Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Faithful Unto Death: Is Faith Inherited or Personal" by Bill Dayton

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"Faithful Unto Death: Is Faith Inherited or Personal" by Bill Dayton · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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I hate to interrupt this great fellowship in the back there, but we've
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got some miles to go tonight. It is
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good to be with you tonight. As always, I've been so thankful
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for this series of lessons that we've had thus far.
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Some great speakers, some great ideas and truths that have been
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brought to our attention, and I pray that as
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we continue in our quest to learn
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about what it means to be faithful to the end until death,
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that we put these words and thoughts in our hearts
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and learn from them and grow from them and prayerfully help
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others to see the need to remain faithful
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until the end. A few of our speakers at
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least a few have talked about their heritage
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in a way. They've talked about having faithful parents,
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grandparents handing their faith down, or it's been handed
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to them. And all of that is a blessing that
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could never be seen. It's just a tremendous
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blessing. And the question I have tonight as we contemplate
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our lesson tonight. It deals with,
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should we rely on inherited faith? Or as
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the slide says, is faith inherited or
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is it personal? And the question I'd like to ask right
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off the bat is, as you sit here tonight, how many of you tonight—
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you can raise your hand if you want to— have had the blessing of
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faithful parents, grandparents handed
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down to you? Okay, not as many
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as I thought. How many of you are what I would
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call first-generation Christians, if you understand that?
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Some of you aren't putting your hand up. That's all right.
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I'm one of those. And for those who put their hands up,
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obviously they are as well.
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There's a couple verses I'd like to
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read and then get into our study, and one of them, of course, is probably
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familiar with this, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4
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through 9. And these words which
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I command you today will be in your heart, and you shall teach them
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diligently to your children and shall talk of
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them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way,
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when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall
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bind them as a sign on your hand, and it shall be as a frontlet
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between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts
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of your house and on your gates.
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And then over in Psalm 78— excuse
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me— Psalm 78, verses 4 through 7.
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Where God here is talking about his people and the
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rebellious nature of them. It says,
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we will not hide them from our children, telling to
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the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his
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strength and his wonderful works that he has done.
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For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law
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in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should
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not make them Or should, excuse me, that they should make them known to their
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children, that the generation to come might
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know them. The children who would be born,
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that they may arise and declare them to their children,
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that they may set their hope in God and not
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forget the works of God. We can see from
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these 2 verses along with, I'm sure, many others, how important
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it is, how truly important it is,
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crucial, that the faith that we learn,
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the faith that they learned, was to be handed down and
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was to be taught from generation to generation to
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generation. That's obviously
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very important. So let's
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Think of those verses and go on.
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And there's another question that I have. When we
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think of staying faithful to the end, or just staying faithful— if
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staying faithful means practicing our faith,
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is there a difference between practicing our faith and
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persevering in our faith?
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How would you answer that question? Without looking at the slide.
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Is there a difference between the two? What's the difference,
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Roger? And you're— you do the things that are involved.
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Persevering means you guard it, you take care
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of it, you hand it off. Yeah. Okay, any other
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comments on that? You can practice when you're
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family or the influence of
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the culture. A lot of people with impaired— Good
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answer. Appreciate that. Yeah, when we think of practicing our faith,
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we think perhaps of worship. We think of Bible study.
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We think of getting together as brothers and sisters in Christ
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with prayers and serving and all those great things. And they
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are good things. There's nothing wrong, obviously. That's what God wants us
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to do. That's what Jesus taught his disciples to do.
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And that's what we need to be teaching others to do.
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But then you get into perseverance,
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persevering in genuine
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faith until death. You know, in 1 Samuel 16:17,
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it talks about David. Did David persevere
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in his faith? David, we know, was what?
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A man after God's own heart. Why?
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Why was he? You know, there's all kinds of answers we could
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give, but there's a difference between
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those two. When we think of perseverance,
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You know, I remember this in some other lesson
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perhaps I taught or just had it, but a reporter was interviewing
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Thomas Edison and he asked him how he felt about
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failing 2,000 times before he discovered
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how to harness electricity in a light bulb.
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Edison said, my dear young man,
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I did not fail. I did invent
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the light bulb. It just took me 2,000 steps to
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do so. See the difference in the mindset?
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And don't we thank Thomas Edison today?
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When we think of persevering,
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some of the scriptures that are up on the screen,
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One of my favorite and always will be is Hebrews 12:1-3,
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where the Hebrew writer talks about the race
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that we're involved in. And he says, therefore we also,
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since we've been surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses— who
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are they? All we got to do is go back one chapter,
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right? Hebrews chapter 11.
