I Know (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

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Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.
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It wasn't the type of people. The guy who praised God. The last
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Sunday of 2023. It's been a, man, a heck of a year.
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It has been an insane year. But to be honest with you, it hasn't been any more crazy than the last three or four.
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It just seems like the social fabric of our nation, even of the world, has changed dramatically.
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Maybe it's my age. Maybe I woke up and the world's changed.
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I'm just that old guy that sits there and starts talking about how the kids dress and the music's too loud.
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But in all fairness, we reach the point in our culture where gender is fluid.
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I'm sorry I'm not young. I don't get that. Okay? I just don't get that.
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And I'm going to tell you why I don't get that. Not because of a lack of an opinion or a lack of foresight within the development or the evolution of our society.
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I don't get it because it's not true. See, I don't comprehend how we've reached a time in our culture where lies and feelings now become the objective truth rather than a subjective opinion.
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I do not get that. There's a confidence that comes with knowing truth.
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I'm going to be honest with you for a second. I'm a bad pastor. I am.
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I'm a bad pastor. We got...
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Deacons, that was Mike. I'm not a super Christian.
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I'm not. I want to be. I want to be them guys on TV that walk up to people and they like fall out on the ground.
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I've tried it. No one ever falls out on the ground unless it's to a left hook.
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You know what I mean? I want to be one of those guys that stands up here in that $3 ,000 suit and says,
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If you want to invest your seed in the kingdom of God, come down.
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I saw Juanita Bynum. Probably one of the most heretical, godless heathens
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I've ever seen on the video. What's it called?
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The Facebook or whatever. It's the internet. That's what I'm trying to say. And she sat there in the middle of the service.
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She said, God just told me that there are seven people in this room who are going to come down here and give me $25 ,000.
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I ain't never got that message before. Right? I mean, seriously.
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Wait a minute. I just got it. You know,
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I'm just not. But that's another reason that I'm not. I have doubts sometimes.
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I struggle with doubts. Do y 'all? Hi, my name is Jeff. I struggle with doubts sometimes in my faith.
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Guys, do y 'all doubt? Sometimes I do.
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Now, I'm going to be honest with you. 30 years ago, I doubted a lot more than I do today.
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In fact, my doubts today have nothing to do with where I'll end up.
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Or the sovereignty of God. Or the power of God. And I'm going to tell you why.
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It's not based upon simply an understanding of the longevity or of the years or the maturity that comes through years.
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It's not that. Because I know people who have sat their rear end in a church for 35 years that are still as ignorant as a new believer in the
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Scriptures. And I'm going to tell you something. My faith comes from God's Word.
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Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Romans 10, 17.
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If you want to increase your faith, you don't have to give money to a preacher. If you want to increase your faith, you don't have to sit there and have certain music played in a certain style to tickle your emotions to feel strong in God.
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What you've got to do is submit yourself in the Word of the living God and in obedience to that Word.
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Try your life out. You see, the Word of God is not just simply instruction. The Word of God is the litmus test of where you are in your sanctification process with Him.
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Now, here's the problem with that. How many times... I had never heard those songs before this morning.
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Those first two. Never heard them before in my life. And I was sitting here going, Oh Lord, what are we doing? You know?
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And I started listening to the words. That being crushed. That new want.
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Dude, that's me. That's me, man. I have been crushed by God so many times because of my rebellion and because of my disobedience.
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But out of that has come a maturing faith. I'm not there yet, but I'm a lot longer down the road than I was.
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But here's the problem. During those times, I have, in my Christian life, felt like me and God were this far apart.
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Can I get an amen? Amen. Alright? I just didn't want to be the only loser in the room.
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Okay? I have felt, especially early in my faith, that I had sinned so much that I had lost my salvation.
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Anybody else? Can I get a hand or two? Good. Good.
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I won't be alone in hell. Whew, guys. Let's say this over again.
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Philippians chapter 1. I want us to read together. I want us to put away looking at our failures and our feelings and start looking to the faithfulness of God's Word.
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Read with me. Philippians chapter 1. Oh, there we go.
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I'm sorry. I have a new lightsaber today. There we go. And I want to read this to you.
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I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
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Now what we're talking about today, theologically, especially in Reformed circles, is titled
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The Perseverance of the Saints or The Preservation of the Saints as it's matriculated through the years.
