F4F | Misappropriating the Resurrection

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Roseborough, I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. Now, the impact of the

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COVID -19 global pandemic has been devastating for some people. And the economies are in a slump, they're in a recession and things like this.

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So what is a pastor to do in the midst of a problem like this? Well, apparently there's some guys who think it's a good idea to misappropriate the resurrection and think and convince people that God's going to resurrect their businesses or their dead dreams and stuff like that.

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Yeah, you don't believe me? Well, you'll see here in a second. What we're going to do today, we're going to go visit two churches.

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And one is called Awaken Church, formerly C3 Church San Diego.

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And we're not exactly sure what has caused the name change to Awaken Church, but we're going to be listening to Jurgen Methesius as he tells us that God told him to preach about God being the

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God of awakening. And then we'll go back to Easter Sunday, throw in another Easter thing. We'll go to Venue Church as we listen to Tabner Smith really misappropriate the resurrection in the same way.

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Kind of a common thing now, but this is a form of scratching itching ears and making promises for God that he hasn't made.

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And I'll warn you up front that when it comes to Tabner Smith, he's another one of these fellows who is manipulating the

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YouTube copyright system for the purposes of, you know, well, he just doesn't want us critiquing him.

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And so we will be transforming him for the purpose of making it so that we're purposely transforming so that we clearly are unambiguously way beyond what's required regarding fair use for this guy because he likes to harass us when we offer critiques.

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So you get the idea. So that's what we're going to do today. If you haven't already, like the video, you know, hit the subscribe button and ring the bell and all those juicy things that go along with what you're supposed to do on YouTube.

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And so let's pull this up and we're going to start at Awaken Church, which is formerly C3 Church San Diego.

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And we're going to listen to the opening part of this at normal speed. We'll speed a little bit through the part where he's reading

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Scripture. I don't have any problem with a pastor, you know, reading out a biblical text. That's what we're supposed to be doing.

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But what he does with it is really weird. We'll be commenting along the way. And so these are only two salient examples of misappropriating the resurrection, which is a form of scratching itching ears.

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So let's get to it. Here is Juergen Methesius. Hi, welcome to Awaken Church.

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I am so thrilled that you tuned in today. I'm telling you today you're going to hear an incredible word.

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God spoke this word. Do you have to advertise ahead of time?

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I mean, I preach sermons every Sunday, actually every weekend, and I don't have to sit there and start off my sermon.

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This is going to be an incredible sermon. Don't you let people like make that decision for themselves, whether or not it was incredible or just okay, or things like that.

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Why do you have to like tell everybody, oh, this is going to be the best thing ever. Seems manipulative, tooting your own horn kind of stuff.

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Anyway, back this up, because I want you to hear what he's going to also say here, because this is weird.

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Welcome to Awaken Church. I am so thrilled that you tuned in today. I'm telling you today you're going to hear an incredible word.

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God spoke this word to me a few weeks ago. He what?

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God spoke this word to you? All right. So I want to point out how this then manipulates people and binds their consciences and stuff.

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All right. So Jurgen Methesius is one of the fellows we refer to as those who glow in the dark.

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Okay. Now, if you don't glow in the dark, well, it's your fault because you don't have enough faith. You're not obedient enough.

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You haven't leaned in enough. You haven't activated the proper things or whatever. But Jurgen Methesius, he's done enough and he's activated the thingy.

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And so now God talks to him directly and stuff. And so this is a word directly from God.

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But watch how this then plays out. So you sit there and go, all right.

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And that's weird, Pastor Jurgen. What you said doesn't square with Scripture.

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See, now here's the problem. You can't question or challenge him. Why? Because to question or challenge him or what he says here is to question or challenge

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God himself. And so, you know, most people will sit there and go, well, God told him this.

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I mean, who are we to say that he didn't and stuff? But see, the thing is, this is manipulation. Claiming direct revelation from God like this?

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Yeah. Because what this does is it completely circumvents the ability for there to be real biblical

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Berean work here. And this technically would fall into the category then of what? Of, well, direct revelation.

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This would be a prophetic word. Yeah, you're supposed to test those things. But yeah, people nowadays don't.

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So this is a weird one. So yeah, he's claiming direct revelation from God. Let's repeat again, just because I'm getting old and repeating helps me remember things.

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Church, I am so thrilled that you tuned in today. I'm telling you today you're going to hear an incredible word.

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God spoke this word to me a few weeks ago, especially now that the world and especially

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United States of America and specifically where we live, San Diego in California, is beginning to awaken from the shutdown, from the lockdown, from the isolation, literally from the devastation that this pandemic put our country, our city and the world into.

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But you need to understand that God is a God of awakening. What do you mean by that?

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Can you take me to a biblical text in context and actually engage in proper exegesis and so that you can help me come to the conclusion that God is a

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God of awakening. That's vague. It's really vague.

