Latest / 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast / God Carries Us | Isaiah’s Promise and the Call to the Church (Sept 25)

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God Carries Us | Isaiah’s Promise and the Call to the Church (Sept 25) · 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast

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Welcome to the Daily Audio Torah. Today is September
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25th. Now let's continue our journey reading through the
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entire Bible in one year. This week we are reading
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from the New Living Translation for the Old Testament and for the
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New Testament.
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Isaiah 45:11-48:11.
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This is what the Lord, the Creator and Holy One of Israel,
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says: Do you, Israel, question what I do?
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Do you give me orders about the work of my hands? I am
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the one who made the earth and created people to live on it.
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With my hands I stretched out the heavens. All the
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millions of stars are at my command. I will raise
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up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous
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purpose, and I will guide all his
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actions. He will restore my city
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and free my captive people, and not for
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a reward. Reward. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.
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This is what the Lord says: The Egyptians,
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Ethiopians, and Sabaeans will be subject to you.
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They will come to you with all their merchandise, and it will all be yours.
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They will follow you as prisoners in chains.
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They will fall to their knees in front of you and say, God is with
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you, and he is the only God. Truly,
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O God of Israel, our Savior, You work in strange
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and mysterious ways. All who make idols will be humiliated and
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disgraced, but the Lord will save the people of Israel with
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eternal salvation.
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They will never again be humiliated and disgraced throughout everlasting ages.
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For the Lord is God, and He created the heavens and earth and
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put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in,
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not to be a place of empty chaos. I am the Lord,
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He says, and there is no other. I publicly
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proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper
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obscurities in some dark corner so no one can understand what I
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mean. And I did not tell the people of Israel
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to ask Me for something I did not plan to give.
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I, the Lord, speak only what is true and right.
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Gather together and come, you fugitives from surrounding
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nations! What fools they are who carry around their
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wooden idols and pray to gods that cannot save! Consult together,
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argue your case, and state your proofs that idol worship
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pays. Who made these things known long ago?
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What idol ever told you they would happen?
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Was it not I, the Lord? For there is no other God but
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Me, a just God and a Savior— no, not one!
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Let all the world look to Me for salvation. For I am God;
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there is no other. I have sworn by My own
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name, and I will never go back on My word. Every knee will bow to
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Me, and every tongue will confess allegiance to My name.
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The people will declare, The Lord is the source of all
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my righteousness and strength. And all who were angry with him will come
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to him and be ashamed. In the Lord all
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the generations of Israel will be justified, and in
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him they will boast.
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The idols of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, are being hauled
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away on ox carts. But look,
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the beasts are staggering under the
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weight. Both the idols and the ones carrying
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them are bowed down. The gods cannot protect the people,
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and the people cannot protect the gods. They go off into
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captivity together. Listen to
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me, all you who are left in Israel. I created you and
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have cared for you since before you were born. I will be
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your God throughout your lifetime. Until your hair is white
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with age. I made you,
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and I will care for you. I will carry you along
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and save you. To whom will you
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compare Me? Who is My equal? Some people
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pour out their silver and gold and hire a craftsman to make a god
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from it. Then they bow down and worship it. They carry
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it around on their shoulders, and when they set it down, it stays there.
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It cannot even move. And when someone prays to it, there is
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no answer. It has no power to get anyone out of trouble.
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Do not forget this, you guilty ones, and do not forget the
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things I have done throughout history. For I am God,
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I alone. I am God, and there is no one else like Me.
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Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens.
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Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever
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I wish.
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I will call a swift bird of prey from the east, a leader
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from a distant land who will come and do my bidding. I have said I
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would do it, and I will. Listen to me, you stubborn,
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evil people, for I am ready to set things right,
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not in the distant future, but right now.
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I am ready to save Jerusalem and give my glory To
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Israel.
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Come, Babylon, unconquered one, sit in the dust,
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for your days of glory, pomp, and honor have ended.
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O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be the lovely
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princess, tender and delicate. Take heavy millstones
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and grind the corn. Remove your veil and strip
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off your robe. Expose yourself to public view.
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You will be naked and burdened with shame. I will take vengeance
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against you and will not negotiate. Our Redeemer,
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whose name is the Lord Almighty, is the Holy One of Israel.
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O daughter of Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
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Never again will you be known as the Queen of Kingdoms.
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For I was angry with My chosen people and began their
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punishment by letting them fall into your hands. But you,
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Babylon, showed them no mercy. You have forced even
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the elderly to carry heavy burdens. You thought,
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I will reign forever as queen of the world.
