Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #14908 - Where We Came From - Ephesians 2:1-3

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#14908 - Where We Came From - Ephesians 2:1-3 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Amen.
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Take your Bibles and open them to Ephesians Chapter 2 is where
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we are. We start a new chapter today.
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And if you want to get ahead, I'd encourage you also to open
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the First Timothy chapter 1. We'll be in First Timothy soon
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enough, but Ephesians chapter 2, First Timothy chapter 1, and
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I've entitled our Bible study Where We Came from.
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And I guess I could have retitled it where we all came
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from because in our lives, there's a lot of testimonies in
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the room, a lot of different upbringings, a lot of different
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backgrounds, but we all came from the same place.
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We were lost. Even those of you that grew up
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in a Christian home, until you receive the Lord Jesus Christ,
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there is a lostness in your life.
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Nobody was saved because of their parents and nobody was
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saved because of their grandparents.
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And today in chapter 2, we're going to learn in the first few
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verses about our past. Actually, if you extend our
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study through verse 7, which is what I wanted to do but I
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couldn't, it's just too much. We're going to see Paul address
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our past. And then in verses 4 through 6,
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he's going to address our present.
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And then in verse 7, he'll look forward into the future.
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But our time today will be focused on the past.
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Now, if you look around today, you will see that the occultic
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world is more popular than ever before.
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I didn't look it up, but if I did, I am sure that I would find
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that those that are spending money in the occultic world
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realm would be probably in the triple digit, hundreds of
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millions of dollars. It is just that popular.
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Why is it popular? Because people want to know
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about their past and people want to know what what's happening
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right now. And certainly people are very
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curious about their future. And so many are shelling out
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millions of dollars to have their fortunes told, to gain
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insight on the future, to know the afterlife, psychics and
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crystal balls and tarot cards and Ouija boards.
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It's very popular. Movies are made, books are
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written, experts are sought after, and for the believer, the
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occultic realm is off limits. It is not for the Christian.
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It shouldn't even be for unbelievers.
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It is off limits. I remember not too long ago I
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was walking, maybe a couple years ago I was walking the
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mall. And you know how you can rent
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those kiosks down the middle, one of the kiosks that guy had
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rented and on there he was providing if you came and gave
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him whatever money he wanted, he would consult the angels about
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your life. Let me just tell you, don't pay
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that guy any. He's not there anymore, but
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don't pay that guy any, anything because he's consulting the
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demons and the demonic realm doesn't have any good news for
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you. Nothing.
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Let me give you a scripture. It's not the topic of our Bible
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study today, but I do have a scripture to show you just very
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somewhat summarily why it's off limits.
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The occultic realm, fortune telling, horoscopes, all of
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that. Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse
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10. There shall not be found among
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you anyone who makes a son or his daughter pass through the
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fire which was Pagan rituals, or one who practices witchcraft, or
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a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
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or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one
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who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are
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an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations,
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the Lord your God drives them come out from before you.
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This realm is off limits. It's restricted.
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It is not for believers at all. Why?
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Because we know the God of truth and we have the word of truth
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which tells us what we need to know about our past and about
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our present and our future now. It doesn't have every single
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detail of our life of what it is, the Bible.
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You can't open the Bible and discern all the details.
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And God doesn't always reveal all the details, but that's part
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of the faith life. If God did give us everything to
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know about everything, we would be God.
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That will never happen. But in our lives, I guess you
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could say that we're kind of on a need to know basis, and what
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we need to know, God will reveal to us when we need to know it.
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Otherwise, He calls us to a life of faith, trusting Him, knowing
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that if we're in the dark right now, God has already proved
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himself in the light. He's already revealed to us.
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He's already shown us His reliability.
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He's already. And today, as we go back on the
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past, I mean, it's going to, it's easier to look back on the
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past than anything because we lived it and we've seen it and
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we know it. But before we see a glimpse of
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the past, we have to understand just how dark it was, how dreary
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it was. I mean, you'll see that because
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often times you'll look back and go, oh, you know, Pastor mine,
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my life wasn't that bad. My life wasn't that bad.
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And and if you were telling me that, I would agree with you.
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Your life wasn't that bad. It was worse than you think.
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By the time we leave here today, I hope you're convinced of
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exactly what God delivered you from.
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And before you leave here today, I hope if you don't leave with
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anything except this, it will bless my heart.
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And that is you will be convinced that the world has
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nothing for you, that this world has nothing for you, that you
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would never go back to that which God delivered you from.
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It makes no sense for the believer to go back to these
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things that God has delivered us from that to think that our past
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was really fun and exciting and it wasn't that bad.
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No, it was actually worse. You know, this is what happened
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to the nation of Israel. Generations 400 years,
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generation after generation, we need a deliverer living under
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the worst slavery of Egypt. It becomes a type of the slavery
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to sin that everyone lives in. They're crying out, give us a
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deliverer. We save it for our kids.
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Save it deliver us for our grandkids.
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Year after year, generation after generation, and finally at
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the appointed time they experienced the generation
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experiences the deliverance of God and their God raises up
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Moses. Moses comes, stands before
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Pharaoh, Let my people go. Eventually they go, they leave.
