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778. Bible Study: Jeremiah 17 (When Trouble is a Consequence of Sin) · Faith by annm2705

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  Today we'll start with chapter 17 from the book of Jeremiah.
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  And as always, let's pray First, dear Lord, as your Scripture
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  says in Second Timothy, Second Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 and
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  17, all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for
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  teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so
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  that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every
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  good work. Please let us have this, these
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  verses that we read today teach us, rebuke us, correct us, train
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  us in righteousness so that we may do good work.
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  We ask this in Jesus name, so let's get started.
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  Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a
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  Flint point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of
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  their altars. Even their children remember
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  their altars and Ashura poles beside the spreading trees and
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  on the high hills. My mountain in the land and your
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  wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder
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  together with your high places. Now here God gives the reason
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  why because of sin throughout your country.
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  So it's these these devastations happen because of sin throughout
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  your country through your own fault, you will lose the
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  inheritance I gave you. That's a pretty strong statement
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  from God talking to Judah, the tribe of Judah, who we know
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  Jesus was, he descended from that tribe.
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  So this is a, you know, a pretty harsh warning to the people that
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  Jeremiah is giving through God's words.
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  He's he's telling them this is your own fault.
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  You will lose the inheritance, the land that I gave you.
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  I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not
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  know. For you have kindled my anger
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  and it will burn forever. So why was God so angry and
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  upset? Well, sin separates people from
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  God. Judah is the chosen people, part
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  of the Israelites, and these are God's chosen people, and even
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  His chosen people are sinning against Him.
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  And these altars and Asherah poles, those are idolatry, that
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  is worshipping other gods. If you go back and look at all
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  the different kings in their succession, half of the kings of
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  Judah were good or did good, and then half of them did evil.
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  They adopted the practices of the people surrounding them, the
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  Canaanites and their Pagan worship.
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  And so they were, they were really experiencing life in a
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  worldly sense rather than being consecrated or set apart as
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  God's chosen people dedicated to God.
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  They lost that thought of being dedicated to God and they just
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  assumed the likeness of the surrounding community that was
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  definitely against God and worshipping other gods.
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  So the study Bible to ask a question.
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  How is sin engraved with an iron tool?
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  The answer? The iron tools were used to
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  chisel inscriptions into stone. The most permanent kind of
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  writing. Job 19, verse 24.
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  Jeremiah's metaphor showed the permanence of their sin.
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  Sin, particularly idolatry, had become unilaterally ingrained in
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  their nature. I also think about how God uses
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  the word like are in Scripture, the words like hardened heart,
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  like a heart that's become hard and a heart of stone.
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  And these verses are uses used a few different times.
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  The heart of stone. Ezekiel, another prophet uses
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  this and he this is the word of God, the words that were coming
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  to Ezekiel from God. In Chapter 11, Ezekiel says this
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  is God speaking. I will give them an undivided
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  heart and a new spirit in them. I will remove from them their
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  heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
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  Well, that you know just that that all ties together where
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  they've become hardened. Their heart is not soft.
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  It's not open to God. It's closed to God.
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  It's like a stone, like nothing is going to penetrate it.
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  It's it, it's just hardened against God and God, this is
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  another, there's so many things in this one statement that he's
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  going to give them an undivided heart.
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  So that means they're not going to be split with their desires.
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  They will love God at some point and that God will give that to
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  them because right now their hearts divided, They're
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  worshipping lots of other entities that are not gods.
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  And then he also says, I will put and put a new spirit in
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  them. So, you know, we are body, mind
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  and spirit and a new spirit in them.
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  They're, you know, there's this, we either have the Spirit of God
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  influencing us or we have an evil spiritual realm influencing
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  us and God's taking away that other spirit and giving us a new
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  spirit, the Holy Spirit. And when I say us, it's the same
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  thing for us as it is for the people of Judah, that when we
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  turn to God, when we repent of our sin and when we, when God
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  knows that we want to be his child again, even though we were
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  created by him, doesn't mean we are all God's children.
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  It depends who is guiding us, who have we submitted to?
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  And, and it's not really a, a Gray area.
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  It's either you're submitted to God or you're not.
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  There's not like a, a fuzzy line.
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  A fuzzy line means you're still submitted to the enemy, the evil
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  1 because you haven't fully committed to God.
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  So there's, there's not, it's a very, it's not a there's not a
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  Gray area in this. It's either one or the other.
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  Just like God didn't say, well, I'll give them a partially
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  divided heart where 75 percents to me and the other 25% is
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  whatever they want. No, it's like an undivided
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  heart. Everything is turned towards
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  God. Then in Ezekiel 36 chapter or
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  chapter 36, verse 26, I will give you a new heart and a new
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  spirit in you. I will remove from you your
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  heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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  He's saying the same thing again.
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  And often through repetition, God gets His point across to
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  people. But you know, did did the people
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  back then know of the Holy Spirit?
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  And it's certainly that it's the same Spirit.
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  And today when we turn to God and when we ask for forgiveness
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  and we change our mind as to we reject sin, maybe we struggle
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  with it, but we reject it and we don't want to keeps, keeps, keep
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  sinning God. That's when God the Holy Spirit,
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  the Holy Spirit will help people.
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  It's fun from God. The whole process is what the
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  church calls sanctification and it doesn't happen on our own.
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  We don't do it by ourselves. We are influenced by the Holy
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  Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. We receive the Holy Spirit
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  through Jesus. Jesus said, you know, I will ask
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  the Father and then send to you an advocate.
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  He was talking to his disciples, his followers, and He was
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  talking about the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit would then
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  remain with them. And that is again still true
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  today. So anyway, going back to this
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  sin, we know separates us from God, and so we have to get rid
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  of it. And sometimes it's not easy to
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  get rid of it. But if we don't have that desire
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  to get rid of the sin, we're, it's never going to happen
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  because number one, it's not easy to do.
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  And #2 we have to have our minds.
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  It's got to start with your mind.
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  You have to agree with God and say, yes, this is, this is
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  wrong. And I don't want to do it
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  anymore. Like I realized that your eyes
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  have to be open to that. And again, that's like that
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  first verse that we read before we started the study was that,
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  you know, Scripture is there to teach us, to rebuke us, to
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  correct us, to train us in righteousness.
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  That's why we need to be in the word of God, because we need to
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  know what it says so that we know what is pleasing to God.
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  And it, you know, we just can't think of, well, this feels good
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  or I think this is good. So this is good.
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  We are not we are not God. You know, we didn't create the
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  earth, we didn't create all this stuff that we live in.
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  We are a created being. So we are not God.
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  We don't decide those things. God who created everyone decides
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  those things. And we find out through the
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  Bible what God says is good and what God says is bad.
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  He also, it says that he writes that on our hearts too.
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  So there is a sense of having some of this naturally that we,
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  I, I guess we have some sort of understanding to some degree of
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  right and wrong, and that's from God.
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  So the, the question is like when we realize what sin is,
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  then we have a choice. Are we going to keep on doing it
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  or will we turn away from it and ask for God's help with it?
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  And that's where the decision is.
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  Now, some people just don't want to, they like being in sin.
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  They don't want to change it. They know it's wrong, but they
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  don't want to address it. And when I was reading Scripture
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  that kind of described me, you know, like I was convicted by
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  stuff, but I, some things I just didn't want to change or didn't
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  think, well, maybe I don't really need to change that.
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  And I was trying to like, look for ways around it.
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  And, and I'm not saying everybody's like this.
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  I mean, some people might be a lot more righteous than that.
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  I was not like so righteous at the beginning.
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  And and so I would, you know, kind of look for loopholes and
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  ways you could get around it so that you didn't read scripture
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  and say, Oh my gosh, I'm a Sinner.
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  And but then the reality is, yeah.
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  I was a Sinner and I still, you know, there's still tendencies
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  that that I have because I won't be perfect until Jesus returns.
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  But over time it's less and less.
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  And I have seen in the several past years how God has changed
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  me little by little time after time where I'm no longer what I
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  was several years ago. But I'm by no means perfect.
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  I still mess up, but it's not intentional sinning.
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  It's like something just you do something and you're like, well,
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  that was really stupid, why did I do that?
