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Psalm 146 - Don’t Trust In Politicians · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 146, Psalm
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  146. This Psalm is a little bit
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  shorter. It's only 10 verses.
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  So let's dive right into it and see what the Lord has for us
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  today. Verse #1 Hallelujah my soul
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  praise Yahweh. I will praise Yahweh all my
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  life. I will sing to my God as long as
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  I live. Do not trust in nobles and a son
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  of man who cannot save. When his breath leaves him, he
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  returns to the ground. On that day His plans die.
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  Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is
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  in Yahweh, His God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and
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  everything in them. He remains faithful, forever
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  executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the
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  hungry. Yahweh frees prisoners.
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  Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind.
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  Yahweh raises up those who are oppressed.
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  Yahweh loves the righteous. Yahweh protects resident aliens
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  and helps the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the way
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  of the wicked. Yahweh reigns forever.
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  Zion, your God reigns for all generations.
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  Hallelujah. Well, we'll see how much trouble
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  I get into in this one. Verses 1 and 2.
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  As with many of these psalms, there's just a start off of God.
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  Like praise. You hear my soul my, my
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  innermost being, God praise or sorry, my innermost being ought
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  to praise God. He says.
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  I will praise you all way all my life.
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  I will sing to my God as long as I live.
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  I mention it many, many times. I'll keep on mentioning it as
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  long as Scripture does. We ought to sing to the Lord.
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  Whether it is in your private time with the Lord, and maybe
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  you might not sing aloud, but in your heart you would be singing.
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  You would be listening to some music that would be praising the
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  Lord. That would be a great thing to
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  do. I've actually linked a song that
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  is written from Psalm 146 by the group The Corner Room, and you
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  can listen to that and that would be a great thing for you
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  to do. You can be praising the Lord
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  with your song. You can be singing to Him even
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  within your own heart and that would be a wonderful thing to
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  do. When there comes comes time for
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  corporate together praising and singing to the Lord.
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  Take advantage of that time and if you can sing out at the top
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  of your lungs, if maybe that wouldn't be as great of a plan
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  for you to sing at the top of your lungs.
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  Sing, sing and know that you are glorifying your God as you are
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  doing so. Then verses 3 and 4, the
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  parallel here between God, who is worthy to be praised, who is
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  great, who's worthy of lifelong devotion.
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  Then the Solma says this do not trust in nobles.
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  These are people that rule over other people here on earth
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  specifically during this time period.
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  This would not only include those that are passing laws or
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  rules down to people, this would also include those that are
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  rich, that they have a lot of material goods and it's almost
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  as a result of that, that they are ruling over others.
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  They go, I get to tell you what to do because I own the land,
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  that you are working for your farm or because I have extra
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  food. You need to listen to me because
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  if you are ever in trouble, I'm the one that can give you extra
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  food or I can give you money in times of need.
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  And here what we're told in the Psalms is do not trust in
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  nobles. This is a Bible command.
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  This is not the first time that Psalms has said this.
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  And let me put kind of the cookies on the bottom shelf for
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  us today, in 2026 or whenever you're listening to this.
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  Don't put your trust. Don't put your belief, your
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  reliance on human governmental officials.
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  Do not put your trust in the rich of this world.
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  They may do things that are good at specific periods in time, and
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  they may do things that are awful at specific moments in
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  time. The great example for this is
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  King David. That King David was described as
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  a man after God's own heart. He is one that wrote many of
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  these psalms that we have been walking through.
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  There's not a person that believes the Bible that if I
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  were to say did God choose David to be king over Israel?
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  Every single Bible believing person would say absolutely God
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  chose David to be king over Israel.
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  Was David always right in what he did?
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  No, absolutely not. And should people have put their
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  like undying trust and devotion and loyalty to King David?
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  No, they should not have. And as you read through the life
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  of David, you can see several times in which people committed
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  sin, helped David commit sin through them not telling him no,
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  as the King. And several times there were.
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  I can think right now of 1 instance at the end of David's
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  life where Satan tempts him to violate a direct command of God.
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  And as a result of that, about 70,000 people in Israel die due
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  to David's sin. And there were a whole bunch of
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  people that had also received the law of God, that through
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  carrying out the command, the edict of King David, they led to
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  the death of 70,000 people in Israel because they put their
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  trust in a noble and a king rather than in God and in His
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  word. For us today, just because we
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  wholeheartedly believe that Romans 13, God has set up
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  government for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of
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  them that do well, that does not mean that every decision that a
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  government makes will actually be in service to that identity
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  that God has placed on government.
