Revelation 22:6-13 (These Words Matter, Jeff Kliewer)

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These Words Matter Revelation 22:6-13 Jeff Kliewer

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Stand with me. He is the
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Lord of all creation maker of heaven and earth He's the one the one true
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God. Let's sing together One voice in the dark a song that lights up the stars
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One breath that gives life one sovereign power
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That speaks with thunder and fire There is no other that can compare to you
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You are the one alone in greatness
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The one who never changes Jesus You are the one who rose in power
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The one who reigns forever Jesus the one true
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God One man that was slain
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One love above all There is no other that can compare to you
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You are the one alone in greatness
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The one who never changes Jesus You are
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The one who rose in power The one who reigns forever
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Jesus the one true God You're the one true
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God Yes, we have seen the glory of The one and only son of God Yes, we have seen the glory of The one and only son of God You are the one alone in greatness
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The one who never changes Jesus you are the one
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The one Who reigns forever
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Jesus the one true God You're the one true
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God You're the one true God Amen So the one true
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God who was who is and is it is to come Let's sing together.
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Holy. Holy. Holy. Hey Rob. We've no piano
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Oh Oh You are holy
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Lord you are mighty let's sing together you are holy you are holy
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You are my you are worthy
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Or the afraid I will follow
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I will listen I will love you all of my days
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I will sing to and worship the king
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The end I will love And I will bow
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The end I will Oh You're my prince of peace and I will live my life for you
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You are home you are my
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You are Worthy of I will follow
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I will I will love all of my day
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Him and I will see and worship
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The end I will
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You're my prince of peace and I will live my life for you
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What a great song he is worthy of our praise let's sing that again
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I will sing I will sing to and worship
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The king He is worthy And I will love
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Before him and I will sing to and worship
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He Adore him
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And I will bow My prince of peace and I will live my life for you
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All right, amen Good morning, everybody and welcome. Oh Come on.
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I waited that time and I got nothing back last time I just marched right through and I got a huge like hey, so I had to do good morning
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There we go. All right. Great to have everybody here today so in the last
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Service so I don't know if Michael he mentioned this outside So we went from like trying to get into the shade to stay cool to now
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Everybody was up front in the Sun to stay warm outside And then we kind of created this service as a way of you know
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For people that have difficulties with the heat now, this is the heat service so it's kind of how amazing how
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God has really forced us to kind of get out of our comfort zone and to like Constantly be retweaking and thinking about how we're going to do worship and You could look at it as a burden, but I think it's just you know
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God likes to just rock our world every once in a while So it's exciting. So one of the things that we are at our board meeting this past Friday we were discussing.
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Well, how is worship going to look as we move into the colder months? We our desire is to stay outside with that first service as long as we can
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But because of some of the expenditures that we're now making these are above and beyond but we had budgeted for we had never planned for These things so we're in the process of researching buying some larger tents for the outdoors that we're thinking of putting right alongside the building
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So we can have people inside and then still have people outside so we can fit and stay within the number
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Recommended numbers that they're giving us so we need to as per our bylaws announced that we're gonna have a special business meeting in two weeks to As we get information about the pricing to approve the purchase of some tents and some some heaters
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So that people could be outside and stay warm, but also be able to worship at the same time So I need to announce that we also do have a regularly scheduled business meeting in October as well
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We will select our nominating committee So we're asking our congregants to be praying about that whether you would choose to serve to be on the nominating committee
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As we then begin to pick our new elders and deacons for the next worship year which begins in April for us
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So that being said let me get to a couple announcements. We have this past Wednesday we've been talking about being able to encourage our police department and John Laskin has been heading this up pastor
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John and so this Wednesday this past Wednesday He went over there at midnight and dropped off some huge containers of Panera soup and some
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Hawaiian rolls And they were super thrilled to get that as of now We have about five
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Families or five individuals that have signed up to partake in that our goal is to hopefully do this for the next six months and then
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See how it goes, so we're looking for more people to get involved so if you Would like to bless the the midnight shift of the
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Mount Laurel Police Department see pastor John And he'll help give you more direction on that Our women's precept study.
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This is a study that's going on at Monday night that has begun this past week Cindy Randall's our point person for the precept study, so if you're interested in joining that you can speak to her and seek her out
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Our ABF is up and running. We call that adult Bible fellowship or aka Sunday school
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For those of you who may be new that is actually going on right now But there's going to be a
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Sunday morning offering and there's also going to be a Thursday night offering And there'll be some zoom links if you can't be here in the building so you can get more information about that as well
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And then we're going to be having two special Sundays in October We're going to bring in a special guest named Andrew Rappaport We've had him here in the past for an apologetics conference, and he's going to be talking about the topic of Dispensationalism versus covenant theology so on our
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October 4th night. We're going to have a bring -your -own -dinner Event prior to him coming to speak and then on October 11th
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We're going to have a hymn sing to kick off that night as well So you can speak to Pastor Jeff if you're more interested in finding out information about Andrew And now
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I'm going to turn over the microphone to John Dottoli Who made a comment about me outside about not wearing shorts because it's cold out
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But I'm going to compliment John by saying I believe he has the coolest hair So as I'm starting to get gray if I go all white
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I want to have hair like John Dottoli Okay, so that's on live on YouTube, so that's it's gonna be there forever now
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It's a little side note that one observation. I I've been going to the outdoor service since the beginning and One thing
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I just I noticed about the indoor service the acoustics are much better. Wow that me that that music is just powerful
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That was just fantastic You may want to take out a pen paper because there's a bunch of dates.
