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Pastor Chuck Swindoll | Insight for Living – Grace: It’s Really Accep... · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Before we can give grace to others, we have to
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  Speaker 1: receive it ourselves. But that's where the rub comes in.
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  Speaker 1: We're all enamored with being the good Samaritan and giving
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  Speaker 1: grace to others, but frankly, none of us, it seems,
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  Speaker 1: wants to be on the receiving end, as was the
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  Speaker 1: man who fell among thieves and was robbed, beaten, and
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  Speaker 1: left for dead. If, however, wherever to effectively extend a
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  Speaker 1: hand to others, we must first know what it's like
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  Speaker 1: desperately clutch the hand that's extended to us. And so
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  Speaker 1: today I would like for all of us to think
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  Speaker 1: about answering some questions as we illustrate God's grace in
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  Speaker 1: the lives of some biblical characters. Listen to a few.
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever been on the receiving end of grace?
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  Speaker 1: Have you ever fallen among gossipy thieves who robbed you
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  Speaker 1: of your dignity, your worth, even your reputation. Have you
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  Speaker 1: ever been corporately dumped by the side of the road
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  Speaker 1: and economically left for dead, taken advantage of, used, and
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  Speaker 1: then crumpled up and discarded. Believe me, we all live
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  Speaker 1: in this kind of world. It's a it's a brutal
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  Speaker 1: it's a harsh world. Just the details are different from
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  Speaker 1: way back then and today. All of us are needy people.
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  Speaker 1: Some of us just hide it better than others. But
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  Speaker 1: from God's divine perspective, there are purposes for our suffering.
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  Speaker 1: In preparation for today's message, I want to read John
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  Speaker 1: chapter thirteen, verses four through seven, from the New Living Translation.
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  Speaker 1: I'll read that first, and then others will follow. The
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  Speaker 1: scriptures state. So he got up from the table, took
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  Speaker 1: off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and
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  Speaker 1: poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash
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  Speaker 1: the disciple's feet, drying them with the towel he had
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  Speaker 1: around him. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said
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  Speaker 1: to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet?
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  Speaker 1: Jesus replied, you don't understand now what I'm doing, but
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  Speaker 1: someday you will. And now from Philippians chapter three, verses
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  Speaker 1: five through seven. Verse five begins, I was circumcised when
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  Speaker 1: I was eight days old. I'm a pure blooded citizen
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  Speaker 1: of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
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  Speaker 1: A real Hebrew, if there ever was one. I was
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  Speaker 1: a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience
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  Speaker 1: to the Jewish law. I was so zealous that I
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  Speaker 1: harshly persecuted the church, and as for righteousness, I obeyed
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  Speaker 1: the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable,
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  Speaker 1: but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ
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  Speaker 1: has done. And then finally, verses twelve through fourteen of
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  Speaker 1: this same chapter, three, I don't mean to say that
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  Speaker 1: I've already achieved these things, or that I've already reached perfection.
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  Speaker 1: But I press on to possess that perfection for which
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters,
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  Speaker 1: I have not achieved it. But I focus on this
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  Speaker 1: one thing forgetting the past and looking forward to what
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  Speaker 1: lies ahead. I press God to reach the end of
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  Speaker 1: the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God,
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  Speaker 1: through Christ Jesus is calling us. I said when we
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  Speaker 1: began the series on the Grace of God, that this
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  Speaker 1: series could indeed change your life, and for some I
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  Speaker 1: believe it is occurring already, and I commend you. A change.
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  Speaker 1: Life is never automatic. It's the result of cooperation between
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  Speaker 1: God's desires and our response. No one just woke up
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  Speaker 1: one day with a life changed. It was the result
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  Speaker 1: of special time spent with God, seeking his mind, determining
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  Speaker 1: course of action, and cooperating with what the truth of
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  Speaker 1: the Word of God teaches. Now that we reach the
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  Speaker 1: end of the series in this message, I want to
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  Speaker 1: look at another side of grace we have not thought
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  Speaker 1: of before. Perhaps you have thought of it, but I
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  Speaker 1: have not addressed it. It has to do with accepting grace.
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  Speaker 1: Accepting grace. I have believed for a number of years
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  Speaker 1: that grace that is truly amazing is grace that is
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  Speaker 1: truly accepting. Grace does no good if it is not accepted,
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  Speaker 1: if it is not received, if it is not welcomed
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  Speaker 1: and appropriated. Grace not only gives with generosity, it receives
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  Speaker 1: with humility, and quite frankly, there are times when it
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  Speaker 1: is not only more blessed to give than receive. Sometime
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  Speaker 1: it is easier. But before I develop that whole idea,
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  Speaker 1: let me back off and begin my talk with some
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  Speaker 1: things that are easy to forget. They're what I'm calling
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  Speaker 1: the flip side of several strengths. All of us, I
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  Speaker 1: am sure, are committed to strong character to pursuing things
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  Speaker 1: that make for strength deep within a life, it is
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  Speaker 1: easy to forget that in that pursuit there are often downsides.
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  Speaker 1: It's like the flip side of a record. Remember when
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  Speaker 1: you used to buy a platter, a record that had
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  Speaker 1: a piece on it that you really wanted. Now everything
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  Speaker 1: is in CDs. But back when you used to have
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  Speaker 1: the platters, the thing with a hole in the middle,
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  Speaker 1: you not only you not only got the song you wanted,
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  Speaker 1: but whether you wanted it or not, you got the
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  Speaker 1: flip side. And often you didn't want it. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: you may not even liked it at all. But to
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  Speaker 1: get the one you wanted, you had to also take
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  Speaker 1: the flip side with it. That's what I have in
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  Speaker 1: mind when I talk about the flip side of strengths,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm building to a point, So bear with me.