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  And it is our responsibility as the prophet Nathan shows us, as
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  other people, even within David's reign, show us that you
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  can tell the king God's anointed.
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  You can tell him no, you are doing what is wrong.
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  David himself exemplified this for us when he was running from
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  Saul. Saul wanted to kill him.
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  On two different occasions, David had opportunity to kill
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  Saul and he chose not to. And he says because this is
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  God's anointed. So he says I'm not going to kill
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  Saul, but I am going to tell Saul, what the heck are you
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  doing, dude? Like I'm not trying to steal
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  your Kingdom. I love you.
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  I'm for you, but stop doing this.
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  Like this is not right what you are doing.
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  Or we read earlier in Saul's reign that he had said, OK,
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  anyone that eats before we defeat the Philistines, they are
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  going to be put to death. So army, let's go fight.
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  Well, Jonathan, his son was not there when Saul said that.
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  And so Jonathan was super hungry.
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  He found like a honeycomb or something and ate some honey and
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  he was feeling great. So he went out and fought, and
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  after the battle was won and got it done, a great thing Saul was
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  Saul heard that Jonathan had eaten, which went against Saul's
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  command. You know, he's the anointed one
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  of God. He is the one who bears the
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  sword. And Jonathan had violated a law
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  of the land. And so Saul was like, OK,
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  Jonathan must die. And he had people that stood up
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  to him, soldiers that stood up to him that went, no, God has
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  done an amazing work here. You are wrong in your edict.
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  This law of the land that you are trying to enforce is unjust
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  and wrong. And so we are going to tell you
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  no. So government instituted by God
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  for punishing evil, for, if you will, protecting what is good
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  and for punishing what is wrong. But sometimes government and
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  governmental officials fall short in that.
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  So do not place your trust in them.
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  Do not place your undying belief in any human ruler.
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  It is foolhardy. It is stupid and frankly it
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  really effects our witness to an onlooking world when they see us
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  defending sin in all of its various forms.
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  When we are defending sin in in service of trying to defend a
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  person, we should be the ones as the people of God that are
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  saying no, this or that is unjust.
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  It is wrong. It goes against God's word.
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  It doesn't matter that you have passed a law to this effect.
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  This law is wrong. And there's 1000 different
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  examples of this that could be put on any side of the aisle.
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  If you're here in the United States, if you're elsewhere with
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  other forms of government like this is universally 100% true.
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  There is no perfect person, there is no perfect ruler
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  outside of the King of Kings in the Lord of Lords.
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  There will always be something that we are disagreeing, that we
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  would say is unrighteous, that is wrong in the eyes of God,
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  that human rulers do allow, legislate, prosecute, choose not
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  to prosecute. And so we can always know there
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  are going to be flaws in human ruler.
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  So don't place your ultimate trust, your faith, your belief
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  in them, because they cannot ultimately save you.
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  They cannot rescue you like God can.
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  So if you will, if you have to choose, OK, I can defend this
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  sin that a person is committing or I can, if you will defend
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  righteousness, I can be on team God or team this guy or girl.
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  Choose to be on team God because that is always the good place to
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  go. Verse #4 says when his breath
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  leaves him, he returns to the ground.
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  On that day his plans die. For every human ruler, there's
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  going to come a day when they are no longer ruling.
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  You know, here in the USI think I saw something that like 3/4 of
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  our elected officials are age like 70 and up within.
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  I think at the latest, within the next 30 years, every single
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  one of those individuals will have passed away into eternity.
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  What lasts is our relationship with God.
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  What lasts is the testimony that we have put out.
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  And so don't put your if you will, don't put your reputation
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  on a human ruler, put your reputation on God himself.
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  Or as we would read in another verse in Scripture, let God be
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  true and every man a liar. May we say no?
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  I am willing to call a strike a strike and a ball of all when
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  there is sin going on. And I might like a lot of the
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  things that a given politician does, but I can still be one
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  that would say this or that is wrong.
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  This is sin. They shouldn't have done that.
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  They do not represent what I want them to do in this
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  instance. They should fix this, they
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  should change this. They should not adopt this
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  position. You will never find someone that
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  you agree with 100% because there's only one person with a
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  perfect opinion and it is God. And so may we pursue His way,
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  not the ways of man versus #5 through 9.
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  Then the difference is instead of these elected back then, it
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  wouldn't be elected officials. They might have had chosen
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  officials a lot of times though that like whoever was the most
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  popular for a variety of of given reasons.
