What's the Point?

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
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And we're going to read verses 29 to 34.
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We have been in 1 Corinthians 15 now for quite a while or 1 Corinthians for quite a while.
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And we're going verse by verse through the text of this book by the Apostle Paul.
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And we happen to find ourselves today in a text which is known to be rather difficult to understand.
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So I want to encourage a listening ear this morning as we go through this text together.
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Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
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I die every day.
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What do I gain if humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
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Do not be deceived.
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Bad company corrupts or ruins good morals.
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Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.
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I say this to your shame.
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Well, with that, let us bow our heads and go to the Lord.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for your truth.
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And I pray now that as I seek to preach the word that you would, by your mercy and grace, keep me from error, open our hearts to the truth.
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May it be that we understand what this word means this morning, what it meant when penned by the Apostle Paul and what it means to us.
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Lord, I pray for those who hear me, for the believer.
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I pray that this would be to them a challenge about priorities.
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What is the point of our life if we are not looking forward to the kingdom? And Lord, for the unbelievers.
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For those who don't know you, whether they be children or or adults or or the elderly father, no matter where they are in life, Lord, if they know not you, then Lord, this life is all there is for them of happiness for their life to come.
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There's nothing but misery and dread.
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Lord, may today be a day of change for them.
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May you open the eyes of the blind.
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May you open the ears of the deaf.
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May you open the hearts.
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To be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ and to know him as Savior and Lord.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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In regard to this passage, Pastor Alistair Begg has said these words.
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There is a direct relationship between what I believe about the future and how I behave in the present.
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There is a direct relationship between what I believe about the future and how I behave in the present.
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You ever met somebody who you would say is aimless? Aimless means to be without purpose, without direction.
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They say if you aim for nothing, you're bound to hit it every time.
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And the reality is that many people live their lives aimlessly.
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Or worse, many people live their lives aimed at meaningless things, things that don't matter.
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Think about the meaningless things which people aim their lives toward.
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People aim their life toward wealth and poverty.
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They aim their life toward fame and popularity.
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Others aim their life toward pleasure and self-gratification, all the while not realizing that all of these will have no value one day.
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At death, all wealth can do is provide a very expensive casket.
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At death, all popularity can do is fill a very large chapel.
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And at death, all pleasure can do is provide a memorable eulogy.
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As a people, human beings are exceptionally good at aiming for things that do not matter.
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And the things that should motivate us often fall very low on our priority list.
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And the things that shouldn't matter often become very high on our priority list.
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And so what I want to show you today in this passage is Paul is actually addressing the subject of motivation.
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I said it was a difficult passage, but here's the thing.
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Even in the difficulty of this passage, his point is not that hard to find.
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Sometimes the easiest way to understand something is first try to determine what's the point.
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So that's the title of my sermon.
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What's the point? But but I'm not saying what's Paul's point.
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My question is this.
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When I say what's the point, that's Paul's question to us.
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You see, he's dealing with people who don't believe in the resurrection.
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Remember, we go back to verse 12.
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Some of you say there's no resurrection.
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He's already answered their their objections masterfully in verses 12 to 20.
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He's already told us of the promise of the resurrection in verses 21 to 28.
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And now he's asking this question.
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If there is no resurrection, what's the point? If there is no resurrection, what is the point? So I would ask you that today, what's the point of your life? If you're not looking forward to the kingdom, if you're not looking forward to life with Jesus Christ, what's the point? Because I'm going to tell you this, if you're if your life's pointed at anything else, it is going to be very disappointing one day.
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If your life is aiming at anything other than the kingdom of God, one day you are going to be dreadfully disappointed.
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They don't put U-Hauls on the back of hearses for a reason.
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If you're not aiming for the kingdom, what's the point? That's that really is I'm giving you the overview because now we're going to dig into some of the minutiae of the text.
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But I want you to not miss the overall point.
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You say, Pastor, it's Mother's Day, why aren't you preaching Proverbs 31? Because I'm going to show you some there's some real good Mother's Day stuff in here.
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You don't see it yet.
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And by the way, I don't follow the Hallmark liturgy.
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I preach the word as we go, you know, so I can preach what I want.
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But there's still some good Mother's Day stuff here.
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There's some really good stuff here.
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If you if you're here because you're here as a guest, you need to hear these things.
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This is this is important stuff.
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We're going to look at three things.
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In fact, I even outlined it in the bulletin for you.
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I don't always do this, but I didn't put in the bulletin because I knew this difficult text.
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I gave you the three the three headings, the inquiry, the imperatives and the indignity.
