Sunday Service 7/9/23 (Afternoon)

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for his steadfast love endures forever. Please turn to hymn number two, hymn number two.
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You may remain seated as we sing this. God my
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King, Thy might confessing, ever will
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I bless Thy name. Day by day
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Thy throne addressing, still will
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I Thy praise proclaim. Honor great our
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God befitteth, who His majesty can reach.
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Age to age His works transmitteth.
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Age to age His power shall teach.
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They shall talk of all Thy glory, on Thy might and greatness dwell.
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Speak of Thy dread acts, the story, and Thy deeds of wonder tell.
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Nor shall fail from memory's treasure, works by love and mercy wrought.
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Works of love surpassing measure, works of mercy passing thought.
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Full of kindness and compassion, slow to anger, last in love.
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God is good to all creation, all
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His works His goodness prove. All Thy works,
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O Lord, shall bless Thee. Thee shall all
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Thy saints adore. King supreme shall they confess
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Thee and proclaim Thy sovereign power.
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Amen. Amen. Please turn your
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Bible to Isaiah 32. When you have
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Isaiah 32, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
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Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
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Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
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The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
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The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable, for the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the
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Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
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As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
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But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.
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Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you this afternoon for your
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Word. We thank you for the great promises of the gospel that are present in this passage, and we ask that you would give us hearts that would be eagerly receptive of all your truth.
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In Jesus' name, amen. So something that has come up previously in Isaiah a few times is this idea of the deaf hearing and the blind seeing.
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And this is an important theme in Isaiah, because if you remember, in the commissioning chapter of Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, which really starts off the book, that's where Isaiah receives his commission as a prophet, talks about how he is to preach so that people cease seeing and they cease hearing.
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So each promise that talks about people seeing again and people hearing again is speaking of an end to the era that Isaiah is ushering in.
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So he's speaking of something beyond his own era, something that will happen, where God will bless the people with true repentance.
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It is said in Isaiah 29, verse 18, In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
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And then, in the last verse of that chapter, And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.
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All these things are promises of the gospel. The gospel opens eyes, it opens ears, it gives people understanding, understanding of who
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God is, of who they are, this world around them. And this is all ushered in, in Isaiah 32, through the king.
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The king who reigns in righteousness, with princes ruling in justice. And who is that king?
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That king has come up many times in Isaiah, this branch that comes from Jesse. It is
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Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is that king. He is the one who opens eyes, as demonstrated by his miracles, as demonstrated by his miracles of opening ears, of loosing tongues, all these things, demonstrating that he is the king that Isaiah spoke of.
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He is the king that comes and makes people able to understand the truth. People who are wrapped up in lies, set free by truth.
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So it begins here in verse 3, saying, Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
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This is the natural state of man. The natural state of man is to have eyes that he can see physically through, and ears he can hear physically through, but to not understand spiritual truths.
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Because we are born dead in our sins, the truth of God is not evident to us as it should be.
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Instead, though we know that there is a God, as Romans 1 explains, we suppress that truth in our unrighteousness.
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What is true and what is evident, we suppress because we, in our natural state, because of sin, hate the truth.
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We do not honor God as God, but rather honor what is false.
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And we dishonor what is true. We dishonor the Lord. And so this is the case of ourselves in our natural state.
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Even the first conscious thoughts that a child has in a womb, are they thoughts that recognize the
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Lord and honor Him, though He is made in the image of God, though that child is made in a way that he should be able to honor
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God as God, because of sin, even then they reject
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God. And as they grow older and they're able to hear and observe the world around them, this world that Psalm 19 says speaks the glory of God, the heavens declaring
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His handiwork, do they recognize these things as being the works of God? There are some who see these things and recognize that there is some higher power, but they do not honor
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God as God. They do not honor Him as they ought. And so while there might be some level of recognition, it is not a sufficient level of recognition.