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They entered it. And it didn't take long, did it?
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It didn't take long for the nation of Israel to begin to
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murmur and complain in their new found freedom.
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And what was one of the things they said, Moses, did you bring
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us out to the wilderness to kill us?
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Why did you bring us out? We miss the onions and the
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leeks. We miss Egypt.
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We miss Egypt. And you know what?
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They forgot how bad Egypt was? They forgot.
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It doesn't take long for us to forget what God has delivered us
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out of. And again, your testimony of the
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consequences of sin may not be as bad as mine.
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So if you were using me as the standard, you could say, well,
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it wasn't that bad. My past wasn't as bad as yours,
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Pastor Ed. And that's good.
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I agree. That's good.
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I'm happy for you. I'm glad that you had a
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different experience than I did in this sinful world.
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But I'm not the standard. I'm not the standard.
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The standard is God's Word and all of us experience these 3
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verses. There isn't one person among us
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that has is exempt to the reality of a life apart from
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Christ. I asked you to open up first,
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Timothy. Paul was very acutely aware of
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his past. I believe it was something very
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similar to that thorn in his flesh, if not the thorn in his
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flesh, although it was probably something medical or one of one
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of the biblical theories that I am leaning more toward is that
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his thorn in the flesh was actually a lot of things and one
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of them was his past. Notice what he says in verse 12
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when he writes to young Timothy. He says, and I thank Christ
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Jesus our Lord who has enabled me because he counted me
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faithful, putting me in the ministry.
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And then there's that word in verse 13, although I mean he's
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thinking about the glories of life and ministry, all that God
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has done in his life. But he's like, but I do have a
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past. Although I was formerly A
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blasphemer, A persecutor and an insolent man.
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If you haven't already circled the word insolent, it means
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violently angry. He was a violent, wild, angry
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man, did much damage. He says even though I was these
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things, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief
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and the grace of our Lord was a seedingly abundant with faith
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and love which are in Christ Jesus.
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When Paul says he did it in his unbelief, chapter 2 verses one
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through 3 is what it looks like. This is the condition of
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unbelief. This is the condition of a life
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apart from Christ. It's always good, as the Lord
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has for us today, to do a spiritual inventory just to
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remember where we came from. We can't ever forget what God
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delivered us from. We can't ever.
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If you weren't delivered from something, you were delivered
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from experiencing something. If you had a better upbringing
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and you were saved at a younger age, you go well pastor, I don't
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really have all that much sin in my life.
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Praise God for that. You were you were delivered from
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something. We were delivered out of
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something, but we were all in the same place.
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Notice where we were in verse one and you he made alive who
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were dead in trespasses and sins.
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This is the bottom line of our condition.
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Apart from Christ, we were spiritually dead, lifeless.
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Spiritually. Sin killed us, sin destroyed us,
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Sin separated us from God. Apart from Jesus, we had no
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spiritual life in us at all. And the price to pay for sin is
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very high and very difficult. Even though sin offers pleasure
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for a season, the price to pay is separation.
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In Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 24, it says by faith, Moses when
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he became of age refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
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daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
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people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
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The passing pleasures of sin always come at a high price tag.
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The wages of sin is always what church death always.
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No one gets a no one sidesteps that consequence.
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None of us. It's always the price.
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Sin brings loneliness, pain, isolation, agony and suffering
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and ultimately death. Ultimately death.
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If you're a note taker, I want you to learn today three ways
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the Bible describes death as separation.
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That is the biblical definition of death according to the Bible.
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Death in the Bible is defined as separation in three ways.
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Three ways number one. Number one, there is physical
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death, physical death. Physical death is the separation
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from the spirit and soul, from the body.
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This one we are all familiar with because we have, in one way
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or another experienced the loss of a loved 1 And when we attend
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a memorial service, it is incredibly evident that while a
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body might be there, the person is not because of physical
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death, the separation of the eternal soul and spirit from the
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body that is temporary. Secondly, death is described as
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separation, as spiritual. There is physical death, there
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is spiritual death. Spiritual death is that we can
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be alive physically but dead spiritually.
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So we are able to connect with each other but unable to connect
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with God because we're not alive spiritually.
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We are separated from God. This is what we mean when a
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pastor speaks of sin separating you from God, this is what we
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mean. We go back to the, we go back to
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the Garden of Eden where we have a real man, Adam and his wife, a
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real woman, Eve, enjoying relationship with God.
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They don't, they not only have physical life, but they also
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have spiritual life. They are in relationship with
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God. They are in relationship, You
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know, it even speaks of God walking through the garden.
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So how many times were they able to have fellowship and share in
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common with God in this pristine garden?
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That is until they sinned. When they sinned, what did they
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do? They tried to cover themselves
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and run away from God. When you run away from someone,
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you are separated from them. You're no longer close, and they
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lost that intimacy with God through sin.
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And then the third description in the Bible of death, as
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separation is the worst of them all, and as physical death is
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hard, spiritual death is difficult, but this is the worst
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one, and that is eternal death, eternal death.
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Eternal death refers to a time that comes.
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There comes a point in time in which a person will be eternally
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separated from God if they refuse to accept Jesus Christ as
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their Savior. It has eternal consequences.
