Preparing to Bear Fruit, Pt. 1 (07/30/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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Right when I got up and saw Brother Richard move forward, I thought he was gonna do a special for a minute We have to get you to do that sometime

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Brother Richard come up and lead us in some of those songs you used to lead Those kind of roll -offy sounding songs

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So keep that in mind you may get called upon We've got several places to turn to this morning so we'd better get right to it.

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Let's start with John chapter 15 in verse 7 And then we'll go to Isaiah chapter 37

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I'm going to Ask you to notice the word if in the verses we're about to read

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John 15 verses 7 and 8 We're going to go into a series on fruit bearing

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For a little while, I don't know how long a few Sundays bearing fruit

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And we're going to discuss in this series the fruits of the Spirit and But I want to start out and go a little different Go at this message a little bit different way than we normally do

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I would say this church is probably as strong as any church that I've ever been in on Looking at trying to always look at things from God's viewpoint

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Rather than man's I think that's very good in an age in which predominantly even

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Baptists today look at things primarily from man's viewpoint and The problem with looking at it from man's viewpoint is it can become humanism quite easily

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I think if we went back just 50 years you'd find the Majority of the messages preached in churches in that day would be about God not about how

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God makes man successful and So I'm not diverging from that Habit in this church to speak about God But what

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I am diverging to a little bit or from a little bit is this morning? I want us to look at this message from what some people would call a human viewpoint however during the course of this message

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I'd like to maybe change the terms a little bit for the life of our church and And ask you to think of it differently that is kind of a

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Way to of looking at it that theologians have put out there and Truth is we have a little bit more at least scientific information than some of those guys had for instance we have brother

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Bill in our Bible study on Monday night and He's spent a large part of his life studying physics

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So sometimes he'll bring up this idea of quantum physics So instead of reading

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Harry Potter I want you to all go out this week pick up a couple of textbooks on quantum physics come back next

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Sunday And we'll have some fun. We'll let Bill undo all the damage that was done perhaps But I would like for you to think of the two viewpoints this way from from now on Let's think of it as an outside of time dimension and a dimension.

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That's inside of time so you have we'll say at least two dimensions one is a

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Dimension which is outside of time. It's not bound by time who lives there the father it's going to be important in in this thought process to Realize that not only is

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God one God But he manifests himself in at least three ways and could you name those ways?

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Right now what's interesting about it? Is that two of those ways in which

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God reveals himself? Are found many times to be in time on this planet which two would that be?

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That's right would it be the father No So the father in my view

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Quite possibly never comes out of the out of time dimension

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If he did I suppose we could see him, but the Bible says no man hath seen him at any time however as God extends himself into his own creation and into this world and time and space and has a relationship with people

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Whom he has created to be people who are walking in time and in through places and in this place

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Then he comes to us by either the Holy Spirit who lives in us or by his son

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Jesus Christ both in Old Testament appearances and after his birth in the manger in his life on this earth and In and then even again after his resurrection and then he's coming back, isn't he?

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So Jesus we might say is God in time Or at least that's one little aspect of Jesus and we can also say that that's one aspect of the

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Holy Spirit though Not everything because the Holy Spirit's I'm not present. What does that mean? He's out of time and in time at the same time

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And I had to use the word time just to describe it But you got to do that without using the word time and that's impossible for us

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So it gets pretty deep. But what I want you to think about is that as God extends himself into time

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By either the Holy Spirit or by Jesus Then many times the Bible speaks to us in terms of God being in time and it solves a lot of mysteries for us

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And it puts together a lot of the problem that people have struggled with about the sovereignty of God in the will of man

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It brings that together if you'll think of it in an outside of time dimension and an end time dimension and both existing now

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So I Want that to kind of be the background of this study and I gave you that long introduction because I I'm going to say

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I'm gonna have to phrase my questions very carefully And I'm gonna have to phrase my terminology very carefully because I don't want to lead anyone to believe for one moment that God is not in control of all things and that God has not already set all things in his great decree and That in fact from our vantage point as with the little bit of information

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God's given us about eternity As I view from the father's point of view, it's done

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Because he's in the present tense now I'm not undoing that but what

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I am gonna do is get us to look at this message From the end time viewpoint because if you don't look at it from the end time viewpoint

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Then it won't do you any good Now the message this morning is entitled preparing to bear fruit

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Now before we get into it, let me ask you another question. Is it possible for? You to produce fruit as a

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Christian careful Is it?

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So is that answer correct? I'm just throwing an old

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Otis is a match. Yeah, that's correct. I just want to see if you believed it was correct or not Even Otis was wondering.

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No, he wasn't really No, no, we cannot produce fruit. But let me ask you this.