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But I have a problem with that. Not only do I have a major problem with limited atonement, I have a problem with the title
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Perseverance of the Saints because, and I know it's semantics, but this is what it sounds like to me. God gives you the gift of salvation and says,
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Good luck, buddy. I hope you make it. That is not Scripture. I don't have to persevere in my salvation or justification.
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I have to persevere in my sanctification. Now for those of you in here that you are not a
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Christian, you have no idea what I'm talking about. You're going to hell and I'll get you in a second. But for the rest of us who are believers, the perseverance has nothing to do with my salvation because that work is completed in the day of Jesus Christ.
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I want to just break down a few things this morning, but before I do, I want to address the first verse of Philippians chapter 1 because we need to know who this is addressed to.
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Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons.
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Pastor Josiah, what does posse mean? What does all mean?
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I don't understand. Except for all.
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I am Saint Jeff. Do you all know that? I want to start to be called
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Saint Jeff. I mean, Saint Jeff. Man, that just has a nice little ring to it, doesn't it?
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Do you realize that there are people all over the world that actually think there are Christians that have reached a certain tier to be given the title of saint?
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Well, if that's what you grew up thinking like I did, that's fine. But according to God's holy sovereign
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Word, the idea... Check this out, guys. Am I so cool or what? Oh, that ain't nothing.
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Check this out. Ooh! Wait a minute. Yeah, I like the little laser thing better.
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I programmed this. Anyways, saints right here is the word hagios.
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It is also the word holy. So every time you see the word saint or holy, what's holiness mean doctrinally?
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Separated. Set apart. I love my church. Set apart. It means that you have been set apart positionally from a wall that's going to hell and you are now positionally in Christ.
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All of us who have been born again by God are saints. There are no degrees of saints.
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We are all on the same level. We have different roles. I'm a pastor. Or as it says here,
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I'm an overseer, episcopus, or presbyter, or appointment. There are a lot of different words, but that doesn't mean
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I'm great. In fact, God addresses the saints in totality. And then He says with the pastors and deacons as well.
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Notice that deacons are last. Guys, understand this. If you are a believer here today, this word that is being spoken to us this morning in the
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Bible is addressed to you. All saints. Now let's carry on with this one verse.
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I'm going to show you four things out of this one verse. First of all, let's look at this.
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And I am sure of this. That's what we were talking about earlier.
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Being confident. Paul writes the Philippian church and he says this. And I am sure of this.
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Turn in your Bibles to Romans 8 or pull it up on your phone and read with me
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Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 38 and 39. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord, except our own weakness. This is one of the most powerful
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Scriptures. Huh? That ain't right.
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Y 'all pretend like y 'all are from Bellevue. Y 'all just sit there, play on your phones, and let me do the preaching, okay? Is that what it says?
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For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor anything present nor things to come, nor powers nor heights nor depths, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of Christ Jesus our
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Lord. Period. Period. Paul said,
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I am confident. Now, some people don't understand the difference between cockiness and confidence.
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Cockiness is based on the insecurity of your feelings. Confidence is based on something greater than yourself.
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I know, Paul said in 2 Timothy, the last book he ever written, I know that all that I have committed to Christ, God will keep it safe until that day.
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Understand this today. Paul was confident. How confident was he? Well, just read down a few verses in verses 13 and 14.
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He says this, So that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.
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And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
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Men, you want to know what leadership is? It's being afraid and doing it anyways.
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That's leadership. It's not having the absence of fear. Well, Pastor, I'm afraid
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I'm going to mislead my family. Pastor, I'm afraid that it's going to be awkward to pray with my wife.
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It feels awkward. Okay, well, hike up your skirt, change your underwear out, little girls, and grow a spine because your job as a man is not to be a slave to your feelings, but to grow in the maturity of Jesus Christ where you actually lead something besides the remote control.
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Do you get to decide what the thermostat is on? Do you? I do in my house. You know?
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But that ain't the leadership, guys. That's totalitarianism. You're on my backside, man.
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Guys, come to a place in your life where you start having confidence. Paul was disconfident.
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While he was in prison, guarded, and by the way, the word imperial guard here...
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Oh, wrong one. The word imperial guard here, that's called praetorians. You know who they were in the
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Roman army? They were the navy seals, buddy, of the Roman army. They were the special forces, the best soldiers in all of the
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Roman legions were taken and brought to Rome, and these were the guys that guarded Caesar and his prisoners.
