Latest / LoveKey Church Podcast / The Recipe for Joy | LoveKey Church Message of the Week Podcast | Heinz Winckler

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The Recipe for Joy | LoveKey Church Message of the Week Podcast | Heinz Winckler · LoveKey Church Podcast

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I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind. Listen to this,
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even to give every man according to his ways.
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I want to give something, but it's going to be according to your ways.
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According to the, everyone say, fruit of his doings, not the fruit of your intentions.
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Music.
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Hello and welcome to the Love Key Church podcast, where we share our church's
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message of the week. My name is Heinz Winkler, and together with my wife,
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children, and our leadership team, we host Love Key Church here in Somerset
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West, online, and on this podcast.
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It is our mission to help you to encounter God, align with His purposes,
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reign in life, and help others to do the same.
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We trust that you will find this message empowering, encouraging, and inspiring.
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Please share it with your friends and family, and write a review for us.
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And a huge thank you goes out to those who have already done so.
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So, may you be thoroughly blessed as you listen to this message.
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Music.
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We are busy with a series based on our word for the year, which is fruit.
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That's our word for the year. And I've been sharing a picture with you of this
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cycle that we keep on seeing in the word of God.
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Everything starts with a seed and a
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seed produces a tree or a plant which produces
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fruit which produces seed and so
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on and so forth and that's why it's so important to know what are the seeds
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we're talking about so a quick recap our first message this year was called
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be fruitful and multiply and we will find out that God's plan from the beginning
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is still his plan he wants us to be be fruitful, and multiply,
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both physically as families who grow and disciple our own children,
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but also in discipling the world around us. Amen?
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The second message was called Positioned to Produce, and it was all about how am I positioned?
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Am I positioned to produce what God wants me to produce?
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Harvey shared a message called No Fear for the Year, and we spoke about what
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it means, how do we live a life that doesn't have a fear of circumstances or
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a fear of man, but absolutely and only a fear of the Lord.
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And last week, I shared with you a message called What You Sow Will Show.
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Spoke specifically about what can happen if we allow certain voices to plant
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seeds in our lives and that when those seeds, we allow them in our spirits,
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they will will bear fruit, it will show,
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so we need to be very careful and very focused on what we allow in our spirits.
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How many of you were able to not listen to other voices this week as you fasted?
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That's a beginning. That's a start.
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Thank you. Did you find that there was more clarity as you did that?
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Did you hear more from God, more clearly, less noise? I hope so.
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Now, today we're going to build on this. If you've missed any of those messages,
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I want to encourage you strongly to go and listen or watch them.
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They're all on our platforms.
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So before I tell you what today's message is called, I'm going to just ask a few questions.
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Like I always do, I like doing that to get us all in the right mindset.
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How many of you like to cook or bake or both cook bake both all right how many
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of you how many of you hate being in the kitchen anyone all right we've got
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a few we've got a few honest people all right how many of you love to cook and
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bake but you hate the cleaning part.
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If only someone can clean up after you yeah have any of you ever found a recipe
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that you wanted wanted to make.
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You looked at the picture in the book and you're like, man, that looks amazing.
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And then you want to make it. And then you find out you don't have all the ingredients,
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which is really frustrating.
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But either way, you might be someone who goes, ah, I'm going to give up.
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I don't have all the necessary ingredients.
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That would be our perfectionist brothers and and sisters.
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Then you have our creative, sort of risky brothers and sisters who would go,
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I'm just going to wing it.
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And I'm going to make this work either way, you know, and they find substitutionary ingredients.
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And you end up with something that doesn't look or taste like the picture in the book.
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Anyone ever done that? I've done that. I'm guilty.
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But either way, Anyway, if you didn't have it, or if you didn't even make it,
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you obviously don't end up with the right dish.
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Has anyone ever tried to make a new recipe, something you're trying for the
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first time, you have all the right ingredients, but still somehow, was it a floppy?
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Anyone? And you're like, how did this happen?
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And the reason normally is that you lack skill or and experience,
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or you missed something about the method, or you just don't have the right tools in your kitchen.
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Anyone willing to admit humbly? Yes. All right.
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Now, as a cook or a baker, if you have the right attitude, you will humble yourself.
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You will learn from your mistakes and you will try again. This time,
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you know, using what you've learned.
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And this is called practicing.
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Everyone say it with me. Practicing. Yes. Very important.
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As you exercise, you get better at something.
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Thing how many of you know that when my when my
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kids were younger they didn't want to understand that
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concept let alone try so i'm like you can
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do this but it'll take some practice and they want to get it right the first
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time anyone like that when i get it right the first time and then and then after
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a few tries and falls and and you know skid knees and stuff they're like i got
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it i got it i'm doing it look at me and then like five minutes later look no
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hands like yeah you went from zero Euro to Euro,
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but it came with practice, amen? All right.
