Pastors of Apologia Address Riots

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the word of God.

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So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian church under the care of qualified faithful biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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I do want to encourage you as a minister of the gospel to get plugged into a local body of believers, particularly

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I think important a reformed church would be best. But we want to encourage you to get plugged into a solid biblical church where you can fellowship, where you can worship, where you can serve, where you can be connected.

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as again as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that he's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can partner with us. And I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Each of the elders desires to share with you some words of encouragement at this difficult time in our society.

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And as soon as that was mentioned, I could not help but thinking of Jesus's words to the disciples in the gospel of John chapter 14.

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And even though I tried to think of other places to go, I couldn't.

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So hopefully this is where the Lord would have us to be. And when

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I began looking at John chapter 14, I opened the text on my phone in the ancient manuscript called

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Codex Sinaiticus. Now, why would I do that? I I'll tell you honestly, it has nothing to do with textual readings or anything else.

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I've seen Sinaiticus. I saw it in 2005 in the British Museum in London.

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And as I looked at that Codex, which may have been written as early as the

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Council of Nicaea, maybe a few decades later, I, of course, was amazed at the providence of God in the preservation of this manuscript for so many centuries.

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But at the same time, what I thought about was a song we don't sing very often.

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In fact, I'm not even sure we have sung it. Elliot, have we ever sung Ancient Words? Put that on the list, brother.

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Elliot's getting his pen out. And there's a modern hymn, a song called

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Ancient Words. And it reminds us that when you open your

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Bible, when you read those English words on that page, or now we read in our phones, whatever it might be, we are reading ancient words, ancient words revealed by the power and wisdom of God and the purpose of God.

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But they are not, as our society would say, ancient words and therefore no longer relevant to us.

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They are ancient words that God has intended for every generation to honor and to believe and to count precious.

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And I began thinking as I looked at these words in their ancient form of how many believers like you and I have faced incredibly difficult situations very, very different than what we are facing now.

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And yet just as challenging, just as frightening as anything that we would face today.

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And they found these words, these ancient words to be true in their experience.

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We are not the first people to face the meltdown of a culture.

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Many believers have been faithful to their confession of faith in Jesus Christ in nations that no longer exist on the face of this planet.

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Christians have named as their national origin names of nations that some of us have never even heard of.

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And they saw the end of those nations. I am not saying that is what is happening here, but they themselves remain faithful to the message because they heard

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Jesus's words. What does he say? Remember before we look at these words, remember what the context here is.

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Jesus is telling the disciples the hour has come. The hour has come.

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I am going to be going away. I am going back to the Father. And you are going to be the ones to take my message of what

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I am going to accomplish into a very hostile world.

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Now they know what that means. This is the same group that has been so divided.

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This is the same group that has been arguing about who is going to be the greatest. They are still arguing about it this night.

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Who is going to be the greatest amongst them? And Jesus is saying, okay guys, the hour has come.

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I am going to go back into the presence of the Father. And in the midst of that, what does he say?

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Do not let your hearts be troubled, stirred up, moved out of its place.

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Well, that is easy for you to say, Lord. You are going back into the presence of the

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Father. Do not let your hearts be troubled. We had the blessing this past weekend, last night, to have our two oldest granddaughters stay with us.

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I do not want anybody to be looking at them over there, but we dragged them out of bed this morning at 4 .30

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in the morning to go for a run. I am not sure they are ever coming back to Nonny and Bunkle's again.

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But at 4 .30 in the morning, I stood in the hallway of our home and I sang the song from Oklahoma.

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Oh, what a beautiful morning. Can you imagine waking up to that? That is how they woke up this morning.

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Actually, Clementine slept through it. That is what is frightening to me. I do not know how you do that. Later in the day,

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I was talking with them and I talked to them about cardia. Cardia.

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That is the word that is found right here. Let not your cardia be troubled. If you go to a cardiologist, it is a person who studies the heart.

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That is what the Greek word for heart is. Let not your heart be troubled.

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Now, the heart in the New Testament is the very center of our emotion as well as the definitional place of who we are.

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We are to set aside Christ as Lord, as Yahweh, in our hearts. It is not just the physical beating organ.

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But mankind has always known, when that stops, you stop. That is the center. That is the most important thing right there.

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And for many people today, we have been taught that we really cannot control this.

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What goes on in here is beyond our control. In fact, we are just the result of genetics and our upbringing and all this type of stuff.

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It is beyond our ability to control. And right now, my goodness, think about it.

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How many of our fellow citizens, they were already panicked because of a virus.

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And now it looks like society is melting down around them. You want panic?

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You want the most easily? You want to know who is most susceptible to being controlled?

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People who are in a state of panic. People who are in a state of panic. People who are in panic do not think about the future.

