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Our Union in Christ 1 · Near East Christian Fellowship Sermons

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Welcome to NECF sermons.
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Each message here is designed to uplift and strengthen you in your walk with God.
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Don't miss out, stay with us until the end for a rewarding experience.
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Let's dive right in.
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Hallelujah!
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Yes, no distractions today.
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So that my suits will hold me down.
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Hallelujah!
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Praise God.
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Amen.
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Well, welcome to God's presence.
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It's good to see our faces.
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It's good to be in church this morning in the family of God this morning.
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And I want to thank our lead pastor, Pastor Frederick Letong, for the opportunity to share
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the word of God.
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This morning, I want to thank the associate pastors as well for their commitment to this
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work for the grace to teach the word, to learn the word and grow together in God.
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Hallelujah!
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This morning, we'll be building on what we have started.
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Right?
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We'll be building on what we have started.
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Our lead pastor led us through manifesting the kingdom of God, which is the theme of the
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year.
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Hallelujah!
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Can we say manifesting the kingdom of God?
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Say I will manifest the kingdom of God.
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And it helps us to understand what we have misunderstood, right, by heaven.
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It laid the foundation for us to understand what we have misunderstood as heaven.
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And the following we, Pastor Victor, picked up and took us through understanding the kingdom
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of God, right?
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Understanding the kingdom of God, manifesting the kingdom of God, understanding the kingdom
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of God.
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And this morning, you can choose any of either the topics, but for the sake of just saving
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the message, right, you can just call it the union with Christ.
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Okay?
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Our union with Christ.
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Because it took me time to actually find a topic.
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There's no crafting of any topic.
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We'll be going through the same topic all through the year, expansively checking the
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scripture to help us understand what manifesting the kingdom of God is.
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What understanding the kingdom of God is.
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But today you can just call it our union with Christ.
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And last week, Pastor Victor ended on a very important note that when a man believes that
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is how the man does what, access the kingdom of God.
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He comes into the kingdom of God.
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Right?
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So we're talking about John 3 verse 1 to 3 talking about Nicodemus and Christ's explanation
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to him that accepts a man be born again.
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He cannot be in the kingdom of God.
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And if you're not in the kingdom of God, you cannot manifest the kingdom of God.
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Okay?
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So I'm just recapping this because what we are doing this year is we are building up
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on everything.
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Right?
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We are building up on these teachings.
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So today I want to explain further.
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Right?
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I want to explain further what that being born again is.
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And I titled it our union with Christ.
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Hallelujah.
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Because when we understand this, our union with Christ, which has been born again, we
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are able to manifest.
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Right?
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In subsequent teachings we will go to manifest.
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But we need to understand our union with Christ.
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Because in our union with Christ, we will understand heaven very well.
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Right?
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We would understand what heaven is.
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John chapter 14.
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John chapter 14.
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You will hear a whole lot of things that you've heard in previous week again and again because
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that's to get into us.
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Then when we teach what manifestation is, you will be able to manifest.
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John chapter 14 from verse 1.
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It's a let not your heart be troubled, yet believe in God, believe also in me.
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In my father's house are many mansions.
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If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
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That's three.
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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself.
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That where I am, dear, ye may be also.
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Now the foundation of this kind of a teaching or this kind of a statement by Christ in chapter
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14 started from chapter 13.
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Okay?
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So someone can not just approach you and tell you not let not your heart be troubled.
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If your heart is not troubled by certain information that you have received.
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So there's only a source or there's only a need for comfort when there's an information
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that you have received and you are thinking it is not palatable to your mind, then you
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will be troubled.
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So if you go to chapter 13 verse 1, don't forget, when we read the scriptures, we have
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to read them in chunks, not just chapters.
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Because you have to squeeze five chapters together to understand what is taking place.
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So in chapter 13, it said, now before the feasts of the Passover, when Jesus knew that
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this hour is how has come to depart out of this world to the Father.
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Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
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So it was about time for Christ to depart this world.
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He notes, he said to depart away from this world to where?
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To the Father.
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Right?
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To the Father.
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So you have to note that because in chapter 14, it began to explain what we call the Father's
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house in verse 2.
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So just look at chapter 14 verse 2.
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You should use hard copy Bible because to maneuver digital Bibles, it's not really helpful.
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You can't maneuver quickly, right?
