Grace: it is Assurance and Hope | Pastor Jeff Shipley

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Last week, we talked about salvation. We talked about God's grace and studying the doctrine of God's grace.
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We saw that grace has to begin with love. If you don't understand the love of God, you're never going to understand the grace of God, even though you might be a recipient of it.
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Well, today, we're going to look at the second part of that. Last week, we were in 1 John 4, verses 7 -12, and we're going to pick up in verse 13 and carry on through the rest of the chapter.
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Grace is unmerited favor, is the theological definition.
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Kairis, the Greek word, it means receiving something that you cannot, not just did not, cannot earn.
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Well, that's great, but I'm going to be honest with you. I've been a pastor for, I don't know, a long time, man.
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I'm going to be a long time, 30 years, and I'm going to be honest with you.
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I can say in those 30 years, I have had as much time doubting God's grace for me as I have rejoicing in it.
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I don't know if you understand what I mean. If you don't understand what I mean, well, then you're living in law land, or you might not be a
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Christian. But I look at God's grace, and I say to myself, there is no way that can apply to me.
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There's no way. I mean, I know my heart, guys. I am a disgusting human being.
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Disgusting. Now, I was a godless heathen. I beat folks up for money, and sold drugs, and did drugs, and did all that.
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I ain't talking about all that. I'm talking about after I became a Christian. I've been a hypocrite, guys.
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Just making sure we're all on the same page. Some of y 'all look at me like, what you doing being a pastor? I don't smoke the religious crack pipe.
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I'm just telling you like it is. I struggle with God's grace for me.
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I struggled sometimes in the past, until I fully understood what God's grace was,
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I struggled with the fact that I had lost my salvation. Have y 'all ever been there? I'm like, man, that stinks.
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There is nothing more miserable than a child of God who has no hope in the promises of God.
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You're a miserable human being, man. But as I have, over the years, come to understand the doctrine of grace, and mercy, and last week, the doctrine of propitiation, wait a minute,
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I forgot. What was the doctrine of propitiation? Turning away of God's wrath.
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Remember we took Brother Shane's shoe and smelled it, and it was like, oh
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God, he needs an odor eater. Jesus was the wrath eater, the odor eater of God's justice and holiness.
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He took my punishment and absorbed it so that I would not have to.
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Well, God is so good, He knows that we're not going to get it. He knows that we fail
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Him. And so in these few verses, and I'm going to start in verse 13, in these few verses,
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He gives us a multiplicity of assurances of that love. Read with me, if you will.
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First John chapter 4, we're going to read starting with verse 13 and 14. By this we know, not guess, not sweat, not shake, by this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
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And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son to be the
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Savior of the world. Here's what I've learned. This is not a one -sided affair.
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I'll be honest with you, there are times in my life where I'm seeking God more than in other times in my life, where I am really trying to be sanctified and to submit to that sanctification process.
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But I want you to know, even though I struggle up and down, Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of God the
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Father, and the reason He is sitting down is because my salvation is finished in Him.
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It is not a one -sided affair. It is not me trying to find God or me trying to find peace.
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God is at peace in the safety of my eternal destiny. Last night, in that wonderful,
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Brother Paul is traveling, y 'all need to pray for Brother Paul, one of our deacons, he is traveling back today from Knoxville.
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He is a big Texas A &M fan, and he went to Neyland last night to watch the game in which they lost,
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Rocky Top, baby. But as Pastor Jeremiah came over,
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Aisha wasn't with him, and we were going to sit and watch UT win, and he brought Alina, a little sweet baby cute
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Alina with a little fuzz head and those eyes and that smile and those judges love her, and he also brought
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Fat Boy, known as Emmett, my grandson. Well, he and I were watching the game and playing with Alina, and all of a sudden,
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I said, where is the Fat Boy? Get the Fat Boy out. So Jeremiah goes over, and he reaches down into the car seat to get
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Emmett out and says, oh my God. And I went, what's wrong?
