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Living Waters of Grace 01.02.26 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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There is not one situation that you can run into in this life
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where you can't see it covered in this word.
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Nothing. But if you do read any books
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other than this, make sure that those books line up totally with
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this. Not well, some of it does, but
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some of the questions, some of it just cause you to think
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outside the box. No, we don't need to think
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outside the box. We need to think inside the
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word, not outside the box. What challenge are you facing
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that God's Word hasn't already covered?
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In today's message, Pastor Lewis declares that no situation
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you'll ever face is left out of this book.
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Every trial, question, and need is spoken to here.
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If you read anything else, make sure it lines up completely with
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Scripture. Books that partly agree or push
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you to think outside the box can pull you away from the truth.
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His Word is enough for every moment of life.
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How do you keep God's Word as your final authority in every
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situation? Now here's Pastor Lewis in First
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Timothy Chapter 4 with today's edition of Living Waters of
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Grace. Please turn in your Bibles to
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First Timothy chapter 4. Can you imagine when we are with
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the Lord and we are with Him for eternity, how it's going to be 1
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long worship time with the Lord? It's going to be an endless
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Hallelujah to the King, and we can have that here now, being in
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the family of God and being in Christ Jesus.
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Our worship time should be a endless Hallelujah to the King
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even now. Amen.
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OK, let's pray and then we're going to go into the word of
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God, Amen. Father God in Jesus name.
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Lord, we do thank you. We thank you, Father, because
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once again, as we have, and we thank you that you have given us
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your word, not my word or anyone else's word or you've given us
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your word that we have the truth in front of us, Lord, that we
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can read it every day. But we thank you, Lord, that we
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have fellowship with you, Lord, when we spend time in your word.
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And now, Father, I ask you, Lord, for your power, your
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anointing. I ask you, God, that you would
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just be with us today. Your word says we're two or
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three are gathered in your name that you would be in the midst
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of us Lord, there's a lot more than two or three here today,
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Father, we pray that you would just be in the midst of us today
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that your love would just be over pouring.
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We pray Father that your power Lord would just drench us did
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anointing and that it would not only bring the truth of your
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word and reveal the truth of your word Lord, but that it
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would be a cause us our hearts to be receptacles Lord to be
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able to receive your word and that it would grow in US Lord
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and cause us to grow and to look more like your son Jesus Christ.
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Father, help me. I need Father for you to speak
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the words Lord for you just use me as an instrument of Labor for
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your will and for your work in Jesus name we pray Amen.
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So this is a letter that Paul has written to his beloved son
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in the spirit Timothy. And it's a very instructional
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letter, highly instructional. And I love reading these kind of
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letters. I love reading these kind of
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epistles because it gives us very clear instruction as to
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what it is that pleases God and what it is that we are to be
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looking to God for the work that he's doing in us.
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So it's like a father who was sitting down.
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And I thought about that even this past week as I was sitting
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down with my father. It's like a father sitting down
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with a young son and he's giving him instructions in life and
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giving him instructions on the things of the Spirit, things in
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the Spirit. Timothy's a young pastor and he
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needs the instruction from his mentor and his father in the
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faith. So it's almost like if you can
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picture Paul sitting there and Timothy basically sitting at his
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feet and listening to the instruction that Paul has
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received through spending time with the Holy Spirit.
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And if you remember the last thing that was discussed in
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chapter 3 verse 16, the verse says and without controversy
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great is the mystery of godliness or God likeness as it
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was God who was manifested in the flesh.
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He was justified in the spirit and he was seen by angels and he
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preached among the Gentiles believed on in the world and
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then he was received up into glory.
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And we talked about that the last time that we talked about
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first Timothy. But it's this doctrine of faith
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that we believe that Jesus was God in the flesh who came to be
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an earthly example for us to be able to actually see the word of
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God. But now here in in chapter 4,
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Paul gives Timothy a warning and gives him a prophecy.