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Can we bear fruit? Had we better bear fruit

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What happened to a few fruit trees in the Bible, especially one I'm thinking of that Jesus was hungry and walked past it

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What happened the next day when he came back by? It was Dade he had cursed it because it wasn't bearing fruit

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So I want to speak about preparing to bear fruit Turn with me to I think we're already sitting here waiting anxiously to see what we're gonna have in John 15 7

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So let's look at that if now that's the word I want you to circle

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Because by definition the word if is an end time word You can't take these two verses and really think of them from the father's viewpoint and have them do you very much good

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You have to think of them from the viewpoint Jesus gave them and where was Jesus when he made these statements was he outside of time or was he in time?

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Actually, he was both but He obviously was in time Do you remember there was a

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I should have looked this just came to a minor I'd have stuck it in my notes We should come to mind yet last week but it didn't but there is a verse in the

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Bible where Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and He said the Son of Man which is in heaven

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So I can't explain how that happens it must be some kind of dimensional thing Where he can be in that dimension and stick his hand and his whole body down in this dimension at the same time

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But the point is obviously he was in time Jesus was in time when he made this statement

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He was speaking to his people who are in time and look what he says if you abide in me

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Now, let me ask you a question. Is that present the possibility that you might not abide in him?

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That is the word if present that possibility All right, if you abide in me and my words abide in you so we have two conditions to this

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We're about to have a promise, but we have two conditions. So is this a conditional or an unconditional promise?

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Conditional So it implies that you have to make a what a choice.

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Can we make choices? Seems like a silly question, doesn't it?

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But are you sure? Yes, we can make choices Do we do we have a will

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Now I'm gonna ask you one that I don't want you to answer because I don't want you to be embarrassed Do we have a free will don't answer it.

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Just think about it Let me give you my definition the word free the word free means sovereign

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Now that help you answer the question or at least I'm asking it better maybe where it's clear But we do have a will and we do make choices.

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Let me ask you another question. Our choice is important Is it as important whether you pray or not

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Is it as important whether you witness or not? Do you have to choose the witness to witness?

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Yes, you do You certainly do. Do you have to choose to pray in order to pray?

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And what are you gonna get this from brother Otis's teachings? What are you going to choose to do?

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That's right, so is your will sovereign and free No, it's not

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Because God and his goodness has to place the desire in your heart and so forth so somehow

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God the father who is outside of time and Everything is now to him

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Is able to extend himself into time? And work in our lives with us to work so that we work together with him

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It's normally and I'm saying normally in the way of things in this world

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It's not just God doing things and it's never just us doing things Normally, it's

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God working in his people Now if he says there's a condition if you number one abide in me

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The word abide let's give it a simpler word. What would be a simpler word to use for abide?

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To live excellent if you live in me, or you might say to dwell if you dwell in me if you live in me and my words live in you now does that mean that 20 years ago when 30 years ago 40 years ago when you got saved and you read the

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Bible through the first time that now His words are living in you. No, that means they lived in you back then

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What do you have to do for him to live in you right now? God be in them now, don't you?

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all right, so if You dwell in me Now you have to understand

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If you go back to the first of chapter 15, I am the true vine every branch in me that beareth not fruit

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He taketh away, so we're talking about bearing fruit But he says in verse 5.

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I'm the vine. You're the branches That's what he means by dwelling in him if you can picture a vine with branches and picture the connection point where the branch

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Goes into the vine and is connected to a one time in science class here. We years ago.

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We did a experiment where we took a very thin cross -section of a twig right at the point where the branch came into the vine and we took a cross -section where under the microscope we could see that and And what we noticed was that the you could see the cells going this way and these cells going this way and Then they merged in there and you really they all just came together as one and you couldn't really see much of a difference at that point and it's like they became one and so if you're the branch you're supposed to stay connected and We talked about that in adult

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Sunday school class What was it? My dad said about it if we something about like if we forget who we are for a moment

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Then bad things can happen. Isn't that right? So that's what the if means is don't forget who you are

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Reckon it to be true that the old man is dead and Also abide in the vine

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Now this so if you abide in me and if my words abide in you

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Then you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you So now we have a little teaching on prayer

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Why is it you could ask anything you want and it would be done if those two conditions are met.

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Why is that? That's right Does that mean your prayer is not important because you're praying in his will now a lot of people think that way a lot of People have a problem with the sovereignty of God and they say well if he's sovereign,

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I might as well do nothing And I can understand maybe a baby Christian thinking that way and certainly lost person can never even think of any of this but But we've got to grow beyond that point and get the ability to understand that just because he is sovereign and we are connected to him

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That that means what we do is meaningless and that's what this whole message is going to be about this morning is

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The importance of what we think and what we decide and what we choose to do

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And what we choose to pray now look at verse 8 and here's really what the message about herein is my father glorified

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That you bear much fruit So shall you be my disciples?