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He said, he's had a blowout. Now, it's been 30 years since I've had a child, okay, 30 years since I've had a child, and I'm sitting there thinking, what?
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Was he driving here? What do you mean he had a blowout? And Pastor Jeremiah was like, oh my gosh, it's everywhere, and then
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I understood what he was saying. I'm talking about down his legs, in the car seat, off the car seat, blanket, hair, everywhere.
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So as being a loving grandfather, I said, let us take the car seat, leave him in the car seat, take it outside, get the garden hose, and just spray it all down.
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Makes sense to me. That way, we don't have to touch anything. Pastor Jeremiah didn't listen to me, because this is what he did.
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Now, you know I'm not nasty. You know what he did? He reached down and took that baby, who could do nothing but sit there and cry, and pulled him out of that filth.
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And then he pulled the soiled clothes off of him. And then he took 832 wet wipes and started cleaning that baby off.
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And he did not stop cleaning that baby off. I'm like, dude, it's good, because I was holding the trash can, because I ain't touching nothing.
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I was doing this. And he was cleaning the baby off.
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Whereas my first response was, where's a female? Because chicks can handle that stuff.
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I can't. Jeremiah's first reaction was, I'm going to go get that boy, and I'm going to clean him up.
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But he didn't stop there. After the boy was cleaned, he put a new diaper on him, dressed him, found a shirt somewhere, put it on the child, wrapped the child in the blanket, and held him close.
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Now, that disgusting human being could do nothing to earn that kind of love.
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And he never will. He's ignorant. He's dumb. He's worthless.
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All he does is eat, poop, and cry. That's all he does. Yet the love of a father goes beyond the understanding and the infantile comprehension of that infant to do what is best for that child.
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Guys, we have a triune God in these two verses. The Spirit of God, the
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Father, and the Son, all working to make sure we get to where we need to be.
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He has given us that Spirit. Notice He had to give it to us. You know why?
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Because we are incapable of earning it ourselves. We have the assurance of the triune work of God, but we also have this.
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Read verse 14. And we have seen and testify. On Wednesday nights,
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Pastor Josiah and I are doing an apologetical discussion on creation and evolution.
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And it's more than what you have probably ever seen. If you've never been to one of our Wednesday night questions, it's a no -holds -barred anything goes.
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If you sit there and go, I believe you're full of crap, there is no Jesus, there is no heaven, and all of this is just nothing but a government conspiracy to control us and for you to get rich, bring your ten -fold hat self and your pseudo -intellectual self, get off your little keyboard, unplug, and actually come and have a conversation with someone who doesn't believe like your mommy, you're the smartest person on earth, and actually learn something.
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But one of the things that I brought up this last Wednesday was this. Have you ever seen that evolutionary chart?
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You know, the little computer graphic or the little cartoon where you got the little guy who kind of looks like Artie, you know, with the furrowed brow, sitting there, and he's like this.
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And then the next picture you see is another guy standing like this, and then another guy, and then a, y 'all know what
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I'm talking about? You know what's wild about that? Is it's always a cartoon or a computer graphic.
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Here's my question. Where are the freakin' fossils? Why don't you just show us the fossils?
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If they're there, just show us the fossils, baby. But the problem is they ain't there.
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You know why? Because them folks are smoking crack, okay? There is no
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Neanderthal man. There is no Piltdown man. And for those of you who are millennials who grew up being taught in school that there is a
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Neanderthal man, all it is is a tooth they found in France from an extinct pig that they set and created a whole skeletal structure based on a tooth.
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And then finally somebody said, yo, man, that's a pig. And they went, Shane? I was, no, not that kind of pig.
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A real pig. Guys, were you there? People say, well, were you there?
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No, I wasn't there. I wasn't there when Jesus was around. But look at verse 14. I'm reading an account of the dude who was there.
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It says we, God's apostles, God's disciples, the thousands of people who wrote historically that aren't even found in the word of God.
