Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Out of the Crowd . . . a Leper! Msg 120 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Out of the Crowd . . . a Leper! Msg 120 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Sometime I think it's good to just pause and let
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Speaker 1: the wonder in. You know, I sometimes think the greatest
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Speaker 1: sound we can enjoy is silence. It's rare, can become
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Speaker 1: such a profound moment to meditate, turn it over in
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Speaker 1: our minds, let it soak in. We don't need more
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Speaker 1: intelligent people today. We don't need busier people. We don't
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Speaker 1: even need more gifted people. We need deeper, deeper people.
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Speaker 1: With death comes breadth and wisdom and a sense of understanding,
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Speaker 1: a calm, quiet confidence that God is still in charge.
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Speaker 1: I needed that reminder this week, didn't you. Yeah, we're
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Speaker 1: working our way through Matthew's gospel, and I had a
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Speaker 1: choice as to whether I would take on three different
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Speaker 1: vignettes or just settle on one, and I chose one
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Speaker 1: in the early part of Matthew eight because for that
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Speaker 1: very reason, I think it's good that we pause and
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Speaker 1: ponder a little more slowly one event rather than hurry
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Speaker 1: through three that are all in the area of a cleansing,
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Speaker 1: a healing ministry of Jesus. So we'll do just the
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Speaker 1: first four verses of Matthew eight. But first I'd like
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Speaker 1: you to hold your place there and turn to Matthew.
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Speaker 1: Chapter four. We'll look at the last three verses and
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Speaker 1: then move beyond the Sermon of the mount to the
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Speaker 1: first four verses of chapter eight. So we're reading four
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Speaker 1: twenty three through twenty five, and then chapter eight one
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Speaker 1: through four. May we stand please, Matthew four twenty three.
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Speaker 1: Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues
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Speaker 1: and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every
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Speaker 1: kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.
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Speaker 1: The news about him spread throughout all sin and they
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Speaker 1: brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with
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Speaker 1: various diseases and pains, deemoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them.
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Speaker 1: Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolists, and
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. Chapter eight.
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Speaker 1: When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him,
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Speaker 1: and a leper came to him and bowed down before
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Speaker 1: him and said, Lord, if you were willing, you can
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Speaker 1: make me clean. Jesus stretched out his hand touched him, saying,
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Speaker 1: I am willing be cleansed, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
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Speaker 1: And Jesus said to him, see that you tell no one,
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Speaker 1: but go show yourself to the priest and present the
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Speaker 1: offering that Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Let's pray.
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Speaker 1: It's such a calming comfort, our father, to know that
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Speaker 1: you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. You're not
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Speaker 1: more sovereign now than you were ten centuries ago. You're
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Speaker 1: not less lord of our lives than you were when
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Speaker 1: we were children. You are the same. You don't change.
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Speaker 1: What was true at creation, remained true through the days
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Speaker 1: of the Bible as it was written, and to this
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Speaker 1: day still true. But we acknowledge, with one of our
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Speaker 1: statesmen of the past, truth is forever on the scaffold, wrong,
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Speaker 1: forever on the throne. We count on your presence, our Father,
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Speaker 1: in the midst of our mess. Given enough time, we
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Speaker 1: will ruin this country, and we will take it down
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Speaker 1: a path that was never originally planned to go. If
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Speaker 1: you don't intervene, intervene, come to our rescue somehow, our father,
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Speaker 1: we need you to break into our times and remind
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Speaker 1: us that you are our God and we are your people.
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Speaker 1: We are the sheep of your pasture. Give courage to
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Speaker 1: those in places where decisions are made. Give them the
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Speaker 1: wisdom in knowing how to overrule and speak out where
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Speaker 1: wrong is occurring and being decided. Give us guidance, Lord,
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Speaker 1: as we walk through this maze filled with obstacles, unexpected surprises,
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Speaker 1: heartbreaking disappointments. As we imagined the vistas of hope. There
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Speaker 1: is when we remember that in the end you win.
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Speaker 1: We pray for the ability to be lifted above our times,
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Speaker 1: and to see that you have predicted precisely where we are,
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Speaker 1: that in these last days, perilous times will come. Guard
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Speaker 1: us from panic. Give us a calm confidence that your
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Speaker 1: word is still truth, that nothing in that book has changed,
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Speaker 1: and we plant our hearts and our lives on it
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Speaker 1: with absolute assurance that you will lead us in the
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Speaker 1: way we should go. Remind us that there have always
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Speaker 1: been hard times and that you have always worked through
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Speaker 1: a remnant. This day not excluded, and we count on
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Speaker 1: you to encourage us with that thought. Give us joy
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Speaker 1: in being among the remnant without pride and arrogance. Give
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Speaker 1: us the ability to stand fast without being hostile and
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Speaker 1: full of hate. Make us more like Jesus Christ, who
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Speaker 1: always knew what to do and when to do it
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Speaker 1: and how to carry it out. We know you're committed
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Speaker 1: to making us like Christ, and we surrender to you.
