Real Spirituality (1 Thessalonians 5:16-22- Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: http://notes.cornerstonesj.org Real Spirituality

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Good morning, it's awesome to be back together again and It's awesome to see each and every one of you
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Hi, Bob He's the only guy that waved back to me like I feel so good anyway
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I want to open us up in Psalm 57 verse 5 be exalted.
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Oh God above the heavens Let your glory be over all the earth
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Coming here on a Sunday morning is It's a privilege We are we are not deserving of The love that God gave us
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But his love was so deep that he looked beyond my sins And I just I have to have a response that then says be exalted.
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Oh God You Love me so much be exalted. Oh God above the heavens let your glory be over all the earth and everything that I Experienced and everything that I see and do is just here be exalted.
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Oh God I want to give you some announcements of things that are going on the first that is after service today
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There will be a meeting for those who are interested in being either an usher a greeter part of the safety team
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We're working on Identifying those individuals who could minister in this way.
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I think our desire is to identify different areas That you can be participating in what's going on So today if you're interested in either being an usher a greeter or part of the safety team
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Stay and where are they meeting after right up front here? Okay, so we'll see you here afterwards the second
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We got a lot of women's events coming on and the first one is coming up this Saturday It is a women's fellowship and knit
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I'm going to assume this has something to do with knitting and fellowship guys We have never had a men's fellowship and knit night.
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Where's John Dottoli? So ladies come because it's a good time to get together and to start to be with each other
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It will be on Saturday. It will be from 11 o 'clock till 1 there's information in the pastor
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Graham on that the women house are having an event in the middle of April on the 16th that I believe is a
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Saturday at 2 o 'clock a Passover celebration And I think it's really cool that the women are going to do this and host this and teach this if you've never actually
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Experienced one. It's a good thing to come out and to be a part of it will be Saturday the 16th 2 o 'clock here in the sanctuary
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There is a response link for you If you're interested in it So the women will know how much to be prepared with that also is in the pastor
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Graham for you to see Then in June, I'm really we're excited about an event
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And if you're at all interested in being part of it or to be witnessing it man
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We really want you to come out in the middle of just of June. We're gonna have our next baptism service
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Lord willing we're going to be in a lake. I don't know if we've had that confirmed yet But we're going to have a baptism service
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If you have not had believers baptism And if God is working in your heart that believers baptism is an obedience to Scripture Please contact pastor
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Jeff myself one of the elders will get you into the process There's a couple of classes that we'll have you take
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So that you'll understand scripturally the meaning of it But even if you have been baptized we would like you to come out to be there to encourage
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We're also thinking J. We're thinking of doing a hymn sing along with the baptism
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It could happen. I Hadn't told him that yet Remember our normal weekly schedule come back, please.
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It's six o 'clock tonight for prayer Tomorrow night is the men's apologetics the women's precepts on Tuesday morning the women's precepts.
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We have care groups There is a couples married couples group. That's meeting put those on your calendar and be part of it as we grow together
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So let's go to prayer at this time father. Lord God we Rejoice and we exalt you
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Lord above all the heavens We thank you that we could come here as your children as part of your church
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Father the things that you have been doing in and amongst us are
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Just an expression of your of your sovereignty and how you're blessing this church father.
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We think how Magnificently you provided for us with that land on Phillips Road Now Lord, we ask for your guidance as we move forward from here
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We rejoice Lord how you affirmed through the congregation our new board and on Friday the new board takes its place
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We pray for these Individuals that are there that are serving whether they're elders or deacons or whether they're the financial secretary the treasurer
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The individuals that you've called we thank you for their response. We pray Lord for a unity of spirit
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That we would always follow your lead Father we do pray for the missions for those abroad serving in the field lighting that lamp abroad
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Give them their message give them your protection, but also for us Lord as we're living here
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We're to spread the word to Jerusalem and to GD and Samaria and all the world. We're here
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Lord in Jerusalem as Missionaries of your word give us boldness
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Lord to be evangelists right here Father I also pray that each one here
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Would desire to be growing to be growing into the
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Individual that you would want us to be that spiritual growth Lord That we would not only increase when numbers, but we would increase in our relationship with you
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There are those in our group Lord that we know that are struggling with health we lift them up This morning.