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Paul was in a dungeon about to get his head cut off, and he said,
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I am confident, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will complete it.
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It doesn't matter what your condition is. My position is in Christ, and that I'm 100 % sure of.
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Guys, when you have struggles, do you just immediately start doubting? Do you sit there and go, well, this is never going to work.
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I'm going to tell you a shameful story I have of me. Oh, it's so shameful.
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I had been a Christian a year. When? I don't know. And this guy in Barnum, Wyoming says, hey, come on up here and be our youth pastor.
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And I went, Barnum where? Wyoming? I don't think so.
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I don't want my wife to start chewing tobacco or sleep with my cousins. I can't go to Wyoming.
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You people, no. I said, there ain't no way I'm going. Three months later, I was loading
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U -Haul, moving to Wyoming, and the pastor there had said this,
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Pastor, when you get up here, you can move in to one of our deacon's houses.
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He has a five -bedroom house. It's just him and his wife. You, your three kids, and your wife can move in there.
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So I got in this U -Haul truck, literally everything I had. We had a total of $100 to our name.
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That's it. I ain't talking about we had some in the bank or on a debit. We had $100. That's it.
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The U -Haul had to be in Cheyenne three hours south of Casper or Barnum the next day.
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We drove 24 hours straight. And as I was getting closer to Wyoming, this white death started falling from the sky called snow.
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And I hate driving in snow. I don't mind driving in snow. It's all the other idiots that are driving alongside me in snow, right?
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We get there. The pastor's like, hey, how you doing? It's good to see you.
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Yeah, man. Glad I'm here, I guess. And I can remember sliding under my truck, putting the ball joint back on my drive shaft because I had towed it.
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And I'm in three feet of snow. And it's negative wind chill 30 degrees.
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Love Wyoming. I actually preached a sermon on July 4th and it was flurrying snow.
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And the pastor says, hey, I got something I need to talk to you about. Yeah? Well, you know that house?
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Yeah? Well, his daughter got a divorce and she and the kids moved back in.
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We have no place to put you. Now I said, titties but a thing.
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For the Lord on high in His blessed magnitude shall bestow upon us with all of His grace.
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I got up under there and I had that ratchet in my hand. I said, you have got to be expletive kidding me.
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You're kidding me. Do you know what I just went through? My wife and I now have a total of like $7 because U -Hauls take gas.
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What am I supposed to do? He goes, oh, it's no problem. Your kids can all sleep in the house with us and you and your wife can sleep in my camper, pop -up camper next door.
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And I went, I'm not even doing the work. I'm out of my mouth. I walked in the house and I was furious.
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I mean like old Jeff furious. I'm ready to stomp someone's head in.
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And I go, have you heard Gwen? She goes, yes, I know. It's so disappointing, isn't it?
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Disappointing. Disappointing if someone ate the last chip out of the bag and left the bag.
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This ain't disappointing. This is a crisis of epic proportions.
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Why am I going to watch Fox News? She goes, well, we're going to pray about it. God will.
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And this is what I did. I went, all right, Gwen. You pray about it, baby.
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And this is what I want you to pray for. I need a four -bedroom house tomorrow so I can unpack the stupid truck and drive it back to Cheyenne.
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And I need that four -bedroom house, I need them to let me move into it with $7 down, no job.
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I was working at the church. They were paying me a whopping $25 a week.
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And I wanted to move in tomorrow morning. She goes, okay, let's pray. And I wanted to punch her in the face.
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I did. I wanted to punch her in her little face. The next morning,
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I can remember this. I can feel my hand. I had a two -wheeler and I can still feel the tires being pulled over the threshold of a four -bedroom house that a guy let us move in that no one knew.
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Gwen just called a phone number. And I had the dryer and it went boom, boom.
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And I was, heard my words again. And I put that dryer down and I started shaking because it freaked me out.
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I'm confident. Confident not because of what
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I've experienced. I'm confident in what God has said He would provide.
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You see, when we come to a place where we stop listening to our fears and our feelings and we start listening by faith and obedience to God's Word, you mature and you grow.
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Some of y 'all's problems is you go to churches where your ears get tickled.
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Where you are still bench -pressing just the bar as a senior in high school.
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You know why? Because no one's ever pushed you to load it with more weight. You have no idea the doctrines of God's Word.
