The Exam

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

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Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
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Father God, just as we had sung to you, Father, I need you.
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I need you now to fill me with your spirit.
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I need you now to empower me to preach your word.
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Father, if you do not empower me, Father, studies would be in vain.
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The speaking of your word would be in vain.
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And Father, if these words that leave my lips are not mixed with faith for the hearer, Father, the heart will not be transformed.
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So God, meet with us today.
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Father, be honored.
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Be glorified in your word.
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Father, I pray for the hearer that they would listen, that their hearts would be converted, if they are unbeliever.
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And that Father, if the believer is here, that he would examine himself and take it to heart.
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Father, we would not put ourselves beside the word, but God, put ourselves under the word.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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Can everybody hear me? At least now you can.
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Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 13.
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I'm going to read the first five verses.
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This is the third time I'm coming to you.
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Every fact is confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
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I have previously said, when I sent the second time, and though now absent, I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone, since you are seeking proof of Christ in me.
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And who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you? For indeed, he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God.
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For we also are weak in him, yet we will live with him because of the power of God directed toward you.
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Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith.
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Examine yourself.
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Or do you not recognize this about yourself, that Christ is in you? Unless indeed you fail the test.
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Paul, in dealing with the Corinthian church, had much patience.
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He was a true pastor.
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He lovingly corrected, rebuked, and encouraged the church in Corinth.
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Paul's first letter addressed a number of things that were a necessity.
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He encouraged them to be in unity with one another.
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But he would later explain that divisions were necessary.
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And as Keith had preached through this book, I'm just not trying to recap the whole thing, but I want to bring some context to what's going on.
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He all went on to say that the wisdom of the world was foolishness, and that we needed to rely on the Holy Spirit.
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Servants of the Lord must be found trustworthy.
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Sexual immorality must be rebuked, and discipline must be enforced.
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He said, quit suing one another.
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Then he gave some instructions on marriage.
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He said, be careful with your Christian liberty, that you not offend your brother.
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He said, remember the mistakes of Israel, and please, please, avoid idolatry.
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He said, be imitators of Christ.
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He then went on to address some spiritual gifts issues, and saying that speaking in tongues was not the most important, that preaching and prophecy was.
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The facts of Christ's resurrection were one of the ending subjects, and then he went on to say the mystery of the resurrection.
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But when you get to 2 Corinthians, Paul reaffirms his love towards the ministry of the people, and he wanted them to, the very man that they had put out for sleeping with his mother-in-law, he had repented, and he said, receive him back, and receive him in love, and comfort him.
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He encouraged them not to lose heart, that this life was temporal, and that there was so much more of an eternal glory that was awaiting.
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He explained that godly sorrow would lead to true repentance, and that worldly sorrow would lead to eternal death.
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Paul defended his apostleship, his ministry.
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He even gave his apostolic pedigree.
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He then begins to speak of himself as having a vision of going to heaven.
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But then he says he didn't want to exalt himself, so God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him, which was the thorn in the flesh.
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All of this, and there were still slanderers and detractors who tried to oust Paul as a true apostle.
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So when we get to 2 Corinthians, at the end, he says, you're wanting to see proof of what I am? He said, who are you? He said, examine yourself.
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Paul was a true apostle, a true pastor.
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He loves his sheep, the sheep that he was shepherding at that church.
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But I want to look at verse 5 in a different light.
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There are passages in the Bible that can stand on their own.
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Passages that can be preached on their own.
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John 3, 16 can be preached on its own, although it sits in a context.
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All of the I am passages that Christ says of himself sit within a context.
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They can be preached on their own.
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1 Corinthians 6, 9-11 can be preached on its own.
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And there are others, those are just a few.
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All verses sit within a context.
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But these, some can be preached.
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But it is careful that we not preach them in a pretext to distort their meaning.
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Before Keith left on his vacation, he preached on heaven and hell.
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One of those sermons, he spoke of the wheats and the tares, the true and the false, the sheep and the goats.
