Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #16203 - The Real Jesus Experienced - 1 John 1:1-2

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#16203 - The Real Jesus Experienced - 1 John 1:1-2 · 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. Open your Bibles first John
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chapter 1. We've spent some time a couple
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of studies introductory to 1st John.
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We're going to begin our progress through the book of
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first John and looking at a couple more verses in chapter 1
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and I've entitled our Bible study, The real Jesus
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experienced the real Jesus experienced.
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Now remember many years ago coming across this survey and I
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had a hard time finding an updated survey, although I did
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some math myself. The survey, or the estimate, is
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how a typical person spends their life.
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Looking at the totality of their life, how does a typical person
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spend their life in years? And here's what the survey said
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in relation to how people were spending their lives.
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They the average person spends 23 years of their life sleeping,
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some of you a lot more sleeping eight years of their life
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watching television. And you can see the surveys
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dated a little bit, but I'll update it for you in a moment.
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Six years of their life. And what this means is, so you
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got to understand what they're saying is when it says six
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years, that means 24 hours a day, 365 days for six years
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straight, no break. That's what they mean.
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So they're adding up all the air, all the moments that you
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sleep. You got five hours here, 4 hours
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here and they're adding up over an average life. 23 hours
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sleeping, 8 hours watching TV, six hours travelling, 4 years
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being sick, 16 years working, working, six years eating.
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Wow. So you got six years travelling
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the and then six more years eating. 4 1/2 years on regular
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recreation. This is interesting.
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The average person spends 2 full years of their lives dressing
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and undressing and for some getting ready.
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Another five years. But that's a different Bible
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study. The summary for Bible reading
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and church attendance was half a year.
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Half a year, I don't know how accurate that is, but all of us
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been given 24 hours in a day, 14140 minutes, 86,400 seconds,
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and you can see that they add up over a lifetime.
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They add up all these little decisions.
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The sum of our lives are made-up of the little decisions we make
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daily. What's missing, of course, if we
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want to update our survey a little bit, is phone time.
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Phone time, you can't get away with that.
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You're going to have to find where it fits.
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Probably giving up sleep and TV to some degree.
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But I did look that up and the average prevailing number today
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of phone time is 4 1/2 hours a day, 4 1/2 hours a day of screen
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time. And if you wondering what your
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screen time is, they actually have apps and things on your
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phone that you can track yourself if you want to see.
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So let's just say you're the average person.
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The average means accumulation of low and high numbers.
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So there are lower numbers, but there are much higher numbers.
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But let's just take the average. 4 1/2 hours a day amounts to 70
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days a year. 70 days a year. I didn't map it out to the rest
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of your life, but some of you are on your phone. 77 zero days
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in a year, almost 20% of your life. 70 days.
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What does that mean? 365 days a year, 24 hours a day
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for 70 years. That's almost six days a month
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complete total days. Add to that binge watching.
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Now we don't just watch television night.
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Now we can binge watch whole scenes.
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Do you know those of us that might be a little bit older, we
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had to wait for the following week at the exact time.
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This was before DVRS, even VCRS. We had to wait weekly, so you
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watch a show on Tuesday at 8:00 PM and then if you wanted to see
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the next episode, you waited seven days.
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I know it's a trip, but that was life for us.
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We had to rearrange our whole lives to watch the television
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show that we wanted to watch. It's different these days.
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You can binge watch whole seasons.
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You can repetitively binge watch.
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It's actually a way of escape. It's a coping mechanism for so
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many to escape reality. And the average for binge
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watching was 3 hours a day, three hours a day binge
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watching. And that can include all sorts
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of things. Of course the phone and the
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binge watching is going to cut in a little bit to the TV time,
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which is only 8 years but 11% of your life.
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But they estimated 3 hours or more a day, that's 46 days.
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So if you just took the phone 70 days and you took the binge
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watching 46 days, that means your life and mine, 160, 16 days
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a year are just thrown away an hour at a time, hour at a time,
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hour at a time. That's a long time.
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You get the point. You go Ed, what is the point?
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Let me share it with you. Time is ticking away and how you
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and I choose to use our time is going to make a big difference
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in our lives, in the totality of our lives.
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While it may not seem so significant in the moment, it is
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extremely significant because the moment is all you have.
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We're not given tomorrow or next week or next year.
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The moment is all we have. And I believe as a pastor, I
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wouldn't have any other choice to share with you, but the best
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time and the best use of your time is to pursue the Lord.
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Seek first the Kingdom of God. That's the best use of your
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time, whether it's a half percent or 5% or 10% or the
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totality of everything you're doing under the banner of Jesus.
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Because an interesting hat thing happens when you are pursuing
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Christ, abiding in him, and enjoying him.