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And even those who hear the Word of God, so not just this truth that is evident within ourselves and this truth that is evident within nature, but even this truth that is spoken explicitly in the
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Word of God. What is man's typical response to the Word of God? Apart from some special move of the
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Holy Spirit, it is to reject that. This is man's depravity. Man is, because of sin, totally depraved.
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He is unable to receive the truth because he is spiritually blind. He is spiritually deaf.
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And this is the way that Jesus speaks of those people at His time. But Jesus, through His Word, through preaching the
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Gospel, through the work of the Spirit, in some opened their eyes and opened their ears that they would understand the truth, that they would know what is right.
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And He illustrated this by the physical miracles of opening eyes and opening ears.
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These were not the ultimate miracles. They were just illustrations of the greater work that He was doing.
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As we look across our world and we see that the miracles of opening ears and opening eyes, while modern science can do this in some sense, these miracles aren't typically done.
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It is not typically the case that one who is deaf becomes not deaf, that one who is blind becomes not blind.
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Why is it that such things cease? Has the power of God ceased in our world? No, the greater power that Christ was displaying in those works, the greater power of opening spiritual ears and opening spiritual eyes, that continues to this day and it continues in an even greater magnitude than it did at that time.
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Because His Word is proclaimed by more and the Holy Spirit has been poured out in fullness since the days of Pentecost so that we have that work in an even greater measure.
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A lot of people do not think that they are so blind.
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They think that, well, what the spiritual deafness and the spiritual blindness is talking about is a relative one.
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It's like the man who is legally blind. You know, he can see. He can get around.
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And it's just a little harder for him. No, the natural state of man is to fully reject
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God until God opens his eyes, until God opens his ears.
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And then, moreover, because of man's continual sin, God even adds additional hardness, so it's even more difficult for man to recognize the truth.
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That's what it describes in Isaiah 6. In Isaiah 6, because the people had rejected the Lord for so long,
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Isaiah was to tell the people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.
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Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.
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This is the greatness of the spiritual blindness that exists in our world. It is a deep and a wicked thing, but God has given his spirit by which that may be corrected, by which eyes may be opened, by which ears can hear.
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It continues on in verse, in this next verse. The heart of the hasty will understand and know.
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The tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. Now let me tell you that if it is the spirit that leads people to hear, to see, to understand, we need to be relying on the spirit.
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We need to rely on the spirit in prayer. We need to rely on the spirit for our own selves. We go to God's word, and we want him, we want to understand what is said there.
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We need to recognize that even as believers, there is a lingering corruption, there is a lingering blindness, and that we should be praying to the
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Holy Spirit, that he open our eyes, that we may be able to receive his word completely.
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We should be praying that for ourselves. We should also be praying that for others, for others in the church. We should pray that others in the church would understand
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God's word, that they would have eyes that completely see without inhibition. And, of course, you should be praying for those who do not believe, for those who have their eyes not opened at all, who cannot see a thing.
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You must pray for them. And the attitude of the one who recognizes truth is one who is at much more peace than the one who does not.
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Because if you don't recognize this truth, and you think that it is up to you to open eyes or to open ears, it can lead to much frustration.
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Much frustration and anger is you don't understand why your family doesn't believe, you don't understand why your friends don't believe, you don't understand why you aren't able to persuade them.
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You might spend lots of time trying to study better argumentation, and there's nothing wrong with learning how to speak persuasively about the truth of God.
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But at the end of the day, if it is the Holy Spirit and you recognize that, then there is no reason to carry that in anxiety.
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Rather, you can speak the truth freely knowing that it is God's choice whether or not
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He will choose to open someone's eyes. This is a great burden being lifted.
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And as you pray, remember the words of Jesus. After He gave the
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Lord's Prayer in Luke, He says, If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
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Heavenly Father give what to those who ask Him? The Holy Spirit to those who ask
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Him. This is the primary thing that we are to be praying for. We are to be praying for more and more of the
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Spirit that we might understand the truth of God. The heart of the hasty will understand and know.
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Mankind does not naturally understand the gospel. They may understand the propositions, be able to explain the truth of what
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Christians believe, maybe even better than some Christians do. But that does not mean it is truly understood.
