Eighth Sunday After Trinity Service

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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It was the second row that seems to be right in that one, in that one, yeah, second one by the back.

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Again, there's no signed seating this way. There's you with paper and there's you with paper.

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It is stupid. Good morning. She's got like a pinched nerve and a lower back on that side.

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So I had her stay on and I brought these to her. She's got a little bit of a cough up there.

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If I somehow sprained my arm near all the animals, it hurts.

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You need to get a therapist in case. That's right. But you should just let her be here.

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You sit on this side and I sit on this side. You said you wanted to...

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Okay. Okay. You got the number? 586...

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586... 586...

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586... 586...

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586... 586... 586...

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586... 586... 586...

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586... 586... 586...

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586... Wow, the Congs Finger Lutheran Church, today is the eighth Sunday after Trinity.

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We'll be following the Order of Divine Service setting three. And salam tone we're going to be using today is

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A as in Albertville. A little bit of a note here.

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I like to call this Sunday in the one year lectionary False Prophet Sunday. I think it's fascinating that we have an entire

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Sunday dedicated to the topic of false prophets. All the more reason why the church might want to consider you're going back to the one you're just saying.

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All right, if you are physically present here at Kungsvinger, please rise if you are able for the opening hymn, 586.

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♪ Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen, amen ♪

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Beloved in the

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Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness. Our help is in the name of the

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Lord. Who made heaven and earth. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the

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Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Almighty God, merciful

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Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which

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I have ever offended you and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment.

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But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them. And I pray you of your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of your beloved

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Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.

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Upon this your confession, I by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my

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Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father and the Son and the

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Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Psalm tone A, and we're gonna be doing this again by alternating whole verses like we've been doing for the past few weeks.

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So I will do verse one, you will join me in verse two, I will do verse three, you kind of get the idea.

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We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple.

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As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

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Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Great is the

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Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our

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God is his holy mountain. Within her citadels,

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God has made himself known as a fortress.

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Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments.

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This is the God, our God forever and ever.

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He will guide us forever. Glory be to the

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Father and to the Son and to the

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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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Amen. We have thought on your steadfast love,

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O God, in the midst of your temple.

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As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

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Your right hand is filled with righteousness.

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Glory be to the Father and to the

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Son and to the Holy Spirit.

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As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

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O God, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us.

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O God, have mercy upon us. Glory be to God on high.

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And on earth peace to men and to women. O God, forever and ever.

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Son of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. The Lord be with you.

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And with thy spirit. Let us pray.

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Grant to us, Lord, the spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we who cannot do anything that is good without you may be enabled by you to live according to your will through Jesus Christ, your

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Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for the 8th

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Sunday after Trinity is taken from the prophet Jeremiah chapter 23. Thus says the

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Lord of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.

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They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the

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Lord, It shall be well with you. And to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say,

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No disaster shall come upon you. For who among them has stood in the counsel of the Lord to see and to hear his word?

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Or who has paid attention to his word and listened? Behold, the storm of the

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Lord. Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest. It will burst upon the head of the wicked.

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The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart.

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In the latter days you will understand it clearly. I did not send the prophets, yet they ran.

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I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people.

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And they would have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds. Am I a

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God at hand, declares the Lord? And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that he cannot see him?

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I, declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord? I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying,

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I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell to one another.

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Even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal, let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully.

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What has straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord? Is not my word like fire, declares the

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Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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We'll speak the gradual together. Be a rock of refuge for me.

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A strong fortress to save me. In you, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.

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Our second reading is taken from Acts chapter 20. Paul said,

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For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

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Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

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I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

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Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.

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And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified.

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I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands minister to my necessities and to those who were with me.

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In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the

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Lord Jesus how he himself said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

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And when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and there was much weeping on the part of all and they embraced

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Paul and they kissed him being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again and they accompanied him to the ship.

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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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Matthew the seventh chapter. Jesus said,

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Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

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You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

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So every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.

