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#214 Let's Try This Again: A Divine "Do‑Over" · The OneCry Podcast

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  About the time that i'm i believe that i'm too far gone or this other person's
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  too far gone is the moment where god looks out and says i can get them back from there,
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  they're gonna have to cooperate they're gonna have to respond but god's saying
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  but i want them back with me i want them back in my presence i want i want the
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  law rightly re-established in their life, man.
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  I want the truth reestablished in their life. I want the journey ahead for them to be made clear again.
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  Welcome to the One Cry Podcast, a nationwide call for spiritual awakening.
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  The goal, accelerating the movement of God through sharing revival truth, stories, and reports.
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  Well welcome to the one cry podcast uh we're
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  so glad to welcome you into this moment and
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  uh the lord has something so good for us today that we're going to hear that
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  we think will be a real encouragement and a help to you and i'm bill elliff
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  and this is kyle reno and kyle you ever had a moment in your life where you
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  just needed a you just needed a do-over?
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  Almost every week, Bill. You know, my son, David, who's now a church planter
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  up in Seattle and did an incredible job.
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  He I remember he was maybe nine or 10 years old and I can just see him.
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  He did something. And I had spanked him and pretty sufficiently.
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  Well, I love how you said that. And he looked up through his tears and he said,
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  Daddy, he said, can I rewind that and just do it gooder?
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  And I said, well, we can't rewind that, but we can start from here.
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  And we can sure do it gooder. And it did it gooder a lot.
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  So we need that in our lives, don't we? And you're going to help us see a little
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  bit of that from the book of Exodus.
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  Man, yeah. Well, that's an awesome story, by the way.
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  And with five kids, I'm going to 100% tell them the next time one of them gets
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  a spanking that that was sufficient.
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  That was sufficient. Yeah, that was sufficient. They'll know whether it was
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  sufficient. Yeah, for sure.
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  Well, you know, what I love, Bill, and I've just, I've been...
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  Man, just my heart full from this thought about God and that God is a God that
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  allows us to have do-overs.
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  And in light of revival and awakening, which is the whole heart behind the One Cry podcast,
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  is the belief for God that brings his people back to life, that awakens people,
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  that draws, and all the things that we see in revival. And there's so much.
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  And we talk a lot about this, Bill, is that, you know, we got a part to play
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  inside of that in revival. And you'll see that in the scripture today.
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  But the thing that just has blown me away in this moment in Exodus 34 is that
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  God is willing to, again, give this people called Israel.
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  That is just a hot mess, another chance, you know, and I, we just had you come
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  here and preach Exodus 33 into 34, which is powerful coming out of 32,
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  really all the way across.
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  But you got to remember in this moment, just to give you a little context.
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  32 is about as big of a, let me put it this way.
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  It's about as big of a, of a blow it moment in human history,
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  you know, like Exodus 32, with the golden calf and guys
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  just i'm not going to unpack all of it they
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  just broke the first two commands that god
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  had given them not 40 days before and
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  god had manifested his glory to them
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  giving them the 10 commandments like
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  here it is there's going to be additional things to help clarify but here's
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  the big 10 and if you live inside this is going to help you know how to love
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  me and how to love people and not 40 days of of moses being up the mountain
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  here they are building a golden calf.
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  And then declaring, here is the gods that brought us out of Egypt, right?
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  And so it just is appalling in one sense.
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  In another sense, if we're honest, it's us.
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  It's us, you know. And you would think, of course, there's all the,
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  God says, hey, I'm going to go on and send y'all into the promised land,
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  but I'm not going with you, you know.
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  And Moses is like, no, bad deal. We're not doing that. If you're not going with us, we're not going.
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  Y'all know the passages and the great intercession of Moses to reestablish the
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  need for his presence to move forward in anything.
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  But then there's this Exodus 34 moment. And I'm telling you, I could weep over it.
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  I could weep over it because God does for them what he will do for you and what
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  he'll do for a church, what he'll do for a person.
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  God recreates a moment. It's not just like the last one.
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  But it's a new one. He recreates a moment for that relationship to be established, which is revival.
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  You know, like, hey, it gives them another chance. I love what I heard one pastor
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  title of his message. It says 34.
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  The title was, let's try this again.
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  Wow. And so I'll just give you the text real quick.
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  Then the Lord told Moses, chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones,
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  which is just awesome. You know the ones I chiseled those out,
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  inscribed on, but I'm going to let you cooperate.
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  With me renewing this people. Why don't you chisel out some stones like the
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  first ones and I will write on them the same words.
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  I mean, I just, I love, I'm reading from New Living. I love how to render some
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  of this. The same words that were on the tablets you smashed.
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  So just clarity here, Moses, clarity here. I'm gonna let you chisel out.
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  I know I did that the first time for you. This time I'm gonna let you cooperate
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  with this renewing work. I'm gonna write them. I'm gonna write on them again.
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  On these tablets. They're going to be like the ones you smashed,
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  which you smashed, understandably, because they broke covenant.
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  And he says, be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself
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  to me on the top of the mountain.
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  No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain.
