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Living Waters of Grace 01.16.26 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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  Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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  County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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  continues teaching through God's Word.
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  But there are other decisions that we have to make for Jesus
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  Christ rather be on our jobs, in our communities or even in our
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  families. When we have to make the
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  decision that we will not denounce, we will not deny, we
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  will not turn from Jesus Christ, we will not disown it.
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  And that's exactly what this means when he says if we deny
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  Him, it means if we disown him, we disown Him before men, He
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  would disown us before the Father.
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  There's a lot of pressure in our world today to deny the name of
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  Jesus. It's become a bit taboo to say
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  that you follow Jesus. It's perfectly OK to be
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  spiritual. But to say that Jesus is your
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  king? That can bring on the ire of the
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  masses. Pastor Lewis shares today that
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  we need to be ready to stand for Jesus no matter what the world
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  tells us. But what if it's a friend or
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  family member who's pressuring you to take it easy about your
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  faith in Jesus? It doesn't matter.
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  Jesus died for you. You are called to stand for him.
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  Now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
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  of Second Timothy, Chapter 2, with today's edition of Living
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  Waters of Grace. Paul was looking at imminent
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  execution. He was looking to be executed.
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  So he was giving his son in the faith, Timothy, last words,
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  important words that would help him to carry the mantle, to do
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  the job that he had began to do, to carry the mantle, that he
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  would be the pastor of this church in Ephesus, but that even
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  more than that, he would be the man of God that God was calling
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  him to be. And in doing so, Paul thought it
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  was necessary to impart to him instruction just as he is
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  imparting it to us as well, to help us to live a life that's
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  pleasing to God. So when we start here in verse
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  11, the first thing we read is this is a faithful saying or
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  this is a trustworthy saying. You can believe this, you can
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  live by this. This is something that you can
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  take with you, Timothy. And he goes on to once again
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  emphasize the promise of life, which is in the gospel that Paul
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  was emphasizing at the very beginning of this journey.
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  And he says here, for if we died with him, we shall also live
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  with him. Now that's especially important
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  to Paul because he's facing death.
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  So as he sits in this prison and he's thinking about these things
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  and he's thinking about the promise that he has in Christ
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  Jesus that if we die with him, that we will also live with him.
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  Paul's encouraging himself as well as he's encouraging
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  Timothy. And that's exactly what the word
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  of God does. When we read the Word of God or
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  we study the word of God, it encourages us.
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  And when we share the word of God with other people, it
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  encourages them. But even in our encouraging with
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  other people and sharing the word with other people, we also
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  encourage ourselves, which is why it's so important to
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  continue to talk about the things of God, because we
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  encourage not only other people, we encourage ourselves as we do
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  that. So he said if we die together,
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  we also live together. In Romans 6 and 8, the Bible
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  says now if we die with Christ, we believe that we shall also
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  live with him. And I'm sure Paul is, is
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  thinking about these kind of things now.
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  And when we think about the dying, obviously, you know,
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  Jesus tells us that we are to, you know, deny ourselves that we
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  are to pick up our cross and we're to follow him.
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  So we do give ourselves away. We die to ourselves when we get
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  saved, when we trust Jesus Christ for our salvation.
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  We do die to ourselves. We die to our old life.
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  We die to our old way of being, our old way of thinking, our old
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  way of speaking, the things that we used to do.
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  We die to those things. We die to those old sins.
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  And it's almost symbolic because there's two sacraments that we
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  have. The one obviously is baptism and
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  the other one is the one that we do every Sunday when we take the
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  Holy Table. But in the sacrament of Baptism,
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  it is a symbol of what has happened on the inside of us.
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  So when he talks about baptism, as he goes down, as we go down
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  into the watery grave, that symbolizes Christ going into the
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  grave upon his death. But when he we raise up out of
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  there, we that symbolizes Jesus Christ raising up into
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  resurrection of new life. And that's us.
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  We, we rise with Jesus Christ in new life, we die with him and we
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  live with Jesus Christ. Galatians 2 and 20 says I have
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  been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live not I, but
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  Christ lives in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh.
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  I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
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  himself for me. We also understand that in 2nd
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  Corinthians 5 and 17 says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new
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  creation. Old things have passed away,
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  they've died, they've died. Old things have passed away.
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  That old me, they passed away and behold, all things have
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  become new and we are all new in Christ Jesus and we're grateful
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  for that. So he says if you die with him,
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  we should also live with him. So basically he's telling Tim,
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  Timothy, don't be afraid of the persecutions.
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  We know that Nero is taking people out.
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  People are dying for the faith. And he's basically encouraging
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  Timothy to say, this could happen to you, Timothy, there's
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  no question about it, it could happen to you.