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A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

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Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my

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Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name and then

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I will declare to them I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness. This is the

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Gospel of the Lord. We confess our faith together in the words of the

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Nicene Creed. I believe in one

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God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible and in one

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Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his

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Father before all worlds God of God, light of light, very

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God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the

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Father by whom all things were made who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the

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Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the

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Father and he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead whose kingdom will have no end and I believe in the

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Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the

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Son who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified who spoke by the prophets and I believe in one holy

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Christian and apostolic Church I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come

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Amen You may be seated Amen In the name of Jesus Hear again the words of Jesus Christ Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves who will recognize them by their fruits

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I would note that within the charismatic movement in a lot of churches and evangelicalism today, false prophets are just not a concern

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They don't particularly care about people who are giving false prophecies. In fact, they encourage people to stretch out in faith, to take a risk and see if they can hear

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God's voice and then communicate it and tell others what God is telling them. This is to train people in blasphemy

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Remember the second commandment The Calvinists are wrong by the way The second commandment has nothing to do with making graven images.

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The second commandment has to do with taking God's name in vain and misusing it

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Luther asks the question, what does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not, what?

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We do not use God's name We do not use satanic arts, liar, deceived by God's name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks

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That being the case, everybody who speaks falsely who says that they have words from God that God has not given them they are guilty of breaking this commandment.

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And you're going to note here, you're going to sit there and go listen, we're at Congs of Inger Lutheran Church Pastor Roseborough has been teaching us to not listen to false prophets via prophecy bingo and what a fun game that is

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I would remind you of the words of the Apostle Paul in our epistle text our second reading.

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The Apostle Paul as he was getting ready to depart noted that he had spent three years in Ephesus preaching to them night and day even doing so with tears and he told them that after he left that fierce wolves would rise up amongst them and teach twisted things.

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So note then that God is warning us because just because you have a faithful pastor at the moment doesn't mean you're going to have a faithful pastor in the future and you'll note that we human beings are prone to follow after fads and when the major part of the visible church follows after a fad and does the latest and greatest thing, you think of like the purpose driven life or something like that everybody had to do purpose driven life bible studies, right?

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You'll note that God requires you to test that against the scriptures before you start heading down that road and so the idea here is that if you think that you are standing, beware lest you fall we in our own strength are not capable of fully protecting ourselves against deceit we must rely on God His word and the

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Holy Spirit so do not approach this with some kind of pride saying listen we've got this one in the bag you know how tempting it was for me to sit there and go oh it's false prophet

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Sunday I think I could just coast this sermon in, right? No can't do that.

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So let's take a look at a few things here in our gospel text Christ says you're going to recognize them by their fruits and he asks the question are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

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Listen I do not have an agricultural degree, okay? None of the farmers here are asking me for advice when it comes to planting their crops or things like this but I'm pretty sure that grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes and figs are not gathered from thistles

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I'm pretty sure of that so much so I'd be willing to bet money on it but this is the point and you'll know that there are a lot of people running around today and who are saying listen we're in the era of the new covenant and old testament prophets they were required to be 100 % accurate but now in the new testament we don't need perfectly accurate prophets and they say that's not the standard of scripture for the new testament

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I would note that Jesus didn't say these words, listen, sometimes healthy trees lay bad eggs from time to time a healthy tree is just going to put out a piece of fruit he doesn't say that, by the way it's not in the scripture

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I'm just summarizing, okay? Jesus says every healthy tree bears good fruit but the diseased tree bears bad fruit a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit does that sound like Jesus is making room for false prophecies in the new covenant which then we can sit there and go well

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I know that they told us that God told them that Trump was going to win in 2020 and he didn't but that doesn't make them a false prophet isn't that bad fruit?

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I think that's bad fruit and not only is it bad fruit it shows that we're dealing with a bad tree and by the way all the new

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Trump prophets they are out in force since last weekend oh the internet is full of them in fact there's one particular one that is making the rounds because this guy gave a prophecy that appears on the surface to be a true one let me tell you about this guy

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I think he goes by the last name of Biggs and this fellow back in March of this year on his prophetic

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YouTube channel, what's a prophetic YouTube channel? well he's hearing from God all the time and he's making videos about it all the time and if you look at some of the weird videos he's put up it's just nonsense right?