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Indeed now look down at verse 11 because all of us as adults and some of you young people

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Getting into these teenage years suffer depression from time to time There's a good kind of depression and then there's a bad kind.

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The good kind is when you're supposed to be depressed If a loved one passes away,

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I was quite depressed for some weeks when brother Rocky decided to go to heaven before me and And this soon and so forth not that he made the decision but I Was a little depressed about that walked a little bit down about that for a while That was good.

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It's why it's supposed to be but how often do we find ourselves depressed when you can't think of any good reason?

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when you consider all that God's given you and the fact that you're a child of God and all that you have because You're his and you have an inheritance and you're down today.

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That's the bad guy Now look what this little thing ends up with in verse 11.

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These things have I spoken unto you with this purpose? That my joy might remain in you remain as a continual tense word and That your joy might be being full

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Continually being full So, how do we have joy? Well, let's go back up to the two conditions.

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We can have answered prayer. We can have fruit We can bear fruit and we can have joy in a continual way if We abide in him and his words abide in us and that means present tense now

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And then when this moment's gone pick it up and do it again So the word if though is kind of interesting because it does

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Does pose the possibility that you might choose not to do those two conditions, isn't that true? Okay, now let's go into Isaiah chapter 37

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I want you to see something that to me was Fascinating and caused much thought

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My problem I think at this point in my life after reaching for 20 years

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Doing youth work for two years before that and even into that 20 year period and so 22 years,

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I guess teaching Is I'm getting where when a thought crosses my mind and maybe one of you that puts it in my mind many times

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That's the way it is And like in Sunday school brother I'll just ask question in the last minute and it's something

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I had never taken time to look at read it a hundred times and I Thought that's that's amazing.

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I got to search into this. So now next week. I got a whole bunch of work to do But I'm at the point where I need to quit preparing sermons and write books because it's really tough on you when

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I preach a book but Not that I'm going to this morning. This only has one and a half points, so don't worry about it

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But they are major points with a lot of little sub points under no Isaiah 37 in verse 30 read this to yourselves carefully and This shall be a sign unto thee

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I Mean you gotta read this think about this You shall eat this year such as groweth by itself

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Now we're now we're looking at fruit as it comes out of the earth Okay, and that's going to be a picture of spiritual fruit in our lives

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You shall this shall be assigned to you that you shall eat the fruit this year such as comes up of itself

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And the second year that which springeth of the same so that just comes up of itself and in the third year so ye and Reap and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof

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Now you just think about that just a little bit and I'm gonna start into this message And we'll get a little ways into it and finish it up next four or five

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Sundays But I'm gonna I'm gonna keep my hand on your pulse start falling out of the chairs We'll slow down and stop for this morning.

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I Want you to go all the way back into the early parts of the Bible. I'm gonna read to you from Genesis 112

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I could have picked any number of verses it says and the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree yielding fruit

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Whose seed was in itself after his kind and God saw that it was good in Evening and morning were the third day

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From the beginning we see a principle Where there is life?

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There is always growth and I'm talking about in time. This whole message is in time You have to understand the father is outside of time and he's in control of everything

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But we're in time and sometimes God comes into time either through Jesus or by his

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Holy Spirit And he's in time with us when he does that and that's why 99 % of the

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Bible not that much probably 95 % of the Bible is written from the end time viewpoint

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I don't know if you ever noticed that or not. That's why you have trouble arguing with an Arminian.

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I Don't because I have coffee with Otis a few times a week, but you do Because they're gonna bring you some of the verses that are in time verses and try to prove

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God's not sovereign Problem is God has snuck a few other verses in there that they hadn't looked at and they need to look at those because both are

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Real and both are happening at the same time now As we look at this in Genesis We see this principle that where there is life in time

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There is growth Where there is growth There is fruit

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The fruit is not that the fruits there all the time. It comes in its season and it's the result of the growth and Where there is fruit there is new life because let me ask the children a question.

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What is the fruit on any tree? What is that? some some young person

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Well, well, it's okay to it's okay to be young forever in your mind

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Thank you very much. I Expect you to be in Charlotte's class next Sunday morning at 10 o 'clock

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What is the fruit then it's the seed of the tree And that's okay,

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I mean I wanted the right answer and I got it So isn't it true then where if there's life there is growth and growth where there's growth there's fruit

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Then where there's fruit there is new life and So it creates a cycle and the cycle continues until the end of time as we know it

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As Ernest might say as we know it Y 'all know who Ernest is.

