Blessing the People (02/17/2002)

Park Meadows Church

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Well, it's getting to be a foot washing Baptist Church Because when you've seen praises to the

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Lord The Holy Spirit brings to your mind that your feet have gotten a little dirty this week

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He also reminds you that you're covered by the blood of Jesus But that Jesus did wash the feet of the disciples and you ask him to wash your feet

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So you can be fit to Be in the heavenlies for a while Very important, isn't it?

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Very important. What a beautiful teaching Jesus gave that day well,

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I got a an interesting email from Marianne this week, it was a beautiful Bible study on The way the church the

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Bible says the church is supposed to be and I found it Touching today to hear some of the testimonies during the prayer time

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One of the things that this Bible study hit on was the fact that contrary to modern belief

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You don't hire the pastor and a staff to do all the work in the church and all the ministry

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The pastor and the teachers are there to teach the church to do the ministry and so I was

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Blessed to hear some of the ministry that's been going on with the Nichols with these families in the other school and in other churches across town that they've been friends with and able to be their strength in these times and Tracy doing the same thing.

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That's what it's all about Is that when God brings trouble into the life of someone that you have rubbed elbows with you're there for them

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And the more we grow when we're together here The more comfort you're able to give them there

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And that really is what a real church ought to be doing and that's what you're doing And and so if it can be said in the right way as your pastor,

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I'm proud of you For that, but I'm proud of you for something else, too

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A Lot of married folks in the room today. I mean have you ever had a spat with your spouse raise your hand

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I want to see your hand Ever had a spat with your spouse All right now

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Would you say? Would you say that the sign of a good marriage is a marriage where there's never a spat?

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Or would you say that the sign of a good marriage is a marriage where you don't wake up the next day still angry about?

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Where you work it out? You get right with each other That's a strong marriage.

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The young people need to learn that doesn't mean you won't disagree It means you won't let the Sun go down on it

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And so I'm I was pleased this week to see Brothers and sisters in our church making sure they're right with each other before we came back today.

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That's a beautiful thing And so there therefore we can proceed We've been speaking in recent days about the types given in the

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Old Testament of the believer priest as We see the duties of the priest in the

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Old Testament. We can see some of the duties that we have as believer priests Just to review a bit.

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We've already talked about the fact that the priest is supposed to keep the charge of the temple he's supposed to guard the temple and We are the temple of the

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Living God so we're to guard this temple Secondly, we've talked about the fact that we're to offer sacrifices and the

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New Testament tells us that our spiritual sacrifices are praise and Giving to others which we had that opportunity this morning to help this dear lady

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Who's lost her husband and her income and everything in her eyes? I'm sure she's lost everything that was dear to her

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And so we have an opportunity to give and to be there for her at this time and also the offerings of our bodies as living sacrifices and Then we talked about the importance of the role of the priest in keeping the sacred fire always burning

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Which signifies the helmet of the hope of salvation that we are to keep on every day And then we talked about the placing and removing of the showbread which means the face bread and we talked about God's countenance

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Upon us and how this reminds us that because we're his children covered by the blood of Jesus and in Christ right now

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His countenance is one that shines when he looks at us And then we talked about the fact that we have the duty of offering the firstfruits which pictures offering a resurrected life

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And then we talked about the fact Last time that we have the duty of trimming the lamps and while we trim the lamps which picture

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Jesus Christ the light of the world and Picture the fact that God is eternal pictures the fact that God is omnipresent.

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He's everywhere at once While we do that, we also remember to burn the incense to the

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Lord The last time we talked about how incense pictures our prayers going up and we found a beautiful passage in the book of Revelation that shows that the angels have these same little sensors and Our prayers are what they can burn with them

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So as they come before God to praise him and glorify him, they can't come without our prayers and today

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It's interesting that we come to this topic but We shouldn't be surprised by anything that God does by his timing

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But the topic today is the duty of the believer priest to bless the people

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Isn't that beautiful? to bless the people Now turn with me to numbers chapter 6 and we'll see this numbers chapter 6

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And we start with verse 22 In a family, there will never be a time when we always agree on everything

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But there will always be time for us to love one another and that truly is what works in the marriage