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Nothing, in fact, is truly understood apart from knowing it in relation to God. Did you know that in order to know something truly, you must know it not just as it is divorced from God, but as it is in relation to its
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Creator? For example, let me give you an example. If I told you that I understand multiplication, and what
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I meant by that is I can go on my phone and use the calculator app and I can say 2 x 5 is 10 and tell you what 2 x 5 is, but I didn't actually understand that 2 x 5 is 2 added 5 times or 5 added 2 times.
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Do I really understand multiplication? No, I have no idea what multiplication is, even if I have some functioning knowledge of it where I can fake it.
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This is the understanding of the one who knows the things in the world, but not truly because they have rejected the
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God who has created the world. They do not know these things as being created by the Creator. They do not understand themselves as being under the
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Lordship of Christ. If they do not understand these things, they do not understand them truly. And apart from understanding it truly, do they understand it at all?
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It is only through that King who reigns in righteousness that one can understand it. It's only when they are led by Him that they can understand things truly.
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1 Corinthians 2 .14 says, This natural person does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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A spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the
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Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. In that passage, who is the mind of Christ?
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It is the Spirit of God who is the mind of Christ. The one who is led by this King has the
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Spirit of God so that they can understand things truly. Not just understand them in this superficial manner, but understanding them truly, knowing them in relation to their
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Creator. Now, I'll have you know that what
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I am describing here is somewhat controversial. The idea that people cannot truly know things apart from acknowledging
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God. There are many who would reject that because it sounds silly to say that someone can't understand anything without knowing the
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Lord. But if you understood that analogy I gave, without understanding the source of something, without understanding its importance, without understanding that One who gives meaning to all things, if you know something without the meaning behind it, do you really know it?
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You cannot be said to truly know anything apart from knowing the Lord. You know, it speaks of this
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One who does not know prior to understanding. It speaks of them as hasty.
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Now, what is the hasty person? The hasty person is one who is quick to discern something. They're quick to discern good as evil.
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They're quick to discern evil as good. We must not be the hasty. This person, denominated by his former weakness, is called the hasty, but now he understands.
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If you have had your eyes opened in Christ, do not be hasty. Meditate upon the
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Word of God. You know what that means to meditate? It's to spend time. It's the opposite of hastiness.
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It's to really spend time on God's Word, and not just on the Word itself, but even thinking about the things that it has said.
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If the Word tells us about the goodness and greatness of God, that is something to contemplate deeply throughout your day, to really meditate upon that truth.
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Think about what the implications are for your life, for this church community, for how you pray to Him.
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We ought to not be hasty, but as the Spirit has given us understanding, to leave hastiness behind and truly meditate upon the
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Word of the Lord. I don't know what your Bible reading looks like.
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I don't know if you just read it and set it aside. That would not be meditating. There's another practice pretty commonly called
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Lectio Divina, where people read the
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Bible and then they meditate, and there are ways that would be doing this appropriately and ways that are a little more mindless in the form of meditation, where you're kind of mystically hoping that God communicates something to you.
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That is not real meditating upon the Word of God. A real meditation upon the
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Word of God is full of deep contemplations about that Word, rather than a mindlessness that's waiting for God to hand you something.
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Now, we should wait upon the Lord, but I hope you understand what I'm saying there. I'm talking about a kind of mindlessness where you're expecting some sort of mystical communication from the
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Lord. He has given you His Word. Meditate upon it. It says that the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
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The tongue of stammerers, once again, speaking of the people of God as denominated by their former disability.
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This is the nature of man once again. The natural state of man is to be a stammerer, and not understanding truth, to speak what is foolish, to speak not plainly.
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Now, there are many people in the world who speak very smoothly when they're able to string words together.
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They have far less ums in their vocabulary than I do. I'm always very impressed by speakers who just speak well.
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I give a lot of my time to public speaking, obviously, but I'm not the best speaker.
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There are a lot of people who speak very well. How can the Bible speak of them as stammerers?