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well it just so happens in March of this year he prophesied that there would be an assassination attempt against former

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President Trump and I would note do you have to be a prophet to think that there would have been

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I remember Tucker Carlson saying a few things a few weeks back about there being a potential assassination attempt against Trump because of the rhetoric that was being spoken by the left on this matter and last time

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I checked Tucker Carlson does not have a prophetic YouTube channel does he even claim to be a

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Christian? I'm not even sure so you'll note that's not very miraculous and plus political assassinations during election cycles seems to be a part of our tradition now here in the

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United States think of Robert Kennedy and others this isn't exactly a stretch but here's the part that really got everyone's attention he said that during the assassination attempt the bullet would miss it would whiz by his ear and you sit there and go

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WOW God must have told him that oh wait there's more he said that the bullet would break

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Trump's eardrum because of the sonic boom and that when he fell to the ground he would ask

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Jesus into his heart and come up praising God having been filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues so let me see if I got this right what he got correct was assassination attempt and the word ear okay and everything else falls apart after that did he really prophesy?

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and considering the fact that we can look at his prophetic record by looking at his YouTube channel it's just filled with nonsense in fact

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I plan on featuring him in the next prophecy bingo because there are some buzz words coming out of his face that just would make for some good bingo this guy is not a true prophet he might have got a little bit right but the rest he got wrong is that good fruit?

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or is it bad fruit? it's bad fruit so note here using

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Jesus' own standard we can rule this guy out but think then about our

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Old Testament text note what God says in verse 26 of Jeremiah 23 thus says the

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Lord of hosts now in the word host it's a good thing to review this from time to time what is a host?

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when we think of hosts we think of people who like serve drinks and things like this that's not what the

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Lord of hosts is so whenever you see this in your Bible hosts in the Old Testament the

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Hebrew word behind that is sabba and it means army the Lord of armies thus says

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Yahweh of armies and listen to this tell me if this is a command or not do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you filling you with vain hopes they speak visions of their own minds not from the mouth of Yahweh they say continually to those who despise the word of Yahweh it shall be well with you and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart they say no disaster shall come upon you does

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God want us to listen to people who do these things no that's the point this command although it was given in the

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Old Testament still applies today this is why in 1st John chapter 4 we are admonished and commanded by God the

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Holy Spirit to test the prophets to test the spirits so you'll know that back in Jeremiah's day they had a

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YouTube prophet problem too the only thing is that YouTube hadn't been invented yet and so what were the prophets of Jeremiah his time doing oh they were telling everything was going to be well with them and you'll know when somebody claims to be hearing from God today

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I would know they say oh listen we're going to give a prophecy and this is for everybody that God has told me to tell you that there is an upcoming season a breakthrough that God is you're the head and not the tail and you're the bees knees in God's eyes and he's going to be sending you prosperity and health and all the things you're going to be looking for those of you who listen to these prophets they might even tell you he's going to give you well behaved children and I know some of you are saying that would be nice but the children are listening going yeah right right challenge accepted what are they doing they're promising

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God's blessings without repentance they are promising

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God's blessings to those who despise his words and refuse to obey

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God's command to not listen to Yahoo's like this do you think that just because somebody put a

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YouTube video up that God's going to be releasing suddenlies and breakthroughs and prosperity and well behaved children all over the world to people who just watch that video regardless of whether or not they are a penitent believer in Jesus Christ not on your life and by the way if you want well behaved children spare the rod spoil the child the scripture says discipline is cold when it comes to things like that not magic ideas about prophecies and God releasing stuff like that so you'll know in Jeremiah's days the false prophets they were speaking all kinds of nonsense and they were speaking it to people who were steeped in idolatry they were steeped in sexual sin they were steeped in injustice and they were steeped in extorting money from the poor and oppressing them you think

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God was about to bless them no in fact God sent the prophet Jeremiah and Jeremiah was as popular in his day as a pile of manure is today people there did not want to listen to him they did not like him because what was

