Ezekiel Part 41

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Ezekiel Part 42

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All right, let's pray, we'll get started. Lord Jesus, as we open up your word, we ask your Holy Spirit to help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there so that we may rightly believe, confess, and do according to your holy word we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

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Okay, so before we get into the Bible study, I should share this with you because news has come across the wire.

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The Paris Olympics Committee has formally apologized. Okay, now

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I do think this is fascinating because as this controversy developed, when

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Christians began to take offense and to vocalize it, and this really became a storm on social media, that they were mocking

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Christ the way they did, the first response from the Paris Olympics Committee is that, oh, it wasn't a depiction or parody of Christ's Last Supper, it was based upon a painting of a pan or something like that.

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And so, there were a bunch of people who came to the defense of those in the

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Paris Olympics Committee, and they were saying, we Christians are a bunch of dunder -headed conspiracy theorists, and we took offense when there was no offense that was meant, and that we just don't know art history.

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Okay. Okay. Dionysus, yeah, yeah.

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So, what happened overnight is that when I woke up this morning, there were several news reports from European news agencies where the

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Paris Olympics Committee admitted, yes, that was intentionally a parody of The Last Supper.

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And then their explanation was this, we don't understand why everyone's all offended because even The Simpsons have done a parody of The Last Supper, okay?

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And I would note that The Simpsons do not have a charter to invite the world to come and compete in athletic competition regardless of their country, their race, their creed, or anything like this.

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The Olympic Committee does have that. And by doing what they did, and then they admitted that yes, that was intentionally a parody of The Last Supper, you'll note that I've been watching the

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Olympics since I was a wee little lad. In fact, I went, I spent how many, eight, nine days at the

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Olympics when the Olympics were in Los Angeles? You know, I spent how many days at the track and field events at the

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Los Angeles Coliseum and went to other venues? I mean, I had

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Olympics on the brain. You know, it was such a, somewhere in my mementos

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I still have some pretty good souvenirs from the 1984

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Olympics, okay? All of that being said, you know, I would note why on earth, since this is a gathering of the world for athletic competition, and kids spend a lot of time watching this because their families encourage them, because when

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I grew up, my kids can tell you, I was an Olympic fanatic, okay? And so we as a family would watch the

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Olympics. This is what we did. So I can't imagine what it would be like to have small children, to have them watch the opening ceremonies of the

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Paris Olympics and have some nude blue guy running around and, you know, for Christianity to be mocked and all the weird transsexual stuff that they did.

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It just doesn't make a lick of sense. And then taking a swipe at Christianity the way they did, that's contrary to the

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Olympic charter. So I don't care what the Simpsons do. That's not, they can, they are, they parody things like crazy.

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That's their thing, okay? They didn't misgender Christ either. Right, yeah, nor did they misgender Jesus, right.

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Okay, so they went from denying that it was a parody of the

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Lord's Supper to admitting that it was a parody of the Lord's Supper, and the problem is you people for getting too bent out of shape because other people have done this, to now there's been a full -throated apology on their part.

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Money. So. Supporters. Oh, oh, oh, we're sorry.

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Yeah, no, they lost some corporate support. There were some corporate sponsors that pulled out, advertisers that pulled out because of this, so.

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That's good. You know, so I, by the way, you'll note, I don't do a lot of stuff regarding the culture wars because I don't think the culture wars are something that we

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Christians should be spending a ton of time on. But when something this global takes a big swipe at Christianity, now

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I understand the prophecies of Christ are that we're going to be hated and that we're going to be martyred, but the thing is is that we're not to that day yet.

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So to call out the hypocrisy of a global organization like the Paris Olympic Committee or the

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International Olympic Committee and pointing out, it's like, excuse me? You know, we don't watch you for politics or religion.

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We watch you because we want to see these people who've dedicated their lives to their athletic prowess, we want to see them compete and we want to celebrate their victories whether they were born in the

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U .S. or not. It is a wonderful way to kind of look at humanity coming together, which we have a hard time doing.

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But I would note that Russia ain't there this year. But you know, so whatever it is that they've done, you know, that attack,

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I'm glad that there's been enough pushback because the pushback at least says, not now, okay?

