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Power Of The New Covenant - 2 Corinthians 3 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  Loves her country and loves serving.
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  So what do we got here? We got any pictures up here
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  guys? So this is what happened.
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  We were at the pastors conference this week.
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  These guys came down with me to Calvary Chapel, Philadelphia.
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  There was 17150 of us guys down there being taught and
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  encouraged in the word and worshipping you.
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  You actually sang a few of the worship songs the day this
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  morning that we had sung. So we're all overwhelmed.
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  Thank you for praying for us. It was an amazing time and a lot
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  of good stuff happened in all of our hearts spiritually.
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  So hopefully some of that will bleed out the day and in the
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  weeks and months and years to come through Pastor Lewis and
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  myself, the day is Memorial Day. And let me just talk a little
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  bit about that before I get started this morning.
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  Originally called Decoration Day from the early tradition of
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  decorating Grays with flowers, wreaths and flags, Memorial Day
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  is a day for remembrance of those who have died in service
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  to our country. It was first widely observed on
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  May 30th, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War
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  soldiers by proclamation of General John A Logan of the
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  Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union
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  sailors and soldiers. During the first national
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  commemoration, former Union general and sitting Ohio
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  Congressman James Garfield made a speech at the Arlington
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  National Cemetery, after which 5000 participants helped to
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  decorate the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate
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  soldiers who were buried there. This national event galvanized
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  efforts to honor and remember fallen soldiers that began with
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  local observances of burial grounds in several towns
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  throughout the US following the end of the Civil War, such as
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  May 1st gathering in Charleston, SC.
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  And so this this continues to this day.
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  And Memorial Day is commemorated at the Arlington National
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  Cemetery each year with the ceremony in which a small
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  American flag was placed on each grave.
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  Traditionally, the president and Vice President Lee, a wreath on
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  the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So let's just take a moment of
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  silence as we think about those who have given their lives for
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  our country and continually do that even as we speak with the
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  conflicts in Iran right now. Father, we are humbled by the
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  grace of you, Father, and watching over this nation since
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  its inception over 250 years ago this year.
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  We're grateful, Lord, for all those who have stepped up to the
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  plate and went to foreign lands and foreign soils to proclaim
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  the fact that you created us to have freedom and not, Lord,
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  dictatorships that would destroy the freedom that we've been all
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  given as citizens of this world. One nation, we are called United
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  States of America under God, with liberty and justice for
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  all. Lord, we are humbled today and
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  we thank many of us here today and listening have lost loved
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  ones in military service, serving actually in war.
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  So Lord, we commemorate them today.
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  We honor them. We pray for the families that
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  remember their loved ones who gave their lives for their
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  country. So Lord, today we pray you would
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  bless this time of study together and the word of God.
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  And we thank you for your many blessings, your many mercies,
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  and may may we all be blessed to have this extra day tomorrow to
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  thank. And at 3 O clock, most people in
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  the country will take a moment to pray.
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  And once again, thank you for those who have given their lives
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  again for this country. And we pray all these things in
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  Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
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  Well, we are in the book of first Corinthians chapter 3 of
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  second Corinthians chapter 3. Excuse me.
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  And before I go there, I wanted to read something from Second
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  Peter. And I was thinking about this
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  after being at the conference and then been through some stuff
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  this week. Our daughter Jessica was in a
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  serious accident on Monday. So I was at the conference and
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  my older daughter text me and said that Jessica was in a
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  accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
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  A tractor trailer ran into her as a traffic was slowing down.
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  And thank God she wasn't killed. It could have been a lot worse,
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  but please pray for her. She's in excruciating pain.
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  So they had CAT scans, X-rays. They're not sure if a sternum
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  has been ripped. So she's going to have an MRI on
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  Tuesday. They were at the ER again, I
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  think for the third time last night because of pain.
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  So please hold up Dan and Jess and their family.
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  But when that happened, I got that news.
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  I thought, man, you know how quickly life can change, right?
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  For any of us. And so I was sort of out of it
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  the first day. I was pacing in the hallway
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  hearing the message through the loudspeaker, but really not
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  thinking about it deeply because I was concerned and didn't know
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  whether I should go home or what.
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  But, you know, she was stable. So we stayed.
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  But so that that's been heavy on my heart all week.
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  You know, when something happens to one of your kids, it gets
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  your attention quickly. So again, thank you for your
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  prayers for for her. This Friday, Cindy will be
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  getting surgery on a disc in her neck.
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  And so the procedures, they go through the neck and then do the
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  surgery. It's about two hours and she'll
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  be there overnight on Friday and come out Saturday.