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I just specifically pray for Loretta that you Relieve her of this cancer
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Lord Give her your comfort As pastor Jeff comes to us first Thessalonians about joy and joy always we anticipate your
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Spirit speaking to us in Jesus name. Amen Sing together
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All hail the power of Jesus name let angels prostrate
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Bring Chosen seed of Israel's race he ransomed from the fall
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Him who saves you by his grace and crown
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And every kindred every tribe on this terrestrial ball to him
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Scribe Give thanks to the
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Lord our God and King his love endures forever
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For he is good. He is above all things Doors forever
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Sing pray Sing pray
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Stretched out love endures forever For her life has been reborn
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Sing pray sing pray
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Sing pray Oh Forever setting
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Sun from the rising to the setting
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Sun By the grace of God we will carry on Sing praise, sing praise, sing praise, sing praise.
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Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong, forever
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God is with us, is strong, forever
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God is with us. In his presence this morning, we lift our voices directly to you,
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Father God, our Savior and Christ, because of your love, your great love for us.
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Lord, we welcome you here this morning. And as we gather, let's remember every blessing.
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As we come into your presence, we remember every blessing that you've poured out so freely from above.
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Gratitude and praises for compassion so amazing.
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Lord, we've come to give you thanks for all you've done.
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Because of your love, we're forgiven.
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Because of your love, our hearts are clean.
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We lift you up with songs of freedom.
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Forever we're changed because of your love.
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As we come into your presence, we remember that you've poured out so freely from above.
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Lifting gratitude and praises for compassion so amazing.
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Lord, we've come to give you thanks for all you've done.
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Because of your love, we're forgiven.
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Because of your love, we lift you up with songs of freedom.
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Forever we're changed because of your love.
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Because of your love, our hearts are clean. Like the first service, the announcements and the songs were pretty quick, which gives me extra time today.
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And I joked with the first group that that means I can preach for an hour, and they laughed.
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And then it turned out that I actually preach for an hour, so don't laugh. No, I'm going to discipline myself to keep quick with it.
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In fact, the passage that we're studying today comes in short, staccato sentences, so we've got to keep right at it.
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Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much that we are able to come into your presence, to open your word and listen to you speak to us.
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Speak, Lord, your servants are listening. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things from your law.
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Teach us, Lord. We pray, Lord, that these highly important words would not just be words on a page to us, but they would jump off the page with power, that they would be fire in our bones.
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Help us, Lord, through the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name, amen. I had the privilege to go to Geneva in 1998.
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At that time, I was studying economics, so we were at the United Nations of all places, and it was awful.
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But one of the things I noticed, which was also awful, was what happened to the
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Reformation wall. There in Geneva, they have four statues to the great reformers, which really came out of Geneva in the
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Reformation in the 1500s. Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli, and John Knox.
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Now, the day that I was there, the night before, someone had taken rainbow colored paint and covered them all in a rainbow desecration, just to mock the
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Christians and the heritage of Geneva, so that was sad. But one thing they were not able to block out, maybe because it was written in Latin, they didn't understand what it said.
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Underneath John Knox, it says at the Reformation wall, one man with God is always the majority.
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Christian, you're not the majority in Geneva or Scotland or in America any longer, but one man with God is always the majority.
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Who was John Knox? He was born in the early 1500s in Scotland. At a time when the
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Roman Catholic Church dominated Scotland. But historians will tell you that of all of the branches of Roman Catholicism before the
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Reformation, the Scottish Church was the most corrupt of all. The priests there were not very well lettered at all.
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Some of them couldn't even read. And none of them opened the scripture and exposited the truth of God to the people.
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None of them did that. They would celebrate what they called the Mass, which even to this day is a blasphemy against the finished work of Christ.
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Christ was once and for all sacrificed for sins. He made propitiation on the cross once and for all for sinners like us.
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But in the Mass, the priest presumes himself to be an alter Christos, another
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Christ, and stands as a quote -unquote priest to make propitiation on the altar, sacrificing
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Christ. That's why it's called the sacrifice of the Mass. This is a blasphemy because Christ died once and for all to once and for all make propitiation for sins.