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And why do I feel like you're going to be scratching itching ears here? Now, by the way, if you're not familiar with that concept, scratching itching ears, this is a concept directly from a prophecy given by the

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Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 4. Now, I'll back this up in context so that you can see here the job of a pastor.

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This is part of the body of work in the New Testament known as the pastoral epistles.

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So this is written to young Pastor Timothy and therefore applies to all pastors. You kind of get the idea.

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And so the Apostle Paul tells young Pastor Timothy, as for you, continue in what you've learned, have firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it.

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By the way, this is the last letter Paul writes before he loses his head. And so how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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And all Scripture, all Scripture, the Bible, you know, so you know it as Paul's getting ready to die, to be martyred for the

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Christian faith. What does he point Pastor Timothy to? The Bible, you know. So all

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Scripture is breathed out by God. It's theanoustos. And it is 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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So that being said then, so Paul then says this, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, are you ready?

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Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.

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Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. And here's the reason why.

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For the time is coming, and I would argue it's here already, when people will not endure sound doctrine or sound teaching.

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Didaskalios here can be translated as doctrine, but people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears.

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They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.

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I don't want to hear about sin. I don't want to hear about Jesus. I don't want to be told to repent. I want to be told that God's going to resurrect my dead business that got killed by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Uh -huh, okay. So having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth, and they will wander off into myths.

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So you got to preach the word. You got to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine in season, out of season.

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There'll be a time when people won't even want to hear it. They won't endure it. They will want their ears scratched. They will want their ears tickled.

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So why, oh why, do I feel like this is what Jurgen Methesius is doing here? Fact. If you look at the seasons, there is a winter every single year.

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All right, backing this up. Kind of back this up for context's sake. So God is a God of awakening.

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God revealed this to him just a couple weeks ago. This is fresh off the press, if you would.

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Put our country, our city, and the world into. But you need to understand that God is a

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God of awakening. In fact, if you look at the seasons, there is a winter every single year.

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Yeah, there is. Unless, of course, you live near the equator.

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Then, you know, you don't really... Yeah, never mind. Okay, we continue.

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Notice, even on planet Earth, this isn't exactly a universal thing here. Winter every single year.

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And winter is when all the leaves fall from the trees. All the... Does that happen, you know, in the

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Amazon? All the leaves fall from the trees in the rainforest? Yeah, I don't know.

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Falls to the ground. Everything goes dead. Everything goes barren. But we know that there's a spring.

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And spring is always resurrection. Always new life. Do you know that the first year...

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Oh, excuse me. The first month of the year in Israel is the month Aviv, which means spring or new life.

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God counts everything. God begins his calendar with the resurrection, with new life.

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So the title of my message today is the God of Awakening. Yeah, you taste that...

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Yeah, that's sulfur right there. Yeah, it's really strong here. Wow. Okay, the

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God of Awakening. Uh -huh. Yeah, this is...

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And what are you going to biblically do to prove that God is the God of Awakening and that God himself told you this?

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Are you sure? Did you check the headers on that email to make sure it came from, you know, at God .com

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or something, you know? With me, I want to take you on a journey to one of my favorite stories. It's the story of Lazarus.

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We're going to pull out of here some truths that I know are going to encourage you. The beautiful thing about the

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Bible is that, yes, it is a book of history, but I need you to understand it is a book of his story.

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That's what... Do I really need to respond to that?

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Okay, just consider this just to be absurd. And I'm just going to say this is absurd. This is manipulation here.

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His story. This is a bovine scatology here.

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Pseudo profound bovine scatology. History is his story. God, unlike you and I, lives outside of time.

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You and I are trapped in time. Trapped? I'm trapped in time? No, I was...

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Human beings were created in time, okay? We were created to exist in time.

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In fact, the very first sentence of the Bible, Barashit bara Elohim eth ha -shamaya v 'eth ha -aretz.

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Okay, in the beginning. See, there was a beginning. A beginning beginning, you know? And so in the beginning,

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God created the heavens and the earth. He created time and space. And we are creatures who are not trapped in time.

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Help, I'm trapped in time, man. Get me out. No, it...

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Ah! Okay, we continue. So God never changes.

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He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. The three dimensions of time, past, present, and future.

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And what God did and how God behaved in times past is exactly predictable patterns of how

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He will behave in your life and my life today. Oh man.

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So this is our exegetical issue here. He's looking for repeating patterns that will then predict what

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God will do in the future. So there's no biblical text that says that God's a God of awakening. But what

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He's going to do here now, using this really false way of approaching the

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Bible, we're going to look at something that happened in the Bible, you know? And since this is repeatable pattern that will predict what

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God's going to do in the future, we can go to a text regarding resurrection. So do you have a dead business?

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No problemo! Jesus is going to resurrect it because God has a predictable pattern. No, no.

