Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 763. Bible Study: Jeremiah 3 (Return to the Lord, Focus on Eternity, not here and now)

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763. Bible Study: Jeremiah 3 (Return to the Lord, Focus on Eternity, not here and now) · Faith by annm2705

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Jeremiah chapter 3. First, let's pray.
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Dear God, please open our minds as we read through this and give
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us wisdom and insight and help us to learn your will and your
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ways. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen.
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So it starts out in chapter 3. This is going to be interesting.
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I have a lot of things that I looked up that will be
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interesting. We're going to talk about a
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Galilean wedding. We're going to talk about storms
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and weather conditions and God's relation with those.
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And we will also talk about, I think there was one other thing
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too, and I guess when I get to it, we'll talk about it.
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So let's start. If a man divorces his wife and
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she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to
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her again? Would not the land be completely
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defiled? But you have lived as a
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prostitute with many lovers, would would you now return to
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me? Declares the Lord.
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So, the study Bible says, after such betrayal, did God want his
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people to return to Him? Absolutely.
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Though He wanted the people of Judah to renew their commitment
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to Him, God used strong language to show how badly they had
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sinned. Apart from His own grace and
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mercy, God had no reason to receive them back.
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Going back to Scripture, look up to the barren heights and see is
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there any place where you have not been ravished by the
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roadside You sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the
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desert. You have defiled the land with
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your prostitution and wickedness.
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Now here's where the consequences comes about.
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Verse 3. Therefore, the showers have been
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withheld and no spring rains have fallen.
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So this is where the question comes up.
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Does God? Does God use drought to punish?
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From the study Bible, it says in this and other Old Testament
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passages it appears so. But the New Testament suggests
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that the weather is not necessarily linked to
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disobedience in Matthew 545. Perhaps it's best to see
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drought, to name just one example, as an opportunity to
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examine our lives. If drought calls our attention
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to spiritual dryness, we can look afresh to God for the
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living water of His Spirit. Now I went to Matthew 545 and I
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don't see it the same way as the study Bible says.
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So Matthew 545 says that you may be children of your Father in
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heaven. He causes his Son SUN to rise on
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the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the
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unrighteous. So to me this is not talking
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about punishment, this is just talking about everyday
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occurrences. The sun rises for both the evil
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and the good, and the rain comes on both the righteous and the
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unrighteous. So it's not in this chapter,
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like I just don't understand why the study Bible referenced this
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one, because in context, it's not talking about torrential
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rain, it's not talking about downpours, it's not talking
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about a hurricane or a tornado or a hail storm or anything like
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that. It's only talking about the sun
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rising and the rain coming and that both evil and good actually
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benefit from it. Get that?
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So I don't see that this is a good response to does God use
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drought? Then there's another one in
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Jeremiah that's referenced from the study Bible.
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In Jeremiah 525. It says your wrongdoings have
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kept these away, your sins have deprived you of good.
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So this is talking about the autumn and spring rains.
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So again, it doesn't help me understand that.
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Does God use drought to punish? I mean, God controls the weather
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And I never, you know, I honestly did not think about, I
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know about God controlling the weather.
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I know he created everything and I know he is ultimately in
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control of everything. And so I guess when we see
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natural disasters, we think like, if God is good, why are
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there natural disasters? And there's an answer in the
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Bible and it's over and over and over again.
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God uses earthquakes, He use hailstorms, He uses fire.
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He uses all of these like natural elements to pronounce
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judgment and also as warning. If we just, if we look at what's
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in the Bible, that's what it says.
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I mean, at one point there were these people that God was not
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happy with and the ground opened up and swallowed them.
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You know, that's AI guess a metaphorical way of saying, you
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know, maybe it was an earthquake and they fell in or there was a
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sinkhole. I don't know what happened.
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I don't know what the natural occurrence was, but whatever it
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was, these people went into the ground and it it traumatized the
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other people that saw that this was in the early tribes when
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they were, I think, wandering, I think in those forty years in
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the desert. So anyway, God does use that and
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of course, when Jesus returns, there's going to be a
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significant earthquake that occurs in the judgments that are
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found in the Book of Revelation. There is hailstones that come
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down and and it just keeps getting greater and greater.
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I think the the hailstones that come down in the very end as
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part of the judgment. And I don't know if these are
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the bowls of wrath. I can't really remember, but I
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know it's in the Book of Revelation.
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But these things weigh, I think it was about £120 or £100.
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Can you imagine that like hailstones weighing about 100
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lbs coming down on people. And what I'm paying attention to
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is the amount of flooding that we've had over the past few
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years, like severe traumatic flooding that has occurred.
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And, and I just, I can't help but think of everything that's
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going on in the world and the war and the fighting and the
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evil and all these things that are happening.
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If those are not things that God allows to happen, that is
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intended to bring us all people to repentance, to return to him,
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just like he was doing in this chapter in Jeremiah, that Israel
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had sinned against him and he didn't like it at all, but he
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still wanted them to return. That just shows God's
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everlasting love for us. So another thing that we should
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think about, and we don't think about this is that we think more
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about what happens in our everyday life.
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We think about, you know, all the, you know, whatever we want
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to do in life. You know, it might be, you know,
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just maybe it's just, you know, having enough money for a house,
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food, clothing, or having enough money to go on a vacation or,
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you know, a relationship or, you know, whatever it might be like,
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or, you know, something material that somebody wants to buy.
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I mean, those are all things that occupy the minds of people
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today more so than what's going to happen in our in eternity
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with us. Where are we going to be in
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eternity? Do we think about God on a
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regular basis? Are we thinking about are we
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going to be in God's Kingdom? Because it depends on what we
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choose whether we are going to be in God's Kingdom or not.
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There is something, you know, a lot of us at certain points in
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our life, we're not close to God and we were doing things just
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like Israel was, that God was called detestable things and
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that was the way we were living life.