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The Roman Catholic Church at that time had only the outward form of religion but not real spirituality.
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By their tradition, the priests were said that they needed to be celibate.
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But they were not celibate. They had many illegitimate children who were famous and important in the land.
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It was a mockery of the word of God, sadly. John Knox was born in this situation.
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As a three -year -old, at the time when he was three years old, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg.
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So he grew up as Reformation fires began to be kindled and come across into Scotland.
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The first great Reformation preacher in Scotland was a guy named George Wishart. And John Knox became
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Wishart's swordsman. He was a bodyguard that traveled with Wishart everywhere he went to protect his life from the
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Papists who sought to kill him. So he literally carried the sword. He, at that time, grew in this passionate fire and flame of the gospel.
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And so one day he was sitting in a church just like this. It was St. Andrew's Cathedral. He had been born again through reading
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John 17. And John Knox was just like anybody else, sitting and listening to the preacher.
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When little did he know, and unexpectedly, the preacher pointed him out and said, young man,
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John Knox, you are to preach in this pulpit. He called him to come preach in the pulpit at St.
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Andrew's. Because he saw that this young man had been touched with the flame of God's holy fire.
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Well, what do you think Knox did? He ran. He was scared to death.
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He went to his room and he locked himself in, not welcoming anybody, for three days.
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And fought this calling. But that fire came into his heart. And so, by the next
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Sunday, he took the pulpit at St. Andrew's and began to preach the gospel. And right away, the prophetic word was so blessed that people began to flock to St.
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Andrew's. And the Protestant Reformation burst from a smoldering wick into a raging flame.
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It only was short -lived. Because the
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Protestant king, who had deposed Mary de Guise, who had passed away, was replaced by her daughter, who came back from France with the backing of the
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French government and overtook St. Andrew's, where the gospel was being preached.
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So, John Knox, who had been a fiery preacher for just a short amount of time, was taken captive and put on a slave boat.
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As he was taken away from Scotland to go to France, he could see
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St. Andrew's in the distance. And he said this. It was prophetic. I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to his glory.
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And I am fully persuaded, how weak so ever I now appear, I shall not depart this life till my tongue shall glorify his holy name in that same place.
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Those words were written down and remembered. And they would come to pass.
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But not before much struggle, on that slave ship, the Roman, the
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French, captain began to mock Knox, knowing that he was the preacher.
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They took a statue of Mary, an idol, and tried to get him to touch it.
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And he said, trouble me not, I will not touch an idol. Mocking him and continuing on, they kept pressing it on him until he said, finally, give it to me.
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And when they gave it to him, he took that statue of Mary and threw it overboard and said, let her learn to swim.
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He did not count his life as precious, but to finish the race. He made it from that slavery after a couple of years and wound up in Geneva, where he sat under the teaching of John Calvin and he learned the doctrine of lesser magistrates.
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He learned the more intricate details of the faith that he once preached. Finally, going back to England, where he started the
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Puritan movement, by the way, and then finally back to his beloved Scotland.
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He came to find that the Roman, the Romanists had taken full control of the country.
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And he was forbidden to go to St. Andrews. But he determined by the power of God, and with that blazing, unquenchable fire in his heart, he must preach the gospel.
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And so he went. The prefect said if he comes, he will be met by 12 guns. He went anyway.
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And they didn't kill him, but he was called to the principal's office. Mary, Queen of Scots, called him in.
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And they began to debate. And she would say things like, you think you're so right, you're so dogmatic.
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But the priests in Rome, they think they're right too. Isn't it just a matter of interpretation?
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Who am I to believe? How can I judge? Has anybody ever heard that recently? That the
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Bible is only a matter of interpretation. And one has this opinion and one has another. You know how
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John Knox answered prophetically to that? He said, just believe God. He speaks plainly in his word.
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The word is plain. Read it. And he went on to say, if there's something you don't understand, other parts of the
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Bible will make it clear. But God doesn't stutter in so many words. He said, God speaks plainly.
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Just take God at his word. Well, eventually, Knox was cut loose to the countryside.
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In Perth, he began to preach. And the reaction was so strong, when the eyes of the people were opened to how they had been deceived, they actually started a riot.