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I'm going to be throwing out there The easy one is tomorrow morning right here 6 a .m.. Is the men's
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Breakfast we've been studying the book conviction to lead by al moeller and tomorrow is chapter 18
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We are having a men's retreat this year that's going to be November 13th 14th and 15th at Pocono Bible Mountain Conference, I'll be sending out emails with Further information the price is $169 a person that's a little higher than than our previous retreats, but Trust me it is a discounted price for our church, so that's a good thing
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And it's going to be a much bigger weekend. There's going to be five speakers one of whom is pastor
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Jeff And for those who have any concerns about kovat you can speak to me directly the the the conference facility is taking you know all the necessary precautions and you know in accordance with Pennsylvania's Guidelines So that's
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November 13th 14th and 15th Pocono Mountain Bible Conference on October 1st
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Thursday evening Seeds of hope that's a ministry Camden ministry that we that we support they
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It has a lot of ministry separate ministries prison ministry it has a ministry for the girls who
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You know unfortunately live their life on the street and you know use their bodies to to make a living
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They feed the homeless in Canada, so it's a it's a it's a big. It's a full ministry and and they're their annual dinner conference banquet
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They can't have it this year because of the kovat So because it's generally a big event a lot of people filling
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Sovereign Grace Church So this year is just going to be a 15 -minute video
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So if you can please tune into that and it's going to be a recap of what the ministry's Accomplished or done in the last year.
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It's a 15 -minute video October 1st 7 p .m. Jeff has included the link in his weekly pastor
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Graham. You can find that if you scroll all the way down to the bottom and If you're so led you can send a donation in after Watching the video and also it seeds of hope they have it.
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They're having a 5k run on Saturday October 17th at 9 a .m.
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For Those of you who like to run of which I am NOT one so But so that's it if anybody has any questions.
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Just seek me out. Please John Dottoli. You can email me call me whatever. Thank you All right, this is a sad moment in cornerstone history because Tim is moving to Cali doesn't he look the part
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He's got the slick back hair the sunglass Tim is moving to California But good news by God's grace.
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He's gonna be coming back to us, right? We hope you're not going for good So we have asked him before he leaves to share a quick word
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And then I wanted to just pray over him as we kind of send him off as a church. So Tim Hey everybody,
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I wanted to start my testimony of When I was about 21 years old,
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I'm 26 right now when I was 21 a friend of mine told me two things He had just become a
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Christian and he was saying a lot of things but only about two things stuck with me He said that he was saved and I never heard the word saved before I grew up in Catholic Church But I for some reason never
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That never resonated me when I heard saved and then he also quoted scripture and he said enter through the narrow gate because the pathway is
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Broad and wide that leads to destruction But the pathway is small narrow and hard that leads to life and only few find it.
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So when he said that The Word of God is sharper than any two -edged sword. So when he said that it hit me in the heart and It pierces to the division of soul and spirit and it really it's the intentions of the heart that really got me the
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Word of God just hit me because it Flipped my worldview upside down because up until that point
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I thought that everyone in the world was gonna go to heaven and only few few people were gonna go to hell like the really bad people that went to prison for Murder or something along those lines, but when
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I heard that only few made it and Everyone's on this broad path that leads to destruction.
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I thought that maybe for the first time. Maybe I'm not good enough and I started viewing like large crowds of people like this and I would be like wow
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There's like about 40 people here or 50 people here. Maybe I'm better than 47 of them who knows like I don't know so I'm Thinking about these things and I just want to know what this way of life is because I'm hearing this
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Only few make it so I wanted to be part of this few so I searched for a little while I read
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I Listened to on tape the new like the Old Testament Genesis and the first five books of the
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Bible and a little bit following that but then I fell away and I started not searching for God at all
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Those things I thought about like I thought that it made sense to live for God if God is real and I believe in God I should live for him.
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I thought about things like that, but that went away and Then I was got a job working for a delivery for a soap company and I came across this radio station called
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Hope FM and it's when Preachers come on the radio and they preach about Jesus and I was hearing about Jesus and I didn't want to hear it at first I wanted nothing to do with it because at that point in my life
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I was probably in the most sin that I've ever been in and I didn't want like I knew I didn't want to leave that But God really was calling me away from that without really even me hearing a lot of what was being said
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I knew that God was calling me I felt a call that that I wanted to live a different life and trust in him well, actually,
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I didn't want to he was calling me to turn from sin and trust in him and it was a irresistible call to where I had to give in because I was
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I was a madman if I didn't give in to that call because once you once you know the truth the truth sets you free so I felt very set free from sin and I was a different person so But I didn't have anyone teaching me.
