Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Abortion . . . after the Fact │ Msg 24 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living (64k)

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Abortion . . . after the Fact │ Msg 24 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living (64k) · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the sins we commit are public for all to
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Speaker 1: see them. At other times our transgressions are private. But
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Speaker 1: be sure of this, God sees. God sees it all,
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Speaker 1: and we carry a guilt and often shame that we
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Speaker 1: feel at times is so heavy we believe that will
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Speaker 1: never leave us. Throughout my more than fifty years in ministry,
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Speaker 1: I've seen fewer sins cause more humiliation and pain than abortion.
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Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you that nothing shocks our God,
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Speaker 1: and he is a God of grace. In Christ, there
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Speaker 1: is always forgiveness, there is healing, there is hope and
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Speaker 1: a future. In my message today, we will examine a
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Speaker 1: number of significant passages on this very subject, but I'd
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Speaker 1: like to read for you ahead of time one selection
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Speaker 1: of scripture from the pen of King David. He was
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Speaker 1: one who had sinned sexually, who bore the weight of
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Speaker 1: his guilt, and who experienced the grace of God. My
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Speaker 1: Bible is open, and I hope yours is too. To
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Speaker 1: Psalm fifty one, I'm reading David's words from verses one
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Speaker 1: through four and fifteen through seventeen, where David writes, have
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Speaker 1: mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love,
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Speaker 1: because of your great compassion. Blot out the stain of
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Speaker 1: my sin. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me
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Speaker 1: from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion. It haunts
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Speaker 1: me day and night against you and you alone. Have
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Speaker 1: I sinned? I have done what is evil in your sight.
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Speaker 1: Unseal my lips, O, Lord, that my mouth may praise you.
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Speaker 1: You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
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Speaker 1: You do not want a burnt offering. The sacrifice you
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Speaker 1: desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a
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Speaker 1: broken and repentant heart. Oh God, It is easy for
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Speaker 1: us to wonder how anyone could want to have an
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Speaker 1: abortion after hearing something like we have heard earlier regarding
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Speaker 1: the scriptural facts and the sheer logic of doing away
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Speaker 1: with life. However, it isn't quite so mysterious or strange
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Speaker 1: when you realize is that most of us, when we
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Speaker 1: move away from one another and that sense of feeling
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Speaker 1: in the majority, which only takes place in the gathering
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Speaker 1: of God's people. It is easy for us to forget
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Speaker 1: that when all alone, or when seized by panic or
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Speaker 1: in some way convinced in the illogic of what I
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Speaker 1: have often called temporary insanity following sin disobedience. Easy to
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Speaker 1: forget that we can do things that simply lack sense,
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Speaker 1: And when you think about it, there really are occasions
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Speaker 1: where we could talk ourselves into an abortion. I'm thinking
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Speaker 1: of the twenty seven year old young career woman who
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Speaker 1: has been offered her long awaited dream in life in business,
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Speaker 1: in management, really a fast track to the top, and
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Speaker 1: she's sexually active, but she is not married, and she
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Speaker 1: finds out two days after the offer that she is pregnant.
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Speaker 1: She's not ready for marriage, and she's certainly not ready
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Speaker 1: for a child. A maternity leave would be sounding the
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Speaker 1: death knell to her career, and the father of the
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Speaker 1: child adds to her dilemma by saying, rather matter of factly,
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Speaker 1: we can take care of the problem translated to get
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Speaker 1: an abortion. Her whole future is on the line, and
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Speaker 1: she's all alone, away from her family, and actually no
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Speaker 1: one would ever know, and so she makes that decision.
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Speaker 1: Another case would be the seventeen year old high school
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Speaker 1: senior who lets her passions get away from her the
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Speaker 1: night of the prom, and she discovers only months before
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Speaker 1: graduation that she's going to have a baby. Her parents
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Speaker 1: will never understand her boyfriend thinks that there is a
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Speaker 1: way that he can scrape up enough money to help
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Speaker 1: her with this problem, and she thinks of trying to
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Speaker 1: be a mother at seventeen, living with the stigma of
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Speaker 1: an illegitimate child, or even if she escaped to some
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Speaker 1: home to have the baby away from her familiar surroundings.
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Speaker 1: None of that seems to fit. How quick and she
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Speaker 1: thinks how easy it would be to simply have an abortion,
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Speaker 1: Or what about the thirty nine year old mother of
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Speaker 1: five whose husband has recently left, and in a night
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Speaker 1: of foolish passion with a friend, she gets pregnant. The
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Speaker 1: last thing she wants is another child. She cannot already
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Speaker 1: find herself seeing her way through financially with her own responsibilities,
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Speaker 1: and now she learns that she's going to have a
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Speaker 1: sixth child. Obviously, to her, the answer is what we
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Speaker 1: might call a quick fix, and that seems to be
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Speaker 1: what she reads about in the literature and from the
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Speaker 1: lips of so many who would encourage her not to
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Speaker 1: do the foolish thing, but to simply come into a
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Speaker 1: clinic and have someone take the tissue from within her.