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You want to martyr us and stuff like that, we're going to fight you. There's still two billion of us on the planet who confess

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Christ. That's a third of the population of the earth. So you know, but the day is coming when we're going to get the snot kicked out of us.

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But that's not today. So, yeah. All right?

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All right. Okay. Ezekiel 35. Prophecy against Mount Seir.

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Okay. The word of Yahweh came to me. Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir.

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Prophesy against it. Say to it, thus says Lord Yahweh, behold, I am against you, Mount Seir.

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I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you a desolation and a waste and I will lay your cities waste and you shall become a desolation and you shall know that I am

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Yahweh because you cherished perpetual enmity and gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment.

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Yeesh. Okay? So you'll note the problem with Mount Seir, whoever these people were, is that they participated in the calamity of Israel, even though God was punishing them.

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Now here's the irony of all of this, okay? So if I'm understanding this correctly,

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Yahweh's punishing Judah for their idolatry. Mount Seir participates, if you would, in being the instrument of God's punishment and then

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God punishes them for doing that. Just let that one sink in for a second here.

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Luther has this interesting statement that he says and that is that the devil is God's devil, but yet God tempts no one.

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So the idea here is that when God uses the wicked to punish the wicked, both of them get punished, not just one.

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Does that make sense? It's not like the wicked who God uses then to punish the wicked are then righteous by virtue of the fact they were used by God to punish the wicked.

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They still get their bit. So a good way to think about it, okay?

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Back when I was a young lad, okay? I didn't have the sense that I have now.

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And I had a younger brother. And my younger brother is two and a half years younger than I was.

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And we sometimes got into kerfuffles, okay?

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And when we got into kerfuffles, sometimes I was the instigator, sometimes my brother was the instigator, okay?

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And so let me tell you a story, okay? The story goes like this.

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My brother, I had hit puberty and gotten beyond G .I. Joe. Okay, G .I.

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Joe was no longer a thing. My brother, he liked to take long showers and bring G .I.

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Joe and his army buddies into the shower and you could hear, while he's supposed to be taking a shower, okay?

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I came up with a wonderful idea, because I just disdain the fact that he was still so immature, he was hanging out with G .I.

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Joe in the shower, that what I did, we shared a room together, and what

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I did is I picked the lock on the bathroom door, I snuck in, stole, literally stole his clothes, the towel, the toilet paper, and anything he could dry himself off with.

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I then took it and folded everything up very nicely and put it on his bed, which was a good 10 feet away from the bathroom door, okay?

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When the military maneuvers ended in the shower, pew, pew, pew, pew, right?

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He turns the shower off and then I hear silence. And then

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I hear, where's the towel? Mom?

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Chris? And it dawns on him. Then these words, I'm going to kill you, okay?

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I was hiding under my bed with a Polaroid camera. Oh my

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God. He comes slinking out of the bathroom, buck naked, and as soon as he gets halfway to the prize, the folded up items on his bed,

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I come out from underneath the bed. Right? At this point, my brother is so angry, he forgets that he's naked, and he chases me through our bedroom into the living room.

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I'm going to kill you. He finally catches me when we get to the living room and starts wailing on me while my mom is sitting on the couch reading the newspaper.

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Luckily they were no guests. Okay, now, I instigated this crime, okay?

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And I got punished thoroughly for it. So did he.

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Because regardless of the injustice committed against him, and it was an intentional injustice on my part, and the indignity of the whole situation, he still did not have authorization to wail on me.

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The way he did. Even if he was naked and really upset. And he was very wet, okay?

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The point is this. When God uses the wicked to punish the wicked, the wicked still get punished for their wickedness.

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That's the idea. That's the metaphor that we're dealing with. Therefore as I live, declares

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Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you.

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Because you did not hate bloodshed, therefore blood shall pursue you. I will make

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Mount Seir a waste and a desolation, and I will cut off from it all who come and go.

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And I will fill its mountains with the slain, and on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines, those slain with the sword shall fall.

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I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am

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Yahweh. Because you said these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we shall take possession of them, although Yahweh was there.

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Therefore as I live, declares Lord Yahweh, I will deal with you according to the anger and envy that you showed because of your hatred against them.

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And I will make myself known among them when I judge you, and you shall know that I am

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Yahweh. I have heard all the revilings that you uttered against the mountains of Israel, and they are laid desolate.