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I'm sorry, but, you know, at this point, there may be people legitimately who are Christians who are going to be declaring bankruptcy.

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Their businesses will be dead. And you know what's going to happen? They're going to stay dead. Jesus has not promised to resurrect them because of some repeating pattern thingy.

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Okay, so you might have to find a different way to serve your neighbor for the purpose of paying your bills.

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That's how that goes. What we need to do is just learn the lessons of faith that activate

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God. This isn't very popular. What? The lessons of faith that activate

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God? Told you he had an activation thingy. So there are... Okay, this is so bad.

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This is blasphemous. Backing this up. We've got to hear the blasphemy again. You will behave in your life and my life today, and all that we need to do is just learn the lessons of faith that activate

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God. So, you know, so if you're dead business, killed during COVID -19 pandemic, if your dead business isn't resurrected, well, you didn't learn the lesson of faith that was necessary in order for you to activate

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God. It's not Eurygene Methesius' fault if your dead business isn't awakened by God.

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It's you. You didn't do the proper thing to activate the awakening thingy.

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It isn't very popular preaching in a lot of circles, but you need to understand I got saved on a beach.

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I didn't grow up in a Bible -believing home, and I didn't have a theological upbringing. I had an encounter with Jesus Christ on a beach.

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And so I might be a little... I have no theological training whatsoever.

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Never been to seminary. But I had an encounter with Jesus on a beach. Remember the

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Monty Python movie, The Holy Grail? Where King Arthur was talking about how he became king because of a sword and a water ceremony and stuff.

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And people were saying, so we have to believe you're the king because of some weird quack aquatic ceremony?

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Okay, so I gotta believe you're telling me the truth that you hear directly from God, and God gave you this message two weeks ago.

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Why? Well, because you don't have any real formal theological training, but you did have an encounter with God and Jesus on a beach.

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Oh, yeah. Sign me up, man. Forget all those other guys. This guy, he's got an inside track.

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Really? Unorthodox, but I gotta tell you, I discovered that God works in predictable patterns.

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The Bible says in Psalm 103 that God showed Moses his ways and the children of Israel his acts.

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Yeah, Psalm 103 verse 7, which you just quoted out of context, even out of context doesn't say that God has predictable patterns by which we can then predict what he's going to do in the future.

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It just doesn't say that. He made known his ways to Moses. Yeah, he did.

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His acts to the children of Israel. Indeed, he did. You know what it doesn't say? And God revealed his patterns to Moses and the children of Israel learn the patterns so that they can predict what

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God's behavior will be in the future. Psalm 103 don't say that even out of context.

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God showed Moses his ways. In other words, God showed Moses how he moves and why he does certain things.

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Oh, this is so bad. I want you all to know that my intention was that this was going to be a shorter episode of fighting for the faith.

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And now that I'm into this, it's not. So my apologies right now.

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What he just did is called eisegesis. Okay, eis, E -I -S, eis means to read into the biblical text stuff that ain't there.

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All right, so he just eisegesis, yeah. Let me back this up and you can hear what he eisegesis here.

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So the text in question says, Psalm 103, verse 7, God made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel.

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And you'll know it doesn't say nothing about repeated. He revealed his patterns by which you can predict his future behavior.

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It doesn't say that, but watch what he does here. And the children of Israel, his acts. God showed

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Moses his ways. In other words, God, God showed Moses how he moves and why he does certain things.

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Moses knew what God would do in any circumstance before God did it.

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I don't even think he believes what he's saying.

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No, God didn't. And the text that you just read doesn't say that, Jurgen. Oh man, this is bad.

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Children of Israel, they were only aware of his acts. They were only aware of what God did after the fact.

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I want to lead you to that. So do you want to be able to predict what God's going to do in the future? No problemo.

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A guy who had an encounter with Jesus on a beach and no theological training is going to tell you how to find the pattern so that you can predict what

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God's going to do in the future. And if you believe this, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would love to sell you.

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On the cheap. I promise you will, the price will be too good to pass up.

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In a place where you can experience God's awakening on your business, on your marriage, on your finances, on your family.

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Okay, backing that. This guy is, this is a con, man. This is a con. They were only aware of his acts.

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They were only aware of what God did after the fact. I want to lead you today in a place where you can experience

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God's awakening on your business, on your... I want to experience God's awakening, man.

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Yeah. Because of patterns that you're going to show me that make it possible for me to predict what

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God's going to do in the future. Really? Marriage, on your finances, on your family, on your relationships.

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Whatever you've lost in this season, you better believe that the same God who is the

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Lord over winter is the same God who's the Lord over spring. And all it'll cost you is 10 % of the gross income that you have presently.

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You got to keep tithing even if you lost your business, your job or whatever. Uh -huh. He's the

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Lord over summer and summer all the way through the Bible is... And he's also the Lord of fall, man, when everything comes apart.