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Speaker 1: My hope in this message, though it is brief is
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Speaker 1: to give equal time to what I said earlier. My
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Speaker 1: hope is to help all of us understand what it
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Speaker 1: must be like to make a decision like I have
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Speaker 1: just described and illustrated in a moment of panic and fear,
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Speaker 1: only to look back on it years later and feel
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Speaker 1: the horror of regret and the inescapable feeling of responsibility,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps the word is irresponsibility in making a decision
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Speaker 1: that seemed right at the moment, but now, in light
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Speaker 1: of the passing of years, it is not right at all.
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Speaker 1: I want to speak to you who have gotten an abortion,
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Speaker 1: and there are a number of you. I spoke with
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Speaker 1: five this morning following the message that I brought. Two
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Speaker 1: it seemed had worked through the whole lingering a sad
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Speaker 1: cycle of remorse and sadness and regret, and three have not.
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Speaker 1: And even the mention of the word brings about a
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Speaker 1: cycle of depression that these brave ladies who confessed to
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Speaker 1: me their sorrow, they talked about how they find it recurring,
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Speaker 1: and no matter what they do, they cannot put it
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Speaker 1: to rest. I hope to help you, or to you
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Speaker 1: who have aided in an abortion medically, or to you
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Speaker 1: who have given advice to someone you loved, thinking that
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Speaker 1: it would help, and you realize now it did not.
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Speaker 1: One pastor writes these words, I've talked to many women
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Speaker 1: who say to me, please tell the truth to the
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Speaker 1: women of the church. Abortion is not a quick fix.
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Speaker 1: What accompanies the quick fix may very well be a
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Speaker 1: lifetime of regret, shadows, sinister thoughts, crippling dreams, and nightmares,
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Speaker 1: he continues. Before I spoke on this topic, I received
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Speaker 1: this note from a man. When I heard you were
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Speaker 1: going to speak on the topic of abortion, I just
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Speaker 1: knew I had to write to you. This topic has
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Speaker 1: crippled me more than any other subject. Right out of
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Speaker 1: high school, I got my girlfriend pregnant. I insisted that
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Speaker 1: she get an abortion. There's a hundred reasons I could
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Speaker 1: give why I took the actions I did, but they
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Speaker 1: would all be lies. I settle for the quick fix,
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Speaker 1: the easy way of avoiding the embarrassment of being found out.
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Speaker 1: And you know what, that was a lie too. Yes,
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Speaker 1: it avoided some embarrassment, but it was replaced by a
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Speaker 1: different type of pain, the pain of remorse. Each spring,
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Speaker 1: when life is starting to blome, there is a renewed
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Speaker 1: pain that my child could be adding another year and
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Speaker 1: then these other words. Through genuine repentance, anyone can receive
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Speaker 1: forgiveness from God. It is a marvelous, healing gift to
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Speaker 1: be claimed by everyone. But in my next breath, I
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Speaker 1: have to say that even though you are forgiven before God,
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Speaker 1: you may still see and feel some scars. Don't buy
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Speaker 1: the lie that a quick fix has no long term effects.
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Speaker 1: Little is said about the emotional trauma that accompanies an abortion,
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Speaker 1: and seldom are warnings given about the medical complications that
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Speaker 1: often come as a result of an abortion. Statistics show
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Speaker 1: that after an abortion has been performed, a woman faces
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Speaker 1: increased possibility of future miscarriages, tubal pregnancies, premature births, and sterility.
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Speaker 1: So I want to begin with a desire for understanding.
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Speaker 1: Let's put it that way. What I'm calling a desire
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Speaker 1: for understanding. First, I want you to understand me. I
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Speaker 1: am not soft on abortion. If you believe that, just
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Speaker 1: call to mind the things you heard me say earlier.
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Speaker 1: Nothing I say in this message is designed to take
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Speaker 1: any of the edge off of what I said in
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Speaker 1: my first message. My hope is to bring needed balance
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Speaker 1: between what could easily come off as uncaring and cold
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Speaker 1: and statistical, which some might call my first message, and
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Speaker 1: to bring the balance necessary for those who live in
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Speaker 1: the regret of the past. My hope is to communicate
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Speaker 1: in this message the possibility of full recovery and a
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Speaker 1: return to a life that is productive, fruitful, and free
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Speaker 1: of guilt. Second, as I talk about a plea or
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Speaker 1: a desire for understanding, I want the person who had
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Speaker 1: an abortion to have an understanding. My desire is that
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Speaker 1: you understand God's response. We live in an imperfect world.