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  So pray that it'll accomplish what she needs to have
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  accomplished for her own health and balance and pain issues and
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  that kind of stuff. So thank you for for praying One
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  of the things I was thinking about this morning as I was
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  tying everything together in regard to the the message today.
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  Second Corinthians chapter 3 is a very deep chapter and I don't
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  want to roam and go through it too quickly.
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  It's it's all about the new covenant and the new covenant.
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  I don't know how many in here are familiar with the new
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  covenant. If you ever thought about it,
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  you understand what it is. I want to try to to the best of
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  my ability, explain it a little bit, but second Peter chapter 2,
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  it says in verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied to you and
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  the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as his divine
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  power has given us all things that pertain to life and
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  godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory
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  and virtue by which have been given to us exceeding great and
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  precious promises that through these you may be partakers of
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  the divine nature future having escaped the corruption that is
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  in the world through lust. So my question to you and to me
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  today is how many of us live life every day in our own
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  strength. Get up in the morning, you get
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  your coffee, you got this To Do List work, whatever house,
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  family, the lifts your wife gives you and you just jump in
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  and you begin to do what you know you need to get done.
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  And do we stop and say, Lord, I got a big day ahead of me today
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  and I can't do this without your strength, without your help,
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  without your enablement. I need you, Lord, to you live in
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  me and I want you to work in me and through me to accomplish
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  what it is you want me to accomplish.
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  And I tune into that sometimes and sometimes I don't.
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  And so sometimes I get like really exhausted or burnt out or
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  tired or frustrated or whatever. And then the Lord reminds me,
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  Clark, you're doing this without me.
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  You're trying to get through without my strength, my power.
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  And so this power is available to everyone of us.
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  Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and you might
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  have it more abundantly. So abundant life.
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  What does that mean? It's Zoe, the Greek word, which
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  means the God kind of life. So when Jesus came to the earth,
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  he's fully God, fully man perfect.
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  And we watched and read and, and learned about how he lived his
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  life and what he accomplished, what he did.
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  And, and people say, well, how did, how did Christ do that or
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  how did he get through all that? Well, he's God #1 he's able to
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  do anything. Nothing prevents God from
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  accomplishing his perfect will. But God also knows our
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  weaknesses. And he didn't just come to save
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  us from our sin, but he came to give us a new life, a
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  resurrected kind of life, a life of overcoming sin, a life of
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  overcoming weaknesses, a life of just being humble and realizing
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  that we need him for everything. And I, I had a good example that
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  yesterday. So Cindy, we're trying to get
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  the house together before this surgery on Friday.
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  Some things getting done and she's all worried about the
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  garden and all these weeds out there.
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  She used to go out there and do them and she hasn't been in the
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  condition she can do that this year.
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  And we're waiting for some of the grandkids.
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  Hire someone, whatever, you know, any kids that want to pull
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  weeds, tell them to call me. I'll hire them.
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  You know, can't pay you well, OK, This family down here, the
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  steals. Cindy, call those boys.
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  They raised me. You'll get paid well, believe
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  me. So anyway, so she's in there
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  doing stuff and I, I went outside, it stopped raining and
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  I'm looking at these like thorn bushes that come up out of the
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  ground and there's like hundreds of them, literally 100.
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  And, and so I, I went to the shed and I got a, a glove and I
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  forgot how to just pull out a few.
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  And so I'm out there and I'm, I'm pulling them out and most of
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  them are coming out easy. And then I'm looking around and
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  the more I pulled, the more I saw needed to be pulled.
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  So I was thinking I'd do it for maybe 1/2 an hour and Cindy
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  would be, well, that's, that's nice.
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  Clark, thanks for doing that, right.
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  Next thing I know, I'm out there doing like for hours.
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  And I was so tired after a while, I couldn't keep bending,
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  bending down because I don't use those muscles like I used to.
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  So I'm pretty sorted. I had to take some Advil last
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  night. So finally I just sat in the
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  dirt. I didn't care about whether how
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  dirty my jeans were. I'm laying down, I'm pulling
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  these things out. And I got these three huge bags
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  of these Jagger bushes. I mean, it's unbelievable.
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  And when you pull them out, these roots, they're just not
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  like that. They're like really, really deep
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  roots. And then I was thinking the
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  parallel of sin, right? How we all have issues of sin
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  and we asked the Lord to forgive us.
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  And he does. But he says sometimes though,
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  there's some more roots I want to pull out of your heart here.
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  You think they're out and I just pulled them out superficially or
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  so by the time I was done work to do more cultivation of the
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  soil, to get it completely out. So by the time I was done, yeah,
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  I was exhausted and all that. But when I was doing it, I was
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  thinking about this subject the day of the new Covenant.