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You know John 3 .16. If you went to FCA, you know I can do all things.
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The most horribly, harmonetically incorrect usage of that verse ever created by mankind.
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But you don't know nothing else. Oh, you believe in God. Whoop -a -dee -doo.
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So do demons. You don't cuss, smoke, or drink and live a moral lifestyle. So do a lot of atheists
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I know. There's no depth to you. Yet because you walk down an aisle and pray
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Jesus into your heart and you're over the age of 40, you're a mature
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Christian. No. Because in the stillness of the night, when you try to pray and the words don't come, you're focused on your failures rather than the faith.
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When the plane goes overhead and you just got finished laying left behind, you're going, oh my
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God, the rapture's come. Because in your brain, it's all sensationalism.
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It's smoke machines, lights, and music and a legal, moral mind.
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You know how sure Paul was? It wasn't just his words. It was his life on the line.
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He gave it all. So, he was confident. But notice this other thing. That he who began a good work in you.
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John 5 .24 says this, Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that hears my words and believes on Him that sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.
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I preached this years ago and I gave you five doctrines.
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Five doctrines from John. Five. I worked really hard on that sermon. Thank you all for no one remembering it.
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But this is the verse I used. And I looked at the doctrine of justification, sanctification, and glorification within this one verse.
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If you look at it, it's crystal clear. It says, he who believes in Him who has sent me has in the present tense eternal life and shall not come into condemnation.
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Come on Mississippi. What tense? Carina. I need an
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English Nazi. Shall come into. Is that future, past, or present?
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Future. The blonde gets it. But has already passed from death unto life.
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That is past tense. You see, one is justification. Someone was shouting this a minute ago.
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One is justification. I've been rendered innocent now. One is sanctification. I mean, justification is past tense.
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Sanctification is always present tense. Glorification is future tense. You see, he who began in work in you.
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Now why is this important for us to understand these doctrines? I'm going to tell you why. Because when you start understanding the doctrines of God, you'll realize you have no part in your salvation.
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I know. I know some of y 'all just, well yeah, I walked down the aisle.
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I prayed Jesus. I repented. I did this. I got baptized. I joined the church.
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The problem with all of that is the word I is found in no soteriological treatise anywhere in Scripture.
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None. Nowhere. Do you realize that we are the object of salvation?
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Not the person who actually does it. If you read Scripture over and over again, you know why
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I'm justified? Because of God. You know why I'm forgiven? Because of God. You know why I have atonement? Because of God.
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Do you know why I have anything? It's all because of God. And here's why. Because you were dead in your trespasses and sin.
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God is the author and finisher of our faith. Now you say,
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Pastor, why is that important? Because if you believe that and live that, your doubts are going to shrivel up and die.
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Because you realize that a sovereign immutable God who called you from death to life is not all of a sudden going to sit there and go,
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Oops, I let him go. Oops, he slipped. For us to lose that which
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God has already done, that would mean God would have to lose His sovereignty, the blood of Jesus Christ would have to lose its redemptive power, and the
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Holy Spirit of God would have to become mute. That is not going to happen.
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You see, our salvation is not just for our benefit. The salvation of God really is about glorifying
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His name in the impossibility of a task which cannot be done by human hands for God to bring us home.
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That is one of the most beautifulest things in the world. Now here's the betterest part of it.
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The other last couple of weeks, I'm still sore today. Not as bad.
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But my son, as I told you all last week, asked me to help him build a playground in his backyard.
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Now this playground is shipleyized, which means that the slide, the 12 -foot slide that we have, which
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Osa says should be at a 50, 55 degree angle so that the child may go, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, and slide down it.
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We put that sucker at about a 40 degree angle, which means they go, ah, and they're down. Okay?
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Now I decided when I got up there, Jeff, it would be easier to slide down than to climb back down.
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So I got on that slide and I went, hey, Josiah, what? And I hit the ground doing about Mach 3.
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Now my son, who is a pastor of this church, employed by you people, and his wife, who is a great nurturing mother, their response to my peril and pain was, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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Rachel Shipley pulled out her phone and started taking pictures of me in my pain.
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Why are you people clapping? Yeah. It's like, poof, poof.
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Man. What did I do? I said, Josiah, hey, man, we're halfway done.