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  Do not even let the flocks or the herds graze near the mountain.
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  So he's saying, Moses, if you rewind and you go back to Exodus 20, it was a similar moment.
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  Where Moses, the Ten Commandments being given, God's speaking to him.
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  They can only get so close to his
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  presence. And what it reminds me about revival and renewal of a people.
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  I think I go to the New Covenant version of this. It's when Jesus restores Peter to ministry.
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  It's in such a similar vein that God recreated a moment for them to have so
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  that they could be renewed back into relationship.
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  Jesus recreated a moment for Peter.
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  You remember, if you go back, Peter had that moment where he pushes out in the
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  water because Jesus tells him to, catches so many fish, nets are tearing,
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  and that's why he kneels down, depart from me, Lord.
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  Well, in John, he recreates a moment for him.
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  And what it reminds me, and I hope it will remind us in light of revival, in light of renewal,
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  He's just never too far gone. Wow. He's just never too far gone.
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  And like, I mean, they just built a golden calf.
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  Like they just declared that this image is God.
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  Like they, you talk about appalling. Like go the new covenant version of that.
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  Peter just denied the cross that is being crucified three times.
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  So, and if you're honest, I know I am.
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  About the time that I believe that I'm too far gone or this other person is
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  too far gone is the moment where God looks out and says, I can get them back from there.
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  They're going to have to cooperate. They're going to have to respond.
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  But God's saying, but I want them back with me. I want them back in my presence.
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  I want the law rightly reestablished in their life, man.
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  I want the truth reestablished in their life. I want the journey ahead for them
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  to be made clear again. And so I just thought, in our restoration,
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  just remember this, God initiates.
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  In our restoration, God is the initiator.
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  Hey, in personal revival, in revival in a church, in revival in a land, he's always the hero.
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  He's always the hero. God initiates. But we must cooperate.
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  We must cooperate. So it says, verse four, so Moses chiseled out the two tablets
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  like the stone of stone, like the first one early in the morning.
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  He did climb Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him.
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  He carried the two stone tablets in his hands and then the Lord came down in
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  a cloud and stood there with him.
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  Interesting, by the way, I don't have a lot of time to unpack this,
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  but God is making himself known in a very intimate way in this moment.
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  It stood right there with him and out and he called out his name, Yahweh.
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  The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out Yahweh, the Lord,
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  the God of compassion and mercy.
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  I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
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  I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations.
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  I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.
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  There's a little more here. I'm going to give you a second, but just that's
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  enough to digest for a moment.
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  So when the Lord says, OK, let's do this again, Moses cooperates as the leader,
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  moves up the mountain, brings the stone tablets that he's chiseled out.
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  And then what the Lord says, I want you to know, Moses, about me.
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  Here's my name. And this is what I'm like.
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  I'm compassionate. I'm merciful. I'm slow to anger.
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  I'm unfailing in love. I lavish love.
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  And forgiveness on a people. So just for a moment, just to back up for a second,
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  then I'm going to be quiet and Bill, we can banter and talk about God for a moment.
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  Is that just what a king, you know, what a God that looks at us in our filth.
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  Because I'm telling you, you would think that here's, if God's going to manifest
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  himself, make his, if he's going to stand, you think God would,
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  might in that moment go, Moses, what's wrong with those people?
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  You know, like you would think that God might thunder in that moment going,
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  I'm so sick and tired of their wickedness.
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  I can't believe, Moses, that they would build a golden calf.
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  I want you to go back down there and I want you to tell them this.
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  But yet, when the Lord makes his presence known on that mountain to him,
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  he said, hey, Moses, just going to let you in on something. You need to know
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  this about me. I'm Yahweh.
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  I'm the God of compassion and mercy and forgiveness. I lavish it on this.
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  So when you go back down, they need to know that.
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  They need to know what I'm like. And I think so often we forget in light of
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  believing for revival, we forget what God's like.
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  Like he's got, he has unending in mercy, unending in love, unending in his,
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  even listen, his patience in these things, man, because he should have smoked them already.
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  But he's waiting. He doesn't desire any to perish or to fill.
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  Now, the second part of this, you got to, you can't skip, you can't cherry pick.
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  He goes on to say, but I do not excuse the guilty.
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  And I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren.
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  The entire family is affected, even children in the third and fourth generation.
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  So what he's saying is, hey, Moses, clarity here, clarity for those that rightly repent and return.
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  And I got I got lavish love and forgiveness for them.
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  I have mercy and compassion like they can't imagine.
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  But to those that remain in their in their in their trajectory,
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  that guilt remains on them because of a lack of repentance. It won't go unpunished.
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  It won't go unpunished it won't go unpunished it will move through them to their line and,
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  It will impact their family. So don't misunderstand. I am these things.
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  I am these things. But I'm also just.
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  I won't allow these things. Because what the truth is, they are choosing to walk into this pain.
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  And they're going to experience it. They're going to experience it in these things.
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  They got an issue. He longs for them to experience this. Real renewal always
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  starts with a reality of who God is.
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  Real renewal always starts with a right perspective of who God is.
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  Last thing, and I'll be quiet.