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Speaker 1: What ever is standing in the way of that, We
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Speaker 1: surrender it all all to Jesus. We surrender all to him.
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Speaker 1: We freely give, including now our gifts through Christ, our Lord.
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Speaker 1: We pray and we give. Everyone said amen. Life doesn't
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Speaker 1: stop to give the preacher time to prepare and then
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Speaker 1: later deliver a message. It just rolls right on. Many
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Speaker 1: things don't change. Babies are born, kids get sick, cars
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Speaker 1: break down, folks keep ringing, people in need, on and on.
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Speaker 1: The needs may go. Sometime folks wind up really sick,
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Speaker 1: and they are in hospitals, and on occasion they die.
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Speaker 1: So funerals must be prepared and counseling must take place
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Speaker 1: to comfort the families and their grief, and then to
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Speaker 1: minister at that memorial service in a special way. Life
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Speaker 1: doesn't stop even though Sunday is coming. I've got a
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Speaker 1: saying that I tell a few preacher friends of mine.
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Speaker 1: Have you noticed Sunday comes every two days, It's not
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Speaker 1: every seven. When you preach for a living you know
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Speaker 1: how quickly that next Sunday rolls around, or that next
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Speaker 1: time of teaching. Now, this doesn't take away from the
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Speaker 1: importance of the message itself. On the contrary, it is
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Speaker 1: often in those moments when life is crushing that you
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Speaker 1: really are prepared to deliver what needs to be said.
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Speaker 1: And I know that there is something exhilarating about a
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Speaker 1: well crafted sermon. What you may not know is that
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Speaker 1: every well crafted sermon is always exhausting. Exhausting, which makes
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Speaker 1: me all the more amazed when I come to this
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Speaker 1: sermon on the Mount which you and I have been
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Speaker 1: spending time in together. Not only is it a masterpiece
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Speaker 1: talk about an exhilarating message, but I enter the amazement.
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Speaker 1: I enter into the amazement of it when I realized
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Speaker 1: what came before it and what followed after it. Being
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Speaker 1: a preacher, I would be interested in that. It's this
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Speaker 1: overall surrounding context to me makes the sermon all the
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Speaker 1: more significant. Prior to the sermon Verses twenty three, twenty four,
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Speaker 1: and twenty five of Chapter four, there is the crush
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Speaker 1: of the crowds. They're coming from all over, and the
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Speaker 1: needs are enormous. You heard them as I read them,
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Speaker 1: there are various diseases. There are pains, There are people
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Speaker 1: filled with demons. There are folks that have epilepsy. There
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Speaker 1: are people that are paralyzed, and all kinds of sores,
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Speaker 1: all kinds of headaches, all kinds of heartaches. And they're coming,
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Speaker 1: and they're coming, and it isn't letting up. And they're
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Speaker 1: coming from all over. They're coming from all of Syria
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Speaker 1: and all of Galilee, and from the ten Cities on
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Speaker 1: the other side, they're coming from Jerusalem and all of Judea.
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Speaker 1: Down below, they're from all over you and I can
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Speaker 1: hardly imagine the crowd. And then he doesn't take a
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Speaker 1: nap before he has to preach. He doesn't sail away
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Speaker 1: into the sea and take an afternoon to put its
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Speaker 1: thoughts together. No one has courts him to a place
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Speaker 1: of quiet refuge where he can repair and get renewed,
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Speaker 1: and spend time with his father and to pray, so
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Speaker 1: that he might be ready to preach. Out of all
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Speaker 1: of the christ he goes up the hill and he preaches.
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Speaker 1: There's no break. Life didn't stop so he could deliver
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Speaker 1: his sermon. Look for yourself four verse twenty three. Jesus
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Speaker 1: is going throughout all Galilee. Don't miss that, all Galilee.
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Speaker 1: That's pretty good sized region. If you travel to Israel,
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Speaker 1: you realize it. All of Galilee teaching in their synagogues,
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Speaker 1: proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing every kind of disease,
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Speaker 1: every kind of sickness among the people. That's just one verse.