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And Andy preached a wonderful message last week on true worship, the quality of our worship, the false, unacceptable worship as well.
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And he made this statement, brothers and sisters, young and old, and you all figure out who are the old.
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We need to examine our worship.
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And I think that is exactly what we need to do today.
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We need to take an examination.
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And I would like to continue that examination today.
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And I will say this right up front because I love each and every one of you, that my intention is not to offend anyone.
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And Brother Andy has often said that I'm much more comfortable standing in the middle of I-95 preaching.
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And in this case, this would be one of those days.
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Because it is often that when this passage is preached that people are offended.
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And that is not my intent.
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My intent is not to cause tender consciences or fragile feelings to begin to go into spare doubt.
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It's not to incite anger, malice, or any form of indignation.
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And parents and grandparents, when this passage is preached, they tend to be offended most that their children will doubt.
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And I'm aware this may occur today.
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And I am willing to heap whatever comes when I stand at the end today for anyone that wants to speak with me concerning this.
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But my intent is not to offend anyone.
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This text sits within two imperatives.
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Test and prove.
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And let's walk through the text.
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Like always, first word.
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Test.
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The Greek word is periazo.
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It's most often times this word is used in a negative connotation.
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And those of you that ever read your Greek text or go through any type of exegetical in the original language, you'll see that in Matthew chapter 4, it says that Jesus was led away to be tempted by the tempter.
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The word that is used is the same word.
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Has a negative connotation.
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Matthew chapter 22 verse 18 is the same thing as, why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Has a negative connotation.
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And then in Acts 15 verse 10, the same thing.
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Why do you put God to the test? And that was Peter standing up at Jerusalem council speaking against circumcision.
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In this case, the context actually has a positive connotation.
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The word actually means to put on trial, to test, to endeavor, to scrutinize, and even to show the genuineness of one's character or something's validity.
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Well, who is the one to be tested? Who is the one to be scrutinized? It says you are.
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Next word says yourself, oneself.
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Notice that it doesn't say test your neighbor.
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It doesn't say test your spouse.
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It doesn't say test your children.
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It doesn't say test your grandchildren.
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It doesn't even say test another church member.
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It says nothing about pointing out flaws in other people.
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It says nothing about trying to see if another person is true or false.
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It doesn't say we're to become the self-proclaimed president of the Sin Sniffers Association and look for fault in others.
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The command here is to test yourself.
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You look at wanting to be the center of attention in Scripture? Well, here's one of them.
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Everybody likes to say, that verse is talking about me.
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Raise your hand of how many people have said this verse when they want to talk about themselves.
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Zero.
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Test yourself.
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You want to be the center stage today? Test yourself.
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Why? What's the purpose of this examination? And why is it necessary? Well, the Scripture is clear.
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Look at the next phrase.
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To see if you are in the faith.
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To see is a second class conditional clause.
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Whether or not in some of your translations.
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It's to determine or to make a determination whether you are in the faith.
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This examination has two parts.
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Two tests.
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The first part is the next phrase.
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In the faith.
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In is a preposition.
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Although it's two letters, it is huge.
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It is a huge word.
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And even in the Greek, it's only two letters.
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You know what in sounds like in Greek? In.
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Two letters.
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And I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times.
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The world and theology can change on a preposition.
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You say, how can that be? Well, let me say this.
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You want to see doctrinal clarity with four prepositions? By grace alone.
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Through faith alone.
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In Christ alone.
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To God alone be the glory.
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Each one of those begins with a preposition.
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You change that.
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You can alter your eternal destiny.
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If it's not in by grace alone, then what is it? Some form of works.
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It's damdible heresy.
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If it's not through faith alone, it's faith plus something else.
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Damdible heresy.
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If it's not in Christ alone, damdible heresy.
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And if it's not all to God be the glory, damdible heresy.
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The Bible consistently uses this word to convey the right standing of Christians before God.
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Twelve times in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 through 13, in Him.
