The Most Significant Words Matthew 16:13-20 Part II

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last week was part one of the text Matthew chapter 16 verses 13 through 20.
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We looked at verses 13 through 17 and what we saw is the conversation between Jesus, Peter, and the other disciples.
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What Jesus asked the group of disciples first is who do people say that I am?
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Who do the masses of people think I am? What we saw is that people thought
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Jesus was unique from other people, yes, but they could not agree about who he was.
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The common Jews thought he was a prophet while the Jewish leaders, as we have seen in Matthew, thought his supernatural power came from Satan.
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But whether his power was holy or whether it was evil, all the Jews believed there was something special about this man.
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But to believe there's something special about Jesus and to stop there is to miss the point.
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It is not enough to be nostalgic about Christ. One must say who
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Jesus really is. So when the disciples answered
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Jesus' question as to who the people say that he is, he then asked those closest to him, who do you say that I am?
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Peter, who was the spokesperson for the disciples, answers and what he tells him is you are the
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Christ, the Son of the Living God. Most of the people got it wrong about Jesus' identity, but Peter and the other disciples who agreed with him, minus Judas, got it right.
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Jesus tells them that they are blessed for knowing who he really is and living under that conviction.
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Last Sunday you heard the big idea of this text. The big idea is to understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
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Every person has to decide on the world's rightful king. One week ago we saw the first two of four reasons why.
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The first reason why is that many know there is something otherworldly about Jesus. And the second reason why is that with God's help, some come to believe in his uniqueness above all others.
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This morning we will see the third and fourth reasons why you are to understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
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And I look forward to looking at those with you. And as we do that, I encourage you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 16 as we continue our sermon series through Matthew.
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We'll begin by reading verses 18 through 20. If you're using the Red Bible, it's on page 977.
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This sermon is once again titled, The Most Significant Words. Matthew 16 verses 18 through 20.
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These are the words of Jesus. And I tell you, you are
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Peter. And on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whenever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
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And whenever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the
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Christ. So here's our third reason why. Everyone must decide on the world's rightful king.
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The third reason why is that the king's teaching alone is triumphant. The king's teaching alone is triumphant.
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After Peter makes this confession, and the disciples minus Judas agree with it,
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Jesus then states something very important to Peter with the whole group. And we just read those verses.
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You are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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It's one of those things that this passage is very well known. Someone on the street might be familiar with it.
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Roman Catholics are especially familiar with this as we will see. There are many key terms that we need to dig into to unlock the meaning of these two verses.
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And we're giving a whole Sunday to these verses. This isn't a huge text we're looking at today, but we're giving a whole
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Sunday to it because it's very important that we understand this. And there's much to see in these places.
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If you understand this incorrectly, then you embrace a spinoff of true
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Christianity, which is really a different religion. So let's see what
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Jesus is really saying here. The first words that we need to zero in on are Peter and rock.
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What Jesus does is give Peter a new name here. We saw earlier that Peter's first name is, anybody know?
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Simon. But now he would be called Simon Peter. The Greek word for Peter is petros.
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What this means in Greek is small stone or rock. What Jesus tells
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Peter in verse 18 is that on this rock he will build his church. The other
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Greek word for rock that Jesus will build his church on is not the same word but similar. This word is petra.
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So Peter, petras, the rock that he's going to build on is called petra.
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And what this word means is large rock. So small stone, small rock, large rock.
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Now this is the passage of Scripture that the Roman Catholic Church gets their doctrine of the
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Pope from. Everybody knows who the Pope is, right? You could be someone who hasn't stepped into church in your entire life and you know who the
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Pope is because it's all over the news. This is where they get this office from, right here.
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So the question is does it say what they say it says?
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What they teach is that right here Jesus is telling Peter that he is the rock that the church is being built on.
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From this, the Roman Catholic Church says lots of things. They say that Peter would be the spokesperson for God on earth, also known as the vicar of Christ, and whenever he spoke something about God his words were inspired and without error.
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Not only was Peter God's spokesperson on earth, but every man appointed by God in succession to Peter in Rome would also be
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God's spokesperson. I remember talking to a Roman Catholic one time. I was coaching track and one of the other coaches was, we were talking about the new
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Pope that was just elected. I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but he was chosen as the new
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Pope and one thing this coach said was, well one thing we know is that this was inspired by the
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Holy Spirit. That this man in this position was put there by God. Not only that, but everything that would come from his mouth, doctrinally, so about the things of faith, is without error.