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To create the unity it is not continual agreement that creates unity. It is continual love and It's the same in the church

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Our churches is interesting because when this church started in 1980, we were all in our 20s

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There were two couples two families my wife and I were one of them and one other family and then the pastor and his wife

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And then very shortly thereafter some other couples came Jesse and Trudy were one of them and others who came early on but other than that we went out and began to Talk to people in the community and to give them the gospel and people were saved and people came and they were

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Discipled and my point is this that that pastor was able to quote train them and us

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Exactly like he wanted us to believe So there was absolutely no disagreement on doctrine in those days

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For one thing new ideas were not allowed in only his view of how doctrine should be was the only thing that was allowed in and As you grow as a church, that's not the case

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In fact, I remember Paul rebuked a pastor in the New Testament Because he would never allow anyone else to come and preach you never allow any other

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Teachers to come and teach and Paul rebuked him and said he won't even let me come Paul said and teach and so what happens then you become kind of an inward

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Cult not necessarily a cult but a set where you're sectarian and you believe everyone believes identically the same thing but Other ideas are not allowed in that was not

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Paul's idea of a healthy church So as we grow and some of you Dear brothers and sisters who've come in in the last couple of years some in the last year

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Sometimes you bring ideas that some of us haven't seen before or thought about before That's not bad.

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That's good Because it allows us to continually be examining the scriptures to see if these things be so So never feel threatened in this church about that just use your rules interpretation that you've learned

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About eight rules to properly interpret the scriptures Interpret everything you read that way and pray and ask the

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Holy Spirit to teach you and you're you're a healthy church We may have had a little disagreement last

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Sunday, it's not going to be the last one we have But you know what we go on in love and we continue to examine the scriptures if you can do that You're a mature church.

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You are not a Corinthian Church. There are far too many Corinthian churches around us today We certainly are not one and don't want to be one

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So I'm proud as your pastor that that you love one another like that Now I want you to look at this passage

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Blessing the people and The Lord spake unto Moses saying speaking to Aaron and to his son saying on this wise

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He shall bless the children of Israel Saying unto them now, I want to stop and where this is very short passages goes down through verse 27

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So I want to stop along the way and make some comments this word bless is the

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Hebrew word balrock and It literally means to bless there is no better definition for the word

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But in the Hebrew language, it carries the connotation of kneeling It can also be translated and has been translated in other places in the

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English Old Testament into the word kneel so I think that that bit of Understanding of the connotation that it carries with it gives us some new insight other than just the

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English word bless. I think it indicates a Couple of things if you're a believer priest and it's your duty to bless the people

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Then there's some things that have to be in place in your life in mind before we can do this The first is we have to understand that when we bless the people we bless the people on behalf of God as his agent

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That's really what a priest is if you think about it, isn't it? it's someone that stands between God and the people at least that's what it was in the

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Old Testament and Now we have to understand that as we fulfill the role of a believer priest whether it be with someone that we're

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Discipling a brand -new Christian or whether it be with just one another That any time we bring blessing to the life of another brother or sister we do it on behalf of God We are his agent bringing edification, which means building and blessing to one another

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I'll Never be able to it's wonderful to have Pat with us today. I'm never able to escape.

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Dr. Freeman. He's with me every day And the teachings that he taught which are still available on tape by the way, but The wonderful teaching sometimes they just come back in my mind

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But I remember one time he told me David if you ever have a thought that doesn't edify and build

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He said consider the source because it's not God He said God will always edify his children.

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And so as we act as agents of God Ministers of God priests of God towards one another we bring blessing and we bring building and edification

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That is our overall Duty as a believer priest under this topic this morning, but my point is this that it really is coming from God It really comes from God, but he is in us bringing it many times to one another

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So just as in so many other areas of the Christian walk God works in us and allows us the beautiful blessing of working with him together with him and his work whether it be a work of prayer as we discussed last week where It really originates in heaven

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Comes to us by the Holy Spirit and then we send it back to heaven or whether it be in a work where you visited someone this very week that was grieving or Helped someone that was having trouble

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That was really the Lord doing that in you, but he's allowing you to do it with him. It's not just the

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Lord He is using you his servant So as we are a blessing to the people we do this on behalf of God and that's one reason

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I believe that this word carries the connotation of kneeling We cannot bless another without first kneeling before God and even at the same time.