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Speaker 1: Look at the next one. The news about him spread
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Speaker 1: throughout all Well you would imagine, I mean, when your
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Speaker 1: friend gets and is healed, you have a loved one
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Speaker 1: who's sick, you want that person healed. So the news
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Speaker 1: travels and you think, where is he? How can I
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Speaker 1: get to this man? And so we read about the
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Speaker 1: group that finds him all of Syria. Check that out
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Speaker 1: on your map. And then they brought to him all
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Speaker 1: who were ill and suffering from various diseases and pains
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Speaker 1: and the afflictions I just mentioned large crowds or here
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Speaker 1: in fact, listen to Eugene Peterson in the message as
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Speaker 1: I render, as he renders these verses. From there, he
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Speaker 1: went all over Galilee. He used synagogues from meeting places
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Speaker 1: and taught to people the truth of God. He also
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Speaker 1: healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects
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Speaker 1: of their bad lives. We're got around the entire Roman
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Speaker 1: province of Syria. People brought anybody with any ailment of
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Speaker 1: whether men to emotional or physical. How easy to read
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Speaker 1: those through three words and not pause and think about it.
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Speaker 1: People with mental illnesses, people with emotional anxiety, people with
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Speaker 1: physical afflictions brought to him. Jesus healed him one and all.
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Speaker 1: More and more people came the momentum gathering. Besides those
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Speaker 1: from Galilee, crowds came from the ten towns, which is
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Speaker 1: a translation of decapolists, the ten towns across the lake.
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Speaker 1: Others from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
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Speaker 1: You know what stands out in my mind from his rendering,
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Speaker 1: the momentum.
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Speaker 2: Gathering, the needs intensifying, the expectations enlarging, the crowds increasing,
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Speaker 2: until as far as you could see.
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Speaker 1: There were heads bobbing in the crowd, people crying out,
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Speaker 1: hands raised afflict. He carried in arms little children that
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Speaker 1: could hardly stand, people screaming from demon possessions, all kinds
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Speaker 1: of epilepsy and all kinds of paralysis, all pressing in
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Speaker 1: wanting a piece of him, and that magnificent power. It
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Speaker 1: was intensifying, it was growing. The momentum is gathering. There
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Speaker 1: is no break, There is no nap, there is no
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Speaker 1: afternoon sal there is no relaxation by a stream. He
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Speaker 1: goes from this up the mount sits down and delivers
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Speaker 1: a flawless, exhilarating message that to this day we cannot exhaust.
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Speaker 1: What a sermon, especially when you realize what preceded it. Well,
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Speaker 1: surely after he did that, to catch his breath, surely
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Speaker 1: someone said, pps, Jesus, come over here, Come over here,
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Speaker 1: Let's escape through these trees. Let's go over there beyond
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Speaker 1: the bushes. I've got a boat waiting you, and I'll
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Speaker 1: go out. I won't say a word. You can just
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Speaker 1: relax right there in the boat. None of that, there's
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Speaker 1: none of that. Look at the end of the sermon,
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Speaker 1: the very end, verse twenty eight, verse twenty nine, when
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Speaker 1: Jesus had finished, when he had finished these words, the
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Speaker 1: crowds were amazed at his teaching. At Robertson, the great
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Speaker 1: scholar from a southern seminary in Louisville, wrote, they listen,
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Speaker 1: fell down to the end, and were left a note.
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Speaker 1: The imperfect tints. He adds a buzz of astonishment. The
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Speaker 1: verb means literally, they were struck out of themselves. We
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Speaker 1: would say they were blown out of their minds. After
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Speaker 1: a sermon like this, you don't feel chatty. You want
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Speaker 1: to be quiet. I want to let the wonder in.
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Speaker 1: You want to sit and soak it up. Especially if
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Speaker 1: you're the preacher. You want to give God thanks for
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Speaker 1: the help and the delivery, and you want to give
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Speaker 1: it praise. That the message connected and the people were moved.
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Speaker 1: In fact, they had never heard such great teaching in
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Speaker 1: their lives. Verse twenty nine. The teaching came as one
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Speaker 1: who had authority from one who had authority, and not
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Speaker 1: as the scry Verse one. I'm sorry there's a chapter break.
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Speaker 1: I wish it were Verse thirty. You get the feeling
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Speaker 1: of it. The sermon has ended that people are amazed.
