Latest / Collierville Radio Network / Admonition Podcast - Worship (Lesson 6) - Aaron Cozort - September 09, 2026

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Admonition Podcast - Worship (Lesson 6) - Aaron Cozort - September 09, 2026 · Collierville Radio Network

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Good evening.
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Good to see everyone out this evening.
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We will be continuing our study of worship in the Old and New Testament.
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As we consider additional principles concerning worship and some
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of the history behind worship,
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we've noticed a a few of the beginning examples of that.
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We're going to notice a few more this evening.
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But let's begin with a word of prayer and then we'll get into our study.
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Our gracious Father in heaven,
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we
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Come before your throne, grateful for the day that you've blessed us with,
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for the life that you have granted to us,
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for the health and the opportunity that we have to assemble together.
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We pray that you will continue to grant us that health and continue to grant
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us that opportunity. Lord, we pray for those who,
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by reason of illness or injury,
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are unable to be with us. We pray also for those who have lost loved ones.
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Especially mindful of Beverly and her family at this time,
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pray that you give them strength as they grieve.
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Lord, we pray that you will help us to always be an encouragement to those
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who are struggling in whatever way they may be struggling.
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And help us to be mindful of our position in life and
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be grateful and thankful for all that you do for us.
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Lord, we pray and ask that you forgive us of our sins when we fall short
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of your glory.
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And all this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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We're going to begin this evening in Genesis chapter four.
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So in Genesis chapter 4, ~ we of course have noticed the incident
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of Cain and Abel earlier on in the chapter.
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We're not gonna spend ~ any additional time on that,
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but we do notice there in that example that we have worship occurring.
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When we get to the end of the chapter,
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we find verse 25 and 26:
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Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth.
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For God had appointed another seed for me instead of Abel,
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whom Cain killed. And as for Seth,
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to him also a son was born, and he named him Enosh,
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then men, and notice this terminology,
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began to call on the name of the Lord.
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This evening as we go through our study,
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we're going to notice examples of altars that were set up.
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And the sacrifices that were offered on them,
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and the connection that exists between worship
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and calling on the name of the Lord.
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Because that terminology is used a number of times throughout Scripture.
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Now, as Moses here records the events,
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he will utilize the reference.
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That is the term Lord in most English versions you'll find there at the
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end of verse 26 is the term for Yahweh.
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It it is the ~ in most English versions,
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it's either all caps or it's l uppercase and low or sorry,
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large and lowercase. I'm gonna get it right.
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Large and small caps ~ is the way many translations actually place it in there.
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~ but that is there to
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To differentiate if you see Lord in all caps,
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it's to differentiate the fact that they're the passages using the term Jehovah
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or Yahweh in the Hebrew, and ~ gives some special recognition to that.
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We we recognize that God will tell ~ Moses
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if you go forward into the book of Exodus that he would be
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Known by that name from that point forward,
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that that would be a recognition of God's place
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and relationship to Israel. But here in this text,
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we notice that humanity begins to call upon the name
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of the Lord. Humanity at large begins to worship God.
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Now,
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It's not going to be but a chapter before we see the descendants of Cain
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and their complete departure away from God,
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and their departure away from what God had told them to do,
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and humanity's departure away from what God had told them to do.
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but as a result of that,
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when we get to the end of chapter five,
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we're introduced to Noah.
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And Noah at five hundred years old is one who finds grace in the eyes of the Lord,
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but the contrast to Noah is the entire rest of the planet.
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Because you have in chapter five the declaration that those sons
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of God intermarried with the daughters of men.
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that was actually a discussion Kevin and I were having relatively recently about
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what what does that mean?
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Some will come to that passage and they'll argue,
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well, this is ~ I think ~ I'm not sure what religious group it is that that holds
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to this, but a number of people do,
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~ that this is a a time where angels intermarried with humans.
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That's not what the text is talking about.
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What you have in that text because of the direct reference previously to the men.
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Began to call on the name of the Lord,
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is you have those of Seth's descendants that are worshiping God,
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that are faithful to God, and they're going to be referred to as the sons of God.
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They're going to be referred to as those who are following after the Lord.
