Be Ready to Proclaim 2 Timothy 4:1-8

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Good morning and welcome. I'm glad to see all you made it here. If anyone had any idea, or didn't have any idea,
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I was out in the sun all day yesterday, if you can tell. But title,
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Be Ready to Preach. Not all of us are called to be preachers, but we are all called to preach the good news.
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If we are a Christian, if we are a believer, we are called to preach the good news. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 10, 22, where he says,
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All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Jesus knows that if we truly preach his word, his gospel message, we will be hated for it, and we are called to do it.
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And so, being ready to preach. I am convinced, even before the events of yesterday, anyone who's known me knows
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I've been convinced for years, time is short. We are coming to the nearing of the tribulation.
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I've been sharing this with anyone and everyone. And I feel like the word needs to be preached more than ever before.
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Each and every day that we are alive, it needs to be preached. People have no problem preaching throughout.
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Are we preaching the word? We listen to people preach to us, but how much are we preaching the word? I just had a conversation not that long ago at the
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JL2 Justice Center, when a guy who came in for a study was on his way out.
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And I was talking with him. I had just shared a scripture passage with him. I was talking with him, and we were talking about how it seemed things were nearing.
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And we were talking about people who are prepping. There's lots of people, maybe you are one. I'm not saying prepping is not a bad thing, and we should be prepping.
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But he made a point, and he said, more than prepping, we need to be sharing the word of God.
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That is the only thing that's truly going to make a difference for what's to come. Be ready to preach the word.
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And as I was a few years ago, back in 2015, when I was firmly believing the
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Lord was placing in my heart the urgency to preach the urgent message of his return,
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I remember I firmly believed this, and I was truly about witnessing anytime and anywhere.
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And I feel like sometimes it's kind of faded off. But back then, there was this time I was going to be flying out to the airport.
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At the airport, I was flying out to meet the family on a vacation trip. And I had devotions right there in the airport, waiting to get on the plane.
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And as I was done praying and having my devotions, I said, Lord, you know I would like to sleep on this plane flight, but I'm willing to share with whoever you place beside me.
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If I have nobody beside me, I know I can sleep. If you place somebody next to me, I know I'm to share.
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And as I got on the plane, it wasn't a full plane at all. It wasn't a full plane at all.
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But as it was coming all the way towards the end, the plane was basically, everyone was on the plane as far as I knew, and there was only a couple people coming left.
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And there were open seats all around. And wouldn't you know it, those two people ended up sitting right next to me.
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So I shared with them. I shared with them what the Lord was laying on my heart about the importance and urgency.
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That young man who was sitting next to me said over and over again, he said, I so much needed to hear this.
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I needed to hear this. And he went on to say, too, he goes, how can you share like this? He was just amazed at how
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I was able to share, and I was able to share with him. These aren't my words. These are the Lord laying this on me. And he was a young fellow whose dad was a pastor, and he was following away, following away from what his dad was about and preaching.
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And God had placed him there for that opportunity. Are we realizing he does want us to be preachers, preaching the word?
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I had a cousin, too, that's an older cousin that's been pastoring for quite some time.
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He always said, he goes, all of us, even though we're not called to be preachers, we are called to preach.
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If we're born -again Bible -believing Christians, we are called to preach through words and actions.
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So our belief in the word impacts the word we preach. Another thing, too, while preparing this sermon,
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I remember I used to love watching sports. I still do. But back in 2018 there was a commercial for the
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NFL playoffs. Some of you maybe remember this that are sports fans. It had high school players in a gym, and they started chanting,
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We ready, we ready, we ready for y 'all.
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I don't know if any of you guys remember that. It was a big thing, right? And it hit me. It's like, and it pumped them up, and it fired them up.
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And, I mean, it made huge things. That was a video clip that was done in 2016, and it made, the NFL got a hold of it and used it for a big pump -up for the playoffs.
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And so the question is, are we ready for everyone, for y 'all?