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He starts it off with a prophecy as a warning.
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And this is something that he's talked about before about these
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doctrines coming into the church back in in chapter 1.
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He said, preach no other doctrine, Timothy, don't preach
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anything else other than the doctrine that we have given you.
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And Galatians says, if anybody preaches anything other than
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what we've given you, let them be accursed.
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I don't care if it's an Angel. If they come and preach anything
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other than what we have given you, let them be accursed so
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early. Here in this particular letter,
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we see that Paul's giving another warning.
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So let's take it up in verse one.
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Let's read it through to verse 5.
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He says. Now the Spirit expressly says
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that in the latter times some will depart from the faith,
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giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,
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speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seer
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with a a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain
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from foods which God created. To be received with Thanksgiving
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by those who believe and know the truth.
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For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be
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refused if it is received with Thanksgiving, for it is
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sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
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So we look at this and we say, well, Paul says that the Spirit
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expressly says. And, and what that word can also
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mean is that the Spirit explicitly says, or it clearly
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says, or it clearly points out Timothy.
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I don't know if it was a situation where Paul was looking
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in the Old Testament, was reading some old prophecies, or
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if it was something recently that Paul had been praying about
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and the Spirit revealed this to Paul.
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And it was probably both. But he says the spirit expressly
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or it clearly says that in the latter times, deceiving spirits
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and doctrines of demons, the people will heed to these
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things. Some are going to depart from
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the faith, and they're going to give heed to these deceiving
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spirits and doctrines of demons. So when he says in the latter
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times, that's much different than talking about the latter,
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the latter days, he's not talking about the end times.
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This is the church that is beginning.
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Paul had planted many churches and he's saying that in the
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latter times after my departure when I'm gone, as he spoke about
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in Acts chapter 20 when he was talking to the elders and
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Ephesians. He says after I leave here,
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they're going to be men who are going to come in with all these
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deceiving doctrines and teaching things.
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They're going to be wolves and sheeps clothing.
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And Paul is saying here that in that latter times, after these
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things, after this point where the churches have been
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established in the latter times, they're going to be people who
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are going to come in and they are going to bring deceiving
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spirits and doctrines of demons, very powerful words, deceiving
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spirits, doctrines of demons, not just false doctrines.
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He's saying that they're going to have their origin and demonic
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warfare, demonic power, demonic influence.
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And he's talking about the fact that these these people are
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coming in with spirits that are and given doctrines that are
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going to be contrary to the word of God.
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There's going to be doctrines that people are going to come in
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with and cause you to question what you know about the truth.
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And anything that you hear or anything that you read that
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causes you to question the truth of the doctrine is not of God.
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It is of the devil. It is of the devil and it has
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his roots. What he's talking about here
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actually has his roots back in Genesis.
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Back in Genesis chapter 2, when the evil one came to deceive
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Eve, the first thing he did was made her question what God had
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said to Adam. That was the first thing he did.
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So I'm going to go back there and I'm going to look at just a
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couple things just to point out how these doctrines of demons,
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how it started back in Genesis. So we go to Genesis chapter 2
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and we look at verse 16 and 17, and it simply says this.
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And the Lord commanded the man, saying that this was the
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commandment of the Lord. Of every tree of the garden you
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may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
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evil you shall not eat, for in a day that you eat of it, you
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shall die. Now that's the commandment of
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the Lord. That's the word of the Lord.
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That's the truth because God only speaks truth.
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But look at what the devil did. Now this is when the doctrine of
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demon comes in Luke in chapter 3.
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And we're going to look right here at the end of verse one.
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And he said to the woman Speaking of the serpent, who was
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the image of the demon of the demonic spirit.
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And he says to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not
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eat of every tree in the garden? Look how he tries to get her to
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question what God has said. That's what doctrines of demons
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do. They try to get you to question
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the truth of what God has said. And then if you go over to verse
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4, it says then the serpent said to the woman, you will not
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surely die, for God knows in the day that you eat of it, your
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eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and
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evil. How many doctrines are out there
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where they're trying to infuse this false strength is false
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power into people, into thinking that you yourself are God.