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Don't worry about it Now this is true in nature and God ordained it and said it is good

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But it's also true from a spiritual point of view in the spiritual life of all of God's children

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If there is life and there is if you're born again Because he that hath the

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Son hath life So if you have Jesus you have life So therefore if you have life if you're not sickly spiritually you are growing and If you're growing you will there's no doubt about it.

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You're going to bear fruit Now if you bear fruit there's gonna be some new life that comes from that and that's

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God's kingdom work and The cycle continues Psalm 1 1 talks about it from the spiritual side

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Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor Sitteth in the seat of the scornful

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But this man's delight this godly man's delight is in the law of the

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Lord and I want you to see in some of these verses this morning how the Word of God plays a role in fruit bearing and And his delight is in the law of the

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Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night Did he make a choice to do that or not to do it?

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No, I care careful. We're going back and forth from out of time and in time. I'm in time So did he make a choice?

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Could he have chosen not to read the Bible that day? He certainly could have

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But this man reads it day and night Have some of you made the choice to read it day and night every day or some of you say

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I'll read it when I Feel like it But you obviously know which category I'm in or I would have known how to ask that question would

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I all right I'm back and forth, but you make the choice now look at verse 3.

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Well, listen to verse 3 You probably didn't turn to it. It says and he shall be like a tree who this man who meditates on the word

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He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers that bringeth forth his fruit in his season

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His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever. He doeth shall prosper now the prosperity is

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A result of this it's not the end and most preaching that you hear today is how can we be prosperous?

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Well, you can be prosperous by not figuring out how to be prosperous The way you get prosperous is not to seek prosperity

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Did you know that you cannot get to heaven by seeking heaven and you certainly can't get there by seeking to avoid hell

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You can only get there by a relationship with God So it all comes back to God prosperity comes back to God prosperity in God's viewpoint is fruit bearing and it comes from God and he funnels it to us through the

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Word of God and Through his son Jesus Christ who is the vine? So notice how fruit bearing is related to the

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Word of God in the Old Testament I'll give you another one Joshua 1 8 a lot of you familiar with that one This book of the law

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Shall not depart from out of your mouth But thou shalt meditate therein day and night.

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Is it enough just to read the Bible through in a year? Why? Because if you're reading it through you're reading it too fast

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You're not meditating Therein day and night. It's okay to read it through but you need to have another time during the day when you take smaller portions

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And just chew on it Meditate there day and night

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That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written It implies that just reading it won't cause you to do it

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You got it You got to chew on it for it to become part of our lives For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success

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Give you a New Testament verse Colossians 1 5 through 6 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel

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Which is common to you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit so fruit bearing is

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Directly related to the Word of God now To give you another point about this where there is spiritual life

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There is spiritual fruit in its season in every case Let me say it again where there is true spiritual life if a person is truly saved

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There is not there might be but there is Spiritual fruit in its season

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Always in every case now add the phrase in its season because it doesn't mean that if you look at a person

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They're not bearing fruit in your opinion a lot of fruit You can't see anyway, because a lot of its inward fruit. It should manifest itself and it will in its season

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But if you that's why we can't judge people because we've taken a little moment of time in their life saying well

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They're not bearing any fruit Well, maybe they're a tree that's supposed to give fruit in the spring

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So, but if you add that phrase it becomes a true statement anyone who is saved

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Will always bear fruit in his season. He'll be a fruit bearer Matthew 7 17 says even so Every in that word every is important every good tree bringeth forth good fruit

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Now Matthew 13 8 says but other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit some

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A hundred fold some sixty fold some thirty fold, but it all brought forth fruit We don't all bear the same amount of fruit, but we bear fruit if we're alive and if we're growing

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Another point is this this is the will and the purpose of God For his children we find that in the passage where we were in John chapter 15

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You had to go a little beyond where we were reading all the way to verse 16. You have not chosen me

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But I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth guess what?

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fruit So this is God's will for the life of his children.

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Therefore it's going to happen Now verse 4. This is God's general definition of spiritual fruit within The life of his children

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Galatians 5 22 like you to turn to that one Galatians 5 22

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I'm just going to give you God's general definition I don't both mean to say this is all of the fruit necessarily, but I think all the fruit is listed within these general

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Headings Right are these groups? These are groups of fruit groups of types of fruit and I think you could fit any fruit into one of these but It's kind of interesting that in Galatians 5 22

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This is called the fruit of the Spirit and that proves that you cannot produce the fruit

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You can't make it. All you can do is bear it All you can do is be the

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God's tree that has beautiful branches That hold up this fruit for it to fulfill its purpose in in this world in God's world

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But it comes from the Holy Spirit it is the fruit the that comes from God himself

