Sunday Morning Worship Service November 29, 2020

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Sunday Morning Worship Service from Faith Baptist Church

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Good morning this Sunday after Thanksgiving. I hope you had a nice week Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
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However, you spent that It's talking to a few of you and I didn't hear of anybody that fasted on Thanksgiving Maybe the day after as as penance or repentance.
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I should say we're not Catholic but anyway, I hope you had a good week and Looking forward to this first Sunday to call it first Sunday of Advent.
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We have four Sundays before Christmas this is the first of those and be gearing up for thinking of and Worshiping our
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Lord Jesus as he has come to redeem us and looking at Christmas and four different Angles in the course of these next few weeks
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Before we begin the service today, let me just emphasize a few things in your bulletin if I may
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So well Wednesday night, you know because of the the kovat stuff We're not going to have the the typical format
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I'll do a live -stream Midweek service at 7 so just be a
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Bible study and a prayer time I'll do that and you catch that on Facebook live or the church website
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But also we're looking forward to December 23rd That'll be a Wednesday night candlelight service and encouraging the congregation to participate in some way so there are probably possibly some groups that would like to get together and you know practice and rehearse and so forth, so You can the doors will be open at 645 and any groups that want to do that you can come and do it if you want to use the auditorium and the piano in the auditorium you can do that and I'll just do the the live stream back in the library and you know, just kind of Hermit myself back there and and you can practice during that time as I realize that those
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Wednesday night are times that Are very fruitful for that kind of practicing
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And then a couple things down below the Christmas offering Today is the last Sunday to contribute to that.
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I think I mentioned if you haven't come prepared to give to that but you still want to We we really want to get that those offerings sent out those gifts sent out
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Later this week so that the missionaries get those gifts before Christmas so please if you can't contribute today somehow get that contribution in by Wednesday and We'll include that in the gift to the missionaries.
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So you see what we've received a date for that We would like to be able to give each of the missionaries a couple hundred dollars for a
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Christmas gift We have a little ways to go to accomplish that yet. And then this book it's on the table in the foyer right now
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There's I think four copies left Entitled the Christmas we didn't expect and these are a series of 24 little devotionals on Christmas and unexpected things related to Christmas.
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I think that'd be a blessing to you if you're looking for You know a devotional material just to orient your mind in the right way for Christmas I would commend that that book to you and then
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I did put a book in the library entitled come the long -expected Jesus It's a similar kind of thing this is a devotional book with 22 different readings and That would be
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I think a good encouragement for you for the Christmas holiday Well again, we've come together to worship the
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Lord and I want to begin with Psalm 13 Verses 5 and 6 says I have trusted in your mercy.
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My heart shall rejoice in your salvation I will sing unto the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me and he has don't dealt bountifully with us because of his
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Great love is love that is divine and excels all others. We want to begin with number 126 in our hymnals this morning
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Love divine all loves excelling. Let's stand together. Shall we as we sing number?
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126 and We will sing stanzas one and three love divine all loves
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Excelling joy of heaven to earth come down Fixing us thy humble dwelling all my faithful mercies crown
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Jesus thou art all Compassion pure unbounded love thou art
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Us with thy salvation and her every
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Trembling heart on the third come Almighty to deliver
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Let us all thy life receive Suddenly return and never
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Thy temples leave thee we would be always
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Blessing serve thee as thy hosts above Pray and praise thee without ceasing in thy perfect love
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Remain standing for prayer, please stand. Please lead us our father again.
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We are so thankful for the things you've blessed us with this past year father even with all this
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Upheaval and chaos and father. We're thankful for the truths of the
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Word of God May we look to the word this morning as we worship you father
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Worship you in spirit and in truth Father guide pastor as he brings your word
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May your spirit work in all of our hearts in our lives this day And we thank you father that we can sing these praises unto you in your name
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May we glorify your name this day. We pray these things in Jesus name Amen, you made me see it.
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So for our Psalm reading this week want to read the first eight verses of Psalm 62
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Psalm 62 verses 1 to 8. It's on the back of your bulletin if you want to follow along as We read this together
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And I encourage you to do that These Psalms would have been sung and would have been sung perhaps by a choir in the temple
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Perhaps by the people at different times in the course of a year. There's a whole section of the
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Psalms They call them the Psalms the songs of ascent In the early part of the 100s of the
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Psalms and those were sung by pilgrims as they journeyed to Jerusalem So this is the hymnal hymnal and would be sung together in unison.
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So read along with me in your Mind, if you will while I read Psalm 62 verses 1 to 8 truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation
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He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved
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How long will you imagine mischief against a man you shall be slain all of you as a
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Bowing wall shall ye be and as a tottering fence They only consult to cast him down from his excellency.