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They do not think about things down the road. And we have been told this heart thing, it is beyond our ability to control.

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But Jesus says to believers, do not let your heart be troubled. What does that imply?

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That means for believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, we do not have to be subject to the panic of the world.

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Our hearts can, in fact, experience the peace of God that is promised to us in Scripture.

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That is not what the world will tell you. Almost everything you are watching on television right now will tell you the opposite.

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You are out of control. Everything is out of control. There is no control. God is not accomplishing anything in this.

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That is what the world tells you. Jesus says to you, do not let your heart be troubled.

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That means you and I need to make it a priority. That on the one hand, do we need to know what is going on?

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Yes, we need to make wise decisions, don't we? We need to make wise decisions.

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We need to act on principle. But it also means that we cannot be carried away in the way that this world would want to carry us away.

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We are not to let our hearts be troubled. Now, as you probably know, in various translations, there are different ways of understanding the rest of this verse.

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It could be you believe in God, that is being stated as a reality, you believe in God, believe also in me.

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Or it could be believe in God, imperative command, believe also in me. In the

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Greek language, those forms are synonymous with one another as far as the form is concerned.

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So it could be taken either way. It could be you believe in God, believe also in me.

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Or believe in God, believe also in me. The point is this, whichever way you take it,

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I mean, these are Jewish men, so I suppose you could sort of as a default say they believe in God. But Jesus says believe also in me on the very same level.

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On the very same level. Now, we could expand upon this and make applications to Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons and all sorts of other people.

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We're not doing that today. Here's the point. The world primarily hears about a

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Jesus who was a moral teacher who died under the Romans 2 ,000 years ago.

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Our role is to show them by living our lives under his lordship, that while he died on a

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Roman cross 2 ,000 years ago, he rose from the dead.

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He is building his church. He is living by his spirit in you and I.

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He is reigning over his people. And he is coming again.

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Are you out there? That's what we are called to do and to be.

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So the reason, see, a reason is given to us, let not your hearts be troubled.

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Because God entered his own creation. Let not your hearts be troubled.

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You have not been left alone. These disciples are not going to be left alone.

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The promises of John 14 and 16 in particular is, I will send my spirit and he will empower you.

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You will not be left alone. We have not been left alone. The same spirit that was powerful enough to raise

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Jesus from the dead is with us to this day. And so why should your heart not be troubled?

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Because you believe in God and you are to believe also in Jesus who is

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God incarnate, the son made flesh. That's what the message of the gospel of John has been.

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John 1 -1 will be all the way through John 20 -28 when Thomas is going to say, my

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Lord and my God. And he is the one we serve.

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He has all power. He has all authority. And so why should my heart ever be troubled if my heart is focused in its faith upon Jesus Christ?

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The temptation that is going to face us is to become so focused upon what's going on in our time to lose the reality that the only thing that can make sense of the insanity we see around us is if we look at it in the light of the empty tomb.

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That puts everything in perspective. Everything in perspective. Nothing has changed for the

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Christian. Nothing can ever change the reality that Jesus is

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Lord of all and he is reigning and we are called to live in light of that reality.

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That's how your heart cannot be troubled. Pastor Jeff.

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I got to do the anti -James and move the mic up. I want to set a few things.

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I've kind of been scrambling a little bit here this afternoon to write down my thoughts. So hopefully I can portray these in a in a cogent manner.

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So just a few things I've been thinking a lot. I mean even today with the curfew stuff

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Pastor Jeff had a whole sermon prepared and we kind of scrapped at the last minute so that we could just encourage the flock today and there was a lot of confusion and probably fear and so we wanted to address that.

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One thing I wanted to mention was just I'm sure a lot of you have noticed that God has really been blessing us our church body during this time and we're super as pastors we're super grateful and thankful for that.

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We've actually I've mentioned this but we've had more people approach us offering help than we've had people that needed help which has been amazing.

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I'll be honest with me going back next week. I don't we've had so many visitors I don't know how many people are sticking with us when we go back.

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It's gonna be interesting to see so we've been having a lot of people come and visit. We've had people coming from out of state just to come to church here.

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A lot of people from California that are just wanted a church to meet in so we're super grateful to God for blessing us during this time and I really truly believe

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I've said this I believe that God's been that God's blessing us because we've we've tried to be faithful to him and to his word and to continue to meet and It's Just for some transparency it's been challenging for us as pastors at times just because You know, we've we've intentionally not tried to condemn other pastors for not meaning especially when this first started

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But at what point do you say that okay enough is enough pastors we need to Get get to meeting, right?