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So what's your point? But come with me right now. We're going to go to a town called Bethany and it begins in John chapter 11.

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Now, this is the part where I'm going to fast forward because he's going to actually read the text out. But notice, we know exactly what he's going to do.

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Regardless of how many verses he's going to read, he's already made it clear. What he's going to do is say, see, here's a pattern.

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And therefore we can predict what God's going to do. And I've already told you God told me because I had an experience with him on a beach years ago.

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He told me that he's the God of awakening. And so we can look at this pattern and are you struggling right now?

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Did you lose your job? Did you lose your business? Is your marriage falling apart? Did your dog run away?

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Well, don't worry. God's the God of awakening because, you know, the same God who's the God of winter is also the

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God of spring and summer. He didn't mention fall. But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is just on the up and up.

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So you already know he's going to manipulate this text and we know exactly how he's going to manipulate it. But I don't want to be accused of taking him out of context because that's what people accuse me of.

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So we're going to keep it in context. But he gets to sound like a chipmunk. Okay, we continue. Here we go.

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Now, there was a man named Lazarus who was sick. And he was from Bethany, which is the village of Mary and Martha. That's the same Mary that poured the anointing oil on Jesus' feet, the beautiful perfume.

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And she washed and wiped his feet with her tears and her hair. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, they said, Lord, the one that you love, the one that you love is sick.

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Now let me just say this. Sometimes we think if something bad happens to us, maybe God doesn't love us. If we went through the COVID -19 and a family member contracted it, or maybe we got fired from a job and maybe it was between you and another guy and they kept the other guy on and they fired you.

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And you can think, man, look, you know, I come home, my kids are fighting, my wife's not happy, the dog bit me and now God doesn't like me. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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The Bible says the one whom you love is sick just because Jesus loved him didn't stop him from being sick. Now, this is true.

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You know, our circumstances are not an indicator of our relationship with God. Wages of sin is death and each and every one of us dies.

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And sometimes we die quickly in our sleep. That doesn't happen to many people, but it happens.

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And other people, well, you know, they get a disease that takes them over a period of time. And there's just a slow skid into the grave.

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And other people, you know, it happens a little quicker than that. But the thing is, is that the fact that you are sick or dying, or you have a terminal disease, or you even have a disease that has limited durability and you're going to have to live with it for the next, you know, five decades.

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That is no indicator of whether or not Christ has forgiven you or whether or not Jesus loves you.

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So that's true. Sick didn't mean that Jesus didn't love him. But come with me in the story. I know it sounds negative, but come with me in the story. Jesus says this.

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His response is, this sickness will not end in death, but it's to the glory of God. This sickness will not end in death. Now, we're going to go down a little bit further.

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And the disciples say to him, hey, you know, you just got the report. We're going to go to Bethany and see Lazarus. And Jesus said, no, no, no, we're on mission right now. We're going to stay here a few more days.

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I've got an assignment here. And they're like, yeah, but I thought Jesus said we're on mission right now. No, we didn't.

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He didn't say that. You added that to the text, too. Okay. And your dear friend, Lazarus is sick. And Jesus said,

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I know Lazarus is falling asleep, but I'm going to go there and wake him up. I said, oh, well, that's good. If he's falling asleep, that means he's getting better. And Jesus is like, oh, why don't you just read the text?

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The text is actually better than the way you're, you know, misquoting it. No, he's dying. He's dead. And I'm glad for your sake,

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I wasn't there. Well, when Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, the Bible says when he arrives there, he finds out that Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days.

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That's in verse 17. He finds out he's been in the tomb for four days. And Martha comes out of the house. And Mary's too broken hearted. She stays in the house.

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And Martha comes out. She greets Jesus. And this is what she says to Jesus. She said, Lord, if only you would have been here, my brother would not have died. But even now,

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I know that God will give you whatever you ask. Hint, hint. Jesus says to her, your brother will rise again. Martha, being a good little

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Christian, good little churchgoer, Jesus said to her, sweetie,

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I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet will he live. Now, this is the important bit, okay?

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So, note what Jesus says. And let me pull this up in the biblical text, because this is where he should be putting the emphasis, because the promise that Christ is giving is here, all right?

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So, we're up to, we'll start at verse 21, because he's been telling the account.

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And actually, you know, he's reading most of the text. He kind of inserted a few things in the early part of it.

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But verse 21, Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you have been here, my brother would not have died. True. But even now,

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I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you. So, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again.

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And here's kind of the big deal, okay? Do you know anybody who's risen from the dead?

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You know, after receiving a death certificate, you know, which by the way, usually people who receive a death certificate are not able to grab hold of it, okay?

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So, having received a death certificate, do you know anybody who, you know, just a few days later, went, oh, and woke up and, you know, and rose from the dead?

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None of us do, because that doesn't happen, all right? So, Jesus is saying, we're all gonna rise from the dead.