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And they began to throw stones at the idols and tear everything down and smash them with hammers.
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That might be kind of fun. But it was wrong. And Knox actually was horrified by this.
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Because they were becoming violent. And he tried with all his might to stop it. But you could see that the fires of the
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Protestant Reformation could not be extinguished. And before long, the lesser magistrates, the lords of the town, began to rise up in preaching the true gospel.
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In 1559, it broke out into war. And it looked like the Protestant cause was lost.
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Edinburgh was completely taken over. And the Protestants were soundly defeated.
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Until Knox stood up to preach. He said, I doubt not, but this cause, despite of Satan, shall prevail in the realm of Scotland.
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For as it is the eternal truth of God, so shall it once prevail. Howsoever for a time, it may be impugned.
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In other words, it may look like we're losing. There may be times, church, where it seems like we're on the retreat.
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And the word of God is impugned. Nevertheless, it shall prevail.
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The people listening said, the voice of one man is able in one hour to put more life in us than 500 trumpets continually blustering in our ears.
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That sermon that Knox preached for one hour was more enlivening than if 500 trumpets were put in their ears to go to war.
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And so the Protestants fought. And the Protestants won. And in 1960, sorry, 1560, 400 years later, in 1560,
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Scotland was won to the Protestant cause. The Scots Confession of 1560, the
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Reformation Parliament, was signed by John Knox and five other guys whose names were
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John and John and John and John and John. You like that? All six of them were named
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John. It just so happened. But this victory for Scotland was a victory for the whole world and for all of us who sit here today.
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Because out of that Reformation fire, the doctrine of the lesser magistrates, which actually won a country, so the
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United States of America was born by that fire. The Presbyterian preachers, taking from Knox this
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Reformation fire, stirred up the people in the Americas. The Black Robe Regiment preaching the doctrine of the lesser magistrates.
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And so King George was overthrown and deposed, and the United States of America was born in 1776.
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This is our heritage. And all of this came by prophetic preaching.
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It was in some sense political, what Knox would say against Mary and Mary and Mary, the three women,
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Mary Tudor, Mary de Guise, and Bloody Mary in England. He wrote a pamphlet, 50 pages long, the first trumpet blast against the monstrous regiment of women who were ruling in an ungodly way in England and Scotland.
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And by that prophetic word and the preaching of the gospel, liberty and freedom was established in the land, but more important than the earthly liberty, a people that were bound in darkness saw a great light.
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On them, the light of the gospel broke forth. And so Scotland was won to Christ and America in its wake.
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Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 16 to 22.
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This morning, I want us to see what it means to really be spiritual. You see, you can go through outer tradition, and there are many people, especially here in South Jersey, where the
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Roman Catholic Church has a strong inroad, who go through ritual obedience to what traditions prescribe.
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They get baptized as babies. They go through confirmation at a certain age. They go to Mass a certain number of times, maybe just on Easter and Christmas.
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And by that outward religion, they think that they're justified before a holy God. But it is a fake spirituality.
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And the same is true in Protestant churches every Sunday morning, where people do the ritual of going to church.
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And they do spiritual things. But what they have is fake.
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It is only outward. What we need is real spirituality.
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And that spirituality is to be touched by a supernatural fire, the fire of God's Holy Spirit that makes you alive and then burns in you with a passion for the glory of His name.
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It makes you joyful. It makes you rejoice always. As we come to this passage in 1
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Thessalonians 5, remember what's gone before. Paul has spoken very doctrinally of election and how you know that you're elect.
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He's spoken as a father and as a mother to the Thessalonians. He explains why he sent
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Timothy to them, to see how they're doing, and he brought a good report. He's like a father figure to them.
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He gave them theology of the end times, of the rapture of the church, of when these things will come to pass and the times and seasons.
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But now he comes to the end, and in these few verses, he packs an enormous amount of truth in short order, power -packed sentences.
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And I picture it like this. A mother and a father taking their kid to college.
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And after all of those years of investment, all of that deep love and theology that you've poured into your child, it's now time to get back in your car and drive away and leave your kid at Liberty or Lancaster Bible or Cairn or wherever it is.