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Speaker 1: Disobedience happens on a daily basis. To require perfection of
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Speaker 1: others or of ourselves is going too far. If I
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Speaker 1: have learned anything in the five decades I have spent
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Speaker 1: in the pastorate is that sin happens on a regular
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Speaker 1: basis in others' lives and in my life. Disobedience regularly occurs,
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Speaker 1: bad decisions are made, even by good and people, wrong
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Speaker 1: takes place. And what I have discovered is the last
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Speaker 1: person we are willing to forgive is ourselves. Most of
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Speaker 1: us are readily willing to forgive another individual, certainly upon
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Speaker 1: confession and repentance. But though we may confess and repent
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Speaker 1: of wrong, we put ourselves under a cloud of unproductive
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Speaker 1: years by refusing to forgive and to take God at
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Speaker 1: his word. So my desire is that the person who
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Speaker 1: has made this awful, awful mistake, this act of disobedience,
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Speaker 1: you can go on. There is a tomorrow. Now. My
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Speaker 1: Bible happens to be open to Psalm number fourteen in
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Speaker 1: the Word of God. If you have a copy of
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, I invite you to turn to the same place.
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Speaker 1: Let me give you, under what I'm calling general counsel
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Speaker 1: from God's relevant word, four statements that you can know
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Speaker 1: for fact that you can rely on. Four facts, all
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Speaker 1: based upon the Scriptures. These facts are not limited to
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Speaker 1: the sin of abortion, but they certainly would include it.
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Speaker 1: Fact number one. Sin is sin, and we all commit it.
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Speaker 1: The categories are numerous, and the reasons we do these
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Speaker 1: sins are are also numerous. However we may define sin,
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Speaker 1: it is missing the mark. It is failing to obey
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Speaker 1: the truth. Sin is sin, and we all commit it.
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Speaker 1: Who doesn't know Romans three twenty three, for all have
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Speaker 1: sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every
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Speaker 1: person hearing my words right now knows the horror of
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Speaker 1: that verse. We have all sinned, and the tragedy is.
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Speaker 1: We will continue to do so until we are in
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Speaker 1: a glorified state in the presence of our Lord, in
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Speaker 1: eternity after death. As long as we have life breath
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Speaker 1: in our lungs, life on this earth, we will continue
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Speaker 1: to disobey every one of us. Psalm fourteen, verses two
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Speaker 1: and three. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon
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Speaker 1: the sons of men to see if there are any
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Speaker 1: who understand who seek after God. They have all turned aside.
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Speaker 1: Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who
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Speaker 1: does good, not even one. If I may paraphrase it,
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Speaker 1: certainly it would have in mind. There is no one
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Speaker 1: who continually and without interruption, does only good. We all
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Speaker 1: know the experience of failure and wrong and disobedience, and
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Speaker 1: it is long term in our lives. Psalm number fifty eight,
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Speaker 1: verse three. We've been at it all our lives. Fifty
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Speaker 1: eight three. The wicked are estranged, meaning estranged from God
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Speaker 1: from the womb. These who speak lies go astray from birth.
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Speaker 1: I hold our precious little grandchildren in my arms, and
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Speaker 1: I look into their adorable, cupid like faces, and I
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Speaker 1: remind myself each one is a little sinner, as a grandfather.
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Speaker 1: I find it hard to believe until we babysit, and
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Speaker 1: then I know each one has his or her own
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Speaker 1: strong will behind that adorable face, and that precious life
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Speaker 1: is a nature that has gone estranged from the womb
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Speaker 1: from which they were born. We all sin, we have,
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Speaker 1: we do, we continue to. Sin is sin, and we've
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Speaker 1: all committed it. Fact number two. God is grieved, but
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Speaker 1: never surprised or shocked by our disobedience. God is grieved,
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Speaker 1: but he's never surprised or shocked by our disobedience. Same book,
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Speaker 1: Psalm one hundred three. This time go a little further
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Speaker 1: into a great psalm of David. And aren't we grateful
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Speaker 1: for his pen? Aren't we thankful? He didn't stop writing
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Speaker 1: though he had failed God horribly in the most scandalous
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Speaker 1: kind of sin of his day Psalm one hundred three.
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Speaker 1: He knew wherever he wrote when he said this in
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Speaker 1: verse twelve through verse fourteen. So far as the east
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Speaker 1: is from the west, as far as the east is
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Speaker 1: from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
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Speaker 1: from us? Just as a father has compassion on his children,
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Speaker 1: so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him,
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Speaker 1: For he himself. That's God. The Father knows our frame.