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There's a day coming when Jesus will return in glory, and he will call us all out of the grave.

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And so, Martha thinks that he's referring to the day of the resurrection, which, by the way, is a great promise, because death doesn't get the last say.

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Jesus, who conquered death, does. So, big deal, big promise here. A promise that we will all rise again, all right?

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So, Martha said to him, well, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Perfect catechism answer here, shows she's been paying attention to Jesus' preaching.

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But now Jesus pushes further, and listen to what he says, I am the resurrection.

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See, the resurrection is not an event. Jesus is the resurrection. He is the life.

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Whoever believes in me, though he die, notice, you, okay?

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Though you die, yet shall you live. Anyone who believes in Jesus, even though he dies, yet shall he live, but the promise is even greater than that.

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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Okay, now wait a second.

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Everybody I know who's a Christian, you know, Christians have been dying for two millennia. Jesus is saying there is some aspect to this where you do not experience death, all right?

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I don't know how that works out. But man, that is a promise from God. And Jesus says to her, do you believe this?

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I mean, this is more than just everyone's rising on the last day. This is more than that.

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And Jesus is the resurrection. And the promise then is for everyone who believes, what will happen?

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Not that your business will be resurrected, you will. And even though you die, yet shall you live, and you won't even, everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this? Wow, this is mind -blowing. And it's huge, okay, to believe that death has no power over a

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Christian, none. And that Christ will raise us up on the last day. And to eternal life, all given as a gift.

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These are the promises that Jesus is talking about. And so Jesus pushes her and says, do you believe this?

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And she said to him, yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, who's coming into the world.

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Great confession of faith, by the way. All right, so all that being said, I mean, you don't want to misappropriate these promises, because here's the thing.

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When you make a promise for God that God hasn't made, God isn't obligated to keep that promise, and you're lying in his name, which is blasphemy.

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So keep that in mind. Let's go back here. I go, resurrection goes. I met Jesus Christ on a beach 34 years ago.

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I didn't find religion, I found resurrection. When I had an encounter with Jesus Christ, he didn't add rules and regulations and guilt trips and hangups and say, well, you can't do this, because that's fun.

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You can't do this anymore, because that's fun too. If you don't want to go to hell, then... Are you sure you actually had an encounter with the real

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Jesus and not some imposter named Jesus? What is this? So I'm going to back this up.

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I'm going to back this up. And this part we're going to play at normal speed, because notice this so -called experience that he has is the validation that he's giving for what he's going to say next.

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How can we trust Jurgen Matthias? Well, he had an encounter with Jesus on a beach.

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So let's keep going now at normal speed. The last day.

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Now watch what Jesus says. Verse 25. Jesus said to her, Sweetie, I am the resurrection and the life.

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Jesus didn't call Martha sweetie, dude. Wow. Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet will he live.

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In other words, where I go, resurrection goes. No. Jesus' words mean what they say, because Jesus said what he meant.

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Jesus didn't mean to say where I go, resurrection goes. Wow. Met Jesus Christ on a beach 34 years ago.

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What did he look like? Was he wearing puka shells? How long was his hair? Was it feathered?

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I mean, what is this? Find religion. I found resurrection. When I had an encounter with Jesus Christ, he didn't add rules and regulations.

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Oh, by the way, there are rules and regulations that go along with the new covenant. You sure you were talking to the biblical

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Jesus? Guilt trips and hangups. Yeah. Jesus said that when he sends the

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Holy Spirit, that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin and unbelief. So if you're being convicted of your sin, there's generally a feeling of guilt associated with that.

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You sure you were talking to the biblical Jesus? Say, well, you can't do this because that's fun.

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You can't do this anymore because that's fun too. If you don't want to go to hell, then that's not what

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I found. What I found when Jesus came into my life, I found resurrection life and resurrection power.

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What exactly is the cash value of the phrase you just said? Resurrection life and resurrection power.

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What exactly are you referring to? In church, we're not here to preach religion.

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God didn't send me from Sydney to San Diego to... Are you sure God sent you at all?

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I mean, this meeting Jesus on a beach somewhere down under, it's looking a little sketchy here.

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Are you sure that the God of the Bible sent you? This city, religion, to bring religion into your life.

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The word religion comes from a Latin word, religio, which means regulations. That's where we get regulations.

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God loved the world too much to give him another religion. In fact, Jesus died to end religion.

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He died to repair a severed and broken relationship because of our sin. Well, yeah, that's kind of true.

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But see, here's the thing. The way you're sloppily describing this makes it sound like there are no commandments left.

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And there are. Nine of the 10 commandments are rolled back into the new covenant. Just read the back end of Romans and you can see that.

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And so you'll note that Christians are not set free to sin.

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They are set free in Christ from sin. And so that's a big difference altogether.

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And you're going, well, what's a sin? Answer. Look at the commandments. Anything contrary to the commandments is a sin.