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My church was the radio station. So I was only learning I didn't have anyone to ask questions or anything like that So my church was this radio station and so I decided not to join a church
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But I decided to sign up for a religion class at Burlington County College at the time So I went to this religion class and I thought that I was gonna learn about God and Jesus and Because that's what
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I'd learned about when we called religion class when I was in Catholic school I'm gonna go to religion class So I thought oh, let me sign up for religion class but I get there and it's a comparative religion class and I'm learning about Hinduism and Islam and Buddhism and all these other religions and I'm I'm clearly seeing it was actually very good that I went here looking back but at the time it was a struggle, but I'm seeing that all the other religions are man -made religions and Christianity is this
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God centered religion that is totally different from the other ones but there was a
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Professor that was very convincing. He was very articulate and he would twist the scripture
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He grew up in the church His dad was a pastor but now he he come to this conclusion that all the religions might be true, which is which can't be true because 2 plus 2 equals 4 but it can't 2 plus 2 also can't equal 6 so there's differences that you have to say.
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No, this can't be true if this is true But he was very articulate and he would twist the scripture
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I didn't know the scripture that well because I was a young baby Christian. I guess you can say and for example
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The Bible does say there is no God But if you read the entire verse only a fool in their heart would say that there is no
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God So so he would use scriptures out of the Bible Like, you know, if you wish to be perfect sell all your possessions and Jesus was homeless
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So become homeless He would say things like that and I'm and I was very challenged by it because I didn't know the scripture in in context but It was good for me to see because I knew that he knew the
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Word of God And I know that I didn't know it that much but I knew that God had saved me and God had called me to live a different life and I knew that I knew that the truth was
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Christianity and I knew that he didn't know that and it was baffling my mind because I was like How can this guy who's been around?
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Christianity his whole life not know the truth and I am just like dabbling in it and God has opened up my eyes to like all this other stuff is false and my heart was breaking for the people in the class because they have
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You know Some of them were raised Hindu and and Islam and they really believed it and this guy is saying, you know
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Believe in something pick something to believe in and I just couldn't believe that This really smart guy knew
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Do the Bible but that like his heart wasn't changed So it was clear that The Bible is a heart condition where God has to change your heart because he knew a lot more than me
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But my heart was changed but he did leave me with um, I was very mixed up when
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I left that class because I was thinking about the things he said and I stopped listening to that radio station for a while and and I was searching and searching and then
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I went I had that friend Jack that told me about the narrow gates We went on a trip to Grenada and I just was like let me go read the
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Bible for myself because I haven't read it Yet and I just need to read it for myself before I hear it from anyone else
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So I read all four Gospels when I went on this trip to Grenada It was kind of a baby missions trip
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But that was the first time that I've sat down and I didn't have my phone I didn't have internet and I was just like I need to read this and I was reading it
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Constantly over and over and over like if I didn't understand it I would read it 20 times hoping that I would understand it like just simple verses
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But I read Matthew Mark Luke and John and that definitely changed my life when I read the words of God I was very challenged in my faith
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Realizing that like he says ye of little faith and I'm like I'm the guy with little faith because I can't do these things that he's
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Talking about and I started to think wow I'm not that good and this guy
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Jesus is really good and I'm thinking wow. I want to be like this guy Jesus I want to be like the disciples and some cases
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I didn't want to be like the disciples because they would foul and they would try to portray themselves as not that good
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Which was cool that Jeff will share about later But then I came back from that trip and I was still a little confused
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But I did actually hear this song. It's funny It's called carry on my wayward son when I was listening and driving in the truck for the soap company
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You'll have to look up the lyrics to this song But it was a it was a kind of a worldly spiritual song where for some reason
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I was mixed up about what I was Believing before I went on this trip. Actually, I was very mixed up about what I was believing and I can be swayed back and forth
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But the song gave me a lot of comfort I didn't have peace at the time because I'm Some nights
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I'm living as sin and then the next night and the next day I'm living like I I want to live for God And I'm just sin, but I don't know if he'll accept me.
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I didn't know those things I'm sorry.
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I lost track of where I was first minute. Oh the song it's funny cuz Rob Randall I just saw
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Rob Randall and he said this song carry on my wayward son as part of his testimony as well Well, he came to faith, which is pretty cool
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But I heard that song and it gave me peace and I don't know why I listened to it eight hours a day every day, so eventually
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I Was like whoever wrote this song Knows what
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I'm going through because this guy doesn't have peace, but he's searching so I'm like, let me look up this guy
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It's Kerry Livgren who wrote the song and he was a guy who actually was learning about all the religions of the world
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He studied all of them all the major ones and then he went through all the minor ones and he event I read that He eventually found out that Evangelical Christianity was the truth.
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So at that time I knew I wanted to be an Evangelical Christian and also at that time
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I was listening on the radio about how There's a church called
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Mount Laurel Evangelical Free Church And it said if you believe this this and that then this is the church for you
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And I'm like, yeah, that is the church for me. But I also when I wanted to become an evangelical Christian I Didn't know if I wanted to come to this church anymore because it said evangelical free so I didn't want to I wasn't sure about it, so I never went but then
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I went and Joined a gym and I'm playing basketball and this man right here
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Pastor Jeff is actually in that same basketball league that I was in and a lot of people are calling him pastor
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Jeff And I don't know why and I knew I wanted to talk with him And it's funny because the guy
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Kerry Livgren who wrote carry on my way My wayward son. He was convinced by a man named
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Jeff that evangelical Christianity was the truth So I'm like, you know what? I think I really need to talk to this pastor
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Jeff guy So I asked him to speak speak with me and then he was busy that day
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I think he was with Timmy or something and then I was confused why he didn't want to talk to me I was like, hey Jeff.
