F4F | Naked and Unafraid Part 2

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ, and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

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Word of God. No shortage of crazy things being said out there. We take the time to compare what, you know, most popular pastors, preachers, teachers, conference speakers, self -proclaimed prophets, prophetesses, self -appointed apostles and apostolates.

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Those are the only kind of apostles there are today, and we compare them to the Word of God. Now, one of the things that animates us and motivates us is to warn you about messages that scratch itching ears.

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It's a major theme here at Fighting for the Faith, and I want to look at the biblical text before we get to Kevin Gerald in Part 2 of Naked and Unafraid.

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But before we do that, go ahead and like the video. Don't forget to subscribe down below. Ring the bell so that you can be notified when we update the channel.

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And let's take a look at a biblical text, shall we? 2 Timothy chapter 3. I'm gonna start at verse 10, and we're gonna work our way into 2

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Timothy 4. Again, this is part of what the Scripture warns us about, and this isn't merely the

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Apostle Paul warning us, because what Paul wrote is Scripture. It's the Anustos. It's God breathed.

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Even Peter himself, the guy who walked on the water, that guy, the guy who denied Jesus three times, yeah, that guy.

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He even says in 2 Peter that Paul's writing, that all of his writings, they're

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Scripture. This is the Word of God we're talking about here. And as Paul's getting ready to die, because 2

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Timothy is the last letter he writes, yeah, so as he's getting ready to give the ultimate witness for Christ, and that is him having his head lifted off his shoulders by a

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Roman centurion by the command of Nero, before he goes to his death, he's writing a letter to young Pastor Timothy, who is the pastor of a congregation in the city of Ephesus, and he's reminding him of a few things, pointing him to the

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Scriptures. And there's something important that he says. He says, "...you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and Lystra, which persecutions

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I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me." So you point something out here.

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The normal Christian life includes sufferings, persecutions, all kinds of stuff.

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Yeah, the Apostle Paul shows us how to participate in the sufferings of Christ in that way, but the

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Lord will rescue us from them all. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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Yay. He said all, not some. All. While evil people and impostors, and boy, there are a lot of those in the church today, impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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But as for you, you Pastor Timothy, as for you, continue in what you have learned, how you firmly believe, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings.

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Grammata in the Greek. Writings. This is, yeah, the Scriptures, the Word of God.

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These are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God.

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It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

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Every single good work. God's Word, the written Word. And the word for Scripture here, all

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Scripture, grafe, all Scripture. Writing is, you know, this is the

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Bible we're talking about. It's breathed out by God, and it will make you complete and equip you for every good work as a

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Christian. So as Paul's getting ready to go to his death, here's his charge. You can almost think of this akin to kind of a last will and testament.

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You know, when someone's getting ready to die, you know, usually the last things they say are super important, you know.

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That's kind of the idea, you know. My grandmother's dying wish was, you know, you get the idea.

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So I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom.

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So he's invoking the return of Christ here. Are you ready? Preach the

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Word. The Word. Now that means you have to preach it properly. Be ready in season and out of season.

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Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And here didache could be translated as doctrine, okay, with complete patience and doctrine.

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Teaching is doctrine, by the way. And here's the reason why. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching or sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers to suit their own passions.

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They will turn away from listening to the truth, and they will wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober -minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

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So it doesn't matter if preaching God's Word is in season or out of season. If it's in vogue or despised, you know what you're supposed to do?

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Preach the Word and, yeah, endure suffering if that's what's gonna happen as a result of preaching the

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Word. It does result in that for men who are faithful to preach what

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God's Word says. So all that being said, we live in the time where I get, you know, in the course of me doing

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Fighting for the Faith and my podcast as well as YouTube channel, we have documented hundreds, thousands of men and now women, who shouldn't be preaching anyway, who are teaching people what they want to hear, teaching absolute myths.