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  And then I ask for forgiveness from God immediately as soon as
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  I'm convicted. Like that was really stupid.
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  Why did you do that? And and then I'm like, I don't
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  want to ever do that again. Like it's, it's just an ongoing
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  process that people go through. But getting back to what I
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  wanted to say about reading Scripture, when I was trying to
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  justify myself, there were a few verses like the ones I'm going
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  to read right now that really stood out.
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  And the reason I'm reading this right now is because it does tie
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  into Jeremiah 17, because it's saying because of sin throughout
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  your country, through your own fault, you will lose the
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  inheritance I gave you. That's chapter 17, the bottom of
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  the third verse and the beginning of the fourth verse.
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  So we need to heed the warnings that are found in Scripture.
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  Do we want to lose our inheritance with God because we
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  keep choosing sin? Now here's the scary part.
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  It's found in Romans chapter one verse 28 says furthermore, just
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  as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the
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  knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind so
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  that they do what ought not to be done.
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  So this is, this was a specific subject, but sin is sin, no
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  matter what kind of sin it is. But this is the the part that
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  was scary to me was I didn't want God to turn me over to a
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  depraved mind at a certain point.
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  And only God knows. Maybe it's that he keeps trying
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  to reach, you know, you, me, you know, he keeps trying like
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  through other people, through maybe church, through the word
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  of God. There's all these different ways
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  that God reaches people and warns them.
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  And then if you still have that, you know, hardened heart where
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  you're just like, not going to let God in, you're just going to
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  do it your own way, then eventually only God knows when
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  it is because it's God that does it.
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  He turns people over to a depraved mind.
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  So he gives us what we want, what we ask for, and, and we
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  essentially it's, I mean, turning somebody over to a brave
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  depraved mind is turning them over to their sin.
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  And that is you become a slave to sin.
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  And that may not sound like a bad thing to somebody who's in
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  sin, who doesn't want to get rid of it, but it leads to
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  destruction. It leads to eternal separation
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  from God. It leads to losing the
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  inheritance that God has planned.
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  You don't think short term about sin, you have to think long term
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  about it. In Second Timothy chapter 3 it
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  also talks about this. Just as Janice and John Brays
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  opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth.
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  They are men of depraved minds who as far as the faith is
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  concerned, are rejected. So a person of a depraved mind
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  is a rejected when you're talking about faith, they are
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  rejected and they are opposing the truth.
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  So this is this was about this is this is interesting.
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  I'm just going to read this because I think this is
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  applicable to us at this time as well.
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  So starting in Second Timothy chapter 3, verse one, but mark
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  this, there will be terrible times in the last days.
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  People will be lovers of themselves.
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  Does that sound like today, like the selfie?
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  I mean, I think we're a little bit beyond that now, but people
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  are lovers of themselves, lovers of money.
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  I think throughout time people have been lovers of money,
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  boastful. Do we see a lot of pride, proud,
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  abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
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  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
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  self-control? We see a lot of that.
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  That's, you know, self-control is a fruit of the spirit.
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  So when we do not have the Holy Spirit, self-control is really
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  hard and that's what causes us to get into sins is not having
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  self-control. That's why we need the Holy
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  Spirit of God so that we can have self-control.
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  It goes on to say brutal and not lovers of the good.
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  I mean, we're kind of in a time right now where people are
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  calling good evil and evil good. And we've been in that, I would
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  say the last like 5 years. I've really noticed that
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  treacherous, rash, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than
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  lovers of God. I, I think that's really
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  resounding right now, like most people would, you know, love
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  their pleasure rather than lovers of God.
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  You know, if you had a choice between something that, I mean,
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  look, what do most people choose?
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  Do they choose to go to church or go out and have fun?
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  You know, there's, there's a choice there.
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  And what are people choosing? Having a form of godliness, but
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  denying its power. I definitely see this today
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  where there's religious people, they may go to church, but they
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  deny its power. They deny the power of God, the
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  power to change, the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  You know, people get stuck in their sinful ways and, and
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  because Scripture tells us we're not perfect, people all of a
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  sudden seem to think that, well, my sin's OK because we're not
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  perfect. But that is only partially true.
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  It's not the truth because the power don't deny the power of
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  God. There are many people who have
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  testimonies of overcoming sinful things and it's because of the
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  power of God. If we all had the Holy Spirit in
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  this world, well that would be that's what eternity is going to
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  be like, but we don't have that now, but just imagine what it
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  would be like in this world if we had the power of God within
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  each of us and we if we were each submitted to God where we
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  just the things that God said it's good, which love is the
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  number one thing if we all were in that way in a selfless love.
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  And love in the world, the description of love is not the
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  same as what's found in the Bible.
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  And the Bible is truth. Therefore, what we believe in
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  the world as love is not love. So that's another thing that's
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  really important to know is how does the Bible define love?
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  So anyway, there's there, there are these religious people, they
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  have this form of godliness. They look like they're
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  Christians, but they deny the power of God and it says have
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  nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their
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  way into homes and gain control over gullible women.
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  This is probably talking about men who are loaded down with
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  sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning
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  but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
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  That's something that's you know, again, this is like
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  scripture hits hard sometimes, always learning.
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  So you might be able to quote Scripture, but are you coming to
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  the knowledge of the truth? It's one thing you can memorize,
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  but do you know, do you fully embrace what is stated there?
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  Do you live it out? You're always learning, but are
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  you living it out but never able to come to a knowledge of the
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  truth? That's a deeper understanding of
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  the truth. You might know the words or
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  recite Scripture, but do you live it out?
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  And it says, you know, justice. Janice and Jambras opposed
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  Moses. So also these teachers oppose
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  the truth. They are men of depraved minds
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  who as far as faith is concerned is rejected, but they will not
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  give very far because as in the case of those men, their folly
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  will be clear to everyone. So you know, there's you don't
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  have to worry that everything it's going to be obvious like
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  people are going to see it. People who have discernment are
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  going to see it and not be swayed by that.
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  Then in Second Peter, so this is Peter who is one of the
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  disciples that wrote this book, Second Peter chapter 2, again,
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  it states these things also many will follow their depraved
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  conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
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  And then it says, in fact, I think this is another chapter
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  that I think is really has so much wisdom in it that I'm going
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  to read second Peter chapter 2. It's talking about false
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  teachers and their destruction. But there were also false
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  prophets among the people. Just as there will be false
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  teachers among you. They will secretly introduce
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  destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who
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  brought who brought them, bringing swift destruction on
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  themselves. So God will not let them
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  continue in this path. They may for a while, but
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  they're going to bring destruction on themselves.
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  Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way
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  of truth into disrepute in their greed.
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  So that's one thing that we see as a as about these teachers
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  greed. You know, it's like the you
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  can't love God and money or the love of money is the root of all
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  evil. Money itself is not bad.
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  It's what you do with it. And there are these like false
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  teachers, false preachers who are greedy and you can see by
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  the fruit of their fruit of the Spirit, like what are they doing
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  with their money? Are they self indulging?
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  Are they giving it to others? Are they shepherding people?
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  Are they taking care of the sheep?
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  You know God's lambs, his children, Are they putting them
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  on the right path? Are they telling them the truth
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  or are they just collecting money?
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  So in their greed, these teachers will exploit you with
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  fabricated stories. Do they make up stuff to be
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  entertaining? Their condemnation has long been
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  has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not
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  been sleeping. So it might come about slowly,
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  but it's coming forth for them. For if God did not spare angels
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  when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them in
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  chains of darkness to be held for judgement, If he did not
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  spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly
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  people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and
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  seven others. So that's another thing that's
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  to pay attention to this we're talking about.
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  We got here from chapter 17 of Jeremiah.
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  Jeremiah was saying to the people, these destructive things
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  are coming on you because of your sin.
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  So again the angels are chained away, held for judgement.
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  All the ungodly people in the world were destroyed by the
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  flood. But God protected Noah.
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  He took Noah out of the destruction.
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  He saved Noah and seven others. And then it says if he condemned
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  the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and
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  made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.
