Questions & Answers

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Any other comments tonight or announcements before we start don't forget about the Daniel block conference
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That's next Saturday and Sunday, and if you're not here next Saturday You're gonna listen to him preach next
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Sunday, and then you're gonna say I should have come on Saturday And I'm gonna say to you. I told you so For those of you who are working or out of town you can get the tapes
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But he is a man who wants to hold God's Word up Properly, and he's gonna teach on worship, and what is real worship, and I know you'll be blessed if you'll come next
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Saturday invite your friends Invite your family and that'll be Saturday at 8 for breakfast
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And then we'll go through about 1 or so 1230 Then you'll be here for Sunday school and Sunday morning, so if you don't normally come for Sunday school
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Please do if you have Sunday schools Steve Nelson's gone now, but I think we should probably take to the junior high and the
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Senior high so maybe Bob would you just have them come in here for Sunday school all right well tonight is question -and -answer night
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I've got some questions here, and we're just going to go through a variety of those What does the Bible say and you should try to train yourself?
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When a topic comes up in the newspaper on the political horizon or even in your daily life
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You need to train yourself to always ask the question. What does the Bible say about it? What does the
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Bible teach me to? Do or to respond or how should I think about this biblically and so we have a variety of different questions tonight
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We'll see how many we get through And at the end we'll elicit some questions from you as well as responses number one
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I just came upon this this week. How important is grace in a local church the concept of grace
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How important is it in a local church anyone? Very why is grace important some people actually name churches grace churches.
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Why is grace important? Foundation of all we do yes good
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Can't live without it good Because it's all about the
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Lord right it's God -centered because it's what he has done for us. Let me ask you another question What is grace? Something you say before a meal yes something you name your fourth child
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Yes, not getting what you deserve. Okay good, but even more than that God's riches at Christ's expense.
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That's a very good acronym. How else can we define grace? Getting something you don't deserve good unmerited favor good
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Why I was asking myself this question Occasionally, I just read the pastoral epistles 1st
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Timothy 2nd Timothy and Titus And it's a good reminder of what I should do as a pastor There's all kinds of things coming your way as a pastor
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What should you do and so let's turn our Bibles to 1st Timothy called pastoral epistles because they're written by Paul To two different pastors on how to lead a church and just quickly
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I want to show you that the bookends of 1st Timothy 2nd Timothy and 3rd Timothy And Titus Start with grace and end with grace and Paul knows that if it isn't for grace the local church can't function
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There's nothing you can do without God's favor his his generosity his unselfish
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Generosity that he gives towards his people and Sinclair Ferguson always calls grace not just unmerited favor, but D Demerited favor you're in a demerit and God still gives you favor.
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And so how does the church respond to? The Lord about grace you can't do it
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So I just want to show you the beginning and the end of each of the pastoral epistles talks about grace 1st
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Timothy chapter 1 verse 2 after he says who he is Paul They write letters in the old days by saying who they were first not at the very end
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Kind of a better way. So, you know who's giving you the letter to Timothy my true true child in the faith
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Grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. The first thing he says is he said
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Timothy grace Go to the very end how many chapters in Timothy? Six what do you think is his last sentence?
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Grace be with you and he just puts the bookends there for the local church for the pastor for the leader
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You could say for your own family How can you function as a dad as a leader of a family without grace? You can't do it
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We'll go to 2nd Timothy. He does the same thing He says who he is again in verse 1 and 2nd
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Timothy chapter 1 verse 2 to Timothy my beloved son grace mercy and peace from God the
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Father and Christ Jesus our Lord and If you're a rocket scientist, what do you think he would end the book with?
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Can you imagine? 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 22 the Lord be with your spirit
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Grace be with you matter of fact He even says in 2nd Timothy 2 1 my son be strong in grace that is in Christ Jesus Titus it's the same thing turn over to that next book the letter of Paul to Titus chapter 1
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He says at the very beginning Who he is and he kind of gets carried away with with what
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God has called him to do and then he finally says in verse 4 to Titus My true child in common faith grace and peace from God the
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Father and Christ Jesus our Savior He does it again. And then the very end of the book how many chapters in Titus?
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3 at the very end. What's he say grace be with you all and I thought that is just so neat The pastoral epistles start and end with and have some in the middle with grace because the church needs grace
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We can't function on our own. The church leadership is not about ingenuity and creativity and management style
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No, it's about the grace of God Now if the local church is all about grace, then how should we respond?
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That's my question for you tonight If it's all about God's unmerited favor that keeps us together It keeps us safe that teaches us that that restores us then what should how should we respond?
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Thanks and praise excellent Service to God good. There's one other one.
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Those are exactly right, but there's something else I was looking for. How about prayer?
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if the local church is the undergirding of Grace God's unmerited favor ought it not be our business to say
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God we need your favor. We need help from you I'm so thankful with the new prayer minister here. You say
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God we are trying to preach the gospel So so souls are saved and we want to grow in Christ.