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Are we ready to preach the word? 2 Timothy 4, 1 through 8 says this,
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I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
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Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
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As for you, always be sober -minded. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist.
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Fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
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Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.
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So here's the big idea.
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Big idea. Our belief in the word impacts the word we preach.
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Number one, realize that the world's truth opposes God's truth.
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We are in a time where we need to know what the truth is and realize the truth.
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So as we're being ready here with this here, Paul, in the first and second
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Timothy, Paul was in chains, right? The first time he was in prison, and then he got released.
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And this time, as he's writing this one here, he was locked up in chains. He was towards the end.
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And any idea why he was locked in chains? For preaching the word.
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He was locked because he was preaching the word. And he's writing this letter to Timothy. Again, this is for Timothy as being a preacher.
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And even though this is for Timothy for being a preacher, we can take it all for us as far as how we are to do the same thing.
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He says in here, he says, Jesus, who is to judge. There were three judgments in verses four, one through two, where it says here,
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I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.
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Be ready in season and out of season to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.
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When he says, Jesus, who is to judge, and there's three judgments here that Jesus is involved in.
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Jesus is going to judge believers, all of those who believe in him and have given our lives to him. He's going to judge us.
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And that's going to take place after the rapture. There's nations, goats, that are going to be the nation and goat judgment, where he separates them, saying the sheep will go on my right, the goats will go on my left.
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And that will be for the millennial reign. And then there is the great right throne judgment, where everyone who, the dead will be raised up, and everyone whose name is not written in the
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Lamb's book of life will be judged there and then thrown into the lake of fire. So there's three judgments that take place.
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So Paul, as he's preaching this, he's giving the warning very clearly. Be ready.
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Judgment. Know where your judgment's coming from. I find it interesting, in the world today, a lot of pastors, a lot of churches, they like to preach about love.
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Do they not? What did we just have last month? It's all focused on love, love, love. But how much are these same preachers in churches talking about the warning signs of what's in store for us that Jesus is going to judge us?
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Are we preaching this word? Are we living in that acknowledgment that Jesus, yes, He loves us, but at the same time, there's going to be judgment?
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The world is full of people ready to preach, ready in season and out of season, to reprove, rebuke, and exhort.
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But they do it in the presence of the world, not the Word, Jesus Christ.
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The world seems to tell us not to judge unless we judge in line with what the mainstream news narrative has on how to judge.
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As I was preparing this, I was remembering three big storylines over the years from 2012, 2014, and 2020 that the mainstream media had a complete narrative they wanted us to believe and listen to.
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The first one, in 2012, was with a young man named Trayvon Martin. I'm sure some of you guys remember that storyline, where he was a teenager.
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He was 17 at the time. He was walking around in a hoodie, and he was doing suspicious activity with where he was at and what he was doing.
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And there was a guy who was part of the community watch patrol that was keeping tabs on this guy, and he confronted this guy.
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This guy turned on him and was beating him up, and in self -defense, he shot him and killed him.
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The news media tried to make it out like George Zimmerman. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn't, but they tried to make it out like he was the culprit.
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He was a rogue person looking for trouble. And they also tried to make
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Trayvon Martin, of course, look very much younger in all the photos, if you remember, than what he actually was.
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And another thing, too, that they pushed from that was, in the NBA particularly, they all wore hoodies. And I remember even
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Barack Obama saying, my son could be wearing a hoodie. They made it sound like this guy was judged because he was a black man wearing a hoodie, not because of his activity of what he was doing.
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The world news media wanted us to believe that George Zimmerman was guilty of murder instead of self -defense.
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But it was proven the exact opposite when it went to court and it came through. Another one was 2014 in St.
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Louis, a man by the name of Michael Brown. I don't know how many of you remember that, too. This was an 18 -year -old kid.
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He was 6 '4", pushing 300 pounds. Big kid. Big guy. He had just robbed a convenience store.
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And he was with another guy that was older. And they were confronted with a couple police officers.