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  But be encouraged because if we die with him, we shall also live
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  with Him. Amen.
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  So then we go to verse 12 and he says if we endure, we shall also
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  reign with Him. If we endure, if we endure
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  persecution, if we endure suffering, we will also reign
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  with him. There's that reward.
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  We get a reward for enduring and we're enduring now.
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  I mean, we, we endure. We're obviously nothing like the
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  persecution that Timothy or Paul, Peter and the like have
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  gone through. Each one of the apostles other
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  than John was martyred. But there was a strength that
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  people who live for Christ get when they hold on and they
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  endure the persecution. There's a strength, and Paul is
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  saying here that if we share in the suffering and in the
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  persecutions and we persevere in the faith, we don't give up, we
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  don't give out, we don't throw in the towel.
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  The hope is that we're going to reign with him.
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  It makes us stronger. There's a quote that I want to
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  share with you and it just simply says at the timberline
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  where the storms strike with the most fury, the sturdiest trees
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  are found. When we go through the hardest
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  trials, the hardest test, when we're in the hottest part of the
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  furnace. When we come out of that, we
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  become sturdier. Sturdier in Christ Jesus.
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  It's a time of preparation. So he says if we endure, we
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  shall also reign with Him. Revelations 3 and 21 says to him
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  who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I
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  also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
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  Mark 13 and 13 says, And you shall be hated for my name's
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  sake. You shall be not.
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  You might be. You will be hated for my name's
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  sake. Please don't think that there's
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  not people out there who hate us because of Jesus Christ.
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  That's the only reason they hate us because of Jesus Christ.
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  We stand for that name, but he also says, but he who endures to
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  the end shall be saved. We go on here to the second
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  part, which is a very interesting line.
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  And Paul, once again, thinking about the times in which he's
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  living at that particular time and all the things that's going
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  around him, he simply says this. If we deny him, he also will
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  deny us. That's very significant because
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  back at that particular time when they were going through the
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  persecutions, whenever the governors or the officers or the
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  Nero soldiers, when they would, when they would bring them in,
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  these Christians in and they would gather them together
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  before they would send them to the lions or before they would
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  threaten to behead them or before they would Pierce them
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  through with the sword, they would give them an option, a
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  chance to deny Jesus Christ. They would ask, do you want to
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  denounce them? Will you denounce that name?
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  And it's those who would hold on to the end and not deny Jesus
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  Christ. Many did not.
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  There's a book that I have called the The Soldiers, God
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  Soldiers. And it's just full of men who
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  gave their life for Christ generally during the time of
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  Reformation. But they gave their life because
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  when they were caught or they were arrested and they were tied
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  up to a stake to be burned before they would set the fire,
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  they would ask them, do you want to denounce that name?
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  And they would say no. And all of these men died a
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  horrific death of a martyr, every one of them.
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  But also wanted to let you know, remind you, I want to remind you
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  that 23 years ago, two kids, one named Dylan Kleibld, the other
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  named Eric Harris, walked into a high school in Colorado called
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  Columbine. And they proceeded to open fire
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  and kill 12 people before they, well, 13 people actually, before
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  they turned the guns on themselves.
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  These are obviously very troubled young men, but they
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  came to a young lady whose name was Cassie Bernard.
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  And she was well known as a as a Christian strong believer.
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  And they asked her a question. Eric Harris was the one that put
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  the gun to her head and asked her a question.
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  He asked her, do you still believe in your Jesus now?
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  And she said yes. And he shot her.
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  Her life was cut short at age 17 because she said yes.
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  I don't know that anyone in here will ever have to deal with
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  that, would ever have to make that decision.
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  But there are other decisions that we have to make for Jesus
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  Christ rather be on our jobs, in our communities, or even in our
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  families where we have to make the decision that we will not
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  denounce, we will not deny, we will not turn from Jesus Christ,
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  we will not disown him. And that's exactly what this
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  means when he says if we deny Him, it means if we disown him.
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  If we disown Him before men, he would disown us before the
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  Father. So there may be a time when we
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  have to stand and have to accept whatever consequence that's
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  coming if we do not deny or disown Jesus Christ.
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  Now, none of us know exactly what we would do at that
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  particular time, but I pray that God gives me the strength.
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  The way he gave it to Cassie when?
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  The way he gave it to so many of those reformers, the way he gave
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  it to Peter, the way he gave it to Paul, the way he gave it to
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  Philip and all the other apostles who were martyred at
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  that particular time. I pray that the power of Christ
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  would be upon me at that time and that I am able to sing a
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  hymn instead of denounce my Savior.