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And that's a hard moment for parents. Some of you parents have experienced that. I'm sure that. I dread the day.
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But here's what you do in a moment like that. You say the most important thing with as few words as possible.
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Amen? You put your hand on the shoulders of your daughter, and you look her in the eye, and you say, rejoice always.
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Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you.
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And then solemnly, you look her in the eye, and you warn her, do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecy, but test everything.
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Hold on to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. There it is.
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That's our passage today. We just read it. Let's take it verse by verse.
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Verse 16, rejoice always. Real spirituality is joy in the
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Holy Spirit. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
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A genuine spirituality is not checking a box. It's not doing an outward religious duty in order to please
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God. It's the heart of delight in God for who He is. It's when
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Christ is your treasure, and you love Him, and He makes you happy in Him. The joy of the
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Lord is our strength. Notice here in the verse it says rejoice always.
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What's the shortest verse in the New Testament? I knew you guys were going to say
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Jesus wept. John 11, 35. That's because you're reading it in the King James or the
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NIV or whatever the case may be. You're reading it in English, and it has the fewest characters in English.
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Actually, the shortest verse in the New Testament is 1 Thessalonians 5, 16.
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Pontate carite. In Greek, always rejoice. Always rejoice.
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Why is that so important? Why does Paul lead off this kind of staccato bullet point finish to his letter with that?
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Because joy is central to glorifying God. Joy is key in the
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Christian life. It is the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. When Jesus was in the upper room, the night before He was betrayed,
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He spoke of giving the Holy Spirit, and eight times He mentions your joy, that your joy may be complete.
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When Paul was in the worst circumstance imaginable in a Roman prison, having been beaten and probably tortured, in prison,
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He writes the most joyful letter of all, the book of Philippians, mentioning joy again and again and again.
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Your joy is the human response, the visible evidence that you are in right relationship with God.
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It is possible to be the most outwardly religious person on earth and be far from God.
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If I were to ask you, who is the most loving person who cared for lepers and cared for the dying in India when nobody else would, many of you would say,
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Mother Teresa. And listen, what Mother Teresa did in caring for the dying was commendable and a good example and the kind of thing that Christ would do.
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But let me tell you something about Mother Teresa that many of you don't know. Her heart was dark.
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She had no gospel. She had no light. She did not have the dawn of Christ.
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In Isaiah 8, it says, to the testimony, and if they say differently, it is because they have no dawn.
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She said how she converts people is to teach a
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Muslim to be a better Muslim, Christian to be a better Christian, and a Hindu to be a better Hindu.
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She had no interest in bringing people to saving faith in Christ because she had no gospel.
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And when you read the memoir of her life, sadly, she was without the joy of the
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Lord because she followed a false and outward religion. Memoirs were recently published of her interactions with her confessors in Rome.
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And for the entire time of her ministry in Calcutta, she describes her relationship with God as nothing but a dark night of the soul.
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A dark night of the soul. She refers to Christ in those letters as the absent one, and her heart as this darkness.
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No joy, and she confessed that she sees herself as a hypocrite because what she projects to the world did not match what was going on inside of her.
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Some of the quotes, her biographer says, This darkness surrounds me on all sides.
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I can't lift my soul to God. No light or inspiration enters my soul. Heaven?
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What emptiness. Not a single thought of heaven enters my mind. There is no hope.
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The place of God in my soul is blank. She reports that when she was in prayer in a public place, people say they are drawn closer to God, seeing my faith.
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Isn't this not deceiving people? Every time I have wanted to tell the truth, I have no faith.
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Her confessors told her it was the dark night of the soul, but she said,
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It never stops being night. You see, only the gospel brings light and life to the dead soul.
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You can have all the religion in the world, Protestant, Christian, Evangelical.
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You can come here every Sunday and not have light in your soul.
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The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Jesus emphasized it. Paul emphasized it.
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When you're walking with God, there is joy. Now, does that mean you don't go through suffering and depression and trials of various kinds, like John Knox did?
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No, you go through those. But in that, there is a baseline of joy that cannot be stolen from you.
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This is the inheritance of the Christian. How can we not but be joyful?
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How can we not praise Him and find joy seeing what He has done for us?
