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Living Waters of Grace 09.05.25 · 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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The heart of Cain was exposed because he became jealous, even
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to the point of a murderous spirit.
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Because of his pride and self righteousness, he killed his
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brother. And we have to be careful of our
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motives when we do things. Are we doing them out of pride?
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Are we doing them out of self righteousness?
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Or are we doing them in faith, understanding that none of our
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good works are going to be good enough to get us into heaven?
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We don't do good works in order to earn our salvation, but we do
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good works because we are saved. If there were only one way to
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reach heaven, how do you think it could be obtained?
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Is it through a life dedicated to giving back?
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Is it by being a good person? What if I told you that only one
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thing truly matters? In today's message, Pastor Lewis
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reminds you that there is only one way to have eternal life
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with Jesus by placing your faith in Him.
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No amount of good deeds or perfect living can bridge the
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gap between you and eternal life.
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It is only through Jesus and His grace that you and I can be with
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Him eternally. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
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Book of Jude, chapter one with today's edition of Living Waters
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of Grace. I was home one Saturday morning
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recently and I heard the knocking on the door.
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Kind of had an idea who it was. So that's why you didn't rush
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down to answer, right? So we come down, we answer the
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door. I think my wife actually
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answered the door 1st and then I was upstairs.
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I was trying to hide and, and she eventually answered the door
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and started talking with them. And she said, wait a minute, let
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me ask my husband. I thought, oh man.
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So so I came downstairs and this, you know, woman was there
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at the door. There was two other people on
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the sidewalk looking, watching. So we knew exactly what this was
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about. Total witnesses.
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So this woman is trying to share her Watchtower information with
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me and share her scriptures and try to make me convince me, you
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know, that Jesus was not God in the flesh, right?
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Yeah. She's just, you know, I believe
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in Jesus too, just like you do. I said, oh, do you?
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Yeah. I believe that Jesus, you know,
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is the Son of God. Do you?
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Yeah. I believe she is the Son of God.
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Yeah. Well, I believe that Jesus is
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God in the flesh. Oh, no, no.
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So she begins to explain to me why Jesus is not God in the
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flesh. And because she said it's just
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not logical. There's a number of things that
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she mentioned. It's just not logical.
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And that's one of the things I've noticed that they will say
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when you start talking about the things of God, you know, these
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things are not logical. For example, they think the
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Trinity is not logical. So they don't, you know, talk
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about the Trinity or what are you talking about?
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You know, God in three persons. What are you talking about?
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It's not logical, doesn't even make sense.
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So I listened to her talk about that.
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And then she, you know, we, you know, we even talked about the
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the incarnation. Of course, you know, she totally
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got rid of that. No, Jesus, you know, you know,
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no, he's not he. He's a son of God.
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He was created being, you know, but he's not God in the flesh.
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Talk a little bit about that. And and then she went to the
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resurrection talked a little bit about about that.
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Well, he resurrected, but Aiden resurrect in fully, you know,
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body. He's resurrected.
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He was just a spirit. What we just got finished
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reading last week, right, that when he resurrected, he
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resurrected in the in the body, right, Because Mary Magdalene
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grabbed his feet, right? You can't grab the feet of a
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spirit, right? So anyway, I made this one
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statement to her and this woman turned into an angry demon and
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all I said to her, well would you know these things are only
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discerned in the Spirit, Only the Spirit can recognize these
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things. Or you said I don't have the
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Spirit of God in me. Yes, yes.
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And she went on a rant that I never thought a woman that now I
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was, I'm about 6-1. Well, I was probably 6-1 then
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this woman, you know, probably only came to about here, but I
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mean, she just rant and raved and looked up and just I mean, I
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she wow, she was angry. She was really, really angry.
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We never had another person come back after that.