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If you do not have a foundation for any of the things that you are saying, you are a stammerer.
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You do not speak distinctly. This is the same with the knowledge. The one who claims truth, but does not have a foundation for truth, the
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God who created all things, how can they make the claims that they are making? The one who says that something is right versus wrong, yet does not know the
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God who determines what is right and wrong by his own character, how can they make such claims that things are right and wrong?
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This is true of all forms of unbelief, but most especially of atheism. I point this out because it's a common thing in our world, atheism.
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The one who says that something is wrong, but does not believe in a
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God who could make something absolutely wrong or absolutely right, what does wrong even mean?
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It just means that a lot of people don't like it, or I don't like it. What does that even mean? It's a nonsensical statement.
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For someone to even claim truth is basically saying it is right to believe this thing.
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They're making a moral claim once again, and it all falls apart. It is just someone stammering, but the one who knows their maker is able to speak distinctly.
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They're able to have truth that has a foundation and speak true things with a foundation.
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They are able to say clearly who they serve, the Lord Jesus Christ, and for that to be something that's not founded on a bucket of lies like the beliefs of the world, but something that is founded on truth.
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Now, you should understand that speaking distinctly is something that, once again, there is room to grow.
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Though the one who has the gospel, though the one who has the Holy Spirit, is capable of speaking distinctly, there is room to grow even for the believer.
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Look at Peter, and look at how he confessed Jesus Christ to be the
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Son of the living God. Jesus recognized this did not come from flesh, but rather it came from his father that he was able to say this thing.
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But yet, Peter, did he not stammer quite a bit throughout the rest of his life?
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Did he not very eagerly say that he would follow the Lord into anything and then very just as quickly deny him?
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Did he not very quickly chop off the servant's ear? We, like Peter, should understand that even though God has opened our eyes through the gospel, through his
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Spirit, there is room for growth and that we should continue to grow in this as we serve him.
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Hebrews 5 .12 says that not many of you, or excuse me, many of you should be teachers by now.
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For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.
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You need milk, not solid food. You know, I think that's true in almost every church setting that many of the people who are there, they ought to be a much clearer speaker than they currently are.
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And I'm not talking about the, you know, your elocution or anything like that.
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I mean that they should have a greater grasp of the truth, one that they are able to impart that knowledge to others more readily.
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They have more of the Word of God ready on their lips. This is the case even in the book of Hebrews.
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It says that Christians, those who already know the Lord, should grow in their ability to speak God's truth to others.
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Consider your own life. Ask yourself, how long have you been in faith? Who are you capable of teaching?
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At what level do you think you would be capable of teaching someone? Could you teach an unbeliever the gospel?
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Could you teach another young believer the gospel? How would you be capable of teaching those who are more mature?
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You know, there is room to grow. There is room to speak even more distinctly.
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And this can all be had through the gospel, as it says in that passage in Hebrews, says that we should go on to maturity.
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Not laying again a foundation. But rather, through meditating on Christ, that's essentially what it ends up saying, is through considering everything in light of Christ, we can grow in our maturity and our ability to teach others.
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And so, it's a good challenge for yourself to ask, who would I be able to teach?
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How is the Spirit working in me so that I can not only know the truth, but communicate it well to others? Because the one who understands should also be the one who is capable of speaking distinctly.
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Now, all these senses, you know, it talks about the eyes, the ears, the heart, the tongue, all these organs that it's using as spiritual metaphors, all these describe our experience of God, right?
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Our understanding of Him. How do you experience the Lord? You experience Him through hearing
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His word, through seeing Christ, through recognizing in your heart the truth, and then sharing that truth with others.
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These things are most precious. They are most precious. Jesus said, in some of His parables,
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He described the kingdom of heaven in such a way that people would sell everything they have in order to seek it.
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It was the man who realized there was a treasure in a field and was willing to sell everything he had in order to buy that field.
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Someone who was willing to, who traded in pearls and sold everything that they had so they could receive the best pearl.
