The Call to Persevere

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Zac Lloyd; Jude 1:17-25 The Call to Persevere

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan This is a sermon by Elder Zach Lloyd taken from the book of Jude If you'd like more information about recast feel free to visit our website at www .recastchurch
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.com Here's Zach Have any of those at any time during the service help yourself
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If you haven't been here before and you'd like to know more about recast We have a website that you're welcome to find out about us, but we also send out a weekly email with the current events that are going on if you'd like to Receive those emails we send out one a week
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There is a connection card in your worship folder If you didn't get one of those you can get one at the door or on that black table or that table back there
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If you fill that out take a coffee cup and put your card in that black box We'll be sure to email you each week that black box over there.
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It also we used to If you desire to worship God through your ties and offerings you can put them there.
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So You probably recognize I'm not Don feels like he's the normal preaching pastor each week him and Kyler were away this past Kind of selfish.
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This is for me to be up here And I appreciate you guys just not really collectively sighing when you didn't see
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Don up here So I'm gonna do my best to preach God's words at least to his standard, but it's not to gloss over it
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They were at a church planning assessment a sort of conference in Seattle, Washington and Recast the re we are recast is an acronym and the re is about Replicating and we want to be a replicating church.
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We were planted five five and a half years ago Recast was and we want to we desire to continue to do that to plant other churches to reach other
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Locally or could be distant to reach somebody that's not coming to recast So we would ask that you would be praying with us for that Even this year we carved out part of our budget to bring someone on to do that to do just that and we're just desiring
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For God to provide that person so we don't know the who or the where or the wind but we know the how and it's through God and we're gonna be
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Praying for that that he would do that and we just ask you to join us in this It's something that's in our on our front burner and we we want to make sure you guys are on board with us as well
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I'm gonna be preaching from the book of Jude this morning So if you have a Bible go ahead and turn to Jude Jude is the well,
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I guess I'll just take opportunity If you don't have a Bible go ahead and raise your hand and we can make sure you get a Bible I don't know if anybody's handing them out but they're over there on the table as well if somebody wants to maybe even
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Matt could help us out so we have a this Bible if you don't own a Bible you can go ahead and Thanks, Mark You can take this if you don't own a
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Bible, but we're gonna be in the book of Jude Jude is on page 882. It's the last book right before Revelation.
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So if you get to the end turn back a little bit So first,
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I guess it's been five summers in a row. We've taken my family Has taken a summer vacation and it's been the highlight of my summer is to go on these family vacations
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We've been going to Gold Lake family camp. It's in Richland on Gold Lake and it's it's a unique opportunity for us to Be together as a family because they bring someone in to speak to the adults and I don't know five or six times during The week so we're encouraged spiritually while we're there as adults and they have counselors for the kids and the kids are being encouraged
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There's we're on jet or on tubing and we're ziplining or playing basketball and just doing all kinds of fun stuff that you know
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I I'm really not that excited about the winter I reflect back on summer is already gone and I wish I was still back
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There's just a really sweet time for us But this past year we were They brought in they also bring in a missionary to present two or three times during the week and the missions
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Organization they brought in this year was called kids alive and kids alive was sort of like compassion international if you're familiar with that group where they're really just trying to minister to presentations and one in particular struck me they were
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Taking our playground equipment and Sort of refurbishing it seems like I don't know since I've had kids it seems like there's so much these playgrounds have just flourished and they're
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Enormous, but they're taking in refurbishing them and setting them up in these third world countries where they don't have anything besides What appears to be dirt and they set this up for the kids and one of the videos?
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it showed all these African kids all in their uniforms and and sort of the unveiling of the the playground can
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Equipment and as the ceremony progressed they kind of let that turn the kids loose and it was just sort of this Energetic frenetic just kids just engulfing the playground equipment.
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You couldn't see it within like 10 seconds Just hundreds of these kids. They all had their uniforms on they all looked identical and I was touched by I Couldn't tell one of them apart from the other they looked identical to me and to see that God Created each one of them uniquely
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Differently certainly then in contrast to one of my kids It was stark, but each one of them in comparison to one another they were unique And I was just blown away that God is that big that he's able to touch
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He knows their hearts and he knows them like he knows me He created them and he knows that they're sinful and he's he's calling them to him so not only is his glory displayed in how he creates everybody so enormously and so Just manifold so many different ways, but that he's redeeming us
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So this morning our my talk is going to be our sermon Worshipping him.