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Maybe we finish this up tomorrow. And Pastor Josiah went, well, we can do that,
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Dad, but we're running out of time. We have to have this completed before Christmas. And I went, okay.
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And I worked the rest of the day, came back the next morning, worked all that thing. Watch this. Here's my point.
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When human strength or desire or tenacity fails, God's never does.
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You see, God said before time began, that right there is my boy,
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Jeff Shipley. I know he ain't much to look at. I know he really don't have a whole lot to offer.
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But the problem that you have, powers of hell, and the strength and the powers of this world is he belongs to me now.
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And nothing, no matter what happens, no matter how hard it happens, no matter how bad he rebels, he's coming home with me.
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John 10 tells us, I gave them eternal life, and they will never perish.
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No one will snatch them from my Father's hand. Can someone give me a definition of eternal life without using the word eternal?
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Everlasting. Forever. Never ending. What part of that is, oops,
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I sinned, I messed up. Now it's not eternal anymore. Like this one.
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Romans 11 .29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
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I remember I lived on Paul Wood. Was it Pauline or Paul Wood?
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I lived in Nut Bush. I can't remember. Paul something. But I was living over there, and I had this red
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Toyota truck. Actually, it was a gray Toyota truck. I had a gray Toyota truck, and I woke up one morning, and somebody had stole that junk.
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Stole it. Man, I call up MPD, man, and that guy, old officer, graying beard, walks up, and he looks at me, looks at the house, and he goes, stolen, huh?
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I went, yeah. You been paying your bill on that truck? Well, I'm a little behind, but somebody stole my truck, and he looked at me through years of experience and said, son, this truck wasn't stolen.
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It was repoed. And I went, what? Yeah, repoed. And I went, what's repoed mean?
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He's like, if you don't pay your bill, they come and pick up the truck. And I'm like, they can do that?
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Yeah. Huh. God don't repo your salvation because of your failure to pay a price that you were never asked to pay to begin with.
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You know why? Because you ain't got it. You don't have the means to pay for your salvation.
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That's what Jesus did, right? I'm almost done. For those of you non -Christians,
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I said I was going to talk to you for a second. Now, I need everyone in this room to use
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Wikipedia or, you know, whatever intellectual source you have on your phone.
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I need someone to please for the love of God. How much money do I got? Let's see.
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I got 10, 20. No, man, I got 1, 2, 3. I got 300.
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I got about 320 bucks. 330. 330.
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Sorry, ain't no one going to repo it. I got 330 bucks here. I will give it to anyone in this room that can explain this to me.
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Okay? You ready? Now, for you non -believers that think this is all a bunch of bull crap and the
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Big Bang Theory and all that, remember, I'm a high school dropout. Okay? I'm an ex -drug addict.
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I'm nothing. If we evolved, what evolved first?
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Now, I'm not talking about the chicken or the egg or any of that garbage. I'm talking about within our bodies. Now, up here, there are six systems in our body.
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There are really 12, but I just put six up here because that's what I actually found when I looked up online a picture for this.
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I call this ortosistema. That's what I call it, but you might have a name for it. Skeletal system, respiratory system, muscular system, circulatory system, digestive system, nervous system, reproductive system.
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You know what I'm saying? We got a lot of systems. Tell me, which one evolved first?
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You need to hear it. Nervous system. Great. Nervous system. How did that system evolve without a brain?
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What's it sending messages from? Which one? Circulatory system?
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All right. What's it going to system in? Where are the arteries and veins? Are you all with me?
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Help me out. Seriously. I got money right here. Let me do it like you kids do on TV. Come on, all you little guys that get online.
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There is no God. Church is full of crap. All they want is money. I'm giving you money, you arrogant, narcissistic, self -centered, godless pig.
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Explain to me evolution. They got it in all the books. All the smartest people believe in it.
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All right, Skippy. Answer one question. Which system evolved first? Unless they all 12 happened at the same time.
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Now, if they all happened at the same time, there ain't no evolution because evolution means over time it happened.
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Things that make you go, hmm. And yes, I am looking over here because I know there are two boys over here from our
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SOG ministry that aren't Christians, so yes, I am addressing them. But for us, you godless heathens in here, I'm addressing you as well.
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There is a God. He has completed His will. And it will be finally completed when
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He comes back. And He's coming back this time to chew bubblegum and kick butt, and He's out of bubblegum.