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We need your favor We need your mercy and if you're a dad you need to be praying this for your family if you go to work you should say
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I need your Grace today because I can't work on my own tomorrow off you go and you go to work
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God. I need your grace That's why I signed my name. How do I sign my name if you get an email from me?
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Chorus, it means grace. I want God to give you grace. We have a newsletter. What's the newsletter called?
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Chorus, it means grace We want to always be thinking about what God has done through Christ Jesus and he did for you and he didn't have to He didn't have to but he did do it.
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All right question number two I'm gonna ask you this and we'll go to a passage.
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Is there a cool way to preach the gospel? Is there a cool way to preach the gospel so they'll like so unbelievers will like the gospel and more importantly to some
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So they'll like is there a cool way?
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Oh very good. Did you hear that? Yes, there's a cool way But does that mean you're actually preaching the gospel? No, you can when you cut corners you can when you appeal to the world
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You could coolly preach it in terms of what the world thinks is cool but we have one message to preach and only one and we're to preach it and Sometimes when it's preached there are fireworks.
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I think about Jesus when he preached If you're a pastor and you go to a church lots of times it's because you're just a new guy and you
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Aren't very wise and you try to change things too fast and you in fact are not perfect and you sin and make dumb decisions
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But lots of pastors go to new churches and they get blown out within about six months to a year Sometimes they get blown out because they preach the gospel if you're
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Jesus How many sermons did it take Jesus when he went to a synagogue and he preached the gospel before they threw him out and tried to kill him one sermon
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Let's turn there Luke chapter 4 can you imagine one sermon and I want you to be reminded that Your goal in life with your friends is not to try to be cool
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You naturally would want to be cool. Everybody wants to have friends and fit in but when you preach the gospel
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I want you to know that it's like having a little thing of nitroglycerin out there and it's going to explode and in fact you want it to because you want them to awaken to the fact that their peril and to be safe for God's glory in their own good and As I go to websites and and look at the front of it with this website.
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It's called This is a church discover the champion in you That's cool discover the champion in you
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And that's not too offensive. You don't get kicked out of churches for preaching that got that message. No, I got an email
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I think I told you about it a while ago. Here's Friend Sunday and on the top of the web page.
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There's Woody and Buzz There's Woody and Buzz and it says Ten o 'clock gospel magic show we are privileged to have magician
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Jonathan Phillips with us on friends Sunday He will do an awesome magic show for us and share some insights into biblical
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Christianity in the process Then at 11 you have friends Sunday worship
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Special music and testimony shared by members of our church family who will lead us to consider our friends
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Sunday sermon Why Jesus is the best friend you'll ever have certainly
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Jesus is the best friend you ever had But I just have a question about how are we trying? What are we trying to do with the gospel?
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You've got this this gospel that it's it's almost It's gonna cause problems and look what happened with Jesus to quote a liberal rather When I talk about these kind of things
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Richard Niebuhr said a God without wrath bringing men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a
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Christ without the cross Look at Luke 4 14. Let's see how
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Jesus preached remember WWJD years ago. How do you preach the gospel?
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Jesus returned to Galilee Luke 4 14 in the power of the Spirit and news about him spread throughout all the surrounding district
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Remember he preached without as with one without authority. He didn't quote a bunch of rabbis
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He healed people he did all kinds of things and he began to teach and began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all
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Came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read and the book of the
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Prophet Isaiah was handed to him and he Opened the book and found the place where it was written You may see all capitals in your in your
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Bible because it's showing you it's from the Old Testament in Isaiah 61 The Spirit of the
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Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of slight sight to the blind
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To set free those who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the
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Lord Close the book gave it back to the attendant and sat down Customary to stand up and sit down like that and the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed upon him you could just Sense the the thick air in there
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And to make matters worse, what does he say verse 21? He begins to say to them today.
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The scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing hometown guy
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Went to Nazareth University Played for the local Nazareth University football team You all know me helped build a bunch of stuff see some of these things in the synagogue my dad and I we built these
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Things I'm just a good old boy hometown boy. I'm a townie. And by the way, I am the
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Messiah All that initial stuff I'm just making up as we go the best part
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You think you're rich? You're poor And you think that you're free, but you're a captive you think you could see but you are stone -cold blind
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You think that you are free your slaves to sin you guys are
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He said to them and all were speaking well of him and wondering at the gracious words
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Which were falling from his lips and they were saying is this not Joseph's son? He said to them note and you know so far so good they weren't thinking that yet and now no doubt you will quote this
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Proverb to me physician heal yourself. Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum do here in your hometown as well
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Verse 24 truly I say to you no profit as well from this hometown
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Here comes the illustration. I jumped ahead of my myself. They weren't mad yet, but they're gonna get mad now
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But I say to you in truth There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah When the sky was shut up for three years and six months when a great famine came over all the land
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And he says basically this you Jews sitting here in the synagogue are just like the
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Jews back in those days and God couldn't even go and do miracles before the Jews because they were too stone -cold
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No, they were too dead set against the gospel So he had to go to a woman a woman and he had to go to a woman who was a
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Gentile He said you won't accept the diagnosis from the father and we have to go to a
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Gentile Look at this verse 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them didn't go to anybody who was a nun a
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Jew But only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow Jews you won't listen to the gospel.