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Speaker 1: He is mindful that we are but dust. When he
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Speaker 1: holds us in his arms and looks into our faces
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Speaker 1: and sees our tears of repentance, regret, sadness, and sorrow,
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Speaker 1: he understands. He sees behind the beauty of our gifts
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Speaker 1: and of our lives, and he acknowledges the sins. He
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Speaker 1: hears our confessions, and without once winking at our sins
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Speaker 1: or passing them off glibly, he understands our frame. He
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Speaker 1: remembers we are mere dust. I've often thought of the
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Speaker 1: contrast there is in gifted great lives. We hear beautiful
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Speaker 1: music from talented, incapable people who study for years and
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Speaker 1: can play such soothing melodies or sing as well, and
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Speaker 1: it's easy to forget that within those very same lives
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Speaker 1: rest the same sewage of depravity, and pouring forth from
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Speaker 1: any one of those gifted lives can come the most
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Speaker 1: heinous crimes and acts of passion. And in fact, the
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Speaker 1: very night when we are moved in ecstasy and worship
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Speaker 1: with their songs, that same night, the same musicians can
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Speaker 1: be caught in the in the worst kind of a
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Speaker 1: scandalous sins. God understands that he is grieved, but he
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Speaker 1: is never shocked, and he's never surprised. When I read
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Speaker 1: this passage of our father here, who has compassion on
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Speaker 1: his children, I thought of that a great section out
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Speaker 1: of Hebrews twelve. Will you turn there Hebrews twelve and
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Speaker 1: verse five through verse eleven. Just a little further word
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Speaker 1: from scripture on God's dealing with us through an understanding
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Speaker 1: Hebrews twelve and verse five. You have forgotten the exhortation
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Speaker 1: which is addressed to you as sons, My son, do
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Speaker 1: not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint
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Speaker 1: when you are reproved by him. Now watch this. This
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Speaker 1: is the reason you don't regard it lightly. Four Or
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Speaker 1: because those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he
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Speaker 1: scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline
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Speaker 1: that you endure. God deals with you as with sons.
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Speaker 1: For what son is there whom his father does not discipline.
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Speaker 1: But if you are without discipline of which all have
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Speaker 1: become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
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Speaker 1: In other words, the mark of a true father with
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Speaker 1: a true son, the mark of love is that there
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Speaker 1: must be discipline at times disobedience brings it to pass
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Speaker 1: or necessitates it. We had earthly fathers to discipline us,
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Speaker 1: and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be
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Speaker 1: subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they
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Speaker 1: disciplined us for a short time, as seemed best to them.
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Speaker 1: But He disciplines us for our good, that we may
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Speaker 1: share His holiness. The discipline of God's heavy hand upon us.
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Speaker 1: Who doesn't remember it, who hasn't felt it, who hasn't
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Speaker 1: turned on his bed through the night, sleepless, struggling sad
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Speaker 1: over wrong that has been done, wrestling with the guilt
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Speaker 1: that comes from the conviction of the Holy Spirit in
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Speaker 1: the life of his God's people, Who doesn't know that
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Speaker 1: it's miserable Verse eleven. All discipline for the moment seems
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Speaker 1: not to be joyful now that is the understatement of
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Speaker 1: the New Testament, but sorrowful yet to those who have
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Speaker 1: been trained by it that look closely to those who
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Speaker 1: have been trained by such Afterwards, it yields the peaceful
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Speaker 1: fruit of righteousness. I call this heeding God's reproofs. How wise,
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Speaker 1: when we are suddenly seized with the realization of why
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Speaker 1: God has done this that we might acknowledge the wrong,
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Speaker 1: deal directly with him and with whomever we have hurt
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Speaker 1: in the process, so that we might know that peaceful
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Speaker 1: fruit of righteousness. It is one of the ways God's
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Speaker 1: children mature, and there is no shortcut. Sin is sin,
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Speaker 1: and when it happens, God is grieved. Third fact, some
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Speaker 1: sins incur greater consequences than others. Some sins incur greater
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Speaker 1: consequences than others. You know that. That isn't rocket science complicated,
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Speaker 1: is it. Some sins are private, unknown, you deal with them.
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Speaker 1: They impact no one else. Other sins are public and
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Speaker 1: become known, and they impact many. There are even sins
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Speaker 1: that are criminal and illegal crimes against society, and they
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Speaker 1: can result in financial penalty and loss of reputation and
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Speaker 1: a sentence behind bars, along with the humiliation of the
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Speaker 1: family and the loss of not only occupation but respect
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Speaker 1: in the eyes of the public. Some sins are scandalous
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Speaker 1: and shameful, hurtful to our own spirit and damaging to
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Speaker 1: our health. Some are a mixture of all the above.
