Separation With God (11/28/1999)

Park Meadows Church

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Turn with me this morning to James chapter 2. I want to read a verse to you

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That was in the sermon last Sunday morning You don't have to turn to it if you don't want to because I think you'll remember it It was in Deuteronomy chapter 6 in verse 23

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And last time we really pretty much talked about the purpose of separation

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Why is it that we are? Are set apart from the world and unto the

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Lord and we talked about the purpose of separation Deuteronomy 6 23 says and he brought us out from fence

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That he might bring us in to give us the land which he swearing to our fathers

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And we pointed out that so many people focus on the being taken out of this world

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Maybe even setting rules. You can't do this. You can't dress this way. You can't listen to this.

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You can't do that You can't go here. You can't go there and so many groups

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Pay so much attention to rules like that because what they're attempting to do is

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To be separate from the world and I will say this on behalf of those groups at least they see a need for the doctrine

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Of separation because it's not taught in most churches anymore And the Baptists used to be pretty big on this but you won't hear this taught in southern

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Baptist churches anywhere You will not hear it anymore. It's a lost doctrine It's I don't know if they would even know what the term meant

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Seriously, if you said let's discuss the doctrine of separation. They probably think you're talking about divorce or something, but it is a

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Doctrine that has for the most part been lost in the last 25 years in all churches and So there are some groups that still talk about it unfortunately, most of those groups tend to focus on the rules and we learned from Deuteronomy 6 23 that there is a purpose for why the

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Lord wanted us to be different and to set us apart and It was not for the sake of being different or being set apart

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It was so that he might bring us in and so if you remember that he brought us out of Egypt which pictures the world for the purpose of bringing us in To the promised land and that's the important part.

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That's where the focus really should be because the promised land pictures victorious Christian living and A close walk with the

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Lord and that is the purpose of it all so we talked about the purpose of separation last time

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Today, I want to speak to you for a few moments about the key to separation The key to having this in your life.

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What is the key to having abundant life that Jesus talked about? What is the key to being a person who really is different than the world?

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I'll always remember my experience growing up in the youth group at First Baptist Church, Mahalia And of course,

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I thought I was saved at an early age because I got baptized and so I naturally thought I was saved everybody called me a

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Christian and So forth, but I'll always remember this the youth group that I was in in First Baptist.

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I also lived with them throughout the week in school and I knew him pretty well, and they knew me pretty well, and I knew what they did with their life

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Monday through Saturday night And I knew that their life was absolutely no different than anyone else in the high school that I went to It was the same they did the same stuff.

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They did the same sins Week after week habitually they talked the same way used the same language the same terminology

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Had the same fads there was no difference absolutely no difference between that youth group and the world

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You know why because most of us were not saved and we were the world

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We just didn't know it we had on Christian clothing on Sunday morning, and that was about it

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So there is an importance in God's people being different So what is the key to having that in our lives?

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Well, let's review another verse from last Sunday turn with me to James chapter 2 in Verse 22 just for a moment

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Remember this is where the Bible called Abraham the friend of God in verse 22 seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and The scripture was fulfilled which saith

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Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and He was called the friend of God and we learned last

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Sunday That although what most of us have always focused on in this verse where it says

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Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness We talked about how faith Brought to Abraham the very righteousness of Jesus Christ and sometimes we have not emphasized the last phrase

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Which says he was called the friend of God we put it out that that word for called is the same word that's used throughout the

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Bible when it says that God calls us unto salvation and So when it says he was called the friend of God It means that Abraham was called by God to be his friend

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It was a calling just as much as this as the of the salvation as any other aspect and So this friendship is not something that Abraham could just have or be in and of himself

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It was a calling it was something that God did to him Just like God imparted the very righteousness of Jesus Christ to Abraham He also imparted this ability to have this relationship or this friendship with God himself

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Now I want to come back to that in a minute, but I want to get your minds to thinking a little bit this morning

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Look on down in James chapter 2 To verse 26 and there are a lot of verses in this chapter that talk about faith and works and salvation and They these passages have been confusing through the years, especially to those of us who believe in salvation by faith

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Because these tend to teach that salvation is by works Now, let's read verse 26

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For as the by the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is dead also

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Now I want to stop a minute and ask you a question How many of you? Believe that you personally know

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They are have known a church of Christ person who was really saved Won't you raise your hand?