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  And I pray that each one of you would have the power to do that
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  as well. We don't know, but it may come.
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  Fear is usually the reason why people do denounce Jesus Christ.
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  Fear. And Paul's already told us
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  earlier that God did not give us a spirit of fear.
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  But we have a spirit of power of love and a sound mind.
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  And I pray that in that time that we would be able to have
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  the power to not disown our Savior.
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  Then he goes on to the 13 and he says if we are faithless, he
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  remains faithful. He cannot deny himself.
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  It's a very interesting line there because he's saying if we
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  are faithless now, he didn't say if you were have, if you have
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  little faith. He said if you are faithless, if
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  you don't believe, if you don't believe, he remains faithful.
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  He cannot deny himself. In the book of Numbers, the
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  Bible says that he is not a man, that he should lie, nor is he
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  the Son of Man, that he should repent.
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  So he will never do anything contrary to his character.
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  He will never do anything contrary to his word.
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  Whatever he promised, he will do.
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  Now for us, that can be a good thing.
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  For believers, that can be a good thing.
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  If we think about, if we think about what happened with
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  Abraham, think about what happened with David.
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  They were all promised something, but they all showed
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  at one point or another, they showed a lack of faith.
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  But God was faithful in every one of those situations.
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  And not only is God faithful, but even in the times when
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  someone doesn't believe at all, if you're an unbeliever and you
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  don't believe at all, unfortunately for you, God is
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  still faithful that as an unbeliever, if you go into
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  eternity and you have not received Him as Lord and Savior,
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  what He said was going to happen is going to happen.
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  The wrath of God will abide on you.
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  His promise is true. His Word is true.
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  So we go on and He's and we and we think about Peter because
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  there are times when we all are in a situation where we deny
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  Jesus Christ and there's situations where we are
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  faithless. If we're honest, we're probably
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  that way more than we want to be, but we understand that even
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  if we deny Jesus Christ, that if we repent, we can always come
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  back to him, just as he did with Peter.
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  Peter denied him three times. And yet what Jesus spoke about,
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  Peter came to be. Peter continued.
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  He continued to be not just an apostle, but one of the leaders
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  of the church because he told Peter before he even denied him,
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  he said, Peter, you're going to deny me.
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  You're going to deny me three times before the cock crows
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  twice. You're going to deny me three
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  times. But when you return, Peter,
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  strengthen your brothers because there's others that are going to
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  want to deny me as well. Strengthen your brothers.
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  So I don't know if we've ever been in a situation where we've
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  denied them. I don't know if we've been in a
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  situation where we have been faithless or lack of faith.
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  But I can tell you that our Savior is merciful, and He will
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  allow us to turn to Him. If we confess our faithlessness,
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  if we confess the fact that we denied them, we can turn to Him
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  and he will give us grace to receive us back to himself.
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  We don't have to die in our denial.
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  We don't have to die in our faithlessness.
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  If there's anyone out there that's not have not believed
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  Jesus Christ for your Lord and Savior, you don't have to die
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  that way. His arms are open right now and
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  saying to you, come to me, come to me.
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  He came to die for your sins and he's willing to receive you.
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  We don't have to die in that state.
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  But then we go to verse 14 and this is when he begins to speak
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  to us about approved workers and unapproved workers.
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  Here in verse 14. He says here, remind them of
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  these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive
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  about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.
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  Now, first of all, he says remind and you know, you know,
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  Clark, Pastor Clark and myself, every Sunday, you know, when we
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  come up and we share the word of God, you know, it's not always
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  new things because we go chapter by chapter, book by book, line
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  by line. So we don't always share new
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  things. In fact, some of you who read
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  the word of God probably just as much as we do, if not more.
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  For some of you, you've already read a lot of the things that
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  we're already sharing, that we're sharing.
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  We're not giving anything new. Just like Paul says here, remind
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  them, I've already given you this.
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  I've already taught this to you, Timothy.
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  We've already taught this to the congregation.
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  So remind them. You don't have to give them
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  anything new, but we need to be reminded every now and then.
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  We need to be reminded about the cross.
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  Every now and then. We need to be reminded about the
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  mercy of God every now and then. We need to be reminded about the
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  promises that God gives us. We need to be reminded about
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  suffering. We need to be reminded about
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  repentance. Sometimes we need to be
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  reminded, and this is what Timothy is saying.
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  He says remind them of these things, charging them,
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  commanding them before the Lord not to strive about words.
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  Don't argue about words. Don't argue about words that
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  don't have no profit. Arguing about things that have
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  no eternal value. Don't argue about that.
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  Those kind of things. Timothy, stay away from that.
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  It doesn't do anything good. It doesn't lead to anything
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  positive, but what it does is that it destroys.