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  So they say don't listen to or don't don't not don't listen to.
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  Do not place your trust and hope and and faith in these humans.
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  Instead, trust the God of Jacob. This is the God of Israel, the
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  God who loved the trickster, the liar, the the twister, the
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  cheat. Jacob, the God who put up with
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  that guy is the guy that is the one for US.
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  Verse #5 happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose
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  hope is in Yahweh, his God. Don't hope that people will fix
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  everything. Hope that God will fix
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  everything. God is making all things right,
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  if you will. God is making America great
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  again. Or God is the one who I can
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  never recall right offhand what the slogan for the Obama
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  campaign was. I think it was something like
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  Hope or Change or something like our hope is not Donald Trump or
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  Kamala Harris or Joe Biden or Barack Obama or, you know, Mom,
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  Donnie or JD Vance. These people cannot fix what is
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  wrong with our country. God can't.
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  Now, he might use some things that any number of individuals
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  might do, but our hope is not, oh, yeah, I'm going to go on
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  the, you know, I'm going to go on the Vance Trail.
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  No, instead it's I'm going to go on the God Trail because I know
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  that God makes a difference. Whoever's in the Oval Office is
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  not going to rescue your marriage.
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  Whoever is in Congress is not going to affect your eternity.
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  God is the one that is ultimate and so we follow Him and we
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  place our hope and confidence in Him.
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  Verses 6 through 9 then tells us like who God is and what does
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  God do? Verse 6, the maker of heaven and
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  earth. He made the skies and the land,
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  the sea and everything in them. I've talked a lot about the
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  chaos waters, the way that they viewed, if you will, the the
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  oceans here, the Mediterranean Sea as constantly trying to kill
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  you. And so he says everything that's
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  chaotic in our world, everything that is seen, what's on the land
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  and everything that's unseen, what is in the skies.
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  God is the maker of all of it. And so we can trust in him
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  because he, he is the one that is in charge of every atom of
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  creation. He is the one that is in charge
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  of all spiritual beings. He's in charge of life and
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  death. And then at the end of verse 6
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  on through 9, we see what God does.
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  He remains faithful forever. Politicians are constantly flip
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  flopping. One day they're like, oh, yeah,
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  my spiritual or not. Not my spiritual, my political
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  opponent. Yeah.
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  I really think that they're America's Hitler.
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  And then within, you know, five years now, they're on that
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  person's team and you're like, wait a second, what happened?
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  I thought this person was Hitler.
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  It's because there's not faithfulness.
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  There's not consistency. It is a, if you will, It's a
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  game in the political realm, and instead of human unfaithfulness,
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  God is the one who remains faithful forever.
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  He's always consistent. He always has the same opinion.
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  He's never flip flopping on any moral issue.
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  He is one that is consistent. Verse #7 He remains faithful,
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  forever executing justice for the exploited.
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  There are those that have been done wrong, that they have been
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  robbed by perhaps the rich or the powerful, or those that have
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  committed a crime against them. And God is the one that executes
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  justice for those that have been exploited and used and abused.
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  He gives food to the hungry. This is something that is part
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  of the character of God, and so it ought to be something that we
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  love and participate in as well. Now this might be literally you
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  cooking a meal for someone, but God's priority is giving food to
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  the hungry. You can see Jesus even during
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  the feeding of the 5000I, he cares for all of those people
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  and he doesn't just say, OK, you guys go find your own stuff.
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  Instead, Jesus recognized these people go away.
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  They're going to faint on the journey, like they're going to
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  be in trouble without some food. And so Jesus there provides food
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  for them. And so may we as the people of
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  God pursue that as well. May we seek to feed the hungry.
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  This is why every single month we support a local food bank
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  right here in our area in Essex. I would encourage you to do that
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  as well. I have some great friends.
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  I think of Matthew Melton right now often watches the podcast
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  and him and some of his friends, I think it's the ministry right
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  now is called Harold's House. I think Matt, either if you're
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  watching on Facebook or YouTube or whatever, throw it in the
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  comments if there's any information that would be
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  helpful for some people in our area to be able to look out for
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  that. But God gives food to the
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  hungry. He says you always freeze
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  prisoners, that just because someone has broken the law of a
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  particular land does not mean that they're actually in a
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  rebellion of God's law, that there are people that ought to
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  be free that are currently in prison.
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  And you can look at various nations around the world today.
