John 17:3 This is eternal life/ Future plans

Open Air Theology

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this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

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God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent what's up welcome to trailer 1689

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I'm your host Jeffrey Rice I could thank you for stopping by and checking this out so yesterday before about two hours before my pastor calls and we're having this tool swap you know a guy you know a guy hang out when we're gonna swap tools kind of play like a dirty

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Santa with tools and so he he contacted me and asked would I give a devotion and I said yeah sure first time that he's asked me to do something though I am probably new to the church but this guy is a really good friend of mine

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I've met him on the streets preaching Christ and just always been very gracious to me very good guy great leader and I consider him a friend and he is my pastor and so I said sure

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I asked him if he knew what he wanted me to speak about he said just go with it so this is the verse that I thought

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I talk about it's it's one of my favorite verses like sometimes every once in a while someone will have me to sign in their

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Bible because I I make I do handmade covers and sometimes they want the artists signature and when

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I do this is usually the verse that I that I sign with my name wouldn't say it's my life first or anything like that but this is this is a verse that I normally will will do because I think it's important to know

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God to know Christ so this is the verse that I signed so I figured

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I'd you know without any kind of in -depth study

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I could go with this and and I know there's a lot of controversy around this verse so something that I really wanted to go with and to give you kind of a background

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Jesus this is his high priestly prayer he's praying to God and you know this is just something that that in life has really impacted me and so he says that this is eternal life let's read it again says this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

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God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent so he is making a statement right after he declares what eternal life is he says that this is eternal life so whatever he says after this point is eternal life and so I think it's very important to catch what what

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Jesus is trying to to give us to understand in his high priest the prayer to pray this to his father saying this is eternal life and so what he's about to express to us we really need to pay attention we need to hear and a lot of people really twist this and I just want to kind of show you what

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I see in it I want to show you what it isn't and then show you what it is all right so what it isn't it isn't salvific he says now he says this is eternal life he isn't saying this is how you obtain eternal life this is how you receive eternal life that is not what's being said here he says now this is eternal life so I am a particular

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Baptist I stand on this side of the Reformation I stand on the shoulders of the

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Giants the Puritans of the Reformation the Reformers the early church fathers the the

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Apostles David Abraham that salvation that is grace it's faith it's the covenant of grace

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God has done something in my place and so I stand on that line of this of this debate

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I do not believe that any good work that I could occur within myself will put me in any right position with God to find favor

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I believe that salvation is the work of God that he saves a people that that I was a a stick in the fire and he reaches from eternity into time and he plucks me from the flame that's how

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I view salvation that God saved me that that that because of the the sin of one man we got the the promised seed and in this promise seed came forth through through the

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Virgin Mary and and through his crucifixion the his heel was bruised but as his heel was bruised he bruised the head of the serpent and now because of what he did on the cross there's death his burial and his resurrection upon hearing this gospel message which

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I'm going to do another message on the gospel message to get more full in debt but upon hearing the fullness of the gospel message my heart is open to receive

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Christ by faith and that faith is a gift of God so I just want to I want to just kind of put that out there that that this verse is not saying this is how you receive

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Christ this is how you get eternal life that this verse is telling us something much much different the world's famous verse which is debatable and I would like to do something on it too but John 3 16 for God so loved the world they gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life so eternal life is something that that we possess upon believing so this is a a end time now

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I'm believing I have eternal life now what does that look like what does eternal life look like I have it

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I have received Christ by faith what does eternal life look like and I believe that this is where this verse picks up read it again it says now well it says this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

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God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent so I believe this verse to be this verse is instructing us as Christians on how to live now in the kingdom in relationship to God and I believe that it is by the ordinary means of grace that God has given the believer and if I was to pick two verses to kind of to juggle out these ordinary means of grace it would be these two acts 242 says and they were continually devoted themselves to the

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Apostles teaching and to fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer

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Ephesians 519 speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs sing and make melody with your heart to the

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Lord so out of out of these two verses this is what I see this is what

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I've came up with so this would be my preposition or it would be devoting ourselves to scripture in reading and in listening fellowship with other believers the

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Lord's Supper prayer and a congregational worship with music like these are things that I believe are important for a believer all right now if I want to make it more intimate more personal

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I would say expository preaching Bible reading and prayer so this are the three things that I believe

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God has given us as individuals to know him so so if these means of grace that push us to know him

