Apologia Church Live - 01/10/2016

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Pastor Jeff Durbin preaching at Apologia Church. Please go to your church before listening to ours...

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All right, if you were to open your Bibles to Romans chapter 1 what better place to hang out as we talk about this next year 2016 together than Paul's explanation of the gospel in His letter to the church in Rome so Romans starting in verse 14 chapter 1 verse 14
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Here now the reading of God's holy and inspired Word. I Am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians both to the wise and to the foolish
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So for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome For I am
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NOT ashamed of the gospel For it is the power of God for salvation
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To everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in it
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The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith
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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together and seek God to bless this message father
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I want to pray God that you'd bless now me as a minister of the gospel that you would
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Lord get me out of the way That I would decrease the Christ would be increased that God You would guard my mind and my lips that you would speak through me to your people today from your word by your spirit
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God that you would bless Lord your church this church our Family our community
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God you'd bless us this year With eyes that clearly see before us Lord your purposes
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That we would be given now at the beginning of this year Lord new strength in you God a humility
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Of mind and spirit That God as we approach this year We would seek first your kingdom
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God your glory above our own kingdom and our own glory That God you would bless us this year.
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Please God bless us even now God with repentance Lord that we turn away from things that are meaningless and insignificant
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God that you would put away Lord from us like Issues of pride and quarreling anything
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God that would diminish God your glory and Lord the mission of the gospel that you
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God would Lord lift this church up with boldness and light in darkness
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Now you God would allow us to serve the king of kings and to put away meaningless things
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For Christ's name's sake among all the nations That you put your gospel on our lips that we proclaim it
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God with boldness power love truth in a new way and in a fresh way this year
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God in Jesus name Amen so as we approach a new year together as a family
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I Want to keep first things first as we talk about what we want to do as a church as we talk about our mission
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As a church we talk about our families First things first Romans chapter 1 the
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Apostle Paul says that he's not ashamed of the gospel Not ashamed of the gospel
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That the gospel itself is the power of God for salvation to the Jew and to the
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Greek That's a very first century way of saying everybody that the good news that it's actually
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Romans chapter 1 verse 1 God's good news God's good news is that message that God uses that is his actual power
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To ignite faith in people's lives and hearts to convert people to change them to draw them to God God uses his gospel to do so now we need to hear that particularly in our generation because we have
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Really a popular way of gospel proclamation in our culture That's really not a gospel proclamation and we hear things like well
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You really need to develop relationships with people over a period of years and people will say you need to earn the right to preach
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The gospel to people and you know people often abuse that quote where they say preach the gospel if necessary what?
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Use words and I often saying you've heard probably a million times by now That's one of the stupidest things you could ever say.
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I mean, that's like say The poor and if necessary use food, right? It's it that doesn't make any sense whatsoever because the
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Good News it's something you have to tell people you have to say it to people and we recognize that God is absolutely completely 100 %
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Undeniably sovereign from beginning to end. He's sovereign at the beginning of the world.
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He's sovereign in this very moment He's sovereign at the end of time, but God uses means within his sovereignty to bring about his plans in the world
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Amen For example God planned before the world began if you're in Christ that you were in Christ And he was gonna draw you to himself
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Romans chapter 8 those whom he foreknew he predestined those whom he predestined He called those whom he called he justified those whom he justified.
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He also Glorified it was God's plan However, you know as well as me that there's a particular time in your life where you heard the gospel
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Maybe it was on television Maybe it was a friend that shared the gospel with you or you're on the internet on the internet's and you you know punched up Something you heard the gospel or you open the scriptures you either heard or read the gospel and your heart was changed your eyes were
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Open and you turn to Jesus, right? If not repent and believe the gospel right now, right like today like don't leave before you do but We need to recognize that God uses us and the means of the gospel in order to bring about Salvation now, here's the thing our perspective in our in our church our home
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Our perspective is very much Jesus wins Right, he wins
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Not kind of wins maybe after getting beat up a bit at the end of history And we believe first Corinthians 15 the
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Apostle Paul's timeline Jesus is reigning now putting all his enemies under his feet.
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The very last enemy is death That's the capstone right Jesus is building his kingdom victory over the world salvation to the ends of the earth
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The final thing is death that's done and then Jesus is victorious before the entire watching world
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But we know that in order to get there We know that God sends preachers
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We know that God has moms talk to their kids about the gospel We know that that God has sisters talk to mothers and fathers
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About or to their own sisters about the gospel. We have children talk to their parents about the gospel
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We go out and we serve our local communities by giving to them the good news God Does his work in the world of transformation through you and me?
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You might say this is very obvious Jeff Why you want you to say Jeff or guys the sky is blue today, right?
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Obviously, we know that these are all truths we embrace. Here's the thing We need to hear it constantly
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That God uses us as the means of his grace in the world to draw people to himself
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It's the gospel that God uses to change people to save them to draw them to himself
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So I I thought and prayed. Okay, just go back to Matthew today get back into this series and an answer
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No to myself I have to really at the beginning of the year encourage us call us to a
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A mission mindset this year to live sacrificial
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Mission -minded Lifestyles this year where the focus of our heart and minds and lives is dedicated to the mission of the good news
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Telling people the truth. Jesus is the king God became man and he paid for the sins of his people and he rose again from the dead
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He is ascended he is seated on his throne He's the ruler of this world today and I love how
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Douglas Wilson said this in our discussion together He said essentially Jesus is the king. He's ascended.
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He has victory over the entire world. He has all authority So why don't you guys all come quietly now, right?