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They are given us to devour. Now, important word here, reviling.

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Anyone wanna take a guess, like what is that? What is reviling? Yeah, there are entire

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YouTube channels dedicated to it. So reviling is a form of malicious talk, but it is intentionally geared towards despising, of hating, degrading, and dishonoring, all right?

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And you're gonna note here, it is absolutely forbidden in scripture that we revile.

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All right, it is a breaking of the eighth commandment, and oftentimes it's also a breaking of the fourth to honor your father and mother.

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And so, let's just say I've been the focus of particular revilers, and always fascinating to me when somebody has a ministry dedicated to reviling while claiming allegiance to Jesus Christ.

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It's like, I don't think you know him. I just really don't think you know him, you know?

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Because you wouldn't be spewing these just nonsensical, pus -filled, malice -filled lies, you know, in entire ministries dedicated to this.

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I've heard all the revilings that you've uttered against the mountains of Israel, saying that they are laid desolate, they are given to us to devour.

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And you magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and you multiplied your words against me. I heard it.

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Thus says the Lord Yahweh, while the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate, as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate.

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So I will deal with you, you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and I'll eat them, all of it.

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And then they will know that I am Yahweh, okay? Now, you'll note that when it comes to Nebuchadnezzar, did

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God show any favoritism towards that fellow? Like, not at all. Yet he was the one used by God primarily to judge

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Judah, and when he got high and mighty, and his head became so big that other human beings couldn't actually fit in the room with him,

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God gave him the mind of an animal and humbled him greatly. So you'll note, even if you're used by God for a purpose of God bringing justice to an evildoer, don't, this is a terrible saying, but it actually fits here.

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Don't get high on your own farts, okay? Don't let this go to your head.

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Yeah? Is that, is God turning away?

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Right, yeah, yeah. Did Nebuchadnezzar have free will? No, he didn't have any free will at all, because you'll note, that fellow was brought as low as it gets.

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He was made to have a mind of an animal, and he had bird's claws for fingernails, and was eating grass like a cow.

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You know, so much for free will, right? But God had mercy on him eventually, and he ends up writing an epistle to us.

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So keep this in mind, okay? Is that, you know, when God does, you become the instrument that God uses for bringing justice to somebody who's erring grievously.

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This is not a time for you to, you know, to get on the rooftop and crow and beat your chest. You know, in fact,

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God does not delight in the fall of the wicked at all. It's, this is, when we think about the nature of God, you know, the question is, what is he like?

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All right, when you think about the chronicles of Narnia, there's, you know, people asking about what

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Aslan's like. Okay, you know, and they kind of whisper it, you know, under their, what's he like, what's he like?

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You know, he's good, but he's not safe, you know? Right, there's a danger to him.

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He's really good, but he ain't safe, you know? That same kind of fear and awe we need to have of God, we need to have of Christ.

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God is merciful. His go -to normal way, when Jesus wakes up in the morning and combs his beard and all that stuff that he does, okay, he's kind, he's merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

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That's Jesus' go -to. That's what he's like. And when provoked, he is long -suffering and patient, slow to anger, but when enough is enough, he will act in violent judgment.

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And you'll note that the scriptures describe God's judgment in violence. And of course, all the liberals go, no, it's not right.

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Picture God, violent, what about inclusion and tolerance?

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Right, God has no tolerance of wickedness. And so, you know, always and again, when somebody's sitting there going,

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I can't wait for God to act in judgment. It's like, well, with that attitude, he might start with you.

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You know, careful what you ask for. So, yeah. It's not the fact that he's punishing them for being the instrument.

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It's the fact that they delighted in being the instrument. Yeah, right, yeah. And they were guilty of their own wickedness.

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Right. So, yeah, God is no respecter of persons. And if God ends up, you're gonna remember,

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God used a speechless donkey to rein in the madness of Balaam.

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So, there's like, there's no bragging if God uses you for something, like none whatsoever.

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Even Jesus says that when a servant does what a servant is told to do, should he boast?

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No, he should say, I'm a wicked servant because I've only done what I was told to do. So, you gotta keep that humble mindset.

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36, and you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, oh, mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh.