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You did not care at all about My people or think about the consequences
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of your actions. You are a pleasure-crazy
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kingdom, living at ease and feeling secure, bragging as
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if you were the greatest in the world. You say,
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I'm self-sufficient and not accountable to anyone.
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I will never be a widow or lose my children.
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Well, those 2 things will come upon you in
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a moment— widowhood and the
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loss of your children. Yes, these calamities will come upon
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you despite all your witchcraft and magic.
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You felt secure in all your wickedness,
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No one sees me, you said. Your wisdom and knowledge have caused
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you to turn away from me and claim, I am self-sufficient
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and not accountable to anyone. So disaster
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will overtake you suddenly, and you won't be able to charm
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it away. Calamity will fall upon you,
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and you won't be able to buy your way out.
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A catastrophe will arise so fast that you won't
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know what hit you. Call out the demon hordes you have worshiped
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all these years. Ask them to help you strike terror
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into the hearts of people once again. You have more than
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enough advisors, astrologers, and stargazers. Let them stand
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up and save you from what the future holds. But they are as useless
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as dried grass burning in a fire. They cannot
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even save themselves. You will get no help from them at all.
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Their hearth is not a place to sit for warmth. And all
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your friends, those with whom you have done business since childhood,
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will slip away and disappear, unable to help.
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Listen to me, O family of Jacob who are called by the name
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of Israel and born into the family of Judah.
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Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and call on the
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God of Israel. You don't follow through on any of your promises,
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even though you call yourself the Holy City and talk about
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depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
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Time and again I warned you about what was going to happen in the future.
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Then suddenly I took action, and all my
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predictions came true. I know how stubborn and obstinate
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you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. You are as hardheaded
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as bronze! That is why I told you ahead of time what
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I was going to do. That way, you could never
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say, My idols did it! My wooden image and metal
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god commanded it to happen! You have heard my predictions
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and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it.
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Now I will tell you new things I have not mentioned before,
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secrets you have not yet heard. They are brand new,
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not things from the past. So you cannot say, we knew that
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all the time. Yes, I will tell you of things that
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are entirely new, for I know so well what traitors you
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are. You have been rebels from your earliest childhood,
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rotten through and through. Yet, for my own sake
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and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not
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wipe you out. I have refined you, but not
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in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined
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you in the furnace of suffering.
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I will rescue you for My name's sake.
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That way, the pagan nations will not be able
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to claim that their gods have conquered Me. I will not let them have
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My glory.
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Ephesians 4:1-16.
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Therefore I, Paul, a prisoner for serving the Lord,
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beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you
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have been called by God. Be humble and gentle.
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Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because
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of your love. Always keep yourselves united
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in the Holy Spirit and bind yourselves together with peace.
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We are all one body, and we have the same Spirit, and we have
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all been called to the same glorious future.
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There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
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and there is only one God and Father who is over us all and
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in us all and living through us all.
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However, he has given each one of us a special gift according
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to the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say,
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When He ascended to the heights, He led a crowd of captives
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and gave gifts to His people. Notice that
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it says He ascended. This means that Christ first
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came down to the lowly world in which we live. The same
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One who came down is the One who ascended higher than all
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the heavens, so that His rule might fill the entire universe.
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He is the One who gave these gifts to the church. The apostles,
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the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.
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Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do
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His work and build up the church, the body of
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Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of
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God's Son that we will be mature and full-grown
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in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature
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of Christ. Then we
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will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe
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because someone has told us something different, or because someone has
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cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth.
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Instead, we will hold to the truth in love,
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becoming more and more in every way like Christ,
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who is the head of his body, the church. Under his
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direction the whole body is fitted together perfectly.
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As each part does its own special work, it helps the other
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parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and
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full of love.
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Psalm 68:19-35.
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Praise the Lord! Praise God our Savior! For each day
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he carries us in his arms.
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Our God is a God who saves.
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The Sovereign Lord rescues us from death. But God
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will smash the heads of his enemies, crushing the skulls
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of those who love their guilty ways. The Lord says, I will bring
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my enemies down from Bashan. I will bring them up from the depths
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of the sea. You, my people, will wash your feet in
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their blood, and even your dogs will get their share.
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Your procession has come into view, O God, the procession
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of my God and King as he goes into the sanctuary. Singers are
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in front, musicians are behind; with them are
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young women playing tambourines. Praise God, all you people
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of Israel! Praise the Lord, the source of Israel's life!
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Look! The little tribe of Benjamin leads the way.
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Then comes a great throng of rulers from Judah and all the rulers of
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Zebulun and Naphtali. Summon your might, O God!