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I Love that. That's really I think it's a beautiful picture. He is victorious He is the
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Savior and the call now is to repent and believe to the world and God uses us to do so And so here's what
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I wanted to do to lay down before us this year What is our message of the gospel?
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To say it for what it is and those talk about the things surrounding it that we need to think about in terms of our witness this year
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So Romans chapter 1 2 & 3 those three chapters begin Paul's just said in Romans chapter 1 that it's
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God's gospel that God had promised it beforehand through his Prophets and it was concerning Jesus.
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That's what the gospel is about It's about Jesus who is born of a descendant of David according to the flesh and he tells this story of Jesus That was
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God's story long before it actually happened and in Romans 1 you have the beginning of the gospel
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Let me just say this. This is very very important vitally important to get if you get this You'll be able to communicate to people the grace of God and salvation
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If you get this you'll be able to communicate to people the need for repentance as they come to Jesus It's important because you listen you face different people as you preach the gospel, right?
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You sometimes face the religionists the person who believes that they can somehow through their own righteousness get right before God, right?
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Like if I'm a good person if I you know Maybe someone has like a like there's a cult and they kind of believe in Jesus a version of Jesus But also they're good works and these things got to kind of work together faith in Jesus plus good works to get right with God Well, what's the thing that person needs to understand?
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They have to understand just how holy God is How come people would actually believe that they could somehow through their own efforts attain a righteousness?
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That is acceptable to God. How come anybody actually believe that? answer they don't truly understand how holy
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God is and How wretched they truly are and so how do you communicate to that person that believes they could somehow
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Through their good deeds attain a righteousness that's acceptable to God You have to communicate what
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Paul does in the first three chapters of Romans our utter Depravity before a holy
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God that we have absolutely no hope that there is nothing before God we have to offer
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That's how you communicate the grace of God and salvation to the person that actually believes that they could do it in any way on their own and Then there's the other person the other person of our day the popular evangelical mindset of our day, right?
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It's a popular really version of the gospel today And that is somehow that Jesus has done his work
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And if you simply acquiesce to certain theological truths about Jesus Then Jesus punches your ticket and you're good to go for heaven one day, right?
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You've run into this mindset, right? Somebody says something to the effect of oh, well, yeah I prayed that prayer a long time ago, right?
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I'm good. I'm saved right? I remember many many years ago as God was drawing me out of my addiction and convicting me and really crushing my life as he was getting me out of my old lifestyle
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Showing me my sin I sat with a friend who was wrapped up in all the same sins as me at the time and he was somebody that was raised in a
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Christian home under the teaching of the gospel his whole life and I remember that I started to say to him like is this bothering you like it's bothering me
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Are you feeling what I'm feeling now that God is not pleased with this that something's wrong with the way that we're living and He said to me
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I'm saved While we're smoking a joint Well, we're just dropping tabs of ecstasy.
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He's I'm saved He said I said that prayer when I was a kid and he said I want to do all that I can
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In this life before I go to heaven to enjoy myself And I want to say people say well that's the extreme that's kind of crazy
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I want to say this That's not so crazy as we think that is a very very sort of normal Mindset in evangelical churches today
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You have people in evangelical megachurches that come to church for a period of five six years
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That are living with their girlfriend or boyfriend outside of the context of marriage Never checked never confronted and living as though all was well
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Leading Bible studies in their homes while they're living outside of the context of marriage, right?
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That's the that is a common theme in evangelicalism today Now, how do you combat that mindset?
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with Romans chapters 1 2 & 3 Because you begin to see in Romans chapters 1 2 & 3 just how serious and far -reaching our sin truly is
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Just how corrupt we truly are. So if we're gonna clearly communicate the gospel to anybody
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We've got to start the way the Apostle Paul does Starts with our sin. We want to find the greatest delight and pleasure in God in your intimate relationship with God of peace
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Then you need to constantly go back to what God has done to rescue a rebel like you
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You see if you really think about and contemplate your true condition before Jesus saved you
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You can find deep and lasting joy in God because you know what
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God has done in his grace to rescue you You see if you think there was anything in you
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Appealing to God morally attractive to God Then your salvation isn't so sweet.
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It isn't so deep It isn't as glorious as the gospel according to the
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Apostle Paul in Romans because in Romans chapters 1 through 3 What do you see chapter 1?
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The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness
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Suppress the truth for that which is known about God is evident within them for God has made it evident to them
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Even with the creation Paul says preaching to us we do what we say No, we become fools.
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We think we're wise we become fools. Our thoughts are futile We switch God for idols and God says in Romans 1 that he delivers us over to those sins
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And then all of these sins are just listed in Romans read the last portion of the chapter there
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Verse 29 being filled with all unrighteousness wickedness greed evil full of envy murder strife
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Deceit malice they are gossips slanderers haters of God insolent arrogant boastful inventors of evil disobedience of parents without understanding untrustworthy unloving
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Unmerciful, that's what happens to us He's ears. It's it was importance
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If you read Romans 1 just now And you were thinking about somebody else
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You got it wrong, that's you How many of us can can look at that and not see ourselves?
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Somewhere in there that you're that unmerciful one. You're the disobedient to parents
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You're the one who is a gossip you're the one with malice strife greed
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And that's the point that Paul is getting across He opens up all of humanities there.
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We all know him We all know God and we switch him for idols God gives us over to all kinds of sexual perversions
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He says you want it you can have it and then we act out our sin in all kinds of different ways
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And the interesting thing is in Romans chapter 2 you can hear that Jew in the background Right here you can hear that Jew in the background like, you know, he's he's given
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Paul the praise he's like, yeah get the Gentiles Those dirty dogs, right?