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So we're gonna be in the the last eight verses. I believe of Jude Jude is a single chapter book 25 verses.
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So I'm gonna read verses 17 through 25, please 17
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But you must remember beloved the predictions of the Apostle following their own ungodly passions
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It is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the Spirit But you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the
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Holy Spirit Keep yourselves in the love of God Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt
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Save others by snatching them out of the fire to those to Keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy
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To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory
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Majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forever
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Amen, I've asked now that you would quiet our hearts help us to see you help us to worship you in spirit and truth
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That we would forget the cares of our kids or the troubles that we've had during the week We would focus on you now and your glory
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Which is revealed in your eyes. All right,
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I can think that's on. I'll try not to move So the book of Jude, yeah, that's on So it's important to understand the context of Who wrote this and who they wrote this book to so this book is written by Jude But it's also important that we understand that it's written by the
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Holy Spirit If it's written by man alone Then this is of no value to us, but it is written by God But as we apply it
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We need to understand that it's not every part that we read to us doesn't need doesn't isn't directly applicable
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We don't read the command to go in and take the promised land and take that forward to today We don't go in and kill the
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Amalekites now because of what we read in scripture today So we need to be first mindful of who wrote this
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So this book is written by Jude and he starts off just look with me in verse 1.
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He says Jude He describes himself. This is a letter to the church. He describes himself as a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James So this is a letter to the church and he describes himself as a brother of James So James is his full brother
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James the author of the book of James James and Jude are both half brothers to Jesus Christ the king of the
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Universe, so if I was gonna write a letter to people and want to obtain some credibility
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I think I might mention that in different light like when I read You know, you read anything any kind of scientific journal for sure.
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You'll see people want to gain some credibility. They list their credentials I'm a PhD. I got it from Cal Berkeley and I'm a part of this under this
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Dean They ascribe themselves to give themselves some credibility so it's interesting to see that Jude doesn't list that himself as the brother of Jesus and If it was me,
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I think you know, whatever you were bringing to the table to describe your opinion I think I might slide that one across the table.
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Oh, yeah. I'm I'm kind of his brother, you know so maybe you want to defer a little bit, but he doesn't he describes himself as a
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Servant and I want to emphasize that just briefly this morning That really is the best thing that we can put on our resume this morning
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Is that we are servants to King Jesus and why do I say that's the number one thing?
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We can put on a resume because if it's not Jesus then who is it or what is it?
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Is it myself that I'm serving? Is it man? Is it money it defines who you are and I can't think of anything better to be serving any person better than the one that Runs this place runs the universe is
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Jesus and that's how Jew describes himself So he's gonna write a letter to people on that authority. I am a servant to King Jesus And to complete that thought of who this is to we see at the end of verse 1
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It says this is to those who are called Beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ now, there's a lot of theological implication there
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But just for the moment to identify and highlight the fact that this is to the church It's to those that are beloved to believers so we can we can read this as a letter to us
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There's not much contextualization. We don't need to jump through a lot of hurdles to well Well, maybe he meant this for that time and place.
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It really is applicable to us here today So we're just gonna walk through the text.
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It's kind of gonna be my outline I'm not super sophisticated and coming up with outlines. So we're just gonna Follow the text.
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So look with me in verse 17. It says Jude talking to the church, but you must remember beloved the predictions of the
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Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ So he's saying remember first. He's saying first remember so the idea here remembering
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It's not just this mental exercise where there's a oh, yeah. Yeah, I forgot all about that It's this is the idea that you are not only just remembering but it's it's precipitating.
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It's creating a Action a change of behavior. So he's saying remember you need to be doing something about this and he doesn't just leave it at remember some
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Prediction in there like which one he gives them the exact prediction that the Apostles gave He said they said to you in the last time there will be scoffers
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Following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions worldly people devoid of the spirit so he gives them the specific warning in the
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These folks are described as scoffers and mockers And we look around our current culture and I think it's easy to sort of identify certainly
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I don't know feel like in the last 10 years Christianity gets continually pushed and marginalized so that if you are
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Discussing with somebody that's not a believer and you mentioned that the basis for my opinion. Is this the Word of God?