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Speaker 1: I'm in Hebrews and we were in Psalms. I'd invite
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Speaker 1: you to go back with me to proverbs, and let's
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Speaker 1: stay there for a few moments. Psalms Proverbs just following
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Speaker 1: the book of Psalms, Proverbs number five are the chapter
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Speaker 1: number five. Let me show you from this passage and
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Speaker 1: chapter six as well, an example of these kind of
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Speaker 1: sins that bear greater consequences Proverbs five. In verse twenty
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Speaker 1: why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress
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Speaker 1: and embrace the bosom of a foreigner. For the ways
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Speaker 1: of a man are before the eyes of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: and he watches all his paths. I watch closely. His
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Speaker 1: own iniquities will capture the wicked, and he will be
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Speaker 1: held with the cords of his sin. The vivid imagery
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Speaker 1: of the writer pictures it as though there are tentacles
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Speaker 1: that reach around a person and hold him with the
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Speaker 1: chords of sin. Across the page in chapter six, verse
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Speaker 1: twenty seven. Can a man take fire in his bosom
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Speaker 1: and his clothes not be burned? Or can a man
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Speaker 1: walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
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Speaker 1: Oha is the one who goes into his neighbour's wife,
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Speaker 1: whoever touches her will not go unpunished Verse thirty two.
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Speaker 1: The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense.
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Speaker 1: He who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace
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Speaker 1: he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted
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Speaker 1: out under the general category of sexual sins or immorality.
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Speaker 1: There is a lingering consequence or series of consequences that inescapable,
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Speaker 1: It stays. It seems as though it is in a
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Speaker 1: category unto itself. And by the way, I want to
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Speaker 1: develop that next Sunday morning. But it just listened to
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Speaker 1: a particular verse that conveys that in one Corinthians six eighteen.
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Speaker 1: Just here flea immorality. Every other sin that a man
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Speaker 1: commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins
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Speaker 1: against his own body. Yes, sin is sin. Yes it
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Speaker 1: grieves God, though he understands, never shocked, never surprised by it.
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Speaker 1: But there are some sins that have lingering effects that
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Speaker 1: create within us and within others who are impacted by it,
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Speaker 1: and extremely lengthy and sad series of events. I'm turning
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Speaker 1: now from Proverbs six over to Psalm number thirty two,
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Speaker 1: verses three and four. This is the word of again
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Speaker 1: of David, following the act of adultery with Bathsheba. God
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Speaker 1: even led him to record his experiences in it. I
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Speaker 1: spoke earlier of the sleeplessness that often follows sins that
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Speaker 1: have that bear ramifications, he says in verse three of
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Speaker 1: Psalm thirty two. When I kept silent about my sin,
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Speaker 1: my body wasted away through my groaning all day long,
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Speaker 1: for day and night. Thy hand was heavy upon me.
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Speaker 1: My vitality was drained away, as with the fever heat
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Speaker 1: of summer. A couple of us summers ago, I was
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Speaker 1: engaged with our team in a summer ministry, and we decided,
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Speaker 1: following my morning message at this particular Christian camp, to
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Speaker 1: show a film dealing with abortion. We realized that there
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Speaker 1: would be some who would be impacted by what was presented.
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Speaker 1: Our hope was that we would We would capture the
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Speaker 1: attention of the naive, as well as inform those who
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Speaker 1: were ignorant of the facts, and perhaps even reached some
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Speaker 1: who were right teetering on the edge of this very decision.