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And this is where it got conflicting. The one police officer had his version, but this guy that was with Michael Brown had another version.
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He tried to say that the police officer reached through the car, held this Michael Brown guy and threatened him and everything else, and they went away.
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And then they confronted him later on. And then the confrontation ended up being that basically the police officer shot
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Michael Brown in the back when he had his hands up. And if you remember, the NBA also had hands up, don't shoot.
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But the narrative was proven over and over again that that was a lie.
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The people who investigated and everything else, he was not shot in the back. This man, according to the police officer, charged him.
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Could you imagine a 6 '4", 300 -plus -pound guy charging you? And this guy wasn't a small guy either.
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He was like 6 '4", 215. So he wasn't a small guy. But he was supposedly used unlawful force with this guy charging him and coming down on him.
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And what is he to do? What would we do if we were trained in that situation? This guy was not obeying the commands of the authority.
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He was purposely doing his own thing. And this news media and everyone else bit into and believed
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Michael Brown's accomplice over the police, even though the results proved otherwise.
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2020, as we all know, George Floyd. I won't go into too much on that. But the media and the world has made him out to be a hero.
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He has statues. He has icons. All three of these men, the news media wants us to think they were innocent men who were doing nothing wrong.
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What does God's Word tell us? Romans 3 .10 says there is no one righteous.
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No, not one. Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6 .23,
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for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The news and its narrative and its media tries to make like these people are not deserving of what they got.
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An exact opposite. They were innocent, right? God's Word gives us a completely different message.
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We are all guilty. None of us are innocent. Are we living in the fear of the
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Lord and his Word or are we living in the fear of the Word, world? The world basically today has five truths and I think all five of these truths is why the world preaches what it preaches as far as these narratives go.
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The world tells us, follow your heart. Jesus says in Matthew 8 .34,
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anyone who follows after me must deny himself and pick up his cross daily. Number two, the world tells us, be true to yourself.
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And again, Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself. Three, believe in yourself.
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Jesus says, believe in me. He even tells us anyone who does not believe in me is condemned.
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Number four, live your truth. Jesus says,
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I am the truth, the way, the truth, and the life in John 14 .6. And number five, as long as you are happy,
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Jesus says, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul?
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As I was also doing this, I remember coming across real recently a story by Michael Cassidy, a former congressional and legislative candidate from Mississippi.
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In a sense, you could say he did all these things. He followed his heart. He was true to himself. He believed in himself, and he lived his truth, and he was doing what he knew would make him happy, right?
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But yeah, he was condemned to it. This is what he did. In December 15, 2023, he tore down a satanic statue that was in the
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Iowa capital. He knew there was cameras there. He didn't try to hide it. He went right in there, tore off the head, took down all the stuff, and threw it away in the garbage, and then reported himself in for it, right?
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The world wants to condemn him for that. They tried to try him for a hate crime.
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Can you imagine that? We're in a time where people who destroy a satanic statue are being charged for a hate crime.
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And this is what he had to say. He said, My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic degree, and so I acted.
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It offended me. It touched a nerve. It was righteous indignation.
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I call it Christian civil disobedience. It was there and is no longer there.
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Is our heart more in line with the world's truth or God's truth through his word? Jeremiah 17, 9 through 10, we're told,
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The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?
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I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.
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We need a Savior, and we are not it. Again, number one, realize that the world's truth opposes
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God's truth. Number two, understand that the world's message will pull us away from God's message.
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Understand that the world's message will pull us away from God's message.
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Verses three through four say, For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
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Do I really have to ask if we're there? Does anybody not see it?
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But it's crazy. People do. And people in the church do not see it. A lot of churches.
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Oprah Winfrey, I'm going to call her out. She is someone who's been considered very loving, right?
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Everyone loves Oprah Winfrey. Her shows, her talk show, how she treats everyone, how she shares with them and lets them express their views and everything else.
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Oprah Winfrey is not one to listen to or follow after. Oprah Winfrey preaches
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Christ Consciousness. I don't know how many of you have heard of that term, Christ Consciousness.