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  Speaker 1: Let me mention three or four may several flip sides.
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  Speaker 1: With a commitment to excellence, there is often an attitude
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  Speaker 1: of intolerance. Excellence has the flip side of intolerance. You
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  Speaker 1: know that's true if you work for a perfectionist, or
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  Speaker 1: if you work for someone who is committed to excellence regardless,
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  Speaker 1: you know there comes with that commitment a measure of intolerance,
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  Speaker 1: even with a slight error or overlooking a mistake, is
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  Speaker 1: almost impossible to those who are committed to excellence. One
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  Speaker 1: of the best selling books of the nineteen eighties was
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  Speaker 1: a book entitled In Search of Excellence, which is the
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  Speaker 1: story of several businesses that have become successful and the
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  Speaker 1: process of being successful. They have cultivated qualities of excellence
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  Speaker 1: that the authors encourage you to emulate if you also
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  Speaker 1: want a company that's excellent. Remember a professional football coach
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  Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, I believe it was, and on
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  Speaker 1: into the seventies that taught winning isn't everything. It is
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  Speaker 1: the only thing that reveals intolerance with losing, And yet
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  Speaker 1: with every game that's one, one coach has to be
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  Speaker 1: a loser. It always seemed a little unfair to me
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  Speaker 1: to think that winning is the only thing. It certainly
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  Speaker 1: is not the only thing. With God, I've learned many
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  Speaker 1: more things by losing than I ever learned the few
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  Speaker 1: times I have won. The flip side of this commitment
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  Speaker 1: to excellence is intolerance. Here's a second one. With a
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  Speaker 1: lifestyle of discipline comes also an attitude of impatience, doesn't it.
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  Speaker 1: You may be one of those people that is disciplined
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  Speaker 1: to exercise every day. You may get up early and
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  Speaker 1: run or jog, or walk or crawl every day every day.
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  Speaker 1: You haven't much tolerance. You haven't much patience is the
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  Speaker 1: word with those who, when they get the urge to
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  Speaker 1: do that, lie there until the urge goes away. There's
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  Speaker 1: something inside you that doesn't like being around people that
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  Speaker 1: are like that, that reveal a lack of discipline. You
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  Speaker 1: may have found the answer to overeating when you're surrounded
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  Speaker 1: by people who have not acted upon that kind of discipline.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're true with yourself, you must admit you're
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  Speaker 1: impatient with them. You at times haven't the time of
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  Speaker 1: day for them. Speaking of that, this matter of eating
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and jogging and all of that came across a clever
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  Speaker 1: piece the other day with a catchy title. It's called
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  Speaker 1: every Day in America, and it's a listing of things
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  Speaker 1: that occur every single day in our land, the land
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  Speaker 1: of America. Every day, twenty thousand people write the president.
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  Speaker 1: Did you know that you thought you had a stack
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  Speaker 1: of correspondence? Every day, Americans purchase forty five thousand new
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  Speaker 1: automobiles and trucks and wreck eighty seven thousand of them.
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  Speaker 1: Every day in America, one hundred and sixty seven businesses
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  Speaker 1: go bankrupt and six hundred and eighty nine new businesses
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  Speaker 1: start up where a people of great hope, aren't we
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  Speaker 1: here's another one. Every day in America, we eat seventy
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  Speaker 1: five acres of pizza, fifty three million hot dogs, one
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  Speaker 1: hundred sixty seven million eggs, three million gallons of ice cream,
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  Speaker 1: three thousand tons of candy. Now get this, We also
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  Speaker 1: jog seventeen million miles and we buried one point seven
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  Speaker 1: billion while we're at it. My point is this, if
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  Speaker 1: you're a jogger, a burner of colleries, you haven't the
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  Speaker 1: time of day for a person who eats an acre
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  Speaker 1: of pizza. That's what I'm getting at. With the strength
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  Speaker 1: of strong discipline comes the reality of impatience and maybe
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  Speaker 1: even a judgmental attitude if you're honest about it. That's
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  Speaker 1: the flip side of it. Here's a third one. With
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  Speaker 1: a well developed education and a taste for the arts
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  Speaker 1: and culture, there's the flip side of sophistication. Many people
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  Speaker 1: who love the arts, many people who have a series
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  Speaker 1: of letters after their names, carry with themselves a sophistication,
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  Speaker 1: almost an exclusive, clannish kind of spirit. They tend to
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  Speaker 1: run only with that group. Because I do not like opera.
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  Speaker 1: I had a very special place in my heart when
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  Speaker 1: I ran across one of my mentor's words. His name
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  Speaker 1: is Hadden Robinson. He said, I do not appreciate opera.
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  Speaker 1: What is worse? I have friends who do. If you
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  Speaker 1: don't like opera, you happen to like bluegrass, or you
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  Speaker 1: happen to like country western. You have to live with
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  Speaker 1: the fact that they look down their nose on you
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  Speaker 1: as they hear their operas and listen to their symphonies.
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  Speaker 1: Now I like classical music, but opera I never could
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  Speaker 1: get into. But that's another point. Here's a fourth I
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  Speaker 1: want to make, with an emphasis on independence and high production.
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  Speaker 1: There is the flip side of pride. If you are
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  Speaker 1: an independent worker, an independent thinker, you have become independently wealthy.