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They're calling on the name of the Lord.
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And yet Cain's descendants, which you read about in chapter 5,
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are going to be those who are going to be following after Cain.
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That which is evil, they're going to persist in that which is evil,
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just the same way that Cain did.
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Actually, you read about Cain's descendants in chapter four,
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verses 16 through 24. But there's a separation.
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Here's Seth's descendants, and they're following after God.
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Here's Cain's descendants, and they're following after their own sinful desires
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and their own sinful lusts. And what happens?
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The same way it happens in the days of Israel.
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Well, the sons of
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These people marry the daughter of these people,
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and guess what? It doesn't turn out well for.
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It doesn't turn out well for faithfulness to God.
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And so eventually, through the course of marrying into one another,
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the same way God will later tell Israel:
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don't intermarry with the Canaanites,
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don't intermarry with those Parizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites
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and the ones that I told you you're going to put out of this land.
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Don't intermarry with with the people who are in that land,
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because if you do, they're going to turn your heart away from me,
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and I'm going to come and judge you.
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And sure enough, what do you find to be the circumstance that leads to the flood?
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Intermarrying between those who are faithful and those who are ungodly.
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And so their hearts are turned away from God,
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their hearts are turned away from the Lord,
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while they began to call upon the name of the Lord.
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By the time you get to the end of chapter 5,
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Noah.
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Stands as a unique example of those who find grace in the eyes of the Lord.
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So, as we look at worship,
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we consider that first God expects it.
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Secondly, God has expected it generation after generation after generation from
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garden forward. But let's notice what we find in the life of Noah.
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Genesis chapter five, we're introduced,
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as I mentioned, to Noah, and God is going to declare that Noah finds
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grace in his eyes. You find ~ Genesis chapter six,
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verse one, now it came to pass when man began to multiply on the face of the earth,
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the daughters were born to them,
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that the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
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that they were beautiful, that they took wives for themselves of all they chose,
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and the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever.
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For he indeed is is indeed flesh,
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yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.
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There were giants on the earth in those days,
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and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of
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men and they bore children to them,
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they were the mighty men who were of old men of renown.
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Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
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and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
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And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth,
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and he was grieved in his heart.
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So the Lord said, I will destroy man,
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whom I have created from the face of the earth,
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both man and beast, creeping things and birds of the air,
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for I am sorry that I have made them,
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but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
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This is the genealogy of Noah.
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Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations,
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Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons,
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Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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The earth also was corrupt before God,
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and the earth was filled with violence.
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So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt,
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for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
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And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh has come before me,
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for the earth is filled with violence through them,
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and behold I will destroy them with the earth.
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Make yourself an ark of gopher wood,
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make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch,
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and this is how you shall make it.
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The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,
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its width fifty cubits, its height thirty cubits,
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you shall make a window for the ark,
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and you shall finish it to a cubit from above,
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and set the door of the ark in its side,
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you shall make it with lower second and third decks,
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and behold I myself am bringing the flood waters on the earth to destroy from under
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heaven all flesh in which the br is the breath of life,
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everything that is on the earth shall die.
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Because of the wickedness of mankind,
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because of their persistence in that which is evil,
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as the book describes it, that they only thought of that which
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was evil continually. It was the only thing they thought about.
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It was the only motivation, and their only desire was to do that which is wrong.
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Now
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Could that ever happen again? Absolutely.
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Absolutely. It is part of the reason why it is a necessity
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for us as members of the body of Christ,
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as Christians, to continue to teach and to preach the gospel.
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It is because the world does
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not trend towards righteousness.
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It doesn't habitually just decide to do that which is right.
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The world continues to
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Push generation after generation towards that which is evil.
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And it is only through those who are righteous doing what God has commanded them
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to do that that is held back. And furthermore,
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you see that God has a willingness to judge the evil that exists in this world.
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So when you look at
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The events that are going to transpire in the life of Noah.
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Noah is going to build the ark just as God commanded him to.
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God is going to tell Noah to get on the ark,
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and Noah's going to do that. Noah is going to take him with him those clean animals
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and those unclean animals that God commands him to do.