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So I'll go to a woman who's a widow Who's a Gentile and he gives another illustration illustration?
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And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet And none of them was cleansed, but only the
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Gentile name in the Syrian, you know Gentile name in Syrian what he did He go across the border grab women rape them put him into his entourage matter of fact even one of those women said you better go get healed and over in that River and the
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Jesus said You know you Jews won't listen The only people who listen around here are
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Gentile rapists terrorists murderers They'll listen and so now he says to these people and sitting in the synagogue in Nazareth rapist terrorist murderers
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Gentile women are better than you. What do you think they did more?
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Keep preaching and all in the synagogue verse 28 were filled with rage as they heard these things
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They were so infuriated You see a horse when it gets mad how its nostrils just flare up You just see that it's not just flying out of that horse and same thing same idea and they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city had
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Been built in order to throw him down off the cliff But as he did many times by passing through their midst he went his way killed the prophets killed
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John the Baptist He killed Jesus every one of the Apostles killed except one
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John Exile It was fine when he was saying these wonderful things about the Messiah But then when he said it's your sin and you
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Israel aren't even as good as the Gentile they try to kill him Eventually they did. How can you preach the gospel any other way than to preach the gospel that has been given to us?
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I Don't know how you can I Just want you to be reminded even though we want to see other people save the preaching of the gospel is uncomfortable, isn't it?
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It's uncomfortable it's supposed to shake you up Have you ever had an alarm? I remember when I was a kid
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I'd have to set three alarms in my room because I Just hit the snooze. You never wake up the snooze buttons right here.
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You have to set that alarm Too far. I mean I just hit the snooze button. So I had to set it far away and sometimes
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Across the room I'd have to go in that those wind -up one. It was across the room and And I would get up To go get that alarm and my leg would be asleep
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So I would jump up Get ready to go turn that off and I would just crumble. It was just right down to the floor. You're only one leg
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And I was awake after that It's the alarm you can imagine being in a submarine and that alarm goes off that there's a problem.
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There's a leak That's why Ephesians passage was so important last week where we are lights and we show people
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By our life and by our words that they need the gospel Okay question three.
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Yes comments. Yes, Wesley Okay, that's a good.
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Well, that's a good question. So I think I'd describe it this way the cross is offensive
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Chapter one, but we ought to strive not to be You can do it the chip on your shoulder or you can do it because you love the people now
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They might not be able to distinguish but we don't have to be jerks about it When you think about John the beloved
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Apostle, he would preach the gospel that he would do it in love Kind of like as a grandpa would tell you to do something
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He has a little more grace than maybe your dad had Because he's just older and more graceful. And so I think we have to be careful that we're not mean about it but we're
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Truthful and we're to speak the truth and love and love rejoices in the truth as well. So we don't want to be offensive Let's let the gospel be offensive it's like you turn on the
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TV and they've got people who are protesting actually you can go to a church I believe it's in Missouri and you can be in their protest ministry
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So then was it when there was that young man who died of AIDS the young man who died homosexual got beat up in Colorado Then a bunch of people had a sign ministry and stood outside the funeral and had signs up there fags die and fags go to Hell and all these things.
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I just thought You guys are losers You Christians are losers because you don't do that at somebody's funeral and that's not the way to preach the gospel
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That's no ministry. Oh, I'm standing up saying sodomites die and go to hell and all that.
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That's it's just sinful on your part So I'd say that's wrong and bad
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If there's a time where you had you can talk to somebody and say you say to the lover of that guy
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Quote unquote lover. Hey You know, you're a sinner and you need salvation and this is what the
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Bible says about your state in the nature Yes That's a good illustration where you can do it in a loving kind way
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But the gospel still the gospel and we have to preach sin and the saving you think of Romans What does
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Romans start off with chapter 1 2 and chapter 3 verse 1 through 20 talks about sin?
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How do you know you need a Savior so, you know, you're a sinner and confronted by Sin, and so there are definitely times on the flip side.
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Sometimes you might have to be more more Offensive I went to my grandfather who was on his deathbed and I went to preach the gospel to him
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Either Kim or my mom got grandma out of the way and I just went to grandpa and say grandpa I'm concerned.
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You're never gonna get out of this hospital better life and If you die now, there's nothing in your life that makes me think you're going to heaven
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I think you're on your way to hell and as bad as this probably sounds if you were gonna go walk off a cliff
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Blindfolded and I tackled you and knocked the wind out of you would be worth it And so I'm tackling you now and knocking the wind out of you and letting you know that you need
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Christ But, you know, there's deathbed situations where you might not have as much class as you do normally and so it's just this urgent appeal
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But you know, I always think when people say well, you're not loving Remember love love first is loving
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God enough to obey him If you love me you will what? Keep my commandments loving the other person enough to tell them their real problem and their real solution and then do it in a way
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That's loving right.