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You see, for those today that might be spiritually dead,
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separate from God, you can get saved.
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You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ today.
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You can confess your sins like in a few moments, I'm going to
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give you an opportunity, but you actually don't even need to wait
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a few moments. You can ask God right now in
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that seat in your own mind, or you could say it out loud.
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If you're like God, I confess my sins to you.
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I believe that you sent Jesus to die for me and I choose to turn
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away from my sin and follow you all the days of my life.
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You know what will happen. God will stop listening to me
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and he will listen to you and you'll be born again.
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You know why? Because the Bible says if you
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confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your
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heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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You need to be saved. A person that is spiritually
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dead is unable to save themselves.
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Salvation comes not by your own good works, but by the finished
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work of Jesus Christ on the cross proved to us by the
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resurrection and the ascension. You see, when we begin Speaking
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of this, I know they'll be people listening on this topic
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and say, but you know, I wasn't that bad pastor.
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I really wasn't that bad. I did a lot of good deeds and I
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did a lot of good works and I, I was good.
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I was morally good. I tried to do my best to follow
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the laws and on. And to that we say we're
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grateful. We're grateful that your life
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was the trajectory of good and that you made someone else's
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life better and that generally you in your life flowed good
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things. However, what we're Speaking of
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today is not how you live life in terms of others.
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The the topic that we're Speaking of today is how did you
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live your life toward God? Because as good as you and I
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could be will never be good enough.
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You know why? You know why this is important?
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It's important because anything that isn't perfect doesn't make
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it to heaven. Anything that isn't perfect
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doesn't make it to heaven. And this issue about sin is that
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the Bible says that we have all sinned and fallen short of the
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glory of God. There's a consequence for all of
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us, and the enemy would have it. So it says before you were made
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alive, you were dead. And notice two things here.
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You were dead in two things, trespasses and sins.
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Trespasses and sins. These are two things you should
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know about because trespasses and sins are a little bit
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different. A trespass is a willful, willing
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sin or choice to sin. And we're familiar with this
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because you might see no trespassing signs don't come on
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the property. If you choose to hop the fence
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and go on the property, even though the sign said no, you're
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a trespasser. You chose willingly to disobey
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that warning. Or how about this one, probably
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more common, you you're walking along and there is a sign on a
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bench. Wet paint, don't touch.
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And there you are with a brown finger.
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It's said don't do it, but something in us, something in
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us, we do it anyway. Don't walk on the grass.
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And you step over and what do you do?
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Walk on the grass. You made a conscious decision to
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go against what was required. Trespasses.
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Sin on the other hand, is a more general word.
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It is the Greek word that from which we get from the archery
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realm where you know, you take a bow and arrow and you showed it
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at a target. When you miss the the bull's
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eye, it was said that you sinned, you missed the mark.
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These are both very significant as they relate to God.
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We were dead both in general sin.
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We were born into sin. We chose to sin, but we were
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also dead in our willingness to rebel against God.
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No one is innocent. There isn't anyone innocent of
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being separate from God. Nobody has a reason, nobody has
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an excuse. And anything that's not perfect
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doesn't make it to heaven. So we need a helper.
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When you understand the condition of your life, you say,
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well, I need help. And I know we don't often use
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the word helper to describe Jesus.
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It might be better to say you don't just need a helper, you
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need a savior. You need someone to save you, to
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rescue you, to deliver you from this condition.
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For the believer. It was like, oh, you made a lie.
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And who is he writing to? Believers in Ephesus.
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Remember how the church was planted?
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I mean, it's hard to believe like we have to really use our
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imaginations here for a second. It's just super hard to to even
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think this. But I want you to think of a
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city 500,000 people has no influence of the gospel,
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nothing. Like you can't even think
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technology or tracks or nothing. They're just pagans living their
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life. Maybe they heard about the God
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of Israel. You know that things come
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through philosophy. Maybe they heard about that
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Nazarene that died. But but there's no nobody's
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living for Jesus. Nobody, nobody's living for
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Jesus there. Nobody's sharing the gospel.
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There's no church. There's nothing going on as it
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relates to God. And what does God do?
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He puts it upon the heart of a man by the name of Paul.
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Go to that city and share the gospel and he does.
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And what happens? There's a revival like there is
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salvation comes flip that city right side up this large urban
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city seaport full of business transactions and like
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unbelievable so much so. So much so that all of those
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that were involved in idolatry, they bought their little idols
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and their witchcraft books and everything, put them in a big
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fire and had a bonfire, say we don't want these things anymore.
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We this was evidence of their transformation.
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So much so that those who made the little idols became very
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upset. Why?
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Because Jesus put them out of business.
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There was no need for them anymore because the church was
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planted. That's who he's speaking to.
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You guys, you know, don't forget where you came from.
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Your testimony, again, may not be super dramatic, but don't you
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ever forget where you came from? Don't you ever forget the
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generational change that Jesus Christ has brought into your
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family and into your life Because I believe with all my
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heart that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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You heard that before. Any good pastor is going to
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share that with you. You might have seen it on a
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bumper sticker or something on your Instagram feed or whatever,
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Facebook and you're like, God loves me and has a wonderful
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yes, of course he does. We learned that in Jeremiah.