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On a page, you can be seen the two chapters.
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So use your hard copy Bibles, we encourage that very well.
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So if you're in verse 2, you will see that what Jesus has said about the Father is now
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becoming very clear.
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He now explained that's what the Father's house.
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Right?
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So verse 13, because it was about to depart, let's go to chapter 13 verse 21.
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He said, after these things, Jesus was troubled in the spirit and testified, truly, truly
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I say to you, one of you will betray me.
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The disciples looked at one another, on the side of whom he spoke, one of the disciples
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whom the Lord was reclining at table at Jesus' side.
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So Simon Peter mentioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
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So that the disciples leaning back against Jesus said to him, Lord, who is it?
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Jesus answered, it is he to whom I will give this mussel of bread when I have dipped it.
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So when he had dipped the mussel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon is carried.
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Then after he had taken the mussel, Satan entered into him.
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Jesus said to him, what you are going to do, do it quickly.
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No one at the table knew what he said, knew why he said this to him.
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Some thought because Judas had the money back, Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for
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the feast or that should give something to the poor.
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So after receiving the mussel of bread, he immediately went out and it was night.
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Verse 13, sorry, verse 31.
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When he had gone out, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified and God has glorified
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in him.
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If God has glorified in him, God will also glorify himself in him and glorify him at
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once.
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Little children, yet a little while I am with you.
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You will seek me and just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, where I am going,
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you cannot come.
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A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you.
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You are all, you also are to love one another by these all people will know that you're
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my disciples.
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If you love one another, rest six, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?
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Jesus answered, where I am going, you cannot follow me now.
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Right now, but you will follow afterwards.
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Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
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I will lay down my life for you and Jesus said, will you lay down your life for me?
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Truly, truly, I say to you, the roster will not grow till you have denied me three times.
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Now the setting of this reading is one of a betrayal, right?
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Of a betrayal.
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So Jesus is saying, one of you will betray me, right?
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So everybody begins to wonder who is going to betray Jesus?
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Am I the one who's going to betray Jesus?
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Right?
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So Jesus was leaning close to him, began to ask the question.
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Another thing we see here, he said that I will go, I will depart from you.
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For a little while, you will not see me.
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Right?
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This somebody who has discipled them for three years, right?
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Three and a half years, they're about, and he's saying you will not see me again.
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Because of him, they have done many things on the streets.
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They have scattered the message of the kingdom to the streets.
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And now, the one who is leading the people who would share, or who have been sharing
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the message is departing.
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So you can imagine the state of mind that the disciples find themselves.
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But he says something that they missed.
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He said, where I am going, you cannot do what, you cannot go with me now.
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You cannot go with me now where I'm going.
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But afterwards, you would follow after.
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Right?
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You would follow after.
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So we see that, let your heart not be troubled is very important.
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Right?
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Let your heart not be troubled is very important because of the parameters of betrayal, of
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Jesus going, yet mentioning is returning.
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So therefore, chapter 14 is actually explaining something much more clearly about the going
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of Jesus.
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Hallelujah.
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Are we together?
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Chapter 14, therefore, is explaining clearly about his going.
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So he said, let not your heart be troubled.
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Believe in God.
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You believe in God.
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Right?
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Believe also in me.
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Okay?
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Believe also in me.
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Now, when you go for evangelism, right, and someone tells you they believe in God.
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Okay?
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Believe in God.
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You need to always ask them, what do you believe about God?
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Okay?
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Because when somebody believes in God, it means, it should mean that he believes in
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Christ.
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That's what you see there.
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Believe in God.
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Believe also in me.
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So if someone said they believe in God, it means they believe Christ.
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So when the person believe in God, and they believe not Christ, then they don't believe
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in God.
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He's not talking about the existence of God.
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He's not talking about, oh, I know there's a diet up there.
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Right?
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He's not talking about that.
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We're going to read it as we proceed in verse two and verse three.
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He's not talking about the mere existence of God.
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He's talking about the Christ and what the Christ will do.
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So he said, believe in God.
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Believe also in me.
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In my father's house.
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Who remembers what the pastor called this?
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Father's house.
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The word father's house in Greek.
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What is the word?
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Can we coerce it?
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The father's house in Greek, what's the word?
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Oikea, right?
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Oikea, good.
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Oikea.
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And it means what?
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Dwelling.