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Never had another person called. Have we anybody come back after
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that? Yeah, we never had another
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person come back after that. So she obviously wouldn't told
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her homies just bypass that house, OK, 'cause they 'cause
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they hanging with it. But yeah, I couldn't believe how
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angry she got. But it's the Spirit of God that
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discerns these things. That's why Paul prayed to the
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Colossians. When he prayed for the
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Colossians Church, he prayed that they would be filled with
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the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual
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understanding, spiritual understanding, because that's
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how these things are understood. But these false teachers don't
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have that. They don't have the Spirit, so
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they can't talk about the scriptures or the things of God
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from a spiritual standpoint. They can only look at it through
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the natural. They can only look at it through
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the natural. And that's why they get into so
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many problems, because they can't see it through the Spirit.
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First Corinthians chapter 2 and 11 says for what man knows the
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things of man except the spirit of man, which is in him.
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Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
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Now we have received not the spirit from the world.
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If you have the spirit of the world, you understand the things
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of the world. People who are in the world,
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they can have a conversation with each other and say things
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that to us now, those things may sound absurd to us or just like
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things. There's no way we're doing that.
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You know, there's no way I'm, I'm going to be in agreement
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with this, but you can see in the times how people are fine
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with some of the way that society is changing.
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The people of the world are fine with it.
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They're totally fine with it. But us, we're grieved by it.
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And it's because the world takes on its own.
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The world loves its own. The world deals with its own.
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They understand those things because they have the spirit of
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the world. But we have received not the
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spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we
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might know the things that have been freely given to us of God.
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We get those things freely through the Spirit of God.
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But they, they have no understanding of, but yet they
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speak negatively about the spirit when you know someone
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that could be even someone who goes to church all the time.
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And because you may be, you know, walking in obedience,
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because the Holy Spirit, you're developing this relationship
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with the Lord and you're walking in the Spirit and you're
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walking, you're trying to, you're walking in obedience to
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the Lord as much as you possibly can in your own cause.
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And we, we're all still sin and we're honest about that with
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each other. But yet you get someone who's
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not into walking in obedience and they begin to start speaking
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evil of you. Oh, he thinks he's too good for
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us. He thinks he can't do this
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anymore. He can't do that anymore.
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You know, they start speaking evil of you.
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And that's exactly what happened when they start speaking evil of
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the teachers who were teaching the truth.
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They're speaking evil, those teachers demeaning them to other
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people. So then we going down here to
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verse 11, like he said, he says, whoa, he said they're like, you
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know, before he said they're like group beasts and they
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corrupt, you know, they, they, they corrupt themselves with the
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things that they do know. And then in verse 11, he says
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woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain and in the era
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of Balaam for prophet and in rebellion of Korah.
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Well, first of all, they're brute beast.
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And that means that they're only living in a way that satisfies
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the flesh, their primal instincts, brute beasts.
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You're living like a brute beast and that means you're just
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living to satisfy your urges. That's why animals are able when
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he said, you know, they corrupt themselves and in, in those
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things that they that they do know, because the only thing
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they do know is their urges, their loss, their desire for
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natural things. And that's why animals can get
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trapped. We have some people here who are
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hunters. They trap animals or they lure
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animals. How do they trap them?
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They lure them. How do they lure them?
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They lure them by things that they're driven to eat, things
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that they're driven to do. If you got an animal who loves
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meat, you put a piece of meat in a box, he's coming for it.
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He's coming for it. And when they come for these
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things, they don't come with a regard of the consequences of
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what they're. They don't even think about
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those things. Only thing they're thinking
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about is that I want to get to the meat because I'm going to
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satisfy this urge to eat. I want to satisfy this urge to
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eat. That's all they have, That's all
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they know. And when we live in disobedience
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to the Lord, when we live just doing what we want to do,
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ignoring the Spirit of God, then we live almost like brute
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beasts, just satisfying our flesh, satisfying our flesh.
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And how many times did we and men today, how many times do
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they fall into trouble following after their urges?
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How many pastors have fallen? How many people have fallen
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falling into these traps that the enemy sets to try to lure
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you to satisfy your flesh? I'm going to tell you something
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that's going to everyday there's something that the enemy is
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going to try to do in your life to try to set you up to fall
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into one of his traps and he knows what you desire.