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So Galatians 5 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy

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Peace now, we're going to later in this series. We're going to study the fruits of the

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Spirit We're going to talk about something that's interesting to me and that is some of the differences in dispensations

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In other words, we're supposed to look at the Old Testament and use it as examples to teach us

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Sometimes detail and color to truths that are taught in the New Testament But while we're doing that we have to be careful to understand that the characters that we're studying

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When you study the Bible characters, we're not indwelt by the Holy Spirit Sometimes they had the

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Spirit of God upon them for a season and then sometimes not But they never had the indwelling spirit like God's children do in the church age

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And it makes a huge difference. So be very careful when you compare yourself with Old Testament characters

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It's good to learn from what they do and the general principles, but always understand you have the advantage

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The Holy Spirit your body is the temple of the Living God now

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We'll talk about that when we get in our section on studying these specific fruits of the Spirit Love joy peace long -suffering gentleness goodness faith

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Meekness temperance against such there is no law and they that are Christ's have that's past tense

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Crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts if we live in the

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Spirit Let us also walk in the Spirit we find the word if again So we're in time again when they put that word in that means in time

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We're supposed to make the choice to be spirit filled and walk in the Spirit now

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Another point is this this is the means of God by which fruit is produced I'm going to give you some verses that show you how this happens

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We've already seen it a little bit in John 15 with the vine and the branch you're by biting in Christ Fruit is produced.

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We've seen it a little bit where it says that this is the fruit of the Spirit So being filled with the

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Spirit Fruit is produced in your life Let me give you just a couple of more that talk about the means in other words the method that God uses to accomplish this in our lives

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Romans 6 21 turn over there Romans 6 21 what fruit had you then and those things were off you are now ashamed as to talk about when you were lost

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For the end of those things is death but now Being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness and so one of the methods that God uses is at salvation the old man is crucified in Christ and Because you are dead

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You are free from sin now Romans chapter 7 and verse 4

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Wherefore my brethren you also are become dead to the law By the body of Christ or you could say in the body of Christ in Christ You're a dead to the law because Christ fulfilled the law in his death and Yeesh that so that you should be married to another and that means

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Jesus himself Even to him who is raised from the dead why that we should bring forth fruit unto

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God So we see another method that God uses is that we are

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Married to Jesus Christ. We are attached to Jesus Christ the vine and the branch Abide in one another and this brings forth the fruit

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John 15 1 says I am the true vine. My father is the husbandman every branch in me

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That beareth not fruit will be taken away verse 4 abide in me and I and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself

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Except it abide in the vine. No more. Can you accept you abide in me for without me you can do

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Nothing. So as far as God's methods, he frees us from sin. He frees us from the law he attaches us to his son and In Christ fruit is produced as we're attached to the vine

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I give you an Old Testament verse that talks about John chapter 15. You may not have seen it as Psalms 104 verse 16

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The trees of the Lord are full of sap the

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Next time you call me a sap I'm gonna take that as a compliment brother Richard The trees of the

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Lord if you're God's tree You've got sap and that sap comes from the root and the root is who?

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Jesus and that will produce fruit and you will then bear it So we see all these things that are written about fruit bearing the

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New Testament gives the principle of fruit bearing Well, I'll tell you something fascinating. It's the

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Old Testament that really gives the detail in living color I got about a few minutes left.

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So I want you to turn Isaiah chapter 5 And this will be in this next

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Sunday, but I want you to get a little glimpse of it So you can be thinking about it this week We're gonna get the living

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Color and the detail of This concept of bearing fruit that John 15 talks about in just to make three or four verses now

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We're going to Isaiah 5. We're gonna get a lot of verses that just talk about it again again It'll go from outside of time to inside of time

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It'll go from what God's doing and it'll come in and show you our responsibility all in the same passage

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Isaiah chapter 5 the first part of it starting with verse 1 talks about the work of a sovereign

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God in the life of the believer and Sometimes we give this the theological term sanctification

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Brother Otis asked me a question this week. He said does man play any part in his sanctification?

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from a theological point of view I would say no because generally the term sanctification is a work of the

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Holy Spirit and the Word of God To you in your life. It's something God does to you

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Now do you remember at the first the message we talked about Three years fruit coming up in the earth and God's people taking advantage over three years.

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What happened the first two years? He said just eat of the fruit that just comes up of itself that picture sanctification

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That's something you're not doing. That's something that God's doing but you're taking advantage of it the second year the same thing.

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I Don't know what talk about third year till next Sunday but we see it the first part of this chapter speaks of God's Sovereign work in the life of the believer in verse 1.