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I have got books in my office from people in the first century who were pastors who quote the
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Bible. Well, it wasn't created until 300 AD by the Catholic church.
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Dude, you're an idiot. Yes, it was there. I had the assurance of an eyewitness account that Jesus Christ walked on water, went to the cross, and on the third day, that stinking tomb was empty.
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Were you there? No, man. I wasn't there. Then shut up. Shut up.
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The reality is I have an assurance based upon those guys. But not only that, generation after generation after generation, the last song we just sung,
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Nobody Feels My Heart Like Jesus, was written to a guy who was a flaming homosexual and got saved.
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Now he has nine kids. He made up for lost time. And they were too poor to afford a
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TV. Guys, the reality is I have the testimony of God's saints, eyewitnesses.
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Notice this, verse 15, read, whoever confesses that Jesus is the
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Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Period. Full stop. You know the other assurance
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I have? Is the simplicity of salvation. The simplicity of salvation.
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I was in my office this morning prepping to do this sermon and I heard two kids on the playground and it was a dude and a girl and it was kind of cute,
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I don't know if they're in here today, but dude was like, well, yeah, I'm Catholic and Baptist and let me explain to you, was getting it all wrong.
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He sounded good, but you know, he's laying down his moves, man, I give him props, he was trying. She was on the little swing, you know, he was sitting there acting all smart and everything and he goes, well, there's no difference between Baptists and Catholics.
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If you are out here today, young man, let me tell you something, massive difference. But here's the good news.
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They're both full of crap. The only thing that matters is Jesus, okay? The only thing that matters. But anyways, as he was sitting there going through his put down, and by the way, dude, don't try so hard, man.
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Just ask for a number, flex out and move on, you know, seriously. Anyways, yeah, man, you know, put the, every time
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I come home from work, Ms. Gwen's there and she goes, hi, how was your day? And I just go, she passes out for 30 minutes, but you know, what's funny about religion?
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You know, what's funny about men is we try to complicate everything and I'm gonna tell you why we do it.
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Because if I can tell you something else that you've got to do besides what Jesus Christ told you to do, you're endeared to me.
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You're connected to me now. You see, if you jump through God's hoops, but then
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I can somehow say, well, yeah, that's true, but you also got to do this, then you got to jump through my hoops too.
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You know what I mean? See, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved, bullcrap. If you don't get baptized, you're not a
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Christian, bullcrap. If you don't go to this church or you don't believe this way, read verse 15 again.
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Aren't you so glad that we have the assurance of God and through his word, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God, period.
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Forever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved, whoever believes in Jesus shall be saved over and over and over and over and over in the word of God, it says confess and believe, confess and believe.
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You don't have to take communion. You don't have to go to this church. You don't have to wear this. You don't have to do this.
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All of that comes in the sanctification process and the maturing process after you're converted.
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Does that make sense? But here's what's funny is in that verse when it says confess, what it means is this.
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It doesn't mean Jesus Christ is Lord. What it means is you are living in agreement with that.
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Look at your life real quick. Are you living in agreement that Jesus Christ is your savior?
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Now, some of us need to mature a little bit, but in reality, the opening door of scripture is this for salvation.
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Believe, confess. That's it. There is no other formula.
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Notice this. And let me just say something to you. And this is something
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I came to years ago. I've been a
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Christian. I got saved later in life. And I'd be. Did I do something wrong?
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Can you tell me what? Girl, you sound like my wife.
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I was in a point in my life as a pastor. Y 'all check this out as a pastor.
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Here's what I do. Everything I preached, I really believed for you. God loves you and can forgive you.
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He can't forgive me because I'm worse than you are. I'm a big, fat, stupid loser. Oh, y 'all think
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I'm a good pastor. That's great. But you don't really know my heart. But you need to believe that God loves you.
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You can have encouragement. You can have faith. I'm just too far gone.
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That was what my mindset was. Y 'all know what I'm talking about? Right. Right.
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It was a struggle. And I came to this point in my life. And I'll tell you the story at the end of this.