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An interesting happens under Bible study.
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And when you're worshipping God and singing songs, you know what
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happens? You change.
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You change if you're binge watching some crazy R rated
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X-rated thing on your Netflix. You change, but not for the
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better. You change for the worst.
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You're binge watching and allowing some algorithm to
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determine what you see for four hours a day.
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You change. I change depending on what I
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present myself to. It makes the teachings of of the
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scriptures all the more important, doesn't it, because
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the Bible tells us to be careful of evil company.
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And of course the specific application of that are the
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people that we hang out with. For sure be very careful the
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peer pressure in your life, but you can expand that so much
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greater now because you expose yourself to people you don't
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even know and you allow people to teach you don't even know
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because of some slick production or because some computer said, I
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think this would be good for them.
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And they're just at the edge of the rabbit hole.
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They're just at the edge and you go, I didn't even know I was at
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the edge. The computer does because they
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take all these data points and come up with a conclusion and
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they go, well, you know, you were that close to the to the
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rabbit hole five hours later, don't you?
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It took you 5 hours to understand what a computer could
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get in milliseconds, but the Holy Spirit can give it to you
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faster than a computer. It's depending on who you
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present yourself to. Imagine this.
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I know it's probably not going to be a prayer request, but I'll
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throw it out there. But just imagine you hold your
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phone in your hand and you say, God, is it your will for me to
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spend 4 hours on this today? What do you think?
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I was? Oh sure, this is going to be so
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healthy for you, Ed. You're going to be such a better
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believer today. You're going to be so much more
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kind. All the fruit of the Spirit
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comes for four hours on your phone.
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But we know better. But like a sheep to the
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slaughter, we just go for it. John in First John, he gives us
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the benefits of spending time with Jesus.
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In the 1st century, those that follow Christ left everything
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and what everything meant. It's everything they left.
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Job, career. It was a very unique invitation.
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The invitation today isn't to leave everything, but it is to
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leave some things because your pursuit of Jesus is the most
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important thing you can do with your life.
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Rather than waste our lives, God allows us to invest our lives.
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The problem of course with using the word invest is the world has
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lied to us and the world has said investing always means a
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rich reward in return now and they measure it in percentages
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and dollar amounts. But you know, for the believer,
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our investment in the Kingdom of God doesn't always equate to
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something that you see right away or that you experience
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right away. That's why these these guys and
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gals teaching this false teaching of, you know, give to
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God and get and name it and claim it.
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And it's just not the character of God.
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Anybody that knows God would turn those guys off right away.
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That doesn't reflect God at all. As if somehow God has limited
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himself by your giving. So I'm going to bless, you know,
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if you're only going to give me a dollar, I'm only going to
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bless you $5 as if you didn't get that dollar from God to
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begin with. The character of God, that was
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such a great prayer request. Because when you know God, you
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understand his character. You dismiss things that don't
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reflect him that, that aren't at all, that aren't at all
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consistent with who he is. And we are being transformed,
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Second Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18 says, into the same
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image from glory to glory. And as we become more like
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Jesus, reflecting his character in nature, we're being conformed
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into his image. That's why you see, you may not
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see a lot of change in you, but others around you see a lot of
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change because this happens tonight.
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The investment near or far, listening on the radio.
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I mean, again, it would be great to be in fellowship, but maybe
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you can only listen on the radio or maybe you only have a
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podcast, or maybe you, you, you're sick, right?
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Like whatever you are, wherever you are, your investment in the
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word of God will change you. I promise you.
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Not on Ed's authority, but on the word of God.
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You're being transformed. You're being conformed.
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And at least for a few moments, you're not an active sin.
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You're living in sobriety. Like, whoa, wait a minute.
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I just. I just drank right here in the
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parking lot. But you're not drinking.
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Now, that's pretty powerful, isn't it?
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Yeah. But, Ed, it's such a battle.
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Yeah. But here's the thing.
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You know the difference between drinking in your car and
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drinking in this room. And God has even more to teach
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you. And let me just say, just for
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the sake of anyone here, if you've drank, if you drank on
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the way here in the parking lot, let us give you a ride home.
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Don't drive drunk. That's not from the Lord.
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Let us give you a ride home. You know what that would require
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is you'd have to humble yourself.
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You'd have to ask. Or perhaps we're sitting next to
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you and we smell and we're like, hey, just let me give you a ride
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home. Let me take care of you so you
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don't hurt anybody because that's God's heart.
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He doesn't want you to hurt anyone.