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You can hear him almost in the background just on standby going that's right those Gentiles and the apostle Paul just turns it around now
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You don't realize initially for the Jew who's reading this. They're like, oh, he's talking about you too So now he deals with the
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Jew Romans chapter 2. He's dealing with a Jew the Jew that thinks oh I have the Bible I've got Torah.
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I've got a Tanakh. I kiss it every synagogue I come up to the Torah the Tanakh and I kiss the words of God.
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I know the Word of God I have the Word of God and the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 2 just tells that religious person
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He says you do the very same things that you tell others not to do And he basically says in Romans 2 that the the sum of the argument if you read the passage is essentially this
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Just by just because you have the law of God does not mean you're justified by it you would have to actually do what was in the law to be justified by and you don't and Then he actually does something that's kind of a low blow like in that time period like right
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He basically shows that the Gentiles read the end of the passage chapter 2 at the end of chapter 2 verse 25 for indeed circumcision is a value if you practice the law
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But if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision kind of a weird thought
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It's in your Bible It's uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision and he who is physically uncircumcised.
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That's the Gentile, right? He's not Jewish outwardly He says this if he keeps the law will he not judge you who through having the letter of the law although having the letter of the law and Circumcision are a transgressor of the law for he is not a
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Jew who is one outwardly Nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh
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But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart
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By the Spirit not by the letter and his praise is not for men, but from God watch this.
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This is powerful He's saying to the Jew of his day. Look these Gentile Christians over here.
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They don't have physical circumcision But guess what? They actually have the new birth. They have new hearts.
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They're actually Jews, right? And so they're actually really circumcised in their hearts and that leaves the
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Jew of the day the religious minded person Saying like well then like where's our hope if all of us are fallen suppressing the truth if we don't have any hope
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Ourselves in our own righteousness and lawful obedience the where's our hope and the apostle Paul Tells him there was a blessing in being a
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Jew God entrusted you with the very oracles of God But he says this verse 9 of chapter 3 what then are we better than they not at all
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If we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin now stop. This is this is big
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This is one of those big moments in the scriptures The Apostle Paul constantly points back to the scriptures to touch on because God says because God says
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How does he make his argument? It's not pragmatism. It's not personal experience
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He's not arguing well because this feels good to me, right? Like you should listen to me because I've had a personal vision
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Right think about this. It's amazing The Apostle Paul does appeal to his time with Jesus and seeing
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Jesus and get knocked off the horse He does say that happened to me, but every single time the
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Apostle Paul wants to root in your soul some truth What does he do? he says
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What does the scripture say because God says that's the anchor of your life
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That's the anchor of your life and the Apostle Paul now is gonna show that his gospel is consistent with the whole of scripture
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So what does he do? He goes back to God's Word and now he takes a list of scriptures from the
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Old Testament to show the universal sinfulness of all of us Now watch the why am
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I saying this to start all this? Here's why because if we're going to have a consistent witness to the world this year and see people change and transform by the gospel
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People outside of our homes and people inside of our homes. We have got to finally come to grips with Our depravity our sin
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We don't like to do that. Be honest. We don't like to do it We're all the products of our culture admit it you and you and I we're all the products of our culture
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And we're raised in a particular culture today where you don't say things to people that are cutting
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Don't judge don't condemn. Don't do that We live in a politically correct culture where we're not accustomed to living that way
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But let me just say this at the beginning. We talked about George Whitefield and you see the Great Awakening Do you know what field focused on each and every single time he preached?
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the need for the new birth You see how did the Great Awakening happen in a time like that where there was real darkness that crept in here's how
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George Whitefield Focused in upon our condition. He proclaimed the truths of the gospel
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Around the central truth of you you're lost you are fallen you have nothing before God You need to be reborn.
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You need to be made alive. You can't live the old way you can't live in that darkness and he called people to repent and believe and they turned and they
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Changed why they call it a Great Awakening They called it a way in awakening because there was obvious effects as a result of it
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They changed towns changed families changed.
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It wasn't the same The Crusades Crusades that will come through town 30 ,000 people showed up They'll say 15 ,000 people gave their lives to the
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Lord in a city 15 ,000 people came to Christ And I'm hopeful
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I say praise God praise God 15 ,000 people came to Jesus in Phoenix last night
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Let me say this if 15 ,000 people came to Jesus last night in Phoenix. The next six months would look nothing like the past It couldn't because you're transformed and in the
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Great Awakening as the gospel is proclaimed faithfully Repentance and faith our sin condition before God people's lives were transformed
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One more example in history of what God did to change the world in moments of darkness
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Jonathan Edwards, I think we brought it up last week. Did I bring up Edwards last week? I think I did. Yeah What's the famous sermon from Edwards?
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Sinners in the hands of an angry God, right? It's a it's a sermon that he preached after writing down some stuff on a napkin
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Right, and then he preaches it and then the world changes Have you read sinners in the hands of an angry
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God some of you guys maybe did this week you went back home and you? Did a Google search you looked up sinners in the hands of an angry God. How'd you feel after you read it?
