TIME OUT with Pastor Ben Talley - August 10th 2020

Whitten Baptist Church

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Morning y 'all My name is Benjamin Talley. I'm an associate one of the associate pastors at Wynne Memorial Baptist Church, and this is another timeout and it is a

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Beautiful day in the neighborhood like that It's a wonderful day to be alive in Jesus Christ Any day is a good day to be alive in Jesus Christ But I wanted to spend some time on the word today and We will be in Ezekiel 14 verses 1 through 6 these

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These verses are near and dear to my heart because they use them a lot dealing with addicts

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Or addiction recovery I use them a lot of that dealing with addiction They're really relevant

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But we're gonna dive in and we're gonna see what they say and see what God says about them, so let's do that okay

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They say Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me

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Ezekiel says And he says they said before me and the word of the

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Lord came to me son of man These men have taken their idols into their hearts and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces

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Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them thus says the

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Lord God anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets and sets them

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I Sorry got ahead of myself Set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces

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Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them therefore speak to them and say to them thus says the

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Lord God anyone of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and Sets the stumbling block of iniquity before his face and yet comes to the prophet

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I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols

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That I may lay a hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are all estranged from through their idols

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Therefore say to the house of Israel Thus says the Lord God repent and turn away from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations

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For any one of the house of Israel or the strangers who sojourn in Israel So This is the predicament, okay

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These men come to Ezekiel Ezekiel is a prophet. Okay, and they are coming to be counseled by Ezekiel and Ezekiel is saying should

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I give my guidance to them Lord? Should I? Consult them should I talk to talk with them and they are divided in their heart

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They have idols in their heart, okay, they they are divided they are not loyal to God They are one they are double -sided.

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They are double minded one side. They serve God another side. They have idols now here's the thing a

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Lot of people say that they are a lot of people have in their mind that idols are

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These wouldn't wouldn't objects or these stone objects or these metal objects or these gold or silver objects well

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They're not here in these passages God shows us that they are more than just wood or silver or a gold or Anything like that.

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They are in the heart now They could be anything from acceptance respect power

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Hey Teresa Affirmation which is which

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I struggle with sometimes they could they could be You know, they could be love

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They could be Things like that, but those things aren't all together wrong

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But they can be if they take first priority in your life if those are the things you're demanding from people in relationships above all things

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Like if you desire those things more than giving those things if you're desiring those things from people

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More than you are giving those things or if you're desiring Affirmation or Respect or power in your job or anything like that more than anything else more than God You know those type of things that can be an idol in your heart.

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So That that is the struggle and and it's not just them

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It's it's not just people in the Bible that struggle with those things, you know

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Everybody struggles with that everybody deals with that the heart our heart

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I'm not talking about the the the pumping and the in the pumping of the blood.

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I'm talking about our heart our inward being What makes us us? the inward self the inner man

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That is the heart Is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked

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So that is what that is what hungers John, John Calvin said said it best.

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He says the heart is an idol factory So what it does is it lust it it covets it hungers it thirst it it desires

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It longs for things, you know, you can what's up Judy you can

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You can you can experience that you just walk in a store

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You know you walk outside you go to a car lot you go to You go to a mall, you know

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The the heart hungers it thirst it it longs for things it wants things it desires things it lusts for things you know, that's what that's what it does and If you're in a group of people around a group of people, you know, you know, you lust to be recognized you lust to be

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Loved and you desire to be loved while I said before those things aren't bad.

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But when those things Increase and those things are

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Are the number one desire to where? They're greater than wanting to be desired or recognized by God or loved by God or honored by God or well

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You get my drift being being Being accepted by God and being

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More being being seen in God's sight as favorable and and being

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Pleasing to God when that's not your desire, but but being pleased pleasing man is more of a desire that can be an idol

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So that was the people's Desire and and so Ezekiel addressed that and God simply says

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Thus says the Lord anyone in the house of Israel who takes his idols in his heart and says the stumbling block of his iniquity

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Before his face and it comes to the prophet I the Lord will answer him and comes with the multitude of his idols

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Then I will may lay a hold of the hearts of the house of Israel who are all estranged from me

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Through their idols therefore say to the house of Israel Thus says the

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Lord God Repent and turn from your idols turn away from the your faces turn away your faces from all abominations

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They were seen as abominations because they took Right a wrong place

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They took God's place in their hearts So God was saying hey y 'all got it wrong.

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I'm supposed to be the one of recognition I'm supposed to one to be the one who you show love and respect and honor and and Long for you know

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But there's a beautiful thing here guys. There's a beautiful thing here. Okay, so God announced that his

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Restore, he will restore his people, you know, our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked

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Well, Jesus came to restore the heart God came down in human flesh to restore the heart, right?

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To get it get rid of idols Jesus came preaching the kingdom showing that God would restore hearts through his spirit through his word

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Declaring that there was another way there was another way through not through the law but through the spirit through the obedience to the spirit through the obedience in a right relationship with God and so It was through God's work and salvation is

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God's work so humanity is

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Idolatrous we we are we we naturally seek idols. We are prone to leave the

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God we love But God promised to give his people new hearts. We see that in Ezekiel chapter 37

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He he chose to give his heart his people he talks about giving his people a heart of flesh not a heart of stone, but a heart of flesh and so He Promised to change our hearts and that's the beautiful thing of the gospel through believing that Jesus Died he lived he lived the perfect life he died on the cross for our sins for all of the world's sins and He he was raised to new life

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He didn't just he didn't he wasn't just left on the cross left in the grave, but he rose again

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And then he ascended on high on high conquering all

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He rose again Ascended on high and then he appeared to the disciples Saying to them go therefore

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Declaring to all men everything that I've taught you So that's our message that's our message to the world

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So, I mean that's that's the beautiful thing of the gospel now not only that but he gives us he sent us aren't his spirit

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To renew our hearts daily to change our hearts He is doing a work in us and he has sealed us for the day of redemption.

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He has sealed his believers He has put his mark on us. That's a beautiful thing.

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Look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22 It says this it says and who has and and it is well verse 21 of chapter 1 of 2nd

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Corinthians says and it is God who established us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee of eternal life a guarantee

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Now that's a beautiful thing We're guaranteed for eternal life Ain't no any no, maybe so no, it's a guarantee

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He is guaranteed that we will see him that we will reign with him forever.

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Praise God That's something to rejoice about we don't live here. We don't belong here.

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This is not our home Our home is in heaven praise the Lord Our home is in heaven

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We brought we belong to a golden city that is promised to us when all this is over That's something to rejoice about Praise the

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Lord for that Man guys live looking forward to that day