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Let's get to the ones that you came for today. Let's do one other one first True or false the
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Old Testament is a historical book. It contains history
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True or false the Old Testament is primarily written for his store history
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It's primarily a historical book. That was the main reason it was written to show history Okay, so it's false
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That's true. It's that's it's correct that it's false. But why is that? Pardon me
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Okay prophecy. That's part of it. What else? Show God's faithfulness good.
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Why was the Old Testament written? Why is the Bible? Why is any story written a narrative? Point to Christ.
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Okay good Okay examples of how we should live now.
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Those are all good answers that are specific. Give me a general answer Revelation to show the mind of God.
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Yes. Let me ask you this sometimes
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Let me not ask you that I Tell people
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Sunday nights more casual History asks the question what happened good answers ask the question
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Where did it happen? Sometimes it even says why it happens and we want when we read the
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New York Times Objectiveness, and I'm not sure we always get it at the times and that's kind of coming out now who wants an objective
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Viewpoint, but did you know the Bible has a bias the authors in the
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Bible are biased. I'm not a bad bias But it's a good bias and what kind of bias is that is the
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Old Testament trying to teach you history and history alone or Is the Old Testament trying to teach you a theological point?
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Is there a theology behind the history? The answer is yes Why don't you turn to Genesis chapter 12?
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I want to just give you one illustration The Bible gives history, but the
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Bible also gives an interpretation of those historical events Which have theology behind them for instance, who is
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God and his faithfulness. How should we follow him? But I want you to know when you read the books of the
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Bible, especially Narratives, by the way, what's a narrative? It's a story.
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Give me some of the narrative books in the Bible Genesis, okay good Exodus good
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Samuel Ruth, okay. Give me some ones in the New Testament acts good
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Matthew Mark Luke and John their narratives their their there's their Written to tell a story but not just history not only history history and theology for instance
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John why was the gospel of John written to show the deity of Christ so that you may know that he's a son of God Believe on his name right and he arranges things and doesn't give you all the data same thing when people give genealogies
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They don't give every person who ever was born because they're trying to give us theological perspective And so I just want you to know when you read the
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Bible Genesis Exodus of Leviticus to a lesser degree that there's a theological agenda from the human author and the divine author and Look at Genesis chapter 12 verse 1 through 3 if you don't see
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Israel through this Missy illogical perspective if you don't see Israel as a missionary to all the other generations all the other
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Not generations all the other nations you won't get Israel Genesis 12 1 now the
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Lord said to Abraham Now we've said to Abraham go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house
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To the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name Great and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you
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I will curse and in you this is big All the families of the earth shall be blessed
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If you don't read the narratives about Israel with God's covenant faithfulness to Israel as a background
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Idea and God using this nation to bless other nations. You're going to miss a lot of the narratives that you read
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Maybe I could put it this way when you read Genesis 37 to 50 and you read about Joseph Are you reading history are there historical events with Joseph and not having enough food and going back to Israel and all that stuff?
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Yes, but what's the point of Genesis 37 through 50 God's close by somebody like Joseph who's faithful.
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That's a Secondary issue. What's the issue? It's a theological issue the theology behind the history is even though it doesn't seem like God's in control.
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He's in control everything Read Old Testament and New Testament narratives with theological eyes.
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What is the theology that's driving this? When you read Matthew you say this book was written about Jesus to teach
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Jews about Jesus as the Christ And if you read it that way, it's just gonna help you versus this is just history
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There is history, but it's correctly biased history to try to teach you a point Questions about that.
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Okay, let's do let's do this one snake handling From the
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Internet This was posted the day after Easter this year Rose Hill, Virginia, I thought it would probably
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Mississippi, but it's Virginia The minister of a church in far southwest, Virginia has died after being bitten by a snake during church services
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Authorities say Reverend Dwayne long of Rose Hill was bitten by a rattlesnake Sunday afternoon and refused to seek medical treatment
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He died early Monday at his home The county sheriff Gary Parsons says long was a minister at a
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Pentecostal Church where members practice snake handling Parsons says long was hope long was holding a rattlesnake during the
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Easter service When the snake bit him on the back of a finger He says the congregation prayed for the minister, but no one including long sought medical treatment comments
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That's a heavy cost for ignorance. Guido said heavy cost for poor
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Bible interpretation Is it important that you interpret the Bible correctly? Absolutely.
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Is there some truth to snake handling? At least can you find it in the Bible someplace? What does the Bible say about snake handling?
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I mean, can you imagine an Easter service all the lilies up here and up from the grave? He arose and no more night and Jesus Christ is risen today, and I've got a bunch of adders up here.
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I Mean, it's insane. I've only did snake I've only done snake handling this year one time and I have witnesses to prove it, but they were not poisonous snakes
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It was last year. It was spring cleanup We were down in the back there cleaning up some of the trash and I found a snake and I got some gloves on I picked up the snake
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It was probably some little garter steak but I wanted to make sure so I got my gloves on and showed all the kids and was
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Talking about Satan and serpents and snakes and the kids were all squealing wildly, you know
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And so then I brought it here into the sanctuary and I said I just want you to see that I am a pastor and I've actually handled
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People handle snakes all the time and I guess it would cause the people in the front row to stay awake.