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Right Wow who talks about God like that We want the nice Hippie Sir for Jesus in a dress
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Right. He's soft. He's easygoing like when you do things that are sinful he sort of like You know and in reality when you see in history as God's changed the world
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He's never changed the world through a veiled gospel a Gospel that was hidden and not clear when
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God actually has transformed the world in history And he's changed people's hearts and minds and lives and cultures. He's done it because the truth was told to people people like Jonathan Edwards actually told people
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God is Angry with you right now in your sin, and you're not okay right now with God Like his wrath the bow of his wrath is pulled back right now ready to be drenched with your blood
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That's how wrathful God is over our sin That's how serious God is over our sin and when people begin to contemplate their real condition before God Then they cry out for a
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Savior and not before them If people don't believe they're in need of a
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Savior. They don't start climbing to his feet They have to see who they truly are.
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Let me say this just like you did Right and that amazing is that we shortchange people on our gospel proclamation
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Why? Because we're afraid that if we offend them or say something that will turn them away
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So we start to sort of soften the message. We don't tell them the full truth We don't really give them the whole counsel of God to show them their true need for a
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Savior because we're thinking well Maybe I'll just pat it a bit to make it more Palatable like it make it easier for them.
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But watch this. Is that how you came to Jesus? How did you come to Jesus Did you see who you really were
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Did you recognize your estate before God Did you see the cross for what it truly was?
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That that's the place that you should have been punished You see when we think about how we were transformed by God, we recognize that we saw
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God's holiness We saw what Jesus had done. We saw our own estate before God. We saw our sins We saw our brokenness and we were like tax collectors beating our breasts saying to God God have mercy on me a sinner
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And let me say this to you. That is how God changes people. That's how he opens their eyes and this year
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We as a church have to be committed to a bold proclamation of the gospel that is filled with truth
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That just tells people the truth and it doesn't mean you're being unloving. It doesn't mean you're being unkind
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What does it say about the gospel in the scriptures? It says it is offensive So if your gospel is already
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Along with it, right? It's offensive all on its own and it says the Apostle Paul says in Corinthians that to those who are perishing
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It's the stench of death But to those who are being saved is the very power of God you're gonna give the gospel out at times and you're gonna see you throw it out and you get like Like, you know really crazy.
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You're like, whoa I can't even expect that reaction and then other times you give the gospel and it's like people break down They fall down in front of you.
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I Office at The hospital that I worked at it was really one of the best experiences of my life
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When it was time to leave it was time to leave But it was really one of the most incredible things in my entire life
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I had at least five meetings a day at least five meetings a day with people and And I had group sessions a night where I get to preach the gospel nights all those people
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Like five meetings a day and I would sit down in front of people and every day You know We have new people coming in and people that were really hostile to the gospel people that didn't want to meet with me
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But the therapist said you need to be with Pastor Jeff. And so it's just such an interesting experience I got to hear the worst stories
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I I didn't I heard things that were unimaginable that that had happened to people and broke my heart and I remember
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I had Periods where I would just it'd be in tears After I left there just for just for just out of nowhere.
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I just break down in tears Some of you guys were with me we've been middle of like, you know Leadership talking and I was someone to say something
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I would just break down and start bawling and I gotta go and like it was Really amazing, but I dig it to see some powerful things where I would tell people the truth and preach the gospel and people would be mad,
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I Mean like they would one woman one woman
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She came to me one day after I preached the group session and I was preaching like on Romans 1 sin and Sexualities in there and she came up to me and she said
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I'm I'm a homosexual. I said, okay And she said I am so offended by you and she's like and I want to hear you
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Explain in a better way than you just did what you said in there. I said, okay And she she was trying to get me to save myself, right?
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Like go ahead I'm gonna give you another chance before I go to the chain of command and get you in trouble and I said
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What would you like to hear from me? and she said I want to hear you explain because you sounded like you were saying that what
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I'm doing is destructive to my Own self and to my children and to everybody around me.
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And I said, yeah, that's exactly what I said and She threw a fit got angry she went sort of complaining everybody and she was going in the hallways literally yelling to the top of her lungs and She left
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And so there's one example she was out the door just because we communicated not just the truth about that sin
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But really sin in general in her life and the gospel And she left and other times where I would I would literally walk away from one instance like that where somebody was furious with me
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Screaming to the top of their lungs and leaving I would turn around go to my office preach the gospel of somebody and they would literally fall down on their face in the office weeping
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Over their sin literally saying to God right in front of me God save me forgive me
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God Changed my life Jesus. Take my life. Save me It was amazing I would walk out of that turn around and somebody maybe try to take a swing at me
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I don't know. It's like, you know, it was really exciting, right? It's just like it was constantly changing, but that was really cool
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I got to have all these these opportunities daily to give the gospel out at times and you would see at times Aggression towards it and times full reception.
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What was the difference the grace of God? Not me
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Not you When someone sees Jesus and they want him and They want to know him they fall down before him
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They only do so because of the grace of God and that's not a pithy slogan. That's the truth
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It's because God is the one who is changing their their their heart their mind and listen
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He only does so through the gospel Which means that they have to hear that message and be changed by it
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So Romans chapter 3 there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands
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There is none who seeks for God all have turned aside together. They have become useless. There is none who does good
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There is not even one their throat is an open grave with their tongues They keep deceiving the poison of asps is under their lips
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Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace.
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They have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes So here's
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Here's what we must communicate to ourselves to our children and to everyone around us. That is you that is me
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No And you see it all around every day in our society
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This is our society This is who we are. And so what's the hope? Is it in the law?
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Romans chapter 3 after that long list of verses 19 and we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law
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So that every mouth might be closed may be closed and all the world may Become accountable to God.
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What's the purpose of the law? Keep you accountable. Shut your mouth, right? Why because what do you see in the law like how good you are
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No, you see your sin on the page. You know, I think truly watch this. This is really interesting.