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  Speaker 1: You weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth.
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  Speaker 1: You worked from zero to where you are today. You
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  Speaker 1: got to watch out for your pride. Chances are real good,
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  Speaker 1: real good that you're pretty proud and receiving grace be
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  Speaker 1: the hardest thing in the world for you. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you can't imagine being in need and not being able
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  Speaker 1: to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Americans have
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  Speaker 1: done it since our beginning, and where what is it?
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  Speaker 1: Proud of it? And along comes someone who wants to
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  Speaker 1: do something for you. Lots of luck? Right now? You
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  Speaker 1: know who I'm thinking of. I'm thinking of a person
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  Speaker 1: who was very coordinated, athletic, strong, healthy, talented. She loved
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  Speaker 1: to ride horseback, love to dance, She was athletic, she
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  Speaker 1: was popular. Her name is Johnny Ericson Tata, and as
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  Speaker 1: a result of a faithful dive off a barge into
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  Speaker 1: the Chesapeake Bay in nineteen sixty seven, her world is
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  Speaker 1: reduced to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Can you imagine?
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  Speaker 1: Can you imagine that happening to you? I can hardly
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  Speaker 1: imagine that happening to me. The battle I would have
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  Speaker 1: with pride, and let's face it, any of us, strong willed,
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  Speaker 1: and highly productive and almost at times driven in our spirits. Now,
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  Speaker 1: that's the point I want to reach today when I
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  Speaker 1: deal with the subject of receiving grace, especially those of you,
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  Speaker 1: those of us who have an independent spirit, those of
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  Speaker 1: us who tend to be able to produce a great deal.
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  Speaker 1: We're rather prolific, We're rather determined, and we set a
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  Speaker 1: goal and we achieve it. We reach deadlines, and we
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  Speaker 1: produce face it. There comes with that almost a cast
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  Speaker 1: iron spirit that is so involved in giving, giving, giving,
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  Speaker 1: and when someone graciously comes to give to us, we're embarrassed,
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  Speaker 1: we're uneasy. In fact, we're reluctant. We even resist grace.
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  Speaker 1: I'm especially concerned about the person without Jesus Christ. If
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  Speaker 1: you're independent and proud and successful and strong and productive,
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  Speaker 1: and you pretty well got life by the tale, and
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  Speaker 1: along comes the Lord Jesus Christ offering you something. No thanks, no,
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  Speaker 1: don't need it. I've made it this far, I'll make
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  Speaker 1: it the rest of the way wrong. You will not
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  Speaker 1: make it beyond death. What does it profit want if
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  Speaker 1: he gains the whole world his own soul? While reading
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  Speaker 1: through the Bible this year, I have made a note
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  Speaker 1: of several lives that revealed both extremes of resisting grace,
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  Speaker 1: a couple out of the Old Testament that are well known,
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  Speaker 1: and of receiving grace, a couple out of the Old
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  Speaker 1: and New Testament that are well known. Let me show
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  Speaker 1: you First of all, an example from the Old Testament, Exodus,
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  Speaker 1: chapter three of a man who resisted grace when it
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  Speaker 1: was offered him. Each of these names we're going to
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  Speaker 1: find in scripture are well known. Each is well known
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  Speaker 1: to you as a Bible student, if you happen to
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  Speaker 1: know your Bible. But maybe you haven't looked at this
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  Speaker 1: dimension of their lives before. What is it that causes
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  Speaker 1: an individual to resist grace? The first illustration I want
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  Speaker 1: to draw upon is the man Moses. We need to
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  Speaker 1: understand his situation when we come to this third chapter.
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  Speaker 1: He is now get this, eighty years old, eighty His
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  Speaker 1: life has been a study in contrast between the first
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  Speaker 1: forty years and the second forty years. For the first
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  Speaker 1: forty years, it's been remarkable. Listen to his resume. Educated
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  Speaker 1: at the Temple of the Sun, the favored pride of Egypt,
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  Speaker 1: the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. Josephus. The historian tells
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  Speaker 1: us that he was what we would call the pharaoh elect.
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  Speaker 1: He was to take the throne as the next are
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  Speaker 1: certainly in line with the next pharaoh. He had won
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  Speaker 1: battles fighting Ethiopia and other countries. We would say he
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  Speaker 1: had a chest full of metals. He had a polished chariot.
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  Speaker 1: When he rode through the fields, they screamed, bow the
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  Speaker 1: knee Balvani. He was royalty. While in the court of Pharaoh,
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  Speaker 1: he was spoken to by his God and was told
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  Speaker 1: that he was to deliver the children of Israel from bondage.
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  Speaker 1: You remember the story. One day he found an Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: assaulting a Hebrew, and he rolled up his sleeves and
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  Speaker 1: he slew the Egyptian. In the words of Zechariah, he
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  Speaker 1: thought he would deliver Israel by might and by power,
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  Speaker 1: not by the spirit, and in the energy of the flesh.
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  Speaker 1: He began the process of the exodus. God put thumbs
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  Speaker 1: down in the process age forty. He was run out
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  Speaker 1: of town. We would say today Pharaoh had no more
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  Speaker 1: use for him. He was instantly humiliated. His guilt must
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  Speaker 1: have been unbelievable. It's like building, building, building building all
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  Speaker 1: through life, and then you reach the pinnacle of success
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  Speaker 1: and you do the stupidest thing financially or ethically or
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  Speaker 1: perhaps morally, and it destroys your family, destroys your reputation. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: it destroys your business, and you wind up behind bars.