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Household.
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Hallelujah.
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Right?
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It means household, which means a family as well.
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Okay?
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A family.
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So in my father's house, there are many rooms.
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Who remember what the rooms are?
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The word in Greek for rooms.
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Let's coerce it.
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Monet.
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Right?
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You should know this word.
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And that is dwelling.
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Right?
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That is dwelling.
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So Jesus provides clarity on where Christ is going.
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Right?
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And where the disciples need not to be troubled.
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Right?
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So they need not to be troubled because he's going somewhere.
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And that place is the father's house.
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First, we see that believing in the fact that Christ is going to the father's house is creating
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a space is key.
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Because you already said that in verse one.
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So believe in God, believe also in me.
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We said it's not about the existence.
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But believing in what Christ would do.
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In my father's house, Oikea, which is family, there are many rooms which is a dwelling.
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Now let me ask a question to church.
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If you say, okay, let me put it this other way.
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When we talk about a family and a household, when we talk about a family and a household,
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do we mean the building or the people?
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Do we mean the building or the people?
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The people.
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Right?
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So it would mean that Jesus talking about a household here is not talking about a building.
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He's not talking about a physical structure that you can touch and you can feel.
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We're going to see that from the scriptures.
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So it's not talking about a physical structure that you can feel.
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So if I say my family is in the church, right, I'm talking about the place I live.
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I'm talking about my family building.
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But I'm talking about the people.
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Right?
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So he's trying to say that in my going, I will, right?
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He said, in my father's house, there are many rooms.
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Okay, let's, let's read that once a little bit before I make my statement.
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He said, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
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Verse three, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and we will take you
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to myself.
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So Jesus is saying that I will go and establish this household, right?
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Provide access, make available this household.
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That's then I will come again to you.
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That's where I am.
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You will be.
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So I go to prepare a place, right?
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I go to make a place.
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He's simply talking about Christ going to make something accessible to us.
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Okay?
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So he's saying that Christ, I go to prepare a place is that I'm going to make this family
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something you can assess.
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I go to a place.
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It means I go to make this accessible.
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So in my father's house, there are many rooms, verse three, just jump to verse three, said,
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I go to make this family accessible for you.
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Then when it is accessible, thank you for that scripture, I will come again.
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Two things.
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I go to prepare the place.
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I will come again and we take you to myself.
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So three things, right?
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Three things we can pick there.
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It's going to make the place accessible.
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When the place is accessible, it's not just going to go.
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He will come again, right?
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And when he comes again, what will happen?
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He will take us to what?
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To himself.
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Good.
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Now that word or the phrase, I go to prepare a place for you is actually referring to the
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death of Christ.
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Okay?
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So you can write it down.
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It refers to the death of Christ because it destroys death and his resurrection.
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As the family of God, the Oikea is made available as a dwelling.
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Through the death and resurrection of Christ, the family of God is made accessible as a
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dwelling, is made available as a place.
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So no one could actually come in without the death and resurrection of Christ.
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But that is why he said, I will go and come again, referring to his resurrection.
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In that said, please leave the description on the screen, please.
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In that said, I will take you to myself.
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So we see death, we see resurrection, and we see union with Christ.
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I'm using the word union, right?
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For those of you that know the word ascension, I'm not using it here because the ascension
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needs to be taught much more clearly.
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But it's union.
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Right?
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The death, the burial, resurrection, and the union with Christ.
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So therefore, the Oikea, right?
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The Oikea is actually, okay, let me backtrack.
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We've gotten the three points, right?
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Did we get the three points?
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We got the three points, the death, the burial, and the union with Christ.
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Now if we say that what this scripture is saying is actually a particular futuristic
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event today, we say that it's something that will happen in the future and has not happened.
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It will mean that Jesus has not fulfilled his promise to the disciples.
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It means that nobody is in union with Christ.
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Nobody has access to the kingdom of God.
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Nobody has access to the family of God.
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So if we say that this is something that is to come, it means that the house of God is
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still empty.
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If there's something like that, and nobody have access.
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But indeed, since we say that it is the death and the resurrection, it means that the access
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to that house, to that family is available.
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Are we together?
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The access to that family is available.
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Therefore, the disciples now, since the death and resurrection has taken place, the disciples
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we can say they are in union with Christ.
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And we that have believed are also in union with Christ.