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And so are we thinking about that?
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If we keep on doing that, we will not enter the Kingdom of
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God. It's very clear in Scripture
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about that. So the question is, are you
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willing to give that up to be in the Kingdom of God?
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Are you willing to trade off the temporary sinful things that
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people enjoy to have the eternal placement in God's Kingdom?
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And that's a question every single one of us has to ask
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ourselves. And we are responsible for that,
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that response. I mean, that's we determine
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where we're going to be. And it's only by the grace of
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God that we actually have the opportunity to be in his Kingdom
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because of what Jesus did on the cross.
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That's the only way that that makes it possible.
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But then we have to decide. We have to stop.
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We have to get our heads out of the here and now and think about
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eternity. Once we get the eternal
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perspective, then we can live the here and now to the best of
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our ability with the big picture of eternity.
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Like how do what? How does what we do every single
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day impact eternity? We should certainly be doing
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things that have a greater impact eternally than things
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that don't really matter, the things of this world that really
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have no significance. I mean, we should be focusing on
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what things have significance for eternity.
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And too often we are just thinking about today, tomorrow,
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this week, this year, those kinds of things where we don't
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even know for sure that we're going to have the rest of the
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day tomorrow or even the next year.
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So our mindset really needs to be on God.
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If we were wise that I should say that I can't tell anybody
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what to do. But if you read the Bible and
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you see the most important thing that you can do today is think
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about eternity and think about you and your relationship with
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God. So I believe that God does
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cause. Well, he either causes or he
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allows evil to move forward with something evil wants.
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But God is ultimately in control.
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He could stop it or he could let it happen.
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And often we see in Scripture that God lets evil people
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proceed with what they want to do.
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But it also pronounces judgement on someone of God or one of
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God's children who has been disobedient to God and who has
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rebelled against God. And it's not really to punish
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them. I guess it's judgement.
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But the intention of that judgement is to bring them back
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to God, to let them realize, you know, OK, it's it's like that
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hurt a little bit. Are you going to come back to
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God or is it going to get worse for you?
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Because that's what the Bible tells us happens when we stray
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from God. So it's either going to go away
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after we return back to God and God will protect us, or it's
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going to get worse. And those are consequences of
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our own actions. So it's all over the Bible.
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I could probably recite countless examples of how that
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happens. And again, I didn't realize any
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of this until I actually read and studied the Bible.
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So let's go back to Scripture. Yet you have the brazen look of
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a prostitute. You refuse to blush with shame.
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Have you not just called to me, my father, my friend, from my
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youth? Will you always be angry?
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Will your wrath continue forever?
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This is how you talk. But you do all the evil you can.
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This makes me think about how God hears the prayers of the
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righteous, but he turns from the prayers of the unrighteous.
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So if you want prayers answered, make sure that your relationship
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with God is good. Don't be rebelling against God
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and then saying, oh God, this wrath is terrible.
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Please help me from this. You know this is what he's
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talking about here. He said this is how you talk,
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but you just keep doing evil. You know, what am I going to do?
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This is intended that you turn away from those evil things, but
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you're not getting the message. So it's just going to have to
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keep on continuing. I mean, that's really what God
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is does over what I've seen in Scripture.
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Now, I do have to mention though, that Job is an exception
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to this because a lot of bad things happened to Job, and Job
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was a righteous person. But in that case, it was God
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testing him. It was Satan accusing Job in
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front of God, and then God allowing Satan to test Job, and
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God had confidence in the way Job would react to it.
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And I don't know, I guess it was almost like proving to Satan
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that he was wrong, but Job had to go through, he had to endure
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all of these things. And, and Job was even
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questioning God. He was like, why?
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What have I done? Make it known to me?
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I I don't know what I've done, but why are all these bad things
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happening? And, and it's because he was
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righteous, because he was being tested.
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And I don't know how often God allows that to happen.
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I know when I decided to surrender my life to God that I
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did have bad things happen to me and I didn't understand them
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because I was trying more than I ever did to be obedient to, I
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guess really to turn my ways back to God.
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And then bad things were happening.
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And I do think, I mean, actually I prayed about it and the first
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book that I opened to in the Bible happened to be Job.
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And it was kind of like an answer to my prayer, you know,
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if God intended me to open it, if he, you know, had that
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happen. I don't know if it was just
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coincidence. I don't always believe in
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coincidences. I think there is probably more
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to it, but that kind of opened up my eyes to testing and I
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didn't really even want to tell anybody about it because I knew
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that me turning towards God was a good thing.
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But then I was experiencing bad things and I didn't want to say
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that because I didn't want people to say, well, I don't
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want to turn to God if that's what happens.
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But it was only for a season. And I guess it was just, it
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encouraged me to actually open up the Bible because that's what
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honestly inspired me to read the Bible.
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I read about Job and I'd never heard that story.
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And then I thought I better read this whole book and find out
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what's in here because there's things that I probably don't
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know. And boy, there were a lot of
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things that I didn't know. And I'm still discovering
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things. But you know, that's I could.
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God works all things for the good of those who there's more
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to it. I don't know if it's who love
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him or who obey him or who do his will.
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I can't remember the rest of the the verse there.
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But he does work things out for our good when we are turned to
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him. And and so I can say that these
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things did eventually turn out and God has blessed me after
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that. Like it didn't stay bad forever,
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but it was a season and it really caught my attention and
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I'm glad that season is over. Anyway, I'm going to go back to
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Scripture. During the reign of King Josiah,
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the Lord said to me, have you seen what faithless Israel has
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done? She has gone on every high hill
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and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery
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there. I thought that after she had
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done all this, she would return to me, but she did not.
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And her unfaithful sister, Judah saw it.
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I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent
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her away because of all her adulteries.
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I'm going to pause there for a minute because this is something
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interesting that I didn't figure out myself, but I learned from
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someone else and it's interesting.
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So God gave Israel a certificate of divorce.