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And then I gave the three questions, the three inquiries.
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And then I gave you the three imperatives right there.
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So you got everything.
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You don't have to write anything down.
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You got all your notes.
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All you got to do is listen.
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Just listen to what I'm saying.
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Hang with me for the next few minutes.
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And I hope you'll have a better understanding of this text and you'll understand what the point of life is, because that's what this is about.
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What's the point? What's the point? Let's look first at the inquiries.
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The inquiries are found in verses 29 to 32, verses 29 to 32.
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Paul asks essentially three questions.
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If there is no resurrection, why do we care about conversion? If there is no resurrection, why would we suffer persecution? And if there is no resurrection, why not just seek gratification? That's really the three questions that fall in here.
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Let's look at the first one.
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Why care about conversion? Verse 29.
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He says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Now, I want to tell you that's a difficult passage.
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In fact, I got a note in my notes.
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It says warning.
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Difficult passage.
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Pastor Derek Carlson said this.
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He says if it wasn't for expository preaching, this verse would never get touched.
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Expository preaching, verse by verse preaching.
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If we didn't do it this way, people would avoid it.
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They would just go right on by.
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Pastor Steven Kreloff, a man that I love, he's preaching this pulpit.
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He said this.
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He said, you know, there's over 200 different interpretations of this particular passage.
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You look in different commentaries, you can find up to 200 different ways people have tried to pull this text, twist it, contort it and everything else.
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And you know who've done it the worst is the Mormons.
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Because the Mormons have taken this passage to mean that we can be baptized on behalf of somebody who has died as if to somehow benefit them in their death.
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Mormons do something called proxy baptism.
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Proxy baptism is this.
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Let's say you're my loved one and you didn't get to become a Mormon and you died.
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Well, I can go to the temple, I can be baptized and that baptism can take the place of you're not having been baptized.
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And then on the other side, you'll have the opportunity to receive my baptism in your place and you receive my blessing for you and you're benefiting from my baptism.
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And that's how they take Paul's word here when he said baptized on behalf of the dead.
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That's how the Mormons understand it.
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Beloved, I do not believe that that's what Paul's talking about here.
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I don't think that's what Paul means here.
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In fact, I'll give you two reasons why I don't think that's what Paul means.
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Number one, it is nowhere mentioned anywhere else in the Bible or any extra biblical literature.
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There is nothing in the first century about anybody ever being baptized for anyone else, for any purpose.
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So it's just not historical to look at it that way.
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But number two, it distorts the gospel.
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One, baptism doesn't save, amen.
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And two, even if baptism did save, I can't get saved for you.
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So proxy baptism is a distortion of this text.
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It's not what Paul's talking about.
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You say, well, pastor sure sounds like what he's talking about.
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Yeah, but we can't read our current situation back into the text.
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That's called an anachronism.
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When you read something from now into then, you have to go back into then and say, what was happening then that would make sense of this text? Let me tell you what was happening then on behalf of this text.
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Christians were dying for their faith.
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And when Christians would die for their faith, you know what would happen? People would witness it and they would get saved as a result.
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And they would be baptized because of the day.
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Let's say I'm an unbeliever and I see Adam and he's a believer and they're tying you to a post.
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They're going to set you on fire and you're singing to the Lord.
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And I am a pagan and I am moved to faith by you.
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And when you die, I go and I say, I want to be what he was.
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I want to have what he had and I want to be baptized because of that man.
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See, that's baptism because of the dead or in fact, the word here, Hooper, in the Greek means for because of or on behalf of it means because of this person.
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See, if I didn't believe in the resurrection, his death wouldn't affect me.
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If I didn't believe he was going to be raised, why would I be baptized? Now, do you see the point Paul's making? Let me add another thing.
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In the year 320, there were a group of soldiers in Sebaste, which is in what's modern day Turkey, a group of 40 Roman soldiers.
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They were called the Sebaste martyrs.
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All 40 of them were Christians.
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And it became that the emperor did not want Christians in his army because he did not want to have any soldiers who had a divided allegiance.
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You were either going to worship at the feet of Caesar or you were not going to be his soldier.
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And so it was said, convert or die.
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And these 40 soldiers, the Sebaste 40 is what they're known as, the Sebaste martyrs, were forced to strip out of their clothing, set aside their tools, and they were marched out onto the center of a frozen lake to freeze to death in the cold of night.
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So there they stood, huddled in a group, waiting to be overtaken by hypothermia, waiting to be overtaken in death.
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Legend says they sang while they were dying.