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We are in God's family.
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So therefore, there will be a union in Christ's family, as at the time of this writing, there
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was no union, right?
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But we will see that there's a union after Christ has died and he has resurrected.
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Now let's go to Ephesians chapter two.
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Ephesians chapter two, verse six.
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Or let's go to verse 17.
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Let's start with verse 17.
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We'll come back to verse six.
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Verse 17.
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He said, and he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and peace to those who
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were near.
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For through him, we both have what?
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Access in one spirit to the what?
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The Father.
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He said, for through him, we both have access in one spirit to what?
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So the Father.
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John 13 is going to the Father, right?
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John 14 is going to the Father's house, right?
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He's preparing the Father's house.
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Here we now see in Ephesians, after the dead and all pertaining to him are taking place.
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We see that we now have access.
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Now let's continue reading.
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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints
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and members of the what, the household of God, which is the same word, oikea.
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Here they use it as oikos, right?
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Household of God.
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Same root word.
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So what we see here is that John 14 is talking about our union with Christ.
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Are we together?
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It's talking about what?
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Our union with Christ.
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Now let's go to Ephesians five.
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Ephesians five.
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Ephesians five from verse 25.
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It says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
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that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the blood,
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so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any
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such thing that might, that she might be holy and without blemish.
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In the same way, husband should love their wives as their own bodies.
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He who loves his wife, love himself for no one have hated his own flesh, but nourishes,
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cherishes it just as Christ does the church.
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Because we are members of his body, therefore shall a man, therefore a man shall leave his
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father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.
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This mystery is profound.
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And I am saying that it refers to what?
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To Christ and what?
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The church.
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However, let it be of you love his wife as himself and let his wife sees that they respect
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their husband.
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So what we see here again is the understanding of union.
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So we can say that John chapter 14 and Ephesians 5 from verse 25 downwards is actually explaining
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one thing that is common, which is union with Christ.
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So we see present the church to himself, right?
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Present the church to himself means both Christ and the church are together.
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Did we see that?
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Both Christ and the church are together.
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His own flesh, they become one flesh.
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We see union in that as well, right?
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And it says this mystery refers to what?
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Christ and the church.
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To therefore say that our union with Christ is something that will happen in the future
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in a particular location is a wrong teaching.
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Okay?
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So there is no, I know many of us are already thinking of Thessalonians and we'll go there,
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right?
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It's just in so many, we'll go there.
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There is no scriptures, right?
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That says that our union, right, is something futuristic.
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Future, that's when we would be united, but no, there's nothing like that.
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The scripture that comes to your mind is 1 Thessalonians 5 and we're going to read it
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and explain it.
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So therefore, right now we can say that we are in union with Christ, okay?
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We can say we are in union with Christ.
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We are already with Christ, but we are in this body.
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It's like saying that you are married, okay?
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You're married and your husband is absent in your present location, maybe where you
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are.
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And the person probably just took a trip out and you say because he's not physically present,
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you are not married.
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That is what we do when we say we are not in union with Christ because you are not saying
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Christ is physically present in a spiritual body, right?
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They're saying, oh, we are not in union with him, right?
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But while that can happen in a real life situation, it doesn't happen with God, okay?
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When it comes to spirituals, it doesn't.
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You are in union with Christ.
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You are in union with Christ.
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So our union with Christ is not something futuristic, but something that has taken place
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at the moment we believe.
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Now let's now check Thessalonians 5 that said that we will be caught up, right?
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We will be caught up with him.
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Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5.
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I'm not going to explain everything, just a few things there from verse 13.
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He said, but now we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are
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asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
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For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring
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with him those who are falling asleep.
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For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive, who are left
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until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who are falling asleep.
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For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of a command, with the voice of
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an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ who rise for
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us.
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For we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with him, with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
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So we will always be with the Lord.
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Therefore encourage one another in these.
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Now this place, if you just read it this way, and you put your holy wood mind or your nolly
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wood mind or your bully wood mind into thinking, what you will see is graves open, some people
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levitating up, and you that you are alive, you are joining them, right, if you try to
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follow the scriptures.
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Because it says that those who are alive and are left, we will be caught up.
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You know what caught up means, you will be going up, right, together with them, those
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who are in the clouds also, to meet with the Lord, we are in the air.
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A-I-R, I don't mind.