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  Speaker 1: The bars for Moses happened to be the Midian Desert,
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  Speaker 1: a career change, suddenly and unexpected, and for forty years.
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  Speaker 1: Don't miss that. For the next forty years, God is silent.
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  Speaker 1: There's no record here or anywhere in scripture where God
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  Speaker 1: spoke to Moses while he was a shepherd working for
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  Speaker 1: his father in law in the desert under the shadow
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  Speaker 1: of Mount Sinai, which is called in this first verse
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  Speaker 1: Mount Horeb. Here he is in the stinging sands of
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  Speaker 1: the Median desert with a flock of sheep, the same
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  Speaker 1: man who had Egypt in his sights, but he blew
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  Speaker 1: it disqualified. He was sent to the desert, and there
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  Speaker 1: he lived, knowing in his guilt ridden mind that it
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  Speaker 1: was over. Now that's the background to Exodus three. One
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  Speaker 1: morning he awakens and leads the sheep to the backside
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  Speaker 1: of the desert. He was pasturing the flock of Jethro,
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  Speaker 1: his father in law, the priest of Midian, according to
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  Speaker 1: this first verse. And he led the flock to the
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  Speaker 1: west side of the wilderness and came to Horib, the
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  Speaker 1: mountain of God. He had been there dozens of times,
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  Speaker 1: maybe hundreds of times. It was to him another mountain,
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  Speaker 1: and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in
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  Speaker 1: a blazing fire from the midst of the bush. And
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  Speaker 1: he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire.
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  Speaker 1: That's not unusual. If you have traveled much in the
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  Speaker 1: DEAs you know, bushes, at times, by internal combustion, burst
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  Speaker 1: into flames, but they burn up. But this reads He looked,
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  Speaker 1: and behold the bush was not consumed. That is unusual.
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  Speaker 1: The longer he stood and studied the bush, the more
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  Speaker 1: it burned. And he watched it, and it burned, and
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  Speaker 1: he watched, and it burned and burned, and burned and burned,
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  Speaker 1: And out of the midst of the bush came Moses.
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  Speaker 1: Moses came a voice. Incredible moment. He knew that voice.
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  Speaker 1: He had heard it forty years before. He thought, probably
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  Speaker 1: I'll never hear that voice again. He thought his life
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  Speaker 1: was was finished as a result of his rush to judgment.
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  Speaker 1: Not so you know what's in that voice, Grace? Have
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  Speaker 1: you heard it sitting in a bar some night, trying
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  Speaker 1: to drown out your fears and loneliness? Did you hear
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  Speaker 1: the voice sitting in jail, having ruined your reputation in life?
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  Speaker 1: Sitting in a divorce court, with the horrendous memories of
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  Speaker 1: what might have been? Did you hear the voice? Having
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  Speaker 1: messed up your life through a series of events too
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  Speaker 1: shameful to rehearse, and convinced yourself you were through? Forever?
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  Speaker 1: Have you heard the voice? Listen to the voice. It's grace,
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  Speaker 1: it's your name, It's Grace. You have been saying all
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  Speaker 1: of your life. It's over, it's finished. I'm through. There's
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  Speaker 1: no chance, And now you hear your name. F. B.
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  Speaker 1: Meyer right, beautifully, of this moment. There are days in
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  Speaker 1: all lives which come unannounced, unheralded. No angel faces look
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  Speaker 1: out of heaven, no angel voices put us on our guard.
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  Speaker 1: But as we look back on them in after years,
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  Speaker 1: we realized that they were the turning points of existence.
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  Speaker 1: And from that moment all his life was altered. The door,
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  Speaker 1: which had been so long in repairing, was suddenly put
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  Speaker 1: on its hinges again and opened. He thought he was
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  Speaker 1: finished forever. Do you know why guilt is? Why don't
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  Speaker 1: you think for a moment that Moses jumped at the
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  Speaker 1: chance to do the exodus. He had blown it royally,
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  Speaker 1: and he was finished as far as his mind was concerned.
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  Speaker 1: But not gods. What we have in the balance of
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  Speaker 1: chapters three and end of chapter four is an arguing.