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Speaker 1: One young woman, after the film ended, had no interest
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Speaker 1: in going on to lunch. She sat there dissolved in tears, and,
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Speaker 1: as you would guess and would expect, she had had
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Speaker 1: an abortion. What was interesting and perhaps a bit surprising
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Speaker 1: is that the abortion was years ago. But the reminder
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Speaker 1: of what had happened, what had been done, of the
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Speaker 1: life that had been taken, was almost more than she
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Speaker 1: could bear. And she sat there immobile, reliving the events
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Speaker 1: of what had long since passed. Sin is sin. God
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Speaker 1: has grieved. But some sins incur lengthy consequences. Though forgiven,
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Speaker 1: they still bear consequences. There is still that recurring cycle
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Speaker 1: of grief and depression. As Nathan said to David in
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Speaker 1: a second Samuel twelve, you are forgiven, but the sword
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Speaker 1: will never depart from your house. Think of that. And
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Speaker 1: indeed it didn't. David's life had moved from a little
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Speaker 1: shepherd lad all the way to the zenith of the
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Speaker 1: throne of the Hebrews. But when Bathsheba came on the scene,
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Speaker 1: and then the following murder of Uriah, and the hypocrisy
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Speaker 1: of those months of waiting for the birth of the
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Speaker 1: baby and the death of the child, from that time
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Speaker 1: on his life was like the It seemed as though
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Speaker 1: it was like the fever heat of summer. Fact number four,
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Speaker 1: and the most important of the four, as far as
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Speaker 1: our subject is concerned, recovery and return to a fruitful
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Speaker 1: life is God's desire for all of us. Recovery and
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Speaker 1: a return to a fruitful life is God's desire for
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Speaker 1: all of us. Just as there is not an earthly
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Speaker 1: father who desires to discipline us son and leave him
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Speaker 1: in a state of discipline for the rest of their relationship,
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Speaker 1: So our heavenly Father, though he disciplines us and brings
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Speaker 1: us to brokenness, has no interest in our living out
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Speaker 1: our lives under the constant cloud of his discipline. Discipline
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Speaker 1: happens for a period of time, and then his grace
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Speaker 1: comes to our rescue and gives us fruitfulness and purpose
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Speaker 1: as we go on beyond the immobilizing impact of guilt
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Speaker 1: and the horror of our failure. Now the question is how, how,
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Speaker 1: what is needed to go on? After I have committed
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Speaker 1: an act that has lingering consequences. Let me conclude my
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Speaker 1: message by spelling that out again in four ways. Number one,
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Speaker 1: a full acknowledgement of the wrong that was done. If
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Speaker 1: we agree with God, if we confess our sins, he
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Speaker 1: is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
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Speaker 1: to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. A full acknowledgment of
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Speaker 1: the wrong we have done. Now, I don't want to
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Speaker 1: just split through these four things and leave them with
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Speaker 1: you to think about later on. I don't you think
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Speaker 1: about each one as I go through them? And if
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Speaker 1: you are in the category of what we are dressing tonight,
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Speaker 1: a person who has gone through this experience, you need
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Speaker 1: to face each one directly. Have you fully acknowledged the
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Speaker 1: wrong that was done? No more defensiveness, no more excuses,
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Speaker 1: no more human reasoning or lodging to try to convince
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Speaker 1: you others are God that a part of what you
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Speaker 1: did made sense, rather a full and complete acknowledgement of
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Speaker 1: the wrong of your act. That is what I understand
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Speaker 1: the word confession to mean, to agree with God in
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Speaker 1: every respect that sin was wrong and it is without defense. Second,
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Speaker 1: genuine repentance following the confession. We don't say much, We
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Speaker 1: don't hear much about repentance. We should and now we
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Speaker 1: must genuine repentance following confession. Listen to Proverbs twenty eight thirteen.
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Speaker 1: He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he
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Speaker 1: who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. It is
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Speaker 1: our tendency to make lighter of sin and God does,
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Speaker 1: and to stop merely with confession and to forget the
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Speaker 1: additional statement. He who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion,
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Speaker 1: a full and complete forsaking of the act, a turning
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Speaker 1: around in the mind, a reversal of emotions from defense
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Speaker 1: to a full acknowledgment, from an attempt to excuse it,
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Speaker 1: to an absolute and unguarded realization and confession that the
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Speaker 1: whole of it was wrong, and a desire never to
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Speaker 1: do it again. Psalm fifty one is of great help
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Speaker 1: because it isn't a context of sexual failure. Psalm fifty one,
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse one, be gracious to me, O, God,
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Speaker 1: according to thy loving kindness, to the greatness of thy compassion,
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Speaker 1: blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
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Speaker 1: and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions.
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Speaker 1: My sin is ever before me against thee the only
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Speaker 1: I have sinned and done what is evil in thy sight,
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Speaker 1: so that thou art justified when thou dost speak, and
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Speaker 1: blameless when thou dost judge. There is no sense of
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Speaker 1: how could you do this to me? God? But rather
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Speaker 1: I acknowledge your right to do whatever you wish I
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Speaker 1: deserve nothing but judgment, and I acknowledge your right to
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Speaker 1: bring it upon me. I am impressed with the attitude
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Speaker 1: as well as the words of the man. Sometimes I
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Speaker 1: hear confessions, and I do wonder about the spirit of repentance.
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Speaker 1: Confession is a statement. Repentance is a series of acts
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Speaker 1: worked out in acts attitudes. There is an unguarded and
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Speaker 1: even an admitted humiliation that accompanies it. Often there are tears.
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Speaker 1: There is a desire to return to whom ever and
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Speaker 1: whatever situation, to make it right. In the same passage,
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Speaker 1: verse twelve, restore to me the joy of Thy salvation.