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This is the attitude we should have toward having clear spiritual senses.
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This is certainly the case for the one who does not believe. If they recognize this, if you do not know the
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Lord, you should run to Christ, ask for His Spirit, so that you might be able to experience God.
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And if you already do know the Lord, if you've already had your eyes open, you should be pursuing clarity through the gospel that you might know
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Him even better. What is the great reward of the Christian life? On that last day, when we are raised again, we will see
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Christ. There will be what is known as the beatific vision, the blessed vision of God in Jesus Christ.
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And so, as we see Him, that is not something that just comes naturally, that everyone experiences the same.
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You know, Hebrews 12, 14 says that we must grow in holiness in order that we might see
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God. There is a pursuit of holiness that allows us to see God more clearly.
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You can experience Him in this life more clearly as you're able to see and hear and know
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Him. And on that last day, we can know Him even more clearly, but it is something that must be pursued.
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Something that must be pursued, but it is something that is being amply supplied to us, and we have received everything we need in His Spirit.
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So if this is the case, if this is the great reward of the Christian life, then I would encourage you, not only if you do not know
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Him, to repent and to seek Him so that His Spirit would open your eyes, but even if you do already know
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Him, to seek that Spirit, to ask for the Spirit, as Christ said at the end of the Lord's Prayer, God will give
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Him an ample measure that you might see even more clearly, that you might know even clearer, that you might speak this truth to others with clarity.
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Let's pray. Dear Holy Father, we thank
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You for Your Word. We thank You for opening ears and eyes and doing this wonderful miracle. We ask that we would know, that we would know
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You more fully, and that You, by Your Spirit, would accomplish this work in us.
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In Jesus' name, amen. All right, please turn to hymn number 400.
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Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing
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Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
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Call for songs of loudest praise.
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Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above.
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Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it,
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Mount of God's unchanging love. Here I raise my
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Ebenezer, Hither by Thy help
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I'm come, And I hope by Thy good pleasure,
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Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger
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Wandering from the fold of God.
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He, to rescue me from danger,
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Enterposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
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Daily I'm constrained to be.
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Let that grace now, like a fetter,
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Bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander,
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Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the
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God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it,
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Seal it for Thy courts above.
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Amen. Well, as we go to Lord and prayer, let's begin with a prayer of confession, particularly confessing spiritual senselessness and asking
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Him to do what only He can do. What we cannot produce in ourselves, but what He produces by His Spirit. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You today as a people who are most thankful for what
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You have done in the Gospel, but we also come to You today as a people of a history of sin.
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We're born children of wrath, born those who did not have eyes to be able to see or ears to be able to understand.
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But God, we thank You for providing Your Spirit by which we might hear and see and understand and know and even speak distinctly.
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God, I pray that You would further enable us to hear and to know
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You, that You would work through Your Word and through Your Spirit in us, that we might understand even more clearly, that we might experience these joys even further.
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We thank You for accepting us despite our weakness and our failings. We thank
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You for giving us a clear understanding of who You are despite these things, and we ask for even more.
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We ask for even more of that which produces so much joy in us. Lord, please forgive us for our sin and increase this assurance we have of the wonderful pardon that exists in Jesus Christ, the great
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King of righteousness who has led us into this world of sight and sound.
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In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's go ahead and get into small groups and begin with this prayer.
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All right, as we go to the Lord in prayer for the needs of individuals and families, let us pray in particular, the
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Lord would give them understanding and knowledge. Pastor Brian will lead us in this prayer. Good and gracious God, we come before You in the name that is above every name, even the name of Jesus Christ, our beloved
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Savior, and we petition, Father, for the needs of individuals and families in our midst.
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We thank You, Lord, for all those who, by various trials and different ways, have made an effort to come and be here this morning and this afternoon.
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Lord, I'm reminded of Scripture that says that all of our efforts are not overlooked in all the times that we've ministered to Your name and ministered to the saints that we would continue on ministering.
