F4F | Keith Craft's Tradition of Annual Word of the Lord

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebrough, I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the word of God.

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Now, if you've ever attended or are currently attending a church where your pastor or vision casting leader, by the way, vision casting leader is not a biblical office in the church, but if your pastor or vision casting leader claims that God gives him a specific word for your church for every given calendar year, yeah, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

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Don't forget to like the video and ring the bell. Um, yeah, you, you, this is a, this is a false practice.

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This is nowhere taught in scripture. So today we're going to be heading over to Elevate Life Church where Keith Kraft is the vision casting leader.

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He's the inventor of the Mariachi Trench. If you're not sure what that is, check the podcast archives of Fighting for the

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Faith. And we're going to go to their New Year's Eve service, New Year's Eve service. And we're going to listen as Keith Kraft is going to be revealing what he claims is the word that God gave him for Elevate Life Church for the year 2020.

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And we'll just kind of note what's going on here. So let's, uh, get to it. Here is my desktop and now here's my screen.

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There we go. Here's Keith Kraft. Well, I've been so excited because for when, when

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I, you know, when I get these words from the Lord, uh, this tradition and it is a tradition for our family of choice for our church, uh, started in 2006 when we were six years old.

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All right. Now I'm going to point something out here. This tradition, he said, started for our church back in 2006.

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Now I've been in the church for most of my life.

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Uh, yeah. So really active as a Christian from the time

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I was in junior high, that would be seventh grade until now. And when

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I was growing up, no churches had individual words that God gave to their pastors every calendar year.

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So you're going to know for them, this started when in 2006 so, so let me ask you, what was the word of the

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Lord for your church in the year 1973, 1967, 52, 41.

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Yeah. You're going to note here. This is a new practice. And I'm going to just ask the question, when did

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God start doing this and where in the Bible should we be led to believe that this is what God's going to do for our unique for individual congregations?

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I'll kind of leave that out there for a little bit as he continues to develop his thought. And I began to realize something that God had us on this trajectory of, of, of this supernatural experience of establishing this church in a little bitty old

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Frisco, Texas in 2000, when there was only 28 ,000 people here, but God knew what was coming.

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He knew what he wanted to do. And he knew, he knew he wanted to gather a group of people that would help bring his kingdom from heaven to earth.

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And so gather a group of people that would help bring his kingdom from heaven to earth.

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What does that mean exactly? How does one bring the kingdom from heaven to earth?

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Now I would note that we pray in the Lord's prayer. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, forgive us our trespasses.

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You're familiar with this prayer, right? So thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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So how does the kingdom of God come to an individual human being? We are definitely praying that God's kingdom would come among us.

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God's kingdom will come, you know, whether we try to stop it or not. But how does God's kingdom come among individual human beings or among congregations?

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Answer, we know that God's kingdom has arrived when people are brought to penitent faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

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And then through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, they bear fruit in keeping with repentance, bear the fruit of the

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Spirit as they mortify their sinful flesh. We can say the kingdom of God has come among us when we see things like that happening.

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But Keith Kraft, I've never really noted him to be much of a preacher of sin.

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Christ and him crucified for our sins, repentance, and bearing fruit in keeping with repentance.

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So when he says it's our job to bring the kingdom from heaven to earth, I would note that God, even when in the case of a penitent sinner, that when somebody is brought to penitent faith in Christ, God is the one who's bringing his kingdom, not me pulling it down.

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So weird language. And in 2016, our word was acceleration.

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And this was the first, because things were accelerating, like in our church, like God was moving.

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It was incredible. Now, I want to point this out. You see, I'm a pastor.

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And I've been a pastor since 2014. And wouldn't you know it,

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God didn't call me on the phone or send me a text message or an email to let me know what the word from him was for the congregation

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I serve in either 2014 or 15.

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Come to think of it, he didn't call me either in 2016 or 2017 or 2018.

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Yeah, nor 2019 and 2020. So yeah, is this an opt -in thing?

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You know, you have to sign up for a list or whatever. And then once you sign up for it, God sends your pastor individual words and stuff like, or maybe it's just that my church isn't special enough.

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Or I know I'm just not holy enough as a Christian. You see, as a

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Christian pastor, I don't glow in the dark. Like Keith Kraft does.

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And so because I don't glow in the dark, God just skips over me. It's like the Passover every year.

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He, you know, he looks at me and goes, Oh, Chris Roseberg hasn't learned how to glow in the dark yet. So no word for me to give to his congregation for this year.