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And many of you have heard it a thousand times. But I came to this point in my life to feel
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God's presence is beautiful. It really is. But to be honest with you, it smacks of immaturity.
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In other words, if your motivation and belief in faith are based upon a feeling rather than the fact of God's faith in God's Word, then you're really needing a whoopee to get through life.
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You need a little whoopee. You need a little smell of your mommy on your little baby blanket. And that's what's going to reassure you.
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But the reality says this in this book right here. First John says this.
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These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the
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Son of God. That you may know you have eternal life. One of the greatest assurances we have is the word of the living
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God. And God is not a liar. He's not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent.
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For has God not said it and shall it not come to pass. We have the assurance of the simplicity of salvation.
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Verse 17. Watch this. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.
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Because as he is, so also are we in this world. Do what?
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Do what? Let me just pull out a couple of things here. In the Greek, this makes a lot more sense than in the
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English. It just does. It's kind of rushed together in the English. But let me explain this to you.
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I'm sitting in a building with my church family. I just got a little fired.
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That great I am song. I'm ready to do 10 rounds after that song. I just am. You know what I mean?
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Man, you know, you know, Lowell's over there beating on that box and Matt's doing the bass face and Carl is jamming like Jerry Lee Lewis, you know, and everybody's singing.
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And I'm like, Jesus, you know, I'm ready. And then the music stops and I got to go to my office and I get to talk to crazy people all day.
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You know, yeah, yours is at three. And that feeling goes away.
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And maybe I'm sharing too much here, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
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I'm scared to die sometimes. And here's why.
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I'm scared to stand before God. Because I didn't do my devotional this morning, you know, it's been two days since I prayed.
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You know, what if Chick tracks are right?
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What if when we get to heaven, there's a 1978 millimeter projector there and it's playing on this big, huge, cosmic white screen and it starts showing all the things that I did wrong.
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And I ain't worried about, you know, getting in a fight or smoking weed because, you know, that's socially cool.
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But what about them other things? You know what I mean? Oh, y 'all don't.
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OK, well, I'll give you a few examples and embarrass myself and make you feel awkward if I need to. OK, you know the things.
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Yeah, I know you do. They just follow me. I got it. You know, when you're alone or some of you dudes, www .smokinghotpastors
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.com, you know, my face shows up, you know what I'm saying? Those embarrassing things that were like if anybody knew you'd be humiliated, but now we take it to another level where you're going to be standing before God and all of creation.
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I mean, sometimes I'm sitting there and I can see like Michael going, hey, Gabriel, look at this loser.
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You know, I can sit there going, Paul going, oh, you call yourself a pastor?
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I can sit there like my dad did. And that's how I sometimes picture
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Jesus going, boy, you're so stupid, you couldn't pour water out of a boot if the directions were on the hill.
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Boy, you are worthless. Boy, you make me sick. God saying, get out of my face, get out of my sight.
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I'll be honest with you, that jacks me up a little bit. I got daddy issues big time.
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Read that verse again. Oh, wait a minute. It says, by this is love perfected of us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.
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Wait a minute. How do I have confidence in the day of judgment? Well, it's real simple because of perfected love, not perfected love on my part, perfected love on his part.
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But when I sit there in my mind and I go, oh, God, I can't possibly, he goes, no, you can't.
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But I already have. Oh, God, I'm not worthy. I know, son. That's why I had to send my son.
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Oh, Lord, I don't deserve. Right. That's why I invented mercy. Oh, God, but I can't offer.
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Right. That's why it's grace. God already knew you were a big, fat, stupid loser.
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And guess when he knew it? And Cliff gets it.
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So that means everyone else in this room should get it. Before the world began,
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Romans 5, 8 says this, but God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. In Revelation, it says this, Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world.
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But in my little Bible chart that Ryrie Study Bible puts out, he died in 33
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AD. That's because you're stupid and listening to men instead of God's word. You see,
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God decreed that Christ would die for us before he even said, let there be light. And when God makes a plan, it's as if it's already happened.
