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Life After Death and the Power of the Cross · Relish: a Christian podcast

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  Music.
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  To flavor, to be pleased or gratified by, enjoy.
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  We are hoping that what we bring to your table today might add some spice to your life.
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  Well, Rowan, how are you doing these days? I'm doing well. Good.
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  Been pretty busy. I have you. I know you have too. Yes.
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  You've been doing layups and three-pointers.
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  Yeah. And you've been preaching on Sundays. Yeah. Yeah. And office work done.
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  Wednesdays. Yeah. All good stuff. All good stuff. All good stuff.
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  All good stuff. All very needed. And yet, here we are.
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  This is good too. Made some time for it. Yeah. And time to be together.
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  That's always good. Yeah.
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  I enjoy that. So do I. And then you bring these questions. Yeah.
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  And these questions have been sort of hard here lately, you know? Mm-hmm.
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  But good ones. They're the kind of questions we need to be talking about as
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  Christians in the here and now.
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  Yeah. Yeah. So, I remember a couple episodes ago, probably,
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  I talked a little bit about how Old Testament death and how they didn't necessarily
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  go to heaven or hell yet until Jesus died.
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  And then they were saved or they weren't, and the dead rose up.
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  So, do you want to just walk through that? I found that quite interesting.
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  Hopefully some of you. Well, it's not held all across Christianity.
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  I just find these passages in scripture and say, now, wait a minute.
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  This is interesting stuff here. So, you know, in the Old Testament,
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  we have even Samuel being called back at one point by Saul and Esmeralda.
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  And so it begins to get us thinking about the fact that in the Old Testament,
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  the idea of hell was not an eternal punishment quite the same as it is in the
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  New Testament when we talk about getting to Revelation chapter 20 and the white throne judgment.
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  And I think sometimes we think that as soon as death happens, we're in judgment.
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  And there could be that peace. But when you get from the Old Testament,
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  we don't realize that the cross speaks across generations.
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  So the first allusion is in Ephesians chapter 4, and it actually is talking
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  about a piece that comes out of Psalms.
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  Christ apportioned it. Each has given us grace, given as Christ apportioned it.
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  This is verse 8. This is why it says in Scripture, when he ascended on high,
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  he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.
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  What does mean he ascended except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions?
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  He who descended also is the very one who ascended higher than the heavens in
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  order to fill the whole universe. Well, fill it with what?
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  Him, right?
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  Yeah. Okay. So that is a really sketchy allusion to it.
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  But we go to Peter, and it's 1 Peter 3.
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  Yes. And we'll begin reading in verse 18 of chapter 3 in 1 Peter.
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  For Christ died for sins once for all. Now, is that a little all or is that a big A, all?
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  Okay, so if we believe that Christ died for all, that's not only from the cross
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  to the present, that'd be all all, not just a few all, that's all all.
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  Okay, so that's what I'm reading here.
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  Died once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
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  He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the spirit,
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  through whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,
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  meaning in bondage, who disobeyed long ago, when God waited patiently in the
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  days of Noah. Well, that's before the cross.
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  That's talking about an event that happened before the cross.
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  Yet he's talking about the cross in verse 18.
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  So then God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
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  In it, only a few, eight in all, were saved through water, which symbolizes
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  baptism, and now saves you.
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  Also, not the removal of dirt from the body, but a pledge of good conscience toward God.
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  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and
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  is at the right hand, God's right hand, with the angels, authorities,
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  powers in submission to him.
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  Okay, so that seems to paint the situation that the dead—,
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  are under the cross. Okay. Well, he doesn't stop there. He goes on.
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  And I would jump down because it gets right to the point.
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  In verse 5 of chapter 4, but they will have to give account to him who is ready
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  to judge the living and the dead.
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  Verse 6, for this reason, the gospel was preached even to those who are now
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  dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body,
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  but live according to God in regard to the Spirit.
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  Okay, so that means that somehow the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead.
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  So they make a choice while they're dead? Yeah, before the cross.
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  Yeah. Those before the cross.
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  We have to remind ourselves that this is pre-cross that Peter is saying it was
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  preached even to those who are now dead, that they might be judged.
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  Okay, so what it seems to allude to, these two passages together seem to allude
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  that when Christ died in death, spiritually,
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  he went to those who were already dead at that point and preached the gospel to those who were dead.
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  So that they could be judged just like you and I, because now we live after the cross.
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  So we can respond to the gospel.
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  We have that opportunity to respond to the gospel while we're still living and breathing alive.
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  They didn't have that choice. They didn't have a gospel to respond to.
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  To me, that elevates what Christ did on the cross many times above just me.
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  In other words, it's many times more than just you and I. Oh,
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  yeah, Christ died for our sins. Praise the Lord.
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  He died for all, everyone.
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  Enough blood was shed at the cross to break the bondage of sin in every person
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  that has ever lived or ever will live until he comes again.
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  Now that makes that blood mighty powerful to me.
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  And so then I guess I get a little more excited about preaching it because it's
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  not only, I'm not only preaching a fire insurance policy,
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  you know, let's get out of this, get away from Satan and get away from hell.