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Speaker 1: Sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach
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Speaker 1: transgressors thy ways, and sinners will be converted to thee
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Speaker 1: O Lord, Verse fifteen, open my lips that my mouth
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Speaker 1: may declare Thy praise, for Thou dost delight not in sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: otherwise I would give it. Thou art not pleased with
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Speaker 1: burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
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Speaker 1: a broken and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt
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Speaker 1: not despise. There's a difference between remorse and repentance. Remorse
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Speaker 1: is sorrow over being caught sadness brought on by the
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Speaker 1: pain of the consequences, the humiliation of the loss of image,
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Speaker 1: and the feeling of what will people say, and the
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Speaker 1: remorseful feelings of knowing that you have brought reproach on
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Speaker 1: the name of a family or that or on a church,
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Speaker 1: on your own life. But genuine repentance in that we
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Speaker 1: lose all concern for ourselves. We accept humiliation that we deserve,
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Speaker 1: and accompanies and our disobedience and the grief we have
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Speaker 1: caused others. I'll tell you it is revealed in a
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Speaker 1: contrite heart. A contrite heart. So my concern now is
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Speaker 1: not to make anyone do penance, but to make certain
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Speaker 1: that a confession is a comp by genuine repentance. Where
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Speaker 1: there is this contrite heart and we are b r
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Speaker 1: k e N broken, the process begins to work its
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Speaker 1: way out. When that occurs. I don't know how, I
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Speaker 1: don't know why. I just know that's God's pattern. Third,
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Speaker 1: in the process we claim the cleansing God offers. We've
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Speaker 1: seen it again and again through this passage in Psalm
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Speaker 1: fifty one. In the process we claim the cleansing God
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Speaker 1: offers Verse two, wash me thoroughly cleanse me verse seven.
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Speaker 1: Purify me, and I shall be clean, Wash me, I
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Speaker 1: shall be whiter than snow. Verse ten. Created me a
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Speaker 1: clean heart. Look at the references to cleansing, to being
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Speaker 1: clean a clean heart verse twelve. Restore to me the
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Speaker 1: joy of Thy salvation, sustain me with a willing spirit.
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Speaker 1: And then look, I just read it. Then I will
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Speaker 1: teach transgressors thy ways. I found that God often uses
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Speaker 1: individuals to assist others. Called here teaching transgressors thy ways,
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Speaker 1: teaching others who have made the same mistakes and committed
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Speaker 1: the same wrongs in their lives. Who is better able
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Speaker 1: to minister to those are who are tempted to get
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Speaker 1: an abortion and those who have had one? Who is
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Speaker 1: better able to minister to those who who are dying
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Speaker 1: with cancer? That you, who have gone through the horrors
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Speaker 1: of ministering to your loved one who died with cancer,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps you yourself have the disease, you are, in
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Speaker 1: the words of Scripture, able to teach others God's ways.
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Speaker 1: And who knows but what sinners will be converted? What
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Speaker 1: a great opportunity to minister to people when we work
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Speaker 1: our way through the process of full cleansing. And forgiveness.
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Speaker 1: Maybe you've never thought of it before, but you who
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Speaker 1: have gone through this might be on the verge of
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Speaker 1: a ministry you never dream possible. Number four, and this
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Speaker 1: is so important. Deliberately refuse to allow the adversary or
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Speaker 1: anyone else to hold you in bondage to former sins.
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Speaker 1: Deliberately refuse to allow the adversary or anyone else to
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Speaker 1: hold you in bondage to former sins. Now to work
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Speaker 1: through this process, some need a counselor. Some need a
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Speaker 1: paid professional Christian counselor to assist them through the therapy
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Speaker 1: of recovery. Some need a pastor, some most need a
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Speaker 1: support group of some kind. Certainly we need a friend
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Speaker 1: to help us talk and walk our way through so
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Speaker 1: that we sense God's full cleansing and full forgiveness, so
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Speaker 1: we're able to go on and minister beyond and get
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Speaker 1: away from the sinister nightmares and shadows of past wrongs.
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Speaker 1: It may be such that it changes your course of
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Speaker 1: a career. I believe there are certain sins that cause
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Speaker 1: a minister to forfeit the right to be in a pulpit,
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Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean that that person can no longer minister.
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Speaker 1: There are many ways to minister beyond a place of
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Speaker 1: highest public profile, and some of them become excellent in
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Speaker 1: those areas of ministry. It may alter the direction of
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Speaker 1: your future, but it doesn't mean you're finished, washed up
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Speaker 1: and shelled. And don't let anyone hold you under the
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Speaker 1: bondage of forgiven sins from which you have repented. Now
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Speaker 1: a little bit of personal and compassionate counsel, which I
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Speaker 1: have called advice to all who live with regret. You
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Speaker 1: cannot undo the past. Don't try. I meet up with
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Speaker 1: folks rather regularly who think that if they travel far
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Speaker 1: enough and long enough, then the travel will cause them
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Speaker 1: to erase the past. It won't erase the past. Drugs
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Speaker 1: won't do it. Alcohol won't do it. Finding a wife
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Speaker 1: and getting married won't necessarily remove the what has been
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Speaker 1: done in the past. It certainly will soften the blow
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Speaker 1: of it as you walk with God. But you can't
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Speaker 1: undo what has been done. You can't unscramble an egg.