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And then we find chapter 8. Chapter 8,
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we find in verse 20.
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As we go down through the text,
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then Noah built an ark to the Lord,
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or sorry, an altar to the Lord,
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and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird,
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and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
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When the flood is over, when Noah and his sons and
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his wife and theirs and his sons' wives depart from the ark,
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when the animals come off of the ark.
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We're told that Noah is going to build an altar to the Lord.
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He's going to take of every clean animal,
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of every clean bird, and offer burnt offerings on the altar.
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You notice here that as Noah offers this worship to God,
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he's going to offer what is acceptable to God.
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We've already seen in the ~ events of Cain and Abel that Cain offered
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that which was not acceptable to God.
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That Abel offered that which pleased the Lord,
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that which was accepted by God.
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Here we have another event not too far forward
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in the text where again we're being told.
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There's that which is accepted by God,
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and there's that which is not accepted by God when it comes to worship.
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And should it be any surprise for us today that that's still the case?
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Should we be surprised when from the beginning of time God has had
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a standard of how worship is to be offered in order to be accepted by Him,
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that He still has a standard? Certainly not.
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But notice
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The Lord verse twenty one smelled a smooth aroma,
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a soothing aroma. Let me get my words out tonight.
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Then the Lord said at his heart,
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I will never again curse the ground for man's sake,
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although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,
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nor will I again destroy every every living thing as I have done.
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You know, I have heard it said before,
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usually by gardeners, that those weeds are the curse that
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God placed on Adam. No, they're not.
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We're told here that that curse ended.
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That wasn't any more in effect the way that it had been.
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Now
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There's certainly things that exist in this world that are bane
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on somebody's existence, especially if they're a gardener.
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But the thing which God made that caused the earth
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to be cursed is not in existence anymore.
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That was something that existed and was for a time before the flood and not now.
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~ but God says, I'll never do this again.
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I will never curse the ground for man's sake,
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although the ~ although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,
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nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
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While the earth remains, seed time and harvest,
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cold and heat, winter and summer,
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and day and night shall not cease.
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God makes a promise.
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That the earth is going to continue to do exactly what he made
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it to do until he says otherwise.
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We often ~ hear by a lot of people a
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lot of ~ tumult, a lot of of worry,
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a lot of hand-wringing about one thing or another on the planet and
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How you know it's all going to come to a disastrous end if something doesn't change
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soon. Usually ~ someone's in an incentive ~ or position to be paid
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if that thing ~ doesn't change.
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But you find that they're quite ignorant about what God had said.
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Now, God didn't always say that it was going to be springtime.
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And everything was going to be warm and everything was going to
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be cool and everything was going to have rain everywhere and there wouldn't
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be any droughts and there wouldn't be any deserts and there wouldn't
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be any mountains and there wouldn't be any glaciers and there wouldn't be any.
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He didn't say that, did he? He said rather that the systems that he
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put in place were going to persist.
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The systems that he established to maintain the earth would not.
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deteriorate beyond the point that he allowed them to go.
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All the way over in the book of Hebrews,
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we're told in Hebrews chapter 1 that
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the earth and the world and the universe that we live
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in is maintained by the word of God's power.
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We notice Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1,
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God who at various times
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And in various ways spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets,
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has in these last days spoken to us by his Son,
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whom he has appointed heir of all things,
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through whom also he made the worlds,
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who being the brightness of his glory,
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and the express image of his person,
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and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged
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our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
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The universe is not going anywhere.
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The world is not going anywhere.
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It's not going anywhere because Jesus Christ isn't going anywhere.
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And it is his word,
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it is his authority that allows and demands that
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the world persist.
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But isn't that an interesting point to realize?
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What happened if he ever changed his mind?
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What happened, I don't know, not in conjecture,
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but to say, there is a day in which Christ will stop doing
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that. There is a day in which Christ will return,
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and the purpose that this physical world and this universe have served
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in humanity's existence to lead us to eternity will be over.
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And when they are,
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Peter will write in second Peter chapter three that it's going to end
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in the very elements being burned up.
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Just a little bit of a rabbit chase here.