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Speaker 1: Jesus makes his way down the mount and look, look
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Speaker 1: there's the crowd again, except now it's larger. There's been
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Speaker 1: a little time that's passed, and more people have gathered
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Speaker 1: from all around, more have come. He came down from
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Speaker 1: the mountain, looked closely. Large crowds followed him. Earlier we
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Speaker 1: read large crowds followed him ocloy palloi, the Greek says,
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Speaker 1: large number of people, large crowds, more and more since then,
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Speaker 1: I traveled to China a number of years ago. It
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Speaker 1: was our first journey. While we were sitting on a
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Speaker 1: bus at a particular intersection, we looked to the right,
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Speaker 1: and those days everyone had bicycles, and I saw probably
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Speaker 1: twelve to fifteen across, and as far not exaggerate, as
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Speaker 1: far as my eye could see down that road perpendicular
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Speaker 1: to ours, twelve to fifteen across, As far as I
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Speaker 1: could see, there were heads of people sitting on bicycles.
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Speaker 1: That's just one street. That's just one little street in
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Speaker 1: the city of Shanghai. That's just one country. It must
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Speaker 1: have been something like that. And by the way, now
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Speaker 1: they're cars. That's fun. Used to be able to move
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Speaker 1: around in those bicycles. And I used to say the
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Speaker 1: business to being over there is the bicycle business. Everybody's
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Speaker 1: got one. Now they've all got cars. People everywhere, and
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Speaker 1: you know, the population well over a billion, just to
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Speaker 1: give you an eye idea. But here in Israel, maybe
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Speaker 1: as far as he could see, there were more people
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Speaker 1: and more some way in the back going. Help me,
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Speaker 1: help me, I came all the way, all the way
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Speaker 1: from beyond the Jordan. Help my son, Now you've got it.
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Speaker 1: Life doesn't stop because the preacher prepares and delivers a message.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't even stop after it's over. In fact, one
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Speaker 1: of the most significant things that ever happened happens. Now
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Speaker 1: out of the crowd, a leper appears. Chances are very
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Speaker 1: good you have never ever seen a leer. I have.
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Speaker 1: Back in nineteen fifty eight, when I was in the
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Speaker 1: Marine Corps serving on the island of Okinawa, playing in
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Speaker 1: the third Division band, our fifty five piece band, was
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Speaker 1: instructed by our captain, Captain Birch, that tomorrow there would
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Speaker 1: be a very special concert. He said to us, I
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Speaker 1: want you dressed in your very best. Make sure everything
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Speaker 1: is pressed, dress blues, switch sh on your shoes, shine
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Speaker 1: your breasts, buttons as well as epaulets as well as buckles.
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Speaker 1: Make sure everything is picture perfect. You'll stand inspection. Then
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Speaker 1: we'll load up in the vehicles and we'll drive some
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Speaker 1: distance away. I figured a parade, perhaps in the city
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Speaker 1: of Naha, perhaps as far as Nago up north. Little
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Speaker 1: did I know he had arranged for us to do
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Speaker 1: a concert at a leprosarium in the northernmost part of
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Speaker 1: the island of Okinawa, as far removed as one can
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Speaker 1: imagine from humanity, there was at that time. There may
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Speaker 1: still be a colony of lepers. I've never seen anything
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Speaker 1: like it, because you have not been around a leprosy,
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Speaker 1: allow me to describe it. Noneeness follows painful areas on
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Speaker 1: the body, and soon the skin loses its color, and
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Speaker 1: like the hair, it turns white and begins to be
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Speaker 1: thick and glossy and scaly. Skin around the eyes and
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Speaker 1: ears begins to bunch with deep furrows between the swellings,
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Speaker 1: so that the face begins to resemble that of a lion.