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That's assurance. That is confidence on the day of judgment.
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Look at this. Read with me. Verse 18.
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There is no fear in love. Church, let me read that to you again.
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There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment.
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And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Fear involves torment.
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Ladies and gentlemen, your continuous guilty conscience has nothing to do with the conviction of the
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Holy Spirit. That is man generated. That is a ethical or moral understanding.
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It is not a spiritual understanding. Guys, I stand before God justified.
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Romans 5 .1. Therefore, having been past tense, having been justified by faith, the simplicity of salvation.
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We now have peace with God, the doctrine of reconciliation through Jesus Christ, our
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Lord deity. Christ's work in my life for salvation is over.
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It's done. That's why when he was hanging on the cross, he said, Shipley, it is finished.
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You are free. Guys, I have the assurance of knowing what it is to be free from sin.
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I had a guy one time tell me this. Well, Pastor, I believe I'm a Christian, but I think I'm going to make it to heaven by the skin of my teeth.
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No, dummy, you're going to make it to heaven by the blood of Jesus Christ. And if that is not good enough, then
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God's a liar and God is rejecting his own son's sacrifice. That's an impossibility.
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The reality is I'm making it by the blood of the lamb and that unrealized fear.
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Now, let me explain to you the two visions of fear, phobia in Greek. There is one fear that is like you walk through life constantly afraid that the next step you take, the other shoe will drop.
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Do any of y 'all have that problem besides me? That's also called depression, anxiety, modern terms.
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But God's been talking about it for about 8000 years now. But anyways, that kind of fear is not the same fear.
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The word of God tells us fear is the beginning of wisdom. Wait a minute, Pastor, I don't get it. Right.
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That's because you're probably from Mississippi. Let me explain it clearly. The reality is the fear of the
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Lord is an awe and a respect. It's an awe and a respect. I always give the example when
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I first got my first 30 -06, you know, I was like this big and I've seen my dad shoot a 30 -06.
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In my mind, I was ready for red dawn because that five shot 30 -06,
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I was going to be able to shoot paratroopers out of the air. If a grizzly bear came up, the monster that lives under my bed or whatever else,
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I was able to take it. But also every time I shot it, I was like this. Because that sucker kicked an 80 -pound kid, right?
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I had a respect for its power. I had a fear of its potential.
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That's the fear God's talking about is the beginning of wisdom. The other fear, phobia, is always believing the worst about you.
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Always. It's always sitting there going, living your life, knowing you're a big, fat, stupid loser.
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And somehow you got away with something that is going to somehow come back to bite you in the future.
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That is not biblical. I didn't get away with nothing. It landed on Jesus Christ and he paid for it.
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You are free. Free. That's what it says.
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There is no fear in love. Are you relying on your good works? Are you relying on the love and promises of God?
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If you're relying on the love and promises of God, it will eradicate the fear of the future for you.
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Perfect love casts out fear for love, for fear has to do with punishment.
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And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. Now, I know some of y 'all are sitting there going right now.
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See, see, if I'm afraid, that means I'm not saved. That's not what it said. Quit believing the worst of everything about you.
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It just means perfected, which is that once again, that Greek word that means matured.
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You're basically a four year old Christian. That's what you are. You're a four year old
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Christian. You're in it. You're still loading your britches. You're a Christian, but you've never matured past two years old.
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You've never matured and you keep soil in your britches. Guys, reality is this.
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Perfect love casts out fear. All right, hold on. I see eyes rolling. I'm almost done.
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Hang in there. Here's the other assurance. Read verse 19. Read verse 19.
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We love because he first loved us. How many of you guys hold on?
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Let's do it right. Hi, my name is Jeff. I'm here because sometimes I doubt the grace of God.
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Yeah, right. You're supposed to say, yeah, okay, never mind. Glad you're here.
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Someone went to AA besides me. Come on, people. Where are the waggles in here? Watch this.