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Thus says the Lord Yahweh, because the enemy said of you, aha, the ancient heights have become our possession.

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Therefore, prophesy and say, thus says the Lord Yahweh, precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people.

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Therefore, oh, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, to the mountains and the hills and the ravines and the valleys and the desolate wastes and the deserted cities which have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations all around.

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Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all of Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt that they might make it pasture lands of prey.

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Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and to the hills and to the ravines and to the valleys.

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I didn't know they had ears, but he's prophesying to them nonetheless. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, behold, I have spoken in my jealous wrath because you have suffered the reproach of the nations.

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Therefore, thus says the Lord Yahweh, I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach.

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But you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to my people

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Israel, for they will soon come home. Okay, is this talking about 1948?

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No, all right? So when you see somebody, a dispensationalist, sit there and go, oh, look, they came home.

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Did they, though? Did they? Because the modern -day

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Jews still follow the false religion of the Pharisees. They're still under God's condemnation.

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So this isn't talking about that. And remember, we have been grafted into Israel, all right?

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You know, I'm an Israelite, I am an Israelite, okay? You know, and I can say of you, ata

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Israelite, or at Israel, Israeli, right? I can say these things of you.

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That being the case, keep this in mind. This is talking about the final coming home, the day of judgment, new heavens, new earth.

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For behold, I am for you, I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.

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I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it. Which house is that referring to?

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Genetic Israel, or those who trust in Christ, right? The cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places rebuilt.

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I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful, and I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times, and I will do more good to you than ever before.

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Now, this is another one of these texts. When you read it on the face, you sit there and go, wait, what?

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Be fruitful and multiply? That's talking about procreation. Okay, if you haven't heard me talk about this, let me remind you.

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The prophets, especially Ezekiel and Isaiah, describe the new earth as having human procreation.

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Marriage, as we know it, is a type and shadow of Christ's relationship to the church.

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Therefore, we don't know what the arrangement's going to be in the new earth.

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What we do know is that there's gonna be human procreation. There will be small children, weaning child, and things like this.

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So marriage will not be a thing. There will be, people will not be married and given in marriage, and that being the case, whatever the new thing is,

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I have no clue. Stay tuned, okay?

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I just read texts like this and go, hmm, okay. All right?

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So God's going to fix all of that. And in the meantime, we have to wait for more information.

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We just don't have it, okay? They shall multiply and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as in your former times.

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You will do more good to you than ever before. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. I will let people walk on you, even my people

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Israel, and they shall possess you and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children, thus says the

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Lord Yahweh. I would note, people being bereaved of children still happens to this day, especially in Israel.

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Because they say to you, you devour people and you bereave your nation of children, therefore you shall no longer devour people, no longer bereave your nation of children.

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The entire land of the earth does that, by the way, okay? Every time you hear of a storm blowing through, a tornado coming through, they say seven people perished.

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Or they'll say it was a tragedy. And who are the seven people who died? Well, two adults, five kids.

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They perished in a, you hear of stories of people who go hiking and then they go missing.

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And then they find their bodies, right? This is talking about the curse in general, right?

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And this is not just Israel's land that devours people, it's all of the earth, right? I will let you hear,

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I will not let you hear any more of the reproach of the nations, that's still happening. You shall no longer bear the disgrace of the peoples, no longer cause your nation to stumble, declares the

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Lord Yahweh, all right? The Lord's concern for his holy name.

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Let's pay attention to this one. The word of Yahweh came to me. Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and by their deeds.

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Isn't it interesting that when talking about sin, God talks about it in terms of defiling the land.

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And people sit there and go, what happens in the privacy of my own home? That's my business, it's none of your business, right?

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Is it now, really? Whatever happens in the privacy of your own home is defiling our land, if it's sinful, right?

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Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. Gross. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it,

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I scattered them among the nations. So no, murder and idolatry, as much mentioned here.

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I scattered them among the nations. They were dispersed to the countries in accordance with their ways and their deeds.

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I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name.

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In that people said of them, these are the people of Yahweh, and yet they had to go out of his land.

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But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.

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So you'll note here, when God acted in judgment and dispersed them, the people in the lands to which they were dispersed said, aren't these the people of Yahweh?