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That's what the doctrine of the Pope communicates. That's what the Roman Catholic Church says.
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Now you can see the problems with this. What if the Pope says something that contradicts
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Scripture? This of course happened. Numerous times.
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Too many to count. This office, the papacy, developed doctrines that were contrary to Scripture.
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Let me say the biggest one. The Bible teaches that one is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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As Romans chapter 4 verses 3 -5 says, for what does the
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Scripture say? Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.
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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
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Very clear. You're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The Roman Catholic Church says that you are saved by grace plus works.
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So in other words, the sacraments, you go to the
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Eucharist, which is what we call the Lord's Supper, and grace is infused on you when you do this, so that you can live a life that will make you justified in God's sight when you die.
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And if you don't get fully justified, then you go to purgatory.
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So a lot is laid on your lap. You have to earn your own way with God's help, as this grace is infused.
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That's the word they used. As it's infused on you. But really, this is a works righteousness system, because you're relying on yourself to earn your salvation.
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Now the Reformation that we celebrated not too long ago, back in October, Martin Luther took a stand against this.
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The Reformation needed to happen 500 years ago, because the authority of the
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Pope and church tradition superseded the authority of Scripture, of the
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Word of God. This is our authority. This is the authority of this church.
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We have no authority outside of this book right here. The Roman Catholic Church is a different religion than biblical
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Christianity. Now I know it is controversial to say this, but I always want to tell you the truth.
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And it's very easy to understand. I would be dishonest if I said that it wasn't.
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And some people might say, well, you're being loving. If you're being dishonest, you're not being loving. Right? Love rejoices with the truth.
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First Corinthians 13. If it's a different way to get to heaven, it's a different religion.
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It's not that complicated. And what is interesting, is that a few verses down, okay, so Peter just makes this public proclamation.
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This is the brightest moment of his life at this point. You know, you are Christ. You are the
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Son of the Living God. Everyone's thinking, man, he really turned a corner. But then, a few verses down,
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Jesus tells the disciples, I'm gonna die, be crucified, and I'm gonna be raised from the dead.
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And then here's what Peter says to him, in verse 22. Far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you.
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Then Jesus responds, get behind me, Satan. Okay, so how far he fell in such a short period of time.
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He says, Jesus says, you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
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But I thought Peter was supposed to be without error. Right? He's the Pope already, according to Catholic tradition.
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And then a few verses later, he says something wrong about matters of faith.
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The doctrine of the papacy falls apart within two verses, or three verses. So if the papacy is not what verse 18 is communicating, then what is it communicating?
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Once again, Petras means Peter, which is small rock, and Petra means large rock.
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What we must understand about Peter is that even though he is not the Pope, he was the leader of the 12 disciples.
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You see that throughout the gospel. He is the spokesperson. Peter correctly answered
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Jesus' question by saying, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And what Jesus tells Peter is that he correctly identified who
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Jesus really is. So Jesus told him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my
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Father who is in heaven. Jesus treats Peter as the leader here.
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And what he tells Peter is that he is representative of the larger group of disciples.
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And these disciples would be called apostles, and they would be God's spokesmen on earth, as the truth about Jesus is communicated through them.
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The rock then that Christ is building his church on, the
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Petra, is the teaching of the apostles.
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That's the rock. Not the papacy, the teaching of the apostles.
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You understand? So what they wrote, what they taught,
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Jesus is highlighting the confession that Peter just made. He just said something correctly about Jesus' identity, about matters of faith.
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You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And on this doctrine, and all true doctrine that flows out from it,
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Christ will build his church. So Christ builds his church on the truth.
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Now not only are the disciples and their teaching the rock that Christ is building his church on, but also everyone who believes this confession.
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You are the rock as well that Christ is building his church on. As the
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Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2 .5, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
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What Scripture communicates is that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of this foundation.
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In building a house in the first century, the most important part of the foundation was the cornerstone.
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These stones laid on the corner squared the rest of the building. With this architecture in mind, the
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Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 19 and 20, speaking to Christians, the
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Christians in Ephesus, he said, you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the
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Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
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The teaching about Christ is the foundation of the church and therefore
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Christ is the true foundation. So the teaching is the rock which points to Jesus.
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Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11 .1, no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is
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Jesus Christ. So the only true churches in the world are the ones that are built on Jesus Christ.
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The ones that say true things about Jesus. Otherwise you're building a different foundation.
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Understanding this passage is of utmost importance. No man can replace
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Christ's rightful place. But what has happened in Rome with the
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Roman Catholic Church is that the Pope has taken the place of Christ. Yes, it's true.