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Speaker 1: To make all this worse, you could smell it, for
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Speaker 1: the leper emits an unpleasant odor. If you're near a
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Speaker 1: leper for too long, you begin to detect a peculiar
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Speaker 1: taste in your mouth due to the foul odor. The
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Speaker 1: disease begins to attack the larynx, so the leper's voice
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Speaker 1: acquires a grating sound. The throat becomes increasingly more hoarse,
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Speaker 1: so that others not only can smell the leper, they
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Speaker 1: now hear the rasping voice. They were the ultimate outcast
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Speaker 1: you didn't get nar a leper if you were down
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Speaker 1: when you had to be at least one hundred and
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Speaker 1: fifty feet away, And you wonder what that person is
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Speaker 1: doing out in public. The hair is disheveled, the clothing
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Speaker 1: is left in rags, usually barefoot, toes, missing fingers missing
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Speaker 1: off an entire hands, missing, lips are gone, the teeth protrude,
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Speaker 1: the eyes stare. If a leper so much has put
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Speaker 1: his head into a house, the house totally became unclean
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Speaker 1: all the way to the roof beams. There was never
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Speaker 1: any disease that's so isolated an individual as leprosy. Nor
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Speaker 1: was there one of those days, one of those times
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Speaker 1: in which there was more dreaded except for the case
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Speaker 1: of death itself. It was an absolutely terrifying disease, not
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Speaker 1: unlike aids today, except in this case terribly disfiguring. A
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Speaker 1: leper was required to scream when he was in the
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Speaker 1: streets unclean, unclean, unclean, so that you would stay way,
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Speaker 1: would wear a cloth flat over his mouth, not only
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Speaker 1: hold back the breath from breathing on you, but to
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Speaker 1: hide the ugliness of a mouth with no lips. It
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Speaker 1: is dreadful beyond description. I remember when we would finish
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Speaker 1: one piece or another, I would hear the dull thumping
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Speaker 1: of the nubs of an arm bumping another as they
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Speaker 1: tried to applaud absolutely pathetic, no known cure. Sometime a
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Speaker 1: victim would have it for as much as twenty years
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Speaker 1: before it would take him. I remember as we rode
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Speaker 1: away from the concert, the silence in our vehicle was deafening.
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Speaker 1: Just like right now, out of the crowd emerges a leper.
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Speaker 1: Crowd must be backed away. The ultimate outcast is in
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Speaker 1: their midst. He's a picture of depression and humiliation and
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Speaker 1: complete lack of self worth. You and I cannot imagine
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Speaker 1: the desperation that accompanies leprosy. One cannot describe. In the
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Speaker 1: scripture's leprosy is often compared to sin. That's why leprosy
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Speaker 1: is not cured, it's cleansed. That's important. We're never cured
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Speaker 1: of sin. We'res of sin. When Jesus Christ comes into
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Speaker 1: a life to save that life, he cleanses us from sain,
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Speaker 1: doesn't cure us from sinning. We still have an old
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Speaker 1: nature that sins. We wish to be cured that awaits us.
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Speaker 1: That's an eternity as the hymn writer said, then we
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Speaker 1: shall be what we should be. Then we shall be
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Speaker 1: what we would be. Things that are not noun or
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Speaker 1: could be soon shall be our own. Oh that we
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Speaker 1: could be cured of it, but only cleansed. And that's
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Speaker 1: what he asks for. He came down from the mountain.
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Speaker 1: Large crowds followed him, and a leper let it land
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Speaker 1: in full force. A leper came to him and worshiped
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Speaker 1: the new American standard renders this, bowed down before him.
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Speaker 1: The Greek has one word worshiped. He worshiped, bowed low,
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Speaker 1: and uttered the word curios, Lord, what respect. It's a
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Speaker 1: great moment, Lord. Literally, the verse reads from Matthew's pen.
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Speaker 1: Behold a leper approaching worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you
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Speaker 1: were willing, you were able to cleanse me. Look at
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Speaker 1: the statement, if you are willing, Why would he say that?
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Speaker 1: Why he's a no, he's an outcast. He's alone with
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Speaker 1: only other lepers except now he is in the crowd,
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Speaker 1: and they must have been frowning, mumbling, wondering how he
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Speaker 1: got loose. Years ago, there was released a magnificent film
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Speaker 1: titled The Elephant Man. You will remember it. It's a
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Speaker 1: fine film of a man who suffered that tragic disease
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Speaker 1: that turns the face into what appears to be a beast, thick,
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Speaker 1: callous skin, loosely hanging slits for eyes, and horrible and
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Speaker 1: out is chasing him, and he winds up in the latrine,
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Speaker 1: And the eloquent moment of the film, in my opinion,
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Speaker 1: is when he stops and turns and looks at them
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Speaker 1: and says, I am a human being. That's the way
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Speaker 1: this man felt. Lord, I mean nothing to no one.
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Speaker 1: I don't matter to anybody. Everyone runs from me. I
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Speaker 1: am diseased. I am unable to cleanse myself. Every day,
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Speaker 1: more and more of me becomes less and less. If
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Speaker 1: you are willing, you can cleanse me. I want you
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Speaker 1: to hold your place right here. I want every one
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Speaker 1: of you to turn to the book of Psalms and
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Speaker 1: locate number fifty one. We'll be back shortly, but a
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Speaker 1: brief excursion to Psalm fifty one. Why song fifty one,
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Speaker 1: because these are the words of a man who had
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Speaker 1: lost all self worth. Strangely, he isn't an unknown, He's
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Speaker 1: not a nameless man in the crowd, like the leper
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Speaker 1: who is never named. This is David. This is King David.