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They are not rightly handling God's Word. They are not, how shall we say it, preaching the full counsel of the

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Word of God. And in this regard, I think it's a good cross -reference. If we were to go to Romans, yeah, sorry,

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Acts chapter 20. I had to think about it there for a second. Acts chapter 20, the Apostle Paul's final words to the church at Ephesus, his final time seeing them in the flesh, and consider his admonition here, and you're gonna notice it's in the same vein as his warning and his admonition to young Pastor Timothy.

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And so Paul, you know, so let's, in fact, let's start in verse 17 for context.

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Three rules for sound biblical exegesis are context, context, context, and yeah, they apply to me too.

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They apply to everybody. I don't get exempted from this. Now for Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus, he called the elders of the church to come to him, and when they came to him, he said to them, you yourselves know how

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I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the

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Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public from house to house, testifying to both

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Jews and Greeks of, and listen to the words, of repentance towards God and of faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is an important word, because repentance is the thing that is missing for the most part in a lot of today's feel -good sermons.

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In fact, discussing sin, calling sin, sin, calling it out as sin, it's a quick way to make sure that you're not going to have a megachurch, and so people don't preach repentance anymore, and it's rare that it comes up, and in the megachurches the word is completely missing, even the concept itself.

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But the Apostle Paul basically says that he didn't shrink back from teaching and declaring to you what was profitable, and of teaching repentance towards God and in faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Which, by the way, if you were to look at Luke 24, and in fact

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I'll do a little cross reference work in the middle of this teaching, in Luke 24, Jesus Himself tells the church what they're supposed to be preaching.

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Think of it this way, this Luke's version of the Great Commission, and so it says in verse 45 of Luke 24, "...then

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Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins," repentance for the forgiveness of sins, "...should

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be proclaimed in His name, in Christ's name, to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things."

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So you'll note that Paul's message of repentance towards God, faith in Christ, faith in Christ for what? For the forgiveness of sins.

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Paul was a repentance preacher. Jesus was a repentance preacher. All of His Apostles were repentance preachers.

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And so Paul here is reminding the Church of Ephesus, I didn't shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching in public from house to house of repentance towards God, and of faith in our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I'm going to Jerusalem, and I'm constrained by the

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Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.

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But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the

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Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that none of you among whom

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I've gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. You'll note this is very consistent with what

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Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy, and in this particular case Paul knows that the Spirit makes it clear afflictions await him.

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He doesn't know if it's gonna die or not. So listen, these are the final words of a dying man, or a man,

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I will never see you on earth again. So pay attention. These are the final thoughts. Therefore I testify to you to this day that I am innocent of the blood of all.

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Wait, what? Yeah. In the Old Testament, in Ezekiel, if you fail to preach repentance to sinners, and they die in their sin,

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God will hold you responsible for their blood. That's what it says in the Prophet Ezekiel.

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So Paul, knowing this full well, says I'm innocent of the blood of all. I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of the

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Word of God. And there it is. So much of the bad preaching today, the ear -scratching bit, it is not the whole counsel of the

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Word of God. It is carefully designed in order to avoid that which would offend, or that which would make it so that somebody's church would stop growing and be a megachurch, or that person would lose popularity.

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Paul says here, you know, I'm innocent of your blood because I didn't shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

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So pay careful attention to yourselves, you pastors, and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

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Yeah, this is a reference to Jesus's blood. Notice it says God obtained the church with his blood.

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When did God bleed? On the cross, because Jesus is God in human flesh. So know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

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And from among your own selves will arise men who will speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.

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And that's what false teachers do. They don't make disciples of Jesus, they make disciples of themselves. So therefore be alert, remembering for three years

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I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears, and now I commend you to the grace to God and to the word of his grace.

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I commend you to the word which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

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You kind of get the idea. So Paul in 2nd Timothy, then, similar theme going on here.

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The time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers who will suit their own passions, turn away from the listening to the truth, and wander off in the midst.

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That's today. That is absolutely today. So with that as our foundation, and let me get this kind of ready for what's coming next, we're going to head back to the

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Champion Center and listen to a portion of Part 2 of Naked and Unafraid as Kevin Gerald, who

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I consider to be the fake Rolex, to Joel Osteen's bizarre teachings.