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She basically says, Jesus did not come for the sole purpose to die on the cross for our sins.
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He came to show himself and reveal himself to us so we too can realize the truth, the light is in each and every one of us.
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And he came to show us how we can live it out and proclaim it and share it with everyone else around.
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You might think that's crazy, right? Nobody's going to believe that. Nobody's going to buy into that. Just recently
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I heard Lauren Hill at the church she was a part of. She said, after she was done singing, she said, son, come up and preach to us about Christ's black consciousness.
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I'm telling you, there's people in churches that are buying into this and it's not good. Here's a definition.
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The term Christ Consciousness has gained popularity in recent years as celebrities and public figures have found truth in this form of spiritualism.
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Those championing this idea sometimes call themselves Christians. And I've heard
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Oprah call herself a Christian. I don't know if you have, but I know I have. However, their definition of the word
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Christian is far different from the biblical meaning. The name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ is used as a means of normalizing a religion which is nothing more than a rebranded
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Eastern mysticism. The Center for Christ Consciousness website defines
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Christ Consciousness as the highest state of intellectual development and emotional maturity.
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They go on to claim that Jesus achieved this higher state of being in his human life and was given this term,
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Christ, before his name as a recognition of his achievement of this spiritual status.
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This is a path open to anyone regardless of their religious tradition if and when he or she is open to become a living vessel of love and truth on the planet and actively strives to attain it.
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Another site defines it this way. Christ Consciousness is a state of awareness of our true nature and our higher self and our birthright as children of God.
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This sounds great, but how does it match up to the true word? Did Jesus ever preach like this?
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Did Paul and Jesus' followers, disciples, ever preach like this? Yet these people are calling themselves
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Christians and are leading many astray through their teaching and what they're talking about. I never thought
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I would see the day where Christians would think listening to someone like Oprah was worthwhile, let alone believe and follow after the things she says is trustworthy and true.
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And Oprah has a book club, right? Oprah's book club that's huge and has a big following with how many people listen and follow after that.
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Years ago I remember even people in the church, some females, ladies there that were huge followers of Oprah and they would follow after the books that she was preaching, talking about, and sharing.
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And these books are a lot in line with this Christ Consciousness about our inner self, who we can be, what we can be, but it's apart from Christ.
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It's not a true Christian thing. And so many people are deceived by this. Another thing
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Oprah said years ago, too, before it even became big, was she was about talking about how it's all right if you're a man and you want to marry another man or a woman and you want to marry another woman.
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She even had them on her show talking about them and stuff and with them. And this is so far from what
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Scripture says is okay. And I found it interesting, too, as I was at Humboldt High School a couple of times with Beckett and he had basketball.
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They had a gay pride flag right there in the center of all the other flags. Front and center.
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And I just heard this, too. Anybody know how many colors are in the pride flag?
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Six. There's six. How many colors are in the rainbow? Seven.
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Number six is man. The number seven is God, perfection. So they're not even hiding it in that.
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It's interesting. Are we paying attention and listening? And this stuff has been infiltrated into the schools and being in the schools.
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Not only that, I also was remembering, too, during COVID of 2020, I don't know how many you had kids in the school,
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I remember seeing, too, remember they had triangles up telling people to stand away from each other?
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Anybody remember that? To keep your distance? I found it interesting. It was in the form of a triangle. I remember seeing it on the school roads and stuff and saying, how far away did they tell us to stand?
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Six. It was a triangle with three sixes around it. Coincidence? I don't know.
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But I'm just telling you, this is what's being pushed and infiltrated. Are we preaching the word, the truth, so that people aren't deceived on this?
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We're quiet. And, too, when I say I never would have imagined seeing the day, one other quick story on this is, there was a guy,
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I graduated from Moody Bible Institute, and after I graduated from there, there was this guy who, he's made it big time in TikTok.
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I forget what his name is. You'll probably find him. I do have it written down here.