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It's not a trick question. I just want to know the truth How many of you Charlotte knows one who else raise your hand if you know one?

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Several people in here and I'd raised my hand Lawrence raising his hand and So now but don't they believe that you have to be baptized to be saved

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Or at least that's part of their doctrinal statement in their church Okay, as a group though, they teach that their pastors believe that teach it

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Lawrence, what were you gonna say? Okay, not all of them believe that but that's what their teachers teach

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All right. Now, let me ask you another question How many of you feel that in that you personally know or have known a

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Baptist that was not saved? Whoa, all right.

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Hope it was in another church Okay, now, you know, there's the age -old battle that's going on there between those two groups in particular that the

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Baptists like to say that we're saved by faith and the Church of Christ like to say that we're saved by faith plus works and And yet you've just pointed out a mystery that you know people that are saved in both groups

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Well, let me have you look at a passage here that's that is unusual and interesting to me

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Look at James 2 26 and let's think about this Think about what it really says

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For as the body without the spirit is dead So faith without works is dead also

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Now I think if I had written that verse which I'm glad I didn't but if I had

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I Would have written it this way for as the body without the spirit is dead

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So works without faith is dead also I Mean that's what would make sense to me when you think about a human body if you if you laid somebody right there on that altar and You look at them

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It is the spirit that gives them life or that makes them alive

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And when we study about what the spirit is The literal word for it means a breath or literally that means the wind but it comes to mean that connotates the breath the breath of life

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It's the life that God places in that person that makes them really be animated and be alive and when you've ever had to go to the funeral of a loved one or a friend and you've

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You know as the practice is around these parts in the south you have the open casket and you go and you view

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The dead one and you look in their face What do you always think?

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They're not here at least that's what I think you may think other things Maybe I shouldn't ask what all you think but you do probably the thought crosses your mind.

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My friend is not here right So it was the spirit

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That gave that body life and made that body be real and be alive and and so forth

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The spirit is is that which brings life to the body? Now? What's interesting about this is

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When it goes on and uses this as an example to teach about faith and works It seems to put it around in the

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Church of Christ style more than in the Baptist stop Because here it says that it is works

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That brings life to the faith Doesn't say it the other way around See I would have thought the faith would be the spiritual thing and the works would be like the body

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Typified by the body because it's our body that does the works But God didn't put it that way

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He said it's actually the works that animates that brings life to the faith that makes the faith real in the first place very interesting

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Passage if you grew up a Baptist Should cause us to think and to study well

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Let me ask you this if you go back into the Days of Israel while they were slaves to the world which was pictured by Egypt and God was about to save them

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What did he tell him to do on the Passover night? Can you remember they were supposed to?

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Go and Kill the lamb Then what were they supposed to do take a certain type of weed who can tell me what it's called?

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Hyssop weed and they were supposed to go and God told them to do this. So it was a command so they had to obey it

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Cross bar across the top Now if they did that the death angel came through that night and would pass over that home

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Those who did not do that. The firstborn would be killed by the death angel So I want to ask you a question

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Was it the hyssop weed that saved them? It wasn't was it the hyssop weed pictures faith

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How many times have you heard some preachers say that you apply the blood of Christ to your life by the hyssop weed of faith

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Well, that's a good analogy But it wasn't the faith that really saved him. Was it?

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How many of you think they were saved by the obedient act of placing the blood on the door

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Trick questions, aren't they? I learned that from a teacher of mine see now

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How many of you think they were saved by the blood? Careful I'm telling you ahead of time.