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We're being a blessing to them spiritually We're kneeling before the Lord It's as if we kneel before him and we put our hands up and we receive from him and then we come and we kneel before the brother

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The only way that works of any kind can be done in humility is if we Understand that this is the source and this is the way it works.

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It's not us It's not us doing it lest the evil one would come to us and tempt us to be proud of the very good works

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We're doing We have to always remember that the word blessed carries the connotation of kneeling

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Isaiah 57 15 says for thus saith the high and lofty one

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That inhabited the eternity what a title for God Isn't that a beautiful title for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabited

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Eternity whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place

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With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit To revive the spirit of the humble to revive the heart of the contrite ones that shows us in a manner of speaking that as we come to be with the

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Lord in the heavenlies in Eternity we call it eternity future, which is kind of a play on words

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Eternity, but when we're there with him, we won't be there unless we're humble and trite in spirit

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So it shows that God is working that into our lives here Brother Otis taught

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Sunday school this morning how the tribulation that we go through Even the very things that we perceive to be bad

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God is using to do a good thing in our lives to mold us and make us be what we have to be when we meet him

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Many of the things that happen that are bad are the best things that happen to us because they the only way the

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Lord can bring humility to us is to cause us to see that we ought to be humble and Usually that's when we make a mistake

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It is with me anyway it's when I make a mistake or I don't quote succeed in my own eyes or or I Say something.

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I wish I hadn't had or said or do something. I wish I hadn't done The Lord uses that for good in my life and in yours causes us to be more like Jesus really and so When we think of this word blessing others we think of the idea of humility

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James said this in chapter 4 verse 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the

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Lord He shall lift you up Sounds like a contradiction in terms doesn't

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Humble yourselves and then God will lift you up Well, it proves that God doesn't want you to be down in a valley all the time

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He doesn't want you to be emotionally beating up on yourselves and have absolutely no self -love

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That's not what God wants But sometimes God puts us in the midst of the valley

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So that we will be humbled so that he can then do the end which is to lift us up you see the humility part the humbling part the the

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Trials are not the end. They're the means They're the means the being down the being down in spirit is not the end that God wants

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He wants us to be lifted up, but he wants us to be lifted up with a pure heart with a heart of humility of understanding who we are and Where we've come from and what he has delivered us from and the fact that in this flesh

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There dwelleth. No good thing God reminds us of that every week, doesn't he?

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He continues to remind us there'll come a day though Ladies and gentlemen when we go to meet him in the air

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We won't have to be reminded of that anymore because that part of us will drop off on the way up it'll be changed and Made new and made to where it doesn't pull against everything we want to do for the

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Lord Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up speak not evil one another one of another brethren

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He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law

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But if thou judge the law thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge Isn't it interesting that in order to bless one another we have to first be humble pictured by kneeling

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It's interesting also to look at the tense in the Hebrew the tense implies an ongoing action when

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God tells us in numbers chapter 6 verse 23 that we are to bless the children of Israel He uses a tense in the

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Hebrew that implies continual intentional intensive action

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It's also in the imperfect tense, which means that it is not a finished thing

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It is an ongoing thing So it's as if you put it in English, you could put it this way

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Be a continual blessing or go on blessing the children of Israel go on being a blessing to the children of God That's the tense that this is found in now

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It's interesting because the imperfect tense in the Hebrew Does not so much speak of a fact as it does the process of getting to the fact so it's not picturing so much the blessing that we're doing as it is the process of Blessing you're not just defining the word

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What is a blessing but it's picturing the process the ongoing process of being a blessing again and again and even extends out into the future

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Now what is the exact nature of this blessing? Let's look back at the scriptures numbers chapter 6 verse 23 and then ended verse 24

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He says on this wise he shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them on this wise shows

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He's about to give us the nature of the blessing in what way are we supposed to be a blessing to God's people?