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So this is, there's a lot more to this.
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After Solomon died, there was competition for who was going to
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be king. And so the 12 tribes separated.
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There were ten of them that went to the north, and those are the
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the 10 tribes. And then there were two tribes
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that were in the South and that was Judah and Benjamin, and they
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were called Judah, the tribe of Judah.
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And, and so they were separated and they had two kings at, you
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know, different times. Actually, when Jeremiah was
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talking about this, Israel had already been captured by
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Assyria, I believe it was. And then Jeremiah was
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prophesying that people were going to be taken into Babylon
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because they didn't change their ways.
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These are the people of Judah. Judah was going to be conquered.
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So Judah's kings lasted longer than the 10 tribes of Israel
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they were because all of them, I actually all of them, I think of
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the 10 tribes were all evil. And there was 1 Jehu that God
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used to get rid of Ahab's family because they were so horrible.
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Ahab, and I believe it was Jezebel that they were together
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and they were involved with a lot of what we would call today
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as paganism. They worship this Ashtara or
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Ashtara or Ashtaroth. There's all these Astarte,
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Ishtar, all these names are I guess synonyms for the same
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entity. And this is also called the of
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heaven. And apparently this is
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referenced in the Bible a few times where they would bake
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Raisin cakes for her. She was like the goddess of
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fertility and war and this was something in it.
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And she was also behind like temple submission.
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So that's the way the Satan gets people.
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He gets people through sensual things through through sex.
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That's basically his strategy when he can't get you to do it
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any other way, he gets something seductive to draw somebody into.
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And, and so that's what he did to the Israelites.
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And there was an example of that between Balaam and Balak, which
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I've mentioned before, where the king wanted the other to
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pronounce curses on Israel. But he was, he was some sort of
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a prophet, but I think he was a prophet of Baal.
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But he said, I can only say what the what the Lord says.
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He it will only let me say what he allows.
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And so every time he went to curse Israel, it came out as a
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blessing. And that really made the king
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mad about, you know, him doing that.
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And he was like, you didn't do what I wanted you to do.
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And he goes away and he just said, I told you I couldn't.
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The prophet says, I told you I can't, couldn't.
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But then he comes back to the king and he says, I've got
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another idea. And he suggested like the temple
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prostitutes and that worked, that got Israel to fall.
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And so again, this is what God is talking about here is he
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refers a lot of this to relationships, like
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relationships between a man and a woman and and what happens if
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somebody is unfaithful. And so God compares that to
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anyway, in this chapter, verse 8, he says he gives Israel,
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that's the 10 tribes, a certificate of divorce.
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He did not do that for Judah. He didn't give Judah a
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certificate of divorce. That's just an important thing
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because there are these, there's other references to this that
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will read the other prophets where they talk about the two
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sticks. And I don't know if it's
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Ezekiel, I can't remember which prophet it was, but they were
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talking about two sticks that will be joined later on.
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And that I believe happens when Jesus returns.
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Like they are completely separated right now and it
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happens when he returns. And a little few more
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paragraphs, we'll get to that as well.
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But just something to keep in mind as we read through the
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Bible. So he said Israeli gave her
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certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her
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adulteries. And I think this is more like
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unfaithfulness to God and worshipping these other
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entities, these Pagan entities in this temple, prostitution
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type stuff and child sacrifice is something else they did.
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Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had No Fear.
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She also went out and committed adultery.
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So this reminds me of the fear of God is the beginning of
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wisdom when we have No Fear and we just sin against God.
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It's, you know, obviously the way God's talking about this
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right now, this is not a good thing.
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Going back to Scripture because Israel's immorality mattered so
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little to her. She defiled the land and
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committed adultery with stone and wood.
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Stone and wood was how they worshipped a lot of these
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ancient deities, and who knows what these ancient deities were.
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I think there's something spiritual about it.
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I don't know if it has, if some of the fallen angels have
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anything to do with this, but that's a speculation that I
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have. So going back to verse 10, in
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spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not
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return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense, declares
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the Lord. So he's saying Judah came back
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to him, but kind of only in pretense.
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And that's we could probably relate to that if we go through
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the motions, like it's not heartfelt, but we're doing it
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out of obedience. We're just saying, OK, well, I
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need to do this, but I really don't want to do it.
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I don't want to be here. I don't want to do this.
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I mean, that's pretty much what Judah was doing, going through
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the motions, but not really having the heart in it.
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And God is after our heart. He wants us to do things out of
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our heart, not out of obligation.
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That's meaningless to him. If you think about it, if
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somebody does something for you and it's just out of obligation,
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like, you know, you kind of know.
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It's like, oh, here, you know, they do something for you and
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it's just obligation. It's not really because they
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cared or because they thought that was the right thing to do.
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I mean, it's still good that people do that.
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But you can always tell when somebody has sincerity behind it
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and when they're just going through the motions and you can
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feel a difference. I mean, you feel a difference
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about a person based on when you know somebody is really
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heartfelt. And you can also tell when
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somebody is being superficial about it and just doing it.
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And that has no meaning. And so we could probably relate
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to what God's saying here is didn't return to me with all our
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heart, but only in pretense. The Lord said to me faithless
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Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
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So that probably says something there.
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I mean, when we go through the motions, but it's not really
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heartfelt. He's saying like faithless
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Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah, and Judah's
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doing the things, but their heart isn't in it.
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Go proclaim this message toward the north.
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Return faithless Israel, declares the Lord.
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I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful, declares the
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Lord. I will not be angry forever.
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Only acknowledge your guilt. You have rebelled against the
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Lord your God. You have scattered your favors
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to foreign gods under every spreading tree and have not
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obeyed me. So God is merciful and
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forgiving, but he also, you know, we also, we have to ask
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for forgiveness. And he's like, acknowledge your
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guilt, like confess it, say it to God and acknowledge that
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we've been disobedient to God. He will forgive.