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And i'll just i'll just be honest. I've been very Discouraged if not angry at times to see comments from pastors around the nation that um have made comments like oh now

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I have all this free time to write the discipleship material I always wanted and you know stuff like that and it's and to me, it's like that's laziness and cowardice and Um, and it's so I am so thankful to just our church body for having the courage and desire to keep meeting during this time and i've said this a lot to to other pastors and the people i've met with and I really truly believe and going off what pastor james said god's completely sovereign over this, right?

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He knows none of this is happening without without him knowing it And I really truly believe that during this time, this is god pruning his church.

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This is god um And we're seeing that I think we're seeing churches. There's probably churches that close their doors because of this um, and I really truly believe that god is just he's cleansing his church and he's building it up he's

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And and now is the time for reformation, right? These are the sort of events that take place where you see reformation and cultures and I know it's

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Been the thing we've talked about a lot is just it's it's uh Preaching the gospel and being a light to the world during this time and so I I truly believe that we're going to see reformation out of this and part of that is because God's smashing the idols of our culture uh money comfort jobs um, um

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Medicare you name it like people's idols are being smashed and Through that process what you see is that?

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People's identities They don't exist anymore what they had identity and it's gone that idolatry that they had has been smashed

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And so there's there's a lack of logical response uh and a lack of making decisions based upon principle and objective truth and I Yesterday we were at the mill and Uh, if you watched the live stream, we did it all you may have seen this guy ride by on his bicycle

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You know, it's 115 degrees out or whatever. He rides by in his bicycle with a crocheted

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Mask think about that And he rode by again later

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And I was just like what are you doing? And I know I know pastor james saw him because I was wearing a live feed

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I'm, like trying not to laugh because I didn't see this guy riding by with a crochet I'm, like, what do you what is that? There's holes. What are you even trying to do?

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So just the lack of logic you see in people's response. Um when you're not grounded in truth, you're going to make silly decisions like that And and again as a moment of transparency,

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I told my wife every time I go to the store I literally have to sit in the car and pray before I go into the store because I get angry

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It's just the craziness of people making decisions that don't make any sense And i'm literally walking through the store like just deep in prayer like lord give me strength

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And but again when you when your idols are smashed when you're not grounded in truth When there's nothing objective in your life saying this is smart and this is not smart

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You the result is that? And these are the people that need jesus and uh um

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One thing I mentioned on the radio show this week if you guys happen to catch it uh, nobody thinks about the side effects of tyranny

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And we're witnessing that right now, you know this the riots and the looting

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Uh, we were saying pastor jeff and I were saying this it's just it's a powder keg just waiting to explode Because people have had enough of the injustice and of illogical decisions from the top down and again, when you're not grounded in truth, you're people are just angry and they're just looking for a reason to Release that anger and that's what we're seeing.

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And so anarchy then is become a natural side effect of tyranny And so just the two things

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I want to I want to leave before pastors that comes up Is I want to make sure that as a church body we're not taking granted that which god has blessed us with and um again, just I can't tell you how many messages

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We've received from people people that have visited That have been so blessed to have one sunday of the live church service um, god has just blessed us tremendously and so I want us to not

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Take that for granted and to rejoice in that And to and to be thankful for that And with that then what we what we need to make sure we're doing is being that that city on a hill

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That's salt and that light to our culture um We need to be using this as an opportunity to preach the gospel

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To lead people to christ to just to be a shining example Of what it means to be grounded in truth what it means to have uh be standing on an objective standard of morality and justice and logic and principles

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Um what it means to not Have a life driven by idolatry and So as we leave here today,

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I just want to encourage us to just to keep and I know our you guys are amazing Our church body is incredible. I know so many of us do this regularly as it is, but Just in everything whether it be on facebook social media at the store wherever you're at Uh, let's let's use this as an opportunity

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To to grow christ's kingdom. Yeah, he stole everything

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I was about to say Hey, um, you know when we want to encourage you, uh, it's not

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Some people have a mixed or kind of a wrong understanding what encouragement is it's to put courage into And we need it right now.

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Um, just we're going to read you this verse that he just That he just cited says you're the light of the hill city.

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I sat on a hill Cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket But on a stand and it gives light to all the house

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In the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father

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Who is in heaven? so I don't think we don't get like a pass as a church in light of adversity or Circumstances to not be a city on a hill and I think if you track church history when adversity

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Comes upon the church, of course all in line with god's will this is god's sovereign choosing of us all to go through this time

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But you're going to see the church being neutralized because of fear or you'll see the church be emboldened

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Through faith right having their eyes fixed on christ Of course having their perspective being continually washed with a with a biblical worldview

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So we do like pastor luke just said we want to take this opportunity and make the most out of it

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What does that mean for us? That means we're out sharing the gospel that we have jesus on our mouth like pastor