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So, and it's not just in deeds. It's also in thoughts. It's in your words.

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It's in the things you do. It's in the things you don't do. So, yeah, so this is sloppy.

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This is really, really sloppy, making it sound like there's no morals at all for Christians that they need to observe or keep.

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The answer is we do. We, through the power of Christ, through the active work of the

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Holy Spirit, God then empowers us to mortify our sinful flesh so that we walk in newness of life, in love towards one another, and in good works.

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Okay? So, again, this is just weird. You know, if I were to come up to him and say, you know,

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Juergen, you know, there's a biblical text in the New Testament that says you shall not commit adultery, and it applies to Christians in the new covenant.

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Would he say, well, that's just religion, man. I'm all for relationship.

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Stop trying to put your regulations on me. See, when you start seeing it like that, it doesn't make any sense.

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You get what I'm saying. We continue. It's about rebellion against God. Jesus hung on a cross so that you and I could have relationship with God.

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He hung on a cross so that the severed relationship that we have as a result of our sin, that we can be pardoned of our sin, and that once again,

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God would, well, he would adopt us. He adopts us back, and now our relationship with him is as forgiven, adopted children.

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This is clearly laid out in scripture. Jesus's resurrection life follows baby.

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So then Jesus takes a few more steps, and then now Mary comes out, and Mary does the same thing.

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She goes, Lord, if only you would have been here, my brother would not have died. And then she's... All right,

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I'm going to speed through this part again here. Back to chipmunk.

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Okay, here we go. Let's do this. When Jesus sees Mary weeping, he sees the hopelessness. The Bible says it's the shortest verse in the

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Bible, John 11, 35. Then Jesus wept. Now I want you to come with me. Have a look at this. Watch this. The Jews then said to him, verse 36, see how he loved him.

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Verse 37, but some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept this man from dying? Interesting.

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I want you to know three times, if you would have been here, this would not have happened. If only you would have come, my brother would not have died. Could this man not have kept this man from dying?

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Watch this. So now Jesus comes to the tomb, and the tomb was a cave with a stone rolled against it. That's how they used to bury people in those days. And Jesus says to Martha, he says,

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Martha, take away the stone. Roll away the stone. Martha loves her brother. The Middle East, the commerce of the

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Middle East, the values of the Middle East is shame and honor. In the Western world, it's more a justice and law, sin and judgment.

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Righteousness, not in the Middle East. In the Middle East, it's honor and shame. She says, Lord, I don't want to roll away the stone. He's been dead for four days. This is the Middle East. The sun's beating down.

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If we roll away the stone, you know what's going to come out of there? A foul stench. Her words are literally, by this time, there is a bad odor for he has been dead four days.

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Watch what Jesus says. He says, Martha, did I not say to you, did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone.

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Then Jesus looked up and he prayed, Father, I thank you that you hear me. I know that you always hear me. But I'm saying this so everybody here can know that it's possible to have relationship and access with you.

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And when Jesus finished praying, he cried out saying, Lazarus, come forth. And the Bible says he was dead. The man who had been dead for four days, the man who had been decomposing for four days, got up and came out of the tomb.

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What was dead came back to life. What was decomposing was now resurrected. What was alive. What was dead came back to life?

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How about who? So note here, by switching it from the personal who, the man who was dead came back to life, to changing it to something that's really kind of vague that we use about things.

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What was dead came back to life? That's a major shift here in the focus because, like I said, we know this because of the opening of the sermon.

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What he's going to do here is say, this is a repeating pattern so we can predict what God's going to do in the future.

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All right. So Lazarus went from a who to a what. Yeah, I'm going to back that up and I'm going to slow it down.

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Okay. And let's, wow, this is frightening.

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We continue. But I'm saying this so everybody here can know that it's possible to have relationship and access with you.

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Yeah, you inserted that into the text too. That's not in John 11, nor is it implied.

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When Jesus finished praying, he cried out saying, Lazarus, come forth. And the

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Bible says he was dead. The man who had been dead for four days, the man who had been decomposing.

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Yeah, the man, the man, the man. And then watch the shift. Four days, got up and came out of the tomb.

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What was dead? What was dead? Then there's the shift right there. He went from a man to being a who to being a what.

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Back to life. What was decomposing was now resurrected. What was lost was now revived.

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I want you to know that God is a God of awakening. See, there it is. He made the switch.

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Now, God is a God of awakening. Wow, see, this is a pattern in scripture because it happened once.

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Okay, so it's a pattern in scripture. So we can predict what God's going to do. God's a God of awakening. God told this to your

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Timothy is two weeks ago. And remember, he had an encounter with Jesus on a beach.

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You know, so, OK, that it may look dead. Your financial prospects for 2020 may look dead.

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You may have been saving for a home and it looks dead. You may have been saving up for a wedding ring. It may look dead.