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That's the good thing is that he's not a mean God.
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He is a God of love. And when we acknowledge what
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we've done, which is the truth, and then we go to him with it,
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he forgives us and he's merciful.
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He says return faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your
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husband. I will choose you.
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Isn't that interesting? Like despite all of the
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unfaithfulness, he's standing by, I am your husband.
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And I want to read about that, the Galilean wedding, because
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there's a lot of symbolism in that.
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And it God uses this husband and wife symbology throughout the
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Bible. And I think it's, it's it's
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something people can relate to, but it has spiritual
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significance. So return faithless people
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declares the Lord. For I am your husband.
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I will choose you one from a town and two from a clan and
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bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds
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after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and
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understanding. So the shepherds after his own
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art are people that do the will of God and they will give
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knowledge and understanding. I do know that from other
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prophets that the purpose of the 1000 years where Christ is here
27:26
reigning on earth as king, it's to teach people his ways.
27:33
So this makes sense when you're reading this because in Jeremiah
27:38
chapter 3, although Babylon is going to conquer Judah, this is
27:45
really what we'll see from these next few sentences that this is
27:50
this is him talking about the very end times.
27:54
This is him talking about the thousand year reign of Christ.
27:58
And I'll show you how that is true.
28:01
So it says, then I will give you shepherds after my own heart who
28:04
will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
28:06
So we know, I think it might be like Zephaniah or Zechariah who
28:10
talks about teaching the ways in the 1000 years of reign.
28:16
Now here's where it says in those days.
28:20
So this is sometime in the future when your numbers have
28:23
increased greatly in the land, declares the Lord, people will
28:28
no longer say the ark of the Covenant of the Lord.
28:31
It will never enter their minds or be remembered.
28:38
It will not be missed, nor will another one be made.
28:43
I don't think that's today. I think that is still in our
28:46
future. In fact, a replica of the Ark of
28:50
the Covenant was recently made. I think it took three years to
28:54
make and it was like circulating on social media and now it's
28:57
disappeared. I don't see anybody talking
28:58
about it. Kind of interesting.
29:01
But so it's, this is certainly not now and this will be in the
29:07
future, which is interesting to me.
29:12
And that it will never enter their minds or be remembered.
29:14
I mean, people talk about this today still.
29:17
So this is not now. This is still in the future.
29:22
At that time, they will call Jerusalem the throne of the
29:26
Lord. So when will they actually call
29:29
Jerusalem the throne of the Lord?
29:32
Well, that's where Jesus is going to be reigning from.
29:35
The Messiah Jesus will be reigning from Jerusalem for 1000
29:41
years. I mean, that's literal.
29:43
And he will be called the king, and nations will actually the
29:48
one Jewish festival that we will still practice and go to will be
29:54
the Feast of Tabernacles. And if you don't go as a nation,
29:59
so everybody's going to be traveling to Jerusalem once
30:02
Jesus starts raining from there. And that in the fall, there's
30:06
going to be the Feast of Tabernacles.
30:08
And if people don't go to it, they're not going to have rain.
30:11
So again, God's going to control that weather, and that's going
30:16
to be those who don't go. They won't get rain because this
30:20
is going to be really important because I, I believe the Feast
30:23
of Tabernacles, it's a, it's a gathering, it's a festival, it's
30:25
a happy time and it's going to be a celebration, which is
30:30
probably celebrating the return of Jesus.
30:33
And that's why it's going to be an annual festival that
30:36
everybody wants to do because they will be so happy when good
30:40
and evil are separated. And so anyway, it says at that
30:44
time they were called Jerusalem, the throne of the Lord, and all
30:48
nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord.
30:54
Do you want to? I'm going to guess the name of
30:57
the Lord is going to be Yeshua, Jesus.
31:01
I'm just wondering if that's the case we will see no longer will
31:06
they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
31:10
In those days, the people of Judah will join the people of
31:15
Israel and together they will come from a northern land.
31:20
So that's interesting. So apparently there's people are
31:25
they're in a NI don't know they will come from a northern land
31:29
to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.
31:34
So is this going to be, are there a bunch of people before
31:39
Jesus returns that are taken into exile into a northern land?
31:45
It's a good question. I don't know the answer but it
31:49
makes me think it. When I read this from Jeremiah,
31:53
I myself said how gladly I would treat you like my children and
31:58
give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of
32:02
any nation. I thought you would call me
32:05
Father and turn and not turn away from following me.
32:10
But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel,
32:16
have been unfaithful to me, declares the Lord.
32:19
A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and
32:22
pleading of the people of Israel because they have perverted
32:27
their ways and have forgotten the Lord their God.
32:30
Return faithless people. I will cure you of backsliding.
32:36
I think we need to pay attention to that too.
32:39
I will cure you of backsliding. This is not of our own actions.
32:45
And I know this is, you know, speaking to the people of
32:48
Israel, but it's I also believe it's applicable to us too.
32:53
I will cure you of backsliding when we surrender to God and we
33:02
believe in Jesus the Messiah and what is talked about in the
33:08
Bible that He died for our sins. He rose from the dead and is
33:14
living today when we believe all of that and by that event our
33:19
sins our forgiven. Without the shedding of blood,
33:23
there is no forgiveness of sins as Hebrews chapter 10 verse 26
33:27
says. I think it's that verse, but
33:31
it's in chapter 10. So God is the one who actually
33:35
cures us of the problem, but we have to go to Him first.
33:39
And Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to us.
33:44
That begins to change us, begins us to make us more.
33:49
I can't say make because it still involves our free will,
33:53
but begins to influence our lives that we get closer to God
34:00
and start doing the things that God loves as opposed to the
34:02
things that are disobedient to him that we may love before we
34:07
we come to him. There's a change in a person
34:09
when the Holy Spirit starts working in a person.
34:12
And again, it's not, we can't say I did this, it's God who's
34:17
doing it. We just have to be open to that.