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I really want to talk and he was like, okay. Well, we'll set up a time We never set up a time. Maybe for maybe a few weeks went by and we didn't talk
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So I finally was like, I don't know why this guy he's a Christian and I don't know why he didn't want to talk to me because I'm searching and I was thinking like if I If someone would talk to me about Christianity, I would love to talk to them but I don't know why it was just the way
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God arranged things I guess and Eventually, we did meet to talk because I was like Jeff we need to talk and he was like, okay
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And then he came and met me and then we talked for a few hours Probably the only time we really talked other than high and by and things and I'm asking him all these questions probably a hundred questions in three hours of just what?
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What is this? What does this mean? I read all four Gospels and I'm quoting all this What did this mean by this and he's answering them perfect with backing him up with Scripture and I'm like, okay okay, this guy is the real deal and Because I'm meeting with him
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I'm like I have to figure out like if this he even knows the truth because he didn't want to meet with me at first So I'm asking him questions that I know the answer to I'm just gonna see if he knows and we're having
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And we're having this awesome conversation and there's even people listening in to what we're saying. That's awesome
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We and then from that point on we actually met at this discipleship table at the gym So where he met with me about once a week or once every two weeks and we talked about Christianity and we would notice that even more people would come and they would talk to us here and there and we would get to Share with them and that was amazing too.
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But the first time we sat down after we talked I was like, all right, this guy knows what he's talking about. I want to learn from him
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So I was like Jeff. I want to come to your church and he was like, okay, cool My church is Mount Laurel evangelical free church, and I was like, that's the church.
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I'm supposed to be going to I didn't I didn't know And then he was like and then I was like Jeff.
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I don't like the name of your church and he was like Well good because we're changing it to cornerstone
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So and then he changed it on Easter Sunday of I think it was 2018 and that was also the day
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I got baptized and my little brother Kyle got baptized and Jeff's son Timmy also got baptized So I'm also
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Timothy and we had first and second Timothy. So it was a little joke But um, but I learned a lot from Jeff and he talked about he was very big on the sovereignty of God and He's you know by now.
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He's a Calvinist. I hope you're still a Calvinist. Yeah still a Calvinist so at that time
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I was learning from Calvary Chapel and and I didn't know the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism.
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I had no idea but when he told me about Calvinism, I don't mean to Preach all about this guy
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John Calvin or anything. This is just what I believe But he's telling me about the sovereignty of God and and the five points of Calvinism And it made sense to me because looking back on my life
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I came to a point where I wasn't searching for God, but God called me out of the world So it made a lot of sense
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God sent the right person to me at the exact right time and did all these things for me So it made perfect sense so that God chose me and then in response
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I chose him back because I was dead. I was blind. I was not alive I couldn't choose
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God if I tried he was the one that chose me and woke me up and then in response I chose him back and So I did want to just make sure this testimony is not too much about me
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But about God really rescuing me, and I didn't really even was in a place where I wanted to be rescued
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I was actually perfectly fine before I heard about Christianity living I was trying to live a happy life, and I Didn't know that I was on this path to destruction
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So I just wanted to to share how God really did change my life from I was a completely different person and now
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I'm Trying to live a life pleasing to him so and also. I just wanted to also share about How when
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I did come to the church I did was very much paying attention to the people in the church and Jesus says that You'll truly know his disciple by the love that they have for one another so I was very
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Welcomed and loved by the church, and I knew that the people in this church was They're just like Jesus disciple
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And so I just want to say thank you to everyone in the church because I I can't even say names
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There's a lot of new faces actually right here in the old in the outdoor service There was more of their the old regulars, but I would say half of you guys.
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I don't even know if I know Now that I'm looking around But also there was
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I wanted to share there was when you sent off Todd and Cindy were their names right Todd and Cindy Todd sat right around where Julianne was every day and He wore a tie -dyed shirt, and anyway they sent him off and remember you flipped a penny to Todd and he caught it and you said one cent because he was moving to Florida right and For some reason
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I was I was sitting over here in this section. There's no chairs there, but When we were leaving that day after we sent him sent him and his wife off There was a penny right in the aisle of where he was sitting so I picked it up And I was like Todd you forgot your penny dude like what are you doing?
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And he was like what are you talking about? I'm not gonna lose this penny, and he held up a different penny So I thought maybe
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I would be the next one sent or sent eventually so It's not a surprise that I'm moving, but I just thought of that story now, so I thought
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I'd share it and Thank you for listening So is is there a chance that we're getting you back?