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We see that Jesus himself is the vine dresser He says now will

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I sing to my well -beloved a song of my beloved touching his harp his vineyard my well -beloved

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Hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. No, you start noticing some things about how

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God himself Prepares us to bear fruit. The first thing is he that he does is he places the

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Lord Jesus Christ as as the vine dresser can you imagine that he is the one who is working on us to make us to be the best vineyard and Secondly notice it the very end of verse 1.

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It says that he plants us in a very fruitful Hill a couple of things we notice about this.

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First of all, he plants the right seeds and Secondly, he plants it in the right soil the good soil

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Calls it a fruitful hill puts us in a place where we're apt to grow He puts us in a place where there are other people around us to disciple us when we're first say we didn't know how all

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That worked. They just popped into our lives just an accident From our point of view and as we look back

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In my life anyway, 22 23 years later I can just go back and name the incidences where I met certain key people that showed me what books not to read and Predominantly said just read your

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Bible. It's your strongest concordance And who helped me to start to grow? so Jesus planted me in a very fruitful hill and he does that with all of his children and then verse 2 and he fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and Built a tower in the midst of it

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Also made a winepress therein and he looked that it should bring forth grapes

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I'm gonna stop there because that last phrase is sad Stop there a minute. I want you to look at everything that God in his sovereignty has done

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To produce fruit in our lives first of all, he puts Jesus as the vinedresser Secondly, he plants good seeds in perfect soil

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Thirdly he fenced it in. Did you notice that? What do you think that's talking about? He fences it in could it be a verse like Psalm 37 28 for the

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Lord? Loveth judgment and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever

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But the seed of the wicked shall be cut off how about Jude 1 Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the

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Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called Mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.

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He's placed a fence around us and Then we see fourthly That he gathered out the stones

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Luke 13 8 and he answered and said to him Lord let it alone this year also till I shall dig it and dung it

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And if it bear fruit, well He's done everything to make us bear fruit.

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He's removed all the rocks from the soil. Remember the parable of the rocky soil That can't happen to a believer.

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I don't believe so. He removes the rocks He he he digs around us.

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He fertilizes us all of this is done He gathers gathers out the stones in the soil

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God himself works the very soil that he placed us in and he placed us in the best soil to start with and Then fifthly we see that he planted it with the right seed.

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He says the choicest vine That's God's seed That's the divine nature and that's what you were and are

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Sixthly we see that he built a lookout tower in the midst of this garden. Isn't that amazing built a tower? I mean you see towers built in garden nowadays not too many but he builds a tower in the midst of this garden as a vantage point and it pictures the omnipresence in the omniscience and the

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Omnipotence of God's care over us that's better than a scarecrow, isn't it?

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But tell you what, it's not a bad scarecrow for the demons and through the devil For him to look and see

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God himself Watching over us from this tower Romans 8 27 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth

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What is the mind of the Spirit? Because he maketh intercession for the Saints the Lord Jesus Christ is as if he is in that tower right in the midst of the

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Garden, and you're planted and you may be the vine. It's just growing right up that tower You may get to be the vine that just wraps right around the tower and grows up it and Jesus Christ is watching and interceding

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For you all the time for the Saints according to the will of God and we know that all things work together for good to them

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That love God to them who are called according to his purpose Why because his towers right there and you're probably twine growing and grabbing hold of that thing and climbing right up it like an ivy

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Verse 33 says who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies who is he that condemneth it is

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Christ that died Yea, rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us as if in a tower

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In the midst of the garden who shall separate us from the love of Christ. You can't move that tower It's right there where you are right there in time where you are

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine nakedness peril sword?

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These are all things that happen in time Nay, and all these things were more than conquerors through him that loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels

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No principalities. These are all things that are outside of time nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor death

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Nor any other creation that God ever made shall be able to separate us from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus who is the vine dresser who's in that tower watching over you while you grow

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He's also watching to see if you're gonna bear any fruit or not But that's what talk about next time

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It Says he made a wine press therein What is wine picture in the

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Bible? More than one thing, but what's one thing the blood of Jesus?

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It's right there in that garden you couldn't be climbing up that tower with your little vine if it weren't for that blood and Secondly, what is it picture?

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What is drinking wine in the Bible picture joy? And then we see another aspect.

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It was his desire that it bring forth grapes Now look at Isaiah chapter 5 verse 2 be and he looked

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That it should bring forth grapes He looked That it should bring forth grapes

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The word looked is an interesting word when I looked it up in the Hebrew I said boy, I have seen this word before and it took me a few minutes to remember

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Where I had seen it in another Bible study, it's the word Calvo which means to bind together by twisting

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So it pictures two vines almost like growing together and twisting around each other like this many times

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It's translated into the word weight and all the verses you've ever read like Psalm 25 5 and other verses where it says wait on the

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Lord Did you know that the word weight in the Hebrew means to be twined together? Be Let's put it this way abide in Christ Let the branch be

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Abiding in the vine while you wait on the Lord that's living by faith, isn't it? and so It says that the

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Lord looked The Lord waited it It has to do with his mercy as well

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The Lord waited the Lord looked that it should bring forth grapes, why should it bring forth good grapes?