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Didn't God give them the land of Israel? What are they doing here? I guess Yahweh wasn't able to do it, you know?

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All right. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the

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Lord Yahweh, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name.

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Oh, wow. I'm gonna do good to you, not for your sake, for mine, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

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I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am

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Yahweh, declares the Lord Yahweh, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

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I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you into your own land.

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Again, end of the earth, kind of stuff. So note,

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God is eventually gonna act, and in a way that's going to vindicate us and exalt his holy name, okay?

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So let's take the current stick that's been thrust into our eyes at the

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Olympics, right? What are these people thinking in mocking

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Christ, right? And we have been rightly offended and have warned people using biblical text, do not be deceived,

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God is not mocked, right? And we're the ones told that we are the ones overreacting, we're just being crazy, they're gaslighting and saying it really wasn't what you thought it was.

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Oh, well, it was that, but why did you make a big deal? All this kind of stuff, right? If they persist in sin and unbelief, there's a day coming, a day coming for those folks.

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And the day coming will be Jesus' return, and they're gonna go, oh, did not see that coming, all right?

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And Jesus is not gonna be too keen about his holy name being profaned.

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In the ways that they did, with this horrible perversity, right, he's not gonna be keen on that.

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And he is going to vindicate Christians who believed in him and he's going to severely punish those who mocked him and who made

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Christians suffer and be persecuted for the name of Christ. Now, we sit there and we sit something like this and this should cause us to remain humble and sober -minded, right?

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We don't sit there and go, yeah, they got it coming. Yeah, right?

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Things that my brother used to say about me, right? And rightfully so, I think he's still in therapy, but that's a, but all that being said, we remain humble in all of this.

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And God is doing this to glorify his holy name. And so, when he vindicates those who believe in him, it's for the sake of his holy name, right?

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I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and I will bring you to your own land.

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I will sprinkle clean water on you. What does that sound like? Baptism.

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And you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all of your idols.

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I will cleanse you, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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Yes, this is not talking about 1948, this is talking about regeneration and coming, being made alive in Christ.

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And note the baptismal reference there. Where's this from again? Ezekiel 36, and here

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God says he's doing stuff in baptism. Who would have thunk, right? I will put my spirit within you, you know the

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Holy Spirit. I will cause you to walk in my statues and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people.

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I will be your God. I will deliver you from all of your uncleannesses. Another way of talking about our sin.

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And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.

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My question is this. Since we live in a land, a world of scarcity right now, right, you know, everybody has to work hard to put food on the table.

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And you gotta save up if you wanna retire, right? And you have to live off of whatever it is that you save.

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And you know, and people who haven't done so and they have no longer the ability to work, they can basically eke out a living, right?

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They basically survive at this point as you know, on the mercy of others, as wards of the state and things like this.

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So in the world we live in, there is great scarcity. And unfortunately, there's a lot of people hoarding too.

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But all that being said, in the new earth, there's not gonna be a single person that ever goes hungry. You will never have to worry about saving up for a rainy day.

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And retirement, what's that? You're gonna live forever. And you're gonna live forever in glorified human bodies.

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And you will never lack anything. My only question is this, will there be gyms?

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I think we'll be all right. Because I think those are torture devices in there, but that's a whole other story.

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Gyms, G -Y -M, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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People name gyms, we'll be there. Yeah. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.

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Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.

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It is not for your sake that I will act. So notice, God's kindness leads us to repentance here, right?

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It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord Yahweh. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways,

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O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, on the day that I cleanse you from all of your iniquities,

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I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt, and the land that was desolate shall be tilled instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by.

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And they will say, this land was desolate and has become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste and the desolate and the ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.

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Think of it this way. Sahara Desert, thing of the past, okay?

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Will there be such a thing as the Sahara Desert? Not in your life, right? And you'll note that, if geologists know that the

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Sahara Desert wasn't always what it is today, all right, there was a time when it was lush and there was rains and things like this.

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There's been major changes on planet Earth since the flood, right? They will say this land was desolate, became like the

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Garden of Eden, the waste and the desolate and the ruined cities now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations that are left all around, you shall know that I am

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Yahweh. I have rebuilt the ruined places. I have replanted that which was desolate. I am

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Yahweh. I have spoken and I will do it. And to which we should then say, come Lord Jesus, right?