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  Speaker 1: Look at verse ten. God speaks from the bush and says,
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  Speaker 1: come now, I will send you to Pharaoh so that
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  Speaker 1: you may bring my people, the sons of Israel, out
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: of Egypt. Had he heard that before? Yeah, he had
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: heard it forty years ago, back when he blew it,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: back when he killed the Egyptian. Remember God's saying the
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: same thing. It can't be God, it can't be real,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: but it is so. Look at the argument. Moses said,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: who am I? If God had broken in, he would
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: have said nothing. You've got to be something to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: used by me. Grace means God uses nobodies. He makes
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: somebodies into nobodies. But you see our mentality as such,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: and our guilt is so huge we think we have
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: to be somebody to be useful or important to God.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: He is great with nobodies. He does his best work
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: with those who think they're finished. And really, humanly speaking,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: should be who am I? That I should go to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Pharaoh and I should bring the sons of Israel out
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of Egypt? And look at God's answer, Certainly I will
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: be with you, and this shall be the sign to
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: you that it is I who have sent you when
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: you have brought the people out of Egypt. Notice that
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: not if God's gonna get his way. I love that,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: not if you go. But when you brought the people out,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: you'll look back and say God did it. That's the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: way it is in grace. Moses fear is verse thirteen. Behold,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I am going to the sons of Israel. And now
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: he's rehearsing. He's already got a worry list started. Listen
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to the worry list. Okay, I'm going to go to
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the sons of Israel, and let's say that. I say
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: to them, the God of your father says sent me.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Now they may say, see the word may I've circled it.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: It's a worry. It hasn't happened yet. But you know, Lord,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: they may say, what is his name? You say, you
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: represent the God of heaven. What is his name? The
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Lord gives him his answer. You see, Moses fear, I
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: won't have all the answers. God's answer is, you'll have
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: all of me. Well, you might think that did it wrong.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Look at chapter four, verse one. Argument continues, his guilt
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: is enormous, and God hasn't yet crossed the barrier of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: his guilt. Moses answered, Chapter four, Verse one, he said,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: what if that's the part of the worry list? Now
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: it hasn't happened. But what if they will not believe
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: me or listen to me or to what I say?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: For they may say, here it is again, the Lord
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: has not appeared to you. Lord, I won't have their respect.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Some of them may even remember I'm the man that
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: slew the Egyptian. They're gonna say, you've got you've got
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a record, you're a killer. God's answer is, you'll have
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: all of my power Verses two through nine. If we
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: had the time, we'd take it. You'll have all the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: power you need. It'll be my power. And he does
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a miraculous thing in front of him with moses own hands.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: If I can do that with the staff and with
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: that serpent, believe me. I can take your power as
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: little as it is, and I can use it. Verse ten,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Moses said to the Lord, Please, Lord, I have never
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: been eloquent recently, nor in time past, nor since thou
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: hast spoken to thy servant. I'm slow of speech, I'm
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: slow of tongue.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: Moses got a short memory. When he was younger. Stephen
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: tells us he was mighty in word, indeed over in
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Acts chapter seven. He was once eloquent, but for the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: last forty years he'd just been talking to those woolies
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: in the wilderness. And you don't cultivate your skills in
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the wilderness, with the sand stinging your face and turning
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: your skin to leather. You're just surviving out there. And
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: he's the Lord, I'm not qualified. Egypt is well trained
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: and well educated, and he jumps to the conclusion, I'm
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: not eloquent, and the Lord tells him, you'll have all
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: that's needed. By the way, if you're hiding behind eloquence
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to keep from doing what God asks you to do,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: stop hiding there. Stop hiding there. If God has gifted
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a few to be eloquent, that's fine, but he uses
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: them in spite of that. The grace of God is
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a wonderful thing. And guilt is such that if you
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: hide behind eloquence, you may let guilt have its way.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Don't hide behind that. What God wants is availability, more
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: than anything else, an obedient heart and availability. God says
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: in verse twelve, Go and I'll be with your mouth.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Isn't that beautiful? I've claimed that verse on a number
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of occasions in groups that I didn't know about, had
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to speak to, and I just said, Lord, you promised
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Moses you'd be with his mouth, you'd be with mine.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I'll just be your mouth. Peace. My heart's prepare, But
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: you speak through me. And now look at Moses verse thirteen.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: He's still arguing, Please, Lord, send the message by whomever
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: thou wilt. That may sound humble, but what he's doing
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: is trying to get out of it. Send somebody else,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Send anybody else, says one of the paraphrases, send anybody
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: but me, and the Lord says, Okay, you have a brother.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: His name is Aaron. I'll send him. And I think
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Moses on the Day of the Golden Calf must have
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: hated the thought that he ever held out and let
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Erin be his spokesman. One of the heartaches of his
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: life was his brother Aaron. Here's the point. Number one.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: We resist grace when our guilt has not been adequately
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: dealt with. We resist grace when our guilt has not
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: been adequately dealt with. Now listen to me carefully. Some
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: of you know your guilt better than you know the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: grace of God. Some of you are better students of
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: what you have done wrong than you are of what
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: God wants to do with you. That is right, and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you are using your guilt as a way to stay
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: away from God's best. It's now working against you in spades.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: One more thought on this. You know the last person
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: on earth we forgive. Yeah, I can hear it rumbling
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: through you ourselves. We can forgive an enemy quicker than
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: we will forgive ourselves. Here's the point. Not until we
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: have fully accepted the forgiveness of the Lord God will
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: we be ready to receive his grace, because that is
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: the first place grace is received through forgiveness. Alexander White
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: is a man that I have studied for years. I
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: appreciate his words on a number of things he writes about.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: One of the best works is called Bible Characters, the
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Old and New Testament Bible Characters. Out of his work
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: on the Old Testament Bible Characters, he says this about
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Moses and this scene from his life. Some of you
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: will know that. We'll know what forty years in the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: wilderness and at the back of the mountain of God
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: have done for you. You know how those years have
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: reduced and subdued your too high temper, and weaned you
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: off the shams and the sweetnesses of this world, and
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: given you some eyes and some heart to suffer the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: loss of all things. And if forty years have wrought
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: such a change in such a slow hearted scholar of
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: God as you are, you will not wonder at the
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: man Moses as he came back from the land of Midian.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Any use you are, or are ever likely to be,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: or have now, any hope or any ambition to be,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: It all has its roots in the great grace of God.