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verse 24 says Say this say these things to them the

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Lord blessed thee and keep thee So the first way in which we're supposed to be a blessing to one another is we first Pray to the

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Lord the Lord bless my brother bless my sister And we already know the definition for the word bless so we don't need to go into that any further but what does he mean when he says to keep thee the

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Lord bless thee and keep thee if We are to be a blessing as a believer priest to one another

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We are to always have the attitude and prayer of the Lord to bless the other and to keep him

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This word keep in the Hebrew is Shomar And I want you to listen very carefully to the words that define this word.

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It cannot be defined with one word There are several several one -word definitions that all have to be put together and understood to even begin to grasp the breadth of this word

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The Lord keep thee when when you pray that for me or I pray that for you The Lord keep thee it it has been translated in other places in the

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English Old Testament into the word keep the word observe and Just put the phrase the

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Lord in front of each of these the Lord keep thee the Lord observe thee the

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Lord preserve thee The Lord mark thee with a mark the

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Lord watch thee the Lord save and deliver thee and then literal definitions of this word in the

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Hebrew the Lord keep thee the Lord guard thee the

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Lord observe thee which implies a Relationship an intimate relationship

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The Lord retain thee and there's there's one saved always say

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Don't throw thee away retain thee keep thee the Lord treasure thee up in memory and This is a personification of God He doesn't really have to remember things but it puts it that way so we can try to understand what this is like It's simply saying may the

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Lord keep my brother in his remembrance in the forefront of his mind all the time The Lord restrain thee is that interesting that this word keep can mean all these things

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Restrain now, don't we need that? You know, our prayer should be every day that the

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Lord would restrain me from doing anything that wouldn't please him the Lord restrain me from doing anything that would cause me to bring hurt to my brothers and sisters or myself or my family or God's family

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Beautiful thought the Lord restrained me The Lord protect thee the

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Lord reserved thee Unto his coming So many powerful words are required to define this one word in the

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Hebrew shalmar If we're a true believer priest We will see it as part of our role to bless the people and part of that blessing is to say

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Lord Keep my brother. Keep my sister Guard observe retain treasure up treasure them up in your memory

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Retain them restrain them protect them and reserve them until you're coming

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First Peter 1 5 which is my wife's favorite verse. I think says who are kept kept

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By the power of God through faith and to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time that word ready is important Jesus tells us to be ready all the time when he speaks of his second coming but the

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Bible said it is the very power of God that keeps us and Keeps us to the place where through faith

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We can be made ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly rejoice

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Though now for a season if need be you are in heaviness Through manifold temptations you see every day is not going to be a

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Sunday school picnic We know that but God reminds us again and again We have this great rejoicing

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Even in the fact that in the midst of it Sometimes we have heaviness because of manifold temptations that the trial of your faith

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Being much more precious than the gold that perish it Though it be tried with fire

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Might be found and do praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ a lot that happens

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It is appearing Whom having not seen you love

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Don't you love that verse? The Apostles are speaking to us some 2 ,000 years in the future and They are commending us because they saw him they walked with him

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John slept with on his breast Peter conversed with him with very many interesting

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Conversations which were not always peaceful by the way He asked some questions

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Some hard questions Jesus always answered him patiently But you know what they saw him they walked with him they saw him literally ascend into the clouds

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Did you see that? No, you didn't but you may be the ones get seen come back from the clouds. That'd be just as good wouldn't it?

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but you know what they commend us and They say whom having not seen you love

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You know, I believe that they marvel If there is any truth we talked about this thing about the cloud of witnesses

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There are many definitions or possible interpretation to that particular verse but if there is any truth to the fact that they do see anything we do

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I Think that what they're saying is they're saying that's amazing They've never even seen the

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Lord and they live with a strong faith praise be to God praise God for the faith. He's given them

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That's you Whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory

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Receiving the end of your faith even the salvation of your soul What a beautiful passage

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We are supposed to bless the people by saying the Lord bless thee and keep thee

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Keep thee with your power Now let's look what else does it say

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Look at verse 25 The Lord make his face to shine upon thee

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Now this we already covered a little bit when we talked about the showbread the face bread, didn't we?