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Osteen's the original, this guy's a knockoff, cheap knockoff. And we're listening to Naked and Unafraid Part 2, and we're going to note here this is a carefully crafted message.

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Very carefully crafted message to not preach repentance, to not proclaim repentance in the forgiveness of sins, but instead, you know, to basically make it sound like, you know,

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God just wants you to have an expansive life, man. And we'll demonstrate how he does what he does here.

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So here we go. This series is about embracing the risk and experiencing the rewards of living a large, open, and expansive life.

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Now off the top of your head, what do those words mean? What does it mean to live a large, open, and expansive life?

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I have no idea. I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't even know where he got these words.

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Amen? So say this out loud with me, if you would. Just say, my heart's open, my mind's ready.

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Make me better, God. By your Word. I receive it.

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I believe it. I won't be the same again. In Jesus' name.

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I'll never be the same again. When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.

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In Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. So last week, we started talking about the five keys and the first one that we talked about.

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Five keys. Now, off the top of your head, where are these five keys found in the Bible for living an expansive life?

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Can you think of the passage that lays them out? Is it in the Proverbs? Where is this list? It's called risk exposure.

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First key. Risk exposure. Yeah, you know, it's found in 5

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Corinthians, I think. Five keys to living that more open, that large, that expansive life.

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And so we talked about risking exposure. Yeah, again, which of the apostles talked about risking exposure?

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We talked about the choice that we all make between window watching and street dancing.

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Yeah, we noticed how you twist the story of David and Michal. We said that playing it safe is dangerous and that comfort is...

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Oh, the irony. Playing it safe is dangerous. Pseudo profundity. This is not what the

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Bible teaches. It's overrated. Today, we are in the second of five keys, which is called abandon smallness.

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And what exactly does it mean to abandon smallness?

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So these are the five keys he has listed and he's focusing in on key number two. We need to risk exposure.

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This week, we're going to learn about abandoning smallness. We're going to push past criticism and key number three.

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And then key number four is own your story. Yeah. And then fight for your future.

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Which biblical text lays out these five keys? Which of the systematic theologies, the good doctrinal theology texts out there, have these five keys listed for us in this order?

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Of course, you know, based upon a clear biblical text that says we need to risk exposure, abandon smallness, push past criticism, own your story and fight for your future.

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You'll note that just when you start listing these keys in this way, you begin to see how the game is played.

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Who discovered these keys? Kevin Gerald discovered these keys. Peter didn't believe these keys.

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Paul didn't believe these keys. Jesus never taught him. Isaiah never said him.

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Jeremiah, no. David or the psalmist, Moses and the

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Torah never talked about these keys. The person who discovered these keys is

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Kevin Gerald. He invented them. This is mythology. This is man -made doctrine. So we're encouraging you today, if you want to live that large open expansive life, what we call naked and unafraid, first of all, you have to risk exposure.

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And then secondly, you have to abandon smallness.

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Again, what does that even mean? 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11 says, dear, dear

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Corinthians. Now I'm going to point something out here. 2 Corinthians 6 verse 11 parentheses,

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MSG, close parentheses, MSG. Where is he getting this?

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From the message paraphrase. It's not a translation. It's a paraphrase, which means he's not going to rightly handle

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God's Word. There's like no chance he's going to do that. And if he attempts to exegete the

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MSG, he's going to deceive people. Yeah.

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The paraphrase, the MSG, you should avoid it like the plague. You really, really should.

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It has no value whatsoever. Throw it in the trash like the passion translation.

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Maybe burn it at a barbecue so that it doesn't fall into somebody else's hands and deceive them. Neither of these are capable of rightly teaching you anything that God's Word says.

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They are not faithful to the original languages at all. You need a good, modern translation.

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And the MSG is nothing to study from, and no pastor should ever preach from it.

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So 2 Corinthians 6 verse 11. Let's see what it says. Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much

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I long for you to enter this wide -open, spacious life. What wide -open and spacious life?

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So what we're going to do, we're going to apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis yet again, context, context, context.

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We're going to start at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We're going to work our way forward into that middle section of 2

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Corinthians 6 and see if we can figure out from a good, modern translation what's going on here.