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Now, our spiritual lives are similar to what I just described.
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Today, I'd like to share with you a life-changing, life-impacting recipe.
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Are you ready for it? I give to you the recipe for joy. I have it. I know it.
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And I'm going to share it with you today. The recipe for joy.
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How many of you would like to cook this up?
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All right. Wonderful. Now,
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Is anyone here in the house today honest enough to say, listen,
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I can do with more joy in my life? Anyone? More joy?
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How many of you have too much joy? Like, no, please don't give me more.
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I'm good. Anyone? No. Okay.
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How many of you would like, those of you who are parents, how many of you would
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like to see your children be successful? Anyone?
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Would you like them to be righteous?
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Would you like to have more influence, good influence? Anyone?
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All right. Do you want to be wealthy? Be honest.
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Who wants to be wealthy? Yes? All right.
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Who wants to be generous, known for their generosity? Yes, come on.
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How many of you would like to live without fear of people and circumstances?
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No fear. Yes, that's a lot of hands very quickly. Sure.
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How many of you would like to leave a legacy worth leaving that others will
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talk about for a long time to come?
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How many of you would like to do business with integrity and generosity? Anyone?
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Less hands. All right. the fear thing was quite big.
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Would you agree that having some or all of the things that I just mentioned
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will give you joy, will lead to more joy in your life? Would you agree?
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Some of you are like, especially the wealth one. Yes, I have news for you.
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Joy doesn't come automatically with money, but there's a difference between
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wealth and just having money.
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Now, to find the recipe for joy, I had to go on a journey and I finally turned
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to the Cosmic Recipe Book of Life.
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I went to the living word of the master of the universe who has the holy scriptures,
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the thing we call the Bible.
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And our main reading will come from one of my favorite Psalms, which is Psalm 112.
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So let's read together. It starts with a phrase that we should start every day with.
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Praise the Lord. Everyone say praise the Lord.
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Now listen carefully.
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With compassion and righteous, a good man deals graciously and lends.
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He will guide his affairs with discretion.
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Surely he will never be shaken. The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance.
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He will not be afraid of evil tidings. That means he will not be afraid of bad news.
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His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
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His heart is established. established, he will not be afraid.
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Until he sees his desire upon his enemies, he has dispersed abroad.
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He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.
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His horn will be exalted with honor. The wicked will see it and be grieved.
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He will gnash his teeth and melt away.
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The desire of the wicked shall perish.
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Come on, can we give the word of God just a praise offering?
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Amen. Amen. So good.
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Here, the psalmist gives us 17 things.
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Some of them you would have heard if you were paying attention were kind of a repetition.
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So if you add them all up, I made a list. If you make the list,
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there are 17 things that flow from the life that has the two main ingredients.
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Obedience, would you agree with me that these 17 things can be called fruit of a life?
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This comes from your life. It's fruit of your life. Amen. And that's how this
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beautifully ties in with what we are talking about.
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What do you want the fruit of your life to be?
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When I made the list and I said, do you want to be this? Do you want to be that?
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It all comes from the list in Psalm 112.
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And all of of you or most of you said yes, especially to the no fear one.
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Now, would you agree that this is fruit? And we say, yes, the fruit of a life
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of a man or woman whose life lines up with the recipe.
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In the New King James says, blessed is the man. That's our first line.
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It says, praise the Lord.
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Blessed is the man. Other translations say, blessed is the person. Blessed are those.
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And the New Living says, how joyful are those?
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So we, and the reason is we can ask ourselves, why does it say joyful?
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Because that's what blessed actually means in the biblical context.
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It means to be full of joy and exceedingly happy.
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But we need to take our minds off of our worldly connotation to the meaning of joy and happiness.
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So we all have an idea of what the world says happiness is, even joy.
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But if we go back to the biblical definition, it's so much deeper and more profound
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than the cheap substitute that the world offers.
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I want to take you to the Sermon on the Mount quickly.
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We did this in depth last year. How many of you were here for the Sermon on
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the Mount series called The Teacher?
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You can go back and listen to that on our YouTube and podcast.
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Jesus sits down. He starts speaking to this massive crowd.
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The crowd was there because he did healings and those people stayed and brought
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more people and he healed more people.
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So a whole crowd of people who already saw that he had healed the masses were
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now sitting, paying attention to the seed from the word himself.
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I think that's just a beautiful picture. And he starts off with a piece that
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we now call the Beatitudes.
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In the beginning, he says, every time, blessed are those, blessed are the.
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Do you know the Beatitudes, anyone?
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Okay. He repeats, blessed is this kind of person, blessed are those.
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Things like, we see that blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn. And then he says, why?
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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful.
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And that word blessed, and even the word beatitudes, it comes from the word
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that means to be joyful, to be exceedingly happy, to have an abundance of joy. Are you with me?