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Speaker 1: This is after Bathsheba, after the deception, after the adultery,
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Speaker 1: after the murder of her husband E'iah, after going through
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Speaker 1: the motions of rulership, not writing any songs. Read of
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Speaker 1: no place in the psalms he wrote during the adultery.
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Speaker 1: Adultery takes the song out of a life, and he
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Speaker 1: lives in the humiliation of the confrontation from Nathan, you
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Speaker 1: are the man, and David admits guiltiest charged, I've sinned.
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Speaker 1: Sometime between that moment and later, when the baby dies,
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Speaker 1: he picks up the stylust to write again, and he
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Speaker 1: writes this song. This is a song of heartbreaking humility.
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Speaker 1: Look how it begins. Be gracious to me, oh God,
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Speaker 1: according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of
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Speaker 1: your compassion. Blot out my transgressions. You feel the shame,
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Speaker 1: you feel the self blame, you hear the humiliation. Wash
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Speaker 1: me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse Look at it,
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Speaker 1: Cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgressions, and
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Speaker 1: my sin is ever before me. This is a broken man.
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Speaker 1: We had longer I would go through the song, But
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Speaker 1: verse seventeen, we must turn right away to that the
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Speaker 1: sacrifices of God are I want every one of you
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Speaker 1: to see the words, especially you who are proud, you
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Speaker 1: who have not recently been humiliated. Are you who are
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Speaker 1: hiding your own shame and sinfulness? Look at the words
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Speaker 1: the sacrifices of God. Or a broken heart, a broken spirit,
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Speaker 1: a broken a contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise,
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Speaker 1: said negatively. What he is saying is you are pleased
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Speaker 1: with brokenness and the word we seldom use a contrite heart.
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Speaker 1: What is it that makes a contrite heart art such
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Speaker 1: a beautiful sacrifice? It makes no demands, It nurses no
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Speaker 1: blame or grudges. It entertains no expectations, It offers no conditions,
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Speaker 1: It anticipates no favors. It is that attitude that God loves,
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Speaker 1: and that's the attitude of the leper. We would say
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Speaker 1: today nothing in my hands, I bring sippy to the cross,
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Speaker 1: I clean, I have nothing, I've done nothing, I am
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Speaker 1: nothing that would make you even look in my direction.
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Speaker 1: But oh God, if you, if you want to, you
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Speaker 1: can cleanse me. F. F. Bruce puts it, well, more
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Speaker 1: easily believe in miraculous power than in miraculous love. Isn't
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Speaker 1: that a beautiful statement. I know you have the power.
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Speaker 1: I believe that, but I don't know that you'd ever
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Speaker 1: give me the time of day. People stop doing that
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Speaker 1: when the first sore broke out on my forehead, and
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Speaker 1: my hair shortly thereafter turned white and fell out, and
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Speaker 1: my lips dropped off. But if you are willing, you
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Speaker 1: can cleanse me. The compassionate response of Jesus is disarming.
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Speaker 1: By the way, who knows how long the man has
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Speaker 1: been a lever? Two years, twelve nineteen. We're not told
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Speaker 1: he's been a leper long enough to know that he's
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Speaker 1: never felt a handshake. He can't remember the embrace, maybe
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Speaker 1: when he was a little boy. He doesn't remember someone
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Speaker 1: who loves him holding his hand, never had a reassuring
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Speaker 1: arm around his shoulder. You didn't touch a leper, which
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Speaker 1: makes the response of Jesus all the more eloquent. Very
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Speaker 1: first response, he reaches out and touches him. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to do that. In fact, if we were to
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Speaker 1: take the other healings in this chapter, you would find
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Speaker 1: Jesus sometimes heals from a distance. As I since In
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Speaker 1: puts it, you can just speak a word, like I
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Speaker 1: do to a group of men, and that's my command,
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Speaker 1: and they do it. Just speak a word. You can
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Speaker 1: heal with a word. But Jesus doesn't do that. He
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Speaker 1: reaches out, he touches the man, maybe the first human
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Speaker 1: being that's touched him in years. What the crowd must
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Speaker 1: have thought. But rather than contaminating the one who touched him,
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Speaker 1: it cleans the one who has touched Look at it,
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Speaker 1: reached out and touched him, that was first. And then
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Speaker 1: he said, I am willing, I'm willing. It's like the
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Speaker 1: words of a mother to a fever child. She's holding
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Speaker 1: in her arms and she's stroking her hair off her face,
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Speaker 1: and she's holding her clues, saying I'm willing to stay
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Speaker 1: up all night to be with you. The next line
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Speaker 1: is like a foreman says to a wrecking crew, be cleansed,
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Speaker 1: get out leprosy, and it's gone gone. In fact, the
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Speaker 1: word immediately, Mark's favorite word appears in Matthew's record. Immediately,
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Speaker 1: immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Just like that. There's no showmanship.