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You yourself were in control of your faith.
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You yourself were in control of what you do in life.
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You were in control. No one else has to be in
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control. Those Christians are crazy.
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They're weak people. They're dependent on somebody
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else or something else. But you, you have power.
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You're your own God. Doctrines of demons.
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Doctrines of demons. Listen, God has given us His
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Word and has everything in it that we could possibly need from
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Genesis to Revelation. There is not one situation that
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you can run into in this life where you can't see it covered
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in this word. Nothing.
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But if you do read any books other than this, make sure that
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those books line up totally with this.
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Not well, some of it does, but some of the questions, some of
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it just cause you to think outside the box.
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No, we don't need to think outside the box.
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We need to think inside the word, not outside a box.
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So just make sure that whatever you read that is consistent,
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totally consistent with the Word of God, because it only takes
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just a little bit to take you off to the right or to take you
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off to the left. And that's what was happening
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here. And he says here that they will
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depart from the faith. Now, that depart doesn't mean
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that they're going to, you know, walk away from salvation or walk
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away from their salvation or walk away totally from God.
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But they will depart from the teaching of Christian ethics.
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They're going to walk away from the core things of the gospel,
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the core things of the truth of the doctrine of God.
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They're going to walk away from that.
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They're going to stop teaching things that are rooted and
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grounded in the faith and start teaching other things that have
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come in with these doctrines of demons and these deceiving
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spirits. And it says they're going to
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give heed to those things. That means they're going to pay
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attention to it. They're going to actually turn
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toward those things. And after they do that in the
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way that they're going to do, the way it's going to be played
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out is that they're going to be speaking lies in hypocrisy.
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As it says they're in verse 2, they're going to be speaking
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lies in hypocrisy. They're going to be hypocrites
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like Jesus referred to the the Pharisees as hypocrites.
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They live hypocritic lives. They try to look one way and try
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to act like they're one way, but really all the bondage that they
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put on other people, they themselves can't do it.
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And these are going to, the teachers are going to be trying
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to look holy, try to look religious, but their doctrine is
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totally contrary to the things of God, totally contrary to the
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things of God. They're going to be people who
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give heed to these things and they're going to speak these
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lies in hypocrisy. And as a result of doing that,
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look at what it says at the end of verse 2.
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As a result of doing this and doing it over time, totally
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refusing the truth, standing away from the truth, standing
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apart from the truth, speaking consistently, things that are
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evil, things that are contrary to the word of God.
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After they do that for so long, their conscience then becomes
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seared with a hot iron. And that's an interesting
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picture. My wife and I want to go to
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Montana and Wyoming. We like to travel and we want to
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go to Montana and Wyoming. We want to do a dude ranch.
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I know you. You're picturing me on a horse.
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I know you are. What in the world is he going to
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do on a horse? I know, but believe it or not, I
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actually love horses. We we route.
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In fact, our first date was a horseback riding.
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I took a horseback riding, believe it or not, but anyway,
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we want to go to a dude ranch because we know that on a dude
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ranch, one of the things that they do is that they brand
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cattle, they brand young horses, they brand these things.
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And, and I never really considered the whole art of
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branding or the practice of branding or what it meant until
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I started studying this. And, and what's interesting
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about it is that the branding actually not only burns the
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flesh, the top flesh, but actually burns the nerve endings
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so that they become numb back there.
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They become numb back there. What I'm is what I'm told and
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and they can't feel, they can't feel.
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And I've heard people talk about having things cauterized, where
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they lose feeling in certain areas of their body, which is,
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and it's almost like the same thing, this cauterization or
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just branding. And this is exactly what happens
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when you walk in disobedience to God over a long period of time.
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The conscience becomes branded, it becomes insensitive to the
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things of God. You don't even be convicted
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anymore. You're not convicted anymore.