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What's important is, he graduated from Moody. After graduating from Moody, he calls himself a Christian. He has a pastor in New York, huge following.
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It says he has over 2 ,000 followers, and his YouTube views have been over five million.
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And he tells his listeners to be what makes them happy, and the story of Lazarus is the perfect illustration for Christian LGBTQ people to come out of the darkness and into the light, come out of the cloth that the church has wrapped you up in and into the light of who
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Jesus has called you to be. The same guy defended watching porn as an okay thing.
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He calls himself a Christian pastor in New York, and he graduated from my alma mater.
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And so I never would have thought I would have seen a day like that where here we are. Are we hearing and listening to God's warning message?
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Acts 17, 30 through 31 says this, The times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and by this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
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Hebrews 10, 26 through 31 says this, For if you go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful expectation of judgment and fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
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1. Realize that the world's truth opposes God's truth. 2. Understand that the world's message will pull us away from God's message.
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3. Fulfill God's purpose by standing against the purpose of the world.
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Verse 5 says, As for you, always be sober -minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
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In 2002, there was a book that came out called Purpose Driven Life.
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How many of you remember that or partook in that? I know I have to say I did. Purpose Driven Life.
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You might think that this book was a good book to go after and pursue, but so many people who have been a part of that, their
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Purpose Driven Life is for this world. It's truly not for God. This author of this book had this to say in a quote from a harbinger here.
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Listen to what he had to say about Bible prophecy. He said, Anyone who lets himself get involved in distractions like studying prophecy is not fit for the kingdom of God.
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Purpose Driven Life guy says, Studying prophecy, you are not fit for the kingdom of God, yet he's directing all these people to have a
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Purpose Driven Life living for God. Guess how much of the Bible is prophecy? Roughly 30 % of the
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Bible is prophecy. Not only that, there's one book. The book of Revelation. What's that on?
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Prophecy. You know that's the only book of the Bible that promises a blessing to those who read it.
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Here, I'll read it. Revelation 1 .3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
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So this author, who's led all these people to have a Purpose Driven Life, truly doesn't believe a
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Biblical Purpose Driven Life. What are we taking in? Who are we listening to?
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Who are we being preached to? Are we being preached the truth? Are we sure it's the truth?
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The church has done well for the most part on focusing on the love of God, but has done horribly in warning its members on the dangers of letting in things we should be standing against.
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There was this, too. In 96,
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I was being reminded of this here. 96, there was, I might step on some toes here. I'm sorry if I am.
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I know we're called to preach, right? If we're preached the truth. Pokemon is not a good thing.
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I hope if any of your kids are in Pokemon, get them out. Do not have that in.
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You can look this up. There's this testimony from this missionary by the name of Mike Dawson.
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And Pokemon came in in 96. Mike Dawson was a missionary. And he was in an
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African nation there, country. And he had a guy that he had helped lead to the
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Lord. His name was Batista. Batista was a witch doctor. He was a witch doctor that was known he had reached the highest level of being a witch doctor.
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Where he was considered to be a child eater. What he would do is he would go in the spirit realm, steal these kids' souls, and bring them before other ones.
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And they would basically feast on these kids' souls. I know this sounds way out there to us, but in other countries, this is real.
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This is serious. This is the demonic spiritual realm. And he was a child eater.
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And he would steal the souls from other village kids. And the church that Mike Dawson was a part of, one of the churches that Mike Dawson was a part of, they had heard this guy come at his testimony and stuff and sharing.
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He couldn't speak English. And so they had a question. The church was divided on Pokemon.
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They had half the church thinking, this is okay, this is not a big deal. The other half was thinking, we need to get this out.
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We need to not have this any part of us. And so they sent him a Pokemon book. And they said, would you please have
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Batista look into this and tell us what he thinks. When the pastor first got this, he was all excited, thinking,
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I got something from Homeland. And it was something that wasn't top on his priority.