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His word has been valued over Christ's word and this is why you have a different religion that believes a different gospel.
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We need to understand this as we engage with Roman Catholics. I have friends who are Roman Catholics, dear friends, and I love them.
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One of the ways that I can love them though is by telling them what the Bible says and not what they have been taught through church tradition.
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The true interpretation of this passage contradicts what they teach. One of the ways that we love
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Roman Catholics is by teaching them the Bible. Most Roman Catholics do not understand the
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Bible because they haven't been taught it. I have a good friend back home who is a
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Roman Catholic and he said, you know, they don't really teach us the Bible. He told me that as a Roman Catholic.
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And there's a reason why. Because it contradicts what they teach.
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There has been a movement in evangelicalism that has taken a soft approach as to how to approach
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Roman Catholics. Pretty much what they say is what we believe is close enough. We both believe in the
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Trinity. We both believe there's heaven and hell. We both believe the Bible is the Word of God, even though they interpret it differently.
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So let's just get along. Let's just look past our differences. This movement in the 90s was called
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Evangelicals and Roman Catholics Together. We can unite with Roman Catholics in some areas, yes.
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I think we can. They take a strong stance on the abortion issue. I think this is the most obvious one.
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Sadly, they do more than many evangelicals do on the abortion issue. Evangelicals should do more.
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But I do not see a problem linking arms with Catholics on this issue. I serve on the board of options for women with other
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Roman Catholics. However, we should not confuse our beliefs, saying that what we believe about God, sin, salvation and heaven is pretty much the same thing.
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It's not. The Roman Catholic teaching is a works righteousness system.
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You earn your way. You're not justified when you believe. You're justified at the end of your life.
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And if you didn't do enough, you go to purgatory. But this is not what the
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Bible teaches. This is a false gospel. We need to pay very close attention to what
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Paul says in Galatians chapter one verses seven through nine about false gospels. There are some of you.
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Here's what Paul says. There are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
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But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.
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As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
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I don't understand in evangelicalism why this can't be said when the
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Bible is so clear on it. The Pope and the
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Roman Catholic Church preach a different gospel than the apostles. We need to be clear on the gospel with Roman Catholics so that they are trusting
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Christ alone for their own salvation and not their own works. Back in September, I spoke at the
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Options for Women Tri -County Banquet and in a room full of Roman Catholics who were there to fight against abortion,
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I presented the gospel clearly that one is saved by faith alone and Christ alone.
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I wondered what the response would be when I prepared it.
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I'm thinking a lot of people might be ticked off by this for lots of reasons, right? I mean, I took a strong stand on the political side.
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You know, let's not be wishy -washy politically. I mean, it's pretty clear, okay, which way to vote, which, what the issues are biblically, politically, which issues are not.
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It's pretty cut and dry. But also, I'm thinking, okay, this is an opportunity to share the gospel.
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So, I did and I was surprised because several
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Roman Catholics came up to me afterwards and said, thank you for your message. And I think they actually, they might have agreed with what
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I said. And when I see this, it makes me wonder if some are really trusting Christ alone despite what they hear from their priest.
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It makes me wonder. But the point is clear. We need to be clear on where the authority comes.
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It comes from Jesus and his word. Any teaching that departs from this needs to be considered false doctrine.
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Jesus is building his church on true teaching. Any church where the truth is spoken in full is where Christ is building his church.
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The church is the people of God. In Greek, the word for church means an assembly of believers, right?
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We gather, we gather to worship. It's the most unique community in the whole world, the church.
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Think of how different we are in so many ways, right? We have different professions, different interests, different stories.
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And yet we all come together because we are the church. We assemble to worship
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Jesus Christ. As the true understanding of who he is is made known, as a true understanding of salvation is made known, as a true understanding of how he expects one to live is made known, some people listen and follow him.
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These people become members of the universal church, and the universal church is seen in local bodies such as this one.
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That's the church. Christ has been building his church for 2 ,000 years, and he's building it right now everywhere.
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But he's building it here, too. All these local assemblies all over the world, he's building his church in Eureka, and he's doing it as the truth is spoken.
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It is spoken on Sundays, it's spoken during the week as you all go out. What results is that people are transformed.
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You build a community that thinks, talks, and acts like Jesus. This is what
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Jesus is building. This type of community stands out to the surrounding world because it is so different.
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When people see the love that we have for each other and the selfless lives that we live by God's grace, this stands out.