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Look at all the things we've seen that he's done to prepare it God has not just demanded that we bring forth good grapes, but he has provided everything it takes to do so and He's practically done it in us after all the grape is produced by him in us

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But It kind of gets troubling when you look at the very last phrase in verse 2

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It didn't happen it says but it brought forth wild grapes

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Now That's the amazing thing and from there going forward in this little passage

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It moves away from the sovereignty of God outside of time to the responsibility of man in time

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Right in the same passage God will be seen to be just in his judgment

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Which proves that man is responsible if he doesn't bear fruit Isaiah 5 2

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B says and it brought forth wild grapes God will be seen to be just in this first of all because God has given us all look at verse 3 and Now Oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judge

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I pray you between me and my vineyard now, isn't it interesting that when God extends himself into time

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In either in Christ or in the through the Holy Spirit in this case. We'll see he's in Christ in time as the vine dresser

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That he sometimes speaks as a man and says judge between me and the vineyard. I Want you to decide

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God says if I'm just or not Am I just in judging these people now?

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I Ask you the question. Am I just in judging these people now verse 4 says what could have been done more to my vineyard?

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my fruit What more could God have done in your life and in my life?

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To cause us to make the right choices I've been a

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Weeks ago, I was giving this little book on William Carey and thoroughly enjoyed it and I've gone back and reread portions of it.

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I Read it 20 years ago and hadn't thought about it since until the last month

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I'm gonna read just a little Just a little bit of this and closing this morning because I want you to ask yourself the question

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Let's do like we did in Sunday school. We played the what -if game in Sunday school for a moment I'll play the what -if game

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With William Carey. Let me read a little bit busy as he was With his teaching now, he's in India.

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He was the missionary to India he was the first man who really found the modern missions movement and He was in India lived his whole life and died there

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He was teaching William Carey could not neglect the missionary work even though he was in the midst of his teaching

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He had the philosophy that he should work for a living by the way so that he didn't have to depend on their money You know why he didn't want them to have the ability to call him home

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To call him and say the money's out. Come on back. He said I'm not here because you sent me So he worked for a living one of the thing he did many things

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One of the things he did was he taught and William Carey could but even in his teaching He could not neglect the missionary work.

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That was so dear to his heart Especially was the Hindu convert Krishna Powell being blessed in the task of spreading the gospel

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Let me tell you this Carey was there for 13 years before Krishna Powell Came to know

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Christ During that 13 -year period many of his preachers back home were calling him an extreme failure

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They're wanting to get him out of there, but they couldn't because he was making a living He had his own money. So he kept right there and finally the 14th year

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Krishna Powell came to know the Lord Jesus Christ and Was discipled by carrying began to witness to his own people the the

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Indian people And I'm talking about in the nation of India not Indians in America Though his stand now we're talking about his convert

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Krishna Powell here though his stand for Christianity caused him much trouble and criticism

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Krishna remained firm in his declaration of faith. Now. The fact is this was not carries first convert

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It was at least his second probably his second his first convert Apostasized after some time and it was a long time about like a year

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He came claimed Christ did all the stuff with carry taught the Bible did work for the

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Lord and all sudden he went right back into Hinduism Do you think that might have been a discouragement for carry after 13 years and first convert also knee?

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Goes back gives up the faith and becomes a Hindu again But this man Krishna Powell didn't do this.

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He followed through he built a little shed Near his home in which to preach they had to picture this in India a little shed means a little shed with dirt on the floor

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And here carry also often spoke on his weekend sojourn So William carry himself would come to Krishna Powell's house and preach to the people he could collect there

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Krishna gathered children and taught them Gradually, this became a rallying place for the

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Christian Indians Krishna's wife and sister also assisted in the task now listen to this phrase right here because we're talking about fruits of the

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Spirit the love Gentleness and kindness of these

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Christian natives drew others like a powerful magnet and Thus the truth spread far and near the missionaries were jubilant at these glorious results

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Kerry wrote this God is laying the foundation of his temple in India They were reaping the rewards for the long and diligent service.