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You've already hurting yourself. He wants you to be free and
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sober. He wants you to live above these
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things that have been holding you back and it comes through as
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your attention to even though you're wrestling with this sin,
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you have positioned your heart toward God and you're going to
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be blessed for it. God's going to use this time in
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your life. When we are conformed into the
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image of Christ, we're able to handle the everyday pressures of
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life better. When we're conformed into the
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image of Christ, we begin to love like Jesus loved.
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When we're conformed into the image of Christ, we're able to
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glorify Him in all things. We're able to enjoy his
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presence. We're we're unable to pray for
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our enemies. All the commands of God, all the
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commands of Jesus are easier as we're conformed in the image of
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Christ because we trust him. The apostle John, as we open up
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into this chapter, spent three personal years with Jesus.
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What that means is to the most part, 365 days of 24 hour days
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following Jesus. Do you think that didn't make a
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difference in his life? We already learned who he was
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and who he is now. We already learned that he
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started you sons of Thunder, you don't even know who's what, what
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kind of spirit is in you, Jesus says.
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And now, now who's John? He's the apostle that Jesus
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loved, not a son of Thunder anymore.
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And this letter is birthed out of his intimacy with Jesus.
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I wonder what's going to be birthed out of your intimacy
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with Jesus? I wonder what's going to happen.
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I wonder what new things are going to come from your life.
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What new ideas, what new directions, what new
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cleanliness, what new purity? I wonder what's going to come as
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you invest your life in intimacy and closeness with the Lord,
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Because it's going to happen. The early church was so strong.
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Why? Because they continued
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steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and in fellowship and
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the breaking of bread and in prayer.
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So John says in verse one that which was from the beginning,
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which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
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we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning
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the word of life. It's one thing to say, I heard
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about that. I heard about that.
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You know, somebody's talking about, I heard about that, I
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read that. Or it's it's one thing to have
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knowledge second hand. I heard about that.
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I remember that. It's a whole other thing to say.
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I know that. That's the life of the believer,
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right? His new believers.
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Most of your life is I heard about that.
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I heard about that. I heard a sermon, I heard, I
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heard about that. That's OK.
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It's one thing that's where you start, but you know where you're
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headed. I know that.
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I know that. Oh, how do you know that?
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I experienced it? I lived it.
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I heard the Bible study, didn't quite know what the pastor was
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saying, but now I know. Well, how do you know?
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Because I experienced it. I lived it.
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It's been said and I quote, our problem is the problem of
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trafficking, an unlived truth. We try to communicate what we've
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never experienced in our own life.
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This is one of the themes that I see very prevalent in the mass
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amount of teachings on YouTube. You have a lot of experts and a
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lot of men and women that are catching your ear with stuff
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that is available, but but you can tell that they haven't
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experienced it. It's just a show, just a camera
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and a microphone and some catchy, catchy things and some
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catchy sayings and things to catch your attention, but they
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haven't lived it. And you want to be why God
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created the fellowship of believers is your ability to do
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life with someone so that you can tell the difference with
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somebody's just talking about it or somebody that lives it.
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And the Church of Jesus, for every true believer is filled
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with men and women who are living out their faith walk.
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That's why there's so many different levels of maturity
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here, so many different levels of attitudes, so many different
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levels of progress. There's so much diversity in the
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body of Christ, but the diversity exists as you live
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out. Some of you are making great
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progress. You're experiencing it.
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Some of you had a really bad week and you've been in the
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flesh really bad. And just like, I don't know, I'm
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so I'm in church, but I'm really.
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I don't know if I should be in church.
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Maybe I should clean up. No, no, no.
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You're just experiencing something.
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You're learning the lesson on the negative side.
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Say I don't go there. Don't do that.
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That's not good for you. You've had a horrible week.
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I know about a horrible week. Yeah.
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This. Because you yelled at that
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person and now the conviction and you didn't deal with it.
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So now the conviction of Holy Spirit is just, you can't be
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satisfied as a believer when you have unconfessed sin.
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You know that, right? So what happens with unconfessed
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sin? You know what happens?
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You harden your heart toward the Holy Spirit.
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You know what the Bible calls that grieving the Holy Spirit.
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And then you just become insensate.
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You don't feel anymore. You don't feel anything anymore
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and then you have to have an outlet for all that emotion.
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So you start at people and the people closest to you, those of
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you fighting God tonight, those of you that are grieving the
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Holy Spirit, those of you that have hard hearts, the people
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closest to you are hurting because of you.
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That's just one of the experiences you go.
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Ed, how do you know that? I know, and I heard about that
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one time, but I've also experienced it even in my own
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life recently. I've just noticed parts of my
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flesh inconveniences, like God showing me that that's part of
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my flesh that's still alive because we just had an episode.
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I'm not going to take you into all the details, but I just had
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an episode where my flesh was provoked.
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Probably the worst that I've seen in so long.