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They delight in lies They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly
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My soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him He only is my rock and my salvation he is my defense
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I shall not be moved In God is my salvation and my glory the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God Trust in him at all times ye people
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Pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us
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And amen and thank him for that he is So in your song supplement want to sing number 32 32 how deep the father's love for us
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Maybe thinking well, you know the first Sunday of Christmas of Advent and we're not singing any
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Christmas hymns Well, it's all a matter of perspective. I think How deep the father's love?
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How deep the father's love for us? How vast beyond all measure
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That he should give his only son
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To make a wretch his treasure How great the pain of searing loss the father turns his face away as Wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory
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Behold the man upon a cross my sin upon his shoulders
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Ashamed I hear my mocking voice All out among the scoffers
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It was my sin that held him there Until it was
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Accomplished His dying breath has brought me life.
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I know That it is finished I Will not boast in anything
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No gifts, no power. No wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ his death and Resurrection Why should
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I gain from his reward? I Cannot give an answer
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But this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom
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Once we pray together this week want to remember Darren and Elizabeth Hammermeister Missionaries are serving endeavoring to plant a church in Surrey British Columbia suburb of Vancouver If you can believe it
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Canada and some of these Canadian Provinces and the cities are in stricter lockdowns and we are here.
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So the Hammermeisters have not been able to meet with their congregation for Six months now since March So we're going to pray that that congregation hold together.
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That is one of their greatest concerns. Of course, they do try to meet You know connect with people every week
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But just pray for them. And of course they have been Lacking in support for quite some time and I want to pray for the
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Lord to provide there We'll be saying more about that in our Budget presentation for the next year.
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We trust I want to pray for the Hammermeisters and then I want to pray for Heather She's to have an outpatient surgery tomorrow morning on her hand that we thought that was going to be last week but the process now is you you have to get a kovat test and pass that and if you pass that then you get cleared for Surgery, so she has passed that and is having that surgery tomorrow morning pray for Effectiveness, it's gonna be a little bit of a rehab after the fact and then pray for Bob who had the cat scan or CT scan last week and get results from that this week and Pray for just pray for clear
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Understanding as a result of those of that test And then we also want to remember our shut -ins today and pray for them during this holiday season
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Let's look to the Lord. Shall we our
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Father and our God one thing that we ought to be reminded of this particular season is
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How deep your love is for us that you would send your only son to be our
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Savior and when we consider that and contemplate that and recognize
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Recognize who we are and how unworthy we are of such an expression of love
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Our hearts should only well up in greater gratitude and thanksgiving And so we do give you thanks this morning our father for this great expression of your love of our
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Savior Coming into this world What he did for us on the cross
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We thank you father that We have the privilege in this land of proclaiming that gospel message.
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We do pray for our country we pray for The leaders that have been put into place this government that you have given to us and established at this time and those leaders who are
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Instruments in your hands for your specific purposes and we pray for our president and for Congress we pray for our governor and our state legislators we pray for You to do a work of grace in their lives
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We also pray that you would overrule any intentional efforts to restrict the work of gospel ministry and Pray that we might be able to carry on that work in freedom and in with relative relative ease and we pray that Much would be accomplished through that faithful proclamation
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We think two of the hammer Meisters in Canada and father we think of the even greater restrictions
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Not only related to the kovat epidemic, but just in in general some of the hostility expressed toward Biblical truth and principles and standards of what you hold to be righteous and virtuous some of that is maligned and some of that is even
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On the verge of being outlawed in that land So we pray for the hammer
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Meisters as they endeavor to plant a church and be faithful to proclaim the whole Council of Scripture and In that kind of a climate pray that you'd give
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Darren boldness. I pray that the gospel would be effective as he proclaims it pray that many would come to faith in Christ and you would draw them to yourself and even draw them to that That place or that opportunity where the gospel is presented
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Use them during this time of Difficulty of separation in the congregation where they can't even meet in the place that they had rented
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And I pray that you would you would just bless by keeping the church together the people faithful to that work
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Encourage the hammer Meisters we pray and meet their every need financially as well as physically and emotionally
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Father we pray for Heather in this Procedure. She's to have tomorrow. I pray that would be effective and that her recovery would be swift
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For Bob as he gets the results from his CT scan this week
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Tuesday, I believe I pray that These results would give clear indication of how to move forward in his fight with cancer father we do pray for our shut -ins and these folks who are
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Struggling with the limitations placed upon them and upon us and being able to minister to them
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We pray for Sue and for Jeannie. We pray for Dean and we pray also for for Jed and Door or just bless them just encourage them.
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May they sense your presence with them during this time I also pray for Maxine gomer and pray that you would encourage her
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We know it Lord. She would just love to be in attendance on the Lord's Day at church
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And I pray that you would encourage her in her limitations as well. Give her a strength physically and relief from pain
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Our father we again. Thank you for your grace and your kindness to us. We are a needy people
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We need we need your grace. We also need mercy. We are a people who
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Though we often though we know better we often don't do what we know We don't carry out.