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He knows where you're weak. So I so important stay close to
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the word of God and in prayer and to be filled with the spirit
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to ask every morning, Lord, fill me with your spirit today so
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that I can walk in obedience to you because I can't do it on my
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own. We would fall into every trap
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that the enemy was set if we try to do it on our own brute
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beasts. So when we try to please our own
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selves, that's what happened. We're like brute beasts.
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And he says woe to them. That woe means it's like an
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expression of of coming up calamity.
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Whoa, it's almost like a cursing.
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It's like an expression of of calamity or judgment.
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Woe to them. Jesus used it quite a bit in in
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Matthew 23 when he was talking to the Pharisees and he said woe
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you hypocrites, woe to you. They have gone in the way of
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Cain the heir of Balaam for profit, and also of Korah.
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Now it's interesting because Jude almost makes it seem like
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he thinks you already know what that means.
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You know, like he's like, he's sure that everybody who's
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reading this knows what that means.
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What does it mean to go in the way of Cain?
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What does it mean to go in the in, in in the era of Balaam for
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profit? What does it mean to go on the
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rebellion of Korah, of Korah? What does that mean?
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Well, unless you read the Old Testament, you won't know what
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that means. And but he just assumed that
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everybody read it because that's all they had was the Old
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Testament. So let's look at these.
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He said, first of all, you go in the way of Cain.
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How did Cain go? Well, if you read Cain's story
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way back, Genesis 4, that's where you read the story of Cain
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and Abel, where Cain actually killed his brother Abel.
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Now prior to that, though, they both came to God and offered a
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sacrifice. Abel, Cain's brother, offered a
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sacrifice of blood. There was a he was a shepherd,
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so he offered a sacrifice from his flock.
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It was a sacrifice of blood. Cain, on the other hand, brought
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a sacrifice that was from the field.
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Cain was a farmer, so he brought a sacrifice that was of the
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field, of his of his produce. Now, is it wrong to present a
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sacrifice of produce? No.
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Is it wrong to present that sacrifice of blood?
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That's not what the issue was. The issue is that only one of
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them presented it in faith. Only one.
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And it was Abel. And the reason why it's even
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said that Abel presented it in faith.
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Again, you'd have to go back into Genesis chapter and chapter
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3 before where they were, when Adam and Eve sinned, when they
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were in the garden. If you remember when they
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sinned, they made fig leaves to put around their bodies to cover
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themselves up because they knew that they were naked, their eyes
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were open, they made fig leaves. God wasn't satisfied with that.
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That's not the sacrifice that he wants for sin.
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It had to be a blood without the without the remission, you know,
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without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of
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sin. So it had animal had to die.
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Something had to die to cover that sin.
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So he, God sacrificed an animal for them.
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So the blood had to be shed for the remission of the sins and
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they put, he covered them with that.
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So when Abel came in that same vein, because of faith, the only
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way we're getting to the Father is through Jesus Christ and
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through the blood of Jesus Christ.
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So when Abel came and he presented the sacrifice with
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blood, that was in obedience to the sacrifice that God wants,
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and it was done in faith. It was done in faith.
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Hebrews chapter 4 he says very clearly, and I'll read it to
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you, you don't even have to go look for it, I'll read it to you
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over in Chapter 11. He says this.
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Hebrews 11 For by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent
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sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that
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he was righteous God testifying of his gifts.
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And through it he being dead, still speaks.
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He received that sacrifice because it was sacrifice.
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And faith, you see, Cain offered a sacrifice that was just from
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works of his own hands. Works.
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It was a sacrifice of works. You know, look what I do I earn
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this, but Abel understood that without the remission of blood
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there can be without the shedding of blood, it could be
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no remission of sins. He understood that.
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So that's why his his offering was accepted and and Cain's
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wasn't Bible also said, and this is my favorite Scripture.
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In fact, when I'll die, I want this to be on my head stone
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because it brought me through when I first got saved.
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Help me understand faith. Hebrews 11/6.
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But without faith it's impossible to please Him.