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Speaker 1: It's there. Don't try. Second, you may not be able
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Speaker 1: to cope with the present. Don't quit. You may not
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Speaker 1: be able to cope with the present. Some of you
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Speaker 1: are having a wail of a job trying to do that,
45:53
Speaker 1: and I commend you for not quitting. Get help. Go
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Speaker 1: back to that statement I gave you under that third
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Speaker 1: fact regarding the process of finding full forgiveness, and walk
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Speaker 1: through that very carefully. Have I fully acknowledged my sin
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Speaker 1: before God, my part of the wrong? And it might
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Speaker 1: include forgiving the partner who walked away. It might include
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Speaker 1: avenues of a great pain right now in your life.
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Speaker 1: Walk through the process. Don't hold anything back. It might
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Speaker 1: include going to individuals that were hurt or offended or
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Speaker 1: wrong in some way in whatever area, not just the
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Speaker 1: abortion area, but whatever area. Don't quit. Being unable to
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Speaker 1: cope simply means the process isn't complete. Don't quit. And finally,
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Speaker 1: you must not waste the future. Don't hide. I cannot
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Speaker 1: believe that God gives any one breath in his or
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Speaker 1: her lungs for the purpose of just existing. God has
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Speaker 1: a purpose for us. He is well able to take
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Speaker 1: our lives. Whenever He wishes it to be our last,
47:14
Speaker 1: it will be our last. There is a reason to
47:20
Speaker 1: go on. Every time I come back from a plane
47:23
Speaker 1: trip and our wheels hit the ground and we move
47:26
Speaker 1: to a safe arrival, I go there is a future,
47:31
Speaker 1: and I go on. And there are times in your
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Speaker 1: life as well when you come to a place and
47:35
Speaker 1: you realize you felt the hot breath of death on
47:38
Speaker 1: the back of your neck. There's a reason to go on.
47:43
Speaker 1: And if we're going to say with full faith to
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Speaker 1: people who have gone through the horrors of divorce, there
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Speaker 1: is a future, then I must say to you who
47:50
Speaker 1: have gone through the sin and disobedience and humiliation of
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Speaker 1: an abortion, there is a future. God is a purpose.
48:00
Speaker 1: It's not that you spend your days in hiding. The
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Speaker 1: best kept secret in most churches and many a family
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Speaker 1: is abortion. If you question that, when is the last
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Speaker 1: time you had anyone say in any sense of public gathering,
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Speaker 1: I have had an abortion. You probably will live your
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Speaker 1: entire adult life and not hear those words. But, my friends,
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Speaker 1: if these statistics that we shared with you earlier are true,
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Speaker 1: and indeed they are even in evangelical circles, it has
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Speaker 1: happened often. My hope is that you will be able
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Speaker 1: to get beyond it and stop those statistics and be
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Speaker 1: a part of the answer. I'd like for us to
48:51
Speaker 1: bow together for a few moments of reflection and preparation.
49:01
Speaker 1: I would like to lead us in a time of
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Speaker 1: prayer and give you time to reflect on your own life.
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Speaker 1: Have you dealt fully and completely with the wrongs of
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Speaker 1: the past. Scripture says, if we would judge ourselves, we
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Speaker 1: would not be judged. Have you forgiven yourself and agreed
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Speaker 1: with God about the forgiveness, having repented, and having come
49:34
Speaker 1: to terms with the wrong? If not do so, today
49:44
Speaker 1: can truly be the first significant day of a fruitful
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Speaker 1: life for you. This is the time to start. This
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Speaker 1: is yet another moment for you to recognize the death
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Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ, your behalf, and to turn your life
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Speaker 1: over to him, our Father. We acknowledge fully and without reservation,
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Speaker 1: our need for forgiveness, for we have all fallen short.
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Speaker 1: Not one person in this place is in any a
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Speaker 1: realm above another. We all are in the category of sinners.
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Speaker 1: Most of us have gone to the cross and gone
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Speaker 1: beyond it because of Christ's death, and we thank you
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Speaker 1: for his forgiveness at Calvary. Some have yet to come
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Speaker 1: to that place, and I pray that you will use
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Speaker 1: these moments of reflection to bring them to faith in
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we worship, whose name we adore.
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Speaker 1: He returns in Jesus' name Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message abortion after the Fact was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety two, thy twenty fourteen, and twenty twenty four,
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Speaker 2: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four
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Speaker 2: by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.