Not a Time for False Prophets

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me, turn with me to 2 Timothy 4 and hold your place at verse 3.
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Before we read the text, I have a few preliminary comments I'd like to give.
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I hope that everyone can hear me well, and I'm thankful that you're all here this morning.
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Recently, there was an article published that was entitled, The Holy Spirit Misled Me.
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It was about a man named TB Joshua.
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TB Joshua is a Nigerian preacher who considers himself to be a modern day prophet.
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TB Joshua had just a few weeks before the article proclaimed that the Spirit of God told him that the coronavirus would end on March the 27th.
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Well, we are now more than halfway through April.
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There is really no end in sight.
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So, Joshua was forced to have to adjust his prophecy.
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He didn't recant, he didn't repent, but instead he said, The Holy Spirit misled me.
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The Holy Spirit got it wrong.
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Blasphemy, absolutely.
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The title of my message today is Not a Time for False Prophets.
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Now is not the time for false prophets.
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There's never a good time for false prophets, but especially in a moment of national crisis, in a moment where people's lives and their livelihoods are threatened.
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This is especially important that we understand that we ought not be giving an ear to false prophets.
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TB Joshua is only one in a long line of false prophets who have exposed themselves in the midst of this virus.
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Many faith healers have run for the hills, hiding from the scrutiny in the midst of this pandemic.
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Some have closed their doors to their miraculous healing schools.
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These schools teach people how to heal disease, but they've closed their doors in the face of a disease.
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Did you hear that? They teach people how to heal disease, but they close their doors in the face of a disease.
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God is exposing the heretics.
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God is exposing the false prophets.
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Many of you have seen the video of Kenneth Copeland yelling out into the camera, COVID-19 is destroyed forever, I declare it in the name of God.
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And yet the Kenneth Copeland Biblical School is closed.
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It's doors closed, and it says on their website, will not reopen until May, at least.
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Consider all of the television preachers who at the end of last year proclaimed 2020 is going to be the year of financial breakthrough.
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2020 is going to be the year of great expansion of the financial and prosperity of many people.
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The financial situations and prosperity of many people.
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And yet we stand in the most destructive financial downturn since the Great Depression.
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None of them prophesied this.
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None of them saw this coming.
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None of them said it was going to happen.
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Every one to a man, I watched video after video after video this week, at the end of 2019, every one of them saying it's going to be a year of blessing, a year of prosperity, a year of financial increase.
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Every one of them to a man or woman, a liar.
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God has not spoken to them.
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They are false prophets.
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And what they will do at the end of this year is they will adjust their prophecies just like T.V.
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Joshua did.
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They will not repent, they will not recant, they will continue with their false prophecy and their followers will follow them as the foolish men and women that they are.
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Now you may think I'm excited this morning, I am.
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And I hope people listen to my voice.
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Because there is nothing more dangerous right now than a false prophet.
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Because people's ears are more open now to listen for some kind of hope than they have been in a long time.
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And now is the time when the false prophets are going to be whispering into their itching ears the things that they want to hear.
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And they do not need false prophets, they need the truth of the word of God.
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So I wanted you to read with me 2 Timothy chapter 4.
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This is the apostle Paul.
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And he is warning of a time to come when men will not endure sound teaching.
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And beloved I will tell you we are here.
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If this passage has described any period in church history, it certainly describes now.
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So with your Bibles open, we shall read 2 Timothy 4 verses 3 and 4.
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For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.
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But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.
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And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
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Let us pray.
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Father, as I preach, please keep me from error.
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Please open your people's heart to the truth.
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For those who are believers, Lord, may we not be caught in the snare of false teaching.
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And for those who do not yet know Christ, may today be the day that they bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Under the power of the Holy Spirit of God.
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And we pray this in Jesus' name.
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Lord, keep me from error as I preach.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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When we read this passage from 2 Timothy, and this is Paul's dying letter.
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Paul is writing to his protege, Timothy, at the end of his life.