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God, God was working out a plan that was good and wonderful, not
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evil for Jeremiah. And how much more for us in the
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new covenant. Yes, yes, yes.
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But there's a flip side to that coin, isn't there?
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Not only does God love you and have a wonderful plan for your
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life, but the devil hates you and has a horrible plan for your
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life. He wants you to stay in this
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position of being dead in trespasses and sins for the
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believer. You'll never, you'll never
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become dead again, but you can live like that, which is a
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miserable existence. It is absolutely miserable for
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you to know what you know today, alive and vibrant, and then
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choose to go back to live. You know you won't be a Walking
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Dead man. You're actually alive, living
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like a dead man. And the consequence for that
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kind of behavior is even greater because you know better parents.
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Haven't you said that before? You know better.
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And what you're trying to share with your kid is we, we have
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helped you see this. We want you to avoid pain.
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We want you to avoid what we went through.
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Whatever you're trying to say, you're not wanting to to harm or
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hurt your child. But you've run out of words to
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try to convince them. You know this and you're
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choosing to live apart from way. You know, you're sinning against
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knowledge and whenever we sin against knowledge, it is more
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painful. Whenever we see the sign and say
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I don't care, it's always going to bring greater consequence.
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Well, it doesn't get better. Verse 2 Our condition before
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Christ isn't any better as it continues to grow in darkness.
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Not only were you dead in your trespasses and sins, but those
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were what you walked in. It says in which you once
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walked. Verse 2 According to the course
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of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air,
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the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.
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Do you know before you and I were born again, we were
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daughters and sons of disobedience.
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Disobedience is who we followed. Disobedience is who we listen
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to. You have to work backwards from
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this verse. So your identity apart from
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Christ was you are a daughter, a son of disobedience and you
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followed the devil. Now I know that's hard for you
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to receive, but that's exactly that's what the Bible says.
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We were following the devil. How are we following the devil
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through the course of this world?
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Remember, we have a threefold enemy.
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We fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the world
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system. The devil uses the world system
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to provoke our flesh, and then we live in the lust of the
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flesh. This is exactly what we'll learn
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today. This is spiritual warfare 101,
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right? In these verses, we were sons of
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disobedience. We followed the devil who uses
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the world to take us away from God.
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Not only were we dead, but we were Walking Dead men, Walking
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Dead women. Some of us may even thought we
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were alive, but we were deader than dead spiritually, and the
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picture gets blacker as we move forward.
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The world was our home and we enjoyed the world and all it had
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to offer. The word in verse 2, the word
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for walked, is a word that implies wandering or where we
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don't use much, but it'll help you remember it.
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Meandering where you just don't really have a goal.
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You don't, you don't really have anywhere to go.
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You're just going. You don't really have a
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destination. You're just kind of walking
24:35
around, wandering around the world with no purpose or no
24:38
goal. I had this picture as I was
24:40
putting this together of a pinball.
24:42
Like you're the pinball in a pinball machine.
24:44
You're just bouncing around. You're just bouncing here,
24:46
bouncing there, bouncing there. And then you get hit a couple of
24:48
times and bouncing, bouncing, bouncing, but you really never
24:51
know. No direction and you get nowhere
24:54
and eventually you fall through the cracks doing your own thing.
24:58
Roaming here. According to it says not only
25:01
did we wander around, but notice we did it according to the
25:04
course of this world, the culture, the atmosphere.
25:09
The word course refers to like a weather vane, the direction of
25:13
the world. Whichever way the world pointed
25:15
us, that's the way we went. Because the world has a course
25:19
and a plan set forth by the devil.
25:23
This world is not your home, it is not for you.
25:26
There is nothing good for you in this world.
25:31
You just follow along, you know, look, you know, in a very
25:33
simple, simple level, living in this world, you got to
25:36
understand this world has set up a system to keep you busy and
25:39
distracted from the things of God.
25:42
And the big word that you want to watch out for is new,
25:45
something new. There's always something new and
25:47
you get something new and you bounce over this new thing and
25:49
this new thing and this new thing, and you might have saw
25:51
something new. And what do you do?
25:52
You tell your friend, did you see this?
25:53
It's brand new, it's brand new, it's brand new when the Bible
25:57
says there's nothing new under the sun.
26:00
It's just the system of this world.
26:03
We're learning in our midweek Bible study.
26:05
We're studying a different book of the Bible as a church.
26:07
First John, first John warns the early church, the 1st century of
26:11
the coming Antichrist capital A, a real person probably alive
26:14
today who will come and during the last seven years of human
26:18
history will wreak havoc on lives, the Antichrist capital A,
26:22
and a lot of attention is given to the Antichrist.
26:24
Lots of attention and very little attention is what is
26:28
given to what John said next. He says it's true an Antichrist
26:32
is coming, but already many antichrists have come.
26:37
This culture is Antichrist. The prefix anti has two
26:41
definitions against and in place of.
26:45
And this culture is against and wanting to replace Jesus in the
26:49
lives of so many. And so everybody's jumping after
26:53
whatever is new, whatever new thing, whatever new thing.