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It's one of those things where people would have taken out a
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phone and videotape me on. Well, I'm not going to give you
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all the details, but it didn't happen.
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The Lord was gracious. I was able to remain in the
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spirit. I mean, it was hard, but I'd
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already had these episodes of the inconveniences I shared with
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the I'd share with you guys not too long.
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I had an inconvenience. I lost my windows as I'm strange
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stranger I never met before, but it didn't matter.
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It was a stranger because God is no stranger to me and he says I
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don't want you to pay attention to this.
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This is not good. I'm like, I know, Lord, it's not
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good, but how would I have known that I was being prepared with
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just a few minor inconveniences on the road and on vacation.
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That guy was going on. There's going to be a big one
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coming up. He knew that I didn't know that
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it was a did I say it was a big one?
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It was a big one, but the Lord is bigger than even the biggest
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temptations. There's always a way of escape
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church. So it's one thing to say I know.
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It's a whole other thing to say. I know I heard about that.
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No, no, I know it in this, in this, in this chapter, just
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alone in verse, verses one through 4, the word we is
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mentioned 7 times. It's total of 13 times in the
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letter, but seven times in these verses.
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We walked with him, we ate with them, we lodged with them, we
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rested with them. He washed our feet, touched, we
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touched his wounds, he laughed with us, cried with us, and on
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and on. And what we're about to study is
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very personal, which makes it more powerful, unbelievable.
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Again, speaking to our testimony, it's powerful,
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unbelievable biblical chooser to be internalized and personalized
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so that they come out of our lives through our testimony.
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You know how you're listening to a Bible study like this, You're
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listening to a Bible study and you're hearing it and you're
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receiving it. But, but, but your conclusion
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is, well, it would be really good if Mary heard this.
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Or if you're with your spouse, you get that little elbow thing.
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You know, I, I see you guys, believe me, I see, I see when
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you look at each other, I see when you smile at each other, I
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see when you look away from each other, I get, I see it all up
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here, all from front to back. I get to see it all.
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And while the Bible study may be for the person sitting next to
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you or for Mary that is in another state, it's for you.
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It's always for you. It's always for me.
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Even if it doesn't have an immediate application in the
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moment, it will because God's Word never returns empty.
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So even as we're in this section of Scripture, it's perfect
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timing for you even though you didn't know it.
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It's perfect timing for you to know.
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John gives eyewitness verifiable evidence against the many claims
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going on in the 1st century that Jesus was a fraud and a fake and
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even a phantom. John, along with all the authors
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of the New Testament, revealed to us that Jesus was and is
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real, historical and personal, not just some made-up deity.
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God's last and most complete revelation of Himself is through
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His Son, Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter one verse,
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one God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in
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time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days
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spoken to us by His Son. He's the final word.
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Jesus is the perfect image of God, God in human flesh, and
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John knew him personally. John knew him personally.
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I also like how this opens up not only on a personal level,
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but he opens up the letter similar to how he opens up his
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gospel, that which was from the beginning.
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And if you go back, if you just want to see it just so you can
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see it for yourself, go back to John's gospel, chapter 1.
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You might want to mark it. You can even make your own
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little personal notes and you can do your own personal cross
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references. In first John 11, you could
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write John 11, and on John 11 you can write first John.
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It's OK to write in your Bible and that'll help you remember
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next time. But you see, in first John 11,
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it says in the beginning was the Word, and now in first John that
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which was from the beginning, he's opening it very similarly.
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This isn't the beginning of the creation of the world, but the
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beginning in Genesis 11, the beginning before anything was
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created, when all there was was God.
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John shares that Jesus is the one who existed from the
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beginning, just like Micah the prophet spoke in Micah 5/2 when
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he says, but you Bethlehem, he he path, you read it, you can
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see it. Is it up Then do we have the
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Scripture? You could see it up there.
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It this is Micah 52. All right.
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It's not up there. Is it up here?
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No, all right, there it is. So you guys try to say it.
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EF ratha F ratha, is that right? Carmen F Ratha sort, sort of
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like all right. But you, Bethlehem, though you
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are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall
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come forth to me one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth or
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from old, from everlasting John saying the same thing with
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different words. God entered time and took on
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human flesh. God has become accessible to man
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in the most intimate way. He's revealed himself to man,
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and he can be known personally. That's why you often hear us
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say, I know we get criticized for it a lot as pastors, but
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This is why you often hear us say that your relationship with
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God is not like religious rituals, but rather you can have
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a personal relationship with God.
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Why? Because he's personal.
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It's not something somebody made-up.
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The Bible reveals God is personal.
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Jesus says if you see me, you've seen the Father.