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Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which
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so easily ensnares us, and let us run the
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race with endurance that is set before us.
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And here it is, looking unto Jesus,
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fixing our eyes on Jesus,
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the author and the finisher of our faith,
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the founder, the perfecter, of our
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faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
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He endured it, despising the shame,
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and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners
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against himself, lest you become weary and
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discouraged in your souls.
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That is the key, isn't it? That's truly the key.
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The verse that probably brought this whole thing together about remaining
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faithful until death is in Revelation chapter 2, verse 10,
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where it says— the Christian Standard Version says, be faithful
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to the point of death and I'll give you the crown of life. And that's
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exactly what was happening to our brothers and sisters in the first century.
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Even if you have to die You remain faithful.
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That's what he was saying. Philippians 1:6,
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he be— he who began a good work in you will what?
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Bring it to completion. He will
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do that. God will do that. 1 Corinthians 10:13,
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God always provides a way to endure temptation.
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Always. He always gives us that, that window of escape.
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And then of course Jude 24, God is able
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to keep you from stumbling. Those verses
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help us to understand the difference— to me, the difference
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between practicing and persevering.
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Obviously there's going to be some perseverance that takes
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place with that.
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Jesus warned some people— we'll get
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to this slide in a moment— he warned some people that they would fall
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away under pressure. We know the parable of the sower.
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What happened with the parable of the sower? The seed was planted,
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they heard, everyone heard, but what happened
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in that process? We know that parable better than anyone.
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Anything. What happened to the first one? Okay,
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he had a hardened heart. Okay, what happened to him?
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He fell away. You have the, the thorns,
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you have pressures and things that happen in our life,
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and they all fell away except one.
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The seed was planted in good soil and it produced up
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to a hundredfold.
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100-fold. Others would bear fruit and persevere, as what I just
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said in Matthew 13:23. Paul spoke
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of Demas. He spoke of Demas. He was a follower
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of Christ. He was a companion to Paul in
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Philemon 1:24. But what happened to Demas?
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He strayed. Yeah, he strayed from the faith.
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2 Timothy 4:10. In fact, he didn't stray, he abandoned the
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faith. And then you've got Matthew
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24:13. Jesus promises the one
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who endures to the end will be
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saved. That goes right along with Revelation 2:10,
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doesn't it? We need to endure to the end.
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Then this slide. Why is changing our mind and
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doing new things difficult? There's an easy question.
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Why? Anybody?
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Hard to get out of our comfort zones, isn't it, Russell? I like my comfort
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zones. I'm sure we all do. Anything else you can add to that?
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Charles? Give up
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authority. Okay.
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Okay. Laura, sorry.
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All right. Um, maybe, just maybe,
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it's because we're starting something we've
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never done before. Perhaps it's something we're starting that
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we've never experienced, and a positive aspect of that.
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Along with other things that have been said. So the
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difficulty here is faced by all new believers in
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Jesus. And I, I— this is perhaps— I
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don't like opinions. There's no opinion in the Bible, first or
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second chapter. But there's
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a sense, and maybe you'll agree with this,
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in which every new believer is a first-generation
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Christian. You believe that?
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Am I going to heaven because of a godly father or mother?
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I'm going because why? I need
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to remain faithful. I've made a personal relationship with Jesus.
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I've had his blood wash my sins away.
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So it's incumbent upon me to
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stay faithful. You know,
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the commitment is ours alone. Philippians 2:12 kind
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of says it all to me: work out your— what?— own salvation
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in fear and trembling. Sometimes there's a lot
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of fear and trembling. Maybe there needs to be.
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But some people become disciples of Christ,
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again, like myself and others perhaps here tonight, without the benefit
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of godly, faithful parents. I'm the only
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one in my family— now, my children— but the only
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one in my family up to my point that's been a
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faithful child of God. And whether it's a miracle
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or his providence, I'm still there.
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Still there. 46 years ago, I gave my
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life to Christ. The next day, my father had
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a very tragic death, and it shook
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my world, and I didn't want anything to do
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with God. You've been there?
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Maybe I'm alone. But through godly
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mentors and faithful mentors,
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they helped me to see what I needed to do.
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And I'm thankful for that. I wanted to throw that in.
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We all have a story, don't we?
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We've all got a story. And I think,
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to me, that's the best thing we can do at times is to tell our
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story to someone else because they've got a story and
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they need to hear how you can get through times like that.
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And become and stay faithful.
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So when such first-gen believers tell their story,
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they describe how they gain new insight. They describe how
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they have gained direction and, and were radically, radically changed
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by the love of Christ. I've never in my life had any type of
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love like that given to me. Have you? You know,
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Jesus did a lot of radical things. Different from,
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from the world, different from those of any kind of religious background.