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Jeremiah prophesying he was prophesying repent of your idolatry otherwise

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God's going to send for the armies of Nebuchadnezzar he's going to come and he's going to defeat you and there's only going to be a remnant of you left oh and by the way if you want to survive the armed attacks of Nebuchadnezzar's army you're going to have to do one thing you're going to have to surrender to him and everybody who surrenders to Nebuchadnezzar will live and they will have their life as a prize of war and everybody who resists and disobeys

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God and his command to submit to Nebuchadnezzar where would they end up dead that's what

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God said and who made good on his word God did make good on his word so you're going to note here

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Jeremiah was a true prophet and when we look at the biblical standards for true prophets true prophets words will always be fulfilled always because they're not speaking their own words they're speaking words from God and God is not a blathering idiot who doesn't know what the future is going to bring nor does is

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God senile and incompetent mentally so that when he says he's going to do a thing he forgets to follow through instead

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God knows full well that when he raises up a prophet and he says something's going to happen it's going to happen

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Deuteronomy makes this very clear in chapter 18 if a prophet says something's going to occur and it doesn't take place well what do you do with him you stone him and so this is the case and so there's a wonderful story is it really wonderful though it is an interesting story in Jeremiah chapter 28 there's five chapters after our

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Old Testament text today and in Jeremiah 28 Jeremiah has a run -in with a false prophet fellow by the name of Hananiah the son of Azer and Hananiah was one of these guys who set up his own

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YouTube channel and he prophesied the nonsense of his own heart and he was telling people what they wanted to hear by Jeremiah 28

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God had already sent Nebuchadnezzar the first time he's going to send him two more times he's already sent him once and he's already taken all of the utensils out of the temple of God Solomon's temple is now utensil -less those have been removed from the temple and the first wave of exiles has now gone into exile in Babylon and what did everybody want to hear well they wanted to believe that what had happened to them was evil was brought on them by Satan and that God was going to deliver them and he was going to defeat their enemy but who sent

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Nebuchadnezzar God did so Hananiah decided he was going to contradict

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Jeremiah and at this point a little more context God had told

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Jeremiah to create kind of a prophetic prop if you would prophetic prop was a yoke if you don't know what a yoke is back in the day they didn't have combines and things like this so in order to till up the ground you'd have to put two oxen together under a yoke and then they'd be able to pull a plow and dig the holes necessary to plant crops so God told

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Jeremiah to make himself a prop to make himself a yoke and Jeremiah was going about the business of prophesying and telling

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Judah that they needed to submit themselves to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar well this got

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Hananiah's hackles up and he decided that he was going to give a contradictory prophecy

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Jeremiah 28 says in that same year at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah in the fifth month of the fourth year

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Hananiah the son of Azer the prophet from Gibeon spoke to me in the house of Yahweh in the presence of the priests and all the people saying thus says

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Yahweh of armies the God of Israel I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon and within two years

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I will bring back to this place all the vessels of Yahweh's house which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon I will also bring back to this place

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Jeconiah the son of Jehoiachin the king of Judah and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon declares

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Yahweh for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon well now we got a problem we have dueling prophecies how are we to distinguish who's telling the truth and who's telling a lie who was truly sent by God and who was sent well not by God maybe by Satan maybe by his own delusional mind right and so that's the question that's before us the prophet

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Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh and the prophet

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Jeremiah said amen way to go Hananiah way to go may

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Yahweh do so and may Yahweh make the words that you prophesied come true and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles yet hear this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people the prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times they prophesied war famine pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms and as for the prophet who prophesies peace you'll note that what

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Jeremiah's pointing out here is that Hananiah is kind of like that game that you used to listen to or watch on Sesame Street right remember the game one of these things is not like the other one of these things is not the same right find out what doesn't belong is the idea here and so Jeremiah points out listen the prophets of the past they prophesied war and pestilence calling countries and great kingdoms to repentance but as for the prophet who prophesies peace that doesn't sound anything like Isaiah that doesn't sound anything like Micah that doesn't sound anything like the prophets of old as for the prophet who prophesies peace note the words when when the word of that prophet comes to pass then it will be known that Yahweh has truly sent the prophet so then