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Display your power, O God, as you have in the past! The kings
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of the earth are bringing tribute to your Temple in Jerusalem.
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Rebuke these enemy nations, these wild animals lurking
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in the reeds, This herd of bulls among the weaker calves.
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Humble those who demand tribute from us. Scatter the nations
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that delight in war. Let Egypt come with gifts of precious
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metals. Let Ethiopia bow in submission to God.
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Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praises to
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the Lord. Sing to the One who rides across the ancient heavens,
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His mighty voice thundering from the sky. Tell everyone
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about God's power. His majesty shines down
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on Israel. His strength is mighty in
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the heavens. God is awesome in His sanctuary.
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The God of Israel gives power and strength to
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His people.
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Praise be to God!
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Proverbs 24: 3 and 4.
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A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense.
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Through knowledge, its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious
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riches and valuables.
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I want to speak to you today from our reading from Isaiah 45 to
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48, and then we'll also touch on Ephesians
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4. But I want to begin with a question for you, and that
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is this: Have you ever had a day where you were just really
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weary and tired? Maybe you've
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been working on a project for a long period of time. Maybe you've been in
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a very demanding job and you're just
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exhausted. And it's been a long time since you've had a day
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off or a real vacation, a mental vacation,
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and you're just weary. I have a verse for
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you from Psalm 68.
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For each day He carries us in His arms.
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That's a beautiful picture. On those days
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when we're weary, when we're tired, when we've run out
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of steam and we just feel exhausted,
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we can just cry out to Him and He carries us
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in His arms. To continue this thought from
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Isaiah chapter 46, beginning in verse
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3, listen to Me, all you who are left in Israel.
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I created you, and I have cared for you since you were
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born. Now, He's speaking to
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the nation of Israel, but we can personalize this for
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each one of us personally. This is a word A
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personal word for you.
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I will be your God throughout your lifetime until
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your hair is white with age.
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I made you and I will care for you. I will
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carry you along and save
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you. What encouraging words!
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Whether you're a young adult and never married but hope to be
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one day, Whether you're an older person and you're a widower,
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whether you are somewhere in your 40s or 50s and
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you're— maybe you're divorced, maybe you're married.
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This is a promise. I will carry you along
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and I will save you. And He's saying here that
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He is with us from the moment we were created.
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I created you, says the Lord. And I have cared for you
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ever since you were born. He's with us every
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step of the way. He's with us in our sorrows,
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our trials, our heartache, our grief,
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our joys. He is with us every day,
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every moment. What a blessed hope!
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What a promise to stand on!
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Continuing on, He says in verse 10,
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only I can tell you what is going to happen even before
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it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass,
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for I do whatever I wish. This reveals
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to us the sovereignty of God. He is El Elyon.
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He is the Most High, and His plan and His purpose always
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prevails. Man may have his own plans,
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but the Lord's plan prevails.
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And so he knows what's going to happen tomorrow,
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the next day, the next year. He sees— he lives outside
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of time. And so coming back to chapter
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45, verse 13,
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it says, I will raise up Cyrus to fulfill my righteous purpose,
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and I will guide all his actions He will restore my city
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and free my captive people, and not for a reward.
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That's an example of how God sees and knows and prophesies
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things before they ever happen. So to
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give you the background, Israel, because they had gone into
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idolatry and wickedness and paganism,
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the southern kingdom Judah went into captivity into
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Babylon, and they were in Babylon for 70 years.
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Now there's other scripture in Jeremiah that talks about how after 70
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years they would be allowed to return home back to the
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land of Israel and to rebuild the city Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple.
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But this is a prophecy about, I'm going to raise up Cyrus.
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So he's naming the king who
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will fulfill God's purpose. And what was God's purpose? To give them
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the green light to release them and allow
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them to return back home. So what happened is while the Jews were
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in captivity in Babylon under
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the Babylonian leadership, one day the
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leadership gets overthrown and the Persians come in and they
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invade. And now Babylon is out and Persia
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has taken over. And so once Persia takes over,
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King Cyrus is raised up, and King Cyrus says to the Jewish people,
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you may now return to your homeland, and you may— and I'm
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even going to help you. I'm going to give you money to help pay for
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rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and rebuilding the temple.
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And it was all prophesied in the Scriptures hundreds
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of years before it actually happened.
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So that's an example. Of how the Lord
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prophesies. He gives us a prophecy and then
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hundreds of years later it comes to pass.
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Now, in this modern era that we live in,
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some have compared President Trump to King Cyrus.