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  You can find brothers and sisters in the Lord that have
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  been incarcerated as a result of sharing their faith or as a
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  result of, you know, preaching the Bible that they are
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  imprisoned. And so God cares about those
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  that have been wrongfully imprisoned.
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  Don't just assume because a law is on the books or just because
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  someone wrote something means that it is right in the eyes of
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  God. Instead, always go back to
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  Scripture because Scripture is the basis for why we determine
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  everything that we believe. Yahweh opens the eyes of the
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  blind. We see Jesus doing this even in
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  His ministry. And I'm thankful for those that
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  work with medical missions today and are able to continue helping
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  those that are in medical need with the gospel and with the
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  love of Jesus as exemplified by the way that they live their
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  lives and what they do in kindness to others.
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  He says Yahweh raises up those who are oppressed.
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  There are people that have just been trodden down in life and
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  God lists those people up. Do you look at the oppressed and
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  go, oh man, sucks for them or man, if they would just pull
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  themselves up by their bootstraps?
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  No, God raises up those who are oppressed.
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  Are we doing the same even in our life?
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  Yahweh loves the righteous, those that follow God and man.
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  What a deep crime against the Lord of all it is when we are
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  when nations oppress those that are righteous.
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  I can think even a few years ago of a lot of the like laws,
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  statutes, executive orders that were passed on the gathering of
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  crowds and things even during 2020 and kind of that COVID
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  season. And there were churches that
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  were not allowed to even following a lot of the rules of.
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  You know, having masks and distancing or having, you know,
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  a parking lot service and everyone you know in their cars.
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  I forget if it was like windows down or windows up or something.
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  And there were churches that were not even allowed to do some
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  of those things. And I'm thankful for the actions
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  of people during that time to say, no, this is, these are
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  unjust laws that are coming against those that are just
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  seeking to obey scriptures commands to gather together.
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  And they're trying to do it in the right way, but they're not
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  even being allowed to do that. They're not being given some of
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  the accommodations that other businesses or other types of
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  gatherings are experiencing. And so I can think there's a
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  church right now in Capitol Hill Baptist Church down in DC that
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  really underwent some unjust discrimination as they were
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  trying to do church in a good way.
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  And they were just not being treated well by the government
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  that was making no allowances for them to be able to follow
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  through on their convictions. And so as a result, they sued
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  the city again, not for like financial gain, not for, hey,
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  give us 50 million in damages, but literally just to be able to
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  follow scriptures command that they would be righteous in
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  gathering together as the people of God.
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  And the judges ruled in their favor because they were correct
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  that there was an unjust oppression on those that were
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  seeking to follow the will of God.
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  And so here Yahweh loves the righteous.
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  May we lift up what is good in our nation and within our world.
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  I can think of several nations right now that are even
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  attempting to in in an attempt to be quote, UN quote, kind that
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  are outlawing any of what they would call conversion therapy,
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  Including when a person goes to a biblical counselor and says
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  like, hey, I'm struggling with homosexual or same sex
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  attraction and I want to be rid of this.
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  I know this isn't what the Bible has to say.
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  Like, would you help me? And there are some nations that
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  have made even that counseling against the law and that would
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  not be in line here with what is good.
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  Don't put your trust in nobles and these rulers that would pass
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  things like that. Instead, God loves the righteous
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  and so may we seek to exalt righteousness and good and right
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  living within our world. Verse 9 Yahweh protects resident
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  aliens and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates
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  the ways of the wicked that the wicked will seek to oppress or
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  to harm resident alien aliens. Hence why Yahweh protects them
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  because they are under attack. May we as the people of God, no
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  matter what a given party says at any given time, may we have a
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  love and a desire for the protection of those that are
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  resident aliens, that they are not from here, but they are
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  living here. May we seek to protect them
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  because that's what God says He does, and it says that He helps
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  the fatherless and the widow. Do you care for those that do
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  not have the means to care for themselves?
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  The conclusion of all this verse #10 Yahweh reigns forever.
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  He is the king that never dies. He says Zion, your God reigns
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  for all generations. Hallelujah.
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  Well, I'm sure I might get in trouble with someone for
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  something I said today, but I look forward to hearing from
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  you. My desire would always just be
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  I'm reading the words on the pages and I want to be faithful
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  to believe every word of God. And that doesn't play nicely
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  with today's political parties. But I'm not here for a political
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  party. I'm here for King Jesus.
• 24:08
  And whatever he says, I got to believe and I got to do.
• 24:11
  Thanks for tuning in. See you next episode.