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  And I said, Lord, in order to do this and do it with a good
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  attitude, God bless you and not be like totally burnt out, I
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  need your strength to do this. And he gave me, believe me, he
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  gave me strength to pull all these things out.
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  I mean, I look back at the ground, I'm thinking, how in the
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  world did I actually do that? And then the Lord's reminded me
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  it was me and you doing it through you.
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  And so I need to be in tune with this subject of, of God's
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  enablement and his power and everything I do in my life every
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  day. And you do too.
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  And so just to give you a little bit of background on the new
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  covenant before I get into this section of Second Corinthians
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  chapter 3, Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant.
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  Every week we take the Lord's Supper, and it tells us in Luke
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  2220 when I say this cup is a new covenant in my blood, which
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  is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
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  We celebrate this promise of this new life that's given to us
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  in Christ, a new covenant, a new way to live.
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  And this was also spoken by the prophets Moses, Jeremiah, and
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  Ezekiel throughout the Old Testament.
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  They alluded to this new covenant that would eventually
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  come when Christ came. The old covenant that God had
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  established with His people required strict obedience to the
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  Mosaic Law. The real law required Israel to
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  perform daily sacrifices in order to atone for sin.
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  So you think about the impossibility of the Old
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  covenant to accomplish what the new covenant supernaturally does
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  in our lives. The Old covenant was an external
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  way of trying to please God by following the 10 commandments in
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  the in the Jewish law. And no matter how hard people
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  tried to do that, they failed all the time.
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  And that's why they had to have the daily sacrifices to cover
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  the sins, not completely eradicate them, but to cover
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  them until the time of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ
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  would come. And so you think about the
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  intensity of what it must have been like to never really have
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  that deep sense of forgiveness inside, knowing you had to bring
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  animals to the temple to be to be sacrificed in order to
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  appease God temporarily. And so Moses, he said in
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  Deuteronomy 29, four, he was looking forward to the time when
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  Israel will be given a heart to understand.
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  In Deuteronomy 30 verses one through 5, the Lord said, your
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  Lord, your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of
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  your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart,
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  with all your soul, with all your life.
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  The new covenant involves a total heart change of heart so
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  that God's people are naturally pleasing to Him.
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  The Jeremiah the prophet predicted in the new covenant.
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  The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new
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  covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of
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  Judah. This is a covenant I will make
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  with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.
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  I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
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  I will be their God and they will be my people.
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  Jeremiah 3131 through 33. So Jesus Christ came and
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  fulfilled the law of Moses perfectly.
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  The old covenant was written in tablets of stone, but the new
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  covenant is written in your heart and mine.
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  If you're born again, save blood, believer.
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  Entering the new covenant is made only possible by complete
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  total faith in what Jesus Christ did is shed blood and taking
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  away our sins at the cross. And Jesus relates us as I said
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  in the Last Supper, when he said this cup is poured out for you
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  as the new covenant in my blood. Ezekiel said in verses chapter
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  3626 through 27. I will give you a new heart, put
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  a new spirit in you. I'll remove from your heart the
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  heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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  I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees
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  and be careful to keep my laws. A new heart, a new spirit, the
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  indwelling Spirit, the Holy Spirit is true holiness.
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  And so this is really important because if we try to live this
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  life in our own strength as a Christian, we'll have no joy.
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  We'll have nothing but guilt should have would have could
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  have kind of stuff regret, remembrance of past sins and
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  this living in a a circular motion of of despondency and
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  depression. So many churches a day can be
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  Bible churches that if, if the leaders of the church, the
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  teachers are putting you under guilt trips and under law, you
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  got to have a conversation with them and say, you're not telling
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  me the truth in the new covenant.
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  You're trying to make me feel inadequate and I never do
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  enough. I can never be good enough.
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  And you're, you're really depressing me, pastor.
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  So I pray that I don't do that. I pray that when we come up
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  here, the message in the power of God's grace is very clear and
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  evident. And that you are being empowered
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  in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome
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  and to do whatever it is that God's calling you to do in in
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  your life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  That couldn't have been overemphasized enough at the
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  pastors conference because a lot of guys go there weary,
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  discouraged. Some are thinking of quitting or
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  whatever because it's an impossible calling.
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  But whenever you get enlightened by the word of God and he begins
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  to speak to you about the power that we have in Jesus Christ,
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  that He lives in US, and whatever you are facing in your
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  life, no matter how challenging or difficult it is because of
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  Christ being in you, you will get through it because His power
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  is not going to ever let you down.
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  If you're relying and depending on His power, if you're
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  depending on yourself and your own abilities, you'll be let
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  down because you will fail. That Jesus never fails, right?