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  So here again, he's citing the city of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  They had turned into like it was primarily sexual sin that was
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  emphasized when that was talked about and like homosexual sin
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  and, and it, it was just like anything goes in that society
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  and, and God destroyed it. And there were apparently there
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  were prayers that were going to God and God.
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  I really think it was Jesus who came.
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  You know, obviously this was the Old Testament.
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  This was in the time of Abraham, but I think this was a
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  manifestation of God along with two angels and came to visit
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  Sodom and Gomorrah before the the destruction and had a
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  conversation. It's a really interesting story
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  in the Old Testament to read, but if you read it carefully, it
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  seems like the third one, there were three people that came, not
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  people. There were two angels and there
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  was 1 I believe was actually the son of God, a God in human form.
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  So, and I'm not the only one who thinks that, but very
• 27:13
  interesting. But then it says, so at Sodom
• 27:16
  and Gomorrah he destroyed everything.
• 27:19
  And then it says and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who
• 27:23
  was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless.
• 27:28
  So Lot was Abraham's nephew and he prayed for him, but he was
• 27:33
  also, it says here, a righteous man.
• 27:36
  And so God saved him out of Sodom and Gomorrah being
• 27:41
  destroyed. So again, there's there's like a
• 27:46
  very small number of people that get saved out of something very
• 27:51
  destructive. But God saves, saves the
• 27:54
  righteousness, the righteous one.
• 27:57
  This is what the Bible tells us for that, for that righteous man
• 28:01
  living among them day after day was tormented in his righteous
• 28:06
  soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.
• 28:11
  If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly
• 28:15
  from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on
• 28:20
  the day of judgement. So in the end, God can rescue
• 28:24
  people from trials and He will eventually.
• 28:28
  If it's not on this earth, it is in eternity where He blesses
• 28:32
  people. But we just trust God and know
• 28:36
  that God is true and know that he doesn't change.
• 28:38
  He does things that in the same manner.
• 28:42
  And so we can look at the history of how God reacted to
• 28:45
  people, how God reacted to sin, people sinning, and we can see
• 28:50
  what he did and we can learn. And then we can also look at
• 28:54
  ourselves where, you know, how is God going to react to us?
• 28:59
  Is he going to save us because we are living righteously,
• 29:03
  because we are submitted to Him and we are intent on following
• 29:07
  him? Or have we hardened our heart
• 29:10
  and rejected God and we're in the middle of sin?
• 29:13
  Well, you can see what happens to people, either they are saved
• 29:17
  out of trials or they are in the midst of the punishment.
• 29:24
  So reflect on that and think about like, where am I?
• 29:28
  What would happen if right now God, you know, sent judgement on
• 29:33
  the earth, What would happen to me?
• 29:36
  I mean, we shouldn't be selfish and just thinking about
• 29:38
  ourselves. But the reason I say it that way
• 29:41
  is because we can only be responsible for ourselves.
• 29:45
  Sure, we can help to save other people from physical
• 29:48
  destructions, but not from eternal destruction.
• 29:52
  That's an individual choice. So then it continues on.
• 29:58
  This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of
• 30:03
  the flesh and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not
• 30:09
  afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings.
• 30:13
  Yet even angels, though they are stronger and more powerful, do
• 30:18
  not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them
• 30:23
  from God, on them from the Lord. That's really interesting
• 30:28
  because God, you know, angels are messengers of God.
• 30:32
  And sometimes they bring good news.
• 30:34
  They have in the history of the Bible, and then other times they
• 30:38
  bring a warning and they bring destruction.
• 30:41
  I mean the Angel of death was the one who destroyed all the
• 30:44
  first born in Egypt as one of the last plagues before the
• 30:48
  Israelites were released from Egypt, the slavery in Egypt.
• 30:52
  So the angels you know, they, they, they do the work of God,
• 31:00
  but when bringing judgement on them from the Lord, so the
• 31:03
  angels are also can bring about destruction from God.
• 31:09
  But it says, But these people blasphemy in matters they do not
• 31:14
  understand. They are like unreasoning
• 31:17
  animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and
• 31:22
  destroyed. And like animals, they too will
• 31:26
  perish. They will be paid back with harm
• 31:30
  for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to
• 31:34
  carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes,
• 31:39
  revelling in their pleasures while they feast with you with
• 31:43
  eyes full of adultery. They never stop sinning.
• 31:48
  That's the keyword there. They whatever it is, they never
• 31:51
  stop sinning. They seduce the unstable.
• 31:57
  They are experts in greed. Unaccursed brood.
• 32:01
  They have left the straightway and wandered off to follow the
• 32:04
  way of Balaam, son of Beezer, who loved the wages of
• 32:08
  wickedness. Again, there's the money that
• 32:11
  you get for wickedness at times, but he was rebuked for his
• 32:16
  wrongdoing by a donkey, an animal without speech, who spoke
• 32:20
  with a human voice and restrained the prophets madness.
• 32:24
  That's another interesting story about Balaam and Balak and on
• 32:29
  his way. So Balaam, I mean, his donkey
• 32:33
  talked to him and rebuked him and he was tried.
• 32:36
  The donkey was trying to protect him because there was this, you
• 32:39
  know, Angel of destruction that was trying to keep him from oh,
• 32:42
  the donkey saw the Angel, but Balaam did not and he was I
• 32:49
  guess he was hearing from God. It it's a very interesting
• 32:52
  story. Anyway.
• 32:53
  I can't remember what chapter, but you could probably search
• 32:55
  Balaam and Balak BLAK and find the story that goes around with
• 33:02
  it. But it always makes me think
• 33:04
  about Shrek and donkey and how donkey talks.
• 33:08
  And sometimes I think some of these or Tunis movies that we
• 33:12
  see are actually they're taking things out of the Bible,
• 33:15
  distorting them, but taking them out of the Bible.
• 33:18
  And it's it's really interesting, you know, when you
• 33:21
  see things like this and this is actually in the Bible about a
• 33:24
  talking, a talking donkey. So second Peter 217.
• 33:32
  These people are springs without water and mist driven by a
• 33:36
  storm. Blackest darkness is reserved
• 33:39
  for them, for they mouth empty boastful words.
• 33:44
  By appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they
• 33:48
  entice people who are just escaping from those who live in
• 33:54
  error. This is really interesting.
• 33:56
  So this is like, I would say like a baby Christian coming
• 34:01
  into a false teaching church. And they have these empty,
• 34:06
  boastful words and they appeal to the lustful desires of the
• 34:11
  flesh. They entice people who are just
• 34:14
  escaping from those who live in error.
• 34:17
  So they're just, you know, they're being called by God and
• 34:19
  they're maybe setting setting their foot into a church, but
• 34:22
  then they've got these destructive teachers who could
• 34:26
  be preaching from there. And listen to this.
• 34:28
  They promise them freedom while they themselves are slaves of
• 34:35
  depravity for people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.
• 34:42
  That's a really good verse to meditate on.
• 34:46
  So yes, we do have freedom in Christ and we are promised
• 34:51
  freedom in Christ in Christ is to be made holy.
• 34:56
  It's not to keep on sinning. And so these false teachers are,
• 35:03
  they are themselves slaves to depravity.
• 35:07
  So they haven't given up their sin.
• 35:10
  They're still a slave to sin. And they're speaking the word of
• 35:14
  God and saying you're getting freedom.
• 35:16
  And then by their example, they're, you know, they may be
• 35:20
  preaching to people and saying all these things, but they're
• 35:23
  not living it out. And so these new people who are
• 35:27
  being called by God and who happened to step foot in a
• 35:30
  church like this, they are just escaping from living in error.
• 35:36
  And then they have this preacher who's living out like, you know,
• 35:41
  a non Christian life, but speaking Christianity.
• 35:45
  And we do see that. And publicly, unfortunately, we
• 35:49
  do see like when these people get caught living in sin, it
• 35:53
  becomes the headlines. And then all the Christian
• 35:56
  headlines talk about like what this Christian preacher did and
• 36:01
  how horrible it was. And that's, that's again the
• 36:04
  thing we have to remember that these people, although they may
• 36:08
  seem like they are messengers of God, preachers of God, be
• 36:14
  cautious of them because they're human beings.