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I would say will be these these things I would say it's it's sitting under a a faithful biblical elder who spends time in the text to explain to you the meaning of the passage

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I think that is very important annoying God like I do not want to promote a man with his

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Bible under a tree praying like like that's good at times

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I am a man with a Bible under a tree reading and praying but that's but those of you that been around I'll know what

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I'm saying that that that the relationship with God is not me and Jesus got her own thing going because if it's that you do not have it all worked out hallelujah hallelujah but it's it's that you are devoting yourselves to the teachings of the

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Apostles and that you are submitting yourselves to the elder that God has placed over you and it's not to say that they're got a whip and you know it's it's it's someone that you trust like I trust my friend and pastor

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Adam you know and it's it's it's very you and your elder it's a very intimate thing

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I just would say that that this is something you need as a believer and you need as a believer to read your

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Bible like pick up a physical copy that's that's what

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I'd say especially if it's a post tender for slugs Bible pick up your copy of the scriptures and and read the

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Bible and to pray to to have this conversation with God where you're you're you're listening to what he has to say and you're responding in voice you're you're praying you're you're having a one -on -one with God daily

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I think the reading and the praying should be daily and although the congregation congregate expository preaching most likely weekly if you don't have any midweek services but you need to sit under a faithful man that is faithfully presenting what

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God has in Scripture and so so these are the three things that I think that that we need in order to fully know

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God and we know the only way to get to the Father is to Christ and the only way for us to know

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Christ is through Scripture and that is Old Testament and New Testament.

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I plan to do a lot of revealing Christ in the Old Testament in the future to show you some of these key points that's probably overlooked by many and many of them are faithful men

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I just like like the way my brain works it's kind of weird like I'm really good with puzzles and putting stuff together and so when

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I read scriptures I make my own cross references like I just like I just see things

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I just want to show y 'all what I'm kind of crazy right follow me

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I am you know it's all good but uh so why why is this important why is it important to to I won't say to know

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God why is it important to know him in this way well

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I would say just in Jehovah Witnesses alone there's probably about I think it

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I think the numbers 300 ,000 converts a year and as staggering as that number is you probably wouldn't know that it's not from atheists it's not from people that don't have the knowledge of God it's from what you would call church members these are people that would identify themselves at one time to be

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Christians and they are going to the cults whether they be

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Jehovah's Witnesses Mormons way internationals whatever name it and they're going because they don't know

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God they don't know they do not have a committed relationship with word and prayer they do not know

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Christ in the Old Testament as Yahweh they do not know

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God and so I think it's very important to be challenged to know

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Christ if you say you're a believer you are to know Christ even in Titus even the young women are commanded to to rebuke with Scripture like you are to know

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Scripture so so we are to know

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Scripture and so that's my challenge when I meet anyone I always ask them about their their time and Scripture how their prayer life is you know and how to build this as a good habit if you just take first Peter I'm not going to exposit this text but I just want to kind of be some icing for this passage 315 says but sanctify

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Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asked you to give them an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence

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I'm not gonna go in to exposit that but you know it's one thing that I do when

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I meet someone that's a Christian as I ask questions at my my former church the

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Reformed Baptist Church of Nashville whenever he would you would try to become a member of the church they would ask questions what's the gospel when did you get saved how do you know you're saved you know good questions and so I think asking good questions when we meet people especially

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Christians is a good thing because we don't want to be deceived or we don't want to deceive people so we need to be in our

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Bibles we need to challenge one another we need to build up and courage one another

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I was at church today and my daughter would not sit still a pastor's going through the

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Psalms he's preaching Psalm 10 today and I just kept having to get on to her and finally put my arm around her and I said listen it's more important for you to hear what

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Pastor Adam is saying than it is for us to leave here and eat why do

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I say that I told her that when it comes her time and her days are ending she would have wished herself to miss a million meals than to miss one moment with Christ she is not going to think about the meals she had she's going to think about Christ she's gonna want those moments back that she didn't spend that time with Christ I think it's important for us and I say a million like you're saying dude that's a lot how do you keep record yeah well

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I don't but it's it would be better to starve to death and be in the presence of our

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God than to feast at the king's table and not be in his presence and I think we need to put our priorities in order and I think as Christians our priority should be to know

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God this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

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God and who in Jesus Christ whom you have sent that is eternal life we need to know this

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God we say we believe in we need to we need to we need to be able to defend in defense to give a defense of the hope that is in us well one of my favorite things to do is to speak with Jehovah's Witnesses and when