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You see something's going on here. And that is, is that this particular practice creates the impression that Keith Kraft's congregation is more special than an ordinary church.

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And that Keith Kraft as a pastor, as a vision casting leader, he's holier than, you know, the average pastor who doesn't get words like this.

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And so why would you want to go to a church where God doesn't tell your pastor, you know, why would you want to go to a church where God isn't talking to your pastor to give him a word for each individual year?

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You see, I just kind of go with the idea that the standing orders in the Bible are still standing for me as a pastor.

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That my job is to preach the word in season, out of season, make disciples, proclaim the full counsel of the word of God.

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And I follow a program where the full counsel of the word of God, every major doctrine of scripture, and a whole lot of sub doctrines, you know, secondary and tertiary, are taught clearly from the word of God in one calendar year every year.

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And then we do the same thing the following year. And then the year after that, and then the year after that.

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Yeah, every calendar year, I can say as a pastor, we've taught the full counsel of the word of God.

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We've hit every major doctrine from creation to the doctrine of the trinity, to sound

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Christology in the incarnation, to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which gets proclaimed every single

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Sunday, that Christ has bled and died for our sins. Calls for people in the congregation to repent, to be forgiven, to bear the fruit of the spirit.

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I mean, yeah, we talk about the virgin birth. We talk about Christ's descent into hell.

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Yes, that's in scripture. Look it up. You know, things of this nature, just walk through the major doctrines of Christianity, what the church has historically confessed for millennia.

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We go through all of that every year. And then we do the same thing the following year after that, and the following year after that.

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That's my job. Scripture says that I'm supposed to be doing that. So I do that.

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And since God has given the same orders to me as he's given to Keith Craft, and those orders are found in the written word of God, I just kind of go with the idea.

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These are standing orders, and Jesus doesn't need to repeat himself. I mean, if a pastor is not going to apply himself to learning the word of God, then what would make him qualified to teach it?

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You see what I'm saying there? And I think they're going to show a picture of this. But 2006, guys, y 'all got it?

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Once they get it, we'll go. Thank you very much. So you're going to see maybe some funny pictures, too, because we all just keep getting better and better, right?

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In 2007, the word was favor, a divine advantage for success.

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In 2008, God said a divine advantage for success. It sounds like this guy scratches itching ears, tells people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.

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Give me the word breakthrough. Really? God gave you the word breakthrough in 2008?

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Really? That's a prophecy bingo word. That was where the leadership biology, when you grow through what you go through, you create breakthrough.

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So let me just say that tonight again. When you grow through what you go through, you create breakthrough.

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Some people can't figure out how to break through in their business. They can't figure out how to break through in their life. They can't figure out how to break through financially.

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It's because if you don't grow through what you go through, then you'll get a breakdown.

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You won't get a breakthrough. Then in 2009, our word was elevate. And by the end of that year on December 31st, 2009, we renamed our church

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Elevate Life Church. That's how much these words mean to us. God gives us a word.

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We don't know what's going to happen with the word that I'm going to give you in just a few minutes. But I'm just telling you, these words are so significant that when

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God gave me this word in 2009, by the end of that year, we renamed our church

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Elevate Life Church. 2010 multiply. And that's exactly what began to happen in our church.

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We were also in the middle of a building project in the worst economy in recent American history.

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This building that you're sitting in was being built in 08 and 09 and 010.

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Some of you remember what was happening in this country. We were the largest church building project in America.

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And there were churches and banks going bankrupt all around us. And God just kept giving us his favor.

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God kept giving us breakthrough. God kept elevating us. God kept multiplying us. In 2011,

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God gave me the word Celebrate. Because you sure God gave you that word? Sure.

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What evidence can you give me that God's giving you these words?

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And why isn't God giving these words to all Christians at all time? Now, I just kind of throw this in here.

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In the epistle of Jude, the half brother of Jesus Christ writes, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.

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Yeah. When you read the writings of the church fathers, for instance, maybe Augustine of Hippo or Hilary of Poitiers, maybe

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Irenaeus or Polycarp or Phil in the blank, your favorite church father, right?

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When you read the writings of the church father, nowhere in the writings of the church fathers do you hear any of them saying, and the word that the

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Lord gave to our pastor for the year 197.

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And that word was? Yeah, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints means that you don't get to add to or subtract from Christianity.

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This practice, again, Keith Kraft noted that it began in 2006.

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It's a tradition. I would argue this is a tradition of men, not of God. And God's not talking to him.

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I have no reason to believe that God gave him any of these words. None whatsoever.