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Now, the Sermon on the Mount is through three chapters of Matthew, Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
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And we said about the series.
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Now, Jesus started all of it with blessed are the following people.
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And then he goes into this epic teaching that we covered over weeks and weeks
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and stated that he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
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That's one of the big statements that Jesus makes in his sermon.
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He then takes a few of what we know as the 10 commandments, and he tells us
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that you were told this is a commandment. I'm telling you, it's actually over here.
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So you were told murder is wrong. I'm telling you, if you hate your brother,
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you've murdered him in your heart.
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You've heard that adultery is wrong. I tell you that if you look lustfully upon
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someone in your heart, you have committed adultery.
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And he takes everything up a notch, and we're like, whoa, and we realize we
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actually fall so short of the holiness of God.
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And towards the end of the sermon we
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get to a part that we looked at last week where
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he warns about false prophets we read that last
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week and whom we will know by their fruits
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and then interestingly straight from there out of talking about false prophets
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he talks about that there's a certain group of so-called believers to whom he
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will say i never knew you so he first says you you will know false prophets by the following.
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You will recognize them by their fruits. And then he says, there's other bunch
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of people that I will say, I never knew you.
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And that word know, that word knew, it means Ganesco, which means to know intimately.
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The word in the Hebrew is Yadah, which is beautiful.
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It's that word of knowing. They use that word to say that Adam knew Eve,
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Adam, Yadah, Eve, and they had a child. It's that intimate language.
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Jesus says...
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I will, I never knew you. And then he says, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
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You who make a practice, a habit out of not keeping my laws.
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Are you with me? So that's all part. He starts with blessed are these kinds of people.
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He has all these teachings. He ends with a warning about false prophets.
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And then he talks about people that he will say, well, never,
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I never knew you. and then he finishes off in a powerful way with a heading
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that I like to call hear and do.
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Jesus ends his sermon and you can see the same thing in Luke 6 as well by comparing
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those who hear his words and do them to a man who builds his house on the rock.
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He goes into that well-known story.
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He says, those who hear what I say and do what I say are like the man who built his house on the rock.
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When I was little, I don't know about you, but when I was little,
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I just thought the man who has his house on the rock is the guy who, he just loves Jesus.
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He's got a relationship with him. He's a Christian. Anyone else think that?
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It's actually way more specific than that. And the difference is life changing.
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The difference is that he will either know you or not know you.
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It's not just to say, I'm a Christian. It's not just to say,
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I go to church. It's not just to say, I know Jesus.
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No, it's to hear what he has said and to do it.
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And what did he say? What did he say?
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And why did he make this analogy? He made this analogy because he knows the
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storms are coming. He knows the winds are coming.
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And if you are not strong, if you are not settled on the rock,
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which is Jesus Christ, but it's not just Jesus Christ, it's the word and it's
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doing what the word says. That is the rock.
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If you are not founded in the rock, then the winds will come and the storms
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will come and you will be thrown aside and your house.
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It says the man who built his house on the sand, his house was destroyed.
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It was, there was great ruin because of what happened to him because his house
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was on the sand. He had no foundation.
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How many of you want to build your house on the rock? Amen. Some of you are
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like, I'm thinking about it.
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Now, where else do we get this pattern? I'm going to read to you Psalm 1.
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I've got that on the screen for you. It says, blessed is the man. We see a pattern.
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Psalm 112, blessed is the man.
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Psalm 1, way back in the beginning of Psalms, blessed is the man who walks not
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in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners,
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nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
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But his delight, remember that word from Psalm 112. Verse 12,
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blessed is the man who fears the Lord and delights greatly in obeying his commands.
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But his delight is the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night.
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What did God say to Joshua in the beginning of the book of Joshua?
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Meditate on my word day and night and you will be successful.
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He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its
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fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall
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prosper guys whatever that person does,
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shall prosper how many of you want the so-called Midas
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touch whatever you do will prosper anyone this is
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the key these are the ingredients to the recipe of
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joy verse four the ungodly are
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not so making a comparison do you
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see once again I say this all the time do you see a middle ground
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around do you see a sort of blessed man a
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kind of walking with god sort of
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hanging with the scornful and the sinners no the
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ungodly are not like this man who is blessed but are like the chaff which the
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wind drives away therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners
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in the congregation of the righteous for the lord knows the way of the righteous
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by the but the way of of the ungodly shall perish. There are two ways.
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Jesus confirms this. You are either on the narrow way or the broad way.
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We also get this from Jeremiah 17. I'm going to start though at verse five already.
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It says, thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.
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So any one of us that right now, if I look at myself and I'm very honest, where is my trust?
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Is it in man? Is it in what people can provide for me? Is it in my employer? Is it in my own ability?