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Watch this. I was struggling with trying to do X, Y and Z and somehow get
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God like a little golden retriever to come running up to me and going, I love you. I love you.
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I love you. And so I can have that feeling. Man, that's an exercise in futility because that's not how
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God works. God doesn't come running to us. Sorry, all you 1990s little
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Christian music fans. That's not what the Bible says. God does something different and it's so cool.
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God draws us to him. And he draws us to him.
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Wait a minute. Not when we're walking down the aisle and going, dear Jesus, come into my heart and save me.
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He's drawing us to him while we're still godless heathens. Every other
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Sunday I have a certain appointment and they're not in here today. They're both atheists.
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I mean, like atheists. And for the last six months, we have been in an apologetical discourse on the reality of salvation.
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Well, last week. Yeah, last week as we were sitting there, big old tears starts rolling out of his eye.
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And I go, what's wrong? He goes, I have never heard the Bible like this.
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I'm like, dude, it's been sitting there, that particular one since 1992.
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What it's copied from, it's been around since oh, 250 BC. Well, I've read it, but I just don't understand it.
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Man, you're a great pastor. I went, yeah, I know. No, that's not what
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I said to him. I said, here's the difference. See, you are now recognizing in your life right now what
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God has been doing the last 29 years of your life. This moment is going to happen.
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You can resist it as much as you want, but God is going to take you home.
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And just because you have not been converted yet. It's OK. It's all right.
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See, I'm not one of those preachers that say, well, if you walk out that door right now and you get hit by a car, you're going to go to hell.
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So come down right now and take me by the hand and say, pastor, I want to ask Jesus Christ my heart.
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But that's not scriptural. Scriptural says this, if God calls you, he's going to get you. You're his.
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You see, that idea of safety goes beyond the concept of human understanding. Here's what you need to know.
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Here's the reality of what you need to know. God loved you, initiated in you a work and a calling which you can try to resist.
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But it is the definition of futility. Because once God calls your name, it's called regeneration.
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He awakens your soul and you'll fight it. I did. You know what? Some of you lost people.
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We have a lot of lost people in here. And that's cool. I'm glad you're here. We got gay folks in here and drug addicts and all that other cool.
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I'm glad you're here. I really am. And you're going to get tired of being a loser. But that's something else.
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OK, that's something else. I'm talking about not where you're feeling because you're screwed up, not in the back of a squad car or not jailhouse religion.
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I ain't talking about that garbage. I ain't talking about that. Get right with God when you get that cancer diagnosis.
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But I ain't talking about all that. I'm talking about that still small voice that is doing this.
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Hey, John. If there's anyone John in here, be cool. OK, I'm not
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I'm not one of those preachers. OK, either God just told me that, John. No, I'm saying
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God's sitting there doing this to you. And you have been feeling that and hearing that off and on for years.
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See, that's God calling you. That's God calling you. And it will come to pass.
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You sit there and say, no, I got to accept it. You will. You will.
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You will. You will. Now, here's the question. How much scar tissue are you and those you love going to have before you open that?
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Before you finally submit to it? That's the question you got to be asking. Last thing and I'm done.
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You know what I'm saying? Pastor, how do we grow that love?
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For some of you, it may be. Let me translate that into modern Baptist. How can I get that love and feeling?
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Because you've lost that love and feeling. Whoa. OK. Right. Right.
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How do I get that love and feel? Now, guys, I'm not being silly here. Some of y 'all are checking out.
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And that's why you're going to be in the same place you were next week that you are this week. Shut up, drop an
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Adderall and listen. OK, listen. You know how you experience the love of God in your life more?
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Read, read, read verse 20. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
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For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love
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God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves
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God must love his brother. John 13 says this. The world will know that you are
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Christians by the love you have one for another. God hates fags.
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God hates fags. God hates child molesters. God hates drug addicts.
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Let me simplify it for you. God hates you. How about we say this?