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I'm the embodiment. I'm the second person of the
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tree. I'm the embodiment of God
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because I am God. You don't you don't know the
24:58
Father yet, but you, if you know me, you know the Father.
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We all share the same attributes.
25:04
We are God one. The beautiful doctrine of the
25:08
Trinity. And what a privilege it is to
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experience a relationship with Jesus and to enjoy fellowship
25:15
with our creator. The idea of the word fellowship
25:19
in the original language in the Greek means to share in common.
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Where you share in common, you do the phrase today you might
25:25
say you do life together, you're sharing life together, you're
25:28
sharing time together, your fellowship It's but it has a
25:32
deeper meaning from the Hebrew perspective.
25:34
There's an intimacy involved and a closeness.
25:37
It's meaningful, like you can fellowship over football, over
25:40
the NFL. You know, if you have a common
25:42
team or you just love the sport, you can have fellowship.
25:44
But when you agree, fellowship in the NFL is not like
25:47
fellowship in the Lord. It's different.
25:50
There's a deeper sense now. You can enjoy sports together,
25:53
You can fellowship in baseball. Did you guys see recently, you
26:01
can have great fellowship with baseball, the MLB, but it's not
26:06
the same as fellowship in the Lord.
26:09
You can have fun with it and you can share in common.
26:11
You can know the game and, and you can know the sport and you
26:14
can know the players and you have your team and I have my
26:16
team. We have a lot of fun together,
26:17
but it's not the same as fellowshipping in the Lord and
26:22
talking about the things of the Lord and praying for one
26:26
another. Now you can pray when we're
26:27
fellowshipping in baseball because if you're not a Dodger
26:29
fan, we pray for you, but it's not the same.
26:34
It's not the same as praying when you're sick or when you're
26:39
in crisis or celebrating with you some great thing that God
26:43
has given. It's not the same.
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Don't settle for less than what God has for you in fellowship.
26:50
It's kind of like when we pray. You can tell the difference in
26:53
the room when people are praying and when they're goofing off.
26:55
Did you know that you could tell because the volume rises when a
26:59
group is done praying and they didn't keep praying?
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That's not fellowship. Fellowship is when you are
27:05
praying together, when, when it's over and you're just kind
27:08
of waiting for time to pass your heart.
27:10
You've coldly disconnected from the time that you just a small
27:14
amount of time. It's not that big a deal.
27:15
It's not that much time, but I hope it starts a habit in you.
27:19
But you can tell the difference when there's prayer in the room
27:22
and when there's talking in the room.
27:24
You could tell it's better to pray because that's where
27:27
fellowship is. There's nothing wrong with
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talking and enjoying one another and catching up, but there's a
27:33
time for that. Nothing wrong with baseball or
27:36
football, but there's a time for that.
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This fellowship you can have not only with each other, but more
27:43
importantly with the Lord. Look what happens in verse one.
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We've heard Him. This is spiritual.
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We've seen Him with our own eyes.
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We have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning
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the word of life. That phrase looked upon.
28:04
If you like to circle or write in your Bibles, it has the idea
28:08
of theater. It comes from the Greek word
28:10
Theonia, and it where we get our English word theater.
28:15
It's the idea of gazing at him and studying his every move and
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watching and paying attention to everything he's doing.
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Jesus wasn't something he just read in a book for John or
28:28
imagined in his mind. No, Jesus is real.
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And with real people, you see them, you feel their presence,
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you hear them, and it's a very similar testimony that you have
28:39
with God. It's not the same because we
28:41
haven't been physically with him like John did, but the same
28:44
principles. You you, you're sharing your
28:46
testimony with somebody who's like, no, you don't understand.
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Jesus Christ changed my life. He touched me.
28:52
I've heard him. You go, Oh, do you hear from
28:55
God? I do for hear from God.
28:57
There was a call I didn't get to today of someone that was
29:00
struggling hearing with God. Here's my answer.
29:02
If that's you today, if you're here today, go.
29:04
I just I'm having a hard time hearing from God here.
29:06
Here's the simplest answer. Open up your Bible.
29:09
Read it and you will hear from God.
29:12
Yeah, but I've just never heard God audibly.
29:14
I want. I want to hear.
29:14
OK, let me help you with that. Open up your Bible and read your
29:18
Bible out loud. You'll hear the word of God
29:22
audibly. He'll speak to you.
29:25
You can say that you heard God, and it could be like Peter.
29:29
He gives you a word and a vision or a dream for sure He can
29:32
speak, but he's always speaking. You just have to have your Bible
29:36
open. He's always speaking.
29:39
His word is settled. The Holy Spirit will use it in
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our lives, I'm sure. I don't need to ask, but I'm
29:46
sure many of you have shared your testimony.