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Is it in the system around me? or is it truly in the Lord whose heart departs from the Lord?
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You see, there's a disconnect with the one who is cursed. For he shall be like
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a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the
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parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.
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How many of you would like that? No, don't put up your hand.
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Now I know you have not been listening. You don't want that.
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None of us want to be cursed. okay don't put
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up your hand so quickly we we step out of agreement with
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that so then we continue this
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is the part where i wanted to get to but i first wanted to contrast it for
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you verse 7 blessed is the
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man who trusts in the lord and
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whose hope is the lord not in the
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lord his hope is the lord there's not
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an in there his hope is the lord for
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he shall be like a tree planted by the
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waters which spreads out its roots by the river will not fear
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when heat comes but its leaf will be green
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and will not be anxious in the year of
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drought it will not worry when there are problems at
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the moment nor cease from yielding fruit no matter what going through a drought
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whatever it can be you will still yield fruit the heart is deceitful above all
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things that line comes straight out of that part this was Isaiah writing all
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the way through no verses no chapters.
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Why is that important to read that right there? Because most people are deceived
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by their own heart's desires.
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Because their heart's desires are not connected to the desires of God.
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Because they are not abiding in the vine.
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It's all connected so beautifully.
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I, listen to this people. I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind.
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I want you to imagine something quite horrific. I want you to imagine that God
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walks into a room with you. He sits you down on a chair.
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He presses on your heart and suddenly everything in your heart and everything
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in your mind projects on the wall like a screen.
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And he sees it. He hears it. And he tests you based on that.
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Does that freak you out? It freaks me out a little bit.
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This is what it says. I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind. Listen to this.
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Even to give every man according to his ways. I want to give something,
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but it's going to be according to your ways.
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According to the, everyone say fruit of his doings.
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Not the fruit of your intentions.
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Not the fruit of your well-meaning But that's not what I mean,
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No By the fruit Of your Doings By the work of your life Mind, heart,
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Actions, tested Now I know most of you don't like Tests,
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But this is one that we all have to face On
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a daily basis but definitely at the
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end of time when God comes in his
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glory and we all have to stand before the white throne of judgment
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it will be tested that is why the question of what we are sowing into us is
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so important because what you sow you will reap if you sow things that distort
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your mind and your heart that is what you will sow.
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That's what we'll show. And that's what God will test.
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So what do you want God to see when he tests you?
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Get the seed right so that you
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as a tree is healthy and that the fruit of your life is pleasing to him.
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Can we get excited about this? Because the good news is it's possible.
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I know not right now, some of you are going, oh, shucks.
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You might feel even even condemned, which is not, the Holy Spirit doesn't condemn.
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The Holy Spirit brings conviction.
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Conviction leads to freedom. So if you are going.
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Okay, I need to clean house. I need to make some. That's good.
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That's the Holy Spirit going, pressing the right button.
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And you're going like, I need to fix this. Yes.
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You must go to God. Go to the word. All right. So the ingredients for joy.
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We have the recipe for joy. How many of you are glad we have the recipe?
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Thank you, Jesus. But we also know that even if we have the ingredients,
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there might still be some challenges in putting them together.
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But we first have to understand what these ingredients are.
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Okay? Now, from Psalm 112, it's clear that we have two main ingredients for
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a blessed life, also known as a joyful and exceedingly happy life. We all want that.
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How many times have I told you that the Bible is full of if and then statements?
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So the blessed man, he fears the Lord and greatly delights in His commandments.
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Then the fruit follows. We can't have the fruit without the root.
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The fear of the Lord is the first ingredient.
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The second one is delighting in obeying His commandments. Do you notice that
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it doesn't say obeys His commandments?
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It says delights. Not even delights. It says, delight greatly in obeying His. Look at that Psalm.
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I took out the greatly because the sentence just got long.
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But the fear of the Lord plus delight in your obeying His commands equals joy.
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This is what the Bible says.
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It's there. It's written.
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And the fruit of a blessed life are the 17 things that are listed to you in Psalm 112.
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The fruit of this blessed life, the fruit that we can see on a life that is
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dedicated to God through the fear of the Lord and delighting and obeying his
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commandments are these things and many more that we can find.
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But under each of those headings, almost, you can fill in a whole bunch of stuff
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that we all would find to be awesome things to have in our lives and that will bring joy.
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I've already asked you this question, but I'm going to just take you back.
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The list of Psalm 112, how many of you would like to have this in your life?
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How many of you have it already, but you'd like to see more?
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So many of these things that we see on the list are things that the world offers
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to us as well. Have you noticed that?
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The world also offers things that sound similar.
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But every time the world offers the same thing
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it comes connected to you and
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yourself and your pride and what you
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get how how amazing you are what you
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need what you can get out of it it's all
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connected to the self but when it's godly
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it's all connected to god his kingdom and seeing that i leave a godly legacy
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through my children and through those around me that is the big difference What
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the world offers will always be temporary and empty and without eternal value. Always.