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So in the air, right, you would, so if you put such kind of a mind on this is what you
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will see.
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And that would mean, you now translate that heaven is the cloud, and heaven is the sky.
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That is not heaven.
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Okay, because what the scripture means, just two words, we just do two word study and we
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will clarify that our union with Christ has taken place, and this place is not talking
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about a union, this place is talking about a congregation, a coming together of people
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who are already united.
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So you can write it down, that 1 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians 4, sorry, 1 Thessalonians
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4, verse 13 to 18 is talking about people who are already in union, but they are coming
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for a conference, if you can put it that way, they are coming for a congregation.
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It's congregating, it's not talking about union, because union has taken place when
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they believed.
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So this part is talking about congregating, people coming together.
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So why did I say it's not a union, but it's actually coming together?
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Verse 17 says, we who are alive, we will be caught up.
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First, that caught up word, there's no up there.
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Okay, you can, it's a phrase, don't split it.
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If you split it, it will mean, caught up means you will translate it to you going up.
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So where do we find these other words?
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Matthew 11 verse 12, the word is actually apagia, right, in Greek.
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The word is actually apagia in Greek, H-A-R-P-A-Z-O, apagio, apagio means pens.
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H-A-R-P-A-Z-O, that word caught up is apagia.
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It means to be taken, it means to be taken.
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In places where it appears, it is used as to be taken together with something, to be
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taken.
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It has nothing to do with people moving into the sky.
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Now let's read Matthew 11, 12, can you quickly give me Matthew 11, 12?
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From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence
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and the violence are parjoined by force, they take it.
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Does it mean that the violence are going up into the sky?
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No, it doesn't mean that.
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Matthew 13, 19, quickly, Matthew 13, 19.
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We're trying to debunk the idea that the cloud is heaven and we are going to participate
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in something.
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When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes
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and snatches it away, that's the word, to take away, to take away what has been sown,
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right?
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To take away.
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The next scripture, John 6, 15.
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John 6, 15.
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Meaning that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, take.
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The word take.
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Now let me show you two places where it was used as cut up as well.
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Second Corinthians 12, 2 verse 4 and Revelation 12, verse 5.
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If you have wisdom, you know now.
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The moment I call revelation, you know what that will be.
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So second Corinthians 12, verse 2 to 4 and Revelation 12, verse 5.
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In these two places, the word apadu was used as cut up, was translated as cut up.
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Now let's go to second Corinthians.
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I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was cut up to the third heavens, whether in the
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body or out of the body, I do not know.
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God knows.
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We know that this man was cut up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I
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do not know.
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God knows, right?
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And he had things that cannot be told, which man cannot alter.
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Paul is referring to a vision here, right?
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It's related to a vision, not a physical event taking place.
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He's referring to a vision.
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Verse 12, verse 5 is also used as cut up, which is also a vision.
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Okay?
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So it means that you cannot take vision literally.
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Actually, even in that place, he refers to, he was taken into the heavens, which means
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taken into a spiritual realm.
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Not Paul, even in that vision, he was not levitating.
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He was actually taken into a spiritual realm, right?
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That's the meaning.
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An unseen realm, immaterial world, right?
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And he was told things that could not be altered.
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So these are the only two scriptures that actually use the word cut up.
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And we have seen that it only means to be taken.
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Now when we go to 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 4, it would therefore mean that we can read
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it this way.
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Then we who are alive and who are left will be taken together with them in the clouds.
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Now let's deal with clouds.
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We have dealt with cut up.
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You have been, you know, you have been cut up with your rules.
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You know what that means, right?
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You were not levitating when you got caught up with Instagram rules.
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So it means that you cannot just use word, just give them a wrong interpretation.
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Now the word clouds is air, I don't know, you said in the air in some places, it's AER,
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right?
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The word cloud in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 17 is AER, oh no, not, pardon, excuse me.
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Okay, that's air, that's something else.
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Now the word clouds, the word clouds is not air, sorry.
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It has another Greek word, but what it simply means is actually referring to a congregation
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which we see in Hebrews, right?
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We see this word in Hebrews.
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Let's go to Hebrews.
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Let's go to Hebrews.
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I will explain the air there, but cloud refers to a people.
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Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, this is one place where we can see.
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It said, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of what?
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Of witnesses, right?
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So great a cloud of what?