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I think a lot of why People don't like to really dig into the Old Testament passages like say the first five books of Moses like say
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Leviticus How come you don't like to read Leviticus? Because you see so much of yourself in Leviticus right as you're reading the passage you're like, oh that's amazing
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And you look down you go. Oh, that's me. And then there I am again And then there I am again you see in the law of God like yourself and the law of God can do nothing to justify
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You before God and if you understand watch your condition You would see why the law could do nothing to solve the problem
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Because it only shows your sin and so Paul says what after he says the law Closes your mouth it says verse 20 because by the works of the law
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No flesh will be justified in his sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin now we all know this right
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But in order to communicate the gospel to somebody effectively we have to say condition Paul says you cannot do this on your own.
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You cannot do it through law Condition before God it cannot be through law and now you move into what?
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Grace What does it say to very popular powerful amazing words, but now
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But now apart from the law The righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets
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Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there's no distinction
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What's Paul say apart from law? Faith it says for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God being justified.
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What's justified mean guys Righteous five declared righteous.
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What is it? That's courtroom language Justified as a courtroom language. It's a declaration of righteousness
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We are justified Paul says verse 24 as a gift by his grace through the redemption
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Which is in Christ Jesus? Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith
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This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the for in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration
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I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he would be just and the
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Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Here's the point The Bible says that God has done all this in Christ as a gift through faith.
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We've all fallen short of God's glory It's through the redemption that's in Jesus and the amazing thing about this redemption is it's
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God buying us out of slavery He's purchased you out of your slavery.
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You go from one place to another He has redeemed you purchased you got you out of your slavery and now you belong to him
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Through the propitiation that was in Jesus. God has poured out his wrath upon Jesus Propitiation is a big word and it's an important word.
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It basically is Jesus absorbed and fully Exhausted the wrath of God in the place of God's people
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This is why Paul gets to this point redemption gift grace Propitiation God is just and the one who declares righteous the one who has faith in Jesus.
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And so what does it say? It gets him to the place. He has to get verse 27 where then is boasting
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It is excluded By what kind of law of works no, but by a law of faith verse 28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith
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Apart in that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law faith alone faith apart from works of law any work of law faith apart from obedience faith apart from you
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Did you get that? You're in Jesus Because of faith in Jesus Not because you're a good
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Christian not because you've got better at being a Christian not because of any of your works
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Not ever not now not future never it's through faith in Jesus and Watch this.
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This is by the by the way for some reason I think this is missing out of a lot of evangelical Bibles I do it's like it is not in the as there's an
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IV that the new NIV drop this this verse. I Don't know verse 31 after grace grace grace grace redemption redemption
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Propitiation no works all Jesus all Jesus gift of God then it goes verse 31
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Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be on the contrary what?
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We establish the law we uphold the law Now I wanted to say all that okay to get to this quickly read the book of Acts Let's do that as a church.
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I mean this let's do that as a church If you don't have a particular Bible study that you're doing right now
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You don't have a particular pattern you're reading through you're just kind of in certain passages or books Let me give you this encouragement do this for this next month for the rest of the month
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Why don't you read the book of Acts? the book of Acts read read the book of Acts through Look at what
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God did as he Ascended and he sends his mission of the gospel off into the world because watch
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Acts 429 Acts 928 Acts 1346 Acts 14 3
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Acts 18 26 Acts 19 8 Acts 28 31
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Passages it's all being recorded. You can get it later if you want. Okay Passages like that. What does it show every single time?
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It's the church boldness boldness boldness they speak the word boldly and My call to us as a church is as we are sent off into the world this year
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With our families in the culture around us I do believe that if we're gonna be effective ministers of the gospel we have to be
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Consumed with our love for God and for others. That's a command of God the two greatest Commandments We have to speak the truth in love, but we have to be a church that is filled with boldness
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We tell the truth Come what may whatever the consequences we tell the truth
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We do it love we do with mercy we do with compassion, but we tell people the truth That is how people change
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It's amazing if you look at two particular passages acts 928 and acts 1826 those two passages in Acts chapter 9 you see the
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Apostle Paul get knocked up his high horse He goes to Damascus right takes a beeline for Damascus and what happens it says that he goes to the actual synagogues
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Themselves the synagogues and he's proving from the scriptures that Jesus is Mashiach which created no small
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Controversy there right because it says that the Hellenistic Jews were arguing with him
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So he's actually arguing for Jesus. Did you know you could do that? Yeah, you can argue for Jesus That's actually a holy righteous and good
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Procedure and practice arguing for Jesus. It's actually a good thing. It's amazing the modern evangelical today 21st century
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Evangelifish Sees a Christian arguing for the faith and they go. I don't know if Jesus would argue like that I'm like,
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I don't know what Bible you're reading because if you see in the Bible You see all the prophets including
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Jesus and the Apostles arguing for the truth Confronting error now their watch watch this don't do this
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People hear that and people that love to fight and are prideful go. Yeah right
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When you do argue, it's not for your sake or your glory or your kingdom.
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It's because of Christ's sake So that's good. We got that down. That's good.