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And we can consider these to be some of the most important words that Paul ever wrote.
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Because this is the last that he would write.
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And he's writing to Timothy to tell him to continue to contend for the faith.
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To continue to preach the word.
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To continue to stand on the truth.
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And in the midst of this, he says, there is coming a time when people will not endure sound teaching.
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Let me say this to you.
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The people that he's talking about are not the people of the world.
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The people that he's talking about are not the people driving by in these cars.
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The people that Paul is talking about is people in the church.
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There is coming a time when they will not endure sound teaching.
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Beloved, the unbelievers have never endured sound teaching.
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The unbelievers have never longed for sound teaching.
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The non-believers have never submitted themselves to sound teaching.
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What he's talking about here is within the church.
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There is coming a time when the church will no longer be willing to listen to sound teaching.
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The church will instead replace its sound teachers with heretics.
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It will replace those who preach the truth with men and women who are willing to preach a lie.
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And here's the thing that you need to remember, beloved.
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False teachers do not bring judgment on the church.
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False teachers are judgment.
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They are judgment on the church because it's what the church wants.
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False teachers are giving the church what they have asked for.
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They are satisfying the ears that so long to be tickled.
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They are satisfying the ears that so long to be scratched.
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I want to show you four things from 2 Timothy today very quickly.
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Number one, it says a time is coming when people will not tolerate sound doctrine.
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Tolerate means that they will not be patient with it.
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They will not endure it.
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They will not be able to put up with it.
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John Calvin said this.
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He said it's not that they don't like it.
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They absolutely hate it.
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They absolutely hate it.
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You look around at the churches of America today and the truth is hated.
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When a man stands behind a pulpit and preaches the truth, he is defrocked.
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He is put out.
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He is not endured.
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He is not put up with.
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The church wants to be told everything that it wants to hear.
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And it does not want to hear anything about sin.
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It does not want to hear anything about repentance.
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It does not want to hear anything about submission to the Word of God.
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It wants to be told that you're healthy and you're happy.
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And all you must do is name it and proclaim it.
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All you must do is swear it and declare it.
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And I am here to tell you this morning that if you have come to this church with a prosperity mindset, I swear and hope that we can beat it out of you.
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Because the prosperity gospel is not the gospel.
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And it has been so ingrained in the minds of people.
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And it is a false heresy from the pit of hell.
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And yet, sound teaching is not tolerated.
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Number two, it says that they will seek out teachers that will tell them what they want to hear.
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The word here in the ESV, it says they will accumulate for themselves teachers.
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It literally means they will heap up for themselves teachers.
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I love what John Calvin, again I mentioned him, what he said about this passage.
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He said the devil is never at a loss for finding servants to teach his lives.
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He's never looking around too far to find somebody who's willing to preach lies.
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And here's the thing again, I say it again, these false teachers are not taking advantage of the people.
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Everybody says, oh what poor people that have given their money to Kenneth Copeland.
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Oh what poor people who've given their money to Kenneth Hagin.
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Oh what poor people who've given their money to Benny Hinn.
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Let me tell you something, they're not poor, they are part of the problem.
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The people themselves have called down judgment upon themselves by demanding this false teaching.
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Paul is not convicting the false teachers, he's convicting the people whose ears want the false teaching.
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That's the problem.
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The problem is not that one man will stand and proclaim false teaching.
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The problem is 50,000 will fill an auditorium to hear him preach falsely.
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The problem is not with the preacher, he's one man.
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The problem is with the myriads of people who fill his auditoriums.
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Paul goes on to say they will abandon the truth.
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And they will, they will abandon the truth.
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The word abandon, they will reject it, they will go away from it, they will hate it.
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As John Calvin said, they will hate the truth.
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And then number four, they will replace it with a lie.
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They will replace it with a lie.
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The word translated in the ESV is myth.
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The King James Version says fables.
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You know what myths and fables have in common? They're not true.