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What we know is your will Father we fail you in many ways Forgive us these trespasses.
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I pray The Lord I pray that you would speak to us through the remainder of our time together bless our singing
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Bless as we open your word. We ask in Jesus name. Amen And let's take our supplement book again and turn to number 44
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Number 44 It's a song it's been a while since we've sung this
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I think but my jesus fair You want to sing stanzas one three and four one three and four
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Hmm shall we stand together as we sing?
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Jesus fair was pierced by thorns by Thorns grown from the fall
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Because he who gave The curse was torn to end
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That curse for all No love divine No matchless grace that god should die for men with joyful grief
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I lift my praise abhorring all my sin
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Adoring Only him on the third my jesus kind Was torn by nails by nails of cruel men and to his cross as grace prevailed
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God pinned my wretched sin No love divine
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No matchless grace that god should die for men with joyful grief
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I lift my praise abhorring all my sin
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Adoring Only him My jesus pure Was crushed by god by god in judgment just the father grieved
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Yet turned his rod on christ Made sin for us.
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No love divine No matchless grace that god should die for man with joyful grief
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I lift my praise abhorring all my sin
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Adoring only him If you may be seated
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And any children that would like to attend children's church that is available as well If you would please take your bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 3 for our scripture reading
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Genesis chapter 3 we want to read this morning the first eight verses I'm sure it's probably a familiar passage to you
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It's certainly a strange passage. I'm sure to be looking at on the first sunday of advent.
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Nevertheless I think you'll understand the importance of it Genesis chapter 3 beginning in verse 1 i'll be reading down through verse 8
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It says now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made
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And he said unto the woman. Yeah have god said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden
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And the woman said unto the serpent We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god hath said
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You shall not eat of it. Neither shall you touch it lest you die And the serpent said unto the woman
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You shall not surely die For god doth know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil
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And when a woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree does to Be desired to make one wise
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She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat
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And the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons
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They heard the voice of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day And adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord god amongst the trees of the garden
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The lord had his blessing to the reading of his word And just a brief prayer together And so our father
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I pray that as we look at this passage of scripture and its implications and its consequences that you would
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You would challenge our hearts, but you would also give us a sense of Of joy and gratitude to you for all that you've done because of this passage this we ask in jesus name.
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Amen So we're being told by some politicians and by some health professionals as well
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That this coming holiday is going to be unlike any christmas holiday that we've ever known in our lifetime
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And That leaves a lot of folks rather depressed After all, you know, this is supposed to be that most wonderful time of the year
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And the way that we're being it's being presented to us It's not going to be wonderful.
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It's going to be a downer And so we're told anyway Well that requires us
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I think to get back to basics Does it have to be a downer if it's going to be different from anything that we've ever experienced in our lifetime
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Not if we get back to basics Remember what first timothy 1 15 says it says christ.
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Jesus came into the world to save sinners Christ jesus came into the world to save sinners that brief sentence that short little sentence
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It packs a lot into it, doesn't it? It expresses to us the beauty of christmas the beauty of christmas is christ.
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Jesus It expresses the glory of christmas that christ. Jesus who is the god man god who became flesh christ.
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Jesus Came into the world. This is the glory of christmas It expresses the purpose of christmas to save But it also expresses the object of christmas
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Sinners christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners But what
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I want us to notice is that all these elements that are in that That sentence, uh that that expresses so much about christmas all those elements come together not in the manger but at the cross
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And so what I want us to do over these next few weeks is to celebrate
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Is to celebrate the calvary scene and not just the manger scene because you see if you celebrate the manger scene apart from the calvary scene
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You really strip christmas of the whole reason for celebration and of course
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Most people in our world do that very thing But we're biblical christians. We're christians that want to Celebrate christmas in a biblical sort of way
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So we want to do that This particular year by looking at christmas from four different cross centered perspectives
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The next lord's day lord willing we'll look at the heartache of christmas
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The following lord's day the candle of christmas And then the sunday before christmas itself.
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We'll look at the climax of christmas But today I want us to zero in on the ugliness of christmas
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The ugliness of christmas whoever thinks of christmas is is having any ugliness to it, right?
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I mean you look at these beautiful decorations and and we are grateful for them and I I am grateful for uh for kelly and I don't know who all helped uh,
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I know some some ladies some young young people came last night to put these things up and and Decorate the auditorium and and we enjoy the beauty of christmas, but here's the thing
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To really enjoy the beauty of christmas We have to see the ugliness of christmas because otherwise
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If all we all we see are the the lights and the tinsel and the trees and the wrapping paper
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And and we see that alone as the beauty of christmas. That's very superficial and it's only as lasting and as deep
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As the decorations are up and as the wrapping paper wraps the gifts So let's look beneath all of that.