26:55
And some people bounce their whole life chasing after what's
26:59
new and never come to know the gospel and know Jesus
27:03
personally. They look back in their life and
27:05
go, what did I do after all? I mean, even some of the new
27:07
things you get right, you get something new and the second you
27:10
own it, it's old because they're already working on another one
27:14
and another one and another one. This is important to understand
27:20
because they will help you see the culture the way Jesus sees
27:24
the culture. Indeed, I'm giving you a warning
27:26
for your own lives as we need to receive for sure.
27:30
We need to be warned. We need to understand we can't
27:32
just put blinders on and think like the world doesn't have an
27:35
effect. I think like the world doesn't
27:38
have. I just received a text this
27:40
morning from a friend of mine in Michigan, and he's a pastor, and
27:44
he gave this text this morning. He says good morning, brothers.
27:48
Yesterday, I did a ride along with the Police Department and I
27:51
was terribly reminded of our fallen world.
27:54
I saw cocaine. I saw alcohol.
27:57
I saw the aftermath of a rape. I saw the aftermath of criminal
28:00
sexual conduct of minors. He says it was a filthy day and
28:06
we see it on the news all the time.
28:07
It is a filthy world. It's a very dirty, disgusting
28:10
world filled with sin. The primary emotion sometimes is
28:15
just to get upset about it and to be mad.
28:18
But are you mad enough to help? Because when you see Jesus, it
28:22
explains to us a perspective that Jesus gives us in Matthew
28:26
Chapter 9 and verse 35. In Matthew 9, verse 35, it says
28:31
Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their
28:34
synagogues, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing every
28:38
sickness, every disease among the people.
28:41
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for
28:45
them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no
28:50
shepherd. That's a person apart from
28:53
Christ. Sheep having no shepherd.
28:56
It doesn't mean we don't put our protective arms down.
28:58
It doesn't mean we close our eyes to evil.
29:00
It doesn't mean we don't get mad at evil.
29:02
But the real question today is, have you ever had compassion on
29:05
a world that's lost? Were you ever a person like me
29:10
that was written off? Were you ever a person like me
29:14
where somebody would look at me and go, man, that guy had a
29:16
great future, but he's done. He's thrown his life away.
29:19
I have people looking at me when I was 14 years old telling me
29:22
already that I'd thrown my life away.
29:25
That was the course of my life. And they would have been right
29:27
to some degree of what they saw presently, but what they didn't
29:30
see is what God saw, which is true for you even today.
29:35
Somebody go, you know you've thrown your life away.
29:36
No, you are alive and you can give yourself to Jesus Christ
29:40
and the rest of your life can honor God with your testimony.
29:43
You don't need to live here. You've been delivered.
29:45
He says you he made alive. But it's a the world, the course
29:49
of this world is designed to make you apathetic toward God
29:53
and just to accept the status quo.
29:55
Just go with the flow. Just go with whatever's new.
29:58
Just follow us along. Trust us, we'll take care of
30:01
you. I'll just give you a couple of
30:02
examples. I could go, we could do all day
30:05
on this, but I just want to give you a couple of examples of the
30:07
way God sees something. I mean, if this world didn't
30:10
want to destroy you, if the leaders of this world didn't
30:13
want to destroy you, if people within this world weren't on a
30:17
course to destroy you, then let me ask you this question, are we
30:19
ready? If if everyone wanted to help
30:22
you in this world and this world was for you, not against you,
30:24
then why in the world were they ever legalized marijuana?
30:29
Why? That's just one example, but
30:31
why, why, why would marijuana ever be legalized?
30:34
It is an entry point to other drugs.
30:38
It is a gateway drug. I don't care what the studies
30:41
say. Ask someone that started with
30:43
marijuana. You know, you see them today,
30:45
you watch them on the news. There'll be people standing like
30:47
this. They call them zombies because
30:50
they started taking a hit of marijuana and it didn't stop
30:54
there. It went all the way.
30:57
So when, when they begin to take different drugs and they're just
31:00
standing all around the street and yeah, it's it's upsetting
31:03
because you got to walk through them.
31:04
You got to go to work. But also where's the compassion?
31:06
Because if you talked to one of them, they would have told you,
31:09
hey, did you know you throw your way, your throw your life away
31:12
and you'd be addicted to oxy or addicted to whatever you're
31:14
addicted to. And, and you would, you would be
31:16
out here like a zombie not caring about life.
31:19
Did you know you're going to do that when you took that first
31:20
hit that you bought at a legal place?
31:22
Nah, man, never thought that would happen.
31:27
Or something more popular. Alcohol.
31:29
Alcohol. Did you think you'd be addicted
31:32
to alcohol for 50 years when you took the first drink?
31:34
No way. There's no way.
31:36
You predicted that. You probably thought the other
31:38
thing. But the world has a course
31:40
today. I hear Christians still asking
31:42
the same questions. Well, pastor, is it OK to smoke
31:45
marijuana now? It's legal.
31:46
Let me answer that for you. No need to call into the show.
31:49
No need to take any time. No need to text me.
31:51
Let me answer it for you. No, you don't live your life
31:55
according to the course of this world.
31:57
What's legal? What's illegal?