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Jeff just posted last night. Jesus is the answer. What does that mean? Well, it means that if we are to have an answer to the situation

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The answer is the gospel upon our mouths and in our hearts and in our minds

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Because folks it's not going to come through any other people group It's only going to come for through people who have the abiding holy spirit

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Who are equipped to know the true gospel and all of its Indispensable essential components and we're out there in the field

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Not putting or not allowing the situation to put a cover over our lives and it's so it's so tempting

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And I and I get it we have to respond correctly. And of course, this is this is not a guilt trip at all

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What i'm saying is that there is no other person. There's no other people group that can That can elucidate and give this message to this world that so absolutely needs it

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So just a couple how -tos, how do we do that? Of course we go out and we're out at the mill saving babies and we're out preaching the gospel constantly in and through the heat um

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But how can you do I think we have to have it in the home You know, my my kids were talking to me last night and they said hey

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Are these guys going to start coming in the house and I said it'd be a real bad day for these guys

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They enter my house Uh, but they're they're nervous and so we want to be as parents

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Stabilized in the word of god and really want to challenge you to not To not read the news

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Or not watch the news as much as you're focused on the things that are certain in the word

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And allow the words that are coming out of your mouth as parents to be words of truth and words of light

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Because we can get so wrapped up in our fear in the unknown And that can be what we're preaching throughout the house

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And of course, it's going to have an effect on our kids So let's just be preaching the gospel to our children having god's word upon our hearts and also

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Use social media. Well, I How many thousands of conspiracy theories are out there you just scroll down you're like what in the world?

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And it's like you read one conspiracy theory and then you scroll down and there's something totally contradictory to it So it's not conspiracy theory.

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It's it's not even again news that it's going to give you the peace That passes all understanding, of course, it's going to be the word of god so don't get wrapped up in that stuff

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On the on facebook and have that be the light that you're shining out because that's only going to instill fear

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It's not going to have any power to it because it's devoid of god's word. So again Let's focus on the word.

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Let's get the word in and through our homes Let's be out and we got to understand effective evangelism

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It's not just a couple guys doing I talked to a guy at our church a couple weeks ago and he said you know what I'm, just making the most out of this opportunity to talk to my sphere of influence the guys that I or His employees i'm using this to share the gospel with him

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And so that's what I want to challenge you with tonight your sphere of influence and maybe it's just your kids Just be about talking about jesus be about getting jesus into the hearts and minds of the people that you rub shoulders with All right

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Sweet am I still on there you go.

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Okay good Uh philippians chapter 4 is where we were. Don't worry. I'm not starting the sermon you guys like wait, wait, wait

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There's a curfew Which means nothing to me, you know Uh philippians chapter 4 we were in uh, i'll just read it to you.

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I just want to thank god for his providence and bring us In his way to this particular letter from the apostle paul

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Written in the midst of great difficulty, which we can't even begin to understand fully

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But I want to thank god for him bringing us to this as a church body in the midst of the circumstances that we didn't even

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See coming It's tremendous in philippians 4 4 The apostle paul says rejoice in the lord always

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Again, I will say rejoice Let your reasonableness gentleness

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Be known to everyone the lord is at hand Do not be anxious about anything

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But in everything my prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to god

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And the peace of god which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ.

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Jesus Couldn't be anything better than that Right now in this little moment of time that all of us are in that god has granted to us

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Truly gifted to us because he's doing something in the midst of it Remember scripture says in this very same book philippians 1 29

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It's been gifted to you not only to believe in jesus, but also to suffer for his sake. So any suffering you're

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Enduring right now as a child of god Is a gift from god

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Did you hear that? Any suffering you're enduring right now as a child of god is a gift from god how

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Because of what god is doing this is his world he's in control He's the one who declares the end from the beginning.

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Nobody thwarts his Purposes all things work together for good for those who love god and are the called according to his purpose another part of this passage just i'll read the rest of it here right after this it says

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Finally brothers, whatever is true. Whatever is honorable. Whatever is just whatever is pure. Whatever is lovely.

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Whatever is commendable If there is any excellence if there's anything worthy of praise think about these things think about these things

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This little section is ours right now, right? Let's let's as believers Embrace this let it impact us challenge us on a number of levels

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So I just want to say this In terms of where we've been and how we can apply this to where we're at today in these circumstances that god has gifted to us number one rejoice in the lord

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Always remember last week I talked about that kind of doesn't make a lot of human sense

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How do you rejoice in the lord always I talked about what it doesn't mean is the plastic smile

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It doesn't mean the external it doesn't mean that while everything is going to hell in a handbasket the sink

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That the ship is sinking that you just put a fake smile on and you say oh praise god, right?

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For the city burning praise god for the beatings and the trauma and all of the evil praise god.