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I Guess there are some benefits to snake handling, but it's sad
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Turn to Acts 28 for a moment and I want to show you that I will let you know God is certainly more powerful than snake venom and there are occasions in the
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Bible where somebody gets bit by a viper and lives a Poisonous rattlesnake and lives by the grace and power of God and while you're turning to Acts 28
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I want you to have this embedded in your brain forever and always a good Bible interpretation principle second to context and Before keep reading how do you interpret the
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Bible? Context context context number one number three keep reading, right?
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That's almost context figure out what the whole context is. But number two prescription versus description is
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What I'm reading something that is described by God or something that is prescribed by God You get a prescription from your doctor and it says take one tablet every four hours.
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He's giving you a prescription He's prescribing to you prescribing something for you to do when you read the
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Bible Sometimes there's a description God made a covenant with Abraham Sometime there's a prescription devote yourselves to word and prayer and so if you mix those two up you're going to take descriptions in the
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Old Testament and prescribe them for you or you're going to take something that's Prescription for you and just say it's a description.
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You have to be very careful when you read the Bible What does the context say keep reading but more importantly than keep reading?
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Is it descriptive are prescriptive just because the disciples fasted does not mean you should fast just because there are snake handling
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Doesn't mean that you should handle snakes Descriptive versus prescriptive. Does it describe something or does it tell me something to do?
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Acts 28 verse 1 and we'll get to mark 16 when they had been brought safely through Then we found out that and the island was called
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Malta and the natives showed us Extraordinary kindness for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold they kindled the fire and received us all
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These barbarians these non -jews were super kind to us and sweet They brought us in but when
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Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire there's something else that looked like a stick almost a
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Viper Came out of because of the heat and fastened on his hand. Can you imagine?
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Thing didn't like the heat it jumps out. It sees the human right onto his hand now.
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We know this is poisonous Why let's keep we kids keep reading when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand.
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They began saying to one another God is due dessert They said undoubtedly this man is a murderer and though he has been saved from the sea
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Justice has not allowed him to live there was a Greek goddess in those days called
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DK the a di ke and finally, he made it all the way through the sea, but he was a bad apple and You're gonna get it and he got it
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Of course, it's poisonous. They weren't gonna say Oh, yeah, he's getting his just due and justice is being exercised if it's just a little garter snake there was an epitaph written for a
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Stadiolus Flaccus who wrote for a shipwrecked sailor who was killed by a snake bite quote
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Oh, he escaped the storm and the raging of the murderous sea But as he lay stranded in the
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Libyan sand not far from the beach and heavy with sleep at last Naked and destitute weary as he was from the terrible shipwreck.
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The Viper struck him dead Why did he struggle against the waves? He did not escape the lot which was destined for him on land in quote
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He's a bad guy. The snake bites him. He dies. He deserves it. It's justice.
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That's the way that God operates However, what happened? This guy's an apostle verse 5.
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However, he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered No, they were expecting he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead
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It was poisonous, but after that they waited for a long time and had seen nothing unusual happened to him They changed their mind and begin to say that he was a god you can picture that Hello Haven't seen that on survivor lately
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Number seven. I think this guy's not only heaven -sent, but he's having protected now in the neighborhood of that place
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They're lands were belonging to the leading man of the island named Publis and who welcomed us and entertained us courteously for three days
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We don't need to keep reading but but Paul did some healing there as well. My point God can heal snake bites
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Can't he you could do anything? Where else in the New Testament? Can we go to talk about snake handling?
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Where would a pastor give a snake land handling verse? I guarantee you he just didn't wake up one day and say to himself.
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Oh, I think I'm just gonna handle snakes today Is there a New Testament precedent for it? Where is that found?
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Matt mark our Matthew 16. That's right. Mark 16. Let's go there mark chapter 16
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Whenever you hear the pastor go to mark 16 You Can tell that he's about ready to close in prayer because you can get yourself into all kinds of trouble of this chapter
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This is very very difficult on one hand easy on the other Let's look at this a little bit mark chapter 16, by the way
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Do you see anything around mark 16 in your study Bible down at about verse 9 or anything?
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Any little notes that you have a study Bible telling you? Okay, so there's some little notes there let's kind of work through that and ask ourselves the questions about it mark 16
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I can tell I'm already running late for those who came to hear about contemporary Christian music
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I don't know what I'm gonna do part two questions and answers actually, dr.