31:58
You have a higher standard. You have a standard following
32:01
God just because it's legal. Just because it's legal.
32:05
Here you go. Would you like to smoke a joint
32:07
because it's legal while you rub yourself with Poison Ivy?
32:12
No, pastor, that's dumb. So why would you think just
32:15
because something's legal, it's good for you or it's good for
32:18
your kids or your grandkids? Where did this come from?
32:22
It didn't come from God. It didn't come from God.
32:27
It came from this world. And who's running this world?
32:31
The devil, the demonic realm. It's an Antichrist culture.
32:35
People just get swept up, you know, from birth.
32:39
From birth. The culture is pressed upon us
32:41
because we live in this world. There's nothing like we can
32:44
limit the way the world influences us.
32:46
But we're in this world. We breathe it in and we breathe
32:50
it out. We live, we work, we shop.
32:52
This is our world. We're to be in the world, Jesus
32:55
said, but not of the world. But from birth, this core, the
32:59
course of this world's forced upon us.
33:01
People get swept up with whatever's new, whatever's
33:04
popular. And nowadays there's even a
33:06
greater tool. Whatever the popular, whatever
33:08
the computer algorithm puts before you and shapes your brain
33:12
and shapes your thinking and through the media and through
33:16
the government and through the education system, through the
33:19
economy, through the laws of the land and the free will decisions
33:23
of human beings, this system wipes people out and takes
33:29
advantage of them. And it doesn't happen passively.
33:33
It happens being dead and your trespasses and sins.
33:38
That's why the only hope today is the gospel.
33:41
Because once you're alive, you start to see things and you're
33:45
like, yeah, I don't want that anymore.
33:47
And yeah, I don't want that anymore and I don't.
33:49
I want God in my life. Those in charge of the system
33:53
want you weak and effective, ineffective I should say, so
33:57
you're easier to control. But here's the good news.
34:00
We're not controlled by the government or anybody in charge.
34:02
We're controlled by the Holy Spirit.
34:05
He leads us and guides us and we don't have to throw up our hands
34:08
and go, oh, what are we going to do?
34:10
You know what you're going to do?
34:11
You're going to abide in Christ and He's going to abide in you.
34:14
And you'll be amazed and shocked.
34:16
You will be shocked. And all those people that wrote
34:19
you off, they'll be shocked too of what God can do through a
34:22
willing person, a submitted person, an obedient person.
34:26
Not perfect. None of us are perfect.
34:28
We all have got our weaknesses. But it's amazing what God can do
34:31
when you surrender your life to the Lord.
34:33
Still unconvinced that the devil rules the world.
34:35
Let me just give you a few verses.
34:37
Again, it's not the subject completely of our Bible study,
34:40
but let me just show you that we already see it in Ephesians 2,
34:43
two, but you can check John 1231, John 1430, John 1611,
34:49
Second Corinthians 4, four, first John 519.
34:53
Before Jesus, we were following after the devil in a world that
34:57
couldn't satisfy us. That's what kept us looking for
35:01
something new. Think about it.
35:02
If you got the thing that was new and it satisfied you, what
35:05
would happen? You'd stop looking.
35:08
I got it. I don't need anything new.
35:10
I got all that I need. How much more now?
35:13
How much more? When you find Jesus as a full
35:16
satisfaction in your life, you don't look for to the world for
35:19
satisfaction anymore. You don't look to those things
35:23
that will leave you empty. It was CS Lewis that said this.
35:26
If I do not find in this world that which completely, totally
35:29
satisfies me, then it becomes apparent I was designed for
35:34
another world, something even greater and better.
35:39
And it's true. Let's finish up with this last
35:43
verse. In verse 3 again, it's even more
35:46
difficult. Among whom also we once
35:50
conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
35:55
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
35:59
children of wrath just as the others.
36:03
This Bible study would go really well with a couple of studies
36:06
that I did in Romans chapter 1 to get to pull back the curtains
36:10
of this world. Because this world, all they use
36:12
their imagination for is to create something more evil and
36:16
more difficult. I'm not saying everyone, it's
36:18
the course in the atmosphere. Of course there are people that
36:21
are that are wanting to do good and wanting to change things,
36:24
but apart from Christ it won't be eternal because anything that
36:27
doesn't lead you to Jesus will leave you unsatisfied.
36:31
And so notice we just lived according to the flesh.
36:33
We just did whatever we wanted, whatever we made-up in our
36:36
minds, whatever evil thing, whatever, whatever was we were
36:40
into. This is where narcissism comes
36:41
in and self centeredness. It was just before Christ, it
36:45
was all about you. You were the captain of your
36:47
ship. You were the God of your life.
36:50
Who who did you, who were you accountable to you?
36:53
Whatever you wanted to do and where did it lead you?
36:56
To destruction, which is what the devil loves to do.
37:00
Now, I'm not making the devil like the sensationalist thing.