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Then you get further and further away and you hear his voice
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further and further away to the point that you can't even hear
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his voice anymore. You become insensitive to
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righteousness, become insensitive to goodness.
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And this is what happened with these false teachers.
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Their their conscience are seared with a hot iron and they
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don't have the ability to feel the truth anymore, to know the
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truth, to be able to sense the truth they don't have anymore.
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Their hearts are damaged. So he says here in verse three
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and one of the one of the things that they begin to teach, having
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this branded or the seared conscience.
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One of the things that they begin to teach is forbidding to
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marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to
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be received with Thanksgiving. Now the forbidding of marriage.
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So now since they have turned away from the doctrine of God
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and turned away from the truth of the gospel, they now want to
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forbid what God has given all of us a right to.
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It's clear that the Bible does not teach forbidding of
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marriage. It clearly teaches marriage.
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In fact, it's one of the first institutions that God created.
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But the devil, these demons, and these and these doctrines say
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no, we got to stay away from it. If you want to really be holy,
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if you want to really look righteous, if you want to really
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look religious, don't get married.
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Don't get married. No, no.
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That is a doctrine of demon. It's a doctrine of demons.
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We are to get married. Now Paul says that there are
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people who have the gift or who have the the heart.
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They're like, well, you know, there's two ways you can be a
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eunuch, right? We know that the one way is
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obviously the removal body parts, but the other way is the
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fact that you just decide that you will not marry and you will
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not have to deal with that kind of pleasure or be involved in
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that kind of pleasure to be with a wife.
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OK, that's another way, but that's not what this is talking
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about. This is actually forbidding
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people to get married. Paul says that he has the gift
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to be able to do that, but if that's not you, then you need to
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marry because it's better to marry than to burn with lust.
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So marriage is definitely something that God gives us a
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right to do. And then he says in commanding
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to abstain from foods which God created to be received with
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Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
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So now we think about Peter, who had grown up in the law, grown
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up under the law, and when God began to present to him that he
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listened. This is grace.
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Now we're in the New Testament now and we're not forbidding you
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to eat things anymore the way that it was in the in the law,
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because it was God showing Israel his perfect
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righteousness, his perfect righteousness.
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But now all these things lead to Jesus Christ.
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We don't have to do that. So that the Lord showed Peter
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the example of all these different animals that at one
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time Peter would not have eaten. He called him unclean.
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God said don't ever call unclean what I call clean, arise and
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eat. And if we go back again, back to
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Genesis in creation, when God created these animals, he said
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they were good. Everything God created is good.
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So no, we don't have to stay away from these things.
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And and it's just a matter of control.
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These doctrines of demons are always doing things to try to
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control or to instill fear into people.
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It's being religious and legalistic and Paul said no,
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stay away from that. That is not true.
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Those are doctrines of demons for people who forbid to marry
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and commanding to abstain from staying from foods.
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I love Reesey peanut butter cups, so I'm glad my wife is in
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here to hear this because now if I want to get a Reesey peanut
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buttercup, listen, they look what was not good to eat five
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years ago is supposed to be good to eat now.
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They tell us at one time, don't eat beef, eat beef, don't eat
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pork, No, eat pork, don't eat this, no, eat that.
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I mean, it's always, always something that you're not
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supposed to eat. You can't eat.
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You can't eat it, you can't eat it, Paul said.
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I got a solution. Bless it, give Thanksgiving over
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it, pray over it, and you don't have to worry about it.
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Now, I realize that there are some people, because of health
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reasons that they should stay away from certain foods.
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I realize that. But it's not that it's
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forbidden. It's not that it's forbidden.
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Spiritually that is not the reason, health reasons we
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understand. But Paul said look, just pray
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over it, pray over it. And so then he says here in
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verse four, he says every creature as we said is good and
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nothing is to be refused if it is received with Thanksgiving,
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for it is sanctified by the word of God and is sanctified by
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prayer. And one of the things that we
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understand is that everything we do as Christians, everything we
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do should be set apart, should be set apart.