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What the world offers is empty, it is temporary, and it has no eternal value.
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Now, there's some things that we enjoy in life. There's nothing wrong in essence
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with that thing to enjoy it.
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But you know and I know that your hobby is not getting you to heaven.
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Seven, your hobby is not necessarily leading people to Jesus unless you are
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actively using your hobby to pull people closer to get them to Jesus.
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There's nothing wrong with it as a thing. But if you start worshiping the thing,
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if you start worshiping, if you start finding your identity in the activities
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and the stuff that you do, then we have something we need to be careful of.
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But what God offers us is a holy joy,
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a righteous joy, a joy where the things on the list is not the point,
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but the consequence of living a life in holy fear of a holy God and enjoying
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being obedient to His word.
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That is the difference. Can you hear the difference? Do you understand it, church?
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This is so important for us to get today.
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Now, I wonder if you have already picked up on something interesting.
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If a person lives with a healthy, holy fear of God, would that not actually
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lead to a desire to obey God?
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If you truly have a holy, healthy fear of God, then there should flow from your
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being a willingness to obey Him.
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So ingredient number one actually, in a way, produces ingredient number two. Are you following?
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We want to please Him when we fear Him. We want to submit to His will.
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So obedience is a natural outflow of the healthy fear of the Lord.
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So the first ingredient flows into the second one, which is so powerful.
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Now, something that I noticed in this text that I want to just highlight to
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you, because I think it's very interesting, and it will actually help us to
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further unlock the truth in this text, is that we find different tenses in this presentation.
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We've got future tense, present tense, and past tense. So if you don't know
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what I'm talking about, go back to school.
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But it's interesting to see that the promised fruit of a blessed man,
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many or most of the items, it's a will be, it's a promise.
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It says that he will be this. His children will be this. He will be wealthy.
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I don't know if you've noticed that. But then we also have some present tense
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statements, which is he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous.
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And I believe that the present tense statements should show us the character,
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the state of the character of his heart, which shows us if you have that because
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you fear God, because you obey his commandments, then you can know that if this
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is, is, then other things will be.
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Amen. And we also see some past tense statements where he says that he has a.
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He has sown abroad. He has helped the poor and the needy, which also speaks to what he presently is.
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He is gracious and giving and generous. So his past experience of being generous,
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this what he is now, all of it are building blocks for he will be the following.
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And these are the blessings of such a life. Are we following?
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Amen. It's so powerful. Now, some of you may ask, okay, cool.
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These are the ingredients. I hear you.
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But what is the fear of the Lord? I hope that the men who are in Sons of God
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and the ladies who are in Daughters of God,
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after having studied the book, The Awe of God by John Bevere,
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will have a better idea than some of the others may be here of what the fear of the Lord actually is.
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I want to just to help us all to understand this better.
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There's a quote from this book that says it so well that I'm just going to quote
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it to you directly today. day.
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What is the fear of the Lord?
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To fear God is to reverence and to be in complete awe of Him.
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It is to hallow Him, which means it is to greatly respect Him.
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It is to esteem, respect, honor, venerate, and adore Him above anyone or anything else.
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This is so important. When we fear God.
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This is key, people. When we truly fear God, we love what He loves and we hate what He hates.
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And He hates sin. He hates unrighteousness.
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We know this from the Word of God. So if we truly fear Him, a sign in our lives
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will be that we hate what He hates as much as He hates it.
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To fear God is to hate injustice. It is to depart from evil in every sense,
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thought, word, and action.
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Remember what we read in Jeremiah 17, the mind, the heart, and the actions will
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be judged, will be tested.
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So we have to depart from evil in every sense.
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It is to walk in authentic humility before God and mankind.
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What does authentic humility mean? It means that I don't have a false humility.
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I don't try to impress people by showing them, hey, look how humble I am.
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It's also not I'm a doormat or a floor mat.
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I'm just, you know, being pushed around. I just kind of let it happen.
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No, to be truly humble is to know who I am, what I've received from God,
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where I come from and where I'm going.
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And I know exactly what my role is. And I present as humble before you because I know who's my king.
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But I also love the image of God that you bear. so I will treat you in a humble
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way and a respectful way. Amen.
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It is to fear God, sorry, to fear God is to give Him the praise,
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the adoration, the thanksgiving, and the worship He deserves.
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How many of you know that He deserves all our praise, all our adoration,
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all our thanksgiving and worship? Amen.
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It is to give God all that belongs to Him.
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It is to tremble before Him in wonder and awe. It is to give His word and presence our full attention.
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Our full attention. How many of you would really enjoy it if the person you
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love the most in the world sits with you across from a table and you're having
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a deep conversation and they keep looking at their phone?