37:03
There is a spiritual realm. There is a spiritual realm that
37:06
comes against you and me. And the devil is not more
37:09
powerful than Jesus. So when we hide in him, he
37:12
strengthens us. But you can see the things that
37:16
we were taught not too long ago. Would you turn back a couple
37:18
pages to Galatians chapter 5? The things that we were warned
37:22
against in Galatians. Now Paul says to the Ephesians,
37:26
this is the way we used to live and it shows this bright light
37:31
on. When you walk in the Spirit, you
37:34
don't fulfill these things. So in chapter 5 of Galatians
37:37
verse 19, let's see and be reminded of a definition of the
37:42
flesh. Now the works of the flesh are
37:45
evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and
37:50
lewdness. This is all forms of sexual sin,
37:54
just the the depth and the dirtiness of sexual sin,
37:57
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
38:03
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions,
38:07
heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries which are
38:12
like partying and then Paul's like.
38:14
In case I missed anything and the like.
38:17
All this stuff is not from God. And So what does Paul say now to
38:20
the Ephesians? You guys, you know the, the
38:22
Ephesians would know this was their life.
38:25
Nobody needs to convince them and say, oh, I know this.
38:27
I know what you're saying. This is how we used to be.
38:31
This is what this is how we lived our lives under the course
38:34
of this world. We were just fulfilling the
38:36
desires of our flesh. We didn't care about anyone.
38:39
And that's what happens when you live a life of sin, when you
38:41
don't care about anyone. You just don't care.
38:45
I hear this. This is the popular phrase.
38:47
When it comes, you might talk to somebody about their behavior or
38:49
talk, hey, that's not right. And what will they say?
38:52
They'll say something like this. Hey, I can do whatever I want as
38:55
long as it doesn't hurt anyone. Have you heard that before?
38:57
As long as it doesn't hurt anyone.
38:59
And they're always the judge of who it hurts, right?
39:01
They're always the judge. So they make sure that, well, if
39:04
they don't hurt anyone, it's a very narrow, but, you know, out
39:08
of their own lips, their sin is hurting themselves #1 I mean,
39:13
really #2 because their sense hurting the heart of God, but
39:16
hurting themselves. What do you mean?
39:18
Do something? You don't hurt someone when you
39:20
destroy your life. That hurts me.
39:21
And I don't even know you yet. That hurts my heart to see
39:24
people throw their lives away, to see people rebel against God.
39:28
You're hurting a complete stranger that's praying for your
39:31
city, that's praying for your state, praying for the world
39:33
that's sending missionaries around you hurt people you don't
39:36
even know yet, not including yourself and your kids and your
39:40
wife or maybe your ex-husband. Like sin destroys church.
39:45
It destroys. That's exactly what the enemy
39:47
would want for your life to take you completely out.
39:50
You know, you experience something and you'll go, I've
39:52
been taken completely out. But if you're able to say that
39:54
you have not been taken completely out yet.
39:56
The enemy's not done with you. He wants to continue to take.
39:59
He wants you in a weakened state, ineffective state, and
40:02
then he really goes after he has no mercy.
40:04
God has mercy. The devil has no mercy, no mercy
40:09
on us. That's why you got to run back
40:10
to the Lord. It doesn't make any sense for us
40:13
as believers to run back to the world.
40:15
The world has nothing for you. You know, I'm just going through
40:17
a tough time right now, so I'm going to go back to the bottle.
40:20
Makes no sense to go back to the bottle.
40:21
It'll destroy you. I'll just run back to, you know,
40:25
now marijuana, I don't have to hide it anymore.
40:26
It's illegal. It'll destroy you.
40:29
And I can run back to, you know, whatever, whatever it might be.
40:33
And the Bible says no. Here's the thing.
40:36
When you're controlled by the lusts of the flesh, you're
40:39
misusing what God has given you. You think of the human appetites
40:43
that everyone has. God has given us all normal,
40:46
natural human appetites, like the appetite that of hunger that
40:53
helps us stay alive. You know, when we're hungry, we
40:55
eat the human appetite of thirst.
40:59
That's a good one because when we're thirsty, we stay hydrated.
41:03
The human appetite of air. That means we breathe and we
41:06
stay alive. The the sexual appetite within
41:09
the within marriage. It's to be enjoyed but also
41:12
repopulate the earth. We're grateful for that because
41:15
we were born out of the proper use of human appetites.
41:19
But apart from Christ, the Bible's telling us that we lived
41:22
as animals. We lived as animals do, falling
41:25
after our fallen instincts. Listen, be careful of what you
41:29
heard. I did not say you're an animal.
41:31
You are not an animal. Culture has provided for us an
41:35
alternative. Humanistic evolution says, oh,
41:37
we're just all animals. You're probably you're just an
41:40
animal. You're not an animal.
41:41
You're a human being created in the image of God.
41:44
You have a much higher purpose than the animal Kingdom.
41:47
You're not an animal. However, sometimes humans live
41:51
like animals and they just go whatever their instincts are and
41:54
whatever they want to do and whatever they want to take, just
41:57
destroying lives. You're not an animal, you're a
42:01
human that Jesus Christ died for that you might come into a
42:04
relationship with Him. You don't need to fall for the
42:08
philosophies of man that take you away from God.
42:12
If these natural body drives are not tempered by God's design,
42:17
then hunger becomes gluttony. Thirst can lead you to
42:20
drunkenness, Sex drive, every form of evil, wicked sinfulness
42:28
when it relates to sex, no restraint.