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I pray, Father, for those who are in need of looking for housing. Pray, God, that here, specifically in the
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Bay Area, Lord, as housing continues to increase in cost, Lord, that You would help families and individuals that are looking for housing to,
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Lord, to find the appropriate housing at the appropriate time that would coincide in Your sovereign will and also,
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Lord, be a blessing to those who are seeking it. Father, we pray also that You would be with those in our midst who are sick with different ailments and difficulties.
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Father, we know, as we learned earlier today, that just being in proximity to Jesus can bring forth healing,
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Lord. Lord, we petition it, not in the way in which we demand it, Lord, but if it be Thy goodwill and grace,
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Lord, towards Your people, that You would offer a sanctification, also, Lord, healing in Jesus' name to those who are sick with various degrees of difficulty here,
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Lord. Father, I also ask that You would be with my kids and family as they travel the
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South and spend time with family, Lord, and Lord, that You would keep them safe as well, Lord, and keep them in Your sovereign care.
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Father, help us all to continue to minister to one another in love and faithfulness, that we would continue to grow in our understanding and knowledge of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, as You have instructed us to do, and that even as we pray and gather this afternoon, that we would leave this place with more understanding, more knowledge, more discernment, and more peace, love, and grace than when we entered, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.
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Before we pray for the ministries of our own church, let me go ahead and read a prayer letter from, this is
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Gateway Church in Livermore, not too far from us. First, the praise is, we continue to enjoy peace and unity in our congregation.
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God has blessed us with a real sweetness. We are very grateful for the oasis of fellowship.
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Second praise, we continue to grow in number by the grace of God. Regular new faces pop in and some remain with us.
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Most come from larger, less theologically defined fellowships and are excited by our high view of the scripture.
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This leads to our main prayer request. Having grown in size and with a large uptick of children, the
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Sunday school needs have also increased and we need more hands on deck.
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Our current members are a bit stretched here. We need more to come alongside to continue providing a full teaching diet.
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There are a number of good and godly potentials, but most have been slow to respond to our encouragements to formalize their ties to Gateway Church and membership, despite my and my co -elders' numerous efforts, pleadings, and teaching.
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Would you pray that they would come around and more fully engage with us? We appreciate it. On another note, huge praise, we have recently begun supporting a very fine family who minister in the
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Middle East. Their support is still a bit light and they could use a bit more. If you are looking for a new opportunity to invest and come alongside a very worthwhile and fruitful effort, feel free to reach out to me, etc.
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All right. It says he is thankful for our fellowship and the Fellowship of Independent Reformed Evangelicals.
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All right. Let's pray for Pastor Mike Kelly as well as our own church, and let's pray for our own church that we would hasten to speak the gospel distinctly.
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And I think that one thing we could pray in particular for is those who are going to be going through the
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ACBC training, that that would be fruitful. Pastor Josh will lead us in prayer for this.
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Let's pray. Great Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for bringing us together in fellowship as a body here, and we thank you for fellowship with like -minded churches.
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We do pray for Gateway Church, Father, that you would grant them their prayer requests, that this family going to the
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Middle East would attain all the support that not only they need, but they would glorify you the most.
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But we do pray for success for them in the Middle East as they proclaim your gospel in a dark land there.
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We do pray for the leadership there to be able to motivate people to put their shoulder to the plow in the way that's needed, particularly in the
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Sunday school, that your word would go forth, that your word would be proclaimed there, even as we strive to do here at Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church.
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And finally, Father, we join them in prayer, thanking you for the unity that they've enjoyed, thanking you for the visitors that they have had, and pray that more would come and stay because of Jesus Christ who is proclaimed there.
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And, Father, as we proclaim Jesus Christ in this place, we thank you that you have changed our stammering lips to clear proclamation of Jesus Christ.
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And we pray that all that we do, whether it be in the food pantry or in the biblical counseling or the
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Areopagus Forum or the door -to -door evangelism, that we would speak clearly of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, that we would speak of his resurrection, we would speak of his death and his burial, we would speak of his sacrifice for sin.