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And it turned the whole world upside down.
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That's what we need to be doing, turning the world
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upside down for Jesus.
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Then we get to the examples here. There are many examples of
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people in the New Testament who were first-generation Christians.
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Why? Because Christianity was new itself.
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It was a new covenant. It was a new way to live.
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They weren't used to this. Think of the apostles. Think of their
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background before they became,
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you know, disciples of Christ. Simple, ordinary,
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common men. The Samaritan
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woman in John 4. What a story.
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That's one of the favorite ones I love to teach when I'm studying with someone.
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Who's at your well? You know, who's at your well?
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The Ethiopian official in Acts chapter 8, the Philippian jailer
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in Acts 16, new insight and radical change
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that Jesus and the gospel affected their lives in Acts chapter 2
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and through the book of Acts, serving others.
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Other new converts included Andrew, Peter, John 6,
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the centurion with the sick servant, Matthew 8,
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travelers in Jerusalem at Pentecost, Acts chapter 2.
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Every nation under heaven was there that day in Jerusalem.
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Could have been up to a million people, I was told,
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were all there. What about
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the Jews in Berea? What about them in Acts 17:11?
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More noble character because they studied the scriptures on a daily
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basis to see whether the apostles were teaching the truth.
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There's a change.
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So all these believers didn't have, as far as I know,
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Christian parents, and they all had a powerful personal
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experience on the truth of Jesus Christ.
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They saw and believed his miracles. They listened to
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him. This led to a deep personal change
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in their life. And this was something that turned their world
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upside down and gave them a new identity.
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The disciples became what? First called
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Christians at Antioch.
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First time. First time.
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The model, perhaps the greatest model of all,
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of the new convert through the New Testament, in my opinion
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again, is Saul. Saul of Tarsus,
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who became Paul the Apostle. And aren't we so glad about that? Aren't we
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blessed, writing most of the New Testament?
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Acts 9:22, Acts 22:26,
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all 3 of those chapters tell of his conversion.
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What about Old Testament examples? Even before Christianity,
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we see faith that is changing God's people like it
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did Paul. Noah, Noah walked with God and he did all that
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he was commanded to do in Genesis 6:9. Abraham Believed
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the Lord, and it was counted to him as what?
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Righteousness. Moses, the Lord used to speak
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to him face to face as a man speaks to his friend.
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That's the type of relationship he had. David walked before God.
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He walked before God in uprightness of heart,
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1 Kings 3:5-6. Samuel ministered
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to the Lord in the presence of Eli, 1 Samuel 3:1.
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That helps us to understand there are no lone rangers
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in the heroes of faith. Even the Lone Ranger had who?
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Come on, I know you know this. Had to have Tonto.
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He wasn't alone. Who's your Tonto?
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Who's the one that keeps you going? You know, they walk with
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God by serving and leading God's people. And you look at Hebrews
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11:6, without faith it's what?
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Impossible to please God.
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Impossible. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists
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and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
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Not just happenstance. It doesn't happen
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like that. We got to be diligent.
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So perhaps we could look at some of these, and when we're talking
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about inherited faith, you know, something that led them to,
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to be who they were. You've got Timothy,
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you know, his faith was passed down by who?
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Eunice and Lois, his mother and grandmother. His father was a
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Greek, so that wasn't going to work very well.
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For 2 Timothy 1:5, it's, I'm reminded of your sincere faith
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which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.
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Paul. You know, he reminds Timothy that he had been taught the
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scriptures from childhood, 2 Timothy 3:14-15.
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So this helps us to understand that faith can be passed
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from one generation to another, like we saw in Deuteronomy as well as
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Psalms, through the teaching and example.
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A family's faith can have a a lasting influence
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on future generations. Abraham,
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he trusted God, he trusted his promises,
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and those promises were carried forward through Isaac and
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Jacob, Genesis 12 and following.
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We've got Joseph. Joseph was part
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of the family line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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And he continued trusting in God's purpose. And obviously
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we know he went through some very difficult times. He definitely
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had to persevere in what he went through.
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Samuel, you know, Hannah dedicated
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Samuel to the Lord, and Samuel was raised in the
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service of God.
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So the Bible shows that inherited faith perhaps
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is not automatically the same as personal
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faith. In other words, a person can grow up hearing about God
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but still needs to personally trust and obey and
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follow him. I want to make sure we get that across.
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What about Joshua? Remember what he said in Joshua 24:15?
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As for me and my house, we're gonna serve the
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Lord. Choose this day whom you will serve.