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So therefore, if anyone is in Christ, Paul writes, he's a new creation. The old has passed away.

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Behold, the new has come. All of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself, and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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So note, we Christians have been given by Christ the ministry of reconciliation.

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That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the ministry of reconciliation.

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It's like what I pointed out in Luke 24. Christ has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation, and so the idea here, the ministry of reconciliation, is going to do what

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Jesus says, to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in his name.

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That's what Christ was saying. So that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, including 21st century

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America in Tacoma, or wherever you are, right? That repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name, beginning from Jerusalem.

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So Paul says here, then, in 2 Corinthians, we Christians, we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.

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That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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So therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Now, this is a good way to think of your church.

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Every Christian congregation is an embassy. Once you enter the doors, you are no longer in the

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United States. You are now in an embassy of the kingdom of God.

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And here's the thing. In an embassy where the king is the sovereign, the king calls the shots.

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Ambassadors don't get to set policy. They get to announce it. And so the idea here is that your church is an embassy of Christ.

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He's the king. He calls the shots. He's told his ambassadors, you and I, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation to proclaim the message of reconciliation, to call sinners to repentance, and to be forgiven.

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That's the idea. All right? So note, then, as ambassadors, God himself is making his appeal through us.

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This is a big deal. So as ambassadors in Christ's kingdom, whenever you tell somebody,

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I have a message from King Jesus, and the message is you're a sinner and you need to repent, that he's bled and died for you, and he is, for real, because of his death on the cross, offering you a full and complete pardon so that you do not have to suffer the eternal consequences of your sins.

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Repent and be forgiven. And tell him, because God so loved the world, including you, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish, but have eternal life.

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When you do that, when you're preaching that message of reconciliation, the text says God himself is making his appeal through you.

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But in order for you to do that, you have to teach the whole counsel of the word of God.

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You must discuss sin. You have to discuss God's commandments and the fact that all of us have broken them, and you must placard

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Christ and talk about what he's done on the cross by his vicarious, penal substitutionary death and resurrection.

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Mm -hmm. You got to do that. That's all part of the message of reconciliation.

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And when you do that, God himself is then making his appeal to the person whom you are preaching the message of reconciliation through.

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Because why? Because as Paul says in Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.

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And the word of Christ, God's word, it's living and active. So we implore you then, Paul says, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

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You see, for our sake God made him, Christ, to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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So working together with God. So note what 2 Corinthians 6 then begins with.

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We've been entrusted with God with the message of reconciliation. God himself is making his appeal through us.

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We are ambassadors of his kingdom. So therefore we are working together with God.

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All right. Are you a good co -laborer with God or not? If you are faithfully preaching the message that you've been given and not twisting it, then you are working with God.

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Okay. So working together with God, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

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For he says in a favorable time, I listened to you. And in a day of salvation,

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I have helped you. So behold, now, today is the favorable time.

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Behold, now is the day of salvation. So we put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.

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But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.

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By the way, that's the normal Christian life he's describing here, right? By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the

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Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor, dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as imposters, and yet we are true, as unknown and yet well -known, as dying, and behold, we live as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

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We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open.

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You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.

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In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also. So you can tell what's going on here, is that Paul is admonishing the

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Corinthians, the Christians at the church Corinth, to get on with preaching the full counsel of the

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Word of God. Embrace the suffering, the afflictions, the persecutions, the riots.

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Know that you possess the kingdom already. Join us in this work. And then he goes on to say this, so don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

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For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

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What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

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What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we, we

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Christians, we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will make my dwelling place among them and walk among them, and I will be their

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God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst, be separate from them, be separate from the world, says the

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Lord. Touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the

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Lord Almighty. All right, so now we've read all of 2 Corinthians 6 in context with the tail end of 2

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Corinthians 5. And right off the bat, do you see any need for you to embrace, you know, the kind of risk taking that Kevin Gerald's talking about?

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No, no, not at all. Or embracing an open and expansive life, is that what that's all about?