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Automatically you are dismissed that that's not relevant. That's a that's a myth That's man wrote that that carries no weight so I can put myself in the shoes of picturing mockers and scoffers in that light
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But I mean on the other hand, you know, there are people in our society that are sort of Defaming the name of Christ.
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There's these, you know, like the Westboro Baptist clowns that are, you know picketing Funerals of soldiers saying it's it's this is how
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I'm showing the love of God by picketing funerals but but then we do still need to make a stand for stuff like the sanctity of human life and Honoring marriage between a man and a woman or even the the idea of an ex nihilo out -of -nothing creation account that we see in the book of Genesis so there are some legitimate things that we need to be standing on that we do get mocked and scoffed and We read this to the church though These are some generic examples and I and I have to wrestle like why would there be scoffers in the church?
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I mean, why would any of you be scoffering? And I think so far. I don't think anyone probably here.
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I don't want to assume too much as Identified themselves as yeah, that's that's hitting home Zack. I am the scoffer
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I don't that's something something we really resonate with but if you look at the definition it gives or the description it says following their own ungodly passions and Now I know
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I have ungodly passions I Have Christ his Holy Spirit living inside me, but yet I still have ungodly passions
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So all of a sudden now It's starting to hit a little bit closer to home and if and I would argue we all have ungodly passions and if we have ungodly passions, it's not such a
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Leap to say that we are acting on them from time to time. So it's possible that this is
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Addressing us on occasion and the particular I Say this because that he's addressing the church because it doesn't make any sense that he's addressing those outside the walls of the church
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And maybe to clarify I know we always talk about the church being the body of Christ the people not the building but this
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That's in view here But he's talking to those that are gathering the ekklesia the gathering of the church
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And not just sort of the universal those that are called in Christ. This is those that are coming together and they look like Christians So the the second piece of information he gives here is that they these folks are
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Worldly people devoid of the Spirit now, can you be a Christian and be devoid of the
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Spirit? The answer is no that is the litmus test if the Holy Spirit isn't in you you are not a
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Christian There's no getting around that. So these are not Christians, but they're in our midst and they are scoffing and they are causing divisions
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That's what this letter is about So it's a call to watch out for these divisive unbelievers that are in our midst
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His concern really is for the health of the church So so now we're gonna see what the game plan is
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So as an elder here at recast if we see division in the church on my instinct would be to They have a false doctrine.
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We need to shore up our doctrinal statement. We need to shore up our membership application We need to you know, take that kind of strategy, but let's see what
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Jude does here he gives four verbs to sort of remedy to his game plan that he's subscribing to the church to Remedy this situation or how to address this and he gives four verbs four commands that we're really gonna spend the bulk of our time
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On he says but you Beloved again, he keeps calling him beloved. These are believers. He's talking to them
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He said build yourselves up in your most holy faith. So build yourselves up is the first verb praying in the
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Holy Spirit Keep yourselves in the love of God and waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ so we have four verbs here that I think are are gonna be driving how we should be reacting and I'm also gonna argue by Praying in the
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Holy Spirit. We're gonna that's the key verb here. All the other three build off of praying in the Holy Spirit That's the key this morning in because we're praying we're gonna be building ourselves up in faith
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We're gonna be able to wait and we're gonna be able to be keeping ourselves in the in the love of God And I think this is the key this is how we be this is the prescription to how to live out the
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Christian life in 2014 so I don't I think it's Imminently important for us to get this and what we're
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I'm talking about this morning So he's talking about first He says build yourselves up in your most holy faith in in my instinct there is to go back
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This is an idea of me. I need to do something. I need to get back in the spiritual weight room I got to start memorizing creeds getting my doctrine, right?
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Starting you're looking at the Heidelberg Catechism and just getting that stuff locked down. But what we see here is
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It's building yourselves up. It's it's about building each other up. It's not about you doing something to yourself You need others to be building yourself up.
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That's what we see here And it might it might seem like a pretty trivial thing or and conceptually you yes
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We should building ourselves up in our most holy faith Onto ready break. Let's go do that.