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In the Beloved.
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In Christ is used.
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Ah, you say, look at that banner.
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What does it say? There is therefore now no condemnation to who? Those who are in Christ.
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The right standing before God.
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But the faith.
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This is a definite article.
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When it says in the faith, the is a definite article.
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Not a faith.
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Not a form of faith.
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But a specific type of faith.
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It's a specific body of truth.
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And it's to be understood, and it's to be trusted in.
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You go, okay, well what is that faith? What is that? What is that body of truth to be believed? And what is the bare minimum that someone must believe in order to be in the faith? First Corinthians chapter 15.
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Paul tells us what is of first importance.
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He says, first I delivered unto you first importance.
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And he says, where did he receive it from? He says, I received this from Christ.
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And he says, the importance is this, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
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He was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
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And he appeared to Cephas.
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Then to the twelve.
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And after that he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time.
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Most of them who remain to now, but some of them have fallen asleep.
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Then he appeared to James.
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And then to the apostles.
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And last of all, in one untimely born, he appeared to me also.
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That is foundational.
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If you do not believe that Jesus Christ was died, buried, and rose again, you are not a Christian.
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That is foundational.
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Can a person understand the election of God? No, we don't go out and preach the election of God.
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We don't go out and preach the structure of the home.
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We don't go out and preach the structure of the church.
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We preach Christ and Him crucified.
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Everything is foundational from that point.
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Now, there is something that is understood and to be assumed that will be believed after believing that foundational truth.
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You say, well, what is that? Well, let me tell you what that is as well.
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There is one God.
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He exists in three persons.
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He is the Father, He is the Son, He is the Holy Spirit.
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Three persons, co-equal, co-exist, all in communion with one another.
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And that God, with a desire to put on display His power and His glory, created the heavens and earth and everything that is in it.
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He created man in His image.
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That man was Adam.
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He gave him a wife.
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Her name was Eve.
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And they put Him in the most beautiful place, the Garden of Eden.
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The best place of provision that God could ever provide for anyone.
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And He gave him one prohibition.
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Do not eat of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil.
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But what did Adam and Eve do? They rebelled.
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Casting all of creation into corruption, giving all of His progeny or His offspring a sinful nature that would desire to worship everything other than the God that created them.
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But then God promised that He would send a Redeemer.
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That He would send someone that would make all things new again.
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And that He would send prophet after prophet and prophet and be the mouthpiece.
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And that prophet after prophet after prophet, you know what their message was? It was to repent.
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But in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born under the law, born of a virgin, to redeem those under the law.
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And this man's name would be Jesus.
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Prophesied, and He would save His people from their sins.
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Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man.
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He lived a perfect life.
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He obeyed everything that God required of Him.
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That would qualify Him to be the sin-bearer of every person that would ever believe.
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Jesus preached the same message as the prophets.
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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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And He healed the sick, He made lame get up, He made the blind see, He even stood before tombs and dead people and said, Get up.
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Then Jesus Christ willingly went to Calvary and He bore the wrath for every sinner that would ever believe.
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And that man was put to death by the sinful hands of men.
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He was buried for three days and He rose again.
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And now God's calling all men everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world in righteousness.
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And how do we know He's going to judge the world in righteousness? Because He validified the person who He would do that by raising him up from the dead.
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That is the message of the good news.
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If you do not believe that, you are not a Christian.
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But I want you to understand this.
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Simple believing those facts is not saving faith.
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I believed every one of those.
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My dad was a preacher.
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I believed every one of those facts.
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And I held my fist to God and wished He was a man that I could put my hands on.
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But I would have identified with every one of those as being true.
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But there's a second imperative.
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And it says, examine yourself.
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It's right there in the text.
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The word here, Greek word, is dokimazo.
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And it actually means to prove oneself.
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Prove it.
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Show it.
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It says, do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? Then prove it.
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Let it be shown.
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A better way of understanding that statement is prove yourself.