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Yeah, I think there is a high chance that I'm gonna come back. I definitely I'm gonna miss you guys Yeah, and by the way the reason
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I didn't want to talk to him that night is because they just beat us on the basketball Court most likely we were favored to win the championship, and they they won it that year right actually we didn't lose
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But we took you guys out. Yeah, they took us out of the tournament, and then they lost too, so it's okay anyway
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We forgive you for that So we want to pray for you brother because you're going off into a whole new place
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And we're just gonna ask that the Lord cover you and and cover you with his grace and his power on you
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So I'll pray first and then Ben would you also pray for him? So father we do pray for our brother Tim And we just ask in Jesus name that you would go before him be his rear guard keep your hand upon him
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Lord God We pray that you would fan into flame this obvious gift. That's upon him Lord he is an evangelist you have made him an evangelist and we pray that you would stir that up in him and Fan it into flame that he would mean lead many people to the
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Son of God Jesus Christ So we pray for Tim Lord God that you would strengthen him We pray that you keep him from the evil one as he goes to California Lord guard him guard his heart
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Keep him in and on the straight and narrow Lord God we just pray over him asking for the filling of your
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Holy Spirit We pray that as he encounters new challenges that he would grow in you that you would use this mission as he is one scent that you would send him in the power of the
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Holy Ghost and Use him and strengthen him for the work that you've called him to do Father we commit him into your care
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So grateful for his service with the youth and all that you are using him for we pray
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That you would bless him that you would strengthen him that you would go before him God We're grateful and we commit him to you and we thank you and we pray all these things in Jesus name.
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Amen. Amen Thanks, brother All right
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Yeah, Ben's gonna read the scripture if you could turn to Revelation 22, yeah
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Revelation 22 verses 6 to 13. So just say amen when you're there
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Say it loud Yeah Revelation 22 6 to 13 and he said to me these words are trustworthy and true and the
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Lord the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place and Behold, I'm coming soon blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy this book
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I John and the one who heard and saw these things and when I heard and saw them
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I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me But he said to me you must not do that I'm a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and with those who keep the words of this book
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Worship God and he said to me do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near but the evildoers still do evil and the filthy still be filthy and the
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Righteous still do right and the holy still be holy behold I'm coming soon bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for that He has done for what he has done
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I am the Alpha and the Omega the first and the last the beginning and the end
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Wasn't it good to hear a word of testimony? in Revelation we learned that the tech we overcome the enemy by the blood of the
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Lamb and the word of the testimony and then when John in chapter 19 fell down to worship an angel the angel said don't do that stand up Because it says in chapter 19 verse 10
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You must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus worship
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God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy So that's the spirit of prophecy to testify that Jesus is the
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Christ. Amen So Tim, thank you for sharing that I was blessed by it. All of us who know Christ are encouraged
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We are reminded very much of our own Salvation story of how he drew us and and convicted us of sin and brought us into the light.
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Amen Let's go to the Lord in prayer and then we'll exposit from Revelation 22 6 to 13.
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So father. We are so thankful We do confess Jesus is Lord We do trust you
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Lord Jesus to teach us this morning from your word We desperately need to hear from you this morning
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God we pray that you would raise up a people that are not ashamed of the gospel a
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People that are committed to the truth of your word that trust in your word for your word is a light
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And to our path and a lamp unto our feet God We love you and praise you and ask for your spirit now to help us in the scriptures in Jesus name.
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Amen well, America is dividing in our day very much between socialism and Christianity if You notice there is a strong divide
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That's not so much about political theory as it is about God's Word versus man's
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Word God's Word versus man's Word Winston Churchill rightly described socialism this way
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He said socialism is a philosophy of failure the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy
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Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. I Think it's a pretty good definition of socialism, but see
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God's Word stands directly opposed to socialism Because where socialism teaches envy and Control by the state of the resources of a people the
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Bible teaches individual responsibility doesn't it that man is made in the image of God and that man is
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Responsible to bring up from this fallen world the fruit of the ground
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In fact the gospel of envy which is socialism is directly opposed to the commandments of God Is it not the commandment of God in the
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Ten Commandments to not covet your neighbor's property? and So it's
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God's Word that stands in opposition to socialism Antonio, Gromsky was an
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Italian Marxist back in the 1930s and Died in 1937 when
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Mussolini killed him, but Gromsky himself was a socialist and here's what he said about socialism versus Christianity Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm
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Christianity He said in the new order socialism will triumph by capturing the culture via infiltration of schools
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Universities churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society
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Gromsky foresaw that socialism would infiltrate Institutions especially education the media and even going into the churches
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How true that was the battle between God's Word and man's Word playing out in our society
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Christianity versus socialism this battle began when Marx and Engels introduced socialism to the world
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Where did Marx spend the last 30 years of his life? Not in his native
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Prussia or wherever it was but in London For 30 years he was teaching and stirring up Marxist revolution in London with his sidekick
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Engels Frederick Engels Supplying him well one day Frederick Engels was asked who he hates most
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I Thought that was an interesting question to ask only a Marxist would ask who do you hate the most?
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You know that's the kind of things that Marxists sit around they stroke their beards And they they talk about who they hate the most because Marxism is itself a hateful
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Ideology, so it's an interesting question, but when asked who Engels hates the most you know want to know who he said
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon because across town in London at the
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Metropolitan Tabernacle Spurgeon was preaching the Word of God and everybody infected with this virus is inoculated to Marxism and socialism and Engels recognized it the thing that was holding back his revolution in London vis -a -vis
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Germany and then in the Soviet Union where Marxism took full root
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The difference was the rootedness of the people of God in the scripture
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It was God's Word that protected them from the lies of Marx and Engel the very words
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That's the issue today the words of the Bible They're trustworthy
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But they divide people and in these last days in which we live we must boldly
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Proclaim the very words of scripture, so we are in Revelation 22 today And a shift takes place between verses 5 and 6 up until Revelation 22 5
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We're seeing the things that must take place after this future things things to come and It is the tribulation and it is this great battle of Armageddon All of the the book of Revelation, but in verse 6.