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That's that sounds great Zack or Jude But my opinion here is is that there's something more we need to be doing that in a way that we are praying in the
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Holy Spirit, so there's there's more to that We got to figure out how to actually build each other up in our most holy faith
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So I'm gonna emphasize a little bit here on praying in the Holy Spirit Now I want to spend a moment here to address.
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There's sort of two types of prayer And I don't want to be too dogmatic about that, but there's intercessory prayer where we are requesting things of God We're asking him to intercede.
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We need you to bring your glory. We need you to do something like that My wife and I are taking this course right now in called perspectives on Tuesday nights, and it's a perspective on God's movement of Christianity throughout the course of humanity
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Starting with Genesis till now and we get a lot of different examples and and one I thought I would share that Maybe you all know but I'm not that smart and I just had to share it in its example of Intercessory prayer it comes from the
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Moravians Moravians are This group in like the 1700s that got together and like Czechoslovakia or Czech people
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Whatever they're called at that time Moravians apparently what they were called and they got a group together And they decided they were gonna start praying and they're gonna have a 24 -hour vigil that they were gonna be praying for God To do something they were gonna be interceding and they kept that vigil going for a little bit
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They kept it going for a hundred years They started praying 24 hours for a hundred years and within 20 years of doing that one out of every 14 of them went off to the most despised remote areas of the
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Planet to share the Christ to share the gospel the power of their prayer was that they changed and they went and did something 2100 of these folks went out as a result of those prayers.
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That's an example of legit intercessory prayer So what I'm talking about is praying in the
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Holy Spirit now I think there's there's a little bit difference that I want to highlight here And I think it's important to make this distinction of what it means to be praying
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For God to do something and then be praying in the Holy Spirit So it says praying in the
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Holy Spirit, which means there's some kind of praying that's not praying in the Holy Spirit to me
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If you think like me It seems like well, there must be a way that I'm doing this that's wrong, and it's not in the
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Holy Spirit So go with me to page 870 This is
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James Jude's full brother in James 4 3 gives an example page 870 in your
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If you've got this Bible here that I'm preaching out of that we've handed out Is an example of what
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I think is not James 4 3 he says you ask and do not receive because you ask
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Wrongly to spend it on your passions I know it's a little bit of a theological leap to say that you're asking according to your
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Your passions that that's not praying in the Holy Spirit So that's at least one example of where your prayer.
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I mean, it's just like these unbelievers. We see following their own ungodly passions Asking in that way is certainly not praying in the
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Holy Spirit But a couple more texts we're gonna be Jumping through a lot of texts here in the next couple minutes, and I just invite you to see it with your own eyes
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We're gonna go to Galatians 5 16 through 17. It's page 835 and this is
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I'm trying to Dig into this idea of praying in the spirit. I think it's gonna be fruitful for us to really get a handle on this he says
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In Galatians 5 16 through 17. It says but I say Walk by the
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Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh For the desires of the flesh are against the
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Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do
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So the idea here is being I'm arguing in that text is that we have two warring ideas in our head
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We have our flesh the things that we want to do and we have our spirit God's spirit that we we want to do what it does and they are at war with one another but we need to be walking with the
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Spirit so It's easy for me to sit up here I'll give the example of sitting where you're sitting each week and I hear
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Don and he he's giving a defense or giving his Study of the scripture presenting it to us and and I just get to receive it and you're in those shoes
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But I want to encourage you to do some study because when I study The Word of God, it's so much different than any other study that I do
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My job requires me frequently to do scientific literature searches. So if I want to know
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What a lipid lowering drug does on a rat liver at a hundred milligrams per kilogram in this strain of rat and I search
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PubMed or science direct or something I get thousands of results and the problem is None of them are
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Super relevant. They all well, this is that 80 milligrams or this is a net strain of rat and this was with this drug And there's just all this well, you don't get the answer to the question.
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You want you will end up having to do your own experiment But what we see in scriptures when you study is just incredible consistency
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So when I search there's so many online tools now, but you search for in the spirit There's so much and they all just agree so much.
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It's so encouraging. I just encourage you all to Take the time to study God's Word is great to read through it and do your mind or your morning devotions
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But there's so much more to be had when you study scripture So go to Romans 8 with me.
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That's a whole chapter devoted to Walking in the spirit Romans 8 so that's on page 809
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I believe in the in the church provided Bible and just look with me in verse 5.