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No The answer is rejoice in the lord Always and I illustrated what that meant for us as a church body the midst of the in the midst of the tragedy of death

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The rejoicing is in the lord not in the circumstance We're supposed to grieve as believers and cry and even weep over death and difficulty and trauma and all those things

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It makes sense as a believer. We have a worldview that comports with grief and making sense of meaningful grief in those moments where it actually is

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Applicable it matters you ought to grieve at times. But Paul says they always is rejoicing

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In the lord it's him that our rejoicing is in in the midst of a circumstance like this right now

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I'm going to talk about what it means to rejoice in the lord Even now in the midst of cities burning and curfews and lockdowns and economic disaster and all the difficulty all around us

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We should be rejoicing Not in the tragedies not in the trial and the affliction, but we should be rejoicing

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In god and in who he actually is he hasn't changed That's the glory of the true god.

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He does not change and he is in full control and wielding listen

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Wielding even a moment like this as children of god We experience a moment like this and it's difficult because we know the goodness and the justice and the love of our god

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And yet we see a fallen world around us Collapsing and that's difficult for us to grapple with because we know how good and loving god is and how perfect he is and how?

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Just he is and so it's hard to manage like how is god so good? And yet this is so tragic and evil and difficult.

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The answer is it's a fallen world This is the world that we've chosen for ourselves and the particular

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Nation that we live in and the state that we live in and the cities that we live in We've been so impacted by god's truth and his gospel and the biblical worldview and yet our culture has said for so long

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Not your way my way And now we're eating the fruit of it and we wonder how the cities can burn down and people can collapse and Drag women out of businesses and beat them in front of their husbands and all the rest that's going on And the answer is this this is what you asked for You said no to god

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No to his king No to the savior no to his ways no to his righteous statutes

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And you said suppress that truth and go to something else and this is the something else

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This is what we've asked for And so even in a moment like this we could rejoice

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That god is sovereign and he is doing something for his glory and for the kingdom of his son

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Even right now we can rejoice that god is actually in this moment being glorified in his just Punishment and wrath that he's pouring out upon people who would say no to his ways and yes to theirs

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We can rejoice in god in his grace that he pours out in his undeserving mercy Constantly new every morning and we can rejoice in the lord over his justice

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This is a moment where I think you can see or just get a taste of what it means For the kings of the earth to revolt against the true king of the earth and the god of heaven laughs laughs

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God Is being displayed even now in these moments we can rejoice in the lord and we don't need to be anxious or worried because of One the character of our god.

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We know who he is We have certainty about who god is and as pastor james said our hearts don't have to be troubled because the god of all creation

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Stepped into this world and took on flesh and walked among us. You don't have to be troubled god

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Became one of us To redeem a people for himself to give him glory to save them

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We don't have to be anxious because we know god's promises his character. We know his promises We know what god is like and I wanted to give you this this is very important This is a very very hot time great time for books on end times eschatology

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Right end of the world tribulations near what the sky is falling sort of a thing Right.

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It's a great time to be a dispensationalist. It really is If you want to make some money write a book now on the end of the world, you will make some bank right now

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Here's a deal We as christians oftentimes are like the world

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And what I mean Is it's it's a little different but the world Has a hard time seeing 10 feet in front of themselves in terms of the consequences of their decisions and their actions

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Do you ever think about that in light of the last two months the circumstances that we're living in People don't understand that the decisions you're making the things that you're yielding on and all that you're deciding to do

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Is it going to affect your children your grandchildren it's going to affect your job your livelihood

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It's going to affect the amount of food you can put into your mouth or your kids mouths Unbelievers because they don't know god live in a world of chaos and they can't think 10 feet in front of themselves

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But in the same way christians seem to have a hard time thinking 10 years In front of ourselves why because we've bought into a perspective of the future that we just want to escape

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We want to leave we want to get out of here And so what does that do when we live like we want to be out of the world? We remove our light from the world and where there is no light of the church

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Darkness falls on everything light scatters darkness Pastor zach stole my verse

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That was the verse I was going to talk about right the light the church is the light light is supposed to actually scatter

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Darkness, we're the salt of the earth. We're supposed to preserve the world from decay So while unbelievers can't see 10 feet in front of themselves in terms of their decision making and the consequences that they're going to bring on Themselves the church can't see 10 years in front of ourselves to understand that we have a responsibility to be light to the world

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And to preserve the world from spoil and decay that is a command of god. Jesus told you to pray for it

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Told you and I to pray for god's kingdom to come and his will be done Here on this earth as it is in heaven.

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That's the prayer of every believer according to jesus pray this prayer do you think that jesus is asking us to pray that prayer because he

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He thinks somehow the father's not going to fulfill it No, the father is going to fulfill that prayer.