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If I said, come here boys, I want to tell you a myth.
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You know I'm not telling you the truth, right? You know I'm telling you a story.
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If I say, come here, I want to share with you a legend, you'll know that a legend is not the truth.
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The Christian faith is not based on myth.
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The Christian faith is not based on fables.
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The Christian faith is based on Jesus Christ who came into the world, born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who died on a Roman cross and who rose from a borrowed grave.
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And that is not faith in a fable.
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That is belief in a fact.
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The false teachers will give you fables.
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The false teachers will proclaim to you false things.
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Will you listen? Church, will you listen? Some of you may think I'm a madman this morning.
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Maybe I just got up and had too much sugar or something.
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I don't know.
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I'm a little excited.
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But I'm looking around the world and I'm seeing everybody saying, oh, what a great move of God.
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I see people turning to God.
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No, I see people turning to false prophets because they're looking for somebody to tell them what they want to hear.
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Earlier this morning, Brother Andy and I read from 1 Kings 22.
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Now, before you came this morning, it may have been a while since you read 1 Kings 22.
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And it may have been a while since you heard that story.
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In fact, some of you may not have remembered it at all.
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But the reason why I ask that we read that passage is because I wanted to share with you what I think is the best example from the Old Testament of this passage in 2 Timothy 4.
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Because 2 Timothy 4 says this.
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He says, there's coming a time when men will not hear the truth, but instead they will seek out people that will tell them a lie because the lie is satisfying.
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And when you go back to 1 Kings 22, that's what you find.
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You find a man named Ahab.
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Ahab was the king of Israel.
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Ahab was the king of the northern territory.
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And the southern territory, known as Judah, was ruled by Jehoshaphat.
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And Jehoshaphat and Ahab had entered into a relationship because their children had gotten married.
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It says that in 1 Chronicles 18.
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It says that Ahab and Jehoshaphat were entered into a marriage covenant or a marriage relationship.
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And so when it came time for Ahab to go to war, Jehoshaphat came to him and they teamed up for war.
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Even though at times they had been enemies, they had a common enemy.
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And so they teamed up for this battle at Ramoth-Gilead.
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Jehoshaphat says to Ahab, Before we go to battle, before we go out and fight, let's ask the Lord what He has to say about the matter.
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Let's inquire a word of the Lord.
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And so Ahab said, Okay, I've got 400 prophets.
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And he pulls in 400 prophets.
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Every one of them.
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O king, you're going to succeed.
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O king, you're going to have a great day in battle.
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O king, you're going to wipe the floor with your enemies.
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And the king is happy because he's getting to hear what he wants to hear.
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His ears are being tickled by the words of the prophets.
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But Jehoshaphat is not convinced.
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He knows that what he has is not 400 prophets, but what he has is 400 yes-men.
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He has 400 men who will tell him what he wants to hear.
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And so Jehoshaphat says to Ahab, Don't you have anyone else? Is there not one more who can give us a word from the Lord? And Ahab said, Yeah.
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There's one guy, but I hate him.
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I hate him because he always prophesies evil against me.
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And Jehoshaphat, well, the Scripture says, O king, may it not be or may you not say that.
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But in my mind of understanding the text, I think what he said is, Hey, don't be that way.
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Let's hear what he has to say.
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So Micaiah, a prophet which I imagine many of you maybe don't even remember or maybe even have never heard of.
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But the prophet Micaiah is brought out.
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And one of the guys says to Micaiah, Hey, listen, all the other kings have prophesied, or all the other prophets have prophesied good.
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Please, just tell them it's going to be all right.
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That's what all the other guys did.
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All the other guys prophesied it's going to be okay.
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You go and you prophesy it's going to be okay.
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Okay, Micaiah.
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Micaiah said, Listen, I can only prophesy what the Lord has spoken to me.
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I can only say the word of God.
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So he's brought out before the king.
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And what's interesting is his first words, he does say you're going to be successful.