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And we talked about the fact that a healthy Christian who knows the scriptures and who knows the

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Lord From his study of the scripture and by the teaching of the Holy Spirit He knows that when he looks at the father's face, it's a shining countenance

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It is not the same face that a lost person would see Or that any of Satan's children would see were they to look at God But when they look at his face they see it as Jesus saw it when he calls him

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Abba Abba father, it's the same kind of shining glowing put it in human terms as a man would speak proud countenance that a father has when he looks at his little boy or girl and They've just done something that please me the face just shine in God's face shines towards his children and Part of the blessing that we're supposed to pronounce upon one another is may the

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Lord's face shine upon you May His face shine upon thee this word face in the

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Hebrew is Paul name which does mean face But it literally means the presence of God May the

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Lord's presence shine upon you. It speaks of the Shekinah glory May his

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Shekinah glory be all about you and around you What a blessing to pronounce upon one another this word shine is a word that I've heard brother

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Otis teach before when he goes through his Genesis study It's the word or remember that one

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Genesis 1 3 and God said let there be light and there was light. This is the word or and So when we pronounce this blessing upon one another the

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Lord make his face to shine Upon my brother and sister. It's the same light that lit the universe

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That day the light of the countenance of Almighty God Is that a beautiful thing that we're able to pronounce this blessing upon one another because we're covered by the blood

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Therefore we're not vaporized when we come into this light This light is not something that we turn away from it's something that God that Jesus himself brings us into the presence of That in Christ we are seated at the right hand of glory right now

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Thanks be to the Lord Jesus for his death for his burial for his resurrection

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For the blood that he presented at the throne To make this all possible

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May his face be made to shine upon Us in the

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Greek there is a synonym for this word or in the Hebrew is the word of false which means light but if we find it in John 1 4 in him was life and the life was the light of men and The light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended

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We can place a blessing upon one another that cannot be placed on the world

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It is not given unto us as believer priest to try to give this blessing to the world because it's impossible because the world can't comprehend it

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But when we come to one another and we come into our minds and we picture one another going about our day -to -day walk

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And we're praying for one another We can say dear father made the very life of your presence the very power of all the heaven

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The power of the shining countenance of God come upon my brother and my sister

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What a beautiful blessing Verse 25 goes on and says the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto

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Thee so we are to pray the blessing to our brothers and sisters of the graciousness of God Paul non is this word grace in the

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Hebrew language It means to be gracious to show favor to pity to direct favor towards and to have mercy upon we are to Proclaim the blessing on our brothers and sisters that says may the

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Lord be gracious unto thee Deuteronomy 7 In verse 6 says for thou art and holy people and to the

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Lord thy God The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth

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The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because of you Doesn't really read that way.

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I paraphrased it What it does say is the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any

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People for you were the fewest the least of all the people but because the

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Lord loved you That's why he said his love upon you now in our way of speaking. We say that would be circular reasoning

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But God said it. Anyway, he said I didn't set my love upon you because of you

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I set my love upon you because of me. I set my love upon you because of my love

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It makes sense If you understand the principle of agape Which means that the love of God is not placed upon the objects because of the merit of the objects

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It's placed upon the objects because of the merits of the lover which is God and So when we give this

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Blessing to our brothers and sisters. May the Lord be gracious unto thee It really means may you understand with the fullest that God has loved you from all

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Eternity to all eternity and you shall always be loved by your father

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He has chosen you because of that love He has called you in time to know that you're his because of that love

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And it all points to him the graciousness of God Romans 4 16 Speaks of this in the

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New Testament sense of God's mercy and grace Therefore it is of faith that we that it might be by grace to the end

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The promise be sure to all the seed not that only which is of the law but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all both

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Jew and Gentile as It is written. I have made thee a father of many nations before him

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Before him whom he believed even God who quickened the dead and calleth those things which be not that's the

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Gentile nation As though they were He calls those dead

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Gentile nations who just didn't even exist seemingly in the plan of God certainly into the Jews mind

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He says I call them as if they are because they come into play as The seed of Abraham who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations

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According to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be There is no argument here

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Apostle Paul made it very clear. There's neither Jew nor Gentile. There's neither male nor female the fact is if Person is going to be in the family of God.