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  He never fails. So we have to continually come
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  to him and be empowered and be filled so that we might be able
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  to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  So when we look at the chapter 3 of of Second Corinthians, Paul's
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  writing some some things in here and he says that we are they the
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  Corinthian believers or the epistle of Christ ministered by
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  us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God,
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  not untabled tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh that is
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  of the heart. So when the Holy Spirit lives in
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  you, God by your response shouldn't be looking at the law
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  and trying to impress God by your ability to think you're
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  fulfilling the law by your own righteousness, your own ability.
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  It's it's ludicrous. You're reminded that what gives
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  you the compulsion to follow Jesus and to love him and to
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  love others as he loved us is coming completely from the power
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  of the New Covenant. It's coming from Christ in you.
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  He's the one that gives you the desire not to want to sin.
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  But if you're looking at the law and trying to make promises of
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  God that you're going to be better and you're going to send
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  less, you're externally trying to communicate with him that
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  you're going to do something that he's already accomplished
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  through his death, burial and resurrection.
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  That's that's not real cool, is it?
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  Like, Lord, I know what you did for me, but it isn't really good
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  enough. So let me let me show you what I
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  can do. And the Lord is like, come on,
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  you know, get in the word. You don't you don't even know
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  what you're talking about. And so the Old Testament
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  prophets, as I read earlier, they were looking forward to the
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  day that the new covenant would come.
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  And so Paul then continues in verses 4 through 6, he says, and
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  we have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we
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  are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from
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  ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.
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  So that's Amen, all powerful, 100% the God-given truth that
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  you and me are not sufficient in ourselves to do anything on
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  behalf of God. That's in marriage, that's in
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  raising kids, that's in being a, an employee or an employer or,
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  or looking at the world system and, and, and not judging
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  people, but praying for people to get saved by God's grace.
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  All this comes as a result of this recognition that I'm
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  insufficient in and of myself, but my sufficiency is of Christ.
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  Each Sunday when I come up here and the pastors, the teachers,
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  we come up, we're not like thinking.
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  We got it all together and we got it all figured out.
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  We're in process too, like you guys.
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  But we realized when we come here that everything we have to
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  give you is from the truth of the Word of God.
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  And it always points to Jesus Christ as being the one who does
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  this right. All glory to him.
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  There's no glory to us. We just get an opportunity to be
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  part of what it is He does through the power of His Word
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  and changing hearts. He works inside to transform
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  you, to make him to make you and me more like Jesus Christ.
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  It's not like the promises. It's not how many more times can
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  I repent? How many more older calls do I
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  have to go to to get right with God?
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  How many, you know, whatever this, this treadmill of, of
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  inadequacy and trying to somehow make myself feel adequate by
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  what I do versus what He's done. And that's a big difference,
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  isn't it? Do we focus on what Christ has
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  done, or do we focus on our failures?
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  You and I have a list of failures, right?
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  We all do Thank God. He chooses to not judge us and
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  accept us based upon our failures.
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  He He accepts us based upon Christ's perfect righteousness.
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  That should give us like a sense of this major relief.
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  Like that's awesome that I can't be good enough ever to inherit
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  that righteousness by something I've done.
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  It's been given to me as a gift of God, right?
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  For by grace you've been saved through faith.
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  And this is not yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of
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  works. So no one can boast about it.
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  It's completely the tremendous grace of God.
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  And so Paul talks about this truth in this section of chapter
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  3, that he's made us sufficient as ministers of the New
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  Covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
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  For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
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  The law is good, it's perfect. But what it does, it shows us
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  why we need a Savior. It's not given to us to judge
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  ourselves and have this graft. Well, I'm pretty good because I,
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  I didn't do eight of these things.
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  I need two of them, right? That doesn't work that way.
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  I've broken them all. Whether you did it physically or
• 23:00
  in your mind or whatever, you're guilty of sin.
• 23:03
  We've broken the law of God. And that's why there's
• 23:05
  judgement. And that's why the judgement had
• 23:07
  to be poured out upon Jesus Christ.
• 23:10
  And so God enables us to be servants of the new covenant.
• 23:16
  We want to give you guys the truth of the work of the Spirit
• 23:20
  in the Christian life, not the letter of the law, which would
• 23:25
  be killing and diminishing the work and the power of the Holy
• 23:29
  Spirit in your life. So it's a big deal to realize
• 23:34
  that we're not sufficient of ourselves.
• 23:36
  OK, if you think you have something to give or to offer,
• 23:40
  you're going to be seriously disillusioned because you're
• 23:43
  going to find out in time that this this won't work.
• 23:47
  That's why some people stop going to church.
• 23:49
  They fall on Jesus is too hard. I keep making mistakes, I fail.
• 23:54
  The pastor makes me feel guilty all the time.
• 23:57
  I don't need, you know, I don't need condemnation.