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He ain't coming back. There's little precious moments, Jesus, in the Bible. And I know some of you that grew up in church, that's offensive to you.
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I understand that. Reach, take your hand, reach back here and feel them lumps. That's called a spine.
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Some of y 'all need to grow up and quit playing church and start preaching the name of Jesus. Because hell is going to be hot, and it is forever.
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And you've got people in your own family going straight there, and you don't care. The entire motivation of your effort is
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I'm going to pray for them. Man, come on with it. You're praying for a dead person. They don't need your prayers.
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They need the word of life. So stop being afraid. Grow up and start living out what you say you believe.
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By the way, my $300 is safe. Not because there ain't a punk in here, you can take it out of my pocket, but it's safe because there is no answer other than God said, let there be man.
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Let there be light. And you can bring whatever doctor or philosophy or science you want.
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I will punk him like a little sissy, not because I'm smart, but because I am confident of this very thing.
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You see, there's a difference when you say, well, Pastor, you sound cocky. That ain't cocky, buddy. That's confidence. And Christians, some of y 'all need to get a little bit more confidence.
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Okay? Because you're at the water table and you want to be accepted because you're like in junior high school again and guys are around there going, hey, did you see that big blonde come in here?
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I want to be accepted. I'm so insecure. I don't want to be alone and I want to have friends. How about just doing this?
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Hey, man, I ain't partaking in that because I'm choosing to follow Jesus. That's confidence.
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Okay? Last thing. He who began a work in you will see it completed.
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Now, this is my favorite part. Oh, God, this is so good. At the day of Christ Jesus.
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I couldn't write it on here, so I wrote it on here. You know what's cool about Scripture?
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See, I actually study in what's called a systematic theological way. Meaning, if you come to me and says,
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Jesus has blue hair, I'm going to find everywhere in Scripture it talks about Jesus' hair from Genesis to Revelation.
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I'm going to look at extra history books. I'm going to look at historians living at that time and what they wrote.
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And if something's true, it's going to be true all the time. Okay? That's called a doctrine.
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Alright? You can't sit there and say, well, you have to be baptized to be saved because there's one verse here in 1
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Corinthians. Alright, man, if that's true, then it's got to be true all the way throughout it. Right?
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Are you with me? It's not that hard. Alright? So, what's really cool is
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John, Paul, Peter are all saying the same thing.
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And you've got to remember, after Jesus went up and the disciples went out, they didn't get together every three years for a convention.
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They never saw each other again. They went off. They went to Spain and India.
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They never saw each other again. John went off. They went off. But they all wrote.
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And they all wrote the same thing. And they wrote the same thing as the other apostles, but they also wrote the same thing that Isaiah was writing 700 years before.
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And Abraham and Moses and all those other guys, they were saying the same thing. 1
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Peter says this, According to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of His Spirit for the obedience to Jesus Christ for the sprinkling of His blood.
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Name a doctrine in that one sentence. Foreknowledge? Atonement?
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Sanctification? Try you, nature of God.
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That's one. Pastor, why are you telling us all these big words? Because they're in the
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Bible, dork! Right? Watch this. There's God the Father. There's God the Son. There's God the
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Holy Spirit. All working together. The next time a Jehovah's Witness comes up to you and says,
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Where's the word Trinity in the Bible? You can say, On every page, man! Guys, understand this.
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Now watch this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy,
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He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, not a fearful hope, a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance, ready?
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That is imperishable. Man won't die. Undefiled. It ain't spotted.
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Yeah, but Pastor, I didn't... No, you don't matter. Undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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Guys, you know why Paul was confident? Because the same God... Paul was the same
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God that saved Peter. Same God that saved me. Understand this, man. Your salvation is kept by God.
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And you know why it's kept by God? Because Ava will never drive my truck at five years old.
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What? Right. You see, for God to leave the perseverance of your salvation in your own hands would be like me handing my keys to a five -year -old and say, drive across the state to Neyland Stadium and I hope you get there.
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It ain't gonna happen. Well, there's one in a million chance. So you're saying there's...
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No, one in a million... No, there is no chance. She's not... Pastor, it's your daughter.
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But she's so cute and... No. Exactly. You ain't making it till tomorrow if your salvation is based in your hands.
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You see, that's why God kept it. Now look where it's kept. Witten Baptist Church. Oh, no.
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In heaven. Because that's the only eternal place and the eternal destiny of where we're gonna be. Guys, are you confident in this?