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So, Father, thank you for giving us such clarity, and we pray that we would boldly avail ourselves of it.
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And as Pastor Owens has told us, let us pray for those who have entered into the
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ACBC training, Father, that the extra training, that the reading, that the skills that are attained,
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Father, would be used to your glory and to the good of sinners who come to us. For those who come for just clarity and how to handle their problems, we would all look to your
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Word, and we use that training to look to the Scripture and always find there your good answers.
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Father, if we know that your Scripture is complete and full and has all that we need for everything that we face.
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So all these things, Father, we lift up to you. We pray for the ministry of this and all like -minded churches, that Jesus Christ would be lifted up and glorified in all that we do.
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We ask in his name, amen. All right, and as we last go to the
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Lord in prayer for both our rulers and for the nations, let us pray that the
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Lord would open their eyes and ears. If you have any,
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Father, this afternoon we lift up to you the nation, Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia.
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God, please bless this nation with over 80 % Muslim population. We thank you,
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God, for the over 5 % of evangelical Christian population in this nation. We thank you,
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God, for making this country relatively tolerant of Christians and their coexistence with Muslims and also
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Hindus and Buddhists as well. And we pray, God, that you would especially help the province of Bali in Indonesia, increase the numbers of Christians there and protect
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Christians from the soft persecution that we find there, and help your church also in the
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Kalimantan area to reach those that are in darkness currently. Please send missionaries to the southern and eastern coast of this province and up the rivers there to many people who have not even heard the good news of our
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless all those in the center of the country that are of the Dayak people group.
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Lord, and please assist your church in reaching a complex cluster of people groups that a very different group of groups of native languages and disparate cultures and isolation that present very challenges to the word of God reaching in those areas, as you know,
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Lord. And help your people and your church to overcome all these obstacles in this region,
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God, and help them, help, don't let your chosen ones among them, among the lost masses to languish in unbelief and in darkness.
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Lord, we lift up the church that is in Jakarta, the Indonesia Reform Evangelical Church.
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Help this Jakarta congregation to love and support its members and also the members of the communities, neighbors around them to glorify you,
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Lord. Touch every heart, neighbor, co -worker in this area, every friend and family member with the gospel of your son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Help this Indonesia Reform Evangelical Church and its various ministries to raise up new leaders, support those who, by your spirit,
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Lord, are moving into full -time or part -time ministry. Help them to find an increase in the number of male
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Sunday school teachers as they need more for this effective Sunday school ministry.
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Lord, we lift up and pray for the Indonesia Reform Evangelical Church in the areas of teaching, the historical church, confessions that honor and glorify you.
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Help every student of these doctrinal studies to be blessed by them so that their faith and their evangelical work in the area can be strengthened.
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Help many Indonesians learn about you, Lord, by your word and by the faithful preaching of that word unto the salvation of their souls.
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And closer to home, God, we lift up the county government of Santa Clara County. We lift it up to you to this area that you've placed us in, the county.
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Please bless, with true saving faith, the people who serve in this government, the government of this county.
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Bless also the work that they do in the county to make residents safe and active in their personal and professional lives.
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Bless especially the leaders of the county government, such as Supervisor Cindy Chavez, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, as well as County Sheriff Robert Johnson.
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Lord, we just ask that you would bless all these employees with success in their work as they endeavor in many fields to serve the people of this county.
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Bless the work of Elections Management, Parks, Schools, Adult Protective Services, Agriculture, Roads, Airports, Legal Services, Animal Control, Taxes, County Assessor, Emergency Medicine, Building Inspection, Code Enforcement, and many other areas.
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God, Lord, bless the 22 ,000 employees of Santa Clara County with salvation, which is through the God -given faith in our
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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bring many faithful friends, family members, co -workers to their side to preach your life -giving message to them.
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Shine your Holy Spirit light into their hearts. Have mercy on them. Save their souls. In Jesus' name. Let's stand and close with the doxology.
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Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
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Praise Him, all creatures, here below.
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Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts.
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Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the