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No, not at all. There is a sense in which he's kind of right, but he's totally missed the point.

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On purpose, what he's saying is vague on purpose so that you can pour your own meaning into this message.

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So let's go back to Kevin Gerald as he's going to read from the message paraphrase. Note, he's reading this passage out of context from the

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MSG. And let's see what he does here. Is he going to call people to repentance, faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins?

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Or is he going to just fill their head with gobbledygook? You know, so that if he even mentions sin at all, it doesn't make any sense.

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Let's continue. I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide open, spacious life.

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What does that mean? We didn't fence you in. We didn't fence you in.

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Fence me in from what? The smallness you feel comes from within you.

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Your lives aren't small. No, they're big. I don't know what this means.

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But you're living them in a small way. Are you living your life in a small way? I'm speaking as plainly as I can.

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This is the Apostle Paul. He's appealing. He's coming on strong. He says,

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I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection.

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I really love you, he's saying. Don't get all twisted. Don't get all bent out of shape.

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Don't get offended. I really love you guys. But open up your lives.

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Live openly and expansively. Yeah. How does one live openly?

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I mean, it's an adverb and expansively. All right.

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So the verb is live. The adverb is openly. What does this mean?

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When we talk about abandoned smallness. So I need to abandon smallness.

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Okay. How does one go about doing that? What is smallness? Abandoned smallness is getting beyond the fear fence.

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Again, what is this? What's a fear fence? And where does the

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Bible talk about fear fences? Notice what he says. He says, we didn't fence you in.

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So now he's exegeting the MSG, which doesn't sound anything like what

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Paul really wrote. You are fenced in, but we're not fencing you in.

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And I think he's saying this on behalf of his role in the church, his representation of God.

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So I think it's fair to add to that, that he's saying God isn't fencing you in.

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I don't know what he's talking about. No clue. God's not fencing me in. Great.

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What's the cash value of these words? I don't know what he's talking about.

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So the kind of fear that we're going to talk about today is not the kind of fear you feel when your life is suddenly in danger.

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No. It's not the panic that you feel when you're on an airplane and it starts to lose altitude, or you hear what sounds like somebody trying to break in your house in the middle of the night.

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The kind of fear that holds people in smallness is more subtle.

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It's harder to recognize. You might call it a hesitation.

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So I need to abandon hesitation. An apprehension.

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An apprehension. At what? A concern.

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I'm just concerned. I need to abandon concern. Concern for what?

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An insecurity. Insecurity about what? Fear, like the fear of rejection.

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I need to abandon the fear of rejection. So if a junior high kid hears this message, and he's gone to his first ever dance, and there's girls on one side of the basketball court, and all the guys who are nervous and apprehensive, you know, on the other side, are they sinning if they don't overcome their fear of rejection that night and ask that cute girl to dance with him?

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You might even call it a fear of inadequacy, or a fear of failure. But the thing that I want to help you understand is that those fears become a fence that hold you back from the bigger life of freedom that God intended for you.

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So those fears become a fence from the bigger life of freedom that God intends for me.

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Again, what is this? Using the bullpen again.

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Yeah, these are people who volunteered to go, ooh, ah, wow.

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Yeah, to make him sound profound. Those all start in a self -protective measure on our part.

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We think we're like, we have to be careful. We have to be cautious. I have a concern.

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I don't want to overstep. I want to—and then all of that builds up a fence that we think is protecting us.

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But the flip side is that we're building a fence of fear that ends up holding us back.

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Again, holding me back from what? Holding us in to different various forms of what we call smallness.

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Different various forms of smallness. What exactly is that? That we can't, as we move along in life, we don't always see it, and we get inhibited, and we become hesitant, and then we don't—

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Hesitant about what? We don't venture out into the areas of life and possibility.

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So I don't venture into life and its possibilities. Mm -hmm. Dreaming and believing

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God for bigger, greater things that he— So I'm failing to dream for bigger things.

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None of what you're saying is what Paul actually says in 2 Corinthians 6. He has it in mind for us.

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The animal called the African impala can jump 10 feet high, 30 feet long.