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Right fights taking place churches built up They experienced peace of God and now they're actually expanding the church is growing in numbers and it says that some people wanted to kill him
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They want him dead They want him dead and my fear is that we actually think with a business mindset
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As Christians we do We do it's the mega church mentality of our day
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The business mindset, right? Your success is measured on Your numbers and how successful your programs are right if a lot of people really like you
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Especially unbelievers if they really like you then you must be doing really well for Jesus Now we should have
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Testimonies to the outside world that are above reproach reproach and we're living with peace
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Among those that we live around but the truth is when you look at the New Testament example as the gospel is going forth
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You don't always see good relations between the kingdom of the Messiah and the kingdom of darkness
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Sometimes they say I'm not gonna eat until I kill Paul, right?
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How many of you guys have ever had somebody take an oath not to eat before they slit your throat, right? Apparently that is a very spiritual thing
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The Apostle Paul was preaching the gospel and people are taking oaths not to even eat before they kill I have to kill
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Paul and then I'll eat right Apostle Paul's being lowered out of windows and baskets, right?
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He's being stoned shipwrecked beaten times without number. He says in danger from his own countrymen in danger from robbers
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He says white momentary affliction. Just it's just a skosh of the context of eternity
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The Apostle Paul goes and stirs up trouble in a town preaches the gospel riots break out When you and I proclaim the gospel faithfully sometimes
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The world hates you. Sometimes the world despises you sometimes the world wants to call your names and shut you up and I want to say this we have to embrace as Christians that as a possibility
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Now one caveat I want to say one thing if the world hates you because of your attitude
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Then that's not from God that receives no reward that is not righteous if the world hates your message and because of your message they are cut to the quick and They revolt against it then all praise and glory goes to God.
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I Was at the the abortion clinic yesterday and Who was it was it now was
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Marilee was was was with us and It's kind of a that ministry. I have decided
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I have a I have a very firm conviction After now two and a half years or so of doing this ministry as a church that we have got to give
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Everybody out there that goes out there on a regular basis Encouragement and time to take breaks right because it's it's such awful ministry.
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It's such such aggressive ministry People need we need to work somehow or people have time to breathe and take breaks because it is awful out there
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But it was really cool to be reminded by Marilee yesterday We were out there and we were told we were number one by a lot of people.
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I Yesterday and try to get us in trouble there with the police and now you've got Planned Parenthood supporters outside with tutus pink tutus
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Celebrating Planned Parenthood and you got people cussing us out yelling at us, you know aggressive ministry and we saw a lot of girls go in We did see some people leave but they never talked to us
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But we didn't have anybody tell us yesterday Gonna do it and I didn't kill my baby.
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We didn't have any yesterday. We just got all aggressive Marilee was standing there with tears in her eyes and she was the one that was reminding us
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God is as glorified today in our proclamation of the gospel and their resistance of it as He would be if he by his grace changed their hearts and their minds you see
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What matters to God in? Moments like that is you and I being salt and light
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It's not It's not Successful just because you see mass conversion and hearts transformed and changed
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It's successful if God is pleased and Finds delight in what
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I'm doing for his glory that's What we pursue as his people is finding our greatest delight in what he is pleased in and When we proclaim the gospel this next year
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Let's remember something when we call the world to repentance and faith and to come to Jesus When we proclaim that gospel with love and boldness
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God is glorified both ways in the proclamation of the gospel if they reject it and stay hard because at the end of time
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God declares over them even when I sent my people to you with a message of love and grace and compassion you so Hate me you would have none of it
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God is glorified in his justice and God is glorified brothers and sisters in his grace
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We proclaim that gospel and when God in his power and love for sinners Reaches down into their lives rips out that heart of stone
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Replaces it with a heart of flesh and opens their eyes To see his glory.
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God is glorified. God is glorified. And so what are we called to do preach? Proclaim Tell the story
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Be bold. That's the common thing thing. You see an axe. That's what I want you to see read axe
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I want you to see it over and over and over again. See boldness. See boldness. See boldness. That is the call as believers
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And here's the thing. I'm not calling you to be bold for bold's sake I'm calling you to be bold for the glory of Jesus and for the good of that person
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And I'm not calling you to be bold in yourself to muster up the strength and energy
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How are you gonna be bold? This is what I want to land on You're only gonna be bold When you recognize that God is the sovereign
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And there's such a danger can I say this there's so much danger of being a part of a reformed church
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Because we have our pithy slogans, too Let's be honest We have the same things that we repeat like mantras, too
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And you can get jaded to them and they can be meaningless to you. We say God is sovereign all the time We say it all the time.
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It's like everything God is the sovereign he declares the end from the beginning but the truth is what's this you and I moving forward this next year preaching the gospel underneath us and In how do we preach the gospel with love and boldness and actually rest in that?
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It's because we trust in the sovereign God who actually grants repentance and faith 2nd Timothy 2 24 to 26.
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It says a Lord's servant must be patient when wronged Patient when wronged able to teach it says in humility correcting those who oppose themselves if perhaps
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God may grant them repentance It's God who grants repentance.
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It's God who grants faith Ephesians chapter 1 It says by grace or you sorry
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Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 9 by grace Are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves?
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It is the gift of God not according to works lest any man should boast Philippians 1 29 listen closely
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It has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer So how this year as a church do we go about proclaiming the gospel with truth and boldness and love?
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Well, my answer is it's a complete and total rest in the sovereignty of the
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Holy God Who does according to his will and the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth?
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Um, I do want to end with this before I kind of send you off with things to think about It's one of my favorite illustrations
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It's one of my favorite illustrations and I borrowed it It doesn't belong to me, but I think it's awesome
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You see you do tend to see like both ends of the spectrum. You'll see
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Christians who say you got to tell them the truth You just got to tell them truth. It's not my job to pad the truth.