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It's a trick question. So don't give the obvious answer It actually all of this plays a part in it doesn't it but how many of you would say that when they got to the place where their backs were to the sea and Pharaoh had changed his mind

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And had come after them with the fiercest army on the face of the earth of that day Now you think that the

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United States probably has the strongest army? We don't know what red China's doing though, do we but we think we have the strongest army with our technology on the face of the earth and That was the

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Egypt of the day Egypt was the America of the day. I should say it that way and here they come and The people of God have their back to the water to the sea they can't go any further and the most awesome power on the earth of their day was coming to slaughter them and Then what happened what there was this strange pillar of fire

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That came between them in the army that night and kept the army away all night and it was a cloud by day and The next morning

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Someone parted the sea who did that don't say Moses Don't say

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Abraham Who was it who parted the sea

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God Joshua he got it. All right God did it didn't he?

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So what was it that really saved them? It was the presence of God in their life as their friend

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They were not the enemies of God The Bible says that all of us were enemies of God before our salvation and So I don't want to to be too nitpicky here

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I mean faith did save them and so did the blood But it wasn't that blood that saved them.

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It pictured the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah who would come But to be more specific and more correct.

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It was Jesus himself that saves it's God that saves and So when we focus on the method of salvation

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All all the sudden sometimes we miss how it really works We focus on faith if we're

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Baptist we want to focus on faith plus works if we're Church of Christ and No one's focusing on the right thing because it's not a thing that saves it's a person and his name is the

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Lord Jesus Christ Now this particular verse in James Makes us think about these things when it says the body as the body without the spirit is dead

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So faith without works is dead If you have somebody that says, oh, I'm I'm a

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Baptist and so I'm saved because I believe in Jesus And it's one saved always saved and I had a time when

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I believed in him and you you have observed for many years That their life is no different Than any other person out at the bar drinking and dancing and Committing adultery and everything else that's going on and yet he's had that time back there where he believed

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And so he's saved by that belief What do you think about that story?

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James comes back and says now wait a minute, though works Has not animated and given life to his faith

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Works has not made his faith Alive It's not a real faith.

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It's a dead faith is what James would say about that Now, how is it that God handles these problems because they're not problems with God You see we focus on and when

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I say we I'm talking about man He the human being by nature wants to focus on the religion of the thing he wants to focus on the on the method of Religion, he does not want to focus on God himself

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Because that is convicting He does not want a close relationship with God himself because that's a fearful thing

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Why do you think the children of Israel when God said come on up and and I'll talk to you

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And they said no, no, no, no. No, we're staying down here. Send Moses up there Why do you think they did that?

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Well, they were happy to find out they had a religion But they were frightened and fearful of having a relationship with God that was meaningful

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Because that would mean a change in their life There are a lot of people that are happy to have a

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Baptist religion where they can have that once saved always say faith thing That thing back there.

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I did when I was well, I when I was 12, of course everything happened in my life when

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I was 12, it seems like That thing I did back there that's I'm happy to have that because that means

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I'm okay I can avoid hell now in the Church of Christ guy likes to say well that time

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I got dunked in that Church of Christ Water back there. That's the thing that saved me if it had been Baptist water or any other water

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It wouldn't save me but that water saved me And so we can get happy with our religion but very few people want to go up on that Mount and Yet the

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Bible says that Abraham and Interestingly enough there's a verse that says

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Moses Was the friend of God it says that God talked to Moses face to face as unto a friend

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And this relationship is very important Now if you think about Moses, you might say well, what is it then that causes

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Moses to be the friend of God? Would it be the fact in Genesis chapter 12 that he separated himself?

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I'm sorry, Abraham. What makes Abraham the friend of God? I got two friends here So I got to focus on which one I'm talking about What would you say made

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Abraham the friend of God? Would you say it's because he left his people like God told him to and separated himself so that the separation?

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being unworldly made him God's friend or would you go to Genesis 12 verses 4 and 5 and say that it was obedience in his life

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Where God told him well, I know you I know you'll obey and I know you'll train your children upright in your household, right?

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So therefore you're my man Was it his obedience that made him the friend of God or would you go to Genesis 12 verses 7 and chapter 13 as well?

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Where it talks about the fact that he worshiped God and he sacrificed unto God Is that what made him the friend or would you go to Genesis 12 8 and look at his prayer life?

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His powerful prayer life and say that's what made him God's friend or would you look at this is interesting

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Genesis chapter 14 17 through 20. It says that he tithed Now what's interesting about the fact that Abraham tithed is that he tithed?