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It wasn't until
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the nineteen forties that we had confirmation that there
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was more power at the atomic level than
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had ever been tapped into,
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let alone unleashed, in this universe.
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by mail.
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The atomic bombs that were dropped ~ by the United States
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in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the testing of the atomic weapons that
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and nuclear weapons that followed after that was the release
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of more power in the form of energy power
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in one decade than all of humanity had released to all knowledge in human history.
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from the beginning of time to that point,
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in one decade.
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So when you think about all of humanity's existence from
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Genesis all the way until 1940,
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and you realize that humanity had operated
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in an incredibly limited scope of knowledge about what God created.
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And only after 1940 do you have ~ really a new world
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in which we have insight into
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That which goes all the way down to the atomic level and the egg
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the energy that exists at the atomic level.
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And we have the audacity quite often to think,
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well, we that was the last thing to discover.
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That that was the the last nugget of God's creation that we could possibly have have
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have discovered and imagined and surely we now know the the most powerful thing
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that we'll ever know about. And I think that's probably nonsense.
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But then pause for a moment and consider if you think about the power that exists
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at the atomic level and what we know can be unleashed,
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what would happen if God ever kept ever stopped keeping
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it together?
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If that's what can be released simply by what man can learn,
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what would happen if God ever stopped holding it together?
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And we say again. It'd be gone.
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He made it. He holds it together.
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We exist because he holds it together.
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And without that, we don't exist
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in this physical life, in this physical world,
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because it will be gone. And there will be a day in which that will occur.
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But God says, up until that point.
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This is never going to happen again.
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God is never going to cause an event to wipe the planet clean like
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he did in the days of Noah.
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So as you look at this, you consider,
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should, that Noah comes
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off the ark to a clean planet,
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as it were, wiped clean by the Lord.
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All the sin, all the wickedness,
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all the debauchery, all of the things that had been filling the earth,
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the violence that we just read about,
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wiped away. Not wiped away pleasantly,
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but wiped away. But as Noah came off the ark,
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Noah recognized
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the Lord in worship.
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Noah has lived during the time of the flood nearly a year
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in this boat with these animals.
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And you can imagine what the sounds would have been like
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inside the boat.
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As they listened to the tumult that occurred outside the boat.
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We're told that God broke up the deep.
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God raised up new mountains and made new valleys.
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You don't have to spend much time looking at the footage from
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~ the event that that took place recently on the border of China and Nepal.
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or looking at the the scars that still exist in western North Carolina after
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the hurricane, to realize that when God allows nature
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to do what nature can do, especially when it comes to water,
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the landscape changes dramatically and does so incredibly quickly.
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~ look look at some of the the satellite footage from Nepal before the event.
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And after the event. And that's just from a glacier breaking loose.
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So Noah worships God.
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A God who could remake the planet.
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A God who could start all over again.
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A God who could control the deep and the skies above.
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but also a God who could save them through the midst of it.
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Noah and his family had a true appreciation for what it meant
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to be saved by God.
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Then consider chapter twelve.
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We put spotlight on some additional events of worship.
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In Genesis chapter 12, of course,
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we're introduced in chapter 11 to Abram.
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We're introduced to his family,
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and chapter 12, we're introduced to the call of God to come out of his nation,
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out of his country, out of his family,
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and from his father's house and go to a land that God would show him.
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So in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1,
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we read, Now the Lord said to Abram,
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Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house,
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to a land that I will show you.
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I will make you a great nation,
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and I will bless you. I will make your name great,
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and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you.
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I will curse him who curses you.
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In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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As the relationship between God and Abram is
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Is beginning to be unfolded here by Moses.
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We're told about this covenant promise that God makes to Abram.
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We're told about what God tells Abram to do.
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He says, You need to leave your family,
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you need to leave your country,
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you need to leave your father's house,
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and you need to go to the place where I will show you.
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And so Abram does. Verse 4:
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Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him.
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And Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy five years old when
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he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's
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son and all their possessions that they had gathered,
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and the people whom they had acquired in Haran,
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and they departed to go to the land of Canaan.
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So they came to the land of Canaan.
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Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem,
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as far as the Terabinth tree of Morah.
