 1: In the name of our Savior, our Master, and Lord Jesus,
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Speaker 1: we pray everyone said Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message those unidentified inner promptings was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, and the sound recording was copyrighted
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Speaker 2: in two thousand and nine by Charles R. Swindall.
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Speaker 1: Inc.
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Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message, Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
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Speaker 2: Is pleased to acknowledge Franklin Graham's book This One thing
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Speaker 2: I do as the source for the account of doctor
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Speaker 2: Charles McCoy in India