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430 years before the law came into being which says to tithe So apparently the tithe doesn't have anything to do with the law

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He just wanted to give to God what God had given him Was that what made him be a friend

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Or was it the fact that in Genesis 14? He depended upon God not on man when the evil

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King wanted to give him gifts He said I don't take anything you have to offer God will take care of me Is that what made him a friend of God or what about the fact that the

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Bible says in chapter 15 verse 7 that he had? The righteousness of God by faith or what about the fact in chapter 18 verses 1 through 8?

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It says he had wonderful fellowship and a wonderful relationship with God Are these the things that made him to be the friend of God and are these the things that made him be different well?

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Let's go into Exodus chapter 33 for a moment. I Think we always want to find things we can do to be

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God's friend we'd like to be able to go into the Bible and Find a list kind of like the one

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I just read to you about Abraham a list of things We know that he did and we'd like to say, okay, if I do those things

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Then I'll be right with God Or we like to come up with religious things

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We can do like the examples of the Baptist and the Church of Christ that I gave earlier, but let's look at Exodus chapter 33 in verse 1 and let's see if we can find what the key to separation is

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What is the key to being a person who is not like everyone else in the world?

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What is the key to being a person who really does have a walk with the Lord that makes a difference in this world

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Well in this chapter it tells us some things we need to look at first of all in Verse 1 and the

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Lord said to Moses depart and go up hence Thou and the people which thou has brought up out of the land of Israel and to the land which

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I swear unto Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob saying and to this thy seed will I give it and I will send an angel before thee and I will drive out the

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Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the

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Hivite and the Jebusite I'll drive them out and I'll take you into a land flowing with milk and honey

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For I will not go up in the midst of thee for thou art a stiff -necked people

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Lest I consume thee in the way now That's kind of a peculiar sounding verse and in that context unless you understand what had happened before this and if you go back a little bit before this you'll see that they had made a calf an

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Idol a golden calf and worship it worshipped it and committed Idolatrous acts and adulterous acts and God says you'll be consumed if I went up in the midst of thee

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But look what it says in verse 2. I will send an angel before thee That's what we call a theophany.

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It means an appearance of the Lord Christ before the birth of Jesus in the manger

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Before the Christmas scene that everybody will be studying about this season This was an appearance of him in the

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Old Testament Notice that what this teaches us is that man has to have an intercessor

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If he's going to walk with God and that's who Jesus Christ is Now look at verse 2

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He's gonna send the angel before you and the angel is going to drive out the

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Canaanites, etc Now you see where we have warped thinking when we think that separation means that we're gonna get all these evil things out of our

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Lives I'm gonna stop doing this. I'm gonna burn that I'm gonna throw a rock at my television set and get rid of it

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I'm gonna get rid of everything evil in my life The problem with that thinking is that if you do that those things are gonna creep back in someday anyway

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But notice here that it says it's the angel of the Lord that will drive them out Now you see the religionist hates that kind of a thought.

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I Know a lot of independent Baptist pastors are knew them in the past I don't know them anymore because I don't hang around with them anymore

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But I used to know a lot of them That wanted to make rules so that the people would have the appearance of being a scriptural righteous separated people

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And yet they did not have enough faith in the Lord to believe that the Lord could actually make those people be different So they wouldn't wait on God and they made them change on their timetable

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And that doesn't work. Do you remember how the Lord said? I'm not gonna drive these people out of the land all at once Because he said you couldn't handle that He said if I drove all the people out of the land at once and you went in and just took the land

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The wild animals would come and consume you The lions would come and eat you that represents the devil

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He said I'm just gonna drive them out a little at a time That pictures the fact that you don't get saved and then all of a sudden everything in your life changes

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You don't change the way you dress. You don't change what you listen to what you don't change your music there's a lot of things that don't change overnight and And There are some pastors and some people who would make you feel that you needed to change those things immediately or you're not right with God but the

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Bible doesn't teach that because the Bible teaches that it's the angel of the Lord that will drive these things out in his time in your life

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If it's working, right, that's what's happening And he's gonna take you into a land flowing with milk and honey for I will not go up in the midst of you

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He says you I'm gonna send the intercessor the Lord Jesus Christ with you because I myself would consume you

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If you didn't have the priest now He talks about the promised land and remember

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Deuteronomy 6 23 said I'll bring you out of Egypt that I might bring you in to The promised land and this is the purpose and we're going in the right direction here.