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Let's look beneath all of that and discover the ugliness of christmas that can very easily be be covered up and overlooked or simply ignored
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So we see the ugliness of christmas In what demanded it?
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As well as what christmas? demanded Let me say that again we see the ugliness of christmas in what demanded christmas and in what christmas demanded
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Let's look at the first of those two ideas. First the ugliness of our sin is what demanded christmas the ugliness of our sin demanded christmas
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We must acknowledge that we must see that as we look at the trappings. We look at the lights We look at the candles.
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We look at the decorations the beauty of it all Let's understand that beneath that beauty
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There is the ugliness of our sin that demanded the beauty of christmas
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So here in genesis chapter 3 in this text that we're focusing on this morning The ugly fact of our sin demands christmas here is
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The serpent that comes to eve in the garden and you know the setup for that Adam has been confronted by the lord and the lord told him adam you can eat of any
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Tree any fruit in this garden that you want to eat of except for this one tree
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Don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil don't eat of that tree because in the day that you eat of it
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You will surely die Leave it alone. Stay away from it so here in chapter 3 along comes the serpent the wicked one in the form of a serpent and he beguiles eve
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And uh, she partakes of the fruit and then gives it to adam who's apparently right there with her
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And he enjoys the fruit with her momentarily and plunges the race into the curse of sin
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Which is death But what I want us to see in this passage is not eve's sin.
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I want us to see that Eve's sin is our sin How so well look what she does in what she does in verses four and five is listen to the deception of the serpent
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Serpent comes to her and he says to her you're not you're not going to die You can eat any of the fruit in this in this garden
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You're not going to die Even though god said you would you're not going to What god knows is that when you eat that fruit you're going to be like him
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This is the lie of the serpent. This is the lie of the devil and and it is a deceptive lie that eve listens to And but here's the thing every time you and I Listen to the deception of the serpent every time we listen to the deception of the wicked one.
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However that deception comes Whatever form it takes when we listen to the serpent's deception
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We demand christmas we sin just as eve sinned
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Every time we look on something as she did in verse six something that's forbidden and desire it for ourselves we we sin
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We demand christmas She looks at this tree and she sees
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It's so good. It's so good for food And it's it's good to make us wise and this fruit is so attractive.
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It's so appealing. I want it I want it And you and I You know thousands of years later still do the same stuff that eve does this is why
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You know In the new testament we talk about the the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
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Same kind of stuff that eve was guilty of here looking at this fruit That is forbidden and wanting it desiring it for herself
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Every time you look at fruit that is forbidden and desire it for yourself You're falling into the trap the sin trap that eve fell into and It demands christmas
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And every time that you overstep a divinely established boundary
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As eve did she took of the fruit and ate What was the boundary?
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Here's the boundary line. It's like It's like have you ever if you've had a pet in your home?
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that had a Thing for the christmas tree. I don't know if a cat or a dog Uh many years ago in our home we had we had a border collie that was um
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Attracted to the tree Not to use it like he might use it outside. You know what i'm saying? But he just wanted to get at it.
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He wanted to get at the tree so there were a couple things you could try to do and maybe you've done this maybe you put some kind of a
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Some kind of a a gate around it. Some people put their tree in a play pen
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So their animal can't get it Well in our case the thing the trick we used was to put a dust buster
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You know those little handheld vacuums The dog was scared to death of the dust buster.
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You turn that thing on and he'll run away You show him the thing and he'll run away So it was very effective boundary
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At that christmas tree to put the dust buster under the tree Made for a very attractive christmas tree too, right?
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But it put the dust buster under the tree and the dog knew there's a boundary line i'm not going to go past that I better not go past that God has put dust busters around things that are forbidden for us to partake of and yet In our fallen sinfulness.
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What do we do? Here's the boundary line god says don't go past that boundary line to get something that you want for yourself
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And what do you do you step right over the boundary line and you grab
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And you demand christmas You demand christmas Every time you every time you rebel against the sovereign right of your creator
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You demand christmas. This is what you did as well, right? He is sovereign.