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He comes into the family of God as The seed of Abraham by the faith of Abraham and it's not to the

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Jew. It's not to Israel. It's to the Israel of God Paul made it very clear that the

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Israel God has to do with the circumcision of the heart Out of the body So if you've been circumcised of heart, you're neither

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Jew nor Gentile. You're part of the family of God because of his grace Why does he say that we as believer priests are supposed to pray this blessing the

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Lord be gracious unto thee Because he has been gracious to you if you sit here saved this morning

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Most of us are Gentiles Most of us did not have the oracles of God Most of us didn't have the like this was all given to us by the

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Jews As God called them out made them be the special peculiar people

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They are the ones by whom God gave us this book But he gave it to us as well all nations the

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Lord Jesus Christ when he came Came to the Jew first, but also to the

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Gentile Paul when he went out preaching He preached to the Jew first, but also also to the

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Gentile because God's new covenant includes all nations through the blessing of Abraham the father of faith and so When we proclaim this blessing?

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We proclaim it to those who are part of the family of God May the Lord be gracious unto thee

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Now look at verse 26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace

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I'm gonna look at this word give for a moment We've already discussed a little bit about what it means that the

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Lord have his countenance lifted up What a glorious thing to think that you

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Can always look up to the Lord and see the shining countenance of a pleased father now

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Satan won't have you believe that because if you mess up and You do wrong Satan will say you can't look at him that he's displeased with you

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All you have to do is remind the devil this just ask the devil this question Did he get pleased with me because of what

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I did? Or because of what Jesus did The devil have to answer well because Jesus what

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Jesus did and say then he didn't get displeased with me because of what I did either And he'll have to flee that's what we call resisting the devil

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He doesn't like to hear those things doesn't like to be reminded of those things because they're the truth So remind him when he accuses you when you're down when you messed up and you're down and out and you're in that valley

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You just remind the devil that God put you there for your own good and benefit He put you there to make me more like the very

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Lord Jesus that you hate so much and I'm more like him right now than I was 20 minutes ago and The Lord is not one whit less pleased with me right now in this valley

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Then he will be if I'm on the mountaintop tomorrow Because he's only pleased in Jesus and I'm in him and I'm in him in the valley and I'm in him on the mountaintop

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I'm in him on the earth and I'm in him at the throne Believe for me you old devil He won't last 20 seconds

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If you do that Because the countenance of God Is always a smiling countenance upon his children

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He loves us He's molding us into the image that we must be when we meet him face to face

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But look at the last part of this blessing in verse 26 and give thee peace This word give is in the active imperative continual sense

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It means that when we proclaim this blessing That it really means that God is

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Actively Continually giving this blessing to his children

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To give thee peace give means to put to place to set to a point to make direct towards Don't you think it's interesting that to give thee peace?

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Carries the idea of the fact that God has ordained peace to you as his children That's one of the definitions of this word give in the

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Hebrew swoon is the word it means to be ordained to establish peace to you to determine peace to you to fix peace upon you to Transform you into peace

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To fashion you so that you are surrounded by peace To work peace into our lives to bring to pass peace

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To make this as a sign to the world the very peace that we have in our hearts All of this is carried in the connotation of the

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Hebrew word swoon peace to give thee Peace.

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I'm sorry. That's the word give the word peace. We know what that is. We hear it all the time Shalom He is going to ordain to give to establish

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Shalom to us Peace in the Hebrew means completeness Now we throw around the word peace in English while we just think well, it means lack of tribulation that's not what it means in the

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Hebrew and The Hebrew means peace Shalom means completeness to you maturity to you soundness

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To you welfare to you safety to you

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Soundness in body in other words health to you prosperity to you

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These are the blessings that we give one another when we proclaim the blessing the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace

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Philippians 4 6 be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving Let your requests be made known unto

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God and the peace of God which passes all Understanding shall keep your hearts and minds

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Through Christ Jesus finally brethren. Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest.