29:48
And people don't believe you, but they try to minimize it.
29:51
Oh, that's not real. I tried religion and like, yeah,
29:54
but you got to understand, I didn't try anything.
29:56
I've experienced God. I haven't tried religion.
30:00
I don't know. I didn't go to that church and I
30:02
didn't read that extra book. I don't know, I just, I walked
30:04
into some place, that guy was teaching the Bible and God, he
30:07
penetrated all my defenses and I have a personal relationship
30:10
with God now and it's hard for people to understand why because
30:14
they haven't experienced it. John X, he's writing from first
30:20
hand knowledge. He is the word of life, the Son
30:26
of God, and who Jesus is is of utmost importance to your
30:30
salvation. You know you have to follow the
30:34
right Jesus. There are many false Jesuses and
30:39
you can be passionate and you can be dedicated and you can be
30:43
devoted. You can even be self sacrificial
30:47
in following the wrong Jesus. And there are many people and
30:52
many organizations and many so-called churches.
30:55
It's hard to call them a church because the church only belongs
30:58
to Jesus Christ. So anyone that's teaching you a
31:00
false Jesus is not a church. There are gathering or a common
31:05
word used for those teaching a false Jesus.
31:07
Is a cult trying to lie to you about who Jesus is, The Jesus of
31:12
the Jehovah, Jehovah Witnesses and not the Jesus of the Bible.
31:16
The Jesus of the Mormons is not the Jesus of the Bible.
31:20
Now I know that might hurt or offend you, but here's the
31:23
here's what I want you to do with the hurt and offense.
31:26
Study it. If you are a Jehovah Witness
31:29
today, then pick up the book Reasoning from the Scriptures
31:32
with Jehovah Witnesses and and read it with an open mind.
31:36
But here's what happens. You've been taught not to read
31:38
anything else. You've been taught within the
31:42
Watchtower Society that you can't read anything else.
31:45
And I'm telling you right now, you can read whatever you want.
31:47
You don't have to be afraid of any book, especially the Bible.
31:50
You can read whatever you want and you can read this book.
31:53
God gives you permission. God is greater than your
31:55
organization. He gives you permission.
31:57
Read it, and if you can't afford it, I'll buy it for you.
32:01
I'll buy a case and it will be ready here to be picked up.
32:05
The God of the Mormon Mormons, that is not the God of the
32:07
Bible. There's a great book for you
32:09
too. It's reasoning from the
32:10
scriptures. With Mormons, same thing.
32:14
Well, you've been discouraged to read other books.
32:17
God says read whatever you want. You don't have to be afraid of
32:20
any book, especially a book that gives you the truth.
32:23
You have to be careful to follow the right Jesus.
32:26
You have to be careful to follow the Jesus that has revealed
32:29
himself to us, not that Jesus, some pastor has taught you or
32:34
some church has taught you or some more.
32:36
The by Jesus made he's not hiding from you and the very
32:40
first most important principle of who Jesus is you ready.
32:44
This is the test you can use this test across the board and
32:48
that's this Jesus is God capital G He is God and that will refute
32:56
every false teaching. Jesus is God and when he died
33:01
for you on his sins, God died for you for your sins, not in
33:05
his sins, but for your sins. He died as a substitution for
33:11
you and for me. The Jesus of the Bible is 100%
33:16
God. This word son with a capital S
33:18
is used 21 times here in verse one.
33:20
He's referred to as the word of life first in John chapter one
33:26
in the beginning was what the word the word.
33:32
Why does the Bible use the term word to describe Jesus?
33:35
Well, because words are intended to convey how we feel and think.
33:39
We use words every day to communicate our thoughts to
33:42
others. Jesus was the ultimate word to
33:45
mankind, the one who in these last days Hebrews 1 He is God
33:50
has spoke, Father has spoken to us by his Son.
33:53
Jesus would tell Philip, Philip said to him, Lord show us the
33:56
Father's as John 14/8 and it is sufficient for us but Jesus said
34:00
to him, have I been with you so long Yet you have not known me,
34:04
Philip he who has seen me has seen the Father.
34:07
Paul would later write to to the Colossians Church in Colossians
34:11
chapter 2, verse 9. For in him Speaking of Jesus
34:14
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are
34:18
complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.
34:22
Again, to those that may be wrestling with this or involved
34:24
in a organization that denies this truth about God and about
34:28
Jesus and you go, I'll never read anything else.
34:31
Well, I have taught Bible studies on the nature of God
34:34
from the Bible. And you can listen to Bible
34:37
studies and I've went through the Bible and they're all up on
34:41
our app and our website. And I've taught a Bible study on
34:45
who the Bible says God the Father is.