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Witnesses.
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The witnesses are those who are witnesses of the faith, right?
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People who have witnessed the faith, and we see Hebrews 11 mention a number of them that
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have believed the message.
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Are we together?
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Are we together?
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So this cloud of witnesses are the same people.
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We will come together and we'll form a cloud, which will form a congregation.
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So yes, there is a time that will come where this world, this mortality will give up for
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the immortality to come in.
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Yes, there's a time.
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Nobody is saying there is no time where everything would end.
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There's a time.
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But that time is not what you always refer to as rapture.
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It is not a time.
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Let me tell you what I wrote here.
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I said it is not a time of disappearance, right?
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It is not a time of disappearance.
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You can write it down.
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It is not a day you will not know about.
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It is not a day you will not know if you are in the Lord or not.
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It is not a day of you will now realize, oh, I've not been serving God all my life.
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It's not.
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It is the day where because you have believed in God, you will congregate with those who
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have believed in God and have slept in the Lord.
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Means they have died and they are buried.
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So it means they will rise and we who are alive, we will congregate with them.
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Do we get it?
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It's not going to the sky.
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It has nothing to do with the sky.
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Right?
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So forget those movies.
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So it is not a day of levitating to the sky.
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It is not a day of uncertainty.
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The movies we watch will show that, oh, I was not sure.
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Oh, and I've been serving God.
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They will now show you one place.
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Ah, he did not forgive his brother.
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Oh, that is why.
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Oh, before he entered the church, he just insulted somebody.
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And that is why he did not make it.
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It doesn't work like that.
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That is not what the scripture is saying.
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It said those of you that are in the Lord, right, that are alive.
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Are you not in the Lord?
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Are you not in union with the Lord?
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Let's continue.
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So it is not a day of uncertainty.
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You are certain, you know, right, that they will come and you know that you are in the
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Lord.
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And you will gather in that congregation.
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And that congregation, I said I refuse to call it the rapture, right, the way we all
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because in fact, there's no word like that.
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But because they've gone to this place to teach that that's rapture, right.
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Now rapture is actually your union with Christ.
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It's actually the same word to be taken in with Christ.
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The indwelling of God is actually your rapture.
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Do we get it?
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Your union with Christ, it means to come together with Christ.
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Right.
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What is happening in first Thessalonians is everybody that has come to it is like, let
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me give you an example.
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They call for a conference.
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They call for a conference of engineers.
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Right.
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They say all engineers should come for this conference.
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Is it when they call for that conference that the engineers are made or before that conference
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the engineers were made?
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Before the conference they were made.
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So it's not rapture that is not this gathering that is making you enter into the kingdom
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of God.
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Do we get it?
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But you are gathering with people who are in the kingdom of God.
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We are gathering with people who are in the kingdom of God.
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This meeting, it is not a meeting of salvation.
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This meeting it will happen.
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It is not a meeting of salvation.
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It is not a meeting to establish the kingdom of God.
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It is a meeting that those who are in the kingdom of God will come together as one.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Now let's go further.
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First Thessalonians 4.
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I mean I'm sure pastors will still give us more on that as the year.
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Let's go back to First Thessalonians 4.
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It says, meet the Lord in the air.
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Okay.
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To meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.
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If you read this well and you want to apply justice to what you have been thinking, to
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meet the Lord in the air therefore we and the Lord will be in the air suspended there
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and we will be there forever with him.
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That is what it will mean if you take it literally.
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So we will always be with the Lord because we will meet him in the air and he will be
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in the air.
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So it therefore means that we cannot use direct literal words to explain these things because
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they are spiritual realities.
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All right the air just like I said is the word AER or AEMI.
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Let's go to Acts 22 verse 23.
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Which is the place where this word was also used.
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This is the place where this word was also used.
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And as they were shouting and throwing off their clothes and flinging dusts in the air.
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So this is used directly describing what someone saw taking place.
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What someone saw taking place which is throwing things into the space, into the atmosphere.
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So it's used not figuratively here but directly.
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All right 1 Corinthians 9 verse 26.
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So I do not run aimlessly.
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I do not box as one beating the air.
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So now he's talking about making things or doing things fruitlessly.
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So he's talking about I'm not being fruitless in this place.
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I do run with a target.
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So I'm not hazzardly doing things.
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So beating the air does not mean punching the air.