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What's the shift? Now the focus goes not on the things to come but on The words in other words
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John. I want to tell you what you just saw You just saw a vision.
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You just heard words mediated through angels, and this is not an ordinary Bad dream you didn't eat a bad burrito before going to bed
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God has spoken to you look at the verse from 6 through 10 You'll see words and book repeated words book words book
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This is the issue the very words of scripture verse 6 these words are trustworthy and true
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Verse 7 the words of the prophecy of this book in Verse 8 and we talked about the things that you've heard and seen
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So he's hearing words in verse 8, but verse 9 you see it again who keep the words of this book
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Verse 10 do not seal up the words Lagos all
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Scripture is God breathed 2nd Timothy 3 16
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Panta Graphic all every last written word is
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Theanousta God breathed breathed out by God the issue here the first point is
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That every word that God has breathed forth into the book in this case Revelation But it's the last book of the
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Bible, so there's a reason it comes here The point is everything that God has spoken every last word matters
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Sometimes we misunderstand the doctrine of inspiration. It's not just that Apostles were inspired religious teachers and Therefore what they told us is trustworthy know every written word every graph a
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Word word word word the words of the book themselves are inspired
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This is the doctrine of inerrancy and you see it in verse 6 pay attention to what the angel said he said to me these words are
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Trustworthy and true the very words
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Written in the Bible and here especially in the book of Revelation are infallible and inerrant
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Trustworthy and true everything it sets out to do will be accomplished Every last
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Statement made in the scripture is true But as Tim shared in his testimony there are many false teachers in the world today that would undermine
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The truth of God's Word I also encountered such a guy when I was in college
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I took a religious studies class and although this guy was very persuasive very articulate funny
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Everybody loved him and everybody went along with it until one night I said God is this true and I let the
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Word of God fall open and I looked at the words and Was convicted of the truth of every last word that God has spoken
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Everything is true. Has anybody followed the series? It's probably before some of you younger guys the
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West Wing You guys see the West Wing in The show the West Wing the character who is playing the president of the
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United States One day walks into a room and there he encounters an evangelical
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Christian and He proceeds to mock her because of her belief in The authority of Scripture to define sexual ethics and he says well if you believe that Then maybe we should take out
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The the violators of the Sabbath and stone them to death or the people who play football on Sunday morning
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They're touching the pigskin. They're unclean. Maybe we should stone them or the people who mix fabrics in their clothes and So he goes on one point after another to say you don't consistently apply the
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Old Testament therefore you're a hypocrite and Of course, she cowers to this and she's embarrassed and the scene is only a show
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But the point of the scene is to undermine the authority of God's Word as If we don't have answers to those simple objections
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That there is a dispensation under which Israel lived and certain things applied to them as a peculiar people for a time
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But Christ has fulfilled the law and now he is to us the head of the church And we live under a new covenant.
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All these things are clearly taught in Scripture not hard to answer My point now is not to get into the weeds of that but to say that we live in a culture
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That is constantly attacking the Word of God what you saw on the
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West Wing you see on the internet day after day and We who live in this culture must learn to affirm every last word that God has spoken and by the way
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There is a movement amongst evangelicals to simply affirm minimal facts
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Like we don't need to defend every last word that the Bible says we only need to affirm that historically
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Jesus rose from the dead That Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead and boiled the
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Christian message down to that and then just fight on those historical grounds That approach is folly
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Because unless you have the Word of God to tell us the meaning of Jesus's death
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It's meaningless. Anyway, so what if somebody died and rose from the dead? what does that prove unless we have a
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Savior who died for our sins as a Sacrifice as the entire scripture the
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Old Testament pointed us toward point being we need every last word that God has spoken
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Don't surrender any ground for the sake of expediency You define your the battle line from the scripture and you hold that line
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We have nothing to be ashamed of because we have the truth We're in a battle when you stand upon God's Word When you proclaim inerrancy
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You will be regarded as an idiot Uneducated a buffoon
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I mean who could believe in a young earth that this world is only a few thousand years old in fact, they will consider you believing in a young earth as Akin to someone who believes in a flat earth
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Now, hopefully there's no flat earthers in here, right? Okay, I don't believe in the flat earth theory.
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It's foolishness. It's tomfoolery In fact, I have a couple dad jokes about the flat earth you guys ready for this
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I saw this one going across the internet a flat earth society put this out
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Sincerely not realizing what they just said the flat earth society has members all over the globe
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I don't think they realized what they were saying by using the term globe there
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And then the other one was the only thing that flat earthers have to fear is Sphere itself took you a minute on that one if you believe in the scriptures
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You will be regarded by society as backwards and uneducated and My question to you is are you willing to stand on every last word that God has spoken or will you cave?
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to the pressures of This society. So first the Word of God is true
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Be not ashamed of his word stand upon every last word that he said, but now secondly when we stand with God's Word there will be a division that happens between those who preach the truth and those who oppose it the
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Word of God becomes a dividing line a line in the sand and it does separate as Tim quoted to us the scripture that says this the
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Word of God is like a sword that divides Bone from marrow the thoughts and intentions of the heart the
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Word of God divides. So look at verse 7 The division is between the ones who keep the words and those who don't in verse 7.