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Block next week We'll be here Saturday for three messages in the morning Sunday morning Sunday school and Sunday morning sermon, but he won't be here
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Sunday night So we'll have a regular service Mark 16 one when the Sabbath was over Christ has been crucified
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Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome or Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint him
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So you have these ladies there? Who are gonna go serve and and by the way, if you were a human author and you weren't inspired by God You wouldn't use women to be eyewitnesses because they would be unacceptable in a court of law to use women as eyewitnesses
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To me this just helps the gospel account because It's gonna be verified it's not strange for us here in 2004 but back in those days you wouldn't pick women to the eyewitnesses and so they go to anoint the
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Body with oil and they were just used to doing that and very early on the first day of the week They came to the tomb and the
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Sun had risen And as one man said sorrow wakes early
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You're sad you get up early They were saying to one another who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb
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It's almost like it just dawned on them. How are we gonna get in there? This is big. It's a bigger stone than what three women could move
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Looking up they saw that the stone had been rolled away. Although it was extremely large
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How can the stone be moved? Then they get to the tomb how could the stone have been moved people say earthquakes people say all kinds of things and causes
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Why was it rolled away? Verse 5 and entering the tomb they saw there a young man sitting at the right wearing a white robe and they were amazed
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They were frightened. They were alarmed and look at the sermon by the angels do angels preach this one does
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What a neat little sermon he said to them do not be amazed point one good Southern Baptist sermon three points in a poem
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Remember if you have a bad point you're a preacher weak point shout I have learned some things
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You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who has been crucified point two, he's risen point three.
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He's not there Here's the place where they laid him Luke said
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I like how Luke puts it. Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He's raised verse 7
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Sermon continues, but go tell his disciples and Peter. He is going before you into Galilee there You will see him just as he said to you
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Let's stop there for a minute. If you look down at verse 9 We'll skip verse 8 look down to verse 9 and you'll see all kinds of notes in your
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Bible and stuff like that There are four endings to this gospel And any that ends in verse 8 and ending that ends in verse 20 and a couple of the ones that aren't as popular
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The oldest manuscripts do not contain these verses Many of the church fathers did not recognize verses 9 through 20
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Let me ask you this question if you had to take two Bible books Mark 1 1 through mark 16 9 are mark 1 1 through mark 16 20 and you studied ancient manuscripts
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Would you take the shorter one or would you take the longer one and why if you were a Bible scholar if you were a scribe?
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1 1 to 16 9 are 1 1 to 16 20. What would you take just in terms of sheer?
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Bible basics on Near ancient Eastern literature you take the shorter you to take the longer and why shorter why
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Not as much to copy if you're gonna copy them wrong answer Ron Would you get that Shepherd's crook for this guy in the front?
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We got back row Baptist and we got wisecracker Presbyterians in the front this guy just kidding
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No, neither of those is true. Carl's not a Presbyterian and he's not a wiseacre a wisecracker
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Where am I you take shorter ones because when you're copying something when they look for manuscripts and they say which one's older the older ones always the shorter one because in the
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Old days they would never take away You'd never cut things off But there would be some additions once in a while in the in the side of the scroll or you ever write in your
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Bible Do you ever put notes in your Bible? And so whenever you want to find something older you always look for the shorter account if you had two copies of the
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Iliad and The Odyssey you said which one's older The easiest way to find the older one is to find out which one has fewer words because scribes add things as time goes on They never subtract
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Furthermore mark 16 9 through 20 has about a hundred words that aren't found in the rest of the book of Mark But they've also got some other kind of weird things in here and let's look at some of these weird bizarre things including snake handling some would say mark 16 9
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Now after he had risen early on the first day The week he had first appeared to Mary Magdalene for whom he had cast out seven demons
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She went reported to those who had been with him while he while they were mourning and weeping and when they heard that he was
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Alive been seen by her They refused to believe it and after that he had appeared in different form to two of them while they were walking along the way to the country
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Almost sounds like Luke 24 the Emmaus Road. Nothing in here is too strange to believe
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But if they're and not all the best manuscripts we better walk carefully before we make some major doctrine out of this
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They went away and reported to the others and they did not believe them either afterward verse 14 he appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at the table and he reproached them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart because they had not believed those who had
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Seen him after he had risen Now what you don't have in your Bibles is another very obscure portion of this passage and I'll read it here
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It's not your Bibles They excused themselves saying this age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan Who does not allow the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the spirits?
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Therefore reveal thy righteousness now thus they spoke to Christ and Christ replied to them the terms of the years of Satan's power has been fulfilled but the other terrible things draw near and For those who have sinned
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I was delivered over to death that they may return to the truth and sin No more in order. They may inherit the spiritual and incorruptible glory of righteousness, which is in heaven
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And the one one manuscript has that back to what's in your Bible verse 15
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He said to them go into all the world and preach the gospel of all creation. Nothing bad there. That's true.
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That's Matthew 28 He was believed and been baptized What? Believing baptized shall be saved
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He was disbelieved shall be condemned that sounds kind of strange Don't know if I go for that you gotta kick out people the church as they thought you have to be believed and be baptized and These signs will accompany those who have believed notice
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It doesn't say the Apostles if this said the Apostles have these signs. I'm fine with that But here's everybody else too.
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If you believe back in those Apostolic days in my name they'll cast out demons.
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They'll speak with new tongues They'll pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them
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They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover now comments Number one if you're gonna say one of these things is true.
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You better pick all of them Don't pick and choose you people drink arson from the pulpit.