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Now look down at verse 6 and And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the

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Mount Horeb What did they made that idol out of do you remember? the gold earrings specifically

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That's what they made the idol out of and so now all the sudden they're grieved because God said

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I will not go up in the midst of thee lest I consume you and They feared

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God and they were grieved at that and So what it says happened was that they stripped themselves of their ornaments now

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Let me ask you something. Did they do that act in order to appear to be a separated people?

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Or to cause them to be different than the world Or did the act happen because God was making them to be different Through teaching them in this experience

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You see they had seen what sin would do they had seen what would happen with respect to God the

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Father if they were found to be in sin and You have to remember that many thousands were slain after that event

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And they had gone through that And now all of a sudden as God speaks and says yes

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I'm gonna take you into the promised land But I'm not gonna be in the midst of you lest I would destroy you and they're thinking whoa.

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I think I'll get rid of these idols and because of God's relationship with them and God's Action in their heart and life.

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They got rid of the idols. And so that was kind of a symptom it was not the thing itself and That's the way it should be with us as we see ourselves

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Getting rid of some things in our homes or in our lives things that are of the world That all of a sudden we're we just don't feel like we're comfortable having those things in our lives because of our walk with the

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Lord We should realize that it has to be because of our walk with the Lord that they go away

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Not that we can get rid of them and it causes us to be closer to God Otherwise we fall into the same problem that the religionists fall into so they got rid of their idols because of the work of God in their life now notice in verse 7

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Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp afar off from the camp and Called it the tabernacle of the congregation it came to pass that everyone which sought the

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Lord went out of the camp and Unto the tabernacle of the congregation which was outside the camp

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Why does the Bible keep emphasizing that this place where they could meet with God was outside of the camp?

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Let me remind you of a verse we had in the sermon last Sunday Hebrews chapter 13 verse 12 It says wherefore

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Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate

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Outside of the city let us go forth therefore unto him Without the camp bearing his reproach

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It says that Jesus is the one who sanctifies the people notice there again that sanctification is passive with respect to us

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We do not do this ourselves. It is done to us by a higher power the

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Lord Jesus Christ It is Jesus that sanctifies his own people and he does he did so by shedding his blood outside the gate

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Let us therefore go unto him outside the gate. What is that picture?

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We talked about a little bit last Sunday it pictures that you cannot approach God the same way that the religionists do it

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You can't stay inside the camp of religion. You can't say stay inside the camp of accepted political views

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You can't stay inside the camp of what people even think a true Christian ought to act like and be like or what a church

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Should be like you got to go outside that camp Because Jesus is out there

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And and then we see the same thing back here in verse 7 where they went outside the camp in order to worship

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Now as we read down through here, we see this interesting place where it calls now We know

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Abraham was the friend of God Now we see that Moses is the friend of God verse 8 and it came to pass when

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Moses went out under the tabernacle That all the people rose up and stood everyone at his tent door and looked after Moses Until he was gone into the tabernacle and it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar

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The same one that was at the sea the Red Sea Descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and And talked with Moses I think it's interesting that the words the

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Lord are added in the English in the Hebrew language is not there It doesn't matter that it's there

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It's okay but I like to read it without that because It says that the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and talked with Moses Now, how would you feel if a cloudy pillar talked with you?

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That's exactly what happened And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshipped every man at his tent door and the

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Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend and He turned again into the camp but at his servant

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Joshua the son of nun and yet the young man departed not out of the tabernacle Now we see here that he's called the friend of God Now, let's go down here and look and see what the key to separation is

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Moses begins to pray And he talks to the

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Lord and the Lord talks with him as unto a friend and Moses said unto the

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Lord See thou sayest unto me bring up this people and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me

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Yet thou hast said I know thee by name and thou hast also found grace in my sight

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So Moses is saying to the Lord That you yourself have told me that I found grace in your sight.