34:21
We just have to accept the Holy Spirit to accept that, yes, I
34:27
want the Holy Spirit to come into my life and change my life.
34:31
And then the work begins. It's a, it's a side by side
34:34
work. I wish it was just a magical
34:36
thing that the Holy Spirit would just take over and just make me
34:40
do whatever I needed to do. But that's not the way that God
34:44
designed us. He gave us free will and all
34:46
along the way we have to still make choices, but choices over
34:51
time get easier and easier in a more obedience to Christ.
34:56
There is a process that happens, but some people say that it was
35:00
instantaneous. For me it wasn't.
35:02
It was like little by little and still is over time.
35:06
Yes, OK, so he says yes, we will come to you, for you are the
35:12
Lord our God. Surely the idolatrous commotion
35:16
on the hills and the mountains is a deception.
35:20
So this idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains, this is
35:25
the way the pagans worshipped. There is neopaganism now it's
35:31
probably it's not like an organized religion, but there
35:34
are people that do this still today.
35:38
They worship nature as opposed to God.
35:42
They worship the creation as opposed to the creator.
35:47
So there's I'll read a little bit more about that from Romans
35:54
chapter one in a minute. Surely in the Lord our God is is
35:59
the salvation of Israel. Again, the salvation of Israel
36:03
comes about. It says surely in the Lord our
36:06
God is the salvation of Israel. Yes, it's through God that we
36:11
are saved through his Son Jesus who died on the cross for us.
36:16
So to me that is so clear in Jeremiah, and this is an Old
36:20
Testament book we have to remember.
36:22
Let me look back to see when this was written again, because
36:27
you know, this is way before Jesus was ever born.
36:30
Jeremiah's ministry in Judah, it was 626 to 585 BC.
36:37
The book of Jeremiah was written about 585 to 580 BC.
36:41
So this is almost 600 years before Jesus was born that this
36:46
was going on. And this book, you know, this
36:50
was written down. So there's a little bit more to
36:53
chapter 3. From our youth, shameful gods
36:57
have consumed the fruits of our ancestors, labor their flocks
37:01
and herds, their sons and daughters.
37:03
Let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us.
37:07
We have sinned against the Lord our God, both we and our
37:10
ancestors. From our youth till this day, we
37:14
have not obeyed the Lord our God.
37:17
That's the end of chapter 3, and so I'll read some questions and
37:21
answers that I didn't get to. So how was Israel more righteous
37:25
than Judah when the northern Kingdom of Israel had abandoned
37:28
the Lord about a century before Jeremiah's time?
37:32
It ignored the warnings of the prophets.
37:35
The southern Kingdom of Judah, however, had ignored not only
37:38
the prophets but also the example of what had happened to
37:41
Israel. The people of Judah had
37:43
witnessed Israel's destruction and its people being taken
37:47
captive to Assyria. Yet they persisted in their sin,
37:52
which made them less righteous than faithful Israel.
37:57
When did the faith faithless people return and have a godly
38:00
leader? This promise hinged on the
38:03
repentance of the people since they never fully repented, they
38:07
never got godly leaders. The promise can be understood
38:10
stood more completely when it is seen as a metaphor for the
38:14
coming Kingdom of God. Yes, when Jesus returns for the
38:17
1000 years. In this sense, the return to
38:20
Zion speaks of a spiritual journey climaxed by the second
38:24
coming of Christ. Shepherds after my own heart
38:28
probably refers to a Messianic government, but may also suggest
38:32
ministers under the New Covenant.
38:35
Why would people say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord?
38:39
The Ark was a physical, tangible way to identify God's presence
38:44
in Israel. It carried the 10 commandments,
38:47
God's covenant with his people. Even more, the atonement cover
38:51
of the ark symbolized God's very throne where he met with Moses.
38:56
But in the last days, no ark of the covenant will be needed to
39:02
demonstrate God's presence. God will be enthroned in
39:06
Jerusalem and dwell with his people and you can that's in
39:12
Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 17, tying that together with
39:15
Revelation chapter 21 verse 3. And I also, I'm going to read
39:21
about the thousand year period too, which is Revelation chapter
39:26
20 in a minute. Could this all also mean the
39:30
resettlement of the Jews from Europe to modern Israel?
39:34
Modern Israel may be a limited political fulfillment of this
39:38
vision of Judah and Israel coming together.
39:40
However, Jeremiah envisioned a spiritual renewal, renewal that
39:45
all nations, all people would come to recognize Jerusalem as
39:51
the throne of the Lord. This has yet to happen.
39:54
So Study Bible and I are in agreement on that.
39:58
Who agreed to come to the Lord? Yes, we will come to you may
40:02
have been Jeremiah's personal response to God's Word.
40:06
Jeremiah would have been eager to put out these words in the
40:09
mouth of listeners. Or these words may have come
40:12
from someone who responded positively to Jeremiah's
40:15
preaching early in his ministry. His message was not entirely
40:19
rejected, although he was often distraught by the limited
40:23
response he received. How had Pagan gods consumed
40:30
animals and people? This likely is a reference to
40:33
the animal and human sacrifices that were made to Pagan gods.
40:39
Sacrifices were considered food for the gods even though it was
40:44
the fire that consumed them. So that's the end of the
40:51
questions and answers from the Study Bible.
40:54
And I don't know what I was I, I had done some searching and I
41:02
think it was, I think this was about eternal perspective and
41:07
some of the testing and the trials that we will have in in
41:10
life. And every single one of the
41:13
gospels talks about losing your life, but saving it.
41:20
And, and so I wanted to reference those because often
41:27
we're not thinking about things in an in an eternal perspective.
41:30
We're trying so hard to hang on to our life here and the things,
41:34
the things in this life here. And if we're doing that, that
41:39
means we don't have an eternal perspective where these things,
41:43
everything we have is temporary and there's something greater
41:48
that is coming when Jesus returns and that like, we
41:54
shouldn't get distraught over anything here and now.