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And so I'm going to tell you about the no anxiousness No worry, no fear about the circumstances around us Jesus is the king now listen that Can become so easily become just this pithy

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Silly christian slogan And I want to just be i'm going to say this. I I believe this I believe that for many of us when we say jesus is the king.

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It is just a slogan. It means nothing It means nothing to the world around us

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It means nothing in terms of our actions and our lives and how we lay our lives down The bible says that he's the ruler of the kings of the earth today.

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Do you believe that? He's the ruler of the kings of the earth today Jesus says matthew 28 18 through 20 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me

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So the message of the church is supposed to go out into the world that jesus is the king You better repent and believe in a hurry salvation and forgiveness is only in jesus

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You better repent because jesus is the king Don't forget the father warns the kings of the earth in psalm chapter 2.

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He says this obey the son Or you'll perish That's a warning from the god of heaven to the kings of the earth

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Jesus is the king He's ruling today on his throne seated at the right hand of the father in first corinthians 15

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The apostle paul gives a timeline of history. He says that he's reigning now He's ruling now and he must reign until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet

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And then the last enemy is death. So here we are in this timeline of history with jesus raised ascended

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Seated with the father and what's what's god tell us every enemy's being put into the feet of jesus and then finally death

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Brothers and sisters. I look around my world today our world today and I see a heck of a lot of enemies

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A lot of enemies. So how do those enemies get subdued? It's not through physical fighting

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It's not through physical exertion the enemies of god get subdued the same way you

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Were subdued by jesus through his gospel The bible says the gospel is the power of god for salvation.

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It's the power of god for salvation You want to see light come into these dark cities? You want to see light come into the dark hearts of those going around and abusing neighbors and making more and more victims

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You want to see light? break out proclaim the gospel Call people to repentance and faith in jesus christ.

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Remember the promise of the kingdom Why no anxiousness? Why no fear? Why no worry? Remember the vision that daniel has in daniel 7 13 through 14

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He's looking in the night visions and he sees one like a son of man coming on the clouds of heaven And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given what kingdom dominion?

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What that every people all tribes tongue peoples and nations should serve him? That's the point of history that we're in now

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And if you look at the world today and you're like man, we had so much light before and now we're getting surrounded by darkness

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I would say a lot of that has to do with the witness of the church The witness of the church and the culture around about us

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Now to give you some encouragement in terms of where we're at in history Jesus is winning the nations putting all of his enemies under his feet and you might say dang

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We're not doing so well right now. We've got evil in the streets. We've got injustices. We've got all this Powerlessness happening around us.

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How could we say that jesus is victorious? I want to remind you that the messiah jesus

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When he died and he rose again, he was crucified as a common criminal and when he conquered death

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He had a handful of very confused palestinian jews

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Surrounding him And now here we are 2 000 years later

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With people all over the world of every color tribe nation

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Bowing the knee to jesus christ as savior and as god here. We are in a room right now filled with people of different backgrounds

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Different tribes different colors. We all love the same god the same savior and we are unified under his rule

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Jesus, listen, he's winning The world he's winning the world through his gospel.

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Yeah, that's worthy of applause for jesus and I want to say this there is nothing In scripture nothing in scripture that says that any one particular nation that you're in bringing in the gospel

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Is going to make it? That's not the perspective of the future

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That america is the kingdom of jesus and that this nation's going to make it all the way to the end as the beacon of Light to all the world.

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Maybe it's china Right I don't know. Listen history has gone and fits and starts with the kingdom of god

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But you know what? It's always been it's always been mustard seed to large tree It's always been what daniel talked about as a rock a little stone that becomes a mountain and fills the entire earth

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Jesus says it's like leaven and a lump of dough the kingdom of god doesn't drop like an army out of the sky

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It permeates the culture it moves its way through and it grows And it grows and it grows from a handful of very confused disciples to where we're at today with believers here

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In many ways even defying the government itself to say we will worship jesus christ We will gather together to honor him and to glorify him in the desert in arizona.

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Jesus is winning What you see out there is the result of the revolt of man against the king

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So, how do you get them to see the light to understand? Number one.

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It's only through the sovereignty of god. Only he opens eyes and changes hearts and number two He does it through the proclamation of the gospel

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Share this with you just briefly. This is really amazing. John barrows is here. By the way, my hero. You see him. Yep He doesn't he doesn't like that because he gives all glory to god

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Um, but I don't care because he's still my hero Uh, he's been used by god to save thousands upon thousands upon thousands of children

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The impact of this man's ministry in life serving. Jesus has literally changed the world. Jesus is winning

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See that in just one man's faithfulness. Jesus is winning But what's really interesting yesterday we're at the abortion mill and john was there and it was a really powerful moment where We were letting everyone know live stream what this ministry is about how they can be involved

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This is who john is he encouraged us to do this. You should do this too. Praise god for that And then this this beautiful black girl comes walking out of the abortion mill right up to us, right?