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And the Canaanites were then in the land.
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And the Lord appeared to Abram and said,
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To your descendants I will give this land.
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And there he built an altar to the Lord,
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who had appeared to him. God has spoken with Abram before
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when he was in Haran. God speaks to Abram again now that he arrives in Shechem,
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and God says, This is part of the land that your descendant.
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descendants will receive. And as Abram stops there in Shechem,
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Abram will build an altar to the Lord.
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And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel,
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and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the ~ on the west and Ai on the east,
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and there he built an altar to the Lord,
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and called on the name of the Lord.
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So here we see this continuing action,
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this
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This regular activity that Abram was involved in.
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Abram, when he would go from one place to the next place,
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when he would arrive there, when he would pitch his tent,
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when he would prepare to stay in a particular place for an extended period of time,
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Abram would build an altar. You know,
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over in James chapter four.
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James, as he is writing to the Christians and specifically the Jewish Christians
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in the first century, will write to them and say,
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beginning in verse 13 of James 4,
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come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city,
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spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit.
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Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.
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For what is your life?
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It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
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Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills,
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we shall live and do this or that.
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But now you boast in your arrogance,
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all such boasting is evil. Therefore,
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to him who knows to do good and does not do it,
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to him it is sin. As James writes to the Christians,
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he
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Emphasizes to them that when it comes to your plans,
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when it comes to your priorities,
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when it comes to your decision-making process,
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your first question ought to be:
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will this accomplish the will of the Lord?
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The Christians were struggling.
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You go all the way back into the beginning of chapter four,
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and they were struggling with more than just where to move to and how long
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to stay there. They were struggling with the fact that they were asking
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for things from the Lord only to spend it on their own lusts and desires.
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They were only interested in what they wanted.
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And James condemns them for it.
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James tells them they need to reorder.
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Their priorities. They need to go back and determine first what is the will
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of the Lord. And if that is the will of the Lord,
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then they'll go do it. They need to stop prioritizing prophet
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and start prioritizing the will of God.
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As you look at the life of Abram,
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one of the things that you see is number one,
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he's following the Lord.
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He's going where the Lord tells him to go.
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Secondly, you'll notice that when he arrives anywhere he's going,
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he's going to worship the Lord.
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There's not a point in Abram's life where you
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see Abram departing from God.
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Abram is very conscientious to go where God desires for him to go,
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when God desires for him to go there,
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and when he does go there, he worships the Lord.
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He builds these altars to the Lord,
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and interestingly, as you note.
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~ this particular altar that we just read about is going to be built in Bethel.
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Where is it that Jacob is going to be when
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the Lord appears to him as he is fleeing from his father's house
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and from his brother after he has taken the birthright?
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Bethel.
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And so Abram builds an altar.
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Abram will hear worship the Lord.
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And Abram will provide an example to us,
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not just in worship, but in life.
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Just the same way James emphasizes that our focus needs to be doing
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the will of the Lord.
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Our focus needs to be doing that which God desires for us to do.
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And when we do, God will take care of the rest.
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And when we don't, James says,
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when you know to do good and you don't do it.
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To him it is sin. I remember all the way back when we were in school of preaching,
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we had a a student come to us and he was young.
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we were young at the time, but anyway,
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he was young and and he was not quite happy with
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the political situation at the time,
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and it was getting on, I think,
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election year or whatnot. And ~ and he he came to me one time,
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he said, Aaron.
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I've had somebody tell me that if I don't vote,
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I'm sinning. And specifically if I don't vote for who they think I should vote for,
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I'm definitely sinning. And they quoted James chapter four,
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verse seventeen to me.
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And I said, well, that's not what that passage is talking about.
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He said, but on the other hand,
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if you determine to do what you want instead of what the Lord wills,
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now we have a problem. We need to be careful with passages and keep them
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in their context. But Abram's going to build this altar at Shechem.
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He's going to build another altar at Bethel.
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And then chapter 13.
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At the end of chapter 12, Abram's going to go down to Egypt,
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and he's going to remain there because of a famine that was severe in the land,
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according to chapter 12, verse 10.