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He challenged God's people. Choose this
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day. And then we've got perhaps some
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we could look at as far as personal faith is concerned.
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Abraham trusted God in
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such a way that he left his family. He abandoned
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his homeland, and God led him.
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David trusted that God could give him victory over
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Goliath. Okay, Daniel continued
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praying to God even when it would
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get him into serious trouble, and it almost did. Peter,
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although his faith later wavered,
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He still acted on Jesus' words. When you get to 1 and
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2 Peter, you know, if you've got any kind of a, a thought about Peter
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in the, in the Gospels, especially in the book of Acts
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too, but when you get to 1 and 2 Peter, my mind says he
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got it. He understands.
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He understands. Grow in the grace
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and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. His final words in 2
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Peter 3:18. So, and Job
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of course struggled deeply, but what
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did he do? He continually turned to who?
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To God. He asked him a lot of questions,
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but God asked him more and finally got his attention.
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Obviously we can't spend a lot of time on all of these, but I
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thought I'd throw in 10 practical goals
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to remain faithful until the— anybody have anything to add to
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the— add to this point? I really didn't want this to be a total—
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yes, Charles. Yeah,
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yeah, that's good. Yeah,
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yeah, the judges, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. You know,
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we don't see that today, thankfully.
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Good point, Charles.
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Miller. And I was thinking, yes,
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but if you wanted to persevere to
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become personal— I think it's parents
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or family— and you haven't integrated that in, had it become
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personal, that would feel— it's going Yeah,
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it's like there's so many things in life that the parents will leave
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to their children to, to give them a heritage, you know,
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in a lot of different ways, uh, not just in
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a monetary way but other ways. And all those are blessings
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and they're important, but what is more important, what is the
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most important thing that we can help our children and others
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is To keep their faith strong,
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to keep it going. Laura, I just say that, and I
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think that God tests each one of us individually,
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and it's not a one-off. It's a— I think
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it's— yeah. And what a blessing that is.
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What a difference he's made in my life. Wasn't that a Ronnie Milsap song
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of years gone by? All right, 10 practical
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tips. Go through these rather quickly. Intentionally avoid
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temptations. 1 Corinthians 10:13, no temptation has
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overtaken you except what's common to mankind. God is faithful.
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He'll not let you be tempted about what you can bear,
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but when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can
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endure it. Think of Joseph, Potiphar's wife,
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his brothers, um, he endured.
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Pray. Ask him to change your thought
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chain of thought and to give you strength and perseverance
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to stay the course. Psalm 139:23-24 says,
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search me, O God, know my heart, try me and know my
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thoughts. And we know Philippians 4:6-7,
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we know those verses. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything,
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in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
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be made known to God. Okay, and the peace of
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God surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds
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in Christ Jesus. What a series of verses to
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help us remember who you're serving.
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Matthew 20:28 tells us Jesus came to what?
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Serve. Not to be served,
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and to give his life as a ransom.
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Put God first. Help him understand the
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ministry you have. And remember that every person needs
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to be served in some way. Beware of busyness.
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We become so distracted by everything that's going on in our life.
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What happens? We miss opportunities,
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don't we? We truly miss opportunities.
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Psalm 46:10 tells us, be still and
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know that I'm God. Be still.
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Overcome your fear. We know God gives us a spirit of power,
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not of fear. 2 Timothy 1:6-8.
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Know your spiritual temperature.
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Know your spiritual temperature. Remember Laodicea,
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Revelation 3:14? What happened with them?
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What did Jesus— how did he commend them? Perhaps, but there
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was more condemnation than commending them. They were what?
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Lukewarm. And they were so lukewarm, he was going to do what?
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We've all eaten, right, so far? Vomit them
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out of his mouth. It made him sick.
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We need to be one or the other, and hopefully,
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um, you know, hot for Christ.
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Beware of ungodly influences. Whoever walks with the wise
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becomes wise, but the companions of fools suffers
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harm. Proverbs 13:20. And I love—
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excuse me— I love Proverbs 27, verse 17.
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As iron sharpens iron, One person sharpens another.
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Fight laziness. We all get tired.
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We get tired. We get overwhelmed. But don't just
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coast, okay? Don't coast along because
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many times we're not going to give our best. Don't look back on your life
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with regret. John 10 tells us that Jesus came to
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give us what? Abundant life.
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Abundant life. Count the cost.
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Counting the cost will enable us to fulfill the commitments we take on and bring
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glory to God in the process. In Luke 14:28,
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Jesus himself made sure that his spiritual reservoir was
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filled. Memorize Scripture.
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Meditate upon Scripture. Whatever you can do.