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On the banks were the other soldiers trying to get them to recant and come back.
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Some of them had even lit fires to say, come back and warm yourselves.
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One of the men, one of the Sebaste men couldn't take it any longer, and he broke ranks from the 40 and he ran across the cold ice and he made his way to the to the shore and he was brought in and he was warmed.
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While warming himself, one of the other soldiers moved not by the man who gave himself up, but the men who were dying dropped his shield, dropped his sword, dropped his clothing and walked out onto the ice, further instilling in them the hope of the resurrection by showing I am willing to die with these men.
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And he brought their ranks back to 40.
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And died right alongside when the next morning, as the soldiers on the banks awoke, they found 40 dead soldiers, 39 who began the day as a Christian and one who became a Christian because of dying men.
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Tertullian said this, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
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So when Paul says, why would you be baptized on behalf of the dead, does that make more sense now? Why would somebody's death move you to baptism if you don't believe they're going to be raised? Why would you be converted if there's no hope in your conversion? So that's the first question.
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Why be moved to conversion if there's no hope in your conversion? That's number one.
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Number two, why would you suffer persecution? Why would you suffer persecution? Look with me now at verse 30.
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He says, why are we in danger every hour? I'm not sure where that sounds coming from, but let's start muting some things because that's starting to get kind of loud.
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He says in verse 30, he says, why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
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I die every day.
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What do I gain if humanly speaking, I fought with B.
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Stop right there.
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Paul is asking this question.
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Why in the world would we endure suffering if we don't have anything to look forward to? Why would we endure persecution if we're not looking forward to the kingdom? That's a very simple question.
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Paul says, I die every hour.
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Why are we in danger every hour? Why would you put yourself through that if you're not looking forward to the kingdom? Why would you put yourself into persecution? You know what Paul went through? 2 Corinthians 11 24, five times I received at the hands of the Jews, 40 lashes plus one, three times I was beaten with rods.
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Once I was stoned three times.
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I was shipwrecked at night and a day and I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night and hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure and apart from others.
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things.
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There's the daily pressure on me of anxiety for all the churches.
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That's Paul's life.
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That's his eulogy.
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And that's that second Corinthians 11, 24 to 28.
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That's Paul's eulogy.
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My whole life has been suffering.
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And when I wasn't suffering physical, I was suffering emotional on behalf of the churches.
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Why would I do that? If I didn't have a goal in mind, why would I do that if there was not the hope of the upward call? If the hope of the resurrection was not true, why would I do that? What's the point? He says, I die every day.
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Verse 31.
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You realize Christian living is daily dying.
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Jesus said this, unless a man be willing to take up his cross daily and follow me, picking up the cross is a daily decision.
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Taking up the cross is a daily exercise of faith, and he says he battled beasts at Ephesus.
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That's verse 32.
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Now, I've looked into that a little bit, what he meant by that.
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Some people believe he actually was put into an arena and had to fight beasts because that did happen in Ephesus.
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There were Christians who were fed to animals and they were saying, well, maybe Paul is literally saying, but I don't think that's what happened here in my reasoning.
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Paul is a Roman citizen.
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Those types of severities were not usually given to Roman citizens.
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Those types of things were usually given to non-Roman citizens.
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This is why when Paul finally did die, he was beheaded.
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He wasn't crucified because you didn't crucify Roman citizens.
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All right.
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So I don't think that he was put into an arena with beasts.
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What I think and again, you might say, well, what I what I what I believe this text is saying is I think Paul is referring to the fact that when he was in Ephesus, he fought with people that were beastly in their behavior.
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He says, why would I do this? Why would I subject myself to fighting with people? Think about how many people Paul fought with.
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Paul fought with persecutors.
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Paul fought with false believers.
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Paul fought with wolves and sheep's clothing.
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And guess what Paul also fought with? Christians.
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I tell you what, I've been doing this for a while.
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Christians put up with good fighters anyway, sometimes worse.
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And Paul fought the battles.
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And he says, why would I do that? Why would I fight with beasts, beastly men? Why would I do that? If there was no hope, if this life is all there is, if there is no resurrection, what's the point? You're going to hear me say that a few more times, by the way, because I'm going to ask you, what's the point of your life making money, making pleasure, making? You fill it in.
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This is what Paul says about that, verse 32 at the end, he says, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
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By the way, that's a quote from Isaiah 22.
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And sometimes understanding the quote understands helps us understand what it means because that particular quote in Isaiah 22 came at a time when the Assyrians were bearing down on Israel and they were about to come in and destroy the whole nation.