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It says That's a way for people to get there You guys that app so I can't hear the pages turning so I don't know exactly where everybody's at So for those who live according to the flesh they set their minds on the things of the flesh
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But those who live according to the spirit Set their minds on the things of the spirit
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So this is a continual process we see here and then just jump over with me On the opposite page to verses 26 and 27 of that same chapter
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Romans 8 Likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and He who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the
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Saints according to the will of God so Another facet to this idea of praying in the spirit is that it's not about theological content
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The spirit knows what we should be praying for so it's not that you got to get the exact right words It's the idea that we should have the spirit in our minds and we should be
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Interacting with it. And lastly, we're gonna go to Hebrews 4 verse 16 page 862 in the the church provided Bible Actually, this isn't the last one.
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I think I got one more beyond this Hebrews 4 16 and I just think it's fun to see this and not you don't have to worry about Zach's words
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But know that God said these things Hebrews 4 16 says let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace
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That we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need so there
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The author of Hebrews is saying that we get to come before the throne of grace with confidence boldly But more importantly we get to come when in the time of need
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When is the time of need when do we need grace and mercy? Not I don't know when
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I don't need it, but it's it's constant and Just to build on the last passage Ephesians chapter 6
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So I got the page number here page 839 Ephesians chapter 6 Paul kind of goes all the way with this argument
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Ephesians 6 verse 18 He says praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and Supplication so my point this morning is that praying in the spirit is a non -stop.
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It's a continual process There's not well. I'm praying in the spirit now. I'm gonna go this way. I'm gonna go about my life
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No praying in the spirit is a constant process that we are doing and it's it's just encouraging to see certainly the consistency consistency throughout scripture
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Praying in the spirit. I just want to dispel the idea that it's some kind of zen like yoga induced state of mind that we aspire to It's a constant process of dying to self dying to our fleshly desires praying in the spirit is humility and action
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We're completely dependent on the spirit our flesh wants to do this, but our spirit we want to follow the spirit we're continually making that choice and To put a little bit more feed on it.
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I like the analogy of computers so There is random access memory and then there is hard drive and hard drive the computer puts back on the back burner and what needs
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It it goes and gets at the RAM memory is what's uploaded. We need to be holding spirit
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We need to be having God's Word his Holy Spirit in our RAM It needs to be constantly before our eyes so that when
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I'm driving home from work I'm thinking about what does God want me to be doing now as I'm Interacting with co -workers as I'm interacting with my children my wife
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Constantly thinking about what does God want me to be doing every human interaction is an opportunity for God to act
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And if we're in the Holy Spirit, we're gonna be having we're gonna have God's eyes We're gonna see what he wants us to do
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And if we're acting in the Holy Spirit, we're gonna be in power to actually accomplish what he wants us to do he's working in us and through us and This really is the this is the worst part about preaching that I get to stand up here and tell you guys
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This is how you pray in the spirit. I Contend with Paul when he says that he among sinners is chief.
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He didn't know me. He didn't know my depravity I'm in no position
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But this is the mystery of the faith the God in his Sovereignty in his omniscience
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More more his holiness. He decided that the best way to display his glory is to work through sinners like me and you
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So don't let sin prevent you don't think that you can't do something because of your sin
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God is working in us and throws he uses sinners and it's for his glory. I can't explain that That's just what he's decided.
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So don't let that be a discouragement So while we're on this topic of sort of mysteries of the faith, let's go to the next verse
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I got to get to Jude Jude he then says
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But beloved building yourselves up in your most make sure I get my notes right here.
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He's yes, he says We're gonna be building ourselves up in our most holy faith by praying in the spirit
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But he says but you beloved Know yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the
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Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God Keep yourselves in the love of God so I don't know if you paid attention but the first verse says of this chapter says to those who are called beloved in God the
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Father and kept for Jesus Christ and Then if you paid attention when I read earlier verse 24 says now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling
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So we see at the the chapter sort of book ended with this idea that God is keeping us but yet we see here the solution to not being to not being
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Discouraged by the division in the church to the by the scoffers in the church is to keep yourselves So, how do you resolve those?
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It's not like well Jesus said it this way and Paul said it this way or well Moses really didn't mean it that way This is Jude in 25 verses saying
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The same two ideas that seem to be contradictory, but they're not it's it's a paradox This is the mystery of the faith on the one hand.