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And you would assume that zookeepers would have a tough time keeping them in the enclosures, but—

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So the impala now is held up as an example of animals that have fear fences. Much shorter walls, sometimes as short as three feet tall, work in a zoo to hold the impala in.

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Now, they can jump 10 feet tall. High. And they're looking at a three -foot fence.

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So are you being an impala? Do you have a three -foot fence keeping you from jumping 10 feet high and 30 feet out?

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Oh, this is terrible. God doesn't want you to do that. And they lock up, freeze up, and stay in the enclosure.

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Why? Because an impala will not jump if they're unable to see where they'll land.

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Bummer, man. Oh, they're victims of fear fencing. You don't want to be an impala.

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So they stay fenced in. In fact, if you own a Chevy Impala, it's a symbol of fear fencing.

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You should get a different car. Because there's no guarantee of the outcome.

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This is nuts. This has nothing to do with 2 Corinthians 6 at all.

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Does that sound familiar? Yeah, this sounds familiar because people will no longer endure sound doctrine, but instead gather to themselves teachers who will tell them what their itching ears want to hear.

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And they will wander away from the truth and wander off into myths. Yeah, the impala fear fence interpretation handling of 2

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Corinthians 6, that's a total myth. From the MSG, which is why you want an

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MSG -free sermon. Look at it again. Vulnerability is making a move with no guarantee of the outcome.

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Am I sinning if I don't make myself vulnerable all the time? A move as simple as a smile, a greeting, is often held back because we don't have a guarantee that somebody's going to greet back, smile back, so we hold it in.

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Oh, yeah. I mean, there are a lot of people who are in hell because of this kind of wickedness.

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Yeah, this is up there with murder, adultery, stealing, slander and gossip, coveting, stuff like that.

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Oh, man. Not making yourself vulnerable enough. Oh, man.

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Whoa. I mean, it's worse than sexual sins.

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It's worse than, you know, this is terrible. This puts you right up there with Hitler. Vulnerability is taking a step of faith to get past our hurts.

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Step of faith. That would mean I need a promise here, an actual promise from God.

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Our habits. Our hurts, our habits, our hang -ups. Yeah. Our hang -ups.

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Vulnerability is refusing to stay fenced in by insecurity, inferiority and other kinds of fear that holds us back.

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It's weird. What did the Proverbs say? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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I don't know. Somebody say with me, I'm making a move.

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I'm making my move. Move over, folks. I'm going to make my move. Come on, say it again.

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I'm making a move. One more time. I'm making a move. Is this repentance and the forgiveness of sins, the ministry of reconciliation or anything that Paul was talking about in this section of 2

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Corinthians? Not at all. I mean, this is carefully structured to completely avoid what that passage for real says.

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I'm making a move. Look at your neighbor and say, let's make a move. I'm making a move. Look at your other neighbor and say, come on, let's move.

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I'm making a move. Yeah, let's move. Let's get out of here quick before the roof falls in and Kevin Gerald gets struck by lightning.

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I'm making a move. The apostle

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Paul wrote to his protege, a young man named Timothy. Yeah, we were talking about that at the beginning of this episode.

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Yeah. What did he write to him about? Yeah. And he was trying to get him to make a move.

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He was? Really? Bet you can't prove it. And so he said this.

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He said, God has not given us a spirit of fear.

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All right. Second Timothy, same one I was looking at, you know, time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but having scratchy, itchy ears, will accumulate from themselves.

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Teachers will tell them what they want to hear. All right. Second, same one. All right. So three rules for sound biblical exegesis.

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Context, context, context. So let's just take a look in the context. Second Timothy chapter one.

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When I put verse seven in context, is Paul saying to Timothy, listen, you got to make your move, man.

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Don't let your inhibitions keep you from the greater things that God has for you.

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You just got to make your move, man. Is that what he's saying? How much you want to bet?

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The answer is no. All right. So second Timothy, let's go to Timothy.

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Whoops, hang on a second there. There we go. Timothy chapter uno. All right.

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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.

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To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from Christ Jesus our

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Lord. I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience. As I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.

