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- Okay, I'll pray a few verses here Luke chapter 18 verse 28
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- This will be a prayer of scripture Amen Let's see
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- Luke 18 28 then
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- Peter said lo we have left all and followed deep and It's interesting don't you think to have the guts to say that to the
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- Lord And Peter Peter would wonder if he said things before thinking about it sometimes
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- Kind of seems that way And he said unto them Verily I say unto you there is no man that has left house or parents or brethren or wife or children
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- For the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come
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- Life everlasting now, let's stop there. I want to ask you Where he says
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- You will receive manifold more. I Would have expected him to say this way in verse 30 who shall receive manifold more in The world to come and life everlasting
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- That's what I would have expected that to say But he added this phrase in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting
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- Now, you know that little comma is not there in the Greek And probably
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- Jesus spoke this in Aramaic anyway, so I'm sure there was not a comma there So what if it read this way who shall not receive manifold more
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- What if you put the comma there Instead of where it is and it read this way in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting
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- See how that comma changes everything Now I have to you know, maybe
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- I assume that the scholars who did the King James Were more scholarly That would be a very safe assumption
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- So it may well be that the that the comma is in the right place but isn't it interesting how a comma can change the meaning of a sentence and We know that the
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- Word of God did not have the comma there so is it saying that you have a everlasting life starting now and You're already living it and In the world to come you shall continue living it but if you just read it in the sense that Jesus is talking here and in the context of The passage where he is talking about giving up things
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- Then it makes you think maybe they got the comma in the right place Because if you put the comma where the
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- King James authors put it it says who shall not receive manifold more in this present time
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- And in the world to come life everlasting It really in the context seems to read in the sense that you will receive things in this life
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- Because you've given up things to walk with him in this life and that you'll receive rewards even here
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- Not just in heaven, but also in this present time Now he doesn't say what you receive though But Look what you're giving up here specifically parents brethren wife children
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- And it does mention the house So Isn't it true that if you if you give that up in a sense?
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- I mean if you really compare it to the way the world lives a Lot of the spare time that they have they can do play with their toys
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- Whereas a lot of the spare time that Christians have you you come up and you do work here at the church
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- You do things for the Lord with the spare time So you don't have near as much spare time as just a lost person same is true at the tithe
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- You don't have as much left over at the end of the month as a lost person because he doesn't not he does not tithe
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- So theoretically he has a tenth more money all things being equal at the end of every month and And yet when we give up certain things for his kingdom's sake the
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- Bible says in fact Jesus himself said we receive many more times what we give up Right now in this present time.
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- So think about it. What do you gain you gain a much larger family? If you were lost you would have a wife maybe children or a husband and some children
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- Maybe a few in -laws and that's it. But when you have a church you have a family full of people
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- Large family and really it's a worldwide family because if you meet people Anywhere you go that's born again a person who's born again.
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- You feel a kinship when you find that out. It's just amazing and So You do gain manifold more even in this present time and then in the world to come life everlasting
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- The life everlasting starts here, though Verse 31 then he took him to him the twelve and said of them behold
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- We go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the
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- Son of Man shall be accomplished For now notice that Jesus points out that the prophets wrote about the suffering
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- Messiah, but the Jew knew nothing of it But Jesus pointed out it is there
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- Of course, we know if we read Isaiah 53 and other places we can find it But the
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- Jew really had not focused on that and studied it much but he says the scriptures talk about it and that which is written of the prophets concerning the
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- Son of Man shall be accomplished for he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles and shall Be mocked and spitefully entreated and spit it on They shall scourge him and put him to death and the third day.
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- He shall rise again and look at verse 34 They understood none of these words
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- None of these things and this saying was hid from them.
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- So why didn't they understand it? Why could they not understand it who had hidden it from him the father
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- God The father had hidden it from them Neither knew they the things which were spoken
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- Not that he was going to hide it from him. But there was a proper time when it would be revealed and The same is true in our lives as we walk truth is revealed
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- Little by little line by line as we go not all at once Some of us see one truth at one point and share it with others and they go.
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- Uh -huh and then then all of a sudden they may see that and it's it's like a huge thing the day they see it and It just that's the way it is.