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God hates sin. Doesn't that make more sense? I mean, I didn't graduate high school, but I don't need remedial theology.
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You don't need to section out everything that God hates. I already know God hates sin.
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He created this place called hell, which really sucks where he's going to put it all. And all those who refuse to be clean from it, we get it.
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That's not how the world knows Christianity is real. Watch this, guys. I'm fixing to impress you.
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I can speak Greek. I can write it. I can read it.
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I can speak Latin. I'm working on Hebrew. But dang, I don't know if you ever tried to read
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Hebrew. It's like, what would they drop in peyote when they were because it's like this, you know?
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No, I understand theology. You cannot open that Bible right now. You can open that Bible like this, put your finger down and I will create a three point sermon at whatever voice verse you point out in 30 seconds or less.
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I can do that. There's not a doctrine that you can name that I don't know.
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And I'm not joking. I can do it like right now. You know what that means?
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Not jack crap. That's not how the world knows I'm a Christian, because I know a lot of guys.
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There's this one guy named Satan. He knows Scripture better than I do. Huh? Oh, I get it.
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This is how people know I'm a Christian. I'm going to have the biggest King James Bible. I'll have the little gold cross.
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Wait a minute. No, Madonna does that. She was a singer in the 80s. Never mind.
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Oh, wait a minute. I know how people know I'm a Christian. I won't have tattoos on me.
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I won't cuss, smoke or drink. Then people will know. No. You want to know how you love
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God and how you grow that love in you? Walk up to a sister who's hurting.
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Walk up to a brother who is hurting and wash the feet. Serve something other than yourselves.
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And to make it easier for us to do that, God created this thing called the church.
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It ain't a stupid building, y 'all. This is the church. You want to grow your love.
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You want to grow the evidence of God's love for you in you so you can work out that fear.
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It's real simple. I don't need help. It's real simple.
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Listen, crackheads, listen, listen. Start loving each other.
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Start serving each other. Man, how do I do that, pastor? I don't know anyone.
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Get out of the self -serving, isolated. By the way, if you're one of those people, and people always hate it when
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I say this. If you're one of those folks that say, well, I'm just shy. That's called pride. That's called pride.
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No, it's not, pastor. I really am shy. No, what you're saying is your worthiness of not being embarrassed is greater than the call of God on your life.
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Go on, make a fool out of yourself. You did it when you tried to get your girlfriend. Watch this. Hold my beer.
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If you can do it for a girl, you can do it for Jesus. Right, right, guys, come and be a part of something bigger than yourselves.
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Serve, wash the feet of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, pastor, I don't have a ministry.
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I don't know how to do that. I don't have a theology degree. Well, I'm going to ask the music people to come up now. And I'm about to give you 10 minutes to go do it right now.
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Now, wait a minute. Now, you can be a regular church member and you can sit.
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And as your sweaty palms grabs the fabric of these chairs and look up that screen and pretend like you're singing so they can slowly ebb away the time so you can get the crap out of here, you can do that and be the same way you were when you walked in or you can choose today to go find someone to serve.
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Well, pastor, I don't know how to do that. Can I pray for you about something? Can I minister to you about something?
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Can I have your text number? Because you're married to a cop. So, you know, they're violating people's rights all the time, stealing money and all that.
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So maybe you need some encouragement. Dude, you're the dude on the playground. Hey, how you doing, son?
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I'm the Odeus of Spiritus Sancti. Hey, but he is a good looking stud, baby.
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Is this yours? Tell me this ain't your sister. Oh, that's good. Watch this. Watch this. There you go.
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If you're in this room today and you need to exercise your faith a little bit, quit trying and waiting for the
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Antichrist to show up so you can die in a blaze of glory. Just start washing the feet of your brothers and sisters in Christ right here.
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I'm going to ask you to stand with me. And if you're not sure, you know that you're saved. That's a girl.
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If you don't know if you're saved or wait a minute, if you need to join a church so you can have some accountability or get baptized or if you just need some prayer,