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When Abram returns from Egypt,
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we find in chapter 13, verse 1,
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then Abram went up from Egypt,
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he and his wife and all that he had,
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and Lot with him to the south.
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Abram was very rich in livestock in silver and in gold,
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and he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel,
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to the place where his tent had been at the beginning,
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between Bethel and Ahai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first,
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and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord.
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You notice when Abram comes back up out of Egypt,
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Abram doesn't say, you know what,
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I'm a whole lot richer than I was when I came down into Egypt.
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I don't know that I really need to worry about God anymore.
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After all, I'm a pretty significant guy at this point.
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I I I've got plenty of possessions and I'm rich in gold
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and and and possessions, such gold,
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silver, livestock. What do I need the Lord for?
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That's not what Abram does. Abram comes up out of Egypt and he goes right back
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to that altar.
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But again, what's the message behind it?
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God provided for Abraham when he was in the land.
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God provided for Abraham when he was in Egypt.
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God provided for Abraham when he came back up out of Egypt.
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And Abram recognizes that not a thing about
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his circumstance and his situation was his doing.
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Except for the trouble that he almost caused by the lie that he told in Egypt.
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But everything else was God's doing.
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Abram had a recognition that he owed
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it all to God. If you turn over to chapter thirteen and verse fourteen.
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We find verse twelve Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan,
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and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.
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But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord.
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And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him,
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Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are,
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northward, southward, eastward,
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and westward.
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For all the land which you see I will give to you and your descendants forever,
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and I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth,
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so that if a man could number the dust of the earth,
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then your descendants could be numbered.
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Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width,
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for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt
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by the Terabinth trees of Mamre.
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Which are in Hebron and built an altar there to the Lord.
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God tells Abram,
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after Lot and Abram have separated,
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he said, You've you've got some traveling to do.
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You need to go survey the land.
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You need to go view the land that I'm going to give to your descendants.
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You need to go to the north, you need to go to the south,
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you need to go to the east, you need to go to the west,
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you need to go throughout the land.
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And you are going to see what I'm going to give to your descendants after
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you. Now, as God says this to Abram,
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Abram has no children. Abram is over 75 years old.
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He has no child. He has no descendants.
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And as will be pointed out later on.
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The one who is currently set to inherit all that Abram has is one of his servants.
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But God is going to make it clear to Abram.
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I'm going to not only give you servants,
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I'm going to not only give you possessions,
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I'm going to not only give you gold and silver,
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I am going to give you this land,
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and I am going to give you descendants to fill it,
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so that if you could number the dust of the earth,
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you would be able to number your descendants.
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God is going to make it clear to Abram.
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That the promise is still in effect.
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The promise that God had made with Abram in chapter 12,
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God was still going to fulfill it.
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No matter how much time transpired,
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no matter what had happened in the intervening period,
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Lot was not going to be the one through whom God would fulfill the promise.
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Abram's servants were not going to be the ones through whom
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God fulfilled the promise. God was going to provide descendants.
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But as God sends Abram through the land,
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what do you find Abram doing? Builds altars,
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worships the Lord.
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Wherever he went, you would have found Abram worshiping God.
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As a matter of fact, it is such an aspect
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of the life of Abram that over in chapter 22,
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the test of Abram concerning his faithfulness
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to God will be couched in worship and Isaac.
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The two things that Abram would have
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desired to do no matter what, have a son
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and worship God were the things with which God tested Abram.
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Mm-hmm.
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Absolutely. And you see ~ you see that all the way forward ~
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to the days in Jesus' time where the altars that
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are discussed in the mountain of some of the Samaritans being referenced
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all the way back to the days of Jacob and Isaac ~ and those altars being built
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there. All right, we're about out of time,
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so we're gonna go ahead and put a put a plug in it there.
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But as you think about
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These passages, what I want you to do as you're reading,
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as you're doing your own Bible reading,
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take a note. When worship happens,
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what are the things that are described around it?
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What are the things that are going on?
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And what do we learn about worship,
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the motivations for worship, the reasons for worship,
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what is acceptable worship by the circumstance
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that surrounds the worship that is acceptable to God.
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Okay? Thank you for your attention.