34:48
Bible study #2 who the Bible says God the Son is.
34:52
Bible study #3 in that series who the Bible says God the Holy
34:56
Spirit is. And then the 4th study.
34:58
I try to tie it all together and explaining in the most the best
35:02
way I can from the Scriptures what the doctrine of the Trinity
35:05
means. But you'll notice the order.
35:08
What's more important than trying to figure out the
35:10
doctrine of the Trinity are the first three studies who is God
35:13
revealed himself to be? That's who you need to know.
35:16
You need to know who God has revealed himself to be from the
35:18
Bible, not from a secondary source or some third book or
35:22
what somebody said in the 5th century or what somebody said in
35:25
the seventeen 1800s. What does the Bible say?
35:29
And God, you'll be very surprised perhaps of just how
35:32
much God says about himself because you know, it's who the
35:34
Bible is about, right? The Bible is about God, not
35:38
about you, but about God and how you relate to God, your Creator,
35:43
and how much he loves you and cares for you.
35:45
That's John. That's what he's writing it,
35:46
just in one sentence. He just stays out.
35:49
Hey, I I'm telling you, I know the word of life.
35:51
I hung out with him. I heard from him, I touched him,
35:54
we hung out. He is my savior.
35:57
He is God in human flesh. It says in verse 2 that the life
36:01
was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to
36:06
you that eternal life, which was with the Father was manifested
36:11
to us. This word manifest does not mean
36:13
what it's trying to be made in the church today where they say,
36:16
well, you just manifest something and you just like say
36:18
it. I have a brand new car and it
36:20
just shows up and you just like all of a sudden I'm that's not
36:23
how it works. You know how you get a brand new
36:25
car, you get a job and you work for it?
36:29
That's how you get a brand new. You don't manifest it.
36:32
You you trust God with your life.
36:34
That's not what this word means. What this word means is reveals.
36:38
That's what it I when something's manifested, it's
36:40
revealed. It's not created.
36:43
It's revealed something manifested.
36:47
It literally means in the Greek to be put on display.
36:52
When something is manifested, it's revealed, it's shown put on
36:55
display. Jesus came to earth as a little
36:57
crying baby in Bethlehem. He lived a sinless life and died
37:01
a sinless death and rose again. Jesus was no phantom or created
37:07
being in the minds of these men, but real God in real humanity.
37:12
And the eternal God entered time clothed in human flesh.
37:16
And because he's real, this is so good.
37:18
This is where we got to end today.
37:19
This is so good. We'll get more in the next time.
37:21
But because he's real, you can experience real forgiveness.
37:28
You can experience real relationship, you can experience
37:33
real life change, you can experience real recovery from
37:38
sin in your life and all the damage that may have happened,
37:41
or all the you can experience the newness of life in a very
37:46
real tangible way. But more importantly, in all
37:49
those benefits, side benefits, because they really are just
37:53
side benefits. Here's what we really get to
37:56
experience in its fullness, and it's reality by faith in Jesus
38:00
Christ. Because Jesus is real and his
38:03
death is real, and his burial was real and his resurrection
38:08
was real. By faith in Him, you can
38:11
experience real eternal life, real salvation, and that's God's
38:19
will for you, not only to experience it in a moment, but
38:24
to live it out the rest of your life.
38:26
Eternal life. I know a lot of times we talk
38:28
about eternal life like its future, but it's actually
38:31
present. You have eternal life now.
38:34
It's not something you get when you pass away because you when
38:38
you pass away, you just go from one experience to the next.
38:41
You shed this earthly body which many of us are waiting for, and
38:44
you get a new body and a new experience in the presence of
38:47
God. Check this out.
38:48
Without sin. Can you imagine that?
38:50
Can you imagine life without your sin?
38:52
Like you're talking? I'm talking about my minor
38:54
inconveniences. Well, how bad was your week this
38:56
week and how much sin is in your life?
38:59
And how many times did you blow it?
39:01
Think about it, when you die, you don't blow it anymore.
39:04
No more, not even little ones or big ones.
39:08
Everything is made right and whole and reconciled to the
39:10
Father and His fullness. However, you don't have to wait.
39:13
You get to experience that right now that that eternal life
39:18
speaks of an age abiding life. It speaks of a fullness of life.
39:22
It speaks about life where you get to experience Jesus
39:26
everyday. He's faithful and real just as
39:28
he was real to John, He's real to you.
39:32
And so Father, that's our desire and our hope.
39:35
The real Jesus experienced. That's what we want.
39:39
And I know how we talk about stumbling and falling and
39:45
condemnation in our past and so many other things.
39:48
Lord, it's so much such a mess in here.
39:52
There's such a mess among us. We acknowledge to you our
39:56
imperfections and our weaknesses.