• 23:59
  I don't need guilt. Well, the enemy is the accuser
• 24:03
  of the brother and the Lord isn't.
• 24:04
  Jesus doesn't accuse you, the Holy Spirit convicts you to
• 24:09
  continually surrender and allow him to change in your life what
• 24:13
  needs to be changed. And so we have to understand
• 24:17
  that this new covenant is a glorious, glorious thing that
• 24:22
  the Lord has given us to be able to experience.
• 24:26
  And we have this indwelling spirit in our heart that he
• 24:30
  tells me and you how to live. He tells us the wisdom that we
• 24:35
  need to have in order to live a life that is honorable and
• 24:39
  pleasing to God through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• 24:41
  He tells us how to treat one another.
• 24:43
  He tells us how to respond to issues in life and a godly and a
• 24:49
  Christ honoring way. It's all the Spirit of God.
• 24:52
  God the Holy Spirit, third person of Trinity, lives in you.
• 24:57
  Christ knew that you and I could not do this without help.
• 25:01
  And that's why he said when he was leaving, he was going to
• 25:04
  send another helper, the Holy Spirit, who, who would not any,
• 25:09
  you know, come to you, but live in you and be in you and live
• 25:13
  through you. And, and I think the enemy, he
• 25:16
  loves the fact that if we don't understand the work of the Holy
• 25:19
  Spirit and we're not depending on the Holy Spirit and we're not
• 25:22
  walking in the Holy Spirit and we're not overcoming in the Holy
• 25:25
  Spirit, we're trying to do it ourselves.
• 25:28
  And he's smiling because we will have no impact, no power are the
• 25:33
  change anything, let alone see us change and anybody else
• 25:37
  change. It's got to be the the work of
• 25:40
  the indwelling Holy Spirit in all of our lives.
• 25:44
  So then he continues, if this ministry in verse 7, the the if
• 25:50
  the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was
• 25:52
  glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look
• 25:55
  steadfastly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his
• 25:59
  countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the
• 26:02
  ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
• 26:05
  For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the
• 26:08
  ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
• 26:12
  For even when what was made glorious had no glory in this
• 26:16
  respect, because of the glory that excels.
• 26:19
  For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much
• 26:22
  more glorious. So you guys know the, the story
• 26:26
  Moses went up on the mountain. He's, he spoke with God.
• 26:29
  The reflection of God's glory was all over Moses face.
• 26:33
  And whenever he came off the mountain, people were freaking
• 26:35
  out because of the, the, the Shekinah glory of God was being
• 26:39
  reflected off of Moses. And so he had to put a veil on.
• 26:43
  And and this, this glory that Moses had because he was
• 26:46
  speaking with God was a diminishing glory.
• 26:49
  It wasn't a glory that would stay because it was rooted in
• 26:54
  the teachings of what Christ initially started with the
• 26:57
  requirements of the Old Covenant and the sacrifices of animals
• 27:02
  and the responsibility for them to follow the traditions and the
• 27:07
  law and all that kind of stuff. And so nonetheless, it was
• 27:11
  glorious because God was speaking.
• 27:13
  He was speaking to the servant Moses.
• 27:15
  And his law is perfect and holy, but the whole human race is
• 27:19
  imperfect and unholy. And he knew when he gave it to
• 27:22
  Moses, his servant Moses learned real quickly that this is an
• 27:27
  impossible situation. These people can't do this.
• 27:30
  And he was so frustrated when he cracked the rock with the, the,
• 27:34
  the rod because of frustration, the rebellion of the people that
• 27:39
  God had to say, well, you're not going to, you know, have the
• 27:41
  opportunity to go into the promised land and we send Joshua
• 27:45
  and those other ones in there. And he, you know, he departed.
• 27:48
  He was with the Lord. But because of his
• 27:50
  misunderstanding of trying to dictate self righteousness
• 27:56
  through obedience to the law, everyone failed.
• 28:00
  Someone said to me this morning, I visited churches here and
• 28:03
  there and, and they were nice churches and they taught the
• 28:06
  Bible, Bible churches, but it was too much religion and not
• 28:09
  enough grace. We need 100% grace and 0%
• 28:13
  religion, right? And it's not my job or anybody
• 28:17
  else's job to make you like Jesus or or more in love with
• 28:22
  Jesus or more follower of that's up to the Holy Spirit in you.
• 28:27
  You responding to what the Spirit wants you to do what I
• 28:32
  think is inconsequential. It's what what the Spirit needs
• 28:36
  to do in your life and mine. And so you have loved ones,
• 28:40
  family, people rebelling, doing whatever you get frustrated.
• 28:44
  They should do this, they should do that.