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Hananiah took the yoke bars from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and he broke them was it

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Peter Townsend he used to break his telecasters on stage you know just get up there at the end of the and just smash those things see they pull a

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Peter Townsend here right what a good waste of yoke bars and also a good waste of telecasters but that's a whole other story so he broke the bars from Jeremiah and Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying well thus says

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Yahweh even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two years but Jeremiah the prophet went his way now what should happen at this point to Hananiah he's a false prophet and do you think this is his first false prophecy does a good tree bear bad fruit does a bad tree bear good fruit who's telling the truth here clearly

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Jeremiah is and so what should have happened to men like Hananiah which

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Judah wasn't doing which they were called upon God by Deuteronomy 18 to do is they should have been executing these fellows under the

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Mosaic covenant under the theocracy of Israel God made it very clear that those who blaspheme

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God's name by giving prophecies that he hasn't given them to give that the punishment for this crime is death death penalty for false prophets so he's supposed to die do you think

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Judah in their state of apostasy is about to kill and put to death and execute

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Hananiah as an example so that other people will not prophesy falsely not on your life oh don't worry

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God can step in in situations like that if they're not going to do what God word commands them to do never fear

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God will step in he'll take care of it himself so sometime after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke bars from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah you go tell

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Hananiah thus says Yahweh you've broken wooden bars but you have made in their place bars of iron for thus says

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Yahweh of armies the God of Israel I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve

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Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and they shall serve him for I have given to him even the beasts of the field and Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet

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Hananiah listen Hananiah Yahweh has not sent you and you have made this people trust a lie therefore thus says

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Yahweh behold I will remove you from the face of the earth and this year you shall die because you have uttered rebellion against Yahweh now a little bit of a note here we heard

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Hananiah's prophecy where in his prophecy did Hananiah say we need to grab our pitchforks and go storm the gates of heaven and depose

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God isn't that what rebellion does it deposes the one who's in authority kills him and puts somebody else in his place you'll note that he didn't overtly do that but it doesn't matter if it was overt or not by giving words that God had not given him and saying that Yahweh was behind it he was giving commands for Yahweh that Yahweh had not commanded in fact they contradicted

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God's clear commands and as a result of it he was uttering complete rebellion against Yahweh the true

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God and God doesn't take that lightly every false prophet is an apostate rebel against Yahweh and anybody claiming to have direct revelation from God and has not passed the test you need to think of them as churchly insurrectionists who are leading a revolt against Jesus himself who seek to depose

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Christ and his word and replace him with Satan and his words that's what rebellion is so in that same year in the 7th month the prophet

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Hananiah he died just like Jeremiah said remember

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Jeremiah's words Jeremiah's words were when the word of the prophet comes to pass then it will be known that the

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Lord has truly sent the prophet who was speaking truth here and who was speaking lies

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Jeremiah was speaking the truth and you're going to note then that now upon this judgment of God with Hananiah dying who represents one of the false prophets of Jeremiah's day

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God then pushes the issue further in Jeremiah chapter 29 God pushes it further by sending an epistle a letter to the exiles in Babylon because it just so happens that some of the

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Hananiah type of yahoo wing nuts made their way to Babylon and they were saying the same nonsensical rebellious words so Jeremiah 29 then says these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles and to the priests and the prophets and all the people whom

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Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon this was after Jeconiah and the queen mother the eunuchs and the officials of Judah and Jerusalem the craftsmen and the metal workers they had departed from Jerusalem and this letter was sent by the hand of Elisa the son of Shaphan and Gamariah the son of Hilkiah whom

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Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and here's what the letter said thus says

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Yahweh of armies the God of Israel to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses live in them plant gardens and eat their produce take wives and have sons and daughters take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to Yahweh on its behalf for it is welfare you will find your welfare for thus says the

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Lord of armies the God of Israel do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you and do not listen to the dreams that they dream for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name

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I did not send them declares Yahweh for thus says