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And I talk about this a lot. Church is not, okay, we come one Sunday, we sit through songs, we hear a sermon, we go out, we live our lives.
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No, we live life together. We're a family. That's what the church is. And this is unique to the world.
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This stands out because most of the world is selfish. Most of the world lives for oneself.
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But when the world sees a multitude of people who live not for themselves, but for God and others, it stands out.
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And I see this here at our church. And I pray that we see it more and more. Nothing in the world is more exciting than being a part of God's work.
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And you are a part of that work right here. And what Jesus says in verse 18 is that as he builds his church, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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What in the world does that mean? There's so many key terms in this passage.
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And this clause here is so important to understand. Now, when we see the word hell, hell is a place where anyone who denies
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Christ goes after death. That's a clear meaning in scripture. The unbeliever has a physical death and a spiritual death, as Revelation 2014 says.
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But hell can be used to mean other things as well. In James 3, verse 6, the
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Apostle James writes that the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell.
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In this passage, hell means Satan and his demons as he influences people to sin with their tongue.
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But in our passage in verse 18, does the gates of hell mean
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Satan? The answer is yes, but the focus is on a specific aspect of Satan's work.
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Let me explain. As we think about gates, what we must understand is that gates are not offensive, right?
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They don't go on the attack. The purpose of gates is what?
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Defense, right? To keep something from leaving. Some of you have animals, and so you put up a gate so your animals won't run free.
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So these gates are not attacking, they're holding something in. They are trapping something, unable to free what is inside.
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And this is where we need to understand the meaning of the word hell. I've already explained to you that hell can mean the destination of unbelievers after death, or Satan and his demons.
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Hell also can mean the realm of the dead. The realm of the dead.
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In the Old Testament, the word sheol appears 63 times. What sheol means in the
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Old Testament is the realm of the dead. When Adam and Eve sinned, death came into the world.
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God created humans to live forever, but death changed that. But when Christ came and rose from the dead, not only were sin and Satan conquered, but so was death.
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You have to understand, Satan has power because of sin. He has power because of death.
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And when Christ went to the cross, he took that power away. When Christ came and rose from the dead, these were conquered.
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No one can free someone from death except for the resurrected power of Jesus Christ.
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When you go to a cemetery, what we must understand is that everybody there who knows Christ is victorious.
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That death will not hold them in forever. They will rise from the dead.
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Without Christ's victory in one's life, however, Satan has power over a person. And one of the ways he has power over another is that he can hold death over that person.
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Death is the greatest fear that people have. I know they say that public speaking is the greatest fear and death is second.
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That's not true. Death is the greatest fear that everybody has.
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I remember being young and thinking, man, I don't want to die. But let me tell you now, right now,
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I don't care. I mean, I don't want to say that. I don't fear death because Christ is in my life.
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And I know that to live is Christ and to die is gain. And that's the case for every Christian. But if you're an unbeliever and you don't know what's going to happen to you, death is terrifying.
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And Satan holds that over people. Hebrews 2 verses 14, 15 says,
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Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death, he,
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Jesus, might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
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Death is slavery for people. It haunts people. If you don't have
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Christ, but once you have Christ, it no longer haunts you. I mean, as you get older as a
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Christian, it's not a bad thing. You're just getting closer to glory. As an unbeliever, though, you're thinking my best days are behind me and death awaits.
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What a terrifying way to live. Satan holds that over people. People live in fear because of this.
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What the author of Hebrews is communicating here is that through Christ, this power is no longer over you because Christ is victorious through his resurrection.
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In John chapter 11 verses 25 and 26, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Physical death or spiritual death cannot prevail over anyone in the church.
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Because the church is the group of believers and you're victorious in Christ. So we must understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
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And the third reason why is that the king's teaching alone is triumphant.
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He's building his church and his church cannot be defeated because of the victory in Jesus Christ.
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And if we're teaching anything else, it doesn't have the king's approval. It doesn't have a stamp of approval.
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He's not building his church in those places. OK, here's the third reason why we had to understand that I should say the fourth reason why we had to understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
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And that is those who come to him hold the keys to heaven and hell.
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Yes, those who come to him hold the keys to heaven and hell.
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Now, in verse 19, what Jesus tells Peter and the apostles is that they have been given great authority from him.
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Let's see this in verse 19. Jesus says, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth should be loosed in heaven.
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Now, earlier I mentioned that Roman Catholicism teaches that the Pope is the spokesperson for God on earth.
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This verse is where they get that from. They believe that what the Pope says should be listened to by everyone since he is the vicar of Christ on earth.