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Would you feel loved? Would you feel that you want to continue the conversation?
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If you are normal, then no.
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I'm helping you because it seems like some of you think it's a trick question.
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It's not a trick question. You should just say, I would hate that because I'm
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here with you and I love you, but you keep looking at your phone or you keep
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looking over my shoulder to see if there's anyone more interesting in the room.
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Imagine how God feels when I say I'm consecrating this time,
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but I'm constantly being distracted, constantly thinking of other things,
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not shutting my mind down and focusing on Him alone.
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Then we have a lack of the fear of God. The good news is we can practice the fear of the Lord. Amen.
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To fear God is to obey him. And this is a beautiful way that he describes this
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and it links to our second ingredient of our recipe.
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He says to fear God is to obey him. They are linked.
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An inward force determined to carry out his will. And I do this. I will be obedient.
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This is important, church. Please listen up. If you haven't read the book,
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please read the book because it goes into detail on each of these.
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Just want you to hear these ones to be challenged today because this really challenges
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me that I will obey God I will
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obey his word and I will obey his leading no matter
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what the cost I will obey immediately
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because delayed obedience is disobedience I will obey even if I don't see a
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personal benefit yo that one's hard I will obey God yes because I see this kind
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of can lead there where I'm going to achieve something,
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I'm going to get something, I'm going to grow in an area. No.
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Obey even if you don't see a personal benefit.
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Obey even if it doesn't make sense. I know this one very well, personally.
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Anyone else? Obey when it doesn't make sense.
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And fifth, and we carry, to fear God is to obey Him to completion.
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It's not good enough to be obedient sort of halfway.
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And a good example that John also refers to is the story of King Saul,
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who was told to destroy, to devote to destruction a whole group of people from
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a nation that they had a war with, a battle with.
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But he chose to keep some of the price, the choice animals, and he kept the king of that nation.
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And in that moment, God turned against him. And he said, you are no longer the
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king of Israel. because he fulfilled the obedience 95%, but that 5% made it disobedience.
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We have to obey to completion.
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Just quickly again, to fear God is to obey him no matter what the cost,
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to obey immediately, to obey even if you don't see a personal benefit,
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to obey even if it doesn't make sense, to obey and carry it to completion.
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The last few ones, what is the fear of the Lord? It is to abstain from any complaining,
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any murmuring, and any grumbling.
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What happened to Israel in the desert is our example here.
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If we complain, if we murmur, if we grumble, it is rebellion against God.
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It is not fear of the Lord.
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To fear God is to respect, honor, and submit to His direct and delegated authority.
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Authority that is your pastors your spiritual leaders and with the only exception
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being if that authority tells you to sin the only time that you go against the
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people of God that he has put in your life to lead you guide you help you and
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instruct you is when they tell you hey go and do that sin then you say uh-uh no.
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Every time, every other time, your submission to leadership is a show of your
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submission and fear to God.
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This is very clear from scripture. And lastly, the fear of the Lord shapes our
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intentions, our thoughts, our words, and our actions.
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And that's so powerful because it leads us straight back to Jeremiah 17,
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where God says he's going to test our minds, our hearts, and our actions.
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But when we have the fear of the Lord, then it shapes our intentions,
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our thoughts, our words, and our actions into what God wants them to be.
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So that when He tests them, He finds them to be fruitful for Him.
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Amen? Are you with me, church?
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So second ingredient, what does it mean to delight in obeying His commandments?
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How many of you get excited about rules? Yay!
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You give a little jump for joy because man there's more rules anyone okay i
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actually know people who really enjoy rules because it makes life simpler and
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it builds you know systems and stuff but i see i see you all a bunch of rebels
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apparently no hands went up not even the school principal principle.
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What does it mean to delight in obeying His commandments? In fact,
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it says greatly delight.
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This language, I remember the first time I read this, I've shared this with
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you, but some have not heard the story.
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My wife and I wanted to have children.
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And because God showed me that we will have four. He showed me in 2005,
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I will have three boys and a girl.
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So I've known all along I had an unfair advantage.
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And when we decided it's time to start trying, for a long time,
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nothing happened. So we went for tests.
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And they told us that we have less than a 5% chance of having children naturally.
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And I said, thank you for your medical advice. My God said, we will have children.
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So we prayed and we did some of the stuff they suggested, but nothing medically
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invasive. evasive, just mostly prayer and trusting God.
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And we got pregnant shortly after that, by God's grace.
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But then my wife had a miscarriage with her very first pregnancy, six weeks in.
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And in that moment, we were unsure, we just know that there's trouble and we're
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probably losing the baby right now.
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My mom-in-law sent me Psalm 112 verse 7, and it says, the man of God does not fear bad news.
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Had a choice. I could be offended because that could be seen as an insensitive
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thing to hear when you are in pain.