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Here it's used figuratively.
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So we've seen a place where it's used literally.
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A place which we can take it figuratively because beating the air means doing something
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that has no yield result.
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First Corinthians 14 verse 9.
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First Corinthians 14 verse 9.
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So with yourself, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how
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will anyone know what is said?
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For you'll be speaking into the air, right?
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You're speaking into the air means no one can comprehend, right?
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Which is similar to beating the air.
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The two used figuratively, right?
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Now let me show you the main scripture that now.
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So it means that this word can be used figuratively and it can be used literally.
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And you cannot transpose the meaning in either of the two contexts.
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Now the main scripture that now give us understanding to this is Ephesians 2.
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Ephesians 2 brings us close to it.
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Ephesians 2.
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Ephesians 2 verse 1.
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Just give me Ephesians 2 verse 1 to 2.
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And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once worked following the course
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of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air.
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What is the Prince of the power of the air?
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The spirit that is now at work in the sons of what?
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Disobedience.
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So what is the power of it?
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No, no, just understand that.
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What is the power of the air?
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The spirit that is now at work.
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So it's talking about a spiritual.
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Air is used as a spiritual reality.
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A spiritual realm.
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So if you go to verses 1, it's not talking about the atmosphere, but it's talking about
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the spiritual realm.
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That at the end, we will be in the spiritual realm with those that are falling asleep and
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we will meet the Lord in that realm.
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And there we will be forever.
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Are we together?
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He says, so we will always be with the Lord.
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Now I now try to check if there is anything before verse 18 because verse 18 says, encourage
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each other with these words.
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Right?
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So I check maybe between verse 17 and 18, there is something that added streets of gold.
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Something that added heaven as a hall where God is sitting and there's cloud, street of
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gold, you know, where all the houses and mansions that we have misinterpreted in John 14, maybe
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they managed to insert it there.
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What I checked and there was nothing.
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These therefore meaning that since we are united with God, we are in union with Christ
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on this earth, what is left for us, right, is to gather together as a people that are
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in union with Christ and stay with him in the spiritual realm forever.
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So therefore, heaven is not a physical location, just like Pastor started teaching us.
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Heaven is not a physical location.
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The mansions are not in physical.
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Thank God we started with that explanation.
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First Corinthians 15 verse 42 to 45.
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Let me show you one thing that complements first Thessalonians for Pastor Victor already
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told us that last week.
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He mentioned it.
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That's what is left for the believer.
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Okay, so exactly the same scriptures.
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So let's read from, no, I mean first Corinthians 15, 42 to 48.
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So is it with the resurrection of the dead.
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Just here in the scripture, someone will say, does it mean that Pastor Mario is teaching
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that there's no resurrection of the dead?
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That's not what I'm teaching, okay.
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I already told you there's a day, right, where those who have slept in Christ would rise
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again.
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If you read first Corinthians 15, there was an argument about those who said there's no
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more resurrection or the resurrection has passed or something like that.
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This one is explaining to us much more that there's actually a day, right, a day that
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was saw in first Thessalonians of such where the perishable, right, will give up and the
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imperishable will be taken up.
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So is it with the resurrection of the dead?
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What is son imperishable?
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What is son perishable?
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What is raised is imperishable.
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It is son in the son, it is raised in glory.
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It is son in weakness, it is raised in power.
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It is son in a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
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If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
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Thus it is written the first Adam became a living being and the last Adam became a life-giving
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spirit.
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But it is not the spirit that is first but the natural, then the spiritual.
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The first man was from the earth, a man of those and the second man is from heaven.
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And as was the man of those, so also are those who are of the dust.
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And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of what's heaven.
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Just as we are born the image of the man of those, we will also be the image of what's
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the man of heaven, right?
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We will be Adam.
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So here he's talking about a spiritual body that the believer would receive, right?
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To give up our existence in this physical body.
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So that is what is left for the believer.
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Hallelujah.
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That is what is left for the believer.
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To be able to exist in the spiritual realm, we will take up this spiritual body.
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Because Christ has it.
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Hallelujah.
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We appreciate you being here today.
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We hope you carried this word with you throughout your week.
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Don't forget to check the show notes for additional insights.
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Stay connected with us through our website or follow us on social media.
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If you were encouraged, share this message with someone you care about.
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Until next time, stay blessed.