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As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother

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Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. For this reason,

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I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of the hand of my hands.

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For God gave us spirit, not a fear. A bit of power and love and self -control.

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So therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. Nor of me as prisoner.

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Do not be ashamed of the gospel. The testimony of our Lord. Make your move.

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Yeah, make your move to faithfully proclaim Christ and him crucified for our sins. That nor me as prisoner, but share in the suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling.

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Not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our

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Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which

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I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.

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But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

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So follow the pattern of sound words, of sound doctrine, that you've heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus by the

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Holy Spirit who dwells within us, to guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

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Well, there you go. When I read it in context, it's not saying the things that Kevin Gerald is pointing to us by ripping one sentence.

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Notice he switched to the New King James. He's not sticking to any one translation now, is he?

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God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power and love and a sound mind. Because we've got to get past our inhibitions so that we can go on to the bigger things that God has dreamed for us to do.

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That's weird. That's not what Paul was saying. Let's go back. To make a move.

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And so he said this. He said, God has not given us a spirit of fear.

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In other words, he recognized some hesitation and limitation and some fear inside of young Timothy.

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And so he's like right at him. He goes right into his living room, into his space.

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He invades his territory and he reminds them, hey, God hasn't given you that spirit of fear.

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No, but a power, love and a sound mind. So live expansively, man.

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Abandon smallness, dude. This is nonsense.

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Like annoyingly so. Come on, church family. You're saying nothing and they're clapping for you.

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Somebody say, I'm making a move. Say it again. I'm making a move. Let me, let me describe it to you like this.

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Abandon smallness is getting beyond the fear fence. The people at the champion center have no clue what the

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Bible really says. And Kevin Gerald makes sure of that.

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It's getting beyond the fear fence. And it's oftentimes associated with not what's around you, but what's inside of you.

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What? Okay. So I want to show you an example.

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It'll go up on your screen today of what I call the mini you.

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All right. The mini me. All right. So my mini me is a problem, apparently. Or you could call it internal smallness.

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Okay. So my mini me, it might be petty, might be holding on to a grudge, might be too self -conscious, might turn inward.

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That's not describing smallness. That's describing sin.

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Sin in the heart. Being petty, self -centered, turned in on yourself.

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That's, those are all the traits of the devil. And you're just calling it smallness from your mini me. Notice he's completely downplaying sin.

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So what's the solution to your sin? Abandon it. Abandon smallness. It's just smallness.

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You got to be bigger than that. And here's what it looks like. It might be petty. You might be petty.

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You might be holding on to a grudge. Yeah, forgiving, not forgiving somebody, that's a big deal.

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So no, you can see what's going on here. He's refusing to preach truly repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

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And by refusing to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, he's shaving off the hard edges of God's word and making it sound like, oh

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God, he just wants you to get past the fear fence. So you just need to abandon smallness. These are the things that are keeping you from having that expansive life.

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And so you just make the commitment and embrace the big cool things that God has for you and stuff.

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Rather than saying you're a sinner, you need to repent. Christ has bled and died for you.

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And as a result of this, the people showing up to the Champion Center, they're, you know,

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Kevin Gerald is being a horrible ambassador because he's changing the message that he's been given.

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And he's not really preaching the message of reconciliation. He's not preaching law and gospel, sin and grace.

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And as Christ has commanded repentance and the forgiveness of sins in his name. And unfortunately,

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Kevin Gerald is, well, not alone. This has become the kind of the standard default approach to preaching that is occurring in so many places that call themselves

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Christian churches today. And as a result of this, they are fulfilling the prophecy that Paul spoke by the

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Holy Spirit, that time would come when people would not endure sound doctrine, but gather to themselves teachers who would suit their own sinful passions and scratch their itching ears.

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Because that's what he's doing. Hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below.

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51:10

And everybody who joins our crew at Gunner's Mate or above during the month of February 2020, I will send you an autographed copy of my fine art print,

51:19

San Clemente Dreamin, as my way of saying thank you for joining our crew at that level. So until next time, may

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God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ. It is vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.