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Now watch this. I'm gonna close this. Music dudes, come up. Focus right here for a second.
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If you're in this room and the totality of your comprehension of salvation is you're forgiven, you're one of the immature
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Christians that I'm talking about. Forgiveness is this much of your salvation.
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This much. It's a whole lot bigger.
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Well, Pastor, why are you telling me this? Because if you actually see the full scope of God's grace and love, then doubts will melt away.
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They will melt away. When you see the totality of God's grace, it gives you something.
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It's not just the doubt, but in the vacuum of that doubt, something else comes in.
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Confidence. Not in yourself, but in Christ. And it's confidence to be able...
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Hey, you look nice today, Vicki. Sorry, squirrel. It gives you the power to walk up to somebody and go, hey, can
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I share Jesus with you? Because you ain't studying no more. You ain't worried about rejection.
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Because I'm accepted by Christ, what do I care about you and your little nerd herd? I don't. Guys, do you have that confidence as a
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Christian? If you're not a Christian, well, Pastor, how do I know I'm not a Christian? Pastor Josiah read a really cool verse at the very beginning of this service.
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You want to know how you know? Do you love to obey God? Here, let me do this for you.
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For those of you that this rings a bell with, dear
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Jesus, dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. Come into my heart and save me.
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Come into my heart and save me. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Yay!
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If that is the total experience of your salvation, you're not saved!
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You're not forgiven! You're going to hell! Pastor, how can you say that?
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I'm not! Scripture is! If you prayed that prayer and nothing changed in your life, you are not a believer!
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Okay? I'm sorry I wanted to leave you with a warm fuzzy. I really did. But I've got to leave you with truth.
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I'm sorry that this isn't a three -point homily of epic proportions which you leave here walking on clouds.
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But I would rather leave you here convicted by the power of God's Word than to see you drowned in the sorrows of hell for all eternity.
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Okay? I'm not here for your membership or your money. I don't care about either one. But I do care on that day whether you're going to be standing with God or you're going to be standing in hell.
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Where's your position in Christ? If you are not a believer, this is not a game.
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I'm not a government agent trying to control society. Sorry, this is not a flat earth.
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I know some of you key people who keep smoking weed want to believe that. I'm sorry, it ain't true.
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There are certain things that are immutable. We can discuss them. We can debate them all day long.
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But at the end of the day, there is a God, hell is hot, and He's coming back. Those are immutable facts.
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If you aren't 100 % sure of where you are with Christ, I'm going to ask you to come forward and talk to a preacher.
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Now the preacher ain't going to tell you anything of him own self. But he will open up that Bible and he will show you
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God's word on how to be saved. Number two, if you are a Christian and you need some maturity, it's going to take accountability and it's going to take study.
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And you say, well, Pastor, I've tried that before. It just doesn't work. I went to the LifeWay bookstore and got this big
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Bible study book and a little pen and a highlighter and got my little coffee cup that says
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Jesus loves me and all that other crap. And it lasted two days and I quit. Because you have nobody holding you accountable.
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What is accountability? Hey, did you do your Bible study? Did you do your Bible study? Did you do your Bible study?
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You did do your Bible study. That's good. That's a little baby. Did you do your Bible study? I'm going to knock your...
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No, that's not accountability, but that's what I'm talking about. See, God made this thing called the church to make you feel uncomfortable.
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Okay? To get all up in your business. That's why Witten will never be a mega church. It ain't ever going to be one.
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Thank God. Hallelujah. Because we need to be all up in everybody's business.
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If you are not maturing in your faith, you need someone to be in your business.
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Okay? Number three. If you're doubting or you're hurt, and you're just beat up by your own failures and faults, relax for a second.
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Just slow down. The same God that gave you that little feeling when you were first saved, or that same
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God that you actually believed that forgave you, and He's been doing this to you. Hey, come on back.
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Yo, man, you keep going left, I keep saying right. You're going in circles. I want to tell you, there's hope.
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There is. If you just need some prayer for abused and battered soul, man, let's pray for you.
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For all you other Christians that are perfect in every way, okay? I need you to do something besides stand there and stare at a stupid screen.
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I need you to go find someone who is hurting and actually be the church and minister to them.
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I'm going to ask everyone to stand up, and if God has spoken to you today, please be obedient, and you come as God leads.