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The answer is yes You know what they normally do though They drink a little bit and a little bit and a little bit and build up their immunity
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So then when they drink some it doesn't hurt them as much But look at all these together.
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You notice it doesn't give some kind of two -step deal Cast out demons speak with new tongues pick up serpents drink deadly poison lay hands on the sick and they will recover
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We're in the body. I mean we've got some of the the snake poison stuff in Acts 28 Drink poison
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You notice in the Bible even with the healing ministry of Jesus. Jesus came down on earth. He could do this
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He could say all right I'm gonna make every one of you who doesn't believe in me Dangle over the hot lava till you repent and I'm gonna dangle you like five feet above the hot lava over in Krakatoa East of Java boom when you believe
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I'll let you down But did he do miracles like that? He tended to do miracles of kindness and of love and Somebody lost their child or somebody was sick or somebody had dysentery or somebody couldn't see it.
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Here's Christ authenticating his Word by these wonderful miracles of kindness not this, you know, hey, you look at me.
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I'm an apostle You can just see Paul in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 look at me. You guys are all super apostles.
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Whoo. I can drink poison Doesn't it just sound strange? Whoo, I can drink acid
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That's strange So then when the
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Lord Jesus has spoken to them verse 19 He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God They went out preached everywhere while the
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Lord worked with them and confirmed the word Confirmed the word by the signs that followed that's what
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Hebrews chapter 2 says and they promptly reported all these instructions to Peter and his Companions and after that Jesus himself sent out through them from east to west the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation
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Mark 16 is where people get the whole snake deal. I Don't think it's in the best manuscripts if you want to believe it's in the
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Bible I'm not going to take that away from you But I will say why take a doctrine of handling snakes and drinking poison when it's not in the best manuscripts
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Why would you take any doctrine? Especially if it's got that thing in there about believe and be baptized and you're gonna go to heaven
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I would probably say, you know, if it's not in the best documents It's not in the oldest documents and it's got the poison
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It's got the snakes and it's got the believe and be baptized I think I'll just make sure I don't do any major doctrines from that section.
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I think I'm Not without what outside the pale of orthodoxy there. So now next question.
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Why does he end in verse 8 then? Bigger question, you know why they added all this other stuff
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I think because they didn't like the ending of 8 just read it They went out fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid
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What kind of ending is that for the Bible? Gospel, it's not go preach the gospel.
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It's not Jesus made them breakfast. It's not Oh Peter I know, you know, you're denying me three times in John and I'm gonna let you three times say
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I love you Peter You said no to me three times. I'm gonna give you a chance three times and say Why does he say?
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They're afraid how do you end the gospel? I'm afraid so they all of a sudden we have these extra endings Let me unlock this by the way.
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Let me just ask you the question. Why is it they were afraid? Why is that a good ending to me? That's the best ending.
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I love that ending. Why why is that a better ending? Well number one if it's true, that's a better ending but but more than that How would you figure out the answer to that question?
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Why is they were afraid of good ending? First question you could ask yourself When Mark says somebody was afraid what's the significance for that?
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Let's find out good question. We have a sharp crowd tonight. That's excellent You're never gonna read the end of Mark the same again.
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You're gonna say I was worth it tonight worth the price of admission Turn to Mark chapter 4 verse 41
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We're just gonna look at a few of these get some wd -40 on the spines of your Bible We're just gonna look at a few of these and you're gonna see why this is the best ending
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Forget that there are words in Mark 16 9 through 20 that aren't found anywhere else in Mark's writings
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Forget that these are later manuscripts forget that they got bad doctrine in there. This is the ending
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Mark 4 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and sea?
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Obey him mark 5 verse 15 hang in there with me mark 5 15
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They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon possessed sitting down clothed and in his right mind the very man who had the
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Legion and they became Frightened terrified afraid same word
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Skip down a little bit verse 33 of the same chapter mark 5 But the woman fearing and trembling aware of what had happened to her came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth mark 650
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They all saw him and were frightened mark chapter 9 verse 6
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For he did not know what to answer for they became what? frightened terrified afraid
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One last one mark 10 32 they were on the road Going up to Jerusalem mark 10 32 and Jesus was walking on ahead of them
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And they were amazed and those who were follow who followed were fearful and again He took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen
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What's the common thread there? Not so much in the last one, but everywhere else. What's the thread they were afraid?
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This is a repeated response in Mark to the supernatural Something that's not natural has gone on and here's this
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Transcendent God who's as it were putting his finger in the universe Something is happening that can't be explained any other way in a supernatural way and they respond with terror
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They were afraid the grandeur of God the mystery of God that something great could happen they were stunned
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Jesus dies Jesus is crucified the ladies go to the tomb the tombstones rolled away the angel says everything's fine
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Go tell everybody about it. And then how does it end knowing what we know about being afraid?
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Let me read it again They went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid
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The supernatural has happened Christ has been raised from the dead and then he stops.