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: To you. Never forget my words today. Any person being
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: greatly used of God is a recipient of God's great grace.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Not one deserves it, not one, not one is adequate
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: for the blessings that he or she is receiving. But God,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: in his sovereign mercy, has chosen to give great grace
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to that Moses. So keep your eyes on the Lord,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: not on the servant and important for our study. Remember
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: you may be the Moses for this gen but not
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: until you deal sufficiently with your guilt will it begin
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: to transpire. Judges sixteen is the next stop. If you
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: will Judges, chapter sixteen. Those of us raised in the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Church know the story of Samson very well. I remember
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: as a little boy having a Bible that was often
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: open to the pictures in that Bible. Did you have
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: a Bible like that as a child, you might say,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: as a child nothing. I still carry one with pictures
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: in it. I love them. I remember as a little
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: boy looking at the picture of Samson and trying to
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: imagine in my mind what it was like to be
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: that strong. And I didn't understand as a little boy
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that he was not strong because he looked fit and
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: kept in shape. He was strong because of the grace
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: of God. You see, before he was even born, his
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: great parent runs pled with the Lord to guide them
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: in the rearing of this little boy that they had
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: longed to have in their arms. In fact, he had
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: a godly set of parents, Manoah and his wife. Samson's
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: mother is never named in scripture. She simply called the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: wife of Manoah. But both the wife and Manoah prayed
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: for God's grace to be upon their son, and sure enough,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: before he was born, God said he will be a
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Nazarite from birth. He will be set apart unto me
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: he will begin to deliver Israel from the hand of
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the Philistines. Over in Judges thirteen we read that account.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: So when the boy was born, they set him apart
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: to God. That means he never drank strong drink, He
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: never touched the body of a dead carcass or a corpse,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: and he never cut his hair. His hair became long, flowing,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: raven black locks of hair that was a symbol of
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: his strength, and sure enough began to deliver Israel from
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the Philistines. Problem with Samson is he kept playing around
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: with his lust until finally his world collapsed. Tragic verse
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: appears at the end of chapter fifteen of Judges. We read,
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: So for twenty years he was in the process of
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: delivering Israel from the hand of the enemy for twenty years.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: I take it he did his work immediately. On the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: heels of that verse, we read that he went onto
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: a harlep chapter sixteen, verse one, and before long sixteen
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: four he was in the valley of Psurik, which is
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Philistine country, and he falls in the lap of Delilah,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and the rest is history. He so plays with his
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: relationship with God in the lap of lust that he
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: tells her the secret of his strength, and she in
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: a time, he falls to sleep on her lap. She
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: calls for help. They come and shave his head, and
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: he awakens and doesn't even know the Lord is departed
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: from him. That's the background of what I'm going to
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: be reading now. He awakens bald, and he doesn't even
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: know the Lord has gone from him. He has no strength.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, verse twenty one. You think the Philistines weren't
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: angry taking an opportunity for revenge. The Philistines seized him
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: and gouged out his eyes, and they brought him down
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains. And he
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: was a grinder in the prison. What a tragic set
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of affairs. Captured by enemy forces, blinded, led into a
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: prison to be a grinder in the excrement and filth
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of that dungeon. Here's the pride of Israel in a place.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: May I say it he deserved He didn't deserve anything
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: but that the way he had played with his calling.
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: And if you and I were to vote as judges
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: on the bench, we would say guilty. Let him live
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: the rest of his life there. But thankfully we don't
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: call the shots. Verse twenty two is a verse of grace. However,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: the hair of his head began to grow again after
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: it was shaved off. That is the grace of God.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: If men and women had had their way in that day,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: they would have said, may he be baled the rest
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: of his life. But God doesn't operate like that. You
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: think Samson wasn't thrilled the morning he awoke and felt
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: a little fuzz and then felt more hair within a
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: matter of weeks, and more within a matter of months.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: And his strength returned, and oh did his determination to
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: fulfill the mandate given by God to deliver them from
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the Philistines. Let me read the story. The lords of
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: their god, and to rejoice, for they said, our God,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: little g Dagon has given Samson, our enemy, into our hands.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: When the people saw him, they praised Dagon, and they said,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: Dagon has given our enemy into our hands, even the
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: It so happened when they were in high spirits, that
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: they said, call for Samson, that he may amuse us.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: We need that Israeli clown in here. Bring him in
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: to make us laugh. What a moment. So they called
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them, and
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: they made him stand between the pillars. Uh oh, not
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a good place to put Samson with hair on his head.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Samson said to the boy, it's a pathetic scene. He's blind.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: He said to the little boy, who was holding his hand.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Let me feel the pillars on the house on which
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the house rest, that I may lean against them. The
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: house was full of men and women, and all the
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: men and women were on the roof looking on while
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Samson was amusing them. I love verse twenty eight. Here
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: is a man who doesn't deserve the ear of God.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Here is a man who should have run out of prayers,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: but by grace he calls on the name of his God.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Samson called on Jehovah, Oh Jehovah, oh Yahweh God, please
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: remember me and please strengthen me. Just this, Oh God.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe you've read it one hundred times, I've never seen it.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: Just this time, Oh God, that I may be once
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: We accept grace when we release all our expectations. When
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: we no longer feel we deserve special favors, we're ready
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: for the grace of God. This past Christmas season, I
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: had the pleasure of speaking to the single parents fellowship,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: great folks in our church, great folks. The room was packed,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: and as I said to a few afterwards, I think
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the thing I love the most about I love the
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: most about speaking to the single parents is that they
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: have no expectations of me. I love that. You realize
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: how seldom that happens to me, Realize how wonderful it
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: is to stand in front of a group and know
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: that you can blow it and have three hundred people
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: that understand and even enjoy it. Their whole life has
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: been spent it. They feel having blown it. They have
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: no great expectations of me. I don't have to knock
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: a homer. In fact, that gives me an idea. Let
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: me put it in another way. Let's say it's the
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: bottom of the ninth and the Dodgers are playing the
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Oakland A's, and let's say it's a game they really
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: need to win. Kirk Gibson steps up to the plate.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: You're getting the picture, aren't you. And he prays for
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: a homer. Now I'm not sure if he did or not,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: but let's just say and boom, he smashes one over
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the wall and we all just jump up and down.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: In fact, I told this story and earlier, and I
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: had a lady say to me when my husband and
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: I were watching the series. My husband said to me,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: if Gibson knocks a Homer, I'll go to church with you,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: all right, and then after it by the way he
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: made it, he made it good. He made it good.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: She told me. She came back in line and she said,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you something else. She said. He
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: also said, if the Dodgers sweep the series, you'll go
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: to church a month with me. Well, at least we
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: got him here one time. Boom, the thing goes over
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: the let's everybody's expectation. That's what That's what Gibson does. Huh,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: he pulls us out in the end. Let's just imagine
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: if Tommy Lasorda ran out of players, everybody was hurt
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: or something, and he had to use the bat boy
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: in the bottom of an I know, I know, you realist,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: won't go for this. But but try to imagine. Here's
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: this little bat boy, a little running knows bad boy,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: walk up there and he prays for a Homer. He
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: has no expectations. Boom. If he knocks one out, that's grace.