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It's just the truth. Nothing but the truth So help me God, right? It's just the truth You've got to just tell the truth and you get around those
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Christians and sometimes you're just mean right? Let's be honest You don't want to eat with them Right not people you really want to hang out with people that are just like it's just about the truth and I don't have to Be merciful or gentle.
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I just got I'm just gonna tell the truth. I don't care if I hurt your feelings. Look at Jesus He knocked over tables in the temple.
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Yeah, that wasn't like every day Right. I don't think Jesus would be like a lot of people want to hang out with him
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Like everywhere he went he's like knocking tables over every restaurant. He went he's knocking tables over, right? He goes in a tax collector's house and he's like knocking their stuff over and they're like, yeah
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Jesus. You're like constantly Called it wasn't like that at particular times particular moments with particular people.
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Jesus was highly Confrontational in their face because he's God and he's perfect and it was just the right thing
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But other times he was very gentle and wooing to sinners But people would do that Christians.
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It's just the truth and they tend to just be grotesque They forget about love and how they were one to Jesus, right?
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You know what I hear came to Jesus because someone beat you up, right? They stood over you with a sword like you're gonna believe in Jesus now
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You're like, oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus and follow him my whole life, right? You saw Jesus you fell in love with him because he was full of grace and mercy and truth
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And that's why he came to Jesus, but watch there's another place people fall and where is it?
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And they're like, it's all love right you just gotta love them You know, you're not very loving right and they fall and it's just so squishy and it's gross to see men
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Mostly act like this, right? Like Christian like men like my least favorite person in the whole world is the
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Christian radio Show host like on kpxq like sort of stuff or what is not kpxq?
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K -love, k -love, right? I think it's a man that sings that part of it, right? It's like right such a squishy like an evangelical
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American man, like I became Jesus and so I Emasculated myself like it's just weird listen, so People say truth and they're not gracious or gentle or loving or they're just love and they won't tell the truth
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So Douglas Wilson powerful illustration He says it's God gives you both it's very much like the skeleton
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You have in your body a skeleton and you have flesh on those bones The skeleton is like truth, right and the flesh is like the love covering the bones
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You see if you were just the bones. Well that frightens little children Right, it's scary and ugly and it terrifies people it's a skeleton for goodness sake, right?
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And so some people over there that are like, it's all just truth with no love no grace No mercy you you're terrifying and grotesque and no one wants to hang out with you
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Right or listen to you and the other person over here. That's a squishy even jellyfish is
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That pile of flesh in the ground. That's ugly too, right and it's grotesque
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You are supposed to have both Love and truth together
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Speak the truth and love another important thing to remember is that our role as we try to Witness to people and lead them to Jesus is to win the person and not the argument
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Amen, it's as we go forth. Remember love remember boldness. Remember the truth and rest in the sovereignty of God Who speaks light in the darkness the same
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God that spoke light in the darkness at the beginning to think about as a?
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As a as a community our family this next year So we're going to Kauai and we're also here
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We're not shifting our focus from Tempe Phoenix Valley to Kauai and saying we're gonna focus over there
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We're saying God is planting His mission in two places now and we're working together to Extend the gospel to the ends of the earth and but we recognize something is that in in Phoenix this area?
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We're in now we have realistic attainable goals because of the nature of the case where we sit and we have
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Realistic and it's detainable goals for Kauai because of the nature of what it is Family oriented small islands you can't escape, you know, it's just different things so this year as a
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Church what's on our hearts? We want to focus on the cults Here.
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I don't know if you notice or not if you notice this or not, but there are a lot of Mormons in this area a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses a lot of Roman Catholics There are there is no end to the opportunities that you and I have in this area
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To reach those who are lost in the cults and other world religions and in particular as we go to Kauai this year this week
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Our missions team is gonna see what a huge mission field that is out there as well We want to continue our mission to the cults
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This is important to education. I think most of the people are apology church apology of church
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If you have kids you're homeschooling your kids or Christian schooling your kids I think that's one of the most important things for us in this generation is to take our kids away from Caesar Think about this for a second
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I've said this before some of you guys have heard this a million times But I'm gonna say it to you again because it's a part of an attainable goal for us as Christians Please think about this if the world is destroying their children through abortion 60 million babies and counting since Roe v.
55:53
Wade in our nation a thousand babies a day by Planned Parenthood and at least two or 3 ,000 more a day outside of that if the world is killing their babies
56:03
Throwing them away But Christians are having babies Why is there so much?
56:12
unbelief still prevalent in our society The world is throwing their kids away
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Christians are still having the kids The problem is the Christians are having the kids and then delivering them over to Caesar to be trains
56:28
To become disciples of Caesar so it's an attainable goal as Christians if Christians are not killing their children if we are not engaging in the
56:39
The wholesale slaughter of children in abortion in our nation today And we're having the children that what we have to do is raise up our children
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Give them the gospel and point them to God and give them a biblical worldview if Christians have the children
56:55
Raise them up then that means the people who make it into the next generation Are Christians just by sheer numbers?
57:03
Think about it Education is important. I'm going to convince you hopefully as a pastor with love and grace and compassion to your situation to take back your children to yourselves and To point them to God and to raise them up in Christ Also education we want to get the world's kids
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I Said it I'm not afraid to admit it. We want to make sure that we actually
57:34
Reach the world by helping to educate their children with the biblical worldview Somebody very close to me.
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Let me just say it that way because this is going out on the internet okay, somebody very close to me is an atheist and Yet to get their child the education that they really need that's a solid education
57:54
They send that they send their child to a Christian school. I say praise aloo.