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Speaker 1: There's no healing line, there's no big time, there's no tent,
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Speaker 1: there's no gathering so that people would make much of
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Speaker 1: the healer. He touches him, people in the crowd must gasped,
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Speaker 1: and the leper is cleansed. Oh man, I'd love to
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Speaker 1: have been there. Well, if i'd have been there, I'd
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Speaker 1: have been as prejudiced as everybody else, wondering when the
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Speaker 1: world would he touch up filthy thing like that, because
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Speaker 1: you see, when people who have no self worth come
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Speaker 1: to one who considers them worthy, other people don't get it.
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Speaker 1: They want to put you on probation. They don't want
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Speaker 1: anything like an immediate change, because that's phony. They want
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Speaker 1: to see you pay for your shame, not here immediate cleansing.
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Speaker 1: I know what Jesus said. See that you tell no
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Speaker 1: one right? Oh yeah, Mark says he went out and
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Speaker 1: told everybody. So the first thing you did after being
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Speaker 1: healed was to disobey. He's still human. Well why would
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Speaker 1: he say? Don't tell him? Because my time has not come.
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Speaker 1: I'm not trying to gather a big crowd and have
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Speaker 1: people follow me as the big time healer. I'm Messiah.
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Speaker 1: I have a plan in motion, and the timing must
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Speaker 1: be just right for those moments. And for you to
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Speaker 1: step in and announce all of this would push the
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Speaker 1: time around and confuse people. They would want to make
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Speaker 1: me their king based on the fact that I have
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Speaker 1: the power to heal. It isn't about that I transform lives.
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Speaker 1: Give me time to build this sh But he does
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Speaker 1: say show yourself to the priest and present the offering
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Speaker 1: Moses commanded. I won't take time to read it, but
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Speaker 1: if you go to Leviticus, you'll see a whole long
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Speaker 1: list of things that he was to take care of
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Speaker 1: in order for the priest to verify there's been cleansing,
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Speaker 1: and it becomes an official announcement. I want you to
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Speaker 1: get an official endorsement that you're cleansing is true. He
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Speaker 1: does that. That's later, but take care of that as
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Speaker 1: a testimony. I love the way one man writes Jesus
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Speaker 1: will not store Israel with messianic claims. Instead, he will
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Speaker 1: knock quietly at its door, leper by leper, little by little.
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Speaker 1: You're the leper, and I am as well. We've seen
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Speaker 1: the picture. Now let's look at the mirror. Here. We
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Speaker 1: are undeserving, unworthy, broken, saying, if you are willing to
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Speaker 1: even care, I would so want to be cleansed. If
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Speaker 1: you think a back where we've been. I see three scenes.
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Speaker 1: I see a crowd, large many needs, I see a
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Speaker 1: leper with a humble request. And then I see the
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Speaker 1: Lord's powerful touch. And I draw three principles for our application. First,
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Speaker 1: here it is the magnetic presence of Jesus draws us
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Speaker 1: closer to him. The magnetic presence of Jesus draws us
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Speaker 1: closer to him. Only a skeptic will tell you that
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Speaker 1: God is a god that walks around heaven looking for
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Speaker 1: someone to pound into submission. That's not the God of
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, the God of the Bible, of the Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus himself has his arms open. I don't care what
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Speaker 1: your past has been. I don't care how filthy. I
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Speaker 1: don't care how immoral. I don't care what shame there
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Speaker 1: has been. I was at another ministry at another time,
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Speaker 1: in another state, and a man knocked on my door.
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Speaker 1: He walked in. He was filthy. He said, I'm a
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Speaker 1: male prostitute. Began to cry. He said, I don't know
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Speaker 1: why to stop here. But I saw a cross, and
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Speaker 1: I saw a named church, and I thought I might
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Speaker 1: find somebody. Can I talk to you? And I said sure.
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Speaker 1: He said, I don't deserve to be talked to you.