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And the text, you know, the one thing about written text is it doesn't convey sarcasm.
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You can't read sarcasm.
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But you can infer sarcasm based upon what Ahab says to him.
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Because he says, Oh, king, you're going to succeed.
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And the king says, I told you to tell me the truth.
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And the reason why the king said that is because I believe this is how Ahab said it.
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Oh, yeah, you're going to succeed.
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Now, I can't prove that because the Bible doesn't say he rolled his eyes.
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But I got a feeling that he was saying, Yeah, you're going to succeed, all right.
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And Ahab said, No, you tell me the truth.
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And Ahab said, On this day, every man of Israel will be scattered on the mountain and they will not have a leader.
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Which means when you guys go into battle, you will die.
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And Ahab turns to Jehoshaphat and he says, Jehoshaphat, see, I told you, everything he says about me is evil.
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I don't want to hear this.
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Take him away.
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Put him in prison.
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And when I return, I'll deal with him.
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And Micaiah says, If you return, the Lord has not spoken to me.
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If you come back, you'll know I'm a liar.
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If you come back, you'll know I'm a false prophet.
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Because I've told you, on this day, you will not return.
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Well, the story goes on, and I wish I had time to tell more about it.
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The story goes on.
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The king hides himself in battle.
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He puts himself in regular armor like a soldier.
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And he tries to hide from the judgment of God that the prophet had spoken.
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But in the midst of the battle, the Bible says, one of the men shot an arrow at random.
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And it caught the king in between the edges of his armor.
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And it killed him graveyard dead.
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Just as the prophet had said.
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Beloved, you say, why did you tell that story? Because I believe that story has so much in common with today, that if we really were to take the moment to really listen to what it's saying, we will see the truth of this word, and that is this.
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The vast majority of people today, and I'm not talking about the people driving by.
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I'm talking about people in church.
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The people in church today are more like Ahab than they are Jehoshaphat.
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Because the people in churches want to hear what they think they want to hear.
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They don't want to hear what they need to hear from the man of God.
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Their ears are itching, and they are looking for somebody willing to scratch those ears.
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When the coronavirus started, just a few, well now a couple of months ago, a man from Nine Marks Ministries, Nine Marks is a pretty decent ministry, it's north of us, and one of their authors, one of their writers, spent 18 hours listening to four sermons each, from the nine largest evangelical churches in the United States.
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It's all online now, nobody can hide anymore, everything's put out.
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So he spent 18 hours listening to four sermons from the nine largest evangelical churches in the United States.
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And this was his report, he gave a report.
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He said there are four things that he learned in listening to 18 hours of sermons from the nine largest churches in the United States.
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Number one, the gospel was almost entirely absent.
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Number two, repentance was rarely seen as urgent or necessary.
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It was almost always seen as optional if it was mentioned at all.
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Number three, though the gospel of prosperity was not preached, the language of prosperity was a part of all of the messages.
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It lurked in the background of all of the messages.
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And number four, the Bible fell into two categories, misuse and abuse.
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Based on that report, and I know it's only one guy, but I have no reason to doubt what he is saying.
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Based upon his report, we can assume the nine largest evangelical churches in the United States are not getting a steady diet of the gospel, they are not being regularly called to repentance, they are not being taught the word, and they are being encouraged toward an attitude of prosperity.
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The nine largest churches in the United States are devoid of the gospel of Jesus Christ on a regular Sunday morning service.
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And you say to me, why are you so impassioned this morning? That's why.
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Beloved, I have said this before and I will say it again and I will continue to say it.
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If we want to see revival in our nation, it's not going to come from the president, it's not going to come from the governor, and it's not going to come from the mayor.
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If there is to be true revival in the United States, it is going to have to begin in the pulpit.
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We have too many men who are satisfied to tickle ears, and we have too many people coming to church expecting their ears to be tickled.
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The problem is not in Washington.
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The problem is within the body of Christ.
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Repentance and judgment begin at the house of the Lord.