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Maranatha. Do it quickly. Yeah, yes.

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We get a little bit of a foretaste. Yeah, yeah. So think of it this way.

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I like your question, by the way, Marilyn. Think of it this way. So Marilyn, you and Don were here 10 years ago when

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I came. And my assessment of Kongsvinger at the time is that it was on life support.

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You know, it was close to death. And I mean, we didn't have the kids that we have now, right?

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And one of the things that I just keep thinking about is just what it is that God has done here.

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Because here's the thing. Believe me, I didn't do this, all right? And you don't have to press me on it.

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I will be the first to deny I did any of this. The one thing I have seen happen here over the past 10 years is seeing what

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God's word does. You preach the word, it brings people.

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And the benefits that it brings with it are amazing, okay?

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We get a little bit of a foretaste of this abundance here because here's the thing. Not only do you get here

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God's word and the sacraments and the forgiveness of your sins, you get each other, right?

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One of the benefits of a good church is that daughters find husbands and boys find wives.

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And that people have people to pray for them and be with them and help them and support them through life's difficulties.

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When you're sick, you get visited. When you're in prison, you get somebody there to come and help you. When you are down and out and you're in need, people pull together and make sure that you're taken care of so that none of us is lacking.

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This is a foretaste of what's coming. And here's the thing, when was the last time you heard a sermon from me pressuring you people to do these things?

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Only if it came up in the text. Only if it comes up in the text, right? You don't leave

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Kongsvinger with, here's the three things you need to do this week, okay? You don't.

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What you leave is with a full belly of God's word and the comfort of the forgiveness of your sins.

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And then organically stuff like this happens, right?

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And I gotta admit, I still marvel that I've been able to witness this. Again, this is not my doing.

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I'm just the idiot who sits there and goes, I don't know, it says preach the word of God. I guess I'll just do that, okay?

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Burn him. Right? But again, look what the word has done.

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Look what the Holy Spirit has done through the preaching of the word. And the thing is, is that, have you guys noticed it keeps getting better every year?

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Like legitimately, legitimately gets better every year. We have more people here now than we did last year and two years ago.

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Some of you came back in 2021. And now you're back in three years.

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And look at what's happened to Congsinger in three years. Right? Yeah, so we do get a foretaste of this now.

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This is just, this is a taste. And by the way, you might wanna start getting along with each other, because look around.

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These are the people you're hanging out with like for eternity. Oh no. Oh, now that you put it that way, oh.

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Right? Right? Let's go back to first assembly. But you get the idea, right?

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You know, and that's the thing. And so every Sunday when we have family dinner at my house, and y 'all are welcome to come.

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That's a foretaste of what's coming. It's a foretaste. It's this endless rest and peace and feast and laughter and joy and enjoying each other's company.

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I'm an introvert, so I have to recover every time we have one of those things. But you know, but there's a day coming when

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I won't have to recover, you know. You know, but you get the idea. So yeah, no,

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Mara, I love what you said. I think it's absolutely spot on. And so, you know, as much as this is in the future, there's still a now part of this.

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There's still a now. And believe me, God is the one who has blessed us with each other.

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God has blessed us with his word, has blessed us with the forgiveness of our sins, has blessed us with the good times that we have together, right, and there's no guarantee that things are going to continue as wonderfully as they have.

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We might hit times of persecution. I would note that COVID was a testing time for us, legitimately a testing time, and it took us a little bit of time to catch our balance when, you know, when that thing struck, right.

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And some churches that I know, they still haven't recovered, you know. They still haven't recovered.

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We grew through COVID, you know. So let's finish up this text, and then next week we'll get to the

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Valley of the Dry Bones. So that says, Lord Yahweh, this also. I let the house of Israel ask me to do for them to increase their people like a flock, like the flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feast.

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So shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of people. They will know that I am

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Yahweh. We're not spending eternity alone, amen. It is going, the abundance of the kingdom of Christ in not only in food, but in people.

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There will be cities. There'll be places to explore with cameras and take photographs. I'm just saying, you know.

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Yeah, but you get the idea. All right, this is where we're gonna have to end off so that we have enough time to get to our 1 p .m.