• 28:46
  Why are they doing this? Why aren't they doing, you know,
• 28:49
  we got all these like ideas of how people should live their
• 28:52
  lives. That's the wrong way to approach
• 28:56
  relationships with people. We need to pray for them, and we
• 29:01
  need to ask the Holy Spirit to do in them what needs to be done
• 29:06
  in order for their lives to be changed.
• 29:09
  You can't change them. You can't Guild them.
• 29:13
  You can't do anything but love them and share the word of God
• 29:17
  with them. Share your own story of what
• 29:19
  you're learning. Maybe share your own
• 29:21
  embarrassing sins and how you did stupid things.
• 29:24
  And you realize it wasn't until Jesus came and saved you that
• 29:28
  you began to understand that you needed to be saved from yourself
• 29:32
  so that Christ can live his life in you fully and you can have an
• 29:37
  overcoming life and you can become more Christ like because
• 29:41
  Christ is doing the job, not you anymore.
• 29:45
  So Moses went through that process of, of with these
• 29:48
  people, the, the glory was passing, but the glory of Jesus
• 29:53
  Christ lasts forever. And it doesn't have to be this
• 29:57
  reflective light or glowing on our face.
• 30:00
  It's it's the salt and the light that you and I have become as we
• 30:04
  live our lives, People get a fragrance that there's something
• 30:08
  beautiful is something significant in US and, and
• 30:12
  through US. It's different than what they
• 30:13
  experience with with other people that don't have the Lord
• 30:16
  in their lives. And that's, that's really what
• 30:19
  my prayer is. And and, and, and, and hopefully
• 30:22
  yours too, that when you're out and about, people recognize
• 30:27
  something different in you because you, you're acting
• 30:30
  different, not because you're some holy role or self-righteous
• 30:34
  person. You're just like full of the
• 30:36
  Lord and full of his joy. And you bless people when
• 30:41
  they're around you and they begin to notice that there's
• 30:45
  this, this God you say you follow must be real and must
• 30:48
  have power because you're not normal.
• 30:51
  The way you live is not normal the way everybody else lives.
• 30:55
  Some people say to you, how can you forgive or how can you do be
• 30:59
  gracious to this person who did this to to you.
• 31:03
  You tell them, well, this is what Jesus did for me and he
• 31:09
  wants me obviously to let him do that for other people too and do
• 31:13
  it through me and for me. So it's, it's exciting and and
• 31:18
  it's something you got. I have to meditate on more.
• 31:22
  I have to think about it more in my in regard to my own life.
• 31:25
  How do I live this this out and listening to the Lord whenever I
• 31:33
  I let my wife down once in a while, more than once in a
• 31:36
  while, we'd be honest with you. It's because I'm living in my
• 31:40
  own strength. But if I'm living in the power
• 31:43
  of the Holy Spirit, she's blessed when I pulled those
• 31:46
  weeds out. That's not Clark.
• 31:48
  That was the Lord yesterday. Believe me, that was definitely
• 31:51
  the Lord. And then when I went in, she had
• 31:54
  this glow about her. She had that.
• 31:56
  She said I wanted to be out there but I couldn't, you know,
• 31:59
  she said what you did for me was nicer than roses.
• 32:02
  I don't know how many times I brought roses home to try to get
• 32:05
  on her good side and bless her, but doing that was like a self
• 32:10
  sacrifice thing. So Lord's patting me on the
• 32:13
  back. You're listening, Clark.
• 32:15
  That's good, you know. But anyway, so this, this power
• 32:19
  of this new covenant is, is, is really, really exciting to begin
• 32:24
  to, I guess, begin to comprehend at a different dimension.
• 32:28
  Maybe if I noticed at the conference this year, maybe it's
• 32:33
  because I'm getting older. I've been been there many times,
• 32:36
  but there was so much love there and grace and, and this joy of
• 32:42
  being around the brothers, you know, meeting new brothers,
• 32:45
  seeing guys you've known for years.
• 32:48
  Joe and I sort of look a lot alike.
• 32:50
  We're the same age and Gray hair and glasses.
• 32:53
  I'm walking on a hallway and this guy comes up to me.
• 32:55
  He goes, did you start this church from nothing?
• 32:58
  And it became this church, this huge church.
• 33:01
  I said, no, my name's Clark. That's Joe.
• 33:03
  I have a small church back in Greensburg, PA.
• 33:06
  But he's a what? Can I get a picture with you?
• 33:09
  I don't know why he thought it was some kind of famous person
• 33:11
  or something. But anyway, it was his first
• 33:14
  time to be there and he was excited to be at the conference.