58:00
Yeah. Okay, that's all and you know what? In for Christ and the children if we win their children to Jesus What's going into the next generation our kids and those kids who know the gospel?
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One of the things kawaii doesn't have is a good education system. Our goal is to get there and to win those children to Jesus That's our goal abortion as A church we are committed 100 %
58:31
To putting this under Jesus feet We need your help Can't be done by any single one of us
58:38
We need to be able to give people rest who do this ministry To be with their families and to enjoy their church and all those things you have to give people rest.
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So we need your help Beyond simply raising a hand in a chair on a Sunday and saying
58:53
I'll help with that. We need you to show up We need you to be part of it. We need you to join us in the mission because let me tell you this
59:00
We can defeat the issue of abortion in our nation. What's stopping us? Our witness we won't go if we go it ends with the gospel.
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I assure you Next another thing we need to focus on as a church this next year is adoption adoption
59:20
We need to start adopting the kids the world doesn't want Now we had
59:25
Ramon Pierre pastor at Roosevelt Community Church on apology a TV this last week
59:30
It was awesome and convicting we have people in our church that are prepared To adopt are preparing to adopt we need to do more
59:39
There are in Arizona over 14 ,000 children in the orphan and orphanage and adoption system
59:46
It's an awful situation. Listen to this nationwide if one family from each
59:53
Christian Church in our nation Adopted a child one family from each
59:59
Christian Church in our nation adopted a child We would end at that point the problem of orphans in our nation.
01:00:06
Did you hear that? It would be over At that point, which means we would have all the kids that the world doesn't want
01:00:16
We would have those kids in Christian homes under the hearing of the gospel being trained in the biblical worldview
01:00:23
Are you catching it? Are you seeing how it works if we can win this next generation of young people?
01:00:29
Then we send off Christians into the next generation and I say sounds a lot like the meek shall inherit the earth
01:00:37
Adoption one family from every Christian Church in the nation would end the problem of Orphans in our nation.
01:00:44
The next is we're going to focus heavily this year in through our media watch this We believe strongly the gospel needs to be everywhere.
01:00:53
Amen It needs to go to your mom your dad and he's at your dinner table It needs to go out to the Mormon Temple of Mesa.
01:00:58
It needs to go down to the 7 -eleven circuit K Mill Avenue It needs to go on the street corners But it needs to go to the marketplaces the places of philosophical debate and discussion.
01:01:08
He's go Everywhere. So in the first century you see the Apostles preaching the gospel anywhere
01:01:13
They can they're doing it at home to home to home to home Then they go to the marketplace preach it they get beat up and then they go back right and then they go to the square
01:01:21
And they go to the place of the university and discussion and debate. They're going everywhere They can we've been given a gift in our generation the gift of them
01:01:29
Internets It's a gift the gospel at a push of a button click boom in Australia Uh, I'd say how awesome it is.
01:01:38
I got contacted from somebody and we'll end on this I got contacted from somebody this week this past week from Australia And I love the the messages.
01:01:48
Hey mate, like, you know Like it's all in the text even right they really talk like that there so He's like sitting little emojis of like kangaroos.
01:01:58
Like, you know, it's like it really happens, but it was really cool because When I'm talking to this person from like another side of the world
01:02:08
I'm hearing about all the people that actually are listening to our churches teaching and outreach and using the stuff in Australia and New Zealand and They're like we want you to come out to Australia to teach and to and to debate a
01:02:23
Mormon in Australia Wow, and there's like yeah We have a whole group of guys are here that love the ministry and listen all the time and they want you out here
01:02:30
I'm like, that's the crap There are people who listen to our church's ministry and they are growing because of it.
01:02:37
It's really amazing This week. I talked to somebody in Dublin, Ireland and and And they know not
01:02:44
Dublin Dublin and they were like just tell me how they listen all the time and they're all access members and I was like This is crazy.
01:02:51
It's crazy Because watch this we have an opportunity guys now To send the gospel out across the world push a button in an instant quickly.
01:03:01
And so as a church we're invested in that Because we can have the gospel on cycle 24 hours a day going around the world
01:03:11
I think we're in one of the greatest times in History for the gospel.
01:03:17
I believe that some people say sky is falling. I think the field has just opened up It's just starting
01:03:24
Douglas Wilson said in our interview with him He said I think that future schoolchildren Christian schoolchildren are going to be studying our generation as part of the early church
01:03:36
That's kind of cool to think about right and I think we're in such a time That the world can be transformed through the gospel and I don't mean that as a motivational speaker
01:03:45
I mean that sincerely but it takes something from you and me it takes us counting the cost That's my call to you today.
01:03:51
That's the end of this today count the cost Of what it means to follow Jesus this year and to lay your lives down for the sake of the lost pray
01:04:03
Seek God trust God Ask him for his witness on your lips
01:04:09
Ask him for the strength to trust him and to follow his lead to obey him this year and Let's do it together.
01:04:16
Amen. Let's pray father. I want to thank you Lord for the opportunity to preach today Thank you for the grace.
01:04:21
You've given us to serve you. Thank you for this wonderful Church the wonderful brothers and sisters that are here that are so selfless
01:04:31
That show such a desire on a regular basis to submit to you and your word and to love you
01:04:36
God we're grateful to you for you and for each other. I pray you bless God the message that went out
01:04:42
God I pray that it would not be today a motivational speech. I Pray that Lord you would work on our hearts
01:04:51
God to take from us. What's not important and to replace it Lord with it with Seeking after you as the treasure in your name.