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He is the creator. He created adam and then eve He created all things and as the creator of all things
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He created this garden. He created all the trees and all the fruit ready to be picked ready to eat
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And he created He created these two people with a natural appetite to eat food
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He created all of this but as the creator of all of this he also has sovereign rights
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He has sovereign authority to say This one thing is off limits
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He has a sovereign right to say you can have anything that you want except for this and so as our sovereign creator
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Exercises his rights and Puts these boundaries in place and puts prohibitions in place when we
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When we rebel against that sovereign authority of our creator
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We like eve sin And that demands christmas this is ugly stuff
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When you when you misuse god's creation As eve did yes, he created this tree and put it in the middle of the garden
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But it was a tree not to be eaten of You look at it
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You could wonder at it But you're not to eat of it And yet here she was she's she's misusing that which god has created for her own perceived benefit
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Every time you and I misuse god's creation for a in a perverted way for our own benefit, but in a misuse of that we
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Engage in eve's sin and with demands it demands christmas
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The ugliness of our sin demands christmas Every time you do every time you disobey and express command of god
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Don't eat of this fruit of this tree and she
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Did eat and her husband did eat with her That is a clear cut violation
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Of a clearly revealed command How many times have you done that?
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You can't count them. Can you? Most likely you can think back in this past week of one or more times when you violated a clearly revealed command of god
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And that violation demands christmas
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Every time you act in pride Eve looks at this fruit. She sees it as something that Is desirable to make her wise?
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Oh This this will improve me. This will make me like god
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This will make me wise like god What will I be then?
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This is this is pride. This is arrogance And every time you and I act in pride it demands christmas
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It demonstrates the necessity of christmas And every time you and I attempt to rob god of his glory
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Every time it it demonstrates the necessity of christmas
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Eve did this when She listened to the serpent who said you partake of this fruit eat this fruit and then you will be like god
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Robbing him of his glory. What what is the glory of god one aspect of the glory of god?
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It's a vast one, of course, but it's the it's the fact that he is other than we are
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He is separated from us. There is a transcendence to god He is an other altogether other being and no matter how much we might want to be
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Like god how much we want to be god? We cannot be god and every attempt that we might make to be like god to be god
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Is an attempt to rob him of his glory And that demonstrates the necessity of christmas
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This is the ugly fact of sin that demands christmas
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And if and the reality is that there's not a person in this room Who has not?
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Who has not been guilty of every one of those things that eve was guilty of?
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Hence christmas is absolutely necessary How ugly how ugly is that sin?
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And that sin in all of its ugliness brought along with it some really ugly consequences
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There is the consequence in verse 7 of guilt They partook of this fruit in verse 7 says the eyes of them both were opened
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And they knew that they were naked And they went they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons all of a sudden
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They're they're aware of something that they weren't aware of before They're experiencing guilt and shame
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Wasn't necessary There was no guilt there was no shame yesterday but now
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Now there's there's been this introduced into human existence into the human psyche into the human being
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There is introduced guilt and shame as a consequence of the fact of sin
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There's also in verses 8 through 10 The consequence that is really ugly of alienation from god
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We have no idea what the fellowship between god and adam and eve was like Prior to the eating of the fruit
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We we can't imagine that We experience a measure of fellowship with god as we
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You know, we read his word. We hear him speak to us through his word he speaks to us through the preaching of the word and so on and we speak to him in prayer and And and we have a measure of that of communion
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But I but but it's not like what adam and eve had Here they even after the fall
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Uh, you know god comes to them in some very tangible way that they can recognize
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Comes to them in the cool of the day and and adam hears the voice of god
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As it's audible. It's recognizable This was their norm.
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This was the way they this was the way they communicated. This was the way they they fellowshiped before the fruit
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But now there's this sense of alienation As god comes to adam and eve in the cool of the day they go and hide themselves
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And from this point on from this point on Man doesn't seek god
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Not in a very real way Not in a not in an accurate way In fact, this is what the psalmist tells us isn't it in psalm 14 verses 2 and 3
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It says the lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
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Did understand and seek god What's the verdict?
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They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good.
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No Not one so from this point on here in genesis 3
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Man doesn't understand and then seek god It is god that must seek man
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This is what jesus himself said in luke Chapter 19 verse 10. He says the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost
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Why did the son of man need to come to seek and to save that which was lost because man doesn't understand and seek after god
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Not since the fall How come? Because he's alienated from god
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Another consequence we see in verses 12 and genesis 3 verses 12 and 16 is the consequence of Estrangement from one another when adam is confronted with his sin
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What does he do? This woman That you gave to me that you made of me and you gave to me this woman
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She She's the one that enticed me to eat this she gave me the fruit and I did eat
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You see that you see that you see the alienation You see the separation you see the estrangement that has entered into Human existence the only two people on the planet and now they are estranged from one another because of this sin
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And the estrangement is continued to this day And it's it's prophesied even in verse 16
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As the lord says to the woman I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children and here's the key
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Thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. There's different ideas of what that means
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But I I believe what's going on here Is the lord is giving a prophecy if you will about the battle of the sexes
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How that from here on out Woman is going to desire a certain level of mastery
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Over man and will manipulate him to get that mastery It can be a rather humorous thing to see at times have you
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You ever seen that? That movie my big fat greek wedding one from years and years ago
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But in that in that movie, um, there's a a woman who is greek fully greek
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And she wants to marry a man who isn't The problem is her dad wants her to marry only a greek guy
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The mom who's also fully greek understands love you know and love cannot be
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Put in a box and and contained within national boundaries if you will
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So the mom is sympathetic to her daughter's love for this non -greek guy
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And they're talking the mother and the daughter are talking about how in the world How in the world are we going to get dad to come around?