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: That's grace. If the bad boy saves the game, that's grace.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: The problem is most of us see ourselves as Gibson's,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: not as a bad boy. That's our problem. Gibsons expect
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: a Homer. Bad boys live their lives surprised. Samson did
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: not deserve the strength, but without expectations, just this wants Lord,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: I claim your grace. Turned quickly to John thirteen. There's
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: another story. I gotta hurry, John thirteen. We missed the game,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: John thirteen. This is the last supper, intimate setting. Jesus
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: is with his men for the last time before the
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: arrest and trial. To get this, this is just hours
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: before the crucifixion. You know what the disciples were doing.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: You think they were praying wrong? They were arguing over
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: hoo'd be first in the kingdom. Luke tells us they
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: were I'm going to sit on the right No, I'm
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: going to sit on the right hand. Well, I'm going
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: to sit on the left. You don't deserve the left hand,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: You don't deserve the end of the table. They were
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: arguing back and forth over Hoo'd be the greatest in
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the kingdom. In the meantime, they had come into the
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: room and nobody had washed anybody's feet. If you've ever
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: lived in the Orient, you know that would be like
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: coming into the room with his shoes on. In those days,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: somebody was at the door, and if it wasn't appointed servant,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: it was a self appointed servant heart who was at
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: the door with a towel and a basin and washed
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: feet as people came in. But these disciples are so
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: busy being top dog, they came in with dirty feet.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Jesus noticed that he rose from supper, laid aside his garments,
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: and taking a towel, he girded himself. You could hear
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the water begin to splash, And he poured water into
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the basin and began to wash the disciples feet and
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: And he came to Simon Peter, and Simon said to him, Lord,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: you my wash the feet. That's literally the way John
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: wrote it. John was there, and the only way he
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: knew to put it was to place these pronouns at
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the beginning of the phrase and injuxta position to one another,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: so that you can grasp the emphasis of Peter's voice.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: The amplified Bible does a good job, Lord, or my
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: feet to be washed by you? The audacity, and he
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: pulls his feet under him. Can't you feel the pride?
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: It's as if I came to one of the one
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: of the pews, or with a friend of mine, and
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: had a basin and said, would you take your your
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: your shoes off, I want to wash your feet or
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: someone else that is from this church, some officer or
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: some pastor. Would you say sure, or would you say, oh, no, me,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: you washed my feet? Why not? Does pride hinder your
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: receiving washed feet? It did with Peter. Peter, after all,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: was the well. He was the spokesman of the group.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: He saw himself still rather confident and proud. He was
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: passionately loyal. He was fervently committed to the mission of Christ.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: I mean even when Jesus said, Peter, Satan would sift
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: you as wheat Peter said, Lord, they may all turn.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: I will never turn my back on you. And he's
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: the first recorded one, the first one on a record
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: to say I don't even know him. I don't know him.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: I swear I don't know him. I tell you hit
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: Ahead his feet washed that night, but not this one.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: In fact, he says in verse eight, never shall you
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: wash my feet? Wow? In grace, our lord stooped reached
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: and Peter pulls his feet back and says, and rather
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: emphatic Greek by no means will you wash my feet
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: onto the age? That's the thought? In no way, Lord ever.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Third point, we resist grace when our pride is still paramount.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: We resist grace when our pride is still paramount. I
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: think some of you are still lost because you're still proud,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and the grace of the Cross that is reaching out
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: to your life wherever you are right now is a
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: grace that reaches, for the most part, right now in
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: vain because of the bars of steel of pride that
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: you've erected between you and God. Who me? He he
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: die for me? I mean, who does he think I am?
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Can I take care of myself? The answer is no,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: not for eternity. That's why he died. Are you still
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: impressed with your position, your public image, what people think
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: of you. Is your resume more important to you than
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: your salvation? Are you still overly impressed with what you're doing?
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Do you look for subtle ways to pay back when
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: someone gives to you? Or can you simply and graciously
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: say thank you? And could you even be vulnerable enough
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: to say, you know, I really needed what you gave me.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: That's hard to do when you're proud, when you're a Peter,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: pride holds us back and makes us appear without need,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't it. Haven't you ever looked at someone you really
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: respected and wondered does that person ever have a need?