41:58
And just like when calamities come about it, those I do
42:02
believe are God and wanting people to turn to him.
42:08
And he's, he's shocking people by having those things happen
42:13
because it's a lot of times it's when we get to our lowest point
42:16
in life that we finally turn to God.
42:19
When things are going great, we don't seem to have a need for
42:22
it. And even though we really should
42:26
be thanking him and praising him for all the good things that
42:28
he's doing, but we don't do that often.
42:32
But it's when everything starts falling apart and we don't have
42:35
any solutions, we don't have any answers, we don't have anything
42:39
that we can lean on. Then a lot of times when
42:42
everything gets taken away, then people finally turn to God
42:48
because they have nothing else. And that's why I think God
42:53
allows bad things to happen, because we are so stubborn and
42:57
hard headed and we don't turn to God when it's good.
43:02
So He has to make things bad before we actually turn to Him.
43:06
So He does work it all out for good because when we turn to
43:09
Him, we will be greatly rewarded because we will be in His
43:14
Kingdom. And Jesus went to prepare a
43:16
place for us. So there's so much that will be
43:21
coming in our future that is good.
43:26
And we just have to keep our perspective on that.
43:28
Like the things here, everything's going to go away.
43:31
I mean, it says the earth is going to be completely
43:34
devastated. In the Book of Revelation, it
43:36
talks about a new heaven and a new earth coming down out of
43:40
heaven, and there's going to be a different place.
43:43
There aren't going to be oceans, but there will be bodies of
43:47
water. But it sounds like, you know,
43:49
it's just going to be very different.
43:51
I don't know what to really expect of it besides the limited
43:57
amount of information that we get in Revelation chapter 20 and
44:01
21. So if you want to a little
44:04
glimpse of what what it's going to be, Jerusalem is actually
44:07
going to be a lot bigger than what it is.
44:12
The dimensions that are given when you get a translation, it's
44:16
pretty much about half the size of the United States from east
44:21
to West. That's the city of Jerusalem.
44:24
And it's like a square or a cube, and it's as tall as it is
44:29
wide. So it's this very different
44:33
thing and there's like these beautiful gems that are used to
44:38
build it. I mean, we just have to look at
44:40
what God creates here on the earth.
44:42
And there are so many beautiful places that we see in the earth.
44:47
And just think about this is broken.
44:50
This is corrupted by sin, by evil that is present.
44:54
But in God's Kingdom, evil will not be present.
44:57
And it's going to be very luxurious the way the Bible
45:00
describes it. And you know how creative God is
45:04
and how beautiful he makes everything.
45:06
We can't even imagine what the beauty is going to be like and
45:10
just what God has planned. But let's get back to keeping an
45:15
eternal perspective. And these are the words of
45:18
Jesus, and they're documented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
45:24
All four of the Gospels say this, and I'll just read the
45:27
verses from each of those. Matthew 10 verse 39 says whoever
45:34
finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for
45:39
my sake will find it. Now that could be very confusing
45:43
when you read that, but whoever finds their life will lose it.
45:48
The way I look at that is that that's like when we become born
45:51
again whoever, when we really truly find eternal life, we're
45:56
going to lose our current life. We're going to die to our
45:59
current life, but whoever loses their life, for my sake, Jesus
46:05
sake, we'll find it. And I think also if somebody is
46:08
a martyr, they will have eternal life also.
46:12
They're in fact in Revelation 20, it says those who lose their
46:16
life because of being a martyr will actually rule.
46:19
They will come to life 1st and they will rule with Jesus in
46:23
this 1000 year time frame. So then Matthew in chapter 16,
46:30
he says for whoever wants to save their life, we'll lose it.
46:35
So if we're trying to protect our life here on earth and we
46:39
just do everything just to keep ourselves safe, you know, we
46:42
don't want to lose anything we have here on earth.
46:45
We are going to lose it. That's what the scripture says.
46:48
And just think about naked you come into the into the world and
46:51
naked you go out. So essentially you do lose it.
46:54
Whether it's not, you know, it doesn't have to be by
46:56
devastation or destruction, but we don't take anything with us.
47:01
So whoever wants to save their life will will lose it.
47:05
But whoever loses their life for me will find it again.
47:10
You know, that could be a martyrdom for the sake of the
47:13
belief in Jesus and not denouncing Jesus that there will
47:17
be eternal life for that person. And then Mark says for whoever
47:24
wants to save their life will lose it.
47:26
But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save
47:31
it. So we can see like Charlie Kirk
47:35
is a recent example of that. He was speaking the gospel and
47:38
was killed for it. And he, I'm, I'm sure we will
47:44
probably see him, he will probably be ruling with Jesus
47:49
because of what happened in his life and because of what
47:52
Scripture says here. Luke says Chapter 9, verse 24
47:57
for whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever
48:01
loses their life for me will save it.
48:04
Luke 17 whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and
48:08
whoever loses their life will preserve it.
48:10
John chapter 12, verse 25, anyone who loves their life will
48:16
lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will
48:20
keep it for eternal life. Now that one's a little bit
48:23
confusing. You have to think about that for
48:25
a minute. So anyone who loves their life
48:27
will lose it. So yeah, eventually we're not
48:32
taking anything with us. While anyone who hates their
48:35
life in this world will keep it, will keep their life for eternal
48:41
life. So if you are not happy in this
48:44
world and because of the evil that's there, don't worry about
48:50
it because you will still, you will have your life in eternal
48:54
life. I mean, it's, you know, to be,
48:57
to love the world is to be an enemy of God.
49:00
So the world is sinful. That world represents
49:05
sinfulness. And if we love sinfulness, we
49:09
are an enemy of God. And so if we don't love
49:13
sinfulness, then we're going to have eternal life with God.