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Mormon is like I love it I see the Mormon boys riding a bike I'm pulling over I don't care how long my wife is tapping on her watch man

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I am talking it's so much easier to talk to people that want to talk about God so that's just a good way to start evangelizing know

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God because trust me you do not want to be put under a false delusion that you know him only to hear depart from me

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I never knew you so I think it's important for us to to read the scripture to have that relationship with Christ in prayer

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I think it's important well I hope you like what you heard

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I'm trying to do something different I wanna I got moved into a new place

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I want to do more like I have a lot of stuff up here

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I want to get out and sometimes it's it's putting the pieces together it's also doing enough work where I can squeeze in time like this

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I'm not gonna be someone on here asking for money like that's just I yeah not what

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I'm about I work right now I want to represent what I do

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I'm the owner of Post Tender Brass Luxe Bible rebinding so I'm a hand make covers they have a hundred year shelf life no matter how you handle these babies they are built to last beautiful so this is what

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I do I spend about eight to ten hours a day making Bibles for people and and I listen

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I I have my devotions every day you know I read the Bible I pray and I constantly am listening to the

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Bible to people exposit the text at one time

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I was going through the Bible every four weeks just listening to it not long ago

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I listened to Revelation every day for 30 days all right you know like I just I can just you know

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I'm here I can put a lot of time and listen in this stuff and you know listening to dr.

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James White listening to grace to you at John MacArthur listening to Jeff Durbin listening to two great men of God listening to Gary DeMora listening to you know just if they're good

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I don't listen to R .C. Sproul R .C. Sproul man I don't know how many times

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I sit and listen to the holiness of God and so so I just want to be able to when

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I have a thought I want to be able to get it out so this ain't just gonna be me breaking down text

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I'm probably gonna do some Bible reviews even some of my own some comparing a new text block that don't have a premium cover to a text block that does have the premium covers and I do plan on going through the book of Revelation twice

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I want to read through verse by verse and kind of mark highlights on stuff that we need to go back and examine and then go through because like I can talk about the book of Revelation for hours like it's serious

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I'm really really big time into that stuff and used to be a what you would call a leaky dispensations you know charts maps and all this other stuff and but my eschatology has moved more to a post meal eschatology and man

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I just love it and I still today like I listen to every prophecy like like I still listen to my uh my dispensational brothers no hate at all you know

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I'm saying I listen I love them I just think they're wrong and they they don't know me they don't listen to me and they think

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I'm wrong so but whatever it's all good but yeah I just want to go through and kind of I just want to express what

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I'm seeing and I want to do it in love and in gratitude of the men that live before me like like like MacArthur man like I love

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John MacArthur I you know he thinks I'm wrong I think he's wrong on this point other than that I'd be like hey bitch you a man bro and I love him and then when

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I got to meet him I mean it was very evident when I got to meet him I was posting pictures and I was like a like a little schoolgirl man and it was exciting man you know and so the very first book

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I bought was a John MacArthur book when I'm very first bought a

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Bible so I bought a Bible and as I'm walking out I see this book and it has a cross on it and it was really cool cover and it was called hard to believe and I bought that book and that was in oh three and so I've been following John MacArthur since I was three love him like the best expositor in my opinion but I just I just want to show you things that I see like things that my brain is connecting and you know

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I could be wrong about some things I still want to express them and I'm not and if I'm wrong you know

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I'm pretty sure James White or somebody has hit me you know I love them brothers man

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I'm so grateful for Giants like like them in my life and I just want to be able to express some things that I'm seeing maybe and have fun while I'm doing it man because uh you know life is short and and I have a lot to say and I work my butt off and I try to I want to squeeze in some time to to express that and I don't want

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I don't want this to be an avenue of money for me like that's not what

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I'm going for I love to work with my hands I love making Bibles I've reached houses for 25 years and I love so anyways plan on doing a lot more plan on doing a testimony plan on doing again the book of Revelation I want to break through John 3 on two points point one the kingdom of God point to the spiritual birth and but but each point is going to break out into long longer sections and stuff like that I don't know so just stay tuned so this is trailer 1689 you say hey why trailer 1689 baby cuz

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I'm trailer part I grew up in it and I am 1689 you know I'm saying I'm on the

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Baptist confession of faith 1689 and that's just how we roll so I hope you enjoyed it if you don't mind like share don't whatever