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Whatsoever things are just Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely and of good report and a virtue and a praise think on these things

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There is a great psychology lesson from God on how to have peace Think on good things not the evil that Satan brings

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If Satan does bring evil into our lives either personally or their families or in our church family

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Quick best thing to do is just to drop to fix it and then drop it and don't give it another thought

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Satan's tool is to cause it to be Ruminated upon like a cow chewing a good that brings bitterness and that spreads among many people the

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Bible says God's answer to this is found in Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 through 8

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Think on things that are lovely if there's a good report in it In other words if you could tell Someone or this good thing happened and think about that if you can't if you would have to tell him boy this bad thing happened

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Then don't think about that Now, I understand we have to think about things long enough to fix them

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But that doesn't take long if we do it before the Sun sets and once we fixed them

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You don't think about it anymore when it comes up you rebuke it And consider the source like my dear rocky taught me to do

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Because it's not God if it's not edifying Ephesians 2 13, but now in Christ Jesus you who were sometimes far off That's the

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Gentiles by the way Are made nigh by the blood For he is our peace

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He is our peace when we proclaim the blessing of peace be upon thee the

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Lord give thee peace It's as if we're saying the Lord give me an ongoing relationship with Jesus He is our peace who hath made both one

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That's the Jew and the Gentile both one and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us

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There is no wall anymore Having abolished in his flesh the enmity having the law of commandments

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Contained in the ordinances for to make in himself of the two the Jew and the

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Gentile one new man so Making peace

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Scriptures fix everything don't think God is not confused.

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Sometimes we get a little confused but if we go back to God, he'll straighten our little hearts out and That he might reconcile both the

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Jew and the Gentile unto God in one body. That's the church the Jew Gentile a

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Jew slash Gentile Church in One body by the cross having slain the enmity.

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That's the hatred between the Jew and the Gentile It's one of the things that refers to having slain the enmity also the enmity of sin also the hatred of Satan all of this has been slain and Came and preached peace to you who were afar off That's the

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Gentiles again and to them that were nigh. That's the Jews For through him we both

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Jew and Gentile have access by one spirit unto the father Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners you

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Gentiles used to be strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel You're not strangers anymore Neither are you foreigners?

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but your fellow citizens with the Saints and the household of God and Are built upon the foundation of the

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Apostle I've got to say this by the way This first 19 is a strike against the hyper dispensationalists remember how we studied back when we were to study in the

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Dispensations and I talked to you or warned you about the you have a hyper Calvinist. You also have an ultra dispensationalist

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That's a person who is so focused on dispensations that he begins to be unscriptural

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This is a strike against that because in verse 19 It says that we Gentiles are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the

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Saints that means with the Jewish Saints And a lot of these hyper Calvinists I don't mean hyper

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Calvinist, but hyper dispensations like to say that the church is the same And the

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Jews something else Don't believe that stuff. I don't care what book you read it in the

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Bible doesn't teach that Now I am a dispensationalist, but I'm not an ultra. I don't go that far and you shouldn't either be careful with that Look how it ends verse 20 and are built upon the foundation of the

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Apostles and the prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Cornerstone So when we talk about giving thee peace

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We could talk for hours about what that means, but it has to do with Jesus the

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Prince of Peace The one who brings us peace because because of Jesus in our life

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God's countenance can be shining upon us There is peace We have peace with God if we didn't have the

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Lord Jesus in God's face the same face that we see is a shining Smiling countenance would be a light that would destroy

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Without the blood of Jesus, it would be a light that would destroy us so the peace that we speak of here comes because of the

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Lord Jesus and the blood that was shed and the resurrection and the taking it to the throne of God and Applying it to the throne and that throne of judgment then became a mercy seat for his children

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And it ends this way look at verse 27 and They shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them now you notice all this time the priest has been an

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Agent and you see finally in verse 27 that it's God that does the blessing He tells us to bless each other, but it's really

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God blessing each other through us In verse 27, it's amazing how he says when you

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Play the role of the believer priest and you proclaim these blade blessings upon one another

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What you're really doing is you're putting God's name upon each other you're proclaiming the fact the truth of God's name upon each other and I'm only going to do one close today.

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So turn to Revelation 2 17. I know that's unusual I did a funeral last

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Monday and sweet lady from Over in Mahalia passed away that we used to deal with her children in our youth group back in the early 80s

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And so one of those little boys that grew up Asked me to do the funeral of his mother this past Monday and at the end of the funeral

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I said, are you gonna have any music or singing? And I said, yes,

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I have a tape of my mother playing the piano and singing at him and we're gonna play it

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That's it. That'll be fantastic I said but do it at the end not at the first because we might not make it through the service if you do it

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At the first so he did it at the end in it. Do you remember the old song Jerusalem?