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I Believe and be baptized and drinks and poison the supernatural God of the universe has done something and in this case
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What he has confirmed what his son has said he has raised him from the dead that way cooler
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I don't know what what how to preach a cool gospel. I'll just rob. I'll read the cool gospel Yes, the question for the tape is why would they leave that in if it's not reliable first of all
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I want everybody here not to take my word for it But to study because if I'm up here first of all, you know me Somewhat and you know,
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I'm not one of these guys that just say I don't like that verse there about repentance That's not in the Bible that burst over there about giving to the church.
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That's not in the Bible that burst over there about Submitting to the elders. That's not in the Bible I mean,
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I think as I look around the room you all know that I'm not one of these liberal preachers I'm conservative
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If you don't think I'm conservative And you think I'm falling off the deep end a talk to the elders and be called
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John MacArthur and I will run I Will cower I never want to get the phone call from John MacArthur saying you let me down Just like you know with your own father.
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You don't know what your father done So it's not a matter of being conservative or not. It's a matter of as time goes on We are finding older and older manuscripts case in point the
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Dead Sea Scroll When King James assembled his group to put the Bible together in the early 1600s
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He only had certain manuscripts and they did not have some of these earlier ones So they did a faithful job to put together what they had and they didn't have anything else
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Secondly if you start taking things away from the Bible you it's pretty easy to get labeled as a heritage
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So if I say this isn't in the Bible, I sound now like a liberal who wants to believe that guy
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So part of it is being afraid Because what if I what if I say, you know what?
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I'm not preaching that as the Bible when I preach through mark I said it's not the Bible and went through all the rationale, but what if it is?
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Don't let many of you be teachers because you incur the stricter judgment I mean, I'm up here saying I'm over the
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Bible now. You have to be very careful. So number one New better manuscripts have come about number two.
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I think the church is just afraid to tackle it. Yes Any question about the snakes has anybody ever been to a snake
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That they'd be willing to admit. I mean,
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I feel sorry for the man, but the issue is What does the Bible say and is that a prescription or is that a description
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Very very important. Don't put God to the test
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That's good All right Next time you read the book of Mark You finish with verse 8 and you just say if you were shocked with the supernatural nature of God that Jesus raised her from the dead
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That's a good way to end because it will propel you it will propel you to do ministry for the gospel and run and tell
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Folks, okay, we're gonna have to skip a Christian. We'll do that next Sunday night contemporary Christian music
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Is it good? Is it of Satan? What do we do next to homeschooling?
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It's the number one issue in all churches that divide churches. And so we want to make sure we don't do that All right last questions about poison
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Drinking arsenic. You don't want to do that. Do not try this at home You're a child. Do not do this.
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It seems that you're about to see are done by experts experts that don't have good Bible interpretation
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Prescription versus description you say oh if we repent and the Lord will heal our ways
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Second Corinthians 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14. And what is that? Didn't anybody give me that exact quote?
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What is that second Chronicles who can tell me that second Chronicles 7 14? I mean, here's a classic example of prescription versus description
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My people who were called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways And I will hear of them heaven from heaven and forgive their sin will heal their land
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That it has nothing to do with America. Absolutely. Nothing zero the nil set nothing
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It has to do with the covenant promise of Israel. Of course if this our nation becomes a Christian nation
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Well, God bless us. I think he blesses his word, but has nothing to do with America God bless
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America if we just do what this verse says, we'll have that promise Prescription or description that is a description for us a prescription for Israel.
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We have to be careful It's a good to want righteousness in the land. Yes. It's a good to want no abortions in the land
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Of course, is it good to want Christians in government? Of course Christians Outside of this promised
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Israel aren't promised anything like that, but they are promised suffering But anyway if you don't learn anything else tonight than say
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There's that little monkey that sits right here and his name is Pastor Mike and sometimes when I'm reading the Bible I think to myself prescription versus description.
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I will say to myself. Whoa It's like people going.
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I need a word from God today and they just go to the Old Testament I just need a word from God today. I'll give you a word from God today.
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Read your Bible in context and don't do this Why I have to stop?
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Because you need context and you need to not take promises for Israel and say it's for me
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Now there's certainly some spillover things but that's for another day father
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It's a joy to be a Christian and it's even fun to smile and to laugh and and to talk about your word in this way
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Yes father. We realize it. It's something that we have to come to with fear and trepidation We want to divide it correctly and father.
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That's why we need your grace at this church We need your grace because the pastor is a man and he needs to have your illuminating spirit when he studies the word
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We need your grace because we're all so different Different backgrounds different ages different sexes different maturity levels and yet we're supposed to love each other
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And so we need your grace for that father We need your grace because our brothers and sisters will be offended by what we do and they'll offend us
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And so we need your grace so we can forgive and gracing one another as you have graced us We need your grace to be a church.
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That's not divisive and divided and factions And so father we would ask that you'd help us there and father
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We also need your grace to respond to your word in the right way with obedience and joy and not with emotions first but with Our minds first and then the emotions coming later so father thanks for this night where we can just gather around your word
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I do pray for those churches in the country that somehow want to do the whole snake handling thing