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It wasn't until a little later that this Batista had come to visit that he remembered this. And so he had his wife actually remember it.
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And so she told him, I'm going to go get the book. So she went and got the book and brought it down. Batista did not know any
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English. He could not read English. He could not speak English. So it was through an interpreter and stuff that they were able to interact with him.
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Yeah, he couldn't read English or speak English. But this is what he was saying. When he got him the book, he opened it up and he explained to him what was going on with this book and what his thoughts were.
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He started to, as he pointed to one of the characters on that, this Batista guy knew who this character was.
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And he said the traits that this character had. And he was spot on.
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And he said, yeah, these are demons. And the missionary thought, oh, this is just a coincidence.
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He'll do it again. So he hit another one. He did this over and over again. And he hit every one spot on.
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There were some he didn't know because he says there's so many demons, you can't possibly know them all. And his son was there listening.
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His son had a videotape of Pokemon. After hearing this guy's testimony, he went and grabbed that videotape and destroyed it right down there in the basement of the house where they were at.
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And so he made a believer out of them. And shortly thereafter that, 97, we had
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Harry Potter. Harry Potter is another thing I tell you, don't read, don't be involved in it.
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If you are, stop. Scripture makes it very clear. It leaves no room for doubt on this. In Leviticus 19 .31,
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it says, Do not turn to mediums or necromancers, that is, people who are go -betweens to talk with the dead.
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Do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them. I am the
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Lord your God. And in Leviticus 26, it says, If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them,
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I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
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Galatians 5, 19 -21, says this, Now the works of the flesh are evident.
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Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
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I warn you, as I did before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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How many of you would let your kids read or spend time in any of those things, and yet how many have let their kids get involved in these things?
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Scripture makes it very clear. If they practice those things, they are not fit.
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They will not inherit the kingdom of God. I even have an older cousin who, she has four kids.
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They're all grown up. She let all her kids get into the Harry Potter stuff. She's said more than once, that I've heard her say, how she's disappointed with how their kids' lives have come, where they are.
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They have no decision -making for the Lord. They're not involved in knowing the Lord.
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So, we are told in James 4 -5 too, you adulterous people, as far as letting things from the world in, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
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Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is no purpose that the
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Scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?
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So, number three. One, realize the world's truth opposes God's truth. Understand the world's message.
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Well, pull us away from God's message. Fulfill God's purpose, number three, by standing against the purpose of the world.
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And number four is focus on the
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Lord's reward, not the rewards of this world. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the
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Lord, the righteous judge, will reward to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.
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The commentary on these verses says a drink offering was the final offering.
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If we remember before, Paul was in chains in this. He was not getting out when he wrote this letter. So he knew his time was come.
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Final offering, a drink offering. It followed the burnt and grain offerings in Old Testament sacrificial system.
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He knew he was nearing the end. He knew he wasn't getting out. And this is the message he gave to Timothy here, preach the word.
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It wasn't focused on the love of God. It was focused on making sure the importance of preaching the word, the whole word, the warnings of what's in store, if we aren't.
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In the form of the three Greek verbs, have fought, have finished, and have kept, indicates completed action with continuing results.
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Paul saw his life as complete. And the faith that it talks about here is the truths and standards of the revealed word of God.
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Not the world's truth, the word's truth. Paul lived a life that was devoted to living according to the word of God.
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He knew where his reward was coming from. And it was for everyone who loved his appearing, not our appearing.
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Finish off point four here with this testimony. This is by another guy who graduated from Moody, two of them.
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And this guy was in the same guy as the other guy. He had quite a life where he, hardship with what he went through with his mom, started out his mom and dad, ended up getting divorced.
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His mom ended up moving in with her best friend. And then his mom ended up having an affair with her best friend's husband.
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And then through that ended up splitting up that family. And this guy ended up becoming a stepdad.
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And he never really knew his dad. He lived with his grandma. He ended up preaching, getting involved in a church and preaching.
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But yet he always struggled with stuff. And this was later on.