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But as I have already showed you, the office of the Pope is unbiblical.
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So we know this verse is not communicating his power and authority. But let's look at what
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Jesus is really saying. He tells Peter that he is giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
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But on the positive side, every sinner in the church knows that he or she is a sinner and knows how much he or she needs
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Christ. The reason I say this is because we need to populate our church with the right people.
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Okay, that's what he's communicating here. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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What does that mean? What it means is that when you fill your church with unbelievers, like so many churches do in America, you are not following Jesus' clear teaching here.
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So this is a charge to the leadership of the church, saying you need to build your church the right way.
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Because whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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So be very careful who you let in the front door. And there's a doctrine that's attached to this, it comes from Matthew chapter 18, and that's church discipline.
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What church discipline communicates is that when someone is rebelliously sinning against God, it's the responsibility of the leadership of the church to discipline that person out of the church.
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And this happens, there's a three -step process here. You approach the person if you've been sinned against, if the person is still unrepentant, then you take two or three others with you.
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And if the person is still unrepentant, then you tell it to the church. So it's the shepherds, the pastors in the church, it's their responsibility to keep track of faithful believers.
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And if someone is rebelliously behaving, then what happens is that that person is removed from the fellowship with the goal of bringing that person back.
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But that's what church discipline is. So when Jesus talks about this in verse 19, he's talking about church discipline.
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But not only that, he's also talking about evangelism. Because when you share the king's message, you hold the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
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Because you have the truth, you have the message. And when you share that message with people, and they believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, what happens? They receive entrance into heaven. But what if they reject it?
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Then they do not. So the keys is the truth, the truth that you communicate. So this is the authority that God has given us.
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Every Christian has this authority. And the biggest authority goes to the leadership of the church, the shepherds, who are to make sure their church is populated with true
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Christians. And in America, this is highly unpopular, is it not?
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Because what's the goal of many American churches? Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself.
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Yeah, Doug is right. Yeah, bring as many people as you can in the door.
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Which means we can't talk about certain things, right? We can't talk about certain controversial topics.
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Because we need to have a very narrow message here that will get as many people in the door as possible.
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And if we go here, and if we go here, we will lose people. That's not the charge that Jesus is giving here though.
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He's saying, teach the truth. Build the church with the right people. Build a healthy church.
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And by the way, I'll be honest with you, I'm not even following my notes right now, okay? I'm just talking to you, which is pretty rare for me.
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I usually try to stick with my notes. But we must understand this, okay? That it is so important to build the church the right way.
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In the 20th century, there was a movement, it's still around, it's called the Seeker -Sensitive Movement. And that's their goal.
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Let's give the world what they want. Let's build the church that way.
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But that's not the charge that Jesus is giving here. He's saying, I will build my church. And he's going to build it on doctrine, right?
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The confession. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And all the truth that comes from that.
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And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. This is your responsibility. I have given you the keys.
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Build it the right way. And then when these people do make it to your church, lead your church the right way.
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Sometimes you can let someone in the church who's not a Christian, and then that person becomes rebellious. And then that's where you have to, if the person continues in their rebellion, going through the church discipline process, then you have to remove that person.
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So this is the clear message of this passage. And to summarize here, understand that every person has to decide on the world's rightful king.
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And in this two Sunday sermon, we have seen four reasons why. Many know there is something otherworldly about Jesus.
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The second reason is this. With God's help, some come to believe in his uniqueness above all else. The third reason is that the king's teaching alone is triumphant.
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This is how he's going to build his church. This is how he's going to prevail over the gates of hell. The true teaching. Lastly, as we have just seen, those who come to him hold the keys to heaven and hell.
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This true doctrine concerning Christ is what the world needs to hear. It is what the world needs and what the church needs to be reminded of.
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And may we treasure this message from our king. Live this out and rejoice that the gates of hell have been defeated in him.
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You hear an amen? Amen. Now next Sunday is our
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Christmas service. So I'm going to preach a Christmas sermon. And I look forward to looking at the gospel of Luke with you, where we will look at the most important news this world has ever heard.
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But this time, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, what a wonderful God you are.
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And Lord, you will get your truth communicated. And I thank you,
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Lord, that you use flawed people like me to do it.
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Lord, apart from you, I can do nothing. And I trust, Lord, that you will use what was communicated from your holy word to teach people here today what they need to hear and that they would live accordingly.
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That you would apply this to everyone's life, Lord, right where they are at, I pray in Jesus' name.