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We are kept by God for eternity. We are eternally secure We do not lose our salvation and on the other hand
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He's saying you need to be keeping yourselves and to the extent that we diminish either of those
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We're going to be missing something essential to the faith We we can either just rest alone in our eternal security
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I don't need to worry about doing anything else God's got me or I can be just totally fretting and and I got it
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I got to keep now these there's a lot of demonic forces and spiritual influences out there I got to be and you you miss something
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So it's both and if you you want to talk to me afterwards about you think that I'm preaching you can lose your salvation
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I'm not saying that but I'm saying that if you are truly saved as a child of God, you will be keeping yourselves keeping yourselves in Keeping yourselves in the love of God.
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So what does that look like? It's praying in the Holy Spirit and And building each other up in our most holy faith now
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Don talked about it last week our most holy faith What is our most holy faith? The fountain the corn the cornerstone the foundation of our most holy faith is
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Jesus Christ That's what we should be building each other up. So when we come become discouraged we should be praying in the
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Holy Spirit We have God's eyes and we see someone discouraged we build them up. Look you are you are purchased by God.
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He died for you That's building each other up in our most holy faith so that's how we that's how we encourage one another and Lastly the fourth verse that we are the fourth verb that we see is that we're going to be
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Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. So waiting is sort of it's idea that I'm not super encouraged by Not an activity that I Really strive for if I could just find an opportunity where I could just wait on something.
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That's sort of maybe You guys are like me and you don't want to wait, but there's been I thought
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I would use this illustration that from this past summer that really sort of encouraged me In my own personal life and it even caused me to journal now.
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I I don't journal very often. I wish I did more I know there's some men in here that journal every day and and I I am humbled by that.
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I think that's a great Discipline to be in but this this act this Event in my life should cause me to even journal
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So I'm just mentioning that to highlight its significance on me But I've been blessed by a job that has a pretty regular schedule
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I go to work between 7 30 and 8 in the morning I oftentimes I'm able to come home at lunch and then I come home between say 4 40 and 5 20
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In the evening and try to keep my wife informed of my precise schedule, but probably don't do the best job with that But as I'm often coming home at in the evening for dinner
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I'll be transitioning sort of mentally on the drive or sometimes I live like four miles from where I work and I'll ride my bike
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And I'll be just transitioning mentally from the you know, everything I was thinking about at work now I'm gonna be coming home into my home and being a husband and being a father and I'm just sort of lost in my thoughts
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And as I get closer to my home, I come over the hill on 3rd Street and I can see my driveway
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It's about a quarter mile away and I see my kids waiting at the end of the driveway
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Weird that I'd get emotional about that but Anyway, so I see them and then
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I see one of them see me and then they tell their siblings I have four young kids and they start cheering their dad's coming home
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Me I'm a flawed human. It's not that I'm bringing bags of candy and all this great stuff
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It's just me. I saw them four hours ago at lunchtime And something's been missing in their lives and they're seeing me come home and they're just it's like things are right again something's been missing and Sort of as a prodigal son twist on the whole analogy is the idea that my most defiant hard Hearted son is the one that's been most
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Disciplined the one that does it the most and recently he was out there for 40 minutes in the rain Without complaining just sitting out there and he's just so excited when
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I get home And it humbles me to think about that, but it's a picture for us I mean he's sitting out there and it's on 3rd
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Street and the traffic is I don't enjoy them out there It's dangerous for them to be out there. The safety is up by the house They're waiting in a dangerous location all the fun all the toys
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The safety is up in the house, but they're choosing to wait down there for me I think that's a picture of how we should be waiting for Jesus.