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Yahweh when 70 years are completed for Babylon then I will visit you and will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place false prophets were saying in two years two years two years

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Jeremiah says no 70 and God was behind it and who was right how long did it take for the exiles to return 70 years so brothers and sisters note the standard is simple anybody claiming to be speaking for God who is incapable of rightly telling you what the future will be despite the fact they are giving future prophecies they are false prophets and God does not will for you to listen to them take note of the end of Hananiah also true prophets teach what are consistent with the scriptures they don't twist

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God's word and in this regard we have to take something into consideration and that is this all pastors

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I'm going to say a phrase that's going to sound stupid but hang on a second here for every pastor there is a prophetic dimension to their preaching and when

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I use the word prophetic dimension I sound like I should go on Sid Roth's It's Supernatural like next week let's talk about the prophetic dimension of preaching no here's the thing and what

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I mean by prophetic dimension is that every pastor has been tasked by God to preach the word in season out of season and we are admonished in fact commanded by God to preach the word as taught we don't get to put our own spin on it

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God wants us to rightly handle to rightly divide his word and even the apostle Peter in his first epistle makes it clear that pastors who preach the word are to preach as if they are preaching the very oracles of God because they are that being the case note something here is that if pastors have to preach the word correctly how much more should somebody be required to preach the word correctly is somebody who claims that they are hearing directly from God and yet I can tell you without a single exception

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I have never run into a person's ministry a prophetic ministry somebody claiming that they are a prophet today who was capable of rightly handling a biblical text it's the craziest thing but note here this does then become one of the standards and here's the reason why in 2

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Peter chapter 1 verse 16 Peter writes we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and the coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty for when he received honor and glory from God the father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory this is my beloved son with whom

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I am well pleased we ourselves we heard this very voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and yet we have the prophetic word the what?

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the prophetic word the prophetic word more fully confirmed to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns in the morning star rises in your hearts knowing this first of all no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit so note then all of scripture the prophetic word

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Peter calls it is inspired by God the Holy Spirit it's it's God breathed so if somebody's claiming

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I'm hearing from God the Holy Spirit and he's told me to tell you X Y and Z right listen carefully to that person then and how they handle

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God's word as soon as they start twisting it up and making it say things it isn't saying that's an absolute sure sign that's bad fruit that they're not hearing from God the

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Holy Spirit because God the Holy Spirit is the one who in producing the scriptures did so not from people's own interpretations and he doesn't want my interpretation or anyone else's interpretation muddying up his word therefore when somebody twists it up you know for sure you're dealing with a false prophet and if they're claiming to hear from God then why isn't

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God the Holy Spirit speaking to them going hey stop twisting my word right if they were really hearing from God God would be telling them to repent of their false doctrine and their

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Bible twisting which is proof that they're not hearing from God and I would also note that true prophets they encourage repentance like God's word the prophets of old they call people to repent of their sin their idolatry their adultery their thieving their misbehaving and rebelling against governing authorities and call them to repentance and assure them that there is forgiveness for all who repent true prophets do that don't believe me read the old testament prophets it's all over the place false prophets they tell people what they want to hear and then also a true prophet's life reflects their divine call which of the true prophets of God and I'm going to just kind of ask this which of the true prophets of God were out there wantonly committing sex crimes and things like this and I would note

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I don't think it is a coincidence that two of the major leaders within the new apostolic reformation in the past 12 months have been exposed for horrific sexual crimes not just sexual sin but crimes you think of Mike Bickle of the international house of prayer and boy that was kind of a mainstay you know ground zero church for the new apostolic reformation for today's modern prophetic movement and turns out that a while back

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Mike Bickle sexually assaulted a 14 year old girl and if that wasn't enough well one of the major leaders within the new apostolic reformation who's written a book

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Robert Morris who's written a book about how to hear the voice of God I think it's called frequency turns out he had sexually assaulted a 12 year old girl long before he was a mega church pastor

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I don't think these things are coincidences I don't think they are at all in fact