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We continue. A little did I know that by the time we got to 2012, we would move into this building.

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It would finally be done after years and years of building. And then in 2012, it was increased.

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And indeed, God began to increase us. 2013, enlarge. 2014, expand.

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2015. These are all like words on steroids. Increase, expand, empower.

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2016, excel. 2017, excel. Yeah, I hate spreadsheets.

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I don't particularly like them. 2018, forward. 2019, anybody remember the word in 2019?

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Supernatural. The Bible says now to him who is able to do exceedingly.

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Taking Ephesians, that benediction at the end of a prayer from the book of Ephesians, out of context.

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We covered that recently on an episode of fighting for the faith. Abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works within us.

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So once these words are given, and the reason I took time to give these words to you, and again, they'll be on the notes,

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I think, on our website, is because I want you to know once these words are released, it's in the tapestry or the fabric of what

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God is doing right here in Frisco, Texas, that is touching the world and that will continue to touch the world.

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Before I give you the word tonight, I want to read our scripture, and that's Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

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I also want to say... All right, so this is where he tries to make it appear like the word that he's received from God for the coming year, and this was a service held on New Year's Eve at Elevate Life Church there at Frisco, Texas.

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And so he's going to try to make it look like this is from the Bible. So we're going to look at multiple paraphrases and translations of a particular text because he's hunting for the word.

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It should show up a couple of times as he's reading out these texts for the purpose of making it appear like, oh, well, man, this is straight up biblical.

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He's twisting God's word here to make it appear like God's word supports the practice that he's engaging in.

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But the practice he's engaging in is not a biblical practice, and no, God did not give him any of those words.

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Say hi to Pastor Precious. I love you, baby. You're awesome, and I hope you're staying warm. It was four degrees when

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I left at four o 'clock this morning, and so I know she's cold. Romans 12, 1 and 2.

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So here's what I want you to do. God helping you take your everyday ordinary.

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Okay, this is from the MSG. Listen, you don't want to attend a church where the pastor is putting

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MSGs into the sermon. Yeah, you want an MSG free sermon. Yeah, just saying the

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MSG, the message. It's not a translation. This thing is abysmal. Nobody should be exegeting this because you can't exegete this.

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It'll lead you astray, and I always find that false teachers prefer either the message or the passion translations, and both of them are completely abysmal.

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Should be avoided like the plague because they do not give a faithful rendering of what the original languages say.

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You're sleeping, you're eating, you're going to work, you're walking around life and place it before God as an offering.

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Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. I want to read that one more time.

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Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

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What is he? Okay, this is why you need MSG free sermons. Let's take a look at that.

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Romans chapter 12. By the way, the book of Romans is an amazing book, and I find it fascinating that when evangelicals quote

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Romans, it's as if the book of Romans starts at Romans 12, like part way through the first sentence of verse one, and they don't know what to do with the first 11 chapters.

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I would note the first 11 chapters of the book of Romans lay out in explicit detail and repetitive examples that we are saved by God's grace through faith, apart from works of the law.

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By works of the law, no one will be saved. And then when you get to chapter 12, and by the way, it lays those out for the first 11 chapters over and over and over again with different ways of saying the same thing.

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Then by the time you get to 12, you're ready to hear about sanctification because you're not going to say that somehow your sanctification is a factor in your justification.

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It's not. Your sanctification flows from your justification. Always fascinating, but let me take a look real quick.

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Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

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Instead, fix your attention on God. What is that?

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All right. So what Romans does say from a good translation, the ESV is a fine translation.

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And here's what it says. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. You'll note that before he segues into a section to give the admonitions then regarding sanctification, and are driving us and spurring us and motivating us and reminding us to push forward into good works for the sake of our neighbor, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved,

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Paul then reminds them, I appeal to you, therefore, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

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And you are already holy because Christ has made you holy, which is your spiritual worship.

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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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That's what a good translation says. And this is very faithful to the original languages to the

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Greek. Okay, we come back because MSG is, yeah, no, you want an MSG free sermon.

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Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

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Instead, fix your attention on God. Somebody put an amen, just focus for a second.

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That's what amen, it's focusing on what the word just said. Amen means, so let it be, you know.

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You will be changed from the inside out, readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.

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Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity,

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God brings. Where did Eugene Peterson get all these extra words?

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Best out of you develops well -formed maturity in you. Somebody put an amen on that.

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So a different translation, Romans, the 12th chapter, the first from the

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NLT, not the second verse in the New Living Translation. And so dear brothers and sisters, everybody say that's us.