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When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, he quoted scripture,
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Matthew 4:1-11. It's got to be helpful.
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It's got to be helpful.
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Though we need to know God and his word, and that gives us information,
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right? I don't know if that's the goal
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of our faith, to be honest with you. Not just information,
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because it's what we do with that information.
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Okay, our objective is not just spiritual
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information. Our motivation ought to be what? Transformation.
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Romans 12:1-2.
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Romans 12:1-2.
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Staying faithful to the end.
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Faithfulness will never be easy. Why isn't
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it easy? What type of influence do we have
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around us every day, whether we like it or not,
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whether we like him or not? We surely don't.
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Satan, the devil.
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You think he's just leaving you alone now that you've become a Christian?
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You really think that? Please see me after class because I need a lesson.
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He's trying to get us back. He's got the world. He's already
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got them. And he's looking at us and saying,
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oh, I can get him, or I can get her.
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Don't give in to him, okay?
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But you do have the ability to fulfill God's plan for your life.
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Draw near to God and he will what? Draw near
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to you. Have daily prayer, Bible study,
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stay in fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ,
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those who are to be, as Paul would say many times,
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like-minded, okay?
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God is faithful. He's provided for us the necessary strength,
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time, and resources we need to echo his
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faithfulness. Because as I said in my first lesson,
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his faithfulness is the foundation of
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ours, of ours.
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When you can't see the way, when you can't
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see the way, fix your eyes on Jesus
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instead of your fears. Fix your eyes
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on him. Hebrews 12:2. Out of a different translation.
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Let us look only to Jesus. He is the one who began our faith,
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and he makes our faith perfect. Jesus suffered death
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on the cross, but he accepted the shame of the cross as
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if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that
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God put before him, and now he's sitting at the right hand of
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God. He knew the ending.
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And so do we. We know the ending if
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we remain faithful. We know the ending,
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and it ought to bring us joy like it did him, because he knew he
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was going back to the Father. And we can do the same.
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Anchor your heart in his faith— excuse me, in his
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promises. Hebrews 6:19: Hope
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is an anchor of the soul. Which is sure and steadfast.
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Invite God into every decision that
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you make. Psalm 32:8,
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I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
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I will guide you with my eye.
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I think that's the only time I've read that in scripture.
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What's that mean, I will guide you with my eye?
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What's he doing? He's watching.
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He's watching over us is
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the way I would say that. He's watching over us.
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Trust God with your plans when you
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can't see it. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
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Lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your
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ways. And he will direct your path, Proverbs 3:5-6.
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And then hold on to hope.
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Hold on to it because God is faithful.
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Hebrews 10:23, hold fast to the confession
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of our hope without wavering because he who promised
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is faithful.
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Look at, uh,
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2 Timothy 4. I've read this before.
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Um, 2 Timothy 4,
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looking at verses 6, Paul's last
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words to us perhaps that we have. For I'm already being poured out
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as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.
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I fought the good fight. I've finished the race.
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What else? I've kept the faith.
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None of us have a background like Paul.
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None of us tried to destroy the Lord's church. None of us were
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what he called himself— an insolent man, violent,
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throwing brothers and sisters of Christ
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in prison. Watching Stephen being killed.
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I've never been there, and I pray
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I never have to. But finally, there's laid
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up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
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will give to me on that day. And not only to me,
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but what? To all who love
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his name. Appearing. We've all got
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to say amen to that, church. Go ahead.
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Oh, come on. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.
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You got to love his appearing. You got to wait and love
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for that to happen.
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When you're uncertain about your future,
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when you're facing a difficult decision, When you're
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wondering which direction to take,
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remember that God has never and will
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never abandon you.
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I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you.
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But we must seek him in prayer, we must spend time
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in his word, and we've gotta trust him to
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take one step at a time.
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One step. Whether you believe
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faith is inherited or not, whether you believe it's personal
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or not, you've gotta believe the scriptures we've looked
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at tonight to help you on your journey.
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And not just you, but so many
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others. That need the attention that
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only Christ can give. Let's have a quick prayer.
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Father, thank you so much for tonight. Thank you so much for your
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word. Thank you for those who are here. And I just pray, Father,
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all I do is pray that what we've said tonight has
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come to our attention of how to remain faithful to the
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end. Father, help us not to rely on inherited
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faith, but help us to to use it and to grow
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in that and to understand what it means to be,
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uh, to have perseverance in, in times that we cannot
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do alone. There is no way. Only you can get
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us through. Thank you so much for your Son. Thank you for
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his love for us. And may we always,
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Father, follow him and exalt you and glorify
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you. In Jesus' name we pray,