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I would note it seems to be a recurring theme that people claiming to be prophets today that they are as scripture warns us they are not only waterless rain clouds but they are blots and blemishes that are love feasts and they have eyes full of adultery scripture describes them in such ways so brothers and sisters

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I think we've learned quite a bit about false prophets but let me remind you of their fate

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Jesus talking about the fact that we will recognize them by their fruit notes then not everyone who says to me

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Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven and here's where the rub is so many people have a laissez faire attitude regarding people claiming to be prophets today that basically the only rule for being able to hear them is they have to claim that Jesus is their savior well

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Jesus says that the wolves come to us in sheep's clothing and they come to us in Jesus' name

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I have yet to see a false prophet saying I come to you Christians in the name of Shiva and Vishnu ok never seen that it just isn't going to happen because nobody would listen to them they have to actually put on the sheep's skin right?

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so Christ then unmasks and pulls the sheep's skin off to show the wolves and here's what he says not everyone who says to me

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Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven on that day many not some many think about the tragedy here many will say to me

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Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name where are they doing all this stuff?

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in the visible church right? on YouTube and other places this sounds exactly like today's new apostolic reformation we have prophets and apostles aplenty casting out demons and doing deliverance stuff and claiming to do mighty works in God's name like you know lengthening legs and things like that Jesus says to them

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I declare I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness so no

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Christ doesn't have the highest opinion and doesn't sit there and go well you know I'm glad that you had at least a 36 % accurate prophetic record he doesn't say stuff like this instead he says that their fate is hell and so we must take that into consideration and here's the thing not only is that the fate of these leaders who spouted these false prophecies this is also the fate of those who listened to them and followed them in the rebellion and exchanged the wholesome and true words of scripture for the false prophecies and nonsense of these wing nut wacker doodles so note this is the fate of all who go down the road of rebellion against God's command to not take his name in vain and here's where we have to then seek the gospel because I can tell you without blushing that I am guilty of speaking words for God that God has not given me to speak

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I have spent time in the latter reign movement Barb and I both and the things we said and did are beyond blasphemous

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I know that some of you come from bad churches and that you have been guilty of also doing the same so you're going to note we need to hear words of comfort because these words that I have given up to this point condemn every one of us and so where can we find grace well

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I would come back to that primary text from Deuteronomy 18 in Deuteronomy 18

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Yahweh gives a prophecy about a prophet that he will raise up Yahweh your

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God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you Moses says from your brothers it is to him you shall listen just as you desired of Yahweh your

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God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire anymore lest I die the

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Lord said to me they are right in what they have spoken now let me kind of summarize that you think about the children of Israel having been brought out of slavery they were there at the base of Mount Sinai and God descended on the top of Mount Sinai the whole top of the mountain itself was on fire smoke rising from it and when the ten commandments were delivered there was a sound of a heavenly trumpet blast accompanying each of the commandments and the voice of God thundered and boomed

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I mean this is as terrifying as a scene as it gets and so when they heard the law given by God verbally it was done so in a way that shook them to their core you shall have no other gods before me right you shall remember the

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Sabbath day to keep it holy you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery boom crash right and in a very real way scripture is very clear on this it's

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Moses who brought us the law but Christ brings us something else and so this prophecy of Moses is not to enforce the condemning aspect of God's law and God's law does condemn us all rightly

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God says they're right in what they've spoken the law has terrified them so I will raise up for them a prophet like you

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Moses from among their brothers I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I have commanded him whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name

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I will required of him but the prophet presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded or speaks in the name of other gods that prophet shall die so here we have a prophecy regarding Christ and God says that he will put words in the mouth of Christ Jesus makes it clear during his earthly ministry that he only spoke the words that the father had given him so what were the words that Jesus has given what did he say the words given to him by the father he spoke words like this

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God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life

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God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him

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Jesus said to his apostles receive the Holy Spirit the sins you forgive will have already been forgiven the sins you retain are retained and so you'll note that Jesus is not like Moses at all and the words that he has been given by the father are words of comfort of words of forgiveness words of peace and being reconciled to God by the death burial resurrection of Christ in fact