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Speaker 1: You ought to kick me out. I said, no, I'm
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Speaker 1: not going to kick you out. He said, well, God
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Speaker 1: has no. You've been told that God has done that. See,
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Speaker 1: the whole concept is because I am my nature and
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Speaker 1: my choice, and by birth and by action filthy, making
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Speaker 1: wrong choices and shameful decisions, and therefore God's get get
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Speaker 1: out of my slight. I never read that in the scriptures.
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Speaker 1: Whoever comes with his contrite heart, I find the lords
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Speaker 1: that come here. Come here, Come to me, all who
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Speaker 1: were weary and heavily, and I will give you rest.
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Speaker 1: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm
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Speaker 1: meek and lowly in heart. You'll find rest for your soul.
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Speaker 1: My yoke is easy, my burden is light. The magnetic
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Speaker 1: the presence of Jesus draws us closer to him, as
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Speaker 1: some of you right now are being drawn. I wish
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Speaker 1: I knew who you are. I could talk with you
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Speaker 1: following this meeting. I would love to do that. You
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Speaker 1: who feel most unworthy, can be drawn the closest. Here's
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Speaker 1: the second principle. The quiet compassion of Jesus invites us
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Speaker 1: to ask for relief when you know he's not going
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Speaker 1: to slap you across the face. When you know he's
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Speaker 1: not going to embarrass you, when you know he's not
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Speaker 1: going to call you out by name and put your
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Speaker 1: shameful sins on the screen. He won't do that. He could,
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Speaker 1: he knows all, but he won't do that. The quiet
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Speaker 1: compassion of Jesus invites us to ask for relief. Lord,
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Speaker 1: if you, if you will, if you're willing here, I
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Speaker 1: am the third. The transforming touch of Jesus changes us
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Speaker 1: deep within. You're surrounded by people in this room who've
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Speaker 1: been transformed through Christ. Not one of them deserved it,
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Speaker 1: but we all rejoice in it. He touched us, shackled
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Speaker 1: by a heavy burden, beneath the load of guilt and
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Speaker 1: shame in the hand of Jesus. Touched me, and now
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Speaker 1: I'm no longer the same. He touched me. Oh, he
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Speaker 1: touched me, and oh the joy that floods my soul.
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Speaker 1: Something happened, and now I know he touched me and
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Speaker 1: made me whole. Let's bow before the Lord. Shall we
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Speaker 1: very sacred moment right now, very significant moment, could be
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Speaker 1: the most important moment of your entire life. To let
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Speaker 1: the Lord touch you, cleanse you from within. Take away
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Speaker 1: the shame, send the guilt away, bring you relief. You
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Speaker 1: don't have to believe it. In fact, I am sad
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Speaker 1: to tell you. The man who's dropped in my study
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Speaker 1: years ago walked out shaking his head saying there's no way,
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Speaker 1: there's no way he would ever accept me. We just
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Speaker 1: read the story of a man who could not have
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Speaker 1: been worse off, touched and transformed. That can happen to
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Speaker 1: you today. Trust in the Lord Jesus. Just trust him.
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Speaker 1: Don't try to figure it all out. Don't argue about it.
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Speaker 1: I don't think you have to get all cleaned up
50:57
Speaker 1: and promise him the moon and put a long list together.
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Speaker 1: You'll do this or that. No, no, no, accept as
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Speaker 1: touch it's called grace. Let it wash over you. We'd
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Speaker 1: love to help you in your journey. It's a long
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Speaker 1: one and it could be arguous. Maybe the mess you've
51:27
Speaker 1: made leaves things complicated. You may need help through that.
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Speaker 1: Connect with us while we're here. Thank your Father for
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Speaker 1: the touching story of a man who was a human
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Speaker 1: being who had the courage to stand in front of
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Speaker 1: your son and request the ultimate. Thank you for the
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Speaker 1: compassion of our savior who touched him and made him whole.
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Speaker 1: Thank you that's still going on day after day. Make
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Speaker 1: us quiet through this afternoon, our Father, as we think
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Speaker 1: about your transforming power. And give us a heart to
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Speaker 1: accept those who are struggling to put one foot in
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Speaker 1: front of the other. Give us this kind of compassion
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Speaker 1: and love and acceptance in the name of Jesus who
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Speaker 1: unshackles us and sets us free. Everyone said amen.
53:00
Speaker 3: The preceding message Out of the Crowd a Leper was
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Speaker 3: copyrighted in twenty fifteen and twenty twenty one, and the
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Speaker 3: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty one by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
53:13
Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
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Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.