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If you believe that Christ's blood was put on the cross once and for all and your sin is carried away, it is washed, and you have waiting for you the eternal weight of glory, the hope of heaven, streets of gold, and better yet,
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Christ Himself. If that's your inheritance, there is a baseline of joy that no one can steal.
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That's why Beatitudes in Matthew, when Jesus is talking about happy or blessed is the one, it culminates with those who persecute you and say all kinds of evil about you, even if they kill your body.
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Rejoice, because great is your reward in heaven. They can touch the body, but they can't touch the soul.
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We have something secure in Christ that no one can take away, that nothing can touch.
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Maybe you have trouble in your marriage and it threatens to steal your joy. You have
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Christ. He is joy. Maybe your kids are disobeying and it troubles your heart.
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You have Christ, and He is both able to give you joy and rescue them. Maybe you've been through a divorce and been wounded deeply.
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Don't you still have Christ? Then why are you downcast, oh soul? Rejoice in the
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Lord. The joy of the Lord is your strength. So the first great exhortation is two short, short words.
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Rejoice always. Nothing can steal it from the genuine Christian. Joy is our inheritance.
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Secondly, what is the second thing? Pray without ceasing.
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Mother Teresa said she never prays, couldn't pray. Now outwardly she could, but she never, she called the one that she sought to seek the absent one.
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The Christian is praying unceasingly. Unceasingly.
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That doesn't mean that our mind's attention is always centered in talking to God.
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And guys, this will be a relief to us. I think maybe women are better at multitasking.
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But guys, we kind of have one -track minds. Whatever we're doing, we're focused on that. If you're balancing a checkbook or you're working on some engineering project or whatever you're doing, your mind is occupied on that.
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Maybe women can be praying while doing that. I don't know. You guys would have to tell me, women. But here's the point.
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Pray unceasingly doesn't mean that you're always talking to God. It means that that line of communication is always open.
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You seek him in the morning. You take some time with him. And then throughout the day, your mind returns to him.
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As you're driving in the car between the tasks, you begin to sing. And especially when you're alone in the car and you can really let it loose.
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You're singing your prayer. You're talking to him about everything. The greatest example of this,
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I think, is Nehemiah. Because in the first chapter, we have this beautiful prayer that he offers to God.
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He's in the prayer closet. He's alone with God. He's dedicating time to prayer. Then we get into the second chapter, and he's doing his job.
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He's a cupbearer to the king. He's really minding the business of the king. But then the king asks him, why are you downcast?
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Now, you don't want to be downcast in the presence of the king. And he says, well, it's because Jerusalem is in ruins.
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And he's ready to plead for Jerusalem. But before he does it, chapter 2, verse 4, it says he prays to the
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Lord. It doesn't mean he stops the king and then runs to the prayer closet. It's just this constant attitude of his heart.
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In the quiet of his own mind, he says, Lord, please be merciful to me. Grant me favor.
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Whatever he prays, he's talking to God, and then he talks to the king. That should be how
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Christians are all the time. How's your prayer life? Has it grown cold?
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Do you talk to him like you used to? Here's the exhortation. Pray unceasingly.
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The more you do, the more you will. Keep that line open and let nothing interrupt it.
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Often it's some sin, something that grieves the spirit, which interrupts our prayer life.
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But we should be praying all the time. Thirdly, give thanks in all circumstances.
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For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Notice that in each of the three verses, the emphasis here is on the unceasingness, the always, the all circumstances.
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Verse 16, rejoice always. In fact, in the Greek, that word comes first, which emphasizes it.
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Pontate, always rejoice. Unceasingly pray.
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In all circumstances, give thanks. Now, does that mean we need to celebrate the evil things that happen in this world and thank
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God for those things? No, it says in all circumstances. So we're not thanking
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God for the evil thing, but we can thank God that in this thing,
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He has a purpose, that He is allowing it for a reason and ultimately for our good,
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Romans 8, 28. So in all circumstances, we can be thanking God. We can always thank
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Him for the blood of Jesus. We can always thank Him for forgiveness of sin, for the promise of heaven.
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In everything, we give thanks. Even when you go through something hard, I find it does help me to say, you know, thank you,
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Lord, that this other thing didn't happen. It could always be worse. That can be a comforting thought.