42:31
It's like Jesus, like God said in Genesis 65, He saw that the
42:35
wickedness of man was so great in the earth and that every
42:38
intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
42:43
And the last thing we learned in this section is that we were
42:45
children of wrath, which is a pretty big statement.
42:48
Why would he use the word wrath? Because this is the end of
42:53
everyone that dies apart from Christ.
42:55
You're living already apart from Christ as a child of wrath.
42:59
And wrath is what is promised to those who reject Christ.
43:03
The Bible says that the wrath of God is laid upon those who have
43:06
not received Jesus. Because Jesus said he who has
43:09
the Son has life. He who does not have the Son
43:13
does not have life, and this is our life before Jesus.
43:17
I wanted to get to the better parts, but for the sake of just
43:19
leaving on a high note. All this bad news and all this
43:22
difficult everything that God has drawn us for Him, you He
43:26
made alive. Look at verse 4.
43:28
But God, we got to get you to verse 4.
43:31
This is your solution. This is your deliverance.
43:34
This is your strength. This is your hope.
43:37
This is all that God has for you.
43:39
But God, he stops it all and turns you in a new direction.
43:44
He delivers us, takes us out, changes the course of our life.
43:48
We have new ownership, new everything.
43:51
We, we follow a different. We don't follow the world
43:54
anymore. We're in the world, but we're
43:55
not of it. And we continue to share the
43:57
hope of forgiveness, the hope of love, the hope of I know it was
44:02
dark and dismal, but it stops today for everyone that looks to
44:05
Jesus but God. And we'll get into that next
44:08
time. So Lord, thank you for your
44:10
word. As we just contemplate, we're so
44:14
grateful, like Paul, that we were delivered.
44:18
We were delivered, but God changed the course of our lives.
44:23
And if it wasn't for us, somewhere along the line you're
44:28
going to reach many people. No one's going to have an
44:33
excuse. You've provided a way of
44:36
salvation to many. Anyone that will come, whosoever
44:41
will let them come. I pray that over those that are
44:44
tempted to go back, tempted to backslide, tempted to revert to
44:48
their flesh. We were delivered from our
44:50
flesh. We're not to live that way
44:53
anymore. We can walk in the Spirit,
44:54
Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
44:59
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
45:02
They're all ours by faith. We don't need to go back to the
45:05
bottle and we don't need to go back to that.
45:07
We don't need to go to that relation.
45:08
We don't need to destroy another person.
45:10
We don't need to gossip about them.
45:12
We don't need any of that. So not our lives anymore.
45:17
We have a new life, a new direction, and so we are
45:20
grateful for your delivering power in US.
45:23
And we're just so we remember where we came from, but we're
45:26
not going to stay there and we're not going back either.
45:29
You have, it's forgetting those things that are behind, Paul
45:32
would tell the Philippians, forgetting those things that are
45:35
behind, but pressing upward and onward towards you.
45:38
And so if you're here today and you've never given your life to
45:40
Jesus, I invite you to respond right now.
45:43
You would say if you want to confess your sins to God, and I
45:46
mean for a new believer, if you're a believer, you can
45:48
confess your sins anytime. You don't have to respond to
45:51
this invitation. This invitation is for those
45:53
that desire to follow God with their whole life.
45:56
And I've never asked them to do that.
45:58
If you would say, Pastor, I want to be born again, I want to
46:01
follow God with my life, would you just stand to your feet?
46:03
I want to pray with you that today would be the day that God
46:07
would work. God bless you right here.
46:08
And as soon as you respond, somebody's going to come and
46:11
walk up with you. And that's just one of our team
46:13
members because we don't want you to be fall through the
46:17
cracks. We follow up right away.
46:20
So don't be startled by that. Who else would say that's me?
46:25
Today's the day, God bless you in the back, Today's the day,
46:29
Now is the time. You don't need to wait for
46:31
Easter. Today's the day.
46:34
Now is the time that God would bring you to such a heavy Bible
46:38
study today. But it's not as heavy when you
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cast your cares on God. It's not as heavy when you learn
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about his forgiveness. It's not.
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There's a future for you, but it has to be in Christ.
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This world doesn't. You could spend your whole world
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looking for happiness, his whole life looking for happiness in
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this world. You won't find it just
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temporary, temporary passing pleasures.
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Anyone else, You guys online or on the radio recognize that we
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don't see you downstairs, but God sees you.
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And so let's pray, pray to God. The Bible says if you confess
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with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart
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that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.
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So you can just pray to God. You can repeat after me.
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You say, God, I receive your forgiveness through Jesus Christ
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who died for me. Rose again and ascended into
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heaven. I believe Jesus saved me and I
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want to be delivered from my past.
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I want to follow you with my life.
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I want to be free from the sin that seems to control me.
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God, I pray for anyone anywhere that's crying out to you right
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now that it's real and genuine and true salvation has taken
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place before US, men and women, boys and girls, born again of
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the Spirit to live in the newness of life.
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And I pray over them that we get to see today.
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We're so excited, so happy. The future is bright, so keep
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them close. Lord in Jesus name, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
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prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
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877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
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integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.