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And the mother says something to the effect that Because the girl says the daughter says, you know dad dad's the head
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He's the head of the house, you know, and he rules he's the head And the mother says oh He's the head
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But i'm the neck that turns the head And it's a funny line in that particular movie but what that funny line in that movie illustrates is this very thing that there is this estrangement to the extent that The two are not always going to be in harmony as they were before And it's not just on the woman's part.
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It's on the man's part as well From here on out man will at times seek to control the woman by force even if necessary And there have been horrible horrible examples of this
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This is a consequence of the sin our ugly ugly sin
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Another ugly consequence of our ugly sin is the ongoing conflict with satan that we see in verse 15
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The lord says I will put enmity Between thee and the woman he's speaking to the serpent and between thy seed and her seed
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The lord is saying that from here on out her seed plural. This is plural
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That is talking about every human being that comes from this these two people adam and eve and specifically the seed of the woman every human being is going to be in conflict with satan and you have been
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I have been and so has everybody before you and so will everybody after you been in conflict with this
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Wicked one who wants to destroy your soul Another ugly consequence of this ugly sin is suffering something that Something that is the most
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Glorious experience in humanity the birth of a child is marred by pain and suffering
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This is what this is what the lord says in verse 16 to the woman. He says I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception
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In sorrow you will bring forth children Sorrow And and and by the way that doesn't end just at childbirth right every parent here understands that There are great great joys and in rearing our children and there are great sorrows that come along as well
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It's not all one glorious happy experience as it would have been
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Prior to eating that fruit So as there's the suffering of pain and heartache and childbearing but there's also in verses 17 through 19 the suffering of of Sweat and laborious toil whatever your occupation might happen to be
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Adam, of course is a gardener So the lord tells him that uh, you're going to you're going to eat your bread by the sweat of your brow
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And thorns and thickles thistles are going to be brought forth and you're going to have to deal with that and and it's going to be
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Toilsome laborious I was uh Reading a few years ago.
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This is a really cool book. I would encourage you to read it sometime It's called the marvelous pigness of pigs You would think about that right the pigs are such marvelous things, but they are they're creations
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They're a creation of god the marvelous pigness of pigs anyway in the in this book the writer joel saladin talks about um an area on his property that became overgrown with thorns briars thistles or whatever and it took a
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Tremendous amount of work. It was like a whole day's work just going to one place and and clearing all of that out
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And it was hard. It was laborious On the one hand he
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Resented it because of the difficulty, but on the other hand He appreciated it because of what it spoke to him about genesis chapter 3 this is our reality
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This is the consequence of our ugly sin suffering and then of course greatest consequence
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Of our ugly sin is loss loss verse 19 the loss of life
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The lord says in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground For out of it that was taken
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Thus thou art to dust thou shalt return This would not have been said the day before the morning before The lord didn't come to adam in the cool of the day
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The day before and say, you know someday you're going to die someday. You're going to be returned to dust
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You're just going to become dust again. He didn't say that Why? because in the the day before It wasn't yet.
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So They hadn't yet eaten the fruit The sin had not yet been committed the consequence was not yet put in place
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But now as a consequence to that ugly sin There is the loss of life
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You will physically die Because you have spiritually died the loss of life
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There's also the loss of paradise verses 23 and 4 The lord god sent him forth adam from the garden of eden to till the ground from once he was taken
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So he drove out the man And he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubim and a flaming sword which turned every way
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To keep the way of the tree of life banished banished from paradise
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Now notice here in these consequences of sin That what has been brought about is conflict in every facet of our existence conflict as man
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Is in conflict with man man is in conflict with nature Man is in conflict with god and man is in conflict with himself and that is
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One of the marks of human existence, isn't it? conflict
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Why It's a consequence of sin All right. Now watch because of the ugliness of our sin
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We need a beautiful savior We need a beautiful savior who would atone for our guilt because we can't
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Do anything about that guilt? We need a beautiful savior who would impart to us his
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Righteousness because we have none of our own We need a beautiful savior who would reconcile us to god because we can't reconcile ourselves to god
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We are alienated from him We are in conflict with him
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We can't reconcile ourselves to him We need a beautiful savior who will destroy the devil and all evil because You know full well
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You can't do it and neither can I? We need a beautiful savior
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Who will give us eternal life? Even after we experience physical death.