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Now everybody say it, that's us. I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he's done for you.

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Let them be a living and holy sacrifice. I will say this, the NLT is a lot closer than the

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MSG. The kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

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Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

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Then you will learn. I see where he's going with this. Any hints yet as to what the word for 2020 that Keith Kraft claims that God gave him is?

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Learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Put an amen on that.

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And now one more time in the New King James Version. Okay, New King James, really decent translation.

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I beseech you, I plead with you by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

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Yeah, you'll note the New King James, fine translation, decent translation.

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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

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So here we've got Romans 12, 1 and 2 out of context.

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One from the MSG, which is just abysmal. Second from the New Living, which is... Third from the

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New King James, fine translation with the New King James Version. And again, all of this out of context in order to create the impression.

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Oh yeah, this word that God gave to Keith Kraft for 2020. That's straight out of the

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Bible, man. So now it's time for the word for 2020.

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Watch this. Is it metamorphosis?

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Because I'm seeing caterpillars turning into butterflies. There it is, it's transformation.

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Everyone on your feet, let's give a standing ovation to God, to talking to Keith Kraft to let us all know, at least let them know how special he is and how they're special.

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They are because they've got a special word from God and all you normal churches don't get.

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Come on, I'm about to tell you what it means. I don't want you to get excited. Stuff's about to transform y 'all.

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Some of you are gonna hear this and you're not, and I want you to mark down what

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I'm saying. This is for some people, you're not gonna know exactly what it means until June. I'm gonna pull up another biblical text.

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Okay, Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20. Yeah, in fact, let me do this.

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I have to, A -C -T -S, there we go. Chapter 20, the apostle Paul talking to the pastors from the city of Ephesus as he's heading towards Jerusalem.

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He has some words of encouragement for them and some words of warning.

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Here's what he says. Acts chapter 20, partway through verse 18, he's addressing these pastors and says, you yourselves know how

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I lived among you. The whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the

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Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews.

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How I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance towards God and of faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem constrained by the spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the

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Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself.

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If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

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And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.

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Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

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Yeah, I would note that in churches like Elevate Life Church, they claim that God's giving them a specific word for the year and stuff like that, that at the pace that they're going, which is a glacial one, at the pace that they're preaching and teaching, it would take probably at least 100 to 150 years for them to finally get around to teaching the whole counsel of the word of God.

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That's how piecemeal it is when it comes to the word of God. So Paul, note, he says he's innocent of the blood of all because he didn't shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

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Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which

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God obtained with his own blood. Yeah, that's right. That's reference to Christ on the cross, let you know that he's God.

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So I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

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Here, auton could be translated after themselves. I would note that in churches like Elevate Life Church and others that follow models like this, where they have glow -in -the -dark vision casting leaders who specifically get individual words from God, that these fellows are really good at making disciples after themselves, but they're not good at teaching the full counsel of the word of God and making disciples of Jesus Christ.

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Again, I don't recognize this practice as biblical. I have never seen this practice practiced in any of the ancient churches.

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And Keith Kraft comes along in the 21st century and claims that this is their tradition and claims that he's hearing from God.

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And I'm sitting there going, that's weird because for all his claims that he's hearing from God, he sure isn't doing what

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Paul did nor what Paul instructs pastors to do. Second Timothy chapter four is helpful in this regard.

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Paul, as he's getting ready to be beheaded, he martyred for the

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Christian faith and for his proclamation and belief and testimony of Christ.

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He writes to young pastor Timothy, a pastor in the city of Ephesus. And he says this,

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I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom to preach the word.

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Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

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That's today. In fact, what we just saw happen there at Elevate Life Church, say an example of it.

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Keith Kraft does not teach the full counsel of the word of God. He's not making disciples of Jesus. He's making disciples of himself.

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Claims that he glows in the dark. Well, that's my way of putting it. Hears directly from God. God gives him unique words.

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And these people there at Elevate Life Church don't even know that they've been completely disconnected from scripture and disconnected from the historic church and the faith once delivered to the saints.

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Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. So if you found this helpful, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And of course, need to remind you, Fighting for the Faith, we're supported by the people that we serve, and that's you. So if you don't already support us, a great way to support us is by joining our crew.

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All the information on how you can join our crew is down below. And everybody who joins our crew in the month of January at Gunners Mate and above,

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And when you get to the page on the join our crew, you can see what that looks like and get more details for that.

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So let me thank you for your support. We truly can't do what we're doing without it. So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.