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It's interesting that the Bible never says to show that a person is a believer by go back to a place in time.
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It never says, go back to your pastor.
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He says, that's the concept of the culture today.
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Well, let's just go back to a time.
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Let's go back to a place where you can remember where you walked an aisle, shook a man's hand, or went to VBS, and then you had these spaghetti-spine preachers that say you should never doubt your salvation.
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I tell you, you better.
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You better.
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And if you're a believer here today, or claim to be a believer, and you've never doubted your salvation, I would call into question, are you sure? Think of the thoughts that come through your mind.
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Do I believe that a person can lose their salvation? No, I do not.
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Do I believe that once a person's saved, they're saved forever? Yes, I do.
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But how can you sit and say, I have had my heart transformed by the person and work of Jesus Christ, and you think the things you think, you act the way that you act.
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Dude, you should call into question.
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If they didn't, Paul wouldn't have said, examine yourself, and if you have a problem with it, take it up with Paul.
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I don't care how many times you've been baptized.
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I don't care how many times you have held a pastor's hand or an evangelist.
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It makes no difference.
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I have been in places where they have prayed a prayer, signed a card, given a baptismal certificate, and said, you know what? Anytime you have a doubt, you use this to beat the devil over the head.
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I know someone that has nine baptismal certificates.
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Oh, which one do you go back to? I don't care how many biblical languages you know.
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I don't care if you can read Greek.
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I don't care if you can read Hebrew.
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I don't care how many times you have been baptized.
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I don't care if you have a baptismal certificate tattooed on your back.
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If you've not been transformed by the personal work of Jesus Christ, you're not a Christian.
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Have you been transformed by Christ? Matthew 10.37 says, if you love anyone more than me, you can have no part of me.
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You must not love father, mother more than me, or you can have no part of me.
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You cannot love sister or brother more than me, or you can have no part of me.
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You can plug anything in there.
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Job, girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, whatever.
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Those are the words of Christ.
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And for some people, that's hard to swallow.
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But that transformation is rooted in love.
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Love for God.
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Let me read to you 1 Peter 1 6-8.
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He says, As in this you greatly rejoice, that even though now for a while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found the result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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And though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
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And though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him.
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You greatly rejoice with joy expressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your soul.
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Do you love the One you do not see? Do you believe the One whom you do not see? Do you love Christ? I remember Keith standing right here and saying how broken he was that he never told his son that it was not to believe in Jesus, but do you love Him? Jesus says, Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, but you do not do what I say? That's hard to swallow because we are unfaithful people.
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Fortunately, and thank the Lord, our salvation does not depend upon us.
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It depends on the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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And that's what we trust in.
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But some glib tongue confession that you believe in Jesus and that you love Him and that your life has no evidence, I'm sorry, you're not a believer.
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Those of you that know me know I sleep about two hours a night.
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I don't stay awake thinking about some of your souls, but I do think about some of you when I am awake.
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And I am concerned.
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When I was impressed upon the Lord to preach this passage, there were names that came in.
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There were faces.
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Some of them here.
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Some of them not here today.
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Understand we're not talking about apostasy here.
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We're not talking about someone who says, you know what? Forget Jesus.
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I'm going to go my own way.
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Paul is talking to people that were sitting within the church professing believers.
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But you want to know what? Let's not take any more of my words for it.
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You want to see what the Scripture says about transformation? Let's see what it says.
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And once again, I'd like to quote Andy.
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Great theologian, Bible teacher, friend, fellow elder and brother.
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He said this statement.
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I'm going to use it a lot when people don't like what I say.
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If these words bother you today, it's God's words I'm about to read.
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And I will hide behind the cross.
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It's a profound statement.
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First John.
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You don't have to turn there.
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But I would ask you this.
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We spend all time reading everything else.
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You could read the book of First John in 15 minutes.
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15 minutes.
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How much time do you spend on Facebook? Instagram? All that other nonsense.
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15 minutes.
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Here's what transformation looks like.