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I am coming soon Blessed is the one who keeps the words So that's the the group who keeps verse in verse 9 you see it also
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After John almost falls down to worship he's told
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I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets and With those who keep the words of this book
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So on one side you have this group which includes John the angels the prophets and all of us who keep the word the keepers of the word
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Notice that the keepers of the word are not perfect Keepers of the word are not
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Perfect. We all fall short of his glory. In fact, look at John In verse 8 and 9
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This is fascinating after being given the revelation He falls down to worship the angel
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This is particularly troubling because Just back in 19 chapter 19.
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He had done the same thing He's falling into the same sin That he almost committed earlier on worshiping an angel a created being and back then he was told don't do that He turns around and does it again
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Well, this is good news to a sinner like me That even though I fall short of the glory of god
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He will pick me up He will lift me up. But here's another thing about what we learn from this
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This is evidence of the authenticity of these words John is not presenting himself as the hero
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Instead he's showing his own weakness and fallibility In order to highlight the truth of the revelation he received.
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There's a movie called god's not dead part two And i'll tell you god's not dead part three
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Departed to the left into some social justice nonsense. So don't watch god's not dead part three.
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It was terrible But part two was pretty good In part two There was a teacher
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Who was on trial because she mentioned jesus in her classroom and on trial
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All of these lawyers were attacking her and finally the defense called two christian apologists jay warner wallace
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Who wrote cold case christianity? And lee strobel who wrote the case for faith
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And these guys took the stand in the movie and they made the point that the bible
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Evidences its authenticity Because the authors do not present themselves as heroes
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This is the kind of thing in verse eight that shows that this is truly from god
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If john were the author he would not close his book by making himself look like a fool
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But in the genuineness of recording what actually happened he shows his own folly
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But that god Spoke to him again Through the angel and restored him
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And in the end the final result is the word of god is exalted And man is not let god be true and every man a liar
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It's the word that's exalted through these words Now I said that this is a dividing line
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Because whereas we keep the word it doesn't mean we're perfect We're trying to walk in the straight and narrow when we stumble he picks us up But we're keepers of the word we believe the word we're keeping the word we're obeying the word
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On the other side you have those who hate the word And what we're seeing in america today is the keepers of the word and the haters of the word
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Are clashing in the culture? Now it used to be that those who opposed the word were still living off of christian capital
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Because the west and america in particular as a nation was founded on christian principles
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And so even those who dismissed the word Grew up in a christian culture and they maybe had christian parents or christian grandparents and so Their morality and their worldview was still influenced by the scriptures, even though they didn't know it
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So when they throw the word of god to the side, they'll still say Moral and virtuous things they'll fight for liberty
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And even the pursuit of equality to some degree As they pursue it in the wrong way
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Is rooted in a christian worldview But what we are seeing today Is that the culture now has moved so far away from the word of god that Even the vestiges of the past even the capital of the west
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That this side was living on is beginning to erode so right now this country
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Is writing eulogies for ruth bader ginsburg. They call her the notorious rbg, which
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I think is pretty funny But why do they eulogize her life because of the stands that she took
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What stands did she take? Well in the early 2000s when george bush
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Was outlawing partial birth abortion She stood and fought for the right of a woman
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Not just to commit an abortion since roe versus wade, but farther down that departure
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The right to do so at birth the evil of that concept
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If we don't if we're not shook to the core by that it's because We're just too used to it like we take these things as Well, just the way things are but that's not just the way things are
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And if we feel like Okay, the culture has drifted this far and they're now letting go of biblical morality
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And no longer shaped from it. Just wait till you see what's coming down the pike Because this culture will no longer live by the capital of the scripture
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But will be consistent with their own secular worldview And so peter singer at princeton university 45 minutes from where we are this morning
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He's arguing That a mother and father should be given 28 days after birth
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To decide the fate of their child And that's the consistency of peter singer with his secular worldview having unhitched from genesis one
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That says that all Men and women are made in the image of god without that Understanding without the biblical worldview keeping us grounded his animal rights worldview
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Is unhitched from scripture. He's free to be consistent And so he values the life of a chicken
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More than he does the life of a child. This is the world in which we live
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And so I say to you brothers and sisters The battle the clash between worldviews is not getting better.
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But until the end it's going to get worse because the left the socialist agenda
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Is not hitched to the worldview of the scriptures and the more consistent they become with their own thinking
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The more we're going to collide Keep the word until the end
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Keep the word finally the last point verses 10 to 13 proclamation
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What do we do then well, we're not going to save the culture Because we've read in the book of revelation how bad it's going to get
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So what do we do? We proclaim verse 10 and he said to me do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book
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For the time is near I think that's a reference back to daniel chapter 12 in that old dispensation
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What was daniel told when he saw the revelation of the coming things He was told in verse 4 seal up the words of the prophecy of this book until the end knowledge will increase
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We live in the time of the end It's drawing near In fact in verse 12 when he says behold
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I am coming soon That word soon is take It's where we get a tachometer the word tachometer
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Comes from the same greek in the engine of a car a tachometer measures the speed
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Of the engine the rpms of the engine So tache means speedy or quick or soon the coming of christ is soon
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His coming is near he'll come in a flash very quickly very soon
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Until that time do not seal up the words. What's the opposite of not sealing it up.