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  He says here that it's only that it actually ruins or that word
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  is subvert or destroy the hearers.
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  You discourage more people than you encourage when you argue
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  about words. And before we go to verse 15, I
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  want to drop down for a second and go to verse 16.
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  He says, But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will
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  increase, or in other words, they will lead to more
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  ungodliness. So he tells us to not argue or
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  not or not strive over words, and to shun or to keep away from
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  profane and idle babblings. And then in the middle of that,
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  he puts what used to be one of my most favorite verses, and it
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  still is, but now Hebrews 1166 kind of took over.
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  But this when I first got saved, this was my favorite verse.
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  I, I, I read this verse every single day and it says here, be
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  diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who
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  does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
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  truth. That was so important to me when
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  I first got saved because I had such a hunger for the word, a
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  hunger for the word and I had a mentor who was big on rightly
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  dividing the word. So I would read that almost
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  every day and I would read it in the King James Version, which
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  basically says it almost says the same thing, but it changes a
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  few of the words. But the bottom line here is
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  this, and this is the most important part I want to give to
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  you. It says present yourself,
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  approve to God, not approve to man.
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  Notice what that says because it's very important.
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  It's not approve to man. We're not here, Pastor Clark and
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  I should never be teaching to try to make themselves
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  approvable to you or to any man or to any congregation.
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  That's not what this is about. That's not what we're called to
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  do. We're to study and make sure we
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  understand the word of God, to make ourselves approved unto
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  him. And that's why it's nestled in
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  between those two verses. Because to argue and strive
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  about words to no prophet, to the ruin of hears, that has
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  nothing to do with teaching the Word of God, profane and idle
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  babbling, that has nothing to do with the word of God.
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  Those things are ungodly. But when we study the word of
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  God and we are workmen, the Bible says we are workmen with
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  the word of God. We study it just like Paul said
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  a couple verses back, that one of the things we are is a
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  farmer, a hard working farmer. And in doing that, we have to
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  make sure that we are hard workers getting into the word of
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  God, spending time with him in prayer so that we rightly
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  divide. And that word rightly divide
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  actually means cutting straight, cutting the word of God
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  straight. We know that farmers cut furrows
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  straight. A Carpenter will cut a board
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  straight. We as pastors or as teachers of
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  the Word are to cut the Word straight, cut it straight, give
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  it straight. We don't add to it, we don't
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  take away from it, we don't sugarcoat it, we don't
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  breakdance around sin. We cut it straight just the way
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  the Lord gives it to us. And this and this sum, when he
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  says Sean, that means to keep away from profane means
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  irreverent, unconsecrated and babbling just simply means empty
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  chatter. He says stay away from those
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  things because they don't lead to godliness.
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  It leads to more ungodliness. These things only lead to
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  arguments, bitter arguments, bitter debates, and no one comes
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  out of it benefiting. No one benefits out of it.
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  But when you teach the word of God, there should be a spirit
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  that is along with it that will lead us to godliness.
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  It encourages us, it corrects us if need be, it convicts us, but
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  it leads us to godliness. Here on Living Waters of Grace,
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  we're in the books of First and Second Timothy.
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  Pastor Lewis Harrell is walking us through these letters written
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  from Paul to Timothy. Toward the end of these letters,
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  Paul is anticipating that his time here on earth is coming to
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  a close. He's giving some final words of
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  advice to his mentee. Paul writes in Second Timothy 4,
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  verse seven. I have fought the good fight.
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  I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
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  Wherever you are in your journey of faith with God, our hope is
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  that you have the willingness to fight for what's true.
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  Not compromising, but holding fast to the Word of God.
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  Paul was reminding Timothy of this, and it's a good reminder
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  for you and for me today, too. For helpful input throughout
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  this series, why not listen to all of these teachings from
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  first and Second Timothy on our website?
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  Go to calvarychapelonline.com to access teachings, download our
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  app, and more. If you'd like to visit us this
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  weekend, we'd be delighted. Living Waters of Grace is a
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  ministry of Calvary Chapel Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA
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  Come to our service held at 10:30 AM on Sundays.
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  We're located at 400 E Pittsburgh St.
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  Ste. 6B. For any other information on our
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  weekly service, visit calvarychapelonline.com.
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  You can also join our e-mail list, give online, or submit a
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  prayer request right from the site.
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  If you can't make it in person, be sure to tune into Calvary
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  Chapel Westmoreland's YouTube channel.
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  Subscribe so you never miss new teachings.
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  We thank you for tuning in today and ask that you come back for
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  more solid and biblical teaching from Pastor Lewis right here on
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  Living Waters of Grace.