49:17
So all the gospels say that. So we can't be hanging on to
49:21
things that don't matter right here and right now.
49:26
When we get into like neo paganism, Romans talks about it,
49:32
it says they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped
49:39
and served the creation rather than the creator who is blessed
49:44
forever. Amen.
49:46
So we have to be really careful that we don't mix up what we're
49:50
worshipping. Of course God made beautiful
49:54
things, beautiful waterfalls, beautiful trees, beautiful sky,
49:59
stars, animals. There are so many beautiful
50:04
things that God made, but we need to remember and you know,
50:10
praise or worship God, not the things he created.
50:15
Whenever we worship the things he created, then we're
50:18
worshiping. We're it's becoming an idol to
50:22
us. And that's what the people back
50:23
then did and Romans chapter 1. I'll read a few of the the words
50:30
here. This is it's talking about
50:37
unbelief and its consequences. I think I'm just going to read
50:40
chapter 1 of Romans because to get it all in context, oh, I
50:43
don't know if I'm going to do all the way up there.
50:45
I'm going to going to start with Romans chapter one, verse 18.
50:50
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
50:54
ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth
51:00
by their unrighteousness. So how we live matters if we're
51:06
suppressing the truth because of unrighteousness, because what
51:12
can be known about God is plain to them because God has made it
51:16
plain to them. So God is making it clear to us.
51:20
And people know what they're doing.
51:21
They know when things are wrong and but they don't want to admit
51:26
it, but they deny it. But God has made it clear to
51:30
them. So the nobody can be without
51:34
excuse, or the excuses don't matter because God's saying he's
51:39
made it plain to them. For since the creation of the
51:42
world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power, divine
51:48
nature, have been clearly seen because they are understood
51:53
through what has been made. So people are without excuse.
51:59
This is essentially just telling us, you know, that the creation
52:02
is proof of God in verse 21. For although they knew God, they
52:09
did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became
52:15
futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were
52:18
darkened. When the scary part about the
52:22
Bible that tells us, like when we rebel against God, when we
52:26
turn away from Him, at a certain point, God turns us over to
52:30
those desires. Now only God knows when or why
52:34
he does that. We don't have, we don't know
52:36
like how many chances we get. And, and I don't, you know, I
52:41
don't know. So I don't have any answer to
52:43
that. But that's the scary thing that
52:45
I've read in here is that there's a certain point where
52:47
God turns us over to that. And then I don't know if there's
52:51
a turning back or not. It says although they claimed to
52:55
be wise, they became fools. So these are people who claim to
53:00
be wise, but they become fools and exchange the glory of the
53:05
immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings
53:11
or birds or 4 footed animals or reptiles.
53:16
So there's a lot of strange things that people worship and
53:19
they did back then, and I think they kind of do that today.
53:22
You see some weird stuff out there too in a lot of music
53:25
videos. You'll see like these kinds of
53:28
things that are, you know, people say, oh, it's just art.
53:32
Yeah, well, it's just art with some spiritual significance in
53:36
it. OK.
53:37
Verse 24. Therefore, God gave them over to
53:40
the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their
53:45
bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God
53:50
for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than
53:54
the Creator who is blessed forever.
53:57
Amen. For this reason, God gave them
54:00
over to dishonorable passions for their women.
54:05
Exchange the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
54:13
So there's something about a resistance to God and an
54:20
exchange of natural sexual relations to unnatural ones.
54:25
And likewise, the men also abandoned natural relations with
54:31
women and were inflamed in their passions for one another.
54:37
Men committed shameless acts with men and received in
54:41
themselves the due penalty for their error.
54:46
There's a consequence to things. Think about the diseases that
54:50
come about, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God,
54:55
God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what should not be
55:01
done. They are filled with every kind
55:04
of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetous malice.
55:08
They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility.
55:13
They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent,
55:19
arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil,
55:23
disobedient to parents, senseless covenant Breakers,
55:28
heartless, ruthless. Although they fully know God's
55:33
righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to
55:39
die, they'd not only do them but also approve of those who
55:45
practice them. So that's a pretty harsh thing
55:50
in Romans chapter 1, but it's something that we can apply to
55:55
our lives today that it's not worth being in rebellion to God.
56:00
That even though if all these things were true of a person,
56:06
they could still, God still loves people and he still wants
56:09
them to turn to him, to reject these ways and to let the Holy
56:14
Spirit start changing lives because the Holy Spirit will.
56:19
I want to talk about a better subject about the 1000 years
56:24
that Christ reigns. So Revelation 20 verse one
56:29
through 6 and I saw an Angel coming down out of heaven,
56:33
having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great
56:36
chain. He sees the dragon, the ancient
56:40
serpent who is the devil or Satan and bound him for 1000
56:45
years. So when Christ comes the Satan,
56:52
when he's comes to reign, when the beginning of the 1000 years
56:55
happens, Satan is going to be bound.
56:58
He's not going to be able to interact with people, which will
57:02
be wonderful. He threw him into the abyss and
57:06
locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the
57:09
nation's anymore until the 1000 years were ended.
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After that he must be set free for a short time.
57:18
Why? I have no idea, but this is what
57:20
God's word said. He has to be let go after a
57:23
short while, but but he's still, you know, I'll read what happens
57:28
to him later. I saw Thrones on which were
57:30
seated those who had been given authority to judge, and I saw
57:34
the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their
57:39
testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God.
57:43
Remember those who you know lose their life for Jesus or for the
57:49
sake of the Gospel. This just said that.
57:52
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of
57:55
their testimony about Jesus and because of the Word of God.
58:00
They had not worshipped the beast or its image and had not
58:05
received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.
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They came to life and reigned with Christ 1000 years.
58:15
So this is all after the mark of the beast comes out and
58:18
everything. So there's like some tribulation
58:21
that people have to go through. These people went through that
58:23
tribulation. That's something else that we
58:25
have to keep in mind about what scripture says.