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In 1st Corinthians 10 and 31, he says whether you eat or drink or
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whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.
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That means just set apart for the glory of God.
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So marriage, eating, possessions are all spirit.
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They all be spiritual issues because they're all given to us
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to be enjoyed. But we must understand the
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source. And the source is that it comes
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from God #1 and it's provided by God.
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And that's why we say prayers when we eat, right?
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We bless the food. We bless it because we
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acknowledge that it was God that created it.
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And he said it was good, number one.
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Number two, we bless it because God provided it and we're
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thankful. So it's more a matter of
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Thanksgiving. It even is just blessing the
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food. It's a matter of Thanksgiving,
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and we see where Jesus Christ himself, before he would eat, He
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would give thanks for his food. When he sat down to feed the
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5000 and Matthew 14 and 19, before he distributed the food
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among the 5000 people, He sat them all down and he gave
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thanks. Then he broke it and he
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distributed. And the same thing even with the
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Passover. When he ate the Passover meal
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with his disciples, the Bible says that after He gave thanks
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or when He gave thanks he break it any distributed.
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It is important that we give thanks to God when you know I
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love when I'm sitting in a restaurant and there's another
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family that's there and we see them praying together before
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they eat. I love seeing that I love seeing
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that I love seeing young kids who understand that I don't eat
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anything off this table until I give thanks.
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That's a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing.
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Give thanks. So then in verse 6 he goes on,
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he says, if you instruct the brethren in these things and
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what things and all the things we just got finished talking
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about instructor brothers about these bad false teachers,
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instruct them about how to look out for these doctrines of
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demons and these deceiving spirits.
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Instructor brethren about setting things apart for the
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Lord's purpose and doing all things unto the Lord.
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He says if you do that, then you will be a good minister of Jesus
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Christ. Nourished.
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I love this word nourished in the words of faith.
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That word nourished. It's a powerful word.
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It means actually to be sustained, sustained by the
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words of faith, to be supplied with everything that's necessary
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for my life, for life and living and health is all, and my
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spiritual growth is all supplied to me.
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And I'm sustained through the words of faith, through the
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words of faith. Studying the Word of God has
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impact on our lives in so many different areas.
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Obeying the word of God has impact in our lives in so many
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different areas. It sustains us.
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It sustains us. And then he says it's a good
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minister of Jesus Christ who is sustained by the words of faith.
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It's a good minister that has supplied everything that is
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necessary for life through the Word of God.
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This has been another encouraging edition of Living
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Waters of Grace. Pastor Lewis Harrell has shared
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some good reminders for us to learn and walk in today as he's
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teaching through the books of First and Second Timothy.
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There are useful practices and advice that the Apostle Paul
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offers to Timothy in these books.
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From a fellow pastor, Paul imparts some wisdom to Timothy
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about solid leadership and what some of the criteria should be
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for leadership. There are specific passages
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directed towards men and women, respectively.
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And All in all, there's much to gain in coming to an awareness
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of God's heart for each person and God's purposes for each one.
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We're happy that you've taken the time today to listen.
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We invite you to come here the next edition.
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In the meantime, when you have some time to spare today, go
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check out our website, calvarychapelonline.com.
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There you'll find additional messages as well as a variety of
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resources and information about how to meet with us in person.
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We're also on Facebook, so you can be a part of what we share
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there as well. You can stay plugged in with
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this ministry via YouTube to watch previous teachings or tune
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into our live stream. Living Waters of Grace is a
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ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland.
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Before we go today, we ask that you share this program with
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others and invite them to listen on Grace FM at 91.7.
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That's all we have for today, but we're so glad that you've
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been with us. There's more to dig into here in
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First and Second Timothy, so let's gear up for some more
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great teachings from Pastor Lewis next time here on Living
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Waters of Grace.