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Jesus is a true prophet how do we know because his words came true remember when Jesus went into Jerusalem one time and he made a cord a whip out of cords and he drove the money changers out scattered all their tables and said stop making my father's house into a house of business and trade and so the leaders of the temple came up to Jesus and said what sign do you give us to show us that you have the authority to be doing these things and Jesus said tear down this temple

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I'll build it again in three days it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you're going to rebuild it in three days right

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Jesus but the text says the temple he was referring to was the temple of his body Jesus prophesied his death but more than that Jesus prophesied something more amazing his resurrection and so brothers and sisters

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Jesus truly is the prophet that God prophesied would come through Moses and we must listen to him he calls each and every one of us to repent of our sins and he gives us words of comfort words of grace words of mercy and assures us that he has suffered bled and died for your sins and mine and carried upon himself the sins of the world and that through him there isn't condemnation from God as we all rightly deserve instead there is mercy pardon and grace and the record of debt that stood against us with all of its legal demands

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Christ himself has nailed to the cross and set it aside so that God will not condemn us but give us something that we don't deserve eternal life forgiveness of our sins all is a gift and you'll note that you hear these words from no other prophet than Jesus and his apostles were sent with his authority to preach this gospel that in him there is the forgiveness of sins so brothers and sisters let us stop listening to voices that God has told us not to listen to let us repent of those voices that we have listened to that God has told us not to listen to and let us help our erring brothers and sisters who've come under the sway of those whom they are commanded by God not to listen to and let us be diligent in showing the false fruit that shows the bad tree that they are but let us stick to the good tree

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Jesus who was nailed to the cross the tree of the cross so that we can be forgiven and you'll note that a good tree like the cross only bears good fruit and it's only through the cross that we have the fruit of our salvation won by Christ in the name of Jesus amen we rise to sing the offertory in peace let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy for constancy in the word of God that he who purchased us by his own blood would keep us from arrogance short sightedness and the many wolves that prowl and seek our harm let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy for all the baptized children of our father adopted in the son by the spirit that they would be kept in their baptism remember everyday and always be comforted by it in times of suffering with the hope of eternal inheritance prepared for us in Christ let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy for all members of Christ's church that we may rely upon his truth as our rock and our foundation amid the shifting sand of doubt and fear let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy for all governing authorities that they would fear God and foster peace for our people that God would look favorably on them and for our youth that they would be brought up in discipline and in the right knowledge of Christ recognizing both

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God's law and the way of salvation through him alone let us pray to the Lord Lord have mercy for all who need healing strength and comfort especially today do we lift before you

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Jacob Elizabeth Carol Susan Sheila Luca and Tony we pray for Brianna Gideon Pat Kim Patricia David Roger Robin and Bonnie Mara Nia Jonathan Jeff Wendy Renee Louise Deborah Rachel and Gloria we also pray for Pat and Heather and Gilman and also for those who mourn the family of Evangeline Teagan the

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Holloway family and the family of Gus Garlinghouse we also pray for those who are in danger or persecuted we pray for Marie and Charles as well as those who are unbelievers and are spiritually deceived we lift before you

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Christine Terry JP Corey Ryan Jess Gabriel Karen and Tara we ask

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Lord that they would all be defended from the attacks of the evil one and able to join in God's praise let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy for a hunger and a thirst for the life giving food of the blessed sacrament that God would keep unbelief and impenitence far from his table and that he would unite us in the fellowship of the pure teaching of the apostles and the prophets so that we would give no offense and bring no division but eat and drink in faith for the forgiveness of sins and the unity of a true confession let us pray to the

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Lord Lord have mercy Lord God Heavenly Father we thank you that you have brought us to the knowledge of your word graciously keep us steadfast in this knowledge unto death that we may obtain eternal life send us pious pastors who will faithfully preach your word without offense or falsehood and grant them long life defend us from all false teachings and frustrate those who pervert your word who would come in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves so that your true church may be established among us always and be defended and preserved from such false teachers through Jesus Christ your son our