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They had rendered the answer to their fervent prayers After 14 hard years in India and the loss of two children and the mental demise of his wife

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Kerry had a handful Just a handful of Indian converts Criticism came from England and they were called

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Kerry was called a quote lowborn and lowbred mechanic However, these quote lowbred mechanics

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Through their love of man and zeal for God their self devotement their end of fatigable industry and unequal learning

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Have translated the whole Bible now this is a quote that one of their their Fans wrote as the other preachers argued to try to shut down the work the people that backed them wrote that one of the men

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Wrote this these so -called lowbred mechanics have translated the whole

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Bible Into Bengali and printed it. They are currently printing the New Testament in Sanskrit Oriya Marathi Hindi Gujarati and are translating it into pair seek

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Telugu I can't even say the names of the languages let alone imagine speaking them and translating the

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Bible Karnari's Chinese and the tongue of the Sikhs and Of the

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Burmans and in four of these languages they are going on with the whole Bible Extraordinary as this is it will appear more so when it is remembered that of these men one was a shoemaker

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That's Kerry another a printer and a third a schoolteacher Now by the time it was done they had translated the

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Bible into 11 languages Now let's play the what -if game

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When Kerry got ready to go his wife said I ain't going That this is the reincarnation of lots wife.

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I'm afraid Don't believe in reincarnation, but she's very similar She says

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I've never seen the ocean. I'm not about to get on it Kerry was willing to leave his wife and his babies and had already gotten bored on a ship to go to India with a friend a doctor friend of his and And by coincidence

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They were cast off the ship because their papers weren't right and all that troubled him because his heart wanted to be over there

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It postponed his trip by months and months But guess what happened in the interim his friend the doctor talked his wife into going

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So not only did he get to go but he got to take his family with him But he was willing to go without What if he had decided when his wife said

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I'm not gonna go what if he had said I don't must not be God's will for me to do this What if he had made that bad decision instead of producing grapes he had produced wild grapes

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What if when his little baby girl and then later his five -year -old boy who was so brilliant that by the time he was five

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He'd already learned a couple of the languages over there and then he passed away And his little daughter died of some of the diseases that they had over there

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What if he'd said this is just I'm not willing to give this up I'm not willing to do this. I'm gonna go back

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What if after 13 years he had quit? And his first convert came the 14th year

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What if because of the criticism of these preachers he had decided this is just not the right thing to go.

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I'm not popular anymore What if he had quit when his first convert apostatized

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What if he had quit with another in several of his converts were murdered by the Hindus In order to try to keep any of them from becoming

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Christians What if he decided just not to work and just to go on home

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Because he didn't have any money and he was depending on the home office. And so he had to quit

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What if he'd made a decision not to work for a living? What if he decided as a young person children listen to me a minute what if he decided not to study his schoolwork

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Do you know that part of his schoolwork was studying Latin? And that he said later in life that his study of Latin Because it was such a base

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Dead language and so many other languages have little roots in Latin that it helped him to translate the

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Bible into 11 languages what if he hadn't studied his Latin and Greek and Hebrew as He became a young man

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What if he hadn't chosen to read adventure books? Did you know that he did that? He read books about adventures and travels

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He loved to read about Christopher Columbus and it put in his heart as a little boy the desire to see the world

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And that the world was a big place So, let me ask you what about you what about your decisions are they important Does God's sovereignty make your decisions unimportant

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Did you know that People that study quantum physics say that the movement of the smallest particle in existence affects every other particle in the universe

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Did you know that every choice that you make affects every human being every angel and everything in the universe?

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What about you today Have you made decisions to bear good fruit or to just accept the wild grapes

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Have you made any decisions lately have you made one this morning? Are you willing to make one this morning?

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What will you do with your life that'll affect God's world And God's kingdom work.

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Would you come to the piano? I'd like to give an invitation this morning Let's stand and have prayer together as you think about these things

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I Came under the conviction in my own message two weeks ago where we talked about worship That in the order of services that Baptists have developed.

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There is no place for it And many times I've asked myself. Can I prove biblically that you ought to have an old -fashioned altar call?

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I've never been able to do it Say didn't have that in the early church I've tried to use

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James before where it says faith without works is dead So it's an opportunity to put works to your faith

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But you know, I really did it for me was two weeks ago as I was preaching God taught me something in the middle of the message

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He said worship comes after I've made you aware of my presence

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Worship in many cases in the Old Testament came after the Word of God was found and they spent hours in the day standing and reading the

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Word of God and then they would fall on their faces as their minds became aware of this awesome presence

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It might be dangerous for you to fall on your face with a pew in front of you So we're gonna have the altar available this morning.

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So if God's touched your heart about any decision you come as the piano plays

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If you want to just come and kneel quietly and not even pray, but just be in praise before the

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Lord and Place your face On the ground before him you can use this altar to worship for a few moments this morning.