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- It's an individual Revelation that God gives us as we study his Word and just at the right time for our individual life
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- Okay verse 35 and it came to pass that as he was come nigh into Jericho a certain blind man sat by the way begging and Hearing the multitude passed by asked what it meant and they told him that Jesus of Nazareth Passed by and he cried saying
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- Jesus thou son of David. How did he know that? How did he know now listen the
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- Jew knew what son of David meant They knew that the Messiah was gonna sit on the throne of David. So this man said
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- Jesus you are the Messiah How did he know that he was blind a blind man?
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- How did he know who this was? The same way that the other ones a minute ago didn't know what that meant.
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- It was hidden from them well, this was revealed to this man and He was proclaiming who
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- Jesus was Have mercy on me and they which went before rebuked him
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- That he should hold his peace but he cried so much the louder saying thou son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him and when he was come near he asked him saying what will
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- Thou that I should do to thee and he said Lord that I may receive my sight now this man already knew who
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- Jesus was he knew him as the Messiah and Jesus asked him what would you have me do?
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- That is a picture of his relationship with you now also You can come to him when you feel a little bit blind concerning certain things
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- Don't we always get to have times when we feel like we don't understand how things are working around us
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- We're blind the reasons behind why they're working the way they are We can come to him and he'll always say what would you have me do?
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- And he said Lord, I would receive my sight. So there is a picture of prayer. We are to pray
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- We're supposed to verbalize to the Lord what it is that we need what our needs are and our desires
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- Lord I that I might receive my sight was this man's desire and Jesus said to him receive thy sight thy faith have saved thee
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- So whatever the Lord puts on our hearts to ask of him Only by faith will we ask it and The asking of it is a showing of genuine faith when we ask the
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- Lord for something That is as great a show of faith is or an act of faith as there is on the earth
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- When we attempt to finagle and get it without prayer we're showing a lack of faith and Immediately he received his sight and followed him
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- Glorifying God and all the people when they saw it gave praise unto God That's what answered prayer should do in our lives when
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- God works we should proclaim it and praise him that the other people around us might see the hand of God and They'll all praise
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- God for it Now when Jesus That I want to make a contrast and then we'll be through Notice what this man who had been blind and he was healed by Jesus Look what he did verse 43 and immediately he received his sight and followed him
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- Now I'm going to jump all the way back up to the previous lesson of last week and week before verse 22
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- Where we dealt with this rich young ruler and what was his problem? Verse 22 now when
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- Jesus heard these things he said to him yet thou lackest one thing Sell everything you have and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come and follow me and when he heard this he was sorrowful for he was rich and When Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful
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- He said how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God here We have contrasts of these two men.
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- One of them is rich. He has everything He's relying on his money to take care of all of his problems And here we have a man who's blind and money cannot take care of that problem and The one who is blind calls upon the
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- Messiah knowing who he was and by faith asked him to give him his sight and when the
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- Lord did Answer the prayer and give him his sight this man followed Jesus only after he had his sight
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- So it shows that the salvation has to come first and then the following But this man had a heart to follow
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- God the rich young ruler by contrast when Jesus said you just like one thing Your character act is pretty good shape compared to other men, but you lack one thing
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- You need to follow me and he couldn't do it He could not endure the personal relationship
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- He had done all the outward things. It shows they're easier. He kept what's the law? Well, you did all this
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- That was easier, but the relationship he couldn't do couldn't handle it. He would not follow
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- Jesus and so When we see trouble come into our life
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- We really should be thankful because it's what shows us that we're blind did I hear a bump out there
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- Thank you fail. It's what shows us that we're blind and when we understand that we're blind
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- That's when we see a need to follow Jesus the most And that relationship just grows
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- So I think we'll stop there Let's pray together father we
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- Thank you that you don't open our eyes all at once because that way we're always aware of the blindnesses that we have and Lord when you do open our eyes, it causes us to praise you and Testify to those around us and they see your work in our lives and we follow you and your plan is perfect So the next time we go through trial or tribulation help us remember that your plan is perfect and it's about Following you we pray in Jesus name.