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Ruth you can't figure it out for me singing but That song was what she's saying and it was so cute because this this was at the graveside

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So we're under the little tent and you got the family sitting here under the tent and I'm standing there with my Bible in my hand And you got a fairly good crowd outside the tent and they're playing this tape of this woman singing

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And she sings and I think it may have five verses I don't remember

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But she would get to the end and build that up She could play a rolling bass and she'd build that thing up and everybody you could see him just going

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It's gonna be over and she goes into another verse And she plays Jerusalem Jerusalem Then she gets down here

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No, and then she starts another verse And I'm sitting here, you know, they're all facing me and I'm watching them

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They're watching me some of them start to smile a little bit and I'm having to hold it together because it was becoming humorous because it just went on and on but it was so sweet and finally

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Home the biggest one in it ends And I look I look to the young man

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Dean or maybe it was Randy the bigger brother and I said Randy That shows you why she played the piano for a while in our church because she ends her songs like I do my sermons

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Yes several endings He just laughed anyway

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Revelation chapter 2 I lied to you see I did a story and a verse that's two endings But anyway

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Revelation chapter 2 verse 17 He says and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them

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Revelation 2 17 says he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches

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To him that overcometh will I grant to eat of the hidden manna? Who's the hidden manna?

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That's Jesus and Will give him a white stone who is the stone who is the rock?

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That's Jesus What this white signify purity and in the stone could we not say in Jesus a

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New name written Which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it do you realize that pictures intimacy?

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We are to come together and to bless one another and do things together, but Ultimately, it's you and Jesus.

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You know that the moment you die the last breath you take the last beat of your heart It won't matter who's standing around you holding your hand

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It'll matter a little bit maybe but what matters is it you and Jesus? He's the only one that can help you then

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We try to help people in these times, and we try our best don't we always feel inadequate at that time?

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Don't you never don't you feel I never know what to say I? I'm at the weakest of my ability to help at that time

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When the life is flowing out of a body And yet the

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Lord is there and their hand is already in his And he says

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We're supposed to proclaim a blessing of a new name Upon the

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Israel the children of Israel the Israel of God and this new name is the same name

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That Jesus has for you already It's your new man's name by the way not the old flesh's name.

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It's the name of your new man and The Bible teaches us very clearly that we're going to eat of the hidden manna

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And that we're going to receive a stone and in that stone in Christ is our new name.

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We have a new name in Christ So when we proclaim blessings upon one another we are to remember this

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That each of us has a new name Sometimes we look at the old name. We look at the old flesh.

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We don't like what we see do we? Let's face it with each other sometimes. We don't we love each other sometimes.

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We don't like each other But that's because we're looking at the old name He says and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will then bless them

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That's how we go on that's how we love one another we're in Christ the truly lovable part of us is that new man

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The part we should think about when we're thinking he says think on things that are lovely that have good report is

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The new man the glory of God as he changes the life at salvation and Continues to change it through growth and maturity in this walk

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That is the glory of God in us Christ in us the hope of glory Well, we're commanded as priests

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To proclaim blessings upon one another let's stand and have prayer together Dear father, we thank you for your word.

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We thank you for the truth of it the purity of it Cleansing nature of it the healing nation of that nature of it.

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We thank you that you've Given us the Lord Jesus Christ You've caused us to awaken and have ears that hear and eyes that see and we can have this beautiful relationship with him

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Lord we thank you that we have that in common among one another Or we thank you that you've given us the duty to Lift one another up to strengthen one another to build and edify one another signified by the proclaiming of the blessings of the

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Old Testament priests upon the people every year and Lord may we be beautiful And obedient in your sight to be about lifting one another up as well in this day

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Proclaiming the very blessings of God upon one another Humbly as if kneeling before one another

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And as we proclaim these blessings upon one another may you create a unity that cannot be destroyed by the enemy himself

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Or by any person nor by any angel or anything May you hold us together as one local body part of the larger body of Christ Until you come back for us