• 36:17
  And if they are not submitted, truly submitted to God, then
• 36:21
  they they are, you know, not guided by the Holy Spirit.
• 36:25
  Spiritual discernment is really, really critical for people.
• 36:29
  And, and when we're brand new Christians just learning, just
• 36:33
  coming into a church for the first time, we have no spiritual
• 36:36
  discernment. That only comes over time.
• 36:38
  It comes over from reading the Bible and from developing that
• 36:44
  by understanding what's in the Bible, by applying it to life.
• 36:49
  And so people who are in this baby Christian state are in a
• 36:53
  very vulnerable time of their their journey.
• 37:00
  So it continues to say if they had escaped the corruption of
• 37:03
  the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are
• 37:08
  again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at
• 37:13
  the end than they were at the beginning.
• 37:16
  I think this was another verse that hit me hard too, because I
• 37:20
  grew up knowing about Jesus, but did I have a personal
• 37:26
  relationship with Him? Was I really committed Him to
• 37:29
  what? I talk to Him all the time?
• 37:31
  Did I seek Him? Did you know were those things
• 37:34
  happening in my life? And the answer was no, it was
• 37:37
  maybe on occasion. There's a difference between
• 37:40
  knowing about Jesus and truly knowing him, like having a a
• 37:48
  true relationship with Jesus, which is probably hard for
• 37:51
  people to understand. But when God communicates with
• 37:56
  people in a lot of different ways, and the more you seek Him,
• 38:01
  the more it will become apparent when God is speaking to you.
• 38:05
  And that's something that God does with everyone.
• 38:07
  It's not just some, but he communicates with people in
• 38:10
  various ways. Could be through the word of
• 38:13
  God, it could be answering a prayer, it could be someone else
• 38:17
  coming up to you and telling you something that God put on their
• 38:24
  mind to tell you and it's actually appropriate to your
• 38:28
  life. Like you, when you hear it,
• 38:30
  you're just shocked. You're like, gosh, how did that
• 38:32
  person just say this to me? Because they didn't even know
• 38:35
  that the this was happening. You know, those kinds of things
• 38:39
  happen when you are in a relationship with God.
• 38:45
  So it continues on it. It would have been better for
• 38:47
  them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have
• 38:51
  known it and then turn their backs on the sacred command that
• 38:55
  was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true.
• 39:01
  A dog returns to its vomit, and a sow that is washed returns to
• 39:07
  her wallowing in the mud. So we should all hope that in
• 39:12
  this context we are not going to be the dog returning to its
• 39:15
  vomit, or a sow or a pig that returns to her wallowing in the
• 39:21
  mud. Do we get ourselves clean
• 39:24
  through Christ to go back to it? It says it's really, I mean
• 39:30
  their conditions going to be worse off than they were at the
• 39:33
  beginning. So those are pretty strong words
• 39:37
  of warning in Scripture that we really should pay attention to
• 39:43
  because it just is very clear. We don't keep, we don't stay in
• 39:49
  our sin. We may need help for it, but we
• 39:53
  don't just give up and say, oh, I'm too, too far gone in this.
• 39:56
  No, that's not the way it is. It's too far gone for a human to
• 40:00
  handle it maybe, but not too much for God.
• 40:04
  God's the creator, God's spirit can help you through anything.
• 40:08
  God can change anyone. It just is a matter of your own
• 40:12
  will, your own desire. Do you want to be changed?
• 40:15
  Do you want God to change you if you do?
• 40:18
  Then ask Him, and He will do it because He wants you to be in
• 40:21
  His Kingdom. He wants you to have the
• 40:23
  inheritance that He's planned for mankind.
• 40:25
  Those who surrender it to Him, those who are willing to give up
• 40:30
  their sinful ways, who want to be in God's Kingdom, who want to
• 40:35
  be, who want to have a relationship with Him.
• 40:38
  So now I'm going to go back to the study Bible which talks
• 40:43
  about is God's anger still burning today?
• 40:48
  The 70 years that God's people spent in Babylon, exile was only
• 40:53
  the physical penalty for their idolatry.
• 40:57
  Spiritual judgement is eternal, like an unquenchable fire.
• 41:02
  God's anger has been appeased by the death of Christ for those
• 41:07
  who belong to him. But for those who reject God's
• 41:11
  grace, his anger still burns. So by accepting Jesus, by
• 41:18
  acknowledging that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he paid
• 41:24
  the for us by his death on the cross.
• 41:28
  He was the one sacrifice that made it possible for us to be in
• 41:32
  the Kingdom of God. A decision remains after that
• 41:37
  happened and and Jesus himself said that no one enters the
• 41:43
  Kingdom of God unless they are born again, born of the Spirit.
• 41:47
  Just like we were talking about earlier.
• 41:49
  God said he put, he'll put a spirit on him.
• 41:51
  Everyone who's in eternity with God will have the Holy Spirit.
• 41:56
  So if you don't have the Holy Spirit right now, you're not
• 42:00
  ready for God's Kingdom. You need the Holy Spirit.
• 42:04
  So in a sincere prayer to Jesus, ask Jesus for the Holy Spirit.
• 42:10
  If you don't, if you have the Holy Spirit and ask Jesus if
• 42:14
  there's anything that you know, like one of the mistakes I made,
• 42:17
  I think was thinking that I needed to do this right, this
• 42:20
  right and this right and this right before I got baptized and
• 42:26
  before. And that's, I believe it
• 42:28
  doesn't, you know, you could receive this, the Holy Spirit
• 42:31
  before baptism. You could receive it after
• 42:34
  baptism. I believe that's when I actually
• 42:37
  received the Holy Spirit because of a lot of different reasons,
• 42:41
  but it can happen at different times.
• 42:44
  But God does promise that was my full surrender was that it was a
• 42:47
  public statement of that I wasn't going to be a hypocrite.
• 42:51
  I wasn't going to keep on sinning.
• 42:54
  I was serious about my commitment to God that I made
• 42:59
  and, and so I think, you know, when God saw that that was a
• 43:04
  real sincere desire of mine, then I believe He sent the Holy
• 43:10
  Spirit. So going back to Scripture, this
• 43:14
  is what the Lord says. Cursed is the one who trusts in
• 43:17
  man, who draws strength from mere flesh, and whose heart
• 43:22
  turns away from the Lord. Well, cursing for trusting in
• 43:27
  man. So that's just, you know, we
• 43:30
  need to remember that like we can think about we have the most
• 43:35
  powerful army. We, you know, rely on our
• 43:41
  military and we may think that our military protects us.
• 43:47
  Well, is that really true? To some degree, yes, absolutely.
• 43:52
  But ultimately, in a greater way, who ultimately is the one
• 43:58
  that we trust in? The one we trust in God is God.
• 44:02
  In God we trust. That was, you know, that was the
• 44:07
  foundation of America. And I believe that it would do
• 44:11
  us very good, very well, very beneficial.
• 44:15
  It would bring blessings on us if we got back to that core in
• 44:19
  God. We trust that.
• 44:23
  Well, I say that was I mean it was on our dollar bills is that,
• 44:28
  you know, we had in God we trust and not money, but God, I mean,
• 44:32
  if we could get back to the core foundation of trusting in God
• 44:36
  and letting that be our foundation where everything else
• 44:42
  is goes back to that where that's our strong foundation is
• 44:46
  God. Our United States would be so
• 44:49
  different. If we could change within the
• 44:53
  United States and focus redirect ourselves to God, it would be a
• 44:58
  very different place, a much better place.
• 45:03
  But anyway, it says that curse is the one who trusts in man,
• 45:07
  who draws strength from mere flesh, and whose heart turns
• 45:11
  away from the Lord. That person will be like a Bush
• 45:14
  in the wastelands. They will not see prosperity
• 45:17
  when it comes. They will dwell in the parched
• 45:19
  places of the desert, in a salt land where there where no one
• 45:23
  lives. But blessed is the one who
• 45:27
  trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
• 45:31
  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its
• 45:35
  roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat
• 45:40
  comes. Its leaves are always green.
• 45:43
  It has no worries in a year of drought but and never fails to
• 45:50
  bear fruit. Contrast the person who trusts
• 45:55
  in man they will not see. Prosperity.