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The thing that people most need to hear is the thing that people least want to hear.
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Do you realize that? The thing that people most need to hear is the gospel.
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And you know what I hear Christians say? Oh, I already know the gospel, I don't need to hear that.
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Let me tell you something, you never outgrow the gospel.
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You never graduate past the gospel.
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You never don't need the gospel.
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In fact, Martin Luther said this, he said, I preach the gospel every Sunday because every Sunday my people forget it.
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I preach the gospel every week because every week people forget.
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Let me remind you of the gospel this morning.
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And the gospel is not, Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
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That is not the gospel.
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The gospel is you are a sinful person.
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You are a wretch in the eyes of Almighty God.
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You have sinned against your Master.
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You are a traitor to the King.
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You are an intergalactic treasonous person.
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Because He who owns all galaxies, you have sinned against Him.
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And if you received what was just, if you received what was your due penalty for your error, you would receive nothing but the wrath of God forever.
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And if you want to talk about what's fair, that's what's fair.
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The only thing that is fair is that we would receive the wrath of God.
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But God, being rich in mercy, sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He would keep the law perfectly and never sin.
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That He would offer Himself as a substitute on a Roman cross.
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And that He would take upon Himself our sin.
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And He would give us His blessed righteousness.
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If you are standing today, holding to anything other than the righteousness of Christ, may I tell you that you have not yet come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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If you are holding on to your goodness, you are still lost.
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If you are holding on to your righteousness, you are still lost.
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If you are holding on to anything that you have done, you are still lost.
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You need to repent of your sin, but you also need to repent of your good works.
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Because if you're trusting in your good works, you're still a son of the devil.
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You have not yet become a son of God.
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Because here's the problem.
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Most people are satisfied with their goodness.
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And it is only when you realize that you are not good, that you can truly look to Him who is good and find in Him a perfect Savior.
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So I ask you this morning, I ask you again.
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Do you know the Gospel? Have you come to Christ? Or are you trusting in yourselves? The false prophets will tell you that you are good.
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The false prophets will tell you every person is good.
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The false prophets will tell you that you're worthy and you're the best.
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And you just need to realize your potential.
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I want to tell you this.
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The problem is not that you think too low of yourself.
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The problem is always we think too high of ourselves.
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We need to understand that there is but one good.
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And that is God alone.
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And He has called us to repent of our sins and trust in His Son.
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Not so that we can display our goodness.
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But that we can forsake our goodness and trust in His alone.
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Beloved, don't follow after the false prophets.
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Don't listen to the false teachers.
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Listen to the Word of God.
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Do not be like those who will not tolerate the truth.
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Do not be like those whose ears itch to hear the false Gospels.
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But be one who, like the Bereans, searched out the Scriptures.
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So that they would know the truth.
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And the truth will set us free.
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May it be.
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Let us pray.
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Father, by Your mercy and grace, I thank You for this opportunity to preach Your Word.
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I pray that it will reach the ears of all these people and even beyond.
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And Lord, most of all, Lord, that You would be glorified in the preaching of Your Word.
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Father, please, where I have erred, I pray that You would forgive me and I pray that You would wipe that from our minds, Lord.
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But those areas where truth has been proclaimed, Lord, that You would take that truth and apply it to the hearts of the people.
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And Lord, that there would not be one today who would leave who would say, I have not heard the Gospel.
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But Lord, that the Gospel has been proclaimed and now men must respond.
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Lord, for believers, I pray that they would be reminded of the importance of the Gospel in their life.
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Not to trust in themselves and not to listen to the false prophets, but to listen to Jesus.
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And Lord, for those who do not know Christ, Lord, that You would turn their hearts from sin today.
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And Lord, change their hearts forever.
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I pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Lord, that You might do a work of eternity today in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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Alright, we're going to sing and encourage you just to, if you know the song, sing along with us.
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But be thinking about what has been preached.
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Go to the Lord in prayer if you need.