• 33:17
  So, so when Paul had this understanding of this new
• 33:21
  covenant, the Judaizers at the time would come into a church as
• 33:25
  I spoke last week, trying to say they were sent by Paul and they
• 33:30
  would begin to tell these Gentile Christians and even the
• 33:33
  Jewish Christians that they had to live and fulfill the law
• 33:38
  along with having faith in Jesus Christ.
• 33:40
  And that's another gospel. That's a distortion of the
• 33:43
  gospel. And so Paul said, if I, or an
• 33:47
  Angel from God, an Angel from heaven, bring unto you any other
• 33:51
  gospel than that which you've received, let it be accursed.
• 33:55
  Never let anybody any teacher you're listening to reading
• 33:59
  about, if they're putting the law on you and they're putting
• 34:02
  guilt on you and they're putting pride and self-righteous on you,
• 34:06
  self righteousness on you and not grace and thankfulness and
• 34:10
  gratitude for who Jesus is and what he's done for you.
• 34:14
  Shut, shut it, turn it off, run away from it.
• 34:16
  It's it's poison to your freedom in Christ.
• 34:20
  So, so therefore in verse 12, Paul says, since we have such
• 34:26
  hope now this guy is is preaching in places that don't
• 34:30
  want them. People are saying bad stuff
• 34:32
  about him. They're slandering him.
• 34:35
  If it wasn't for Christ in him, he would have just quit.
• 34:38
  He would have gone back to this making tents, which he did to
• 34:41
  help his livelihood. He says because of this hope in
• 34:45
  Christ, we use great boldness of speech.
• 34:49
  In other words, he can come and speak to anybody with a glorious
• 34:52
  gospel, knowing it's going to have power and lies for those
• 34:55
  who believe, he said. Unlike Moses, who put a veil
• 34:59
  over his face so that the children of Israel could not
• 35:02
  look steadfastly at the end of what was passing away, but their
• 35:05
  minds were blinded. But until this day, that same
• 35:09
  veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament
• 35:12
  because the veil is taken away in Christ.
• 35:15
  So all these Jewish folks that are still going to synagogue and
• 35:19
  they're listening to the Torah and they're being told about
• 35:22
  kosher and this and that, all these rules and regulations
• 35:26
  they're trying to do not most Jews don't even go anymore, But
• 35:30
  the ones that are trying to be faithful to their heritage, they
• 35:34
  got to be exhausted because what they're doing doesn't bring life
• 35:38
  at this brings death. This brings a sense of like this
• 35:43
  is impossible to them if they really understand.
• 35:46
  But underneath the Holy Spirit can take the veil away not only
• 35:50
  of the Jewish person, but of the Gentile to make us see our need
• 35:54
  of Christ. I can't do that for you.
• 35:57
  You can't do it for me. It's a mystery.
• 35:59
  It's a work of the Holy Spirit, how He moves in people's lives.
• 36:04
  Why did He move in mine? And a lot of people that I grew
• 36:08
  up with, they still can't see what the Lord has given me grace
• 36:11
  to see. That's a mystery.
• 36:15
  But God, that's God's sovereign. He, he does things according to
• 36:19
  counsel, His own will, not my will.
• 36:21
  But you never give up on giving the gospel to people, no matter
• 36:24
  how many times the veil was over their eyes.
• 36:27
  One day that veil may be lifted. The thief on the cross, the last
• 36:33
  seconds of his life, he realized Jesus is the Messiah.
• 36:37
  And then he wanted him to be his Savior.
• 36:39
  And Jesus said truly this day he shall be with me in paradise.
• 36:45
  So therefore he has his boldness and he's able to preach the
• 36:49
  gospel with power. For until this day, the same
• 36:53
  veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament
• 36:56
  because a veil is taken away in Christ.
• 36:58
  But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies in their
• 37:02
  hearts. Nevertheless, when one turns to
• 37:04
  the Lord, the veil is taken away.
• 37:07
  So if you're here today and you can't see or understand
• 37:10
  anything, I'm saying, ask Jesus to take the veil away so you can
• 37:15
  see the truth, so you can believe, and He will take that
• 37:18
  away. And when He takes that away, you
• 37:20
  pass from death unto life. You realize you were a Sinner
• 37:24
  and you need a Savior and he's the only one that can change
• 37:28
  your life. It says if anyone's in Christ,
• 37:30
  he's a new creation. Old things are passed away.
• 37:34
  All things have become new. The new covenant, Amen.
• 37:37
  All things have become new Now. The Lord is the Spirit in verse
• 37:41
  17. And where the Spirit of the Lord
• 37:44
  is, there is liberty, not bondage, not guilt, not
• 37:48
  condemnation, but freedom in Christ.
• 37:51
  But we all with unveiled face beholding in a mirror as in a
• 37:56
  mirror the glory of the Lord. And back in those days those
• 37:59
  mirrors were not real clear like ours today.