• 46:00
  Dwell in parched places where no one lives is a very desolate
• 46:05
  place. If you're trusting in man,
• 46:06
  that's where you're going to end up.
• 46:08
  But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose
• 46:11
  confidence is in him. And it compares that person to a
• 46:16
  tree planted by the water that sends out its roots.
• 46:23
  And it doesn't fear when heat comes, its leaves are always
• 46:28
  green. It has no worries in the year
• 46:32
  that's a long time of drought and never fails to bear fruit.
• 46:37
  So there's No Fear and no worries.
• 46:39
  And that's the thing that you know, God, That's what's
• 46:45
  connected to God. There is No Fear.
• 46:49
  There is, there is No Fear in God.
• 46:52
  But then if you find another verse in Scripture, it says that
• 46:55
  the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
• 46:59
  So how could those two be true? Very easily.
• 47:03
  So the fear of the Lord, when you contemplate who God is, what
• 47:10
  He does, He creates. He created the world, He creates
• 47:15
  every human being. He gives life to every human
• 47:18
  being and. And.
• 47:22
  He he, he gives life and he takes life.
• 47:26
  He anoints leaders and kings and he takes them out.
• 47:30
  He does all these things. So shouldn't we have a fear or a
• 47:35
  reverence to the one who does these things?
• 47:38
  Like our life is in His hands, that it's in His control?
• 47:44
  Either blessings or curses. Like everything that comes
• 47:47
  against us is under God, under the control of God.
• 47:52
  God can control everything. He is above it all.
• 47:59
  Do we really realize who God is? Do we?
• 48:04
  You know, that should instill some sort of fear.
• 48:07
  Not that oh, he's so big and powerful and we should run and
• 48:12
  hide from him. No, that's not the same kind of
• 48:15
  fear. But the fear is just like, you
• 48:19
  know, why would you fear? It's like choosing to fear an
• 48:24
  Ant when I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
• 48:29
  Like if we fear other things, why do we not fear God?
• 48:35
  And then we have the word of God telling us all these things that
• 48:39
  if we do these things, if we live this way, if we reject God,
• 48:42
  we will not be in God's Kingdom. And do we not have fear about
• 48:47
  that? Like God is the powerful one
• 48:50
  that can do that. He can open the door to eternity
• 48:54
  and let us in, or he can close the door and say you're not
• 48:59
  permitted in here. And that's, that's that's what
• 49:03
  God will do in judgement. So do we not have a fear of that
• 49:08
  day in our future? Because everyone, no matter who
• 49:11
  they are, even the people who don't believe in God, will still
• 49:14
  face God at that point. They will know what the truth
• 49:17
  is. They will know that they
• 49:19
  rejected the one true God. And will there be remorse?
• 49:23
  I don't know. But how do we know what that'll
• 49:26
  be like? But the point is, they have been
• 49:29
  given opportunities. God is very just, He's fair,
• 49:33
  He's righteous. And how many times are we going
• 49:38
  to have someone representing God come into our life but ignore
• 49:45
  what that person says? Like how many times like God'll
• 49:49
  he does pursue us, but how many times will it happen before God
• 49:55
  will say are, you know, like. They're turned over.
• 49:59
  Like when he sees that our hearts are so hard that we're
• 50:02
  rejecting him. Like when, what is that moment
• 50:08
  that God just realizes they're never going to change?
• 50:11
  I mean, he knows it. He knows what's inside
• 50:14
  somebody's heart. But if, if we do want to be in
• 50:20
  God's Kingdom, if we do want to have be surrounded by people we
• 50:25
  love, then shouldn't we be doing everything possible to make
• 50:32
  ourselves ready? That means being born again,
• 50:36
  having the Holy Spirit, and then finding out what is, what does
• 50:39
  God want us to do with our life? You know, once we are born
• 50:43
  again, we're born again so that we can, we can really build
• 50:48
  God's Kingdom. And what in what way, what way
• 50:52
  are we in service to God? What do we do with our lives
• 50:56
  when we are born again? How do we spend our time?
• 50:59
  Are we just spending it on ourselves?
• 51:02
  Are we just, you know, taking all the resources that God gave
• 51:06
  us and living life to the fullest?
• 51:09
  Or do we have a purpose? Has God-given us a purpose?
• 51:14
  Does he want us to do something with our lives?
• 51:18
  Does he want us to use the resources that ultimately he
• 51:21
  gave us, whether it's from our creativity, our talent, our hard
• 51:25
  work, whatever, God gave us those skills to make that
• 51:30
  possible. So ultimately, all of our
• 51:33
  resources are given to us by God, and how are we thanking Him
• 51:40
  for the resources that he gave us?
• 51:42
  What are we doing with our resources?
• 51:45
  What what is on? What does God put on our heart
• 51:49
  like? What are our personal desires
• 51:52
  like? What things do we feel
• 51:54
  passionate about? What do we care about?
• 51:57
  Like how can we do more with the things that we are drawn to?
• 52:01
  Thankfully, God made us each different types of people and we
• 52:07
  have different things that we really respond to, that we
• 52:11
  really draw near to or that we have a compassion for.
• 52:15
  So what is it word? What do we have within each of
• 52:19
  our lives? You know, just for self
• 52:21
  reflection? What is it that you're
• 52:23
  passionate about and how can you use that passion to serve God?
• 52:29
  What can you do with that passion?
• 52:31
  That's something we should probably ask ourselves every day
• 52:34
  because every day is a day that, you know, God could do something
• 52:38
  with our life. Are we going to waste it away or
• 52:41
  are we going to do something purposeful with it And the fear
• 52:47
  of God, again, the one verse that really stood out to me
• 52:52
  about the fear of God is that that there.
• 52:57
  Is. Let's see.
• 52:59
  There is No Fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear
• 53:06
  because fear has to do with punishment.
• 53:09
  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
• 53:14
  This makes a lot of sense when you think about it.
• 53:16
  With God, like God is love, there is No Fear.
• 53:21
  If you are in a loving relationship with God, there is
• 53:24
  No Fear in that because perfect love, which is who you know God
• 53:29
  represents perfect love. It drives out the fear because
• 53:33
  fear has to do with punishment. When we are in Christ, when we
• 53:38
  have the Holy Spirit, and when God is working in our lives and
• 53:41
  we are surrendered to God and we love God and we want to obey Him
• 53:45
  and we want to show our gratitude to him.
• 53:48
  When all of those things are present in our life, there is No
• 53:51
  Fear. We're not fearful of punishment
• 53:53
  from God. We, God, we, we know that God
• 53:57
  knows what we're doing. We know that God loves us and
• 54:04
  why would he do anything to us? So someone who fears is not made
• 54:11
  perfect in love yet. So that's that's also a process
• 54:15
  too of I know at the very beginning and it makes sense to
• 54:19
  me now in hindsight. Yeah, there was a fear of God.
• 54:22
  I was like, Oh my gosh, God can punish me.
• 54:25
  God could do this to me. He said could send me over to to
• 54:27
  pray mine. I could lose eternity.
• 54:29
  I could all of these different things.
• 54:32
  Well, that was a certain. Kind of a fear of God.
• 54:34
  Because God has the power to do those things and because I felt
• 54:39
  the fear of God because I was a Sinner, I, you know, I am, but
• 54:44
  you know, like, it was one of those things where I was in the
• 54:47
  midst of sin. I hadn't like given up sin and
• 54:50
  it was being made obvious through Scripture and and so I
• 54:56
  did have a fear, but that fear caused me to want to change.
• 55:02
  So there was a positive outcome of the fear.
• 55:06
  It was like, I don't want that in my future.
• 55:08
  I've messed up my life enough. Now I need to do something
• 55:12
  different. And and then over time, as in
• 55:17
  relation with God, you no longer fear him.
• 55:21
  Like I'm not fearing judgement day, but I want to while I'm
• 55:27
  alive. I want, I want to serve God.
• 55:29
  I want to, I want to do something good for all the years
• 55:33
  I didn't do something good. And you know, we aren't we don't
• 55:37
  get into eternity by what we do as good.