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And so, you know what the Israelites did? They got in sackcloth and ashes and they prayed for God's forgiveness and they prayed for restoration.
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Nope.
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You know what they did, according to Isaiah 22, 13, they went out, they slaughtered animals and they had a feast.
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They said, you know what, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.
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Rather than let's go get on our knees and ask God to save us, let us go out and repent and find in him our safety.
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They said, you know what, here comes the armies.
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Let's live it up.
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You ever heard YOLO? Some of you are a little old for that.
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I'm way old for saying it.
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YOLO, it's a phrase, you'll see it, Y-O-L-O means you only live once.
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And the idea behind YOLO is do whatever you want.
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You only live once.
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Don't worry about tomorrow.
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You only live once.
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I mean, I want to change that.
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I'm going to change it to YOLF.
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I don't think it's going to be as popular.
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YOLF, you only live forever and you're going to live forever, forever, either in heaven or hell, but you will live forever.
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Maybe it's YWLF, you will live forever.
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Is the point of your life.
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I'm going to live this life as extravagant as I can, I'm going to live this life for all the pleasure I can.
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I'm going to tell you one day this life will end and you will live forever.
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And what you do in this life will determine what happens in the next.
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So Paul says in verse 33, he begins the imperatives.
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He's already he's given some questions.
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Why would we care about our conversion? Why would we be persecuted? Why not just live it up? Why not? Why not just eat, drink and be merry? Verse 33 begins the imperatives, and I have three for you.
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Do not be deceived.
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Do not remain oblivious.
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Do not go on sinning.
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Look with me.
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First, do not be deceived.
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Verse 33.
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Do not be deceived.
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Bad company ruins good morals.
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I said it was a Mother's Day lesson.
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Your mom ever tell you that? Mom ever say, be careful who you spend time with because bad company corrupts good morals.
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That's a truism by itself.
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But let me tell you something.
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There's a context here that you need to understand.
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The bad company Paul's talking about here are the people who say there's no resurrection.
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See, that's the context.
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So let me let me let me change it just a little.
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Bad theology ruins good churches.
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Bad theology ruins good churches because that's the bad company he's talking about.
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Bad company ruins good morals.
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Well, bad theology ruins good churches.
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You realize the seven major Protestant denominations in the United States, what used to be called the Seven Sisters of of Protestant Protestantism is now referred to as the Seven Sisters of Protestant Liberalism.
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The PCUSA, the UMC and on down the list, the Disciples of Christ and on down the list, they all have pastors and teachers that deny the resurrection, deny the virgin birth.
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I'm not saying all their pastors and teachers do, but they all possess pastors and teachers that do deny the very foundations of the faith.
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Let me tell you this.
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No one is more dangerous to your soul than someone who tells you something that's not true about God.
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No one is more dangerous to your soul than someone who tells you something that is not true about God.
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So Paul says here, do not be deceived.
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And he says, do not remain oblivious.
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Verse 34, he says, wake up from your drunken stupor.
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By the way, that's one word in the Greek.
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Six words in English, one word in the Greek literally means.
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Wake up from your drunken stupor.
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I mean, it just means what it means, means sober up.
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The King James says awake to righteousness because the next word is the word for righteousness.
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That's why in the ESV it says, wake up from your drunken stupor.
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This is right or it is right.
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Ultimately saying this, do not let some bad false teacher come in and lull you to sleep.
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Do not let someone come in and convince you there is no resurrection.
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That person is a danger to you.
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Wake up, sober up.
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Do not fall into the drunken falseness of their bad teaching.
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This is dangerous stuff.
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Let me tell you this.
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A heretical doctrine is more dangerous than a snake in the grass.
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So he says, don't be deceived.
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Don't remain oblivious.
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And the last one, he says, don't go on sinning.
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And say into verse 34 and do not go on sinning.
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Another way to translate that.
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Stop sinning.
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Keep yourself from sin.
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What's the sin in view? What's the sin in view? It's going to get worse when I have to turn it off.
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What is the sin in view? Do not let that bother you.
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Listen to me.
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What is the sin in view? Turn it all off.
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I don't need it.
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Turn the board off.
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Go turn the sound off.
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Don't let this.
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This is important.
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Not that I understand.
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What is the sin in view here? The sin is denying the resurrection.
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And Paul says, do not go on sinning.
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Do you understand that bad theology is a sin? Don't be shocked.
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False teaching.
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Why did Jesus give the Pharisees such a hard time? Because they were the ones that were supposed to be teaching the word of God and they were wrong.