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Jesus is gonna come back. We're in this life We're we're struggling in the church with division We're scoffers and when we're humbled by that we build ourselves up in our most holy faith
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Waiting what are we waiting for? Jesus is gonna come back. It has this end view in mind that we're waiting for he's gonna set all things
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Make all things new again. He's gonna set things, right? So things are not right right now when
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I'm gone at home. It's just not right for my family. Something's missing Same way. We should be waiting for Jesus Christ to return
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We should be waiting but it's an encouragement to wait knowing that things are gonna be a lot better down the road
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So don't be don't be dismayed don't The things of this world go strangely dim when we think about what when
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Christ is going to return and what that will look like And we're gonna be able to stand with him and be presented blameless before the presence of his glory
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So I'll see we're right here in this No, it's sorry So the idea here is that we would be building each other up in our most holy faith by praying in the
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Spirit waiting And keeping it ourselves But then he gives three categories sort of three
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Ways that people are affected by these scoffers and it says in verse 22 and have mercy on those who doubt
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So I mean I my mind goes to doubting is sort of a sign of unbelief like you're doubting
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You're like the James one you're tossed by every wind or doctrine and you're like you're divided against yourself
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And that's not such a great thing But what he's telling us here is have mercy on them honestly because we've received mercy
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That's why we should have mercy on them when we first accepted Christ. None of us were writing sort of systematic
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Theology text we didn't have it all together But have mercy on them for not having and being sort of taken away by some different teachings and and honestly the teachings are one stroke that causes division, but just the idea of Division in the church for me.
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I don't know if any of you have been a part of a church division or a split But for me to see brothers and sisters husbands and wives
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Fighting or getting a divorce that is probably one of the most Discouraging things causes the most doubt in me to see people like we were all in this together.
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We we love Jesus Christ He is we are one we are the body of Christ We love each other and then all of a sudden you hate each other.
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You don't like each other Well, he said no, I didn't mean it that way and there's just this division and I'm like has this all been a sham
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Have we just been pretending that we love each other we forgive each other What's important and we it's so easy for us to even us particularly on we were talking about it yesterday
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With our friends I can social media. I feel like we'd lose our minds in terms of how we diminish people
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We don't love each other on social media. It's so easy or on the comments page or on blogs to just beat each other up We should have mercy with one another
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Particularly those who doubt somebody that might be struggling and they might feel like they're in the right have mercy with them
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And it even goes on to say save others by snatching them out of the fire So this can go so far that that they totally walk away from the faith.
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This fire is an eternal fire That's what's that's what's at stake here With by our actions that we would be saving people from fire
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And to others it says to show mercy with fear So show mercy with fear
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Sort of a different concept to me And I think when you think in context like so there's four elders here me and Rob are sort of It's not our full -time vocation
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Rob or Don and Kyle are the full -time Pastors they get paid to do this and it's just by nature
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We try to share in some of it But in the shepherding, but the natural thing is when people come across hard times in their life that are having struggles they contact
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Don and Kyle and it's just it's Debilitating to some degree to see have a front -row seat and perhaps you guys are interacting with one another
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It's not just the paid staff the elders We should all be loving each other but to see the effects of sin the destructiveness of sin to see married married folks
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Just can't even be in the same room with each other and to do that to share and to have mercy with somebody with fears
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To recognize that look that that sin that can stain that can harm me so when we're interacting with whether or not we need to be fearful and mindful of what the ramifications are and the consequences of Sin are and the fact that it doesn't cause us to then start sinning
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They're here pretty fast So Jude is gonna close this letter with what some reason
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I'm preaching this passage is because this is like one of my favorite Passages is called the doxology versus 24 and 25 and I memorized it years ago
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And I thought I would just preach on that But obviously I'm gonna be done here in 10 minutes and imagine if I just preached the doxology, you know
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It would have been a four minute message I didn't think I had enough so I opened it up to that to kind of give a little bit more information
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But if we look at verses 24 through 25, I I'm not gonna teach a whole lot I just want us to be encouraged.
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I think this is just one of the grandest sections of scripture period He says
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Jude says right after what he's just encouraged the church to be doing He says now to him so to him and then it goes on if you jump down It's it's a big clause describing the him who is him
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It says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. He's able to keep us from stumbling
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That should provoke in you some gratitude there's we've been given mercy here now
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So it says that we should be waiting for eternal mercy, but we've already received mercy. We're not Benefit we're not receiving the consequences of the sin had we continued to walk in our sin
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We have that mercy and he's presenting preventing us also from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy and When I memorized that the first time or up until I studied it
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I always pictured that he's presenting us blameless and who's getting the joy Jesus is he's presenting us before God that gives him great joy.
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He He's Endured the cross for the joy set before him.