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I'm I'm saved. I'm yours I'm your child You told me that you're gonna send an angel the

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Lord because you're not gonna go with us But you hadn't told me who you're sending yet It's kind of an interesting statement

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But he says now therefore I pray thee if I have found grace in your sight

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Show me now the way who is the way that angel I'm the way and the truth and the light

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No man cometh unto the Father, but by me show me the way that I may know thee That's the only way you can know the

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Father Is to know the way who is Jesus Christ? That I might find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is thy people

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And now the Lord tells him the father tells him who this one is. It's going to go with him

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He says my presence shall go with thee Who is

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Jesus When we study in the Christmas story in the early portions of the book of Matthew It says his name shall be called

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Emmanuel which means what The presence of God with us

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My presence shall go with thee. That's the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will give thee rest and he said unto him

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If thy presence go not with me carry us not up hence

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Don't even take me to the promised land. Don't take this people Don't send us anywhere if your presence is not going to go with us

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Moses says Now look at this For wherein shall it be known here that I and I people have found grace in thy sight

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Is it not in that thou goest with us so shall we be separated

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I and I people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth and The Lord said unto

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Moses I will do this thing also that thou has spoken for thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name and He said

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I beseech thee Show me thy glory notice That Moses understood something that most people in most generations have not understood through the years

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He understood something that most Baptists really don't understand certainly most Church Christ people really don't understand really only those who are in the word

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Studying would understand this He said Is it not in that thou goest with us so shall be we be separated from all the people of the earth

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So what does it bring us back to? If we want to talk about the key to separation the key to being a people who really are different Than the religionists of our time different than the people of the world

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What is it that makes that difference? It is relationship It goes back to the original question.

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I asked a couple of weeks ago and The same question that Jesus asked of Peter.

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He said do you love me? Do you love me in a third time?

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He said? Will you be my friend? I? Think that's very significant

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We do love the Lord because he loved us first if we're his children. We love him don't we? But it doesn't mean we automatically count him as our friend day to day as we walk

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This week as we go into this week. Will Jesus be our friend? Will we do the things unto him that we would do to a very dear friend such as spend time with him?

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You know the very key to love To me is that if you love a person by definition it means you want to be with them

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You want to be with that person Some of you adults can remember when you were dating your sweetheart

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Talking about the one you married Yeah, and there may have been a time when you had to be separated

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From that person. I remember I was at Baylor and Charlotte was still in my head

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But I sure did like it when the weekend hit because Friday, that's where I learned to drive 80 miles an hour

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I hate to say it But I headed home to my head Because I loved her and I wanted to be with her and I just asked you this

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How is your relationship with the Lord? I mean do you? Love him and enjoy him and are you such a friend of his that you want to be with him this week?

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How much time will you spend just with him? Will we sanctify the Lord in our hearts?

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Will there be a place just for him all the other stuff gets put aside for moments

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During the day from time to time when we put that stuff aside and we just spend time with him Well, I'll tell you what that is the key

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To being separated from the world if you want to see growth in your life maturing spiritual growth

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Then think about that relationship Time that you spend with him talking to you and this is how he does it through this right here

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I don't believe it'll happen outside of the Word of God You've got to be in the word and with the hard attitude that Lord talked to me

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Spend time with me. I don't want to go up if you don't go with me. Don't send me out of this house

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Don't send me to the promised land Don't send me through the wilderness Into the promised land into a walk with you and and all the things

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I'm supposed to do Don't even send me if you're not going to go with me Talk to me before I go out of this house this morning and then open it up and listen

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And then you talk to him through prayer, of course and he speaks to you as a friend that's where Separation comes from and before you know it

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Not that you'll think about it, but others will look at you and say that person is weird That person that's a

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Bible thumper if I ever saw one And see they're focusing on the Bible as a religious thing

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They don't even know what it is. It makes you different is your relationship with the Lord That he's going up with you

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And he's taking you into the promised land and he's driving out the enemy one at a time not all the same day

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But one at a time he's driving him out Why? So that you can be there with him

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And that's what it's all about his relationship. Do you love me Jesus said feed my sheep

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Do you love me? Feed my lambs Do you like me?