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Bad company corrupts, corrupts good morals.
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Awake from your drunkenness and don't continue to sin.
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The sin here is the sin of bad teaching, bad theology, bad belief.
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What you believe will determine how you live.
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
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Romans chapter 12, Paul says, do not go on sinning.
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Believing in teaching false theology is just wrong, but I want to say something else about this before I go further.
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Paul says, don't go on sinning.
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And yes, the sin in view here is false theology.
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But I want you to just for a moment, I want you to hear something.
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We live in an age where many churches have stopped calling people to repentance.
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In fact, some churches say they don't they don't use the word repent anymore.
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It's offensive.
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Or they'll say God doesn't require it.
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God doesn't call us to repent.
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If you think about 1 John 2, most of you know this verse, some of you may or may not.
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But you remember, John says, my little children, I'm writing these things so that you will not sin.
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But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with God, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
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Most people run right past the first half, right to the second half.
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They want to talk about Jesus, the advocate.
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They want to talk about Jesus, the righteous.
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They want to talk about that.
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But what does John say? I'm writing these things to you so that you not sin.
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Do you understand the Bible calls you to not sin, that God calls you to live righteously before him? One of the worst things we do as Christians, we say, I know it's wrong, but.
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If you know it's wrong, don't do it.
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Why? Why do we have to even have this conversation? So, well, I'm a sinner, pastor.
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Stop.
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Now, let me clarify, I know we are not going to be perfect in this life and we battle sin, but don't just come to me with the with the statement, well, that's just the way it is.
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No temptation is overtaking you, that is not common to man with every temptation.
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God provides a way of escape that you may not that you may be able to overcome it.
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We're taught to battle the sin, not love it.
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We're taught to fight it, not befriend it.
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This should not be as controversial as it is.
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I say this in some churches, I get run out before I finish the eulogy or finish the benediction.
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Eulogy, that's full of dead people, so I'm probably pretty close.
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But you understand, though.
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Paul's giving us three imperatives.
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All of this is in the context of the resurrection.
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I've gone a little bit away from the context to provide an application.
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But all this in regard to the resurrection, do not be deceived.
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There is a resurrection.
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Do not remain oblivious.
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Don't let anybody fool you into thinking there's not a resurrection.
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And do not go on sinning, because if you keep teaching, there's no resurrection.
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If you keep believing there's no resurrection, that is sin.
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So that's the context of what Paul's saying.
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Now, let's look finally at the indignity.
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The last one is the indignity.
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I don't have any points for this one because only one verse.
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It's actually not even the whole verse, it's just the last part of verse 34.
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He says, for some have no knowledge of God.
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I say this to your shame.
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Who's the some here? For some have no knowledge of God, who's the some? Remember, when you're interpreting the Bible, you have to determine who's who.
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Who's the some here? The some of the people who are the some that have no knowledge of God, the people that say there's no resurrection.
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If you say there's no resurrection, you have no knowledge of God.
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You understand that? If you say there's no resurrection, you do not know God.
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In fact, Paul says, I say this to your shame.
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Another way of saying that shame on you.
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If you tell people there's no resurrection because you don't even know God.
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That's that's the that's a that's the Foskey paraphrase.
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Shame on you if you tell people there's no resurrection because you don't even know God.
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That's Paul's point.
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And here's the thing.
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People say, oh, well, that's that's harsh.
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Yes, it is supposed to be harsh.
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Paul is being intentionally harsh.
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And this point, it's intended to be an insult, that's what an indignity is.
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It's intended to be an insult.
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Shame on you.
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The sad reality is we live in a world today.
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That's impossible to shame anybody.
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People behave in the most atrocious ways possible.
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And they say, you can't judge me.
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I mean, I'm going to read to you from Jeremiah 812, speaking of Israel.
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Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed.
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They did not know how to blush.
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They did not know how to blush.
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We live in a world that doesn't know how to blush.
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We live in a world that doesn't get ashamed of anything, is proud of its sin.
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In fact, what is the word that is used for abominable sins? Pride.
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Pride.
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Not shame, pride.
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Paul's reminding his hearers of the sinfulness of their sin.
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Shame on you.
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And some people get offended by that.
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They say, pastor, now listen, you can't shame someone into faith.
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That's true.
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But guess what? I can't do anything to bring somebody to faith.
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All I can do is present the gospel and call them to repentance.
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I can't change anyone's heart.
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But I will tell you this.
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If we don't understand the dangerous condition we're in, we won't ever have a desire to come out.