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Like that doesn't usually happen. It's usually much more hostile. They're trying to avoid you. You got to sort of like chase them down Uh in a loving jesus kind of way, um, but she comes walking right up to us and um

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You know, we get a chance to start talking to her and she says she's just there for birth control Everyone starts saying well, you know, they also do abortions there.

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And then I think john asked her. Are you a christian? She said yeah, i'm a christian. She's wearing lacrosse On her neck and so as we continue to talk to her, it's all you can watch this on a live stream

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You can see the conversation conversation when something like, you know, oh, oh wow, really they do that there Well, i'm just here for birth control and then john, this is the courage of this man now again john

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I know you don't want me to highlight you but in terms of faithfulness to the truth a seasoned gospel proclaimer

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I missed it because I was hot And I was thinking about the abortion issue

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But I I missed it. She you know says oh i'm a christian. I'm just here for birth control And so clay like tells her, you know, that's also an abortifacient

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Here's the thing but john hears it and he says you're a christian And she's like, yeah, he says

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What are you on birth control for? She's not married

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And then he just starts to sort of challenge her on the fact that she is proclaiming to be a christian and taking birth control not married

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And really pointing to her sin And her need for jesus and I went for a second. Oh, yeah

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That's right And that turned into an opportunity right there on the spot to discover she's not really a christian obviously and um

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We get to preach the gospel to her call her to faith in jesus But see here's the deal. It's it's it's it's that kind of courage to simply say what needs to be said

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Jesus is lord. He's the king repent and believe the gospel. You might say that might challenge my friendships

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It's going to challenge my family. It's going to challenge my place in my community It's going to make me look strange and all the rest. Yeah, and when you don't darkness surrounds everything you're the light of the world

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You preach the message that saves it's the message of the gospel that god uses to bring people to life

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People don't come to life Unless you tell them that message of the truth The apostles went throughout the book of acts going into places proclaiming christ in a much

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Much I think in many ways more difficult context than us. I believe that much harder And when they went in to preach the gospel their lives were in danger

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He was lowered out of windows people beat them. They they went to jail and prison

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They were hit with rods all the rest and they started riots for jesus. And you know what? It says that acts chapter 9 the church was built up it experienced peace and they were multiplying

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Because they were preaching the truth So my challenge to you as brothers and sisters is in the midst of all that we see around us

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Be faithful while telling the truth tell the truth Call people to faith in jesus christ not in a low -key way

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Tell them about the holiness of god their sin and their need for jesus the answer to the riots and the looting out

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There is sin That's the answer. They need redemption forgiveness new hearts new minds.

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How come you see it as it is because you have the mind of christ They need it and they don't get it without the gospel so tell it to them and another aspect listen

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Of the kingdom of the messiah. This must be understood is that jesus Is concerned with his government and peace expanding and growing through his rule

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Isaiah 42 promises that the messiah is going to bring forth the justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law

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How do you think they get that through his bride? Through his bride, you're the means you preach the gospel hearts are changed people love god's law

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They want his just standards in society, you know, we ought to be doing Calling people to faith in jesus and then telling everybody about the goodness of his law

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People I this is what I hate about evangelical leaders today so -called evangelical leaders today They talk about issues like social justice and and all this is happening in justice and justice and justice and you ask him

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So what's the solution and there's no answers that are meaningful, you know where the answer is it's right here

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It's in god's word. God tells societies how to uphold just standards righteousness

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We have the answer to the injustice of the murder of an innocent victim on the street in minnesota.

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We've got the answer. It's right here And we need to not hide it under a bushel

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No Let it shine

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Let it shine tell the truth brothers and sisters to the world around you and if it means you lose your life goods and kindred Your mortal life also then so Be it christians.

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Talk a good game We do we talk a good game But this is the moment where believers have to actually live according to their profession

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That jesus is enough And that this life Is just a momentary thing eternity is what

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I have to look forward to So i'm challenging you as my brothers and sisters in the lord live in light of eternity

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Tell the world the truth And lay your life down at all costs

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Make sure you live a life and leave a legacy for the glory of jesus christ. Amen so We are going to pray

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I think we're going to come up each of us here. We're going to pray um And we're going to pray specifically, uh for our body, of course and our witness in the world we're going to pray for our community around us

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And we would be grateful if you joined with us Focus your hearts together with us and what god is doing

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And specifically for us our body. How can we be used? By the lord to bring glory to jesus here where we're at here's our here's our little sphere right around us our state arizona this city

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How can we be used by god? To bring this place under the feet of jesus Right, of course.