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This was his testimony here at the end. At one point in time, too, he did say, he goes,
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I felt like so close when he was taking counseling and getting counseling for what he thought he should be and what he wanted to be.
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And he said, I feel like they almost convinced me that I needed, that I was in the wrong in wanting to pursue this lifestyle.
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He said that. Those were his words. But this is his testimony here. Listen to his testimony and see how it compares to Paul at the end of his testimony.
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For the first time in my life, I have been able to stand in a pulpit and take off all my masks, expose all of myself, and allow
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God to use every created part of me. There is a scripture that has defined my life for many years, but just recently found new meaning.
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And they have defeated Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
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I'm not sure what version he read from, but that was supposedly Revelation 2011. But I found it interesting. There's no mention of verses 12 through 15.
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I challenge you to look into those verses there. You can take the one part, but he omitted the end part.
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And he goes on to say, I have finally understood that this verse means I have overcome my guilt, my shame, my doubts, my self -hatred, and my anger towards God because I have overcome
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Satan by recognizing what Christ accomplished by his death, burial, and resurrection.
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I found boldness to not be ashamed of who I am, but to be proud of my testimony.
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I am so pleased with who God has made me to be that every time I can share the words of my testimony,
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I stand up straighter as I press my heel into the neck of Satan and declare,
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I have overcome. This is a testimony of a man who thinks he's a
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Christian. Not only that, there's lots of people in the progressive Christian world that think this guy is too.
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But what is he talking about? My testimony, I have overcome. What does Paul say?
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Apart from God, right? It's all about God. So the focus, if the focus is on us, we're believing a false
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Jesus, a false scripture, just like with Oprah and all these people that are telling us Christ's consciousness.
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Christ did not come so we may find out what the true being within us is so we can live it out.
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He came to show us we need to die to our true self so we can live in him. The world preaches that it is all about us, while the word has always preached it is all about him.
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If we believe in the world, what we preach and fear will be similar to what the world preaches and fears.
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Global warming, conservative nationalists, Donald Trump. If we believe in the word, what we preach and fear will be what the word preaches and tells us to fear.
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Close with these few verses here. Proverbs 3, 5 through 8 says this. Lean not on your own understanding.
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In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes.
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Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be strength to your bones and nourishment for your soul. Proverbs 9, 10.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
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And the last verse here is Ecclesiastes. I found this was very fitting. This is called
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Ecclesiastes 12, 9 through 14. It is titled, Fear God and Keep His Commandments.
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That's talking about the preacher. Besides being wise, the preacher is also taught the people.
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Knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote the words of truth.
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The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings.
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I found it interesting. When I looked up goads and nails, it says this. It says, Two shepherds' tools are in view.
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One used to motivate reluctant animals. The other to secure those who might otherwise wander off into dangerous territory.
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Do we realize the preaching of the word is exactly to do that to us and to those we're talking to?
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And it is given by one shepherd. And are we making sure it matches up with the shepherd, the word of God?
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My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books, there is no end.
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And much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter?
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All has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.
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For God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
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Let me pray. Heavenly Father, I do thank you so much for your word and for what you have.
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Lord, and I just ask that you'd give us your wisdom and your insight that we would truly understand who you are and what you are and what we need to be about.
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Lord, I pray that we would never wander away from your word and that we'd be bold in sharing your word and preaching your word while we still have time.
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I pray this in your name. Amen. And one other thing I forgot to do here real quick is just the four points again.
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Number one, big idea. Understand that our belief in the word impacts the word we will preach.
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Number one, realize the word's truth opposes God's truth. Number two, understand the world's message will pull us away from God's message.
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Number three, fulfill God's purpose by standing against the purpose of the world. And number four, you got number four?
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Focus on the word of the Lord. All right. See how it is? Focus on the
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Lord's reward, not the world's reward. All right. So I'll close here.
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I'll just stand up here and I'll just say this. I will read Numbers 6, 24 through 26 in benediction.
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The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in peace.