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I had that mindset on it But if you look at it, who is blameless? We're the ones being presented blameless who's getting the joy
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We are it's joyful for us to be before the presence of God Maybe you guys are there to be put in the presence of God currently
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Doesn't seem like a joyful experience. I won't put myself in a position where I'm high -fiving him It's good to be here.
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God. I'm finally here It's just not my mentality and to kind of emphasize that I'm gonna ask you to turn again to turn to two more passages
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Isaiah 6 page 485 in the church Bible Isaiah 6
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I just want to see you guys to see it with your own mind rather than hear me describe What the throne room of God is like this is
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Isaiah's vision of what the throne room of God is like in Isaiah 6 And hopefully it will have give some
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Context for what is Jude is actually referring to it says in Isaiah 6 we're gonna read in five verses
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I believe says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lift it up in the train of his robe filled the temple
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Above him stood the seraphim each had six wings with two He covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew in In the one called to another and said holy
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Holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the
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Foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said
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Woe is me for I am lost For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes
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Have seen the king the Lord of hosts So to just for Jew to describe us being presented with joy before that I think he has the right response
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I can relate to that but we are here Christ has died for our sins This is some good news this morning for all of you
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And what it means to be in Christ we are blameless before God He has forgiven you of your sin yesterday today and forever
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He has forgiven you from your sin walk in that forgiveness That's unfathomable to picture that we get to be presented before The glory of God is blameless and that's that's really what
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I want to share I want you guys to be encouraged by that this morning and to kind of give you the the full The full account turn with me to Revelation chapter 7 the end of the book page 886
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Revelation 7 gives a literal actual account of what is going to happen
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It's an account just the way Jesus be dying or being born in the manger and dying on Calvary is a factual account
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Just like God creating the heavens and the earth is a factual account. This thing hasn't happened yet, but it is reality
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So we're gonna read Revelations chapter 7. We're gonna start in verse 9 it says
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After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages
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Standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice
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Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb in all the angels were standing around the throne and around the
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Elders and with in the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying amen
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Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
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God forever and ever. Amen That's coming. That's what Jude has in mind when we read this morning in this doxology this blessing to God He has every one of us every one of those
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African children and all they're very they look so similar But yet there's such variety and across the whole spectrum of humanity from Asians to Middle Easterners to us
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We all have some mark of God's creativity on us and we're all going to be before the throne
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Worshiping him. So when we come to this doxology, it should be we should have this mindset
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This is flowing out of our hearts when it says Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you
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Blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy We're gonna have joy before how good will that be that we are in Christ blameless we will have put off mortality put on our sinful nature and Here I'll close with this to our only
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God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory So because of all that be glory
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Majesty dominion and authority before all time always now and forever
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Amen We have such privilege such good news this morning that we are able to stand before him and God is presenting us in Christ This morning and we at Rick has each week.
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We celebrate that through communion We celebrate that Christ lived a righteous life that he is blameless
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And we have that righteousness imputed to us through what he did on the cross. We're remembering him by the taking of the cracker as Symbol of what he did.
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It's a remembrance and also through the cup of juice So just logistically we have tables set up throughout the the room if you're new here
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I haven't been here before Josh's or the band's gonna come and play a song after I pray and that's give me opportunity for you to get up at any
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Time that you want during that no one's gonna be looking around For you to join us in celebration and remembrance of what
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God has done, but also If you're not trusting in Jesus Christ, I don't want you to feel obligated out of social obligation
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No one's gonna be looking at you to one. Why isn't he doing it? Well, there must be something wrong there out of the integrity to yourself
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Don't get up just because everyone else is doing it But honestly consider and contemplate what Jesus Christ has done for you today is the day of salvation
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You have an opportunity all you have to do is sit and pray God pray to God that he would save you from your sins
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Through Jesus Christ, that's it. So I'm gonna go ahead and pray the band's gonna come and then we're gonna take part in communion
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Father God in heaven. I Pray that you would encourage us this morning
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Through the view of you in eternity past and future and how you are calling us to yourself
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For your glory in presenting us blameless and spotless God that we would have joy that we would not be
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Enslaved to this sin that still dwells within us But God that we would follow the Holy Spirit that we would be leaning on him day and night and they would be always before us
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God as we leave here and leave these this room in this morning Pray that your word would bring forth fruit that it would change our hearts and minds that we become more and more like you and it's