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We need a beautiful savior who will restore paradise
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And our place in it the ugliness of our sin demanded christmas and christmas
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Demanded the ugliness of the cross So the ugliness of our sin demanded christmas and christmas
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Demanded the ugliness of the cross Remember 1st timothy 1 15 christ jesus came into the world.
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There's christmas Why? to save sinners
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That demanded the cross so before the cross You have christmas you have christmas and our text in genesis 3 verse 15
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The lord said I'll put enmity between the woman and the and between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed
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It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel you serpent
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Will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman now, here's an interesting thing
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You notice in your text. It doesn't say they It they shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise their heel in the plural it's singular
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You will bruise his heel The seed of the woman singular will bruise your head
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Just before that in the sentence It says he's going to put enmity between the serpent and the woman and between the seed of the serpent and her seed
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And there it's plural So the the conflict between Every human being and and satan is established in the first part of verse 15
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But in the last part of verse 15 is talking about one one seed of the woman
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And this is of course the lord jesus christ The one who came at christmas
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By woman watch this by woman had come sin By woman would come the savior by woman had come the curse
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By woman would come the cure By woman paradise was lost
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But by woman One would come who would restore paradise for all his people so before the cross
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We have christmas But christmas exists For the cross, so let's get to the cross
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Before the cross is christmas at the cross. There is bruising the serpent will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman at the cross
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So you think of the cross don't see the the beauty of that That gold that gold
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Piece hanging from a lot of that gold piece hanging from a chain on a necklace a lot of churches will have the back of their their platform a cross beautiful wooden cross
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Very it can be very ornate when you see those beautiful representations of the cross
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Look past the beauty of it and see See the ugliness of the barbaric cruelty
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That was involved in that cross See the ugliness of satanic delight
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As he looks upon this scene the wicked one does looks upon this scene thinking
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I have won I have defeated my foe
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He's he's dying He's about to give up his last breath
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Yes I've won How ugly is that?
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satanic delight But then See the ugliness as in that song we sang earlier
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See the ugliness of your sin That put him there
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It was my sin that put him there Oh when you when you see the cross
01:00:06
See the ugliness of the cross Is there beauty in the cross? Yes But the beauty is not in the cross.
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The beauty is the one on the cross And what the one on the cross has done? So before the cross there's christmas at the cross at the cross there is bruising
01:00:27
After the cross There's crushing The lord said to the serpent the seed of the woman is going to crush
01:00:37
Your head going to crush your head And there at the cross and after the cross
01:00:45
After the cross satan's power over individuals has been defeated
01:00:52
This was the message of uh hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 and 15, right?
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You remember remember that passage? In hebrews chapter 2 The writer talks about the coming of christ who talks about christmas
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How the how christ came into this world? In uh hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 and 15
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It says for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he speaking of jesus
01:01:24
He also himself likewise took part of the same. When did he do that? At the manger
01:01:30
Why did he do that? the cross He took part of the same that through death.
01:01:37
He might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil
01:01:44
And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage
01:01:49
So after the cross there is the crushing of the of the wicked one There is the crushing of satan of his power over individuals
01:01:59
Who have been living in fear all their lifetime of what is going to come in eternity fear of death
01:02:08
And what comes thereafter? But with the coming of christ at christmas and coming to the cross
01:02:15
After the cross there is the crushing of the wicked one as his power over individuals is defeated and there is no more
01:02:24
Fear of death they've been delivered from that which they've been subject to and bondage all their lives and then of course
01:02:34
There is the ultimate crushing of the wicked one the serpent whose eternal defeat is secured
01:02:44
Thrown ultimately in the eternal lake of fire Cast into hell and then death and hell cast into the lake of fire on what basis?
01:02:59
The cross the cross As the seed of the woman crushes the head of the serpent
01:03:09
Now Let's not be misunderstood without a doubt the birth of jesus
01:03:16
Is the single most beautiful event in human history
01:03:22
And the defeat of satan for all eternity is the most beautiful event in eternity
01:03:30
But listen the beauty of it all shines forth forth most most brilliantly and most splendidly against the backdrop of the ugliness of our sin
01:03:45
So the ugliness of our sin made christmas necessary Because it made the cross necessary I wonder this morning
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Have you come to the place where you have seen the ugliness of your sin It has become so readily apparent to you that you are a sinner
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A sinner undone a sinner who's guilty before god
01:04:20
A sinner who is estranged from god a sinner racked with the guilt of unrighteousness
01:04:30
A sinner who needs a savior That savior is christ the lord the one who came
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To go to the cross To pay the the penalty of your sins debt to reconcile you to god
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That you might be justified before him That you might be adopted into his family
01:04:54
That you might be sanctified and glorified for all eternity Have you turned from your sin?