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It is to broadcast Our job in these last days is to broadcast the word of god
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As I think about how the culture then derides us and mocks us i'm reminded of john chapter 9
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When the blind man his eyes were open to see And the pharisees and sadducees the leaders called him in and began to deride him and mock him
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And his answers to them were absolutely classic he answered them the first time he said i've told you already
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And you would not listen Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?
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Great comeback Why do you keep asking me? You don't like what i'm saying Do you really want to become a disciple too?
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And so they derided him all the more the clash between truth and the lie
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And so after mocking him the more They they They say well, we don't even know where he comes from and he gives this classic answer
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Why this is an amazing thing You do not know where he comes from and yet he opened my eyes in other words
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He came to me He opened my eyes And so I testify he is the one he claims to be a sinner could not do a miracle like this
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And so he testifies as a disciple and they deride him and kick him out And so it is with us
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Our eyes have been opened They don't know who he is. They don't know where he came from. They mock him and deride him out of ignorance
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But we are the ones whose eyes have been opened. We've seen he is the christ the son of the living god and we will proclaim him broadly go out
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Into the highways and byways and compel them to come in Go stand on the rooftop and proclaim.
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Jesus is the christ. They'll hate you for it So do it all the more And we're told in Matthew 5 that that when when you're reviled and persecuted for his name's sake be glad and rejoice
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Because so they persecuted the prophets When you are persecuted wear that as a crown
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As they attempt to shame you take joy that you suffer with christ
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And I saw a preacher in portland getting beat up on the streets of portland for preaching the gospel
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But as he took that beat down He kept saying jesus is lord.
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Jesus is king It is not shameful to suffer for doing right
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This is the clash that's happening let's go proclaim so in closing believe every word of the scripture
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Keep it until the end and proclaim broadcast these words I don't think we're going to change the culture
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Okay, and I like the the little meme that came across facebook where it says All of these social reforms are like arranging deck chairs on the titanic
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That's good The titanic's going down And if you think changing society is the way to go
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Well, we do the best we can to be salt and light in the society and change culture However much we can influence it, but we've read the book of revelation
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We know the things to come the titanic ends up at the bottom of the ocean, doesn't it? And this world ends up consumed not by water but by fire
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And so if that's the ending, how about we be on the deck of the titanic? Calling to sinners repent and be saved.
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Yes, you may drown, but you will rise We have an eternal message So preach it
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You guys have heard of george muller, right? george muller that preacher in england And the man who started orphanages
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To house hundreds of kids the answers to prayer that this man received.
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It'll just blow your mind read an autobiography of george muller Your life will never be the same answers to prayer specific just incredible Provision by god when he prayed but one guy named alan nelson the fourth
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Said this about muller And I loved it He said from age 71 to 91 george muller read the bible cover to cover only five times per year
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In his last chapter of his life from age 71 to 91. He read the bible 100 times cover to cover
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You want to know where the power of that man came from prayer and the word the word and prayer?
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Let's stay with that stay with the basics Amen Nelson said you think he regretted that when he met his king may we be people of the book amen
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Let's close in a word of prayer and we'll call the worship team to come on up. Oh father.
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I thank you for my mom Who when I was a child gave me a bible and wrote in it.
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Let this book be your guide through life I thank you for my dad who in that same bible wrote this book
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Will keep you from sin Or sin will keep you from this book I thank you for every godly father and mother that are raising their children in the way
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They should go that when they are old they will not depart from it I thank you lord that you have called each one of us here to hear this word today
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And for all of those listening on youtube lord, I pray that they will have ears to hear open their eyes lord
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Like you open the blind man in john 9 Reveal the truth of the son of god
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We pray as this gospel goes forth lord that you would open eyes to see That jesus is the lord the christ the son of the living god
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We pray that you would grant repentance that you would work in the hearts of the listeners That they would turn from sin and believe in the one that you have sent
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We say and we testify that you are the christ We have seen we know you
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Lord, we pray for a mighty revival in these last days We pray for this church that we will stand upon your word and keep your word to the end
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Overcoming until the end grant us that grace lord god We need you god
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We pray for those who struggle to read the bible that you would open their eyes give them that passion
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Maybe they could go off to grenada For a week and read matthew mark luke and john
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Or maybe they could just go to their living room every morning And look into your word
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I pray lord that you would call us back to the book back to the words to the testimony. We say like isaiah chapter 8
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Thank you for your word. It's in the name of jesus We pray amen Let's stand and close in song
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Worthy of every song we could ever see Worthy of all the praise he could ever
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Jesus the name above every other name Jesus the only one who could ever say
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Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe. We live for you
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Is And show me
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Who you are and fill me With your heart and lead me in your love to those around me
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Jesus the name above every other name Jesus the only one who could ever say
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Worthy of every breath we could ever Wonder and show me
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Who you are There is none beside you open up my eyes
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And show me who you are and fill me with your heart
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Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked Nor stands in the way of sinners
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Nor sits in the seat of scoffers But his delight is in the law of the lord and on his law he meditates day and night
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He is like a tree Planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season and its leaf does not wither in all that he does