• 38:02
  So it was sort of a distorted view, but they knew that they
• 38:06
  were being changed by the glory of the Lord.
• 38:09
  They were being transformed into the same image from glory to
• 38:13
  glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
• 38:16
  And that's what's happening in your life when you come to to
• 38:19
  Calvary or any Bible church or you're, you're reading a good
• 38:23
  commentary that's based on truth and the Bible and you're
• 38:27
  listening to Grace FM or whatever.
• 38:29
  You're hearing this word over and over again of the grace of
• 38:33
  God, the new covenant, the freedom we have in Christ.
• 38:37
  It's just awesome, isn't it? We don't have to walk around
• 38:40
  with her back bent down and, and oh, look at things are terrible.
• 38:45
  Look at those going on here and there.
• 38:47
  Look what they're doing here. Look what?
• 38:49
  Don't look at that stuff. Look at what Christ has done,
• 38:51
  what he continues to do as he saves one person at a time
• 38:56
  throughout the whole earth, right?
• 38:58
  We have good news, right? We have the best news ever.
• 39:02
  And when people get a hold of hearing this good news, it
• 39:05
  changes their life. They're never the same again,
• 39:09
  and you can go deeper the more you want to experience the power
• 39:12
  of the new Covenant. You send time with Jesus, read
• 39:16
  his Word, praise him, thank him for who he is, what he's done.
• 39:21
  You know, allow the Lord to help you fall deeper in love with
• 39:24
  him. As you fall deeper in love with
• 39:26
  him, you're not going to be doing the stupid stuff that you
• 39:30
  normally would do when you have an intimate relationship with
• 39:33
  the Lord. You care about honoring him
• 39:37
  because it comes from him in you that new covenant giving you
• 39:40
  that desire to go deeper with him and to praise him so that
• 39:43
  the worship team can come forward.
• 39:46
  And this allow the Lord to open your hearts and your minds to
• 39:52
  this. I I trust that this is something
• 40:00
  that will enable you to experience your faith in the
• 40:04
  Lord in a much more glorious and wondrous way, to be excited
• 40:10
  about all that the Lord has done for you and how much he loves
• 40:14
  you and how much he continually forgives you and continually
• 40:17
  cleanses you from all unrighteousness and.
• 40:20
  There's nothing like this. There's no other message like
• 40:23
  this in the face of the planet. No other quote religion out
• 40:27
  there can give us and do for us what Jesus Christ has done for
• 40:31
  us. Amen.
• 40:35
  Amen. Well, let's pray and allow the
• 40:38
  Holy Spirit to get our eyes on the Lord as we remember what
• 40:43
  he's done for us. It's Memorial Day remembering
• 40:46
  all these men and women have given their lives for Jesus, for
• 40:50
  the for the USAI mean, but the one that we really memorialize
• 40:54
  today more than anyone is Jesus. Every Sunday we remember his
• 40:58
  death and his sacrifice on behalf of us, not only saving us
• 41:04
  from hell and giving us eternal life and forgiveness, a sin, but
• 41:08
  living in us to help us. And every situation of our
• 41:11
  lives, every relationship, every conversation, every temptation,
• 41:17
  anything that's coming against us, He's with us to show us the
• 41:21
  way through it. Lord Jesus, we're so grateful
• 41:24
  for you giving us this new covenant.
• 41:27
  We're so thankful that we can walk out of here today with our
• 41:31
  heads held high, looking at you, looking unto Jesus.
• 41:35
  You're the author and finisher of our faith.
• 41:38
  The good work you've begun on us, the Word says you will
• 41:41
  perform it and fulfill it in the day of Your coming or the day
• 41:47
  that we enter into Your presence.
• 41:49
  Lord, we pray if there's any here today and the veil is on
• 41:53
  their eyes, that Lord, by Your sovereign decree and grace she
• 41:56
  would lift that veil and cause them today for the first time
• 42:00
  ever to see who You are and recognize what You've done and
• 42:05
  come to You for forgiveness of sin and to be given new life.
• 42:11
  On the night that Jesus is betrayed, He took the bread in
• 42:14
  his hands and he broke it and He gave thanks.
• 42:18
  He said, this is my body which is given for you.
• 42:24
  Eat this in remembrance of me. The same manner in that cup and
• 42:37
  same manner in that night He took the cup.
• 42:42
  He said, This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which was
• 42:49
  shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
• 42:52
  Drink this in remembrance of me. For as often as we eat this
• 43:01
  bread and we drink this cup, we show forth the Lord's death till
• 43:06
  he comes again. Amen.
• 43:09
  Good news, right? Amen.
• 43:12
  Be blessed.