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When you come to God, you must believe that He is and that He
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is the rewarder of them. That not casually seek Him, but
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diligently seek Him. That verse got me through a lot.
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That verse got me through a lot. So that's why Abel's sacrifice
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was accepted and Keynes was not. But as a result of the heart of
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Cain was exposed because he became jealous even to the point
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of a murderous spirit. Because of his pride and self
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righteousness, he killed his brother.
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And we have to be careful of our motives when we do things.
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Are we doing them not a pride? Are we doing them not a self
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righteousness? Or are we doing them in faith,
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understanding that none of our good works are going to be good
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enough to get us into heaven? We don't do good works in order
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to earn our salvation, but we do good works because we are saved
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and it's who we are. It's who we are.
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So then we're going to go just just one more Balaam, he said.
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You'll run greedily in the air of Balaam.
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Well, Balaam was back in the Old Testament also.
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In order to get to Balaam's example, you'd have to go back
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to Numbers chapter 22. And I definitely suggest that
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you go back and read that when you get an opportunity because
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it talks about Balaam who was a, was a prophet, but he was a
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prophet with, he's kind of unscrupulous, put it that way.
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He used his gift of prophecy that God gave him.
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He used it for money, for filthy lucre, use it for money.
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And because he used it for money, eventually, again
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exposing his heart, he could not curse, which is what Balak the
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king at that time wanted him to do.
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He wanted Balaam to curse the children of Israel and they were
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coming out of Egypt and they were now on his territory and
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they wanted, he wanted those children cursed.
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Well, Balaam realized that he couldn't curse them because God
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had blessed them. However, because of his heart
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and because he wanted the money, I'll show you how to lead them
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into sin so that they become a curse to themselves.
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And he tempted them with the women, the Pagan women.
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He tempted them with them and they fell into sin with these
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Pagan women. Again, sexual immorality being
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the headline of that particular sin because of the urges that
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these men had, not being able to restrain them on their own and
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went into disobedience against God.
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So Balaam cursed was able to have those children basically
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curse themselves. And I'm going to wait before I
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go in the court because that's a story that takes a little bit
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more of a description that I think is really important.
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And I don't want to rush through that.
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Now think about, as we talked about earlier, our our
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thankfulness to just be saved, the salvation that Jesus Christ
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came and died for for us. And when I think about all these
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men, all these situations that these false teachers have fallen
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into because of their rejection of Jesus Christ, because of
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their rejection of the apostles doctrine and truth, they are
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bringing sin on themselves. But Jesus Christ came and he
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brought his word with he gave us his word.
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And as we said, all Scripture is inspired by God and it's all
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profitable for doctrine, which means it's profitable for
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teaching. It's also used for to correct
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us. It's used for reproof and for
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instruction in righteousness. And I'm so grateful that Jesus
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came as the word of God, Word made flesh that we would
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actually people who witnessed his life actually saw, not just
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read, but actually saw the word of God being lived out in the
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person of God the Son. And we have that opportunity
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when he gave his life and paid for our sins, which we could
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have never done on our own. No matter what, how good we
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think we were, how good we think we are, we would never be good
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enough to be able to achieve salvation.
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But Jesus Christ died on that cross that we would have our sin
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debt paid. It's paid in full.
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It's already done. So for those of you who have not
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taken advantage or those of you who have not received His
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salvation, you don't have to do anything for it.
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It's already done. You just have to accept it.
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Accept it. First of all, accept the fact
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that we needed it. I needed Jesus to come and die
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for me because I'm a Sinner. I needed Him to die for me.
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We have to accept that and the fact that He died not for
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himself, but He did it for us. He died for me.
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He died for you, God, for all of you.
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That's why He's our God. You've been listening to Living
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Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to
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preach through the book of Jude, he wants you to realize that you
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can't be a part time Christian. If you're going to follow Jesus,
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He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.
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If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,
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you find that you can't do either one successfully.
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But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be
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amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the
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journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision
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will come from. If today's message has
24:44
encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.
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