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And Paul is pointing them to the dangerous condition they are in.
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You do not know God.
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And I say this to shame you, so that you will turn to Him and know Him.
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It's a call to repentance.
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You do not know God.
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Therefore turn.
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Here's the thing about shame.
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And we need to hear this because I don't know where you are today.
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And everybody in here is in a different place.
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So to apply this, I have to apply it by saying a general statement.
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And the general statement is this.
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If you know God.
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And you're experiencing shame because of something you did before you came to Christ by faith.
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Then you need to understand that that shame has been nailed to the cross.
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And you are not under it anymore.
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If you are in Christ, all of your sins, brother Evan read it this morning.
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All of your trespasses were nailed to the tree.
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God made him who knew no sin to become sin for you.
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So if you are in Christ, your shame is slain.
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And you walk in the newness of life.
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But if you are not in Christ.
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No matter how good you may think you are.
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You look at yourself in the light of God's word.
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And know this.
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If you have no knowledge of God.
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One day the shame that you are denying.
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Is going to crush you into powder.
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Because your sin deserves God's wrath.
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So either you are going to sit under the weight of your shame.
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As it were like a giant anvil waiting to crush you to death.
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Or you are going to replace that with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Who takes your shame and nails it to the cross.
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What will it be? What will it be? Live and wait for your shame to destroy you? I don't have any shame.
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I'm proud of myself.
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That's worse.
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There were two men.
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In Luke 16.
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Jesus tells a story about two men.
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One was a rich man.
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The other was a poor man.
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They both died.
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The poor man went to Lazarus's side.
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And he was comforted.
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The rich man opened his eyes in hell.
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And he said.
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Father Abraham.
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Be it that Lazarus would dip his finger into water.
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And cool my tongue.
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For I am in anguish in these flames.
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You know that man is still there today.
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There is no pardon.
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Hell is still hot.
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Flee from the wrath to come.
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Your shame does not have to remain with you.
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No God.
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And no peace.
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No knowledge of God.
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And live in shame.
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That's the two positions.
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We started out this morning.
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We asked the question.
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What's the point? So I ask this again.
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What's the point of the Christian life if there is no resurrection? Paul says.
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Why would we be converted? Why would we be persecuted? Why wouldn't we just give in to our appetites? And the answer is.
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Because there is more.
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This life is not all there is.
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And what we believe about the future will determine how we behave now.
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What's the point? Some of Paul's people didn't believe in the resurrection.
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Do you? Do you live for it? Do you yearn for it? Do you desire to see Christ? Or do you just wish this life would go on forever? When I was 16 years old.
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Somebody told me about Jesus's return.
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It was a friend at school.
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He was talking about.
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End time scenarios.
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And at that time.
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Really popular.
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Was starting to be popular.
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The left behind series.
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And all those things were starting to come out.
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And people were always talking about.
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End times.
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And I remember being 16 years old.
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And the person telling me about the end times.
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And I remember saying.
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Boy I hope Jesus doesn't come now.
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I got a lot I want to do.
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I wanted to be a magician.
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I wanted to get married.
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My life was based on what I wanted.
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My whole life was I sure I hope he don't come now.
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I got a lot more I want to do before he comes.
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What's the point in all that? What's the point in all that? If I'd have died right then.
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I'd have died and went to hell.
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I'd have been lost.
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What's the point of your life? You hope Jesus carries another 20 years.
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Because you got things you want to do.
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The only reason I want Jesus to carry now.
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Is I got people I want to see get saved.
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That's the only reason.
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I know people who are not in Christ.
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And I pray for them every day.
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Because I want them to be in Christ.
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But I'm asking.
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What's the point of your life? Are you motivated by the resurrection? Are you motivated by the kingdom? Are you motivated what you can get out of this life? Seeing this life take as long as it can.
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Beloved.
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What's the point? Of your life? Let's pray.
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Father I thank you for your word.
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I know it was.
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A more difficult word this morning.
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I pray Lord that it was a word that would.
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Drive our hearts to the question.
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What's the point? What are we doing? Why are we doing what we're doing? God may it be.
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That this is used to draw us to you.
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For the believers Lord.
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Let us reevaluate our priorities.
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To where the main things are the main things.
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And the main thing is you.
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Lord for the unbelievers Lord.
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Let them ask what's the point of my life? If not to serve Christ.
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For to serve anything else.
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Has nothing else to look forward to.
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But death.
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God may it be.
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That you draw people in.
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Save them by your grace Lord.
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In Jesus name.
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Amen.