• 55:41
  You know that that has nothing to do with it.
• 55:43
  We get into eternity because of what Jesus did on the cross and
• 55:49
  by making the decision that we want to be in eternity and
• 55:54
  believing, obviously believing in Jesus, what he did, believing
• 55:59
  that he was the Son of God. He died and resurrected.
• 56:02
  He's living today and you know, being public, you know, never
• 56:09
  denying Jesus because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life
• 56:12
  and no one comes to the Father except through him.
• 56:15
  But as I said earlier, he said we must be born again.
• 56:18
  So we need the Holy Spirit. That's what that's our response
• 56:22
  to what Jesus did. And then the Holy Spirit starts
• 56:25
  changing us more like to what God intended us, what I believe
• 56:29
  God intended us to be and making us into the the people he
• 56:34
  originally intended getting the sin out of our lives.
• 56:37
  And and then we start being more like God in in that way.
• 56:45
  So there were some things about being made perfect and I don't
• 56:53
  so there's. There's a lot about.
• 56:56
  Maybe I should read these as well.
• 56:58
  But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for for you, for my
• 57:03
  power is made perfect in weakness.
• 57:07
  Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so
• 57:11
  that Christ's power may rest on me.
• 57:14
  Again, this is tying into the verse that we were talking about
• 57:19
  a little bit ago about the power, you know, having a form
• 57:24
  of godliness but not trusting in the power.
• 57:28
  Of God. So this is where it ties grace
• 57:32
  to power. My grace is sufficient to you
• 57:34
  for my power. It's the power of God is made
• 57:38
  perfect in weakness. So where we are weak, that's
• 57:42
  where the Holy Spirit is strong. And so Paul's saying that
• 57:46
  Christ's power may rest on me, I will boast, I will boast all
• 57:51
  more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on
• 57:56
  me. So the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
• 57:59
  of God, that power where we are weak, that's where God
• 58:03
  supplements he, He gives us that strength, and it's through the
• 58:08
  Holy Spirit. And then this is.
• 58:12
  Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9 and and once made perfect, he became
• 58:17
  the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
• 58:23
  That's really interesting too because I didn't see that all
• 58:26
  who obey him before but I was looking up made perfect.
• 58:29
  This is about Jesus, the source of eternal salvation for all who
• 58:34
  obey him. So it's again, he died on the
• 58:39
  cross, but that doesn't mean that every single person on
• 58:41
  earth is automatically saved because of Jesus death on the
• 58:47
  cross. There's still something more.
• 58:50
  And it says for all those who obey him, Jesus gave us a lot of
• 58:55
  information. The Bible has a lot of
• 58:56
  information in it. Are we obeying him?
• 59:00
  Have we submitted to him? People like to say that you
• 59:04
  know, you know love. It it all comes.
• 59:08
  Down to love and it does. And Jesus said if you love me,
• 59:11
  then obey my commands. So obedience and love are tied
• 59:17
  together. You cannot separate the two.
• 59:20
  Obedience is how we show God that we love Him.
• 59:24
  So if you you know if you obey me or if you love me, obey my
• 59:29
  commands. And then Hebrews 7. 28 for the
• 59:33
  law. Appoints high priest men in
• 59:36
  their all their weakness, but the oath which came after the
• 59:40
  law appointed the Son who has been made perfect forever.
• 59:44
  So again high priest they're still men and they're in
• 59:49
  weakness. And Hebrews 10/14 For by 1
• 59:54
  sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who were being
• 1:00:00
  made holy. So by Jesus death on the cross.
• 1:00:04
  That's where He is. He's giving us that gift of the
• 1:00:11
  atonement of our sins through His death on the cross.
• 1:00:15
  So that's how we are made perfect forever, those who are
• 1:00:19
  being made holy. So if you're not being made
• 1:00:23
  holy, then you need to talk to God about that because there
• 1:00:31
  should be a desire. Those who are being made holy,
• 1:00:34
  it's talking about for one, those, those are the people who
• 1:00:40
  will be made perfect. So there is that change.
• 1:00:44
  Just like Jesus said, you must be born again.
• 1:00:45
  We need the Holy Spirit since God had planned something.
• 1:00:49
  Better for us. So that only together with us
• 1:00:52
  would they be made perfect. So again, there's this this.
• 1:00:59
  Future perfection that will occur then in Hebrews 12/23 to
• 1:01:06
  the Church of the first born whose names are written in
• 1:01:10
  heaven. You have come to God, the Judge
• 1:01:13
  of all, to the spirits of the righteous, made perfect.
• 1:01:18
  And then first John chapter 4 verse 18, there is No Fear in
• 1:01:23
  love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do
• 1:01:29
  with punishment. The one who fears is not made
• 1:01:32
  perfect in love. So we have a little bit more.
• 1:01:37
  Oh gosh, there's so much this is going.
• 1:01:39
  To be a long podcast I think all right next the heart is
• 1:01:44
  deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
• 1:01:49
  Who can understand it? This is another thing that.
• 1:01:55
  We actually I wanted to talk about.
• 1:01:58
  Another part about being made holy, because that brought about
• 1:02:04
  a question. So jumping back again about what
• 1:02:07
  is holy. And so I did look up.
• 1:02:11
  It's Kadesh in Hebrew in Hebrew and the let's see, there's
• 1:02:18
  translations are the definition of it to to consecrate,
• 1:02:23
  sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be
• 1:02:29
  sanctified, be separate, so God. Has a plan.
• 1:02:38
  For those who will be in his Kingdom, he says be holy because
• 1:02:42
  I am holy. And So what is holy is really
• 1:02:47
  important. So I, I had to look this up
• 1:02:50
  because I kind of, I mean, I know what's holy and what's
• 1:02:53
  unholy like just in an abstract way.
• 1:02:57
  But this was helpful to me. So I'm going to read this to
• 1:03:00
  you. How does holy apply in different
• 1:03:03
  contexts to God? God is considered holy in the
• 1:03:07
  supreme sense, being absolutely separate and distinct from
• 1:03:12
  anything else and perfectly pure to people.
• 1:03:17
  Believers are called to be holy, which involves a process of
• 1:03:21
  being sanctified or set apart for God and striving for moral
• 1:03:28
  purity in their lives to places or objects.
• 1:03:32
  Places, events, or objects can be called holy when they are
• 1:03:35
  specifically dedicated to religious use, such as holy
• 1:03:39
  temple or sacred utensils used in worship.
• 1:03:43
  In practice, this can mean living differently from the
• 1:03:47
  world, loving God completely, and loving others sacrificially.
• 1:03:53
  So this is this was such a great statement being holy can.
• 1:03:58
  Mean living. Differently from the world.
• 1:04:01
  So we're not going to be like the world.
• 1:04:04
  We love God completely and love others sacrificially.
• 1:04:10
  That's selflessly like we do things for other people.
• 1:04:15
  It's not self seeking like worldly love, not what can I get
• 1:04:22
  out of it, but it's self sacrificing true love.
• 1:04:27
  The biblical love is one that is mutually submissive to one
• 1:04:33
  another, like each person would love the other back in a
• 1:04:37
  selfless way, like wanting the best for the other.
• 1:04:41
  And that's the biblical definition of it.
• 1:04:44
  But I thought that was really, that was really.
• 1:04:48
  Interesting. Good.
• 1:04:49
  Now I'm. Going to go back to the heart is
• 1:04:51
  deceitful and that's another thing about love.
• 1:04:54
  You know, you don't, you don't know who you love by the feeling
• 1:04:58
  that you get because the feeling could come and go.
• 1:05:02
  It's it's, it's different and the heart is deceitful.
• 1:05:06
  You may feel really in love one day and then you may feel no,
• 1:05:11
  I'm not in love any another day. And that's why we don't rely on
• 1:05:15
  our heart. It's more love is really a
• 1:05:17
  decision of if you choose to be self sacrificing, self mutually
• 1:05:26
  submissive to one another, that you want the best for the other
• 1:05:29
  person and you will do whatever you can to make it the best for
• 1:05:33
  the other person. That's kind of like self
• 1:05:35
  sacrificing love and both parties are doing it.