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  And it's a fire insurance policy.
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  It's actually part of a bigger plan that God has to deliver people from the bondage of sin,
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  then it's not only just for me, but I want to make sure that guy down the street
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  that's walking past the church, I want to make sure that he gets the gospel too.
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  Because God provided this sacrifice across generations that aren't even separated by death.
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  Now, after the cross, if you've heard the gospel and rejected it,
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  that's a whole different story.
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  Yeah. Because then you're rejecting the completed work of Jesus.
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  This is talking in chapter 4 about those who didn't have a chance to even respond
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  to the work that Jesus did on the cross. And that's a different story.
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  They didn't have any choice to follow Jesus, had no opportunity to respond to the gospel.
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  So then when he preached it in this place of the dead, Hades is mostly,
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  it's a Greek understanding of this place of the dead of the Old Testament.
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  Those who responded are on equal footing
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  with you and me it's interesting yeah
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  and they don't have to worry about screwing up i'm still
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  alive i could still mess up and i don't want to and i know that i as long as
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  i repent and confess my sins he is faithful just will forgive us our sins and
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  cleanse us from all unrighteousness but it means we have to live that kind of
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  life that is before God, an open book.
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  Confession is good. Yeah. Good for the soul. Mm-hmm. All right.
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  These are good questions, Rowan. Keep them coming. Did I answer that one real fast or?
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  A little. It was good. A little fast. Yeah, it was good. Okay, good.
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  With more kind of staying with like life, death,
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  afterlife, life who who becomes angels or like does anybody become angels or
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  are they angels are created beings of another order than we so no we don't die
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  and become angels don't get your wings you know what was that show um,
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  Oh, it's a wonderful life. And poor Charlie's trying to get his wings.
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  You know, that's not going to be the case.
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  There's two different domains.
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  Interestingly enough, some of us will, if, you know, depending on our life situation
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  and what we've given for the cross, we might be some of those who are beheaded.
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  And then that becomes a actual ruling class in the last days because they will
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  rule with Christ and judge with Christ.
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  Ever see that possible? It's in Revelation 19. Yeah.
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  And I never thought about until the last two times we went through our Bible
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  study that, oh, it's a possibility some of us will be in that ruling class.
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  Oh, it's 20. 20 verse 5. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because
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  of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.
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  They had not worshipped the beast or the image and had not received the mark
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  on their foreheads or hands.
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  They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
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  Now, that's a bunch of dudes that are going to have royal duties,
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  if you will, because of their investment for the gospel, their investment for the kingdom.
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  This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who are part of the first resurrection.
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  The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and
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  of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.
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  So that is a little different group of individuals who will actually have a
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  different role and reign that thousand years with Christ.
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  The rest of us will die and then we'll wait for Christ's resurrection.
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  Direction, it doesn't seem like we, while our bodies are separated and they
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  go out here and we dig them in out here, our souls will be with Christ.
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  It seems like it's not just taking up space.
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  We get that more from Paul in Corinthians 15, that we're one way at one time
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  and then alive with Christ the next moment.
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  And that's comforting.
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  The body is sown and is perishable. Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians 13.
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  We will be raised in a spiritual body. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
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  of God, nor does perishable inherit the imperishable.
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  Listen, I tell you a mystery.
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  We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash,
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  in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
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  For the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable,
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  and we will be changed. for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable
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  and the mortal with immortality. There'll be a change.
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  I think one thing that we can be very sure of that when we die in Christ, we are with him.
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  We see that in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 6.
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  Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in
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  the body, we're away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight.
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  We are confident, I say, and should be preferred to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
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  So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we're at home in the body or away from it.
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  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
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  receive what is due him for the things done, while in the body, both good and bad.
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  So, obviously, when we die, we're with Christ.
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  Yeah. But there's still going to be a judgment comes up later on.
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  And that verse 10 would talk about what happens in chapter 20 of Revelation.
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  Yeah. Okay. A lot of intricate stuff there. Yeah.
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  You got a little bonus in there, a little more than just angels.
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  Yeah, right. Yeah. Don't have to worry about angels.
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  Angels have their own authority and have their own place.
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  And that's all right. We'll let them have it because they are messengers of
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  God. they have their work that they need to do.
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  Interestingly enough, they do it for us. They do. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.
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  So let's see. There used to be a movie, and I remember it was done by Andy Griffith,
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  called Angel in My Pocket.
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  And I thought, boy, wouldn't that be nice? And it's about a preacher.
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  Wouldn't that be nice to have an angel in my pocket? Of course,
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  no. And my luck, I'd set on the thing. But anyway,
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  God has a plan for each and every one of us. and I think our goal is to keep
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  putting our plans in his hands yeah I would agree,
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  well thank you guys for joining us for another episode hope you guys enjoyed,
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  thank you Don as always and we hope this little conversation
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  maybe spiced up your day just a little bit yeah we'll see you guys next time
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  Lord willing thank you for joining us for this podcast feel free to become part
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  of this ministry by sharing it with others Our goal is to help each other grow
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  deeper in our understanding of who God is and is calling to us in our daily
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  lives Thank you again for joining us.
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  Music.