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You may have planned a wedding and had to move the wedding because of the social distancing and the shutdown.

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And do you think that John 11 applies to any of those things?

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It doesn't. The promise that Christ makes is that he's the resurrection of life. And the one who believes in him, even though he dies, yes, shall he live.

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And then the one who believes in him and lives, he will never die. That's what Jesus said.

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That's the promise. And it's referring to whose people, not what's.

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But he's allowed to be within six feet and we're not allowed to have large gathered gatherings together.

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You may have had to put it off, but I want you to know that whatever looks dead, whatever is dead, one word from God, one word from Jesus.

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That's why I love serving Jesus, because at any time he can send a word into my world, send.

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Yeah, Christ has the power. To, if you wanted to, to make your business that's failing succeed.

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He can. But this is not a promise that he will. And you claiming that this is a pattern that thereby we can predict

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God's actions in the future and his behavior in the future makes it so you're making a promise for God that he hasn't made.

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Word forth into my circumstances and death can come back to life. He wants to awaken your business, awaken your hopes, awake.

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He does. He wants to awaken my business. How do you know that? How do you know that people who are watching you or listening to you, if they have experienced a business failure, that God wills for their business to be resuscitated?

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How do you know that? And what's going to happen to people and their faith in Jesus and their belief in Christianity?

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If God says, nope, your business is going to stay dead. What about those people?

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The dreams awaken your prospects, awaken what was lost. God wants to awaken my dreams.

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Give me a break. Awaken what died, awaken what COVID -19 robbed from you. Our God, the

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God that we serve is an awakening God. Now, let me give you three quick thoughts, three quick thoughts.

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The first thought that I need you to catch, point number one, is preventionist versus resurrectionist.

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Preventionist versus resurrectionist. What? The world somehow got to...

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Are you a preventionist or are you a resurrectionist? That's a thing?

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That's a distinction? I think he just made it up. ...with the committee and somehow we decided without God being involved, we kind of didn't invite

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God to the committee hearing and to the party. We just as earthlings got together and we decided, okay,

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Lord, we have gathered together and we have decided that thou art from henceforth known as a preventionist.

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Lord... This is insanity.

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This is insanity, Jesus. Reading crazy into the biblical text.

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This isn't a thing, Juergen. All the council men got together and said, thus saith the people.

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You, God, now therefore are a preventionist God rather than a resurrectionist thingy. This is not...

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I'm going to switch channels here. Now, a little bit of a note,

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I've got to warn you, Tabner Smith is a fellow who doesn't allow us to critique him without giving us grief and he manipulates the copyright system on YouTube, so we will be transforming him.

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I have no idea what my editor is going to do with Tabner Smith, but if you're sitting there going, why does he look so weird and why does he sound so funky?

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The reason why is because he doesn't allow us to critique him unless we want to go through torture in the

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YouTube copyright system. So, you know, since I'm not into torture and tribulation of that kind, we're just going to really transform him, so that's the reason why.

43:58

All right, so all that being said, this is his Easter Sunday sermon, and although he's using a different biblical text, it's the same technique.

44:07

We'll just watch it. All the great stories. I want to jump right into my scripture today. Scripture, so if you'd follow me.

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There's nobody there. There's an echo. You think they're going to rush the stage and hogtie you if you read the scripture?

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If you let me, we can hear the echo here, Tabner. Okay, Romans 6, by the way, great passage.

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If you haven't learned that your baptism is a weapon against sin, Romans 6 teaches this.

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All right. So let's take a look at this. So what shall we say then? Paul writes, shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound?

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By no means, no way. How can we who died to sin still live in it? So when did you die to sin?

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Well, watch what he says. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we were baptized into his death?

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So when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death and into his resurrection. So we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. So the idea here is that you've died to sin.

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You're dead already. All right. When did you die? When you were baptized. So if we have been united with him in a death like his, and we have, that's what

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Paul is saying, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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For one who has died has been set free from sin. And this is what Paul is telling us to believe.

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So when sin comes knocking on your door and says, hey, would you like to come out and play? You say, no, I don't have to obey you.

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I've died already, and I'm free from you. That's the point. So that's what

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Paul's getting at. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again, and death no longer has dominion over him.

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For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.

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And everybody said, amen. All right. So that's what the text is about. Let's take a look at what

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Tabner is doing with it, which is not going to be good. Notice he's quoting from the message.

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You should not be preaching from the message. That's not even really a paraphrase. It's just bad.

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Oh, the message makes me so frustrated. It's hard to sit here and listen to this without going. Anyway, okay.

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I'm just going to clench things and try to make myself sit through this as uncomfortable as I am.

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Somebody has to say amen right there. You can hear the echo. There ain't nobody there to say amen. What is he going to do?

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He took. What?

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Oh, this is so bad. And you hang on to every word. You are dead.