• 1:05:38
  It's not one sided. It's a mutual submission to one
• 1:05:42
  another, so the heart is deceitful.
• 1:05:45
  Above all. Things and beyond cure.
• 1:05:48
  Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart
• 1:05:52
  and examine the mind to reward each person according to their
• 1:05:57
  conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.
• 1:06:01
  So God's looking at what's in our heart and what's in our
• 1:06:05
  mind. What are our thoughts about it?
• 1:06:07
  Like, what is our intention? What is our motivation?
• 1:06:11
  He's looking at that because he is going to reward each person
• 1:06:16
  according to their conduct. According to what?
• 1:06:21
  We do. So there are rewards that are
• 1:06:25
  based on what we do like a Partridge that.
• 1:06:30
  Hatches eggs. It did not lay are those who
• 1:06:33
  gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone,
• 1:06:38
  their riches will desert them and in the end they will prove
• 1:06:42
  to be fools. That's a really interesting.
• 1:06:44
  I mean there's lots of stuff that you can meditate on in
• 1:06:48
  scripture like like a Partridge that hatches eggs.
• 1:06:52
  It did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means if
• 1:06:59
  somebody gains. Riches.
• 1:07:01
  But they do it in a an unjust way or a deceitful way or a way
• 1:07:06
  that they didn't really like work for it.
• 1:07:09
  They didn't. They didn't do anything.
• 1:07:11
  But they get it. When their lives are half gone,
• 1:07:14
  their riches will desert them and in the end they will prove
• 1:07:18
  to be fools. It's almost like God saying
• 1:07:20
  there's like a midlife crisis coming up.
• 1:07:23
  You're going to lose everything. When they're half lives, when
• 1:07:26
  their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them.
• 1:07:30
  Kind of interesting. That's in the Bible.
• 1:07:33
  Continuing on a glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is
• 1:07:38
  the place of our sanctuary. Lord, You are the hope of
• 1:07:42
  Israel. All who forsake you will be put
• 1:07:45
  to shame. Those who turn away from you
• 1:07:49
  will be ridden in the dust because they have forsaken the
• 1:07:53
  Lord, The spring of living water.
• 1:07:57
  Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed.
• 1:08:00
  Save me and I will be saved, for You are the one I praise.
• 1:08:06
  I love this verse from Jeremiah. And at one point in my life, I
• 1:08:11
  actually spoke these words to God before I even knew they were
• 1:08:15
  in scripture cause before I ever read the Bible, but I knew God's
• 1:08:20
  power and I asked God to heal me, not physically, but of all
• 1:08:26
  the mess up in my life. And, and I did say these things.
• 1:08:30
  I was like, God, you can heal me, heal me.
• 1:08:33
  And I seriously did pray it and I was at a, a point in a, you
• 1:08:37
  know, a, a, an uncomfortable, sad time in my life where I
• 1:08:44
  literally prayed that. And just recently I came across
• 1:08:48
  this reading it and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's what I
• 1:08:50
  prayed. And I didn't even know it, but
• 1:08:53
  these words of truth like, and, and God did heal me.
• 1:08:57
  I mean, the, the messed up stuff and you know that, you know, had
• 1:09:00
  been done to me and just the messed up life that I'd come
• 1:09:05
  from. Like those things do not have
• 1:09:08
  the the power what they did over me.
• 1:09:10
  They used to like would bring me to tears and and that's gone.
• 1:09:16
  And I can talk about it as a matter of fact, like, yeah, that
• 1:09:19
  that happened, blah, blah, blah. But it's no big.
• 1:09:21
  I mean, like it is a big deal, but it's not something that
• 1:09:25
  hurts me emotionally or makes me upset.
• 1:09:30
  It's, it's something that, you know, I'm healed from and, and
• 1:09:36
  the only way I'm ever healed from it.
• 1:09:37
  I mean, like that was stuff that like carried on for years and
• 1:09:40
  years and years when I actually said that.
• 1:09:43
  And, and it, it's gone. I no longer have that burden on
• 1:09:48
  me. I'm freed from it.
• 1:09:50
  And the only way that ever happened was because of that
• 1:09:53
  prayer that I said. And I really meant it.
• 1:09:56
  I was like, God, I, I know you can heal me.
• 1:09:58
  Like I, this is it. I'm done and and God did it and
• 1:10:03
  he's just amazing and he's such a loving God.
• 1:10:06
  When we seek him, he does these amazing things.
• 1:10:10
  There's so many people that have these wonderful stories about
• 1:10:13
  God and anyway, continuing on, they keep saying to me, where is
• 1:10:18
  the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled.
• 1:10:21
  I have not run away from being your shepherd.
• 1:10:24
  You know I have not desired the day of despair.
• 1:10:27
  What passes my lips is open before you.
• 1:10:30
  Do not be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of
• 1:10:33
  disaster. Let my persecutors be put to
• 1:10:36
  shame, but keep me from shame. Let them be terrified, but keep
• 1:10:40
  me from terror. Bring on them the day of
• 1:10:42
  disaster. Destroy them with double.
• 1:10:46
  This is what the Lord said to. Me go and.
• 1:10:48
  Stand at the gate of the people through which the kings of Judah
• 1:10:52
  go in and out. Stand also at all the other
• 1:10:56
  gates of Jerusalem. Say to them, Hear the word of
• 1:11:00
  the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone
• 1:11:04
  living in Jerusalem who come through these gates.
• 1:11:08
  This is what the Lord says. Be careful not to carry a load
• 1:11:12
  on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
• 1:11:16
  Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the
• 1:11:20
  Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your
• 1:11:27
  ancestors. Yet they did not listen or pay
• 1:11:30
  attention. They were stiff necked and would
• 1:11:33
  not listen or respond to discipline.
• 1:11:37
  But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring
• 1:11:43
  no load through the gates of the city on the Sabbath, but keep
• 1:11:47
  the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, then kings
• 1:11:53
  who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of the
• 1:11:56
  city with their officials. They and their officials will
• 1:12:00
  come riding in Chariots and on horses, accompanied by men of
• 1:12:04
  Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and the city will be
• 1:12:07
  inhabited forever. People will come from the towns
• 1:12:11
  of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of
• 1:12:15
  Benjamin and the western foothills, from the Hill Country
• 1:12:19
  of the Negev and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and
• 1:12:24
  sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank
• 1:12:27
  offerings to the House of the Lord.
• 1:12:29
  But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not
• 1:12:36
  carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem
• 1:12:39
  on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in
• 1:12:46
  the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.
• 1:12:51
  So this is a big warning about the Sabbath, and I think it's
• 1:12:56
  really important for us to understand the Sabbath and
• 1:13:03
  because the Sabbath is in the Bible history.
• 1:13:09
  It's the 7th. Day.
• 1:13:11
  And for the Israelites, it starts or it starts on the
• 1:13:18
  sundown of Friday and goes into Saturday till sundown Saturday.
• 1:13:25
  So that is the, the Sabbath day, but technically it's the it's
• 1:13:30
  Saturday. And and so this was the day that
• 1:13:35
  the Lord set aside and it started with creation.
• 1:13:40
  I'm going, I'm going to read there was a really good
• 1:13:42
  description of this through gotquestions.org.
• 1:13:47
  And I think it's really important to to have a good
• 1:13:51
  understanding of the Sabbath day and how it applies to us and,
• 1:13:57
  and what we should shouldn't, you know, like what is our
• 1:14:01
  responsibility on the Sabbath? There's also something that is
• 1:14:07
  written in Hebrews. So this is to people who were
• 1:14:12
  believers, but they were the Jewish believers, the but the
• 1:14:16
  ones who believed in Christ and it says in Hebrews first before
• 1:14:19
  reading got questions, I'm going to read this Hebrews chapter 4
• 1:14:22
  verse 9. There remains then a Sabbath
• 1:14:26
  rest for the people of God. So I think this is it says for
• 1:14:31
  anyone who enters God's rest also rest from their work, just
• 1:14:38
  as God did from his. Let us therefore make every.
• 1:14:46
  Effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish by
• 1:14:51
  following their example of disobedience.