39:58
Some needs truly just need to confess right now before you.
40:01
Some things that are on their hearts and minds that just could
40:04
be clean, they can just offer it up to you.
40:06
A bad thought, an angry thought, and.
40:09
Maybe looking down on someone this week or getting upset or,
40:13
or maybe it's like being on the phone too much.
40:15
You know, there's so much in our lives that that we battle with
40:18
that we don't always win the battle with temptation.
40:20
God, but you know that and you love us still as I just pray
40:27
over our church near and far today, I pray over those that
40:30
will receive this in a distance, Lord, and I just know that I'm,
40:34
you know, I just think of these Bible studies.
40:36
It's just another pastor or another man on YouTube teaching
40:39
the Bible. But it's not, it's not really
40:41
that because I can say I this is my experience.
40:45
I was blind, but now I see I was dead, but now I'm alive.
40:52
There was an old me, but I'm living in the newness of life
40:56
and I just pray that in our church, God, as we were praying
40:58
about our past and praying about our testimony and just thinking
41:02
about the work you've done, that it would just be a present
41:04
reality as we leave here today, a present reality of your love.
41:09
And I know we mentioned to God just the whole sense of having a
41:14
real Jesus, but I mean it. Not everybody that uses the your
41:20
name is using it to reflect you. Then you just set the captives
41:26
free, Lord, set them free. Open their eyes, give them
41:32
courage to step into the light and to have real relationship
41:38
with you, no matter what religious bondage they might be
41:41
in even today. God that might be in at Calvary,
41:44
it might be a real religious experience.
41:46
And I just pray set them free, Lord, that they can get out of
41:49
religious experience and get into the Jesus experience and
41:54
enjoy you and look to you and listen to you and receive from
41:58
you and obey you said if we love you, we'll obey your
42:00
commandments. I just pray that over our church
42:03
near and far. So grateful for the steady, you
42:07
know, men and women that come on our midweek.
42:09
But I know that more need to be here to receive it.
42:11
More need to press in and step in and and so I just pray God
42:15
over our church that we would have that hunger and thirst for
42:19
righteousness. It would be more and more, it
42:23
would be more and more, Lord, and if you're here tonight, you
42:28
never given your life to Jesus, I want to invite you to do that,
42:32
that you come into a real experience with the real Jesus
42:35
by confessing your sins. And if that's you just stand to
42:38
your feet. I want to pray with you.
42:39
Pastors that come alongside of you, a pastor or one of the
42:42
sisters will come alongside of you.
42:45
And that's just our way to make sure you don't get missed.
42:48
That's all. We don't want you missed.
42:51
In a large church. It's easy.
42:53
It's easy just to come in and out and never be acknowledged or
42:56
never be seen. And we don't want that in your
42:59
life. It's not going to be easy here
43:03
because we do we we go great lengths to make sure you don't
43:07
get missed here because God loves you.
43:10
And so do the men and women in this church.
43:12
Is there anyone here that need to confess their sin for the
43:15
first time and respond to the invitation of Jesus to follow
43:20
Him? Today would be that day and I
43:24
always loved this time on a Wednesday because I got saved on
43:27
a Wednesday. It was a Wednesday night Bible
43:30
study just like this. The Bible being taught and God
43:37
grabbing my heart that night. So good, so good.
43:45
Well, near and far. Lord, we just pray for those
43:47
that you're speaking to and ministering to, maybe even here
43:51
wrestling in the sanctuary. But you know, you know what
43:55
you're doing with your people. And so I just pray God that you
43:58
would lead your people, your the Saints and the, the folks that
44:03
are looking out, you know they're wanting to follow you,
44:05
that you would lead them into a fruitful relationship with you
44:09
and they stopped fighting. I pray that right now, God, they
44:15
would stop fighting. Nothing to gain fighting God.
44:20
It's always a losing battle. Very painful, painful way to
44:24
live your life. I pray for the hard hearts and
44:29
even the hearts that are bitter because of pain and just a hard
44:33
experience. Just soften their hearts, Lord,
44:36
it's so hard. Pain is just so hard to deal
44:39
with. But we could cast our cares upon
44:43
you, Lord. We don't have to take it upon
44:44
ourselves. And then you might even send a
44:46
few people to carry burdens. You might even teach us in our
44:50
pain to help carry other people's burdens.
44:52
It's just a nothing's wasted, Lord, but soften hearts that men
44:57
and women are not entangled with bitterness toward each other or
45:01
towards you. I pray that in Jesus name, Amen.
45:06
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study,
45:09
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
45:12
For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223.
45:22
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
45:25
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
45:30
or download our free Calvary Church app.
45:33
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.