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Or I can lean into that truth of God's word and find out more.
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And what I did is I read the whole Psalm 112 and I was blown away by this first
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verse that says, blessed Blessed is the man who fears the Lord and delights
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greatly in his commandments.
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And I saw how blessed his life is. And I'm like, I want this life.
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But how do I get to that place where I truly fear him and truly get excited about his commands?
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Because from my background, the way I grew up, everything that was in my mind
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connected to the Ten Commandments, to the Word of God, It was like,
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this is tough. It steals your fun.
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It's just there to, you know, control you. I had all those misconceptions about God's law.
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I don't know if any one of you may have those misconceptions about His law.
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And when I started reading this, I was like, Lord, help me to understand this.
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And then God took me to another scripture, 1 John 5 verse 3.
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It says, for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
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And His commandments are not burdensome. Have you ever heard that verse?
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For this is the love of God. So what is the love of God? How do we love God?
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Keeping His commandments. Oh, and by the way, the commandments are not difficult to follow. What?
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It seems very difficult to follow. What am I missing?
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Jesus says in John 14 verse 15, very blunt, straightforward.
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I can even imagine Him doing this, looking in the eye going,
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going, if you love me, keep my commandments. Boom, drop the mic.
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Love me, keep my, and I was like, Lord, help me to understand,
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Lord, help me. And he said, Heinz, it's right there in front of you. Love, love.
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If you love me, you want to keep my commandments because you love me,
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because I lovingly gave them to you,
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because I lovingly created you and every other human being.
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And I am the creator.
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And I know what you are made for. And that rhymes.
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And I want you to live the best way you can possibly live. So here's how to live.
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And I was like, wow, thank you, God.
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And then I realized I love him because he loved me first.
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When I was in a pile of sin and mess and mire and losing my life,
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running off to things that I thought was important, he rescued me.
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And like that song says, he put me on the rock. He is the rock.
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He's the lover of my soul. So I love him back.
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And when I truly love Him, when I truly realize, man, He gave everything for me, for you,
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so that we don't have to live in sin, so that we don't have to be bound by this
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brokenness of this world, so we don't have to be led by the prince of the power
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of the air, the devil. We don't have to.
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We've been freed by the blood of Jesus. We don't have to live this way.
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And then He says, live like like this, this is my law. But actually what it is, is this is my love.
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I lovingly show you how to live. Do this and you will prosper.
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Do this and you will have a life filled with joy and peace.
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But at the same time, he says, if you don't do this, there are consequences.
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Both have consequences. I have seen both in my life. I have,
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after I've given my life to Jesus, done some of the most stupidest,
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sinful things in my life.
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And I'm so deeply regretful of that.
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And every time I go to God and I say, Lord, I'm a mess.
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I don't know why I still struggle. I don't know why these things still happen. I'm sorry.
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He is gracious and He forgives and I don't deserve it.
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None of us do, but that is His grace.
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But do you come with an entitled heart and say, oh, I just sinned again,
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you know, Just do that thing that you do, you know, thanks, Jesus.
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Do you come with a broken and contrite heart, which is the offering that God requires,
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with godly sorrow, which the Bible says leads to life, not worldly sorrow,
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godly sorrow, and say, Lord, I repent of everything I've done, thought,
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and had an intention in my heart that's not of you, forgive me.
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And then you can know that you know 1 John 1, he forgives you,
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he washes you clean, he makes you new and then he says, come on my son,
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come on my daughter, stand up, this is how you live.
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Follow my commandments, follow my way of doing things because this leads to life.
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Come on, do we get this church?
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As born again Jesus followers filled with the Holy Spirit, Third,
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we should be like a bride who loves her bridegroom so much that she cannot wait to please him,
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to do things the way he likes it and prefers it, all out of a healthy love.
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We are the bride of Christ. He is the bridegroom.
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And when he says, hey guys, live like this, we should go, I cannot wait.
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I greatly delight in obeying how you say I should do life. Amen.
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We need to love God back with His brand of love, not what the world thinks love is.
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Because the world's idea of love is transactional. It's quid pro quo.
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It's I will love you unless you. I will love you until you. If you do this and
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this and this, then I will love you. Do you see?
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Conditional love. God's love is unconditional, sacrificial.
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And serving. improving, now that's the brand of love that we need to love God
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back with, unconditional,
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God do this and this for me please, and if he doesn't, you go,
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oh I'm not a Christian anymore,
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I'm not going to go to church anymore, I'm hurt, no, unconditional love means
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I love you, no matter what the circumstances,
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no matter if it makes sense or not, no matter what happens, I love you because you love me first,
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can we see that, and this is only possible to love this way when we We are truly
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saved when we are truly have died to self, when we truly have been filled with the Holy Spirit.