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That's true. Indeed. Read the verses, like verses one to five, and you'll find out why.

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I want to read that last sentence again. You are, that's what

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Jesus did. No, no.

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Flee, run away, run away. I can't believe we're going to do this. Okay. Okay. There's nobody in the building to get excited.

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You're all by yourself there, Tabner. It's not my comeback season.

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I've got more gray hair now in this season than I had in the last one. It's not my comeback.

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It's it's my wheels are going to fall off. The leaves are going to fall. I'm going to crump season.

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You were, you were thinking about comebacks. Why? I'm sure you do.

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This is terrible.

50:25

I think that Tabner Smith is the Uncle Rico of the secret driven movement, man.

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Watch me throw that football over that mountain over there, man. Coach would have put me in fourth quarter.

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We'd have been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind. Oh no.

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It's just like the resurrection of Jesus, man. And gosh, darn it.

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People like them. I don't either.

52:28

Yeah. Because I don't see the connection here to your text. Notice he's retelling this account of, you know, his

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Uncle Rico moment. And it with with precision and accuracy. But he doesn't apply that same precision and accuracy when it comes to the biblical text.

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Right on, man. Yeah. I feel closer to Jesus after hearing that.

53:29

Not really. Yeah. Listen, when

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I was in junior high, I attended a small, tiny, you know, Christian junior high school.

53:47

And every time we played another team in sports, if we won, it was a miracle.

53:56

Okay. And that miracle rarely ever happened. Rarely ever happened.

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So yeah, there were no comebacks. I mean, if we won, if we actually beat another team, we were thinking, man, the poor team.

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Everyone had the flu. You know, everyone was, you know. That's the only way we were able to win, you know.

54:46

Jesus is the comeback king. When he comes back, he ain't gonna be thrilled with the way you're mishandling his resurrection.

54:54

Wow. Yeah, I know.

55:14

I went to a Christian junior high school. How come the king of the comebacks didn't help us win any games when I was a kid?

55:21

How come we lost everything all the time? If the king of the comebacks is about the king of the comebacks.

55:26

I mean, we could have used a few of those. Why are you yelling at me?

55:45

I don't have enough energy to do a comeback. I'm tired. You wanted to jump up and down and do the potty dance.

55:59

Why? Oh, good night.

56:09

I feel like I'm torturing myself. But because I'm sharing this with you, I guess I'm torturing you.

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It's time for a comeback. It's time, man. It's time.

56:24

Says who? That's not possible.

56:34

You're not speaking deeper today because a kiddie pool, as long as you're in a kiddie pool, is still only six inches deep.

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It's a comeback for your business, man. It's time, man.

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Because Jesus, the comeback king, lives inside of you.

57:03

This is scratching itching ears and making promises for Christ that he hasn't made. So what happens when your business doesn't come back?

57:10

When your job doesn't come back? Well, it's your fault. You didn't activate or something. It's a significant number of weeks past Easter Sunday, and it's still around.

57:28

We're barely getting open at this point. There's a shift.

57:40

He's believing for a shift, man. That's a prophecy bingo word right there. We will eventually, yeah.

58:00

Oh, man. So he went deeper.

58:07

In the kiddie pool, he went from the surface down to the one -inch mark, and now he wants to take it down to two inches, man.

58:13

Done. I'm tapping out again. This is misappropriating the resurrection indeed.

58:21

That's not what the resurrection account is about. That's not what Jesus' resurrection, our being united with him in his death and his resurrection, ain't about that either.

58:29

And the promises of God have nothing to do with God saying, I promise that your business is going to come back, that your job is going to come back.

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No, the reality is you might not even come back. The question is, do you believe Jesus even if nothing comes back and you end up dead?

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Because he says, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.

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There's a day coming when Jesus will call you out of the grave. He's not going to—he may not call your business out of the grave, may not call your job out of the grave, and he hasn't promised to do so.

59:00

He may do that, and he may not. But the promises of God are not regarding that, and to say that the resurrection has anything to do with this is to twist

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God's word, make promises for God he hasn't made, and give people false hopes, which then, when those false hopes turn out to be false, will shatter their faith in Jesus.

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They'll walk away from the Christian faith saying Christianity isn't true. The reality is they haven't been taught true

59:30

Christianity, and that's the problem with this kind of preaching. Hopefully you found this helpful.

59:36

If so, all the information on how you can support us is down below in the description, and how to share this video so that you can share it with others.

59:46

And if you don't already support us, we depend upon the support of our people that we serve.

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That's you, our audience. And if you don't already support us, all the information on how to support us is also down below in the description.

59:57

And everybody who joins our crew at Gunners Mate and above in the month of May, I will send you one of my fine art prints.

01:00:05

This is the one, Alvarado Grain Elevator. I shot this a few weeks ago as my way of saying thank you for supporting us in the work that we're doing.

01:00:15

So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of our sins.