• 1:14:54
  For the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double
• 1:15:01
  edged sword. It penetrates even to the
• 1:15:05
  dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.
• 1:15:09
  It judges the thoughts and the the attitudes of the heart.
• 1:15:16
  Nothing. In all creation is.
• 1:15:19
  Hidden from God's sight, everything is uncovered and laid
• 1:15:26
  bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
• 1:15:31
  So again, this Sabbath rest, if we are people of God, we
• 1:15:37
  probably need to take a rest on the Sabbath and acknowledge God,
• 1:15:44
  be grateful for him. It, you know, Jesus said that
• 1:15:49
  the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
• 1:15:54
  So that's something that is really an important concept to
• 1:15:59
  fully understand. Like, how does this apply to us
• 1:16:01
  today? So this is where I'm going to
• 1:16:05
  read the gotquestions.org, because it's very well I intend
• 1:16:10
  to. Except my computer is stalling.
• 1:16:13
  But So what does it mean that the Sabbath was made for man,
• 1:16:20
  and not man for the Sabbath? In Mark. 227 Jesus said the
• 1:16:30
  Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
• 1:16:35
  This statement was in response to the accusation that his
• 1:16:40
  disciples were breaking the law regarding resting on the Sabbath
• 1:16:44
  when they walked by some fields and plucked heads of grain.
• 1:16:48
  That's found in Mark chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 12 and Luke
• 1:16:53
  chapter 6 when the Pharisees. Accused.
• 1:16:57
  Jesus's disciples. Jesus referred them to an
• 1:17:01
  example from the Old Testament. David was once in need of food
• 1:17:07
  and was given consecrated bread. That was technically only that.
• 1:17:13
  Technically, that was technically only lawful for
• 1:17:16
  priests to eat. You can find that at first.
• 1:17:20
  Samuel 21. The holy bread had served a
• 1:17:24
  practical need of God's anointed David and his followers, just as
• 1:17:29
  in Jesus's day, the grain served a practical need for God's
• 1:17:33
  anointed Jesus and his followers.
• 1:17:36
  David and his men had not act sinfully in eating the
• 1:17:42
  showbread, and neither were Jesus's disciples acting
• 1:17:46
  sinfully and putting beds of grain on the Sabbath.
• 1:17:52
  Jesus concludes the Sabbath was. Made for man, not man for the
• 1:17:57
  Sabbath. So the Son of man is Lord even
• 1:18:01
  of the Sabbath. You can find that in Mark
• 1:18:04
  chapter 2, verses 27 through 28. His response?
• 1:18:09
  To the. Accusing Pharisees contains 2
• 1:18:13
  important teachings. First the.
• 1:18:17
  Sabbath was intended. To help people, not burden them.
• 1:18:22
  In contrast with the grueling daily work as slaves in Egypt,
• 1:18:26
  the Israelites were commanded to take a full day of rest each
• 1:18:30
  week under the Mosaic Law. Pharisee law had morphed the
• 1:18:38
  Sabbath into a burden, adding restrictions beyond what God's
• 1:18:43
  law said. The act of picking a head of
• 1:18:46
  grain and munching on it as one walked along a field should not
• 1:18:50
  be considered harvesting as the Pharisees tried to categorize
• 1:18:54
  it. The disciples had not broken
• 1:18:57
  God's law, they had only violated the Pharisees strict
• 1:19:01
  interpretation of the law. Jesus reminded the Pharisees of
• 1:19:05
  the original intent of the Sabbath rest.
• 1:19:09
  Jesus gives a similar reminder in Mark chapter 3 verses one
• 1:19:14
  through 6. Also Matthew 12 and Luke 6 when
• 1:19:20
  he heals. A man on the Sabbath.
• 1:19:23
  The Pharisees were looking to. Accuse Jesus.
• 1:19:29
  And closely watched his. Response.
• 1:19:31
  To a man with a shriveled hand, Jesus asked them which is lawful
• 1:19:37
  on the Sabbath, to do good or to do evil to save life.
• 1:19:44
  Or to. Kill, But they remained silent.
• 1:19:48
  The Sabbath was not intended to burden people, but to ease their
• 1:19:52
  burden. For someone to forbid acts of
• 1:19:56
  mercy and goodness on God's day of rest is contrary to all that
• 1:20:02
  is right. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath,
• 1:20:05
  did what was right and healed the man.
• 1:20:07
  And that's when the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians
• 1:20:12
  to kill Jesus. Second, Jesus.
• 1:20:15
  Is Lord even? Of the Sabbath.
• 1:20:17
  What does this mean? Another way to express this idea
• 1:20:20
  is to say Jesus is in charge of the Sabbath.
• 1:20:24
  He is God in human form and He created created the Sabbath day
• 1:20:31
  as the one who wrote the law. Jesus certainly has oversight
• 1:20:35
  over how the law is to be enforced.
• 1:20:37
  The Pharisees had lifted their own rules to the level of gods
• 1:20:42
  placing onerous burdens on people, and they ended up
• 1:20:46
  rebuking the law giver himself. Jesus is also Lord of the
• 1:20:51
  Sabbath in that the Sabbath pointed to the rest.
• 1:20:54
  Jesus provides Jesus. Became our rest.
• 1:21:00
  When He did the work, when He did all the work necessary for
• 1:21:05
  our salvation, Hebrews chapter 4, He fulfilled the law and the
• 1:21:09
  prophets in Matthew chapter 5 quotes this.
• 1:21:13
  Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be
• 1:21:17
  righteousness for everyone who believes.
• 1:21:20
  We rest spiritually in Him. He has secured our eternal
• 1:21:25
  blessing as believers. Set free in.
• 1:21:29
  Christ, we are not judged by whether or not we keep the
• 1:21:33
  Sabbath day. Instead, we follow the Lord of
• 1:21:37
  the Sabbath, Jesus Christ. We find our rest in Him, and
• 1:21:41
  seven days a week are filled with worship of Him.
• 1:21:45
  So I think that last part is kind of interesting.
• 1:21:47
  Seven days a week are filled with worship of Him.
• 1:21:53
  True. Believers of Christ.
• 1:21:56
  Yeah, every day we should be worshipping Him.
• 1:21:59
  We should be thanking Him for all the goodness that He's done
• 1:22:02
  for us, given us, provided for us.
• 1:22:07
  This, to remember Him. Every day of the week is
• 1:22:10
  important to be in the Word. Every day of the week is
• 1:22:13
  important. And the Sabbath day, as it says,
• 1:22:18
  was a day of rest and a day that we should, we should take
• 1:22:23
  advantage of it. God gave it to us.
• 1:22:25
  God gave it to us to have a day of rest, to be off work and to
• 1:22:31
  have that time to thank God, to have gratitude, to rest up so
• 1:22:35
  that we can work the other six days.
• 1:22:38
  So technically, God gives. US1 day off.
• 1:22:42
  And and that's what he did when he was making, when he created
• 1:22:47
  everything, he took day off and enjoyed it.
• 1:22:49
  And that's what God is giving to us as well.
• 1:22:52
  So the Sabbath day is a good thing.
• 1:22:55
  And it's also as Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, he is the one,
• 1:23:02
  as it says, gave us the eternal Sabbath, so in eternity and the
• 1:23:09
  day of rest. And also.
• 1:23:11
  I think it's like in the Millennium reign, the last 7000
• 1:23:15
  years, the the last of the thousands years that starting I
• 1:23:21
  guess at 7000, Jesus will. Be reigning and.
• 1:23:26
  So in that way, he's going to also be the Lord of the Sabbath,
• 1:23:30
  where he is going to be king that last final thousand years
• 1:23:35
  before eternity occurs. So when Jesus returns, then
• 1:23:41
  we're going to see him being Lord of the Sabbath, that 7th
• 1:23:44
  day, because a day to the Lord is like 1000 years and 1000
• 1:23:50
  years like a day. So it's just kind of interesting
• 1:23:54
  that another way that Jesus is going to be fulfilling that he
• 1:23:58
  is Lord of the Sabbath. So and he gives us rest.
• 1:24:02
  Just a lot of beautiful things in Scripture.
• 1:24:04
  I hope this blessed you and I hope you come back again.