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This is the message, which we have heard from Him and announced to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
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If we say we have fellowship with Him, yet we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light, as He Himself is the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all our sins.
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By this we know that we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.
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The one who says, I have come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in Him.
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But whoever keeps His word, in Him the love of God has truly been perfected and this we know that we are in Him.
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The one who says He is in the light, yet he hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now and the one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
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Do not love the world or the things that are in the world.
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If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world.
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The world is passing away and also its lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
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This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
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Whoever denies the Son denies the Father and the one who confesses the Son has the Father.
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Well, that excludes our Orthodox Jews, doesn't it? Who say we believe in God, but not the Son.
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If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of God.
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Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet when we will be like him, but we know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him as he is and everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness.
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Sin is lawlessness.
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No one who abides in him sins.
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You say, so if we sin, are we going to hell? Well, wait a second.
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You can go back to 1 John at the beginning.
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It says, My little children, my desire is that you not sin, but if you do sin, you have an advocate with Jesus Christ.
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And if you confess your sins, he will be faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
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But is your lifestyle characterized by lawlessness? We don't know.
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We're not with each other every day of the week.
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We're not every hour.
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What are you like when you're home, when you're alone? Little children, that's not me saying that.
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That's the words.
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Little children, make sure no one deceives you.
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The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as Christ is righteous, but the one who practices sin is of the devil.
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No one who is born of God practices sin, but anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
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For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, and I'll say it to you again.
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Love one another.
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We know that we have passed from death unto life.
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Why? Because we love the brethren.
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Do you love God's people? Do you? I'm not talking about coming in here and do you like the church.
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Do you love God's people? He who does not love abides in death.
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Whoever believes that Jesus Christ is born of God, whoever loves the Father loves the one born of Him, meaning Christ.
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But this we know, that we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments.
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And this is the final statement that he makes.
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John the Beloved, the one who rested his head on Jesus' breast at the night of His betrayal, and this is what he says, I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
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This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us and we know that He hears us.
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And whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which He has given to us.
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He wrote these things so that we would know if we have eternal life.
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Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe He is the Son of God? Do you believe all of the historical facts? Maybe.
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But has your life been transformed by it? No transformation, no Christ.
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As the old Puritans used to say, no holiness, no heaven.
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Pursue holiness, for without it, no man will see God.
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Pursue Christ.
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You say, well, why the examination? Why continually test ourselves? And He tells us in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, unless you indeed fail the test.
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It's like failing a math quiz, you understand.
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This isn't failing your driver's license test.
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You fail this test, you die.
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You will bear the full weight in justice and judgment of a holy God who says in the book of Hebrews, who His fire and indignation will consume His adversary.
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The words of Love incarnate are this.
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There will be many on that day that say, Lord, Lord.
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And they will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And then they will say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not heal the sick? Did we not help those in need? And these are the most terrifying words in all of Scripture.
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Depart from me, I never knew you.
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Those are sobering words.
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That was Jesus Christ on the very first sermon He ever preached.
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That's why we test ourselves.
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That's why.
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Are you believing in Christ today? Great.
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Is your life walking in transformation? Great.
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Continue in the faith.
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Hold fast.
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You must persevere.
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You must continue in the faith.
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I want to read something, and then I'll close, shut my mouth.
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My wife is not here today.
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She would probably fall over if she was here when I read this.
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I have not shared this email with anyone.
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Anyone but her.
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When I read this, this is why you continually test yourself.
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I was very close to this individual, and I will tell you this will be difficult to read, but it is necessary.
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PhD.
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Executive Pastor of the third largest Southern Baptist church in Florida.
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Professor of preaching.
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Books.
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Keynote speaker.
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Church planner.
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Marriage counselor.
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Curriculum writer.
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This was my friend.
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I love this man very dearly, or at least who I thought he was.
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This came to me a few months ago.
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After much counseling, Bible reading, and personal conversations, I've come to realize that, Mike, I have a pride problem.