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  Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped,
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  and he said, O Lord, if this is true that I have found favor with you,
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  then please travel with us.
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  Yes, this is a stubborn and rebellious people, but please forget our iniquity.
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  I can't remember now, he was on the mountain with God when that happened,
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  but he's on behalf of a people. Our sins.
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  Claim us as your own special possession.
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  Wholehearted worship and repentance is always the right response to who God is.
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  Moses threw himself down before God. I just can't imagine what that moment was
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  like. He threw himself down before God.
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  He owned it on behalf of his people. He repented.
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  He worshiped in light of who God is. And God's going to respond.
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  He's going to give grace. And so, Bill, just I know that you're a historian.
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  Man, as it pertains to revival.
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  But isn't it so good just to back up and look at who he is?
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  What a story. I mean, what a moment this is.
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  And the thing is, these kind of moments are just repeated over and over again,
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  all through human history.
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  You know, Kyle, this last year, last few years, you know, I've been studying
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  the presence of God and the most remarkable thing that I've seen.
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  Is that the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation is this continuing story
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  of God pursuing his people to get them back into Eden, to bring them back into his presence.
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  And he and he just is because of his nature that he won't quit.
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  He just won't quit. And so, you know, we read this over and over again in the
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  Old Testament, which is just a picture of us walking away.
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  And then he keeps calling them back, walking away.
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  He calls them back and he forgives. Now, if they don't come back,
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  they suffer the consequences.
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  But it just shows the unbelievable.
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  And then when we don't deserve it at all, he says, now I'm going to come down
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  in human flesh and walk among you.
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  That's right. When I do my work of salvation and send to heaven,
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  I'm going to send my spirit to live inside of you.
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  And I'm going to heaven to prepare a place for you.
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  We don't get that about God. Yeah, that's right. And Satan,
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  his great attempt is to get us to doubt the character of God because he knows
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  if we do, we'll never trust him.
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  We'll never come. And we should read a story like this and ponder,
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  study, meditate, memorize the description.
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  You know, in verse 6 of Exodus 34, the Lord passed by.
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  I am the Lord God, compassionate, gracious, slow in anger, abounding in loving kindness.
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  And whenever the enemy says, well, this is like God.
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  No, no, that's not my God. And don't lie to me about my God.
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  This is who my God is. And this is who I trust. You know, what a beautiful human being.
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  Eugene Peterson, you know, he passed away several years ago.
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  His son, Leif, is a pastor, spoke at his funeral, and he walked up.
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  He startled the audience, and he said, he said, well, I'm here to tell y'all something.
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  My dad had you all fooled.
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  But he let it build and got quiet, and he said, the truth is he only really had one message.
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  He said, it's the same, I can cry right now. He said, it's the same message.
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  He whispered over me as a child he said the message is this is that God loves
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  you he's pursuing you and he's relentless wow he said my dad whispered that
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  over me as a child all throughout my,
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  adolescence teenage years to a grown man God loves you he's pursuing you and he's relentless,
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  wow and I thought So I think that's an incredible place.
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  Kyle. God loves you.
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  Yeah. He's pursuing you and he's relentless.
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  And he has do-overs. Man.
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  And you know what's crazy? He knew
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  you'd need those do-overs to pull the foundation of the world. All right.
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  And he has it in his plan. So, Kyle, I wonder for just a moment,
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  as we always do, if we could just thank the Lord. Would you lead us in that?
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  Let's just thank the Lord for the God that he is.
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  So, yeah, let's just enter in, as Bill's told us so many times,
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  into the Lord's presence. The Lord's inviting us.
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  The door's open through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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  And we come in and shut the door now and just gaze upon him to look into the
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  face of our father, Yahweh.
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  And let's just thank him that he is merciful, compassionate, slow to anger.
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  You're abounding in love.
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  We stop in this moment right now, and we thank you that we have never been the
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  hero and that you have always been, that you're the initiator,
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  the sustainer, the one that brings to completion, that you are God and that
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  you are perfect, perfect, perfect.
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  And we embrace today, man, like a hug from heaven.
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  We embrace the fact that you're pursuing us and that you're relentless.
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  And even when we think we're too far gone, we're one turn from seeing you face to face.
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  And so I pray for some courage for some that are listening today,
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  even in their brokenness, even in a rebellion, even on behalf of people. Think about Moses.
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  He's on behalf of people to turn and believe that there's a God that is rich
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  in love and mercy that will embrace us.
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  So we just say, thank you for being you.
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  Thank you for being who you are. And I pray you'd help us help the whole world know what you're like.
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  I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
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  Well, you know what's cool, Kyle?
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  I just think of these. I think we've taped over 200 podcasts now,
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  and each one is just unfolding a little bit more of the nature and character of our God.
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  And we want to say as co-hosts of this, what a privilege for us to do that.
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  And I mean, what better could we do with our time in our lives?
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  And what a privilege for you to listen and to join in with us.
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  And we hope it's a blessing to you.
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  And we pray that you'll pass it on to others.
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  Thank you for joining us. And we'll see you next week.
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  Music.