58:29
But they did not don't ever when you don't ever take any kind of
58:33
mark on your forehead or in your hand.
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It's just it's too risky. Do not accept anything because
58:42
this is something that's that it won't be forgiven.
58:45
It says that it won't be forgiven.
58:47
So don't, don't do that because that's going to come up in our
58:51
future. I don't know when, but it sure
58:54
seems like things are gearing up for that to happen at some point
58:57
in the near future. We'll have to wait and see.
59:00
So it said the rest of the dead did not come to life until the
59:04
1000 years were ended. This is the first resurrection.
59:08
So the ones who that were martyred, and it also says the
59:12
dead in Christ, those who are in Christ, those who have, you
59:18
know, accepted Christ's sacrifice on the cross and who
59:23
are in a good relationship with God.
59:25
All of those people are the ones who will come to life.
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Those who had had died in Christ and these people who are
59:32
martyred because of it, they will come and they will come to
59:35
life. And the rest of the dead did not
59:38
come to life until these thousand years were ended.
59:42
So the other people that are dead that were away from Christ,
59:46
that rejected God, they're not coming into this thousand year
59:50
period. Blessed and holy are those who
59:54
share in the first resurrection. Obviously these people have the
59:58
Holy Spirit because that's the only way they can be holy.
1:00:01
They are made holy by the Spirit of God.
1:00:04
The second death has no power over them, but they will be
1:00:08
Christ of God and of Christ and will reign with him for 1000
1:00:13
years. So the people who are in the
1:00:15
first resurrection are, are blessed and they're going to be
1:00:18
ruling with Christ. So the one thing that I do want
1:00:23
to, even though I wasn't going to read it, but it's important
1:00:27
to know that Satan is does not get to stay around even though
1:00:35
he's released after 1000 years. Let's read this.
1:00:38
When the 1000 years are over, Satan will be released from his
1:00:41
prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four
1:00:45
corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and to gather them for
1:00:50
battle in number. They are like the sand on the
1:00:54
seashore. They marched across the breath
1:00:57
of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city
1:01:00
he loves. But fire came down from heaven
1:01:04
and devoured them. So there's not even a battle.
1:01:07
It just the fire comes down from heaven and devoured them.
1:01:11
They have no chance. And the devil who deceived them
1:01:14
was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast
1:01:19
and the false prophet had been thrown.
1:01:21
So first the beast and the false prophet get thrown into the
1:01:29
burning salt, the lake of burning sulfur.
1:01:31
They will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
1:01:36
Then comes the judgement of the dead.
1:01:38
After these thousand years, I might as well just finish this
1:01:40
off. Then I saw a great white throne,
1:01:42
and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled
1:01:45
from his presence, and there was no and there was no place for
1:01:49
them. And I saw the dead, great and
1:01:52
small, standing before the throne, and the books were
1:01:55
opened. So these are all the people who
1:01:57
weren't a part of the first resurrection.
1:02:00
These are, this is the second resurrection.
1:02:03
Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
1:02:06
The dead were judged according to what they had done as
1:02:10
recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that
1:02:15
were in it and death in Hades gave up the dead that were in
1:02:19
them. Isn't that interesting?
1:02:20
There's it's like a place called death and death in Hades gave up
1:02:25
the dead that were in them. I don't know.
1:02:27
That's really strange to me. Like the, and just think about
1:02:31
like all the wars and the sea and people who just get thrown
1:02:33
overboard, like those people who were godless people, They all
1:02:37
come to rise and each person was judged according to what they
1:02:41
had done. Then death and Hades sounds like
1:02:46
these things are actual. Like are they spiritual
1:02:48
entities? Because it says then death and
1:02:51
Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
1:02:55
The lake of fire is the second death.
1:02:59
So remember all the people that are in the first resurrection
1:03:01
don't have to fear the second death.
1:03:03
So these are the people who were godless and there's probably
1:03:08
some spiritual thing. I don't know really what death
1:03:10
and Hades are, but you know, it's referenced a few times.
1:03:14
I'm going to look at the tools and the blue letter Bible.
1:03:17
So Hades, I mean, I always thought that was a place, but it
1:03:22
says I don't. OK, so this is interesting.
1:03:26
The outline of biblical usage says the name Hades or Pluto,
1:03:30
the God of the lower regions. So is this really, is Hades
1:03:34
really an entity? Orcas, the netherworld, the
1:03:37
realm of the dead, later use of this word was the grave, death
1:03:41
and hell. So it just seems like if they're
1:03:46
thrown into the burning lake of sulfur, it is an entity.
1:03:53
And I wonder like what it says about death, the Greek word for
1:04:00
that, It says there's a lot of things in here.
1:04:10
Since the nether world, the abode of the dead, was conceived
1:04:14
as being very dark, it is equivalent to the region of
1:04:16
thickest darkness, figuratively a region enveloped in the
1:04:21
darkness of ignorance and sin. So I, I don't know, there's
1:04:30
certainly a lot of things in the Bible that we don't quite
1:04:32
understand, but Death was actually thrown into the burning
1:04:35
lake of sulfur. Well, we know that he defeats
1:04:38
Death. So it's, is Death an entity?
1:04:41
I don't know, is it just something evil that goes away?
1:04:45
We know that an eternity will become immortal.
1:04:48
Death is gone. So isn't that like the last
1:04:52
thing that Christ triumphs over death?
1:04:55
And perhaps death is triumphed over at the end of the thousand
1:04:59
years when death is thrown into the burning lake of sulfur.
1:05:02
These are all things that just came to my mind right now as I'm
1:05:04
talking through this. So very interesting things to
1:05:07
ponder on. So it says anyone whose name was
1:05:11
not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the Lake of
1:05:15
fire. So again, eternal focus.
1:05:19
Make sure your name is written in the Book of Life, don't you
1:05:24
think?