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No kidding.
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These conversations, Bible reading, and counseling was to try to reveal the source, correct my mind, and set me on a new course of living in a way that would better others.
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My first recollection of this pride came as a young adult in 1996.
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I was a pastor of a small church in North Carolina.
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The deacons had made a financial offer to me, and I accepted it, but rather found out that they wanted me to pay rent out of my salary to this parsonage.
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Rather than protecting the reputation of Christ and contributing to the health of the church, I chose to battle for the money.
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In my mind, I won that battle and was able to keep my entire salary and not pay the rent.
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This selfish victory began a long road of ministry motivated by money.
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I maintained a continual pursuit of churches, speaking engagements, and for the purpose of financial gain in the name of Jesus Christ.
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My second recollection of pride came with more than one event, but just a series of events.
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As the church that I had taken some ecclesiastical success, my name was attached to that and its accolades.
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My appetite for the praise of men increased with every word of praise that was lavished on me.
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I began a 25-plus year journey of ministry that fed my appetite for money and to preach better than anyone else, write more eloquent, impactful Bible studies than anyone else who had ever read, and to have the crowds laugh at my jokes, applaud my dogmatism, and come forward for invitations.
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My third recollection of pride paralleled the second.
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As a fame and minister of the gospel, so did the respect and admiration of my family became.
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I fed on people hearing my kids and my wife bragging about me, telling of others of my speaking engagements, seeing me ascend to the heights of church ministry.
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They applauded me.
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All of their pure hearts became food for my insatiable appetite for approval.
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My fourth recollection of pride, sadistic as it may sound, came with a cancer diagnosis.
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I immediately went to show the world how a Christian man would respond after devastating news of his spouse being diagnosed with cancer.
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I offered biblical correct insight on how I was valiantly trusting God and leaning on Him and celebrating Him through this pain.
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The comments became a daily dose that satisfied my insatiable pride.
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Every comment from people, although shared in love, became a type of water for my thirsty heart of pride.
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Through a series of lies, deception, ungodly financial gain from people that loved the Lord, I now know that God's wrath on earth was against me and He took me from the pulpit.
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To stop this prideful man from falsely representing Christ, I was removed.
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I found myself seeking employment in the real world.
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I even used that as a means to boost my ego.
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My interpretation of that was Him removing me from His pulpit so that I could go on to serve Him in the real world, in the harsh world of the marketplace.
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I turned His judgment into a vehicle to promote myself as a selfless servant of God that would no longer feed on the income of the church, although I continued to do so.
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I viewed myself as the sinner of all that had occurred and justified the sin in my own heart.
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The pursuit was short-lived and the excursion was short.
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If I could not be prosperous and popular through the vehicle of the church, I would be prosperous and popular through the vehicle of sin.
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After the cancer had reached its soul and killed my wife, I turned quickly to alcohol and quickly rose to popularity in a party scene.
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I became the sinner of the bar.
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In preacher-like fashion, high tops became my pulpit.
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I entertained crowds to make people laugh.
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In the environment that was running fast, laughter often turned to violence and I fed my pride to be the funniest or the meanest in the same night.
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I watched my family deteriorate.
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My pride was so large that it was the only entity that I desired to nurture.
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As my body grew weary and my wallet grew light, I decided that I would return to Christian living.
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I gave up the bottle, returned to my family, but it was short-lived.
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My pride would not allow me to do that.
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My heart and mind were empty without the accolades of sinful financial gain and the accolades and praise of men.
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It did not take long for me to once again choose my own way.
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This time God was gracious again.
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He slightly removed His restraining hand.
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I believed that I could do all that He required under my own power and my mind viewed life as a means to be happy.
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Happiness would be achieved by reading the Bible and just doing what it says.
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Pride had now reached its pinnacle.
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I truly believed that I could do what God required of me under my own power.
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As I surveyed my life, is there brokenness in my life? Well, tonight I had to answer that question.