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And then to remember what He has given. If you can develop that attitude of gratitude, that thankful heart, your joy will be full.
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If you spend time each day, you might have to write it down before it becomes a habit. You might have to daily discipline yourself to write down things that you're thankful for.
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But listen, church, if you're not walking in joy, something's broken. If you're not praying all day, something's broken.
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If you're not giving thanks, something's broken. This is key to real spirituality.
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You don't want to be that fake Christian who does what you're supposed to do, but inwardly, you're dead.
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We want what's real. So the second part of the sermon today gets very interesting.
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The first part, yeah, boom, we agree. But what is this about prophecy? And why did that just sneak in to the staccato most important thing?
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So verses 19 and following, do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything.
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Hold fast what is good. Abstain. Abstain from every form of evil.
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The first exhortation, now notice it becomes negative. The first three were what you are to do.
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Now, the parent who's dropping off the kid at school is warning solemnly, do not do this.
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What is so important that you are not to do it? Do not quench the
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Spirit. Wherever that word quench appears in the New Testament, it refers to putting out a fire, a physical fire.
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Here it means the same thing, but it's an analogy to the fire of the
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Holy Spirit. When you were born again, a number of things happened to you.
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One, you were justified in His name. Justification by faith. In that moment of belief, you were declared righteous.
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Two, you were regenerated. You were made new and alive, a new creation in Christ, born again.
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Three, you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He began to take up His abode in you.
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The indwelling. One of the things we often forget is that in that moment, you were baptized.
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1 Corinthians 12, 13 says that includes you in the body of Christ. You were baptized into Christ.
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You, in that moment, were baptized. That means there doesn't need to be some second work of grace later in your life that would give you the baptism of the
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Spirit, which you are now lacking. No, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says you are all baptized, and that baptism is a baptism of power.
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It is a baptism of fire. Luke 3, 16.
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He baptizes not just with water, but with fire. When you were laid down under water, you were identified with Christ.
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And the water symbolized washing. Your sin was washed away. You were buried with Christ in baptism, raised to newness of life.
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But spiritually, you were baptized with fire, with passion, with zeal.
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To be born again is to have your eyes open to see the glory of the King. And when you see
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Him, your heart burns for Him. Luke 24, they were walking along the road, and as their eyes began to be opened through the teaching of the
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Word, they say, did not our hearts burn? When you first come to Christ, you were given a love for Him.
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That's called your first love. But Jesus addresses the churches in Laodicea and in Ephesus in Revelation 2 and 3.
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And in both cases, that fire of their first love had dimmed.
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They were quenching the fire. They had left their first love. They had now become lukewarm.
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And He would wish that they were either hot or cold. But lukewarm, Jesus wants to spit them out of His mouth.
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Do not quench the Spirit. It means that there is a fire, there is a zeal that is your inheritance, and it must be stoked.
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Fan it into flame, as Paul tells Timothy. Fan into flame the gift that is in you.
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You have the Spirit of the living God living in you. The same
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Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. That's your inheritance as a
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Christian. So you should have fire in your heart. Do not quench that fire, but stoke it, fan it.
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And so the next exhortation is, do not despise prophecies.
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Interesting, right? Don't hate it when you hear a prophecy.
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What does that mean? I think when I was at seminary, I was trained wrong on the meaning of that verse.
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One of the professors I had at Dallas was Tom Constable, who I really like, and he's very helpful in many things.
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But I don't take the teaching of any one man as absolute or authoritative. I don't follow
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Paul or Apollos or Constable. I test everything. So Constable would say of this verse, it only applies from the writing of 1
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Thessalonians until the completion of the canon. Prophecies, he would say, is only when somebody is future telling, like Agabus in Acts 12 or Acts 21.
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And that was just foundational to the church, Ephesians 2 .20. But it doesn't pertain to us.
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So he would say, only the Thessalonian living in the first century until around the year 90
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AD has anything to do with this verse. It doesn't really apply to you, Christian.
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Wrong. But notice, he's guarding against something that really is a danger.
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John MacArthur had a conference in, I think, 2013 called Strange Fire. And I agree