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So how does that work? Well,
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biblical history is prophecy. And so the things
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that happened historically actually did happen, but they also
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are a prophetic blueprint or a template for future
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events in the future. And so different
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things that happen in the Bible, there are certain figures,
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people who play out that role, but that story
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can happen again. It's like the
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script of a play gets read again and there's
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new actors. The script remains the same, The director
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of that script, Jesus Christ, remains the same, but over
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time the actors can change. So having— with that
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concept in mind, many have compared Trump
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to Cyrus because Trump is the one in his first 4-year term
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that moved our embassy from Tel Aviv back to Jerusalem
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and came into agreement and alignment with Israel,
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that Jerusalem is the everlasting and eternal
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capital of the State of Israel.
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And so they have compared and likened Trump to King Cyrus.
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And we shall see how things play out during his second
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4-year term. But so far, he has been a
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good friend and a good ally to Israel, as witnessed
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when Both the United States and Israel working together
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in tandem did a huge military strike against Iran to
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take out their nuclear capability.
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So I just want to leave
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this. Now I want to jump into Ephesians.
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And in Ephesians, we see a very,
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very core principle about what is the purpose of
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the church and what are some of the different roles or offices
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in the church that help to build the church up. Remember, the church
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is the Body of Christ and the church is the Bride
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of Christ, and Jesus loves the church.
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So in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11,
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it says, He that is Christ, is the one who
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gave these gifts to the church: the apostles,
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the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors
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and teachers. Now I'll pause there.
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That's often called the fivefold ministry,
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but what we mostly see in the church are—
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maybe we see pastors quite a bit, we see pastors
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who lead the church, who teach on Sunday, and who give the sermon
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and the message on Sunday. We also see teachers in
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the church, different people who teach like a women's Bible study
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or a men's Bible study, or teachers who work in the children's
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ministry department. But what we don't see so
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much in the church that we really ought to see, because it's right now,
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it's like 2 fingers of the fivefold ministry,
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Just like you have 5 fingers on your hand, a thumb and 4 fingers
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to give you a hand. Mostly in the church
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we see pastors and we see teachers and that's it.
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But what this is outlining for us is that for the church to
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really grow, we need to see the apostles
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and the prophets and the evangelists.
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And those are kind of hidden. They're not really recognized
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or given a place, but very much needed.
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I mean, you get great evangelists who come along,
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people like Billy Graham, people like Charlie
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Kirk, who evangelized on many college campuses and then
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was suddenly assassinated.
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But these different, 5 different roles,
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the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, Their job
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is to equip God's people to do His work and build up
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the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity
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in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature
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and full-grown in the Lord,
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measuring up to the full stature of Christ.
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So we pray that
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those all 5 offices, all 5 roles will be
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expressed and manifested in the church.
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Paul concludes in this section of scripture in verse
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15, and he says, instead, we will hold to the truth
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in love, becoming more and more in every
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way like Christ, who is the
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head of His body, the church. Under His direction,
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the whole body is fitted together perfectly.
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As each part does its own special work,
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it helps the other parts to grow so that the whole
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body is healthy and growing and full
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of love.
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So every one of us has a part to play and a role to play
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in a local church congregation.
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And our part is vital to
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the growing of the overall body. And when
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we don't go to church, we just say, well, I can get my teaching
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online. I can watch this teacher on YouTube and that teacher on
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YouTube. And I don't really believe in the church, and they're all a
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bunch of hypocrites, and yada, yada, yada. Yes, there have been some
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problems and issues in the church, and many people have been hurt.
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But you know what? You got to get over that one and
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find a local Bible-believing,
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Bible-teaching church and become part of the community.
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Be a part of the spiritual family. We need
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each other. Each one of us is like a piece to a jigsaw puzzle,
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and one little piece to a puzzle all by itself in isolation does
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not give much of a picture. But when you put all the pieces of
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the jigsaw puzzle together on a table and
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you begin to assemble the pieces together in order,
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a picture begins to emerge. Each and every one of
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us is one of those jigsaw puzzle pieces, and each one of us is needed
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in the local church.
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Okay, that's all I have for today. God bless you, and we'll see you
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tomorrow. Shalom.
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Yevrekka Adonai,
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vishmarekka
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Yahweh Adonai.
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Anav Elikha,
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Vikunneka.
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Yisrael Adonai,
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Anav Elikha,
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Vayeseleka.
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The Aaronic Blessing from Numbers chapter 6,
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24 to 26.
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Adonai bless you and keep you. Adonai make
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his face to shine upon you and be gracious to
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you. Adonai lift up his countenance upon you and
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give you peace.