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Not one time had I ever been broken before Christ.
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Brokenness over habitually violating His law for my own pleasure? Never.
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I had never recognized my life because it wasn't there.
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I was a prideful, self-deceived man.
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I lived convincing that my preaching, my writing, my family, my service to the Lord was done as a sacrificial servant even though I sacrificed nothing but the trust and money of people.
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In reality, my entire life has been about serving myself.
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The reality of the truth consumed me tonight.
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My mind raced back to a thousand different moments that I deceived myself, deceived others, that I was working for Jesus and I had a thousand different conversations that I believed were for His glory and it finds out that we're doing nothing but self-promoting myself to be seen as a godly, intelligent man.
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I came under deep conviction of the Spirit that I was a lost man tonight.
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I had gained biblical knowledge that had only puffed me up but I had never yielded my heart to the person and work of Jesus Christ that had my life transformed.
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My life was characterized by doing nothing but breaking His law.
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I was an unregenerate man who sought the gain regardless of the cost of others.
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You, along with your family, your friends, and my family, and most of all, the Lord, were deeply violated.
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My chronic lies and deception and stealing from you and God was an act of self-worship.
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I would ask for you to forgive me for being exactly what you called me, a liar and a thief and a wolf in sheep's clothing.
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I would ask that you would extend grace and mercy for all the deep, horrendous pain that I have caused you and your family all these years.
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I was a self-deceived deceiver believing I was one of His when all along, my heart and my life testified of something different.
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That's why you examine yourself.
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He was my closest friend.
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That's why you examine yourself.
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That's why you have men around you and women around you to ask the tough questions.
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Did I have tough questions with Him? Yes.
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Is He transformed? I don't know.
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Has God saved Him? I don't know.
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I pray that that is the case.
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But you talk about someone that could soar in the pulpit.
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You talk about someone who knew His Bible.
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You talk about someone that could talk a good game.
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By all stretch of the imagination, there would be no one other than that man who would have known that he was lost.
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So examine yourself.
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Are you in the faith? And the faith is not right doctrine, although that is part of it.
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But right doctrine is not an end in and of itself.
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It's a means to an end.
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If the doctrine that you believe has not changed your life, you're not a Christian.
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If you love anything more than Jesus Christ, you're not a Christian.
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Now, does that mean we're perfect? No.
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Look, man, there's nobody on the face of this planet I love more than Sybil Collier.
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My wife.
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But do I always give her the care and concern that she needs? No.
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But I don't love anyone more than her.
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Do I always give her the time that she needs? No.
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And you know what? I believe that's why God uses a marriage relationship as a picture of a union to Him.
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We neglect one another.
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And we're going to neglect our time with Christ.
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But if that's the pattern of your life, test yourself.
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Let's pray.
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Father God, thank You for Your Word.
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Thank You that it is a mirror that we can hold up to ourself and we can say, is that me? Father, thank You at times that Your Word does just like the prophet Nathan did and he stuck out that bony hand and he pointed at King David and he said, You're that man.
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God, it's only Your grace that points that out in our life that if we're not walking consistently with You, God, it's Your grace that points that out and points us back to Your Son.
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God, I pray that the believer would find rest and assurance in the person work of Jesus Christ by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
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Father, if there is a person here that affirms those facts, but it's not changed their life, please, God, for the glory of Your name and the glory of Your Son, terrify them in Your wrath.
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Father, just as today is here, there is a day coming and You will judge all things and You will separate the sheep from the goats and then it is too late.
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There will be no commuted sentences.
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There will be no pardons given.
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Two things be said.
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Well done, my good and faithful servant or depart from me.
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I never knew you.
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God, we love You.
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We thank You for who You are, for being holy, for being righteous, good in all of Your ways.
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Thank You for sending Your Son, making a way to You available and thank You for the Holy Spirit which is the sign and seal for the day of our redemption.
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God, as we take the elements now, I pray that You would be honored and glorified in Christ's name.
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Amen.