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Jesus is winning the world. But this this is the place of our influence How can we be using it by god for that?

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So i'll if you guys would actually let's Let's stand together. Let's stand together and pray

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Lord again, we're just so incredibly grateful to Stand here today before your throne freely without the threat of The government coming and knocking on our doors and trying to make a stop where we're blessed.

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We're grateful lord and we rejoice in this opportunity to do so and well, there's a lot of craziness going on right now in our culture in this world and And we know that you are sovereign over every detail and that this is for your glory lord and Even though we don't necessarily understand why we trust you.

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We know that you are working all things out To your glory and we thank you for that um, or we ask that you would give us wisdom to navigate these crazy waters right now lord and just Even in day -to -day lives are you going to the store or leaving church even with the curfews lord that you would

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Just guide us and direct us or that you would Use us for your glory that you use us

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For your kingdom and to expand it to proclaim the gospel We ask for boldness

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And we ask that you would allow us to be a witness to this world lord that you would allow us to Make decisions based upon principle

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Which are based upon Your objective truth that's found in your word and um, we ask that you would allow us to not live in fear that you would allow us to be

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Directed again by your word lord that we would find our joy In our contentment and you and you alone and not in our circumstances not in the world around us

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Not whether or not we'll get pulled over on the way home from church but in you and We thank you

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For salvation. We thank you for christ And we ask lord that you would use this church body here

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In arizona and in the world lord for your glory and we ask this in christ's name Father we thank you for your trustworthiness and you've shown us through your word in our own lives time and time again

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How trust trustworthy you are? And so we trust in you all through this all things and work in conformity with the purpose of your will

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So we know that you're behind all this lord. So we pray that you'd give those who are Give those who are not at rest give those who don't have peace who are full full of anxiety give them the ability

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To trust in you in this moment going to you father So that you through that intimacy would gift them and give them the peace that they need we pray for our flock

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We pray for their lives. We pray for your hand of protection over them We pray for their financial situations for their children for marriages

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We pray that you would continue to bless and we thank you for their blessings But we we pray that you'd be with them all through their comings and their goings lord

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And we do ask you lord that you'd forgive us for our sins That as a nation we would ask that you would remember your mercy in in your wrath

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Lord that you would be so gracious and good to grant mercy to this nation Of course that just does not deserve it lord.

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It doesn't so we come in humility before you understanding lord that That we only live by your goodness and grace and we so desperately need it

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And I pray god that you give us again courage to be these lights to be these to be the city on a hill to go out to our friends and our loved ones lord with the

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Not a mouth not a mouth filled with doubt but a mouth filled with truth lord your truth lord

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Give us the capacity. Give us the ability. We pray that through all of this. We would see a harvest We know we will what we pray lord that you would save souls through The dissemination of your good gospel, we love you jesus and we ask these things in your name

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Father, we now pray that in accordance with your word You would restrain the madness of evil men and women

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That you would grant peace Lord these are things that you say in your word are appropriate and proper things to pray for that We are to pray for those in authority over us.

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And so we pray for president trump. We pray for governor. Ducey Lord that you would grant wisdom

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That you would protect them from false information

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And worldviews that would cause them to make decisions That would be damaging We know that you're accomplishing your purpose.

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We understand these things But you have told us to pray in accordance with what we know and so we pray

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For righteousness we pray for justice and we pray for restraint Upon those

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Who in our land? In our state and in this very valley Right now as the sun is setting

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Are planning evil for this evening. We ask that you would restrain Their hearts you would restrain evil that you would protect our families our homes

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Lord that you give us wisdom at this time. May we trust in you and your word we pray in christ's name

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Am I still on there you go. Okay father. We come before you as your people And we trust in your promises for forgiveness and we confess our sin as a church

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As for cleansing we know what you've promised us if we confess our sins You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

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You are our hope lord. Jesus. We rest solely solely in you and your righteousness and your work on our behalf

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And so lord we look to you and ask for you to especially empower us as a church body

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To glorify your name in the midst of the difficulty all around us. God. Would you grant us that?

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Privilege and honor and blessing To be a light in the midst of this difficult moment.

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Please guard us from evil Protect us from our own sin and ourselves and I pray that you'd even fill us now with strength and courage

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To preach the gospel of the kingdom Please give us your words on our lips

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I pray that you give us minds That are consistent with yours and the way that you think and I pray for opportunity to be light to the world around us

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Please lord grant us that The ability to even in the midst of this difficult moment

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Wherever we're at in the history of the church Let us be a part of that growth of your kingdom

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And I pray that lord you'd be glorified not for our sake not for our name's sake But for jesus sake father, please give us that We ask you to bless us get us home safely guard us protect us