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Have you repented of your sin and put your faith in that savior? who came to go to the cross
01:05:10
Who came because of our ugliness Savior is born
01:05:18
Born to die Our father in heaven We thank you this morning for this
01:05:27
Tremendous tremendous beautiful gift of our lord jesus christ
01:05:34
Father we are also We would also be remiss if we didn't recognize the ugliness of sin that demanded his coming
01:05:44
Lord I pray I pray that we would see beneath the beauty of the season the ugliness
01:05:54
That makes that beauty shine forth all the brighter father.
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I pray if there was one listening today Who recognizes just How dark how deep the sin guilt is
01:06:12
I pray that your spirit would so work in that heart to bring them to faith in christ turning from sin turning to the one
01:06:23
Who paid that sin's debt? at the cross This we pray in jesus name amen
01:06:32
Would you take your hymnals and turn to number? 242 242 i'm saying just the first two stanzas of Him come to the cross
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Come to the cross look to the cross of the lamb of god lay your guilt on him He came for this very reason.
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Let's stand together as we sing shall we stanzas one and two Look to the cross of the lamb of god
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Lay all your guilt on him Freely his life what he sacrificed
01:07:29
Paying the debt of your sin Come to the cross upon calvary
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Gaze on the scene anew You Turn from your sin to the savior
01:07:53
There jesus waits for you Stand by the tomb where his body lay
01:08:06
The mourners cry I If they but knew why the savior came
01:08:17
Jesus left heaven to die Come to the cross upon calvary
01:08:29
Is on the scene a new Turn from your sin to the savior your
01:08:42
There jesus waits for you so we thank the lord for the cross and for the
01:08:54
Many faceted ways in which he brings people to the cross it's the last lord's day
01:09:01
One of the deacons and I had the privilege of sitting down with margaret chillcoat and hearing her testimony
01:09:06
And i'm gonna ask margaret if you wouldn't please just to come down here she's come presenting herself for membership,
01:09:15
I promise of letter from church or church in Montana where she's been a member for how many years?
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40 48 years Wow, it's longer than the most of you've been alive bless your heart well, anyway, we heard her testimony is a wonderful testimony of growing up in a catholic home, but but but one of where The dad was catholic the mom wasn't and and uh before they got married the priest
01:09:45
Made them sign a thing where you know, they had to bring her up as a catholic and so that's how that's how she grew up and then um
01:09:54
Her dad passed away, right? And and when he passed away, he released her from that stipulation which then allowed her to feel free that she could
01:10:04
Go to some other church And through a long series of events She finally ended up in a church after visiting many and she just said
01:10:12
I knew something wasn't right I knew something wasn't right. I knew something wasn't right. This is the spirit of god working
01:10:18
Working and drawing her to the truth Through all these places where the truth wasn't proclaimed where the gospel wasn't proclaimed
01:10:25
And finally bringing her to a church where the gospel was proclaimed And and she heard that glorious truth of the gospel of christ
01:10:34
And came to trust jesus as her personal savior And then then later baptized
01:10:41
As a testimony of that saving grace of god in her life. It was a wonderful testimony of god providentially
01:10:49
Bringing one to himself Seeking the lord jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost christ
01:10:57
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He sought her out and brought her to himself
01:11:03
It was a wonderful testimony of his grace well, uh, she's presented herself for membership and um, let me just call uh,
01:11:11
We can do this at the end of any service to receive people into membership call our uh service to our meeting to uh order for a vote to receive into membership and so From the pastor and deacons.
01:11:26
We want to recommend to the congregation Margaret chill coat as as a member of faith baptist church
01:11:33
So, um I've shared a little bit of her testimony Have her over for a meal sometime and hear the rest of it the full story.
01:11:40
That'd be a wonderful blessing. But anyway, uh, Is there is there any question? Again her uh be a transfer of letter from church.
01:11:49
What's the name of the church again? first baptist in columbia falls montana so All right all in favor then of receiving margaret into the membership of faith baptist church if you would say yes
01:12:04
And no well, that is carried and margaret we want to welcome you and Normally, we do the right hand of fellowship thing, but this is the covet season
01:12:16
So, um, I guess what we'll do Is I will give you a right hand of fellowship and then you got to get that sanitizer on that hand before you don't touch
01:12:25
Anything. All right, and don't anybody else shake that hand because you know, maybe covet infested, but I don't know
01:12:30
But do greet her and and welcome her into the family so our father in our god, we are grateful for margaret and for The testimony of your providential working in her life drawing her to yourself and bringing her to faith
01:12:45
In christ faith in the one who came into this world to save Sinners to seek and to save that which was lost
01:12:55
So we thank you for her and we pray that our church would be Church family would be a blessing to her and now as she's a part of this family
01:13:03
May she be a blessing to everyone as well We pray this And now unto the king eternal immortal
01:13:12
Invisible the only wise god the honor and glory forever and ever amen and amen