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And if we truly spend time with him daily in his word, that's the only way because
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the Holy Spirit gives us the supernatural ability to love like that.
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You can only greatly delight in
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the commandments of God. If you are filled with the spirit of God, amen.
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And we have it available. Now you still might ask, okay, but what commandments,
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which commandments do I need to, Which commandments do I need to get excited about?
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Do I need to get excited about all 613 laws in the Torah? Yes.
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Greve eogorafi. Some will get that. No.
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Jesus said he came to fulfill all the law and the prophets.
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In Jesus, through him, we have salvation. Salvation.
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Before Jesus, salvation was through keeping all of these laws.
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Jesus reiterated commandments from the Ten Commandments.
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And he showed us that, hey, you think it's this, it's actually this. He took it up a notch.
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Jesus said that I am the Sabbath, which is one of the Ten Commandments.
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So if we take all of that in consideration, I think a very safe bet is to tell
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yourself, I need to keep the Ten Commandments.
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And I need to keep them with the definition that Jesus gave.
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I need to keep my mind clean from hatred, hatred
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my heart clean from adultery and all
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the other things that he said and jesus also said that the
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two most important commandments are to love god with all
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your heart mind soul and strength how many of you know that if you love
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god truly love him with your whole heart mind soul and
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strength that when he tests your heart mind soul strength and actions he will
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find you in a good place who knew jesus actually told us the right stuff to
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do wow and love your neighbor as you love Love as you love, as you love.
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Wow, love yourself.
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Could it be that loving yourself in a godly biblical way is different from self-love
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the world proclaims? Hmm, maybe. What do you think?
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Loving ourselves the way that God sees us, seeing ourselves through his eyes,
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seeing what he did to save us from ourselves and to realize,
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man, if God did that, he must love me.
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So therefore, I choose to love myself because he made me for a reason. He made me unique.
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He made me for a time such as this. So I'm going to choose to love myself in
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a healthy, godly, biblical way.
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And then from that place, what do I find? I find confidence.
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Confidence, I find a peace, I find a rest.
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And now from that place, I can look at my neighbor and I can see how God sees you.
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I can ask Holy Spirit, reveal to me how to see this brother,
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how to see this sister in Christ.
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But Jesus, when he told us to love our neighbor, he told the parable of the good Samaritan.
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How many of you know that Jews hate Samaritans? There was was racism between them.
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Jesus was speaking to Jews.
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His first example was a priest and a Levite who ignored the Samaritan who was hurt.
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I'm sorry, who ignored the Jew who was hurt.
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The priest and the Levite, the Jews would be shocked.
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And then he said, but then a Samaritan came by. Oh, what?
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Think of the person that you, if you're very honest, hate the most,
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the type of person that irritates you the most. Think of them.
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And now you hear me saying, that person you must love like them.
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You're going to go, what?
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It might even offend you.
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Jesus offended the Jews when he told that story. He wanted to show them what love really is.
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Love goes beyond my preconceived ideas.
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It goes beyond whether I like a person or don't like a person.
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It goes beyond race. It goes beyond language.
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It goes beyond your what church did you grow up in? It goes beyond all that
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nonsense. And it's just, I love you because God loved me.
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Can just sit and meditate on those two commandments. If you ask me,
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so what commandments? Those two.
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Do you get them right every day, all day? No, there's some work to be done.
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Don't try to get technical with me. Don't try to name all the laws.
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You just get those two right and we talk again because that will keep you busy the rest of your life.
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I want you to think of the Samaritan the next time a taxi cuts in front of you in the traffic.
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You laugh because you hate that that guy. You need to love him. He's your neighbor.
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He's your neighbor. He's your neighbor. I'm convicted by that as well.
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I'm not just preaching to you. I'm preaching to me.
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At the end of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, if you're still wondering,
52:59
so what commandments should I obey?
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What commandments should I get excited about? Well, just take the whole Sermon on the Mount then.
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Because at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, do all these these
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things that I said, and you will be with me in paradise.
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If you don't do them, I never knew you.
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So church, if you want a joyful, happy life, according to the Bible,
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this is the recipe for joy.
53:30
Fear the Lord with all that you are and obey his commandments.
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And then there's the secret little little ingredient that I showed you. Love Him back.
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That's, you know, you know, when they asked Omas about, what's the secret to your recipe?
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Ah, you know, I just put a little bit of this in there. That's the love.
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Fear the Lord. Obey the Lord. Love the Lord.
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Music.
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Thank you so much for listening to the Love Key Church podcast, Message of the Week.
54:04
I trust that you had a life-changing encounter with God
54:07
that will help you to align with his purposes so that
54:10
you can be one Step closer to reigning in life and may you be inspired to share
54:15
this with others Have a great week and remember to listen again next week or
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you can catch us live online or come visit us in person May God bless you and
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keep you make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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Music.