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: Does that individual ever even know what it's like to
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: live in a kind of world I live in? Believe me,
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: we all live in that kind of world. Just the
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: details are different. All of us are needy people. Some
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: of us hide it better than others. There's one more,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: the Apostle, Paul and Philippians three. Moses resisted grace because
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: his guilt was not sufficiently dealt with. Moses resisted it,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: but Sampson accepted grace because his expectations had been done
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: away with. Peter resisted grace because his pride was still paramount.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: It later was taken care of Paul. Uh, what a
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: man He accepts grace because he no longer put confidence
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: in the flesh. What was his flesh like? What was
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: it like just to be in the skin of the
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: apostle Paul? What was it like to be Saul of Tarsus? Well,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: listen to it. Philippians three to five circumcised the eighth
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: day right on time, perfect record. He was of the
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: nation Israel. He was a full bread Jew of the
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: tribe of Benjamin, the smallest and perhaps the proudest. He
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: was a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law of Pharisee,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the consummate Pharisee, to the letter of the law, you
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: couldn't find a flaw, not even in a zeal. While
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: others talked about this thing of the church, he was
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: out persecuting them. While the Synagogue was all a buzz
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: about this growing Christian group, Saul was out killing them.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: The guys got it together verse six. As to Zeal,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: I was a persecutor of the church. As to the
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: righteousness which is in the law, I was blamed less.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: That's my record. The God cut him down to size
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: in the eyes of the world, he was impressive. In
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the eyes of God, he was in great need. Look
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: at what he says verse seven. Whatever things were gained
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: to me, those things I've counted as loss for the
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: sake of Christ. In fact, I love the way this
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: reads verse twelve. Not that I have already arrived, we
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: would say, or have already become perfect. But I press
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: on that I may lay hold of that for which
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. I do
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: But one thing I do. Forgetting that which lies behind
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and reaching to that which lies ahead, I press on
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: toward the goal for the prize of the upward call
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: of God in Christ Jesus. Now that is worth my
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: zeal and passion. I was off target, then I'm not.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Now you know what I read here? I read no
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: confidence in the flesh. He's gotten beyond his resume. Look
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: at verse verse three. The end of it says, and
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: put no confidence in the flesh. Although I might myself
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: might have confidence even in the flesh, if any everyone
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: Eye far more. But I've decided the flesh will not
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: produce what is needed. We accept grace when we no
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: longer put confidence in the flesh. What we can achieve
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: our own strength, what we have done. Those who master
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: that inner struggle are wonderful recipients of grace. And you
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: know what God has for people like that. He has
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a future that is magnificent and peaceful, full of contentment
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: and relief. Now what does it take to make it happen?
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I think I could boil it down to
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: two simple statements. First of all, it takes an admission
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: of humanity, and second, it takes an attitude of humility.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: I admit that I am only human, and I embrace
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: an attitude that says, God, you've got to be number one,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and you've got to keep me cut down to size.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: I cannot operate in the flesh and produce any good thing.
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: What a wonderful future God has for people like that.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: It's almost too good to be true. It's called an
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: eternal glory, a magnificent future of forgiveness and constant, endless grace.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: When George McDonald, the great Scottish preacher, was talking with
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: his son about the glories of the future, his little
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: boy interrupted and said, it seems too good to be true, Daddy.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: A smile spread across McDonald's whiskered face as he answered back, nay, laddie,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: it is just so good it must be true. It
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: is so good only God could do it. I'd like
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: for you to bow your heads for a few closing thoughts.
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know where you see yourself in this picture,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: but I have a feeling that one of those people
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: who sat for a portrait represents where you are. Moses
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Or with his guilt, Samson with his oh the end
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: of his expectations, Peter with his pride, and Paul with
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: no confidence in the flesh. You may have listened very
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: carefully through this series on grace and agree with much
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: of the things you've heard, but you've never ever come
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: to the cross yourself. What a waste, what a futile
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: exercise to hear about the grace of God and not
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: be a recipient of it. Let me challenge you to
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: put yourself before the Living God on the brink of
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: eternity and hear him say what is your claim for
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: entering heaven? There is one answer. I come, Lord God,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: in the merit of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. And
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I come because of your grace. Nothing in my hands
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: I bring simply to the cross of Christ. I cling.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: Can you say that if not, today is a day
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: for you to take the gift God has given for you.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: It's His son who died for you, Our Father. We
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: acknowledge your great grace, We confess our great need. Thank
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: you for the things we have learned, for the growth
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: that has begun to take place, for the strength that
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: has been applied to areas of our lives that needed
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: to be invaded and changed. And I pray finally for
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: those who have never come to know your son, the
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all grace. And I
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: pray that they might humbly and immediately bow before you
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: and place their trust in him who alone means everlasting life.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: Now unto him who is able to guard us from
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: stumbling and present us faultless before the presence of His
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise and gracious God,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power. Now
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: and forever.
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: Amen speak, speak, spots.
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: Its ste pass speak.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 4: Assess the preceding message. Grace, it's really accepting was copyrighted
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: in nineteen eighty eight and the sound recording was copyrighted
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: in twenty thirteen by Charles R. Swindall Inc. All rights
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: are reserved worldwide. In the preceding message, Charles R. Swindall Inc.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 4: Is grateful to Stonebrier Community Church for permission to use
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: their twenty thirteen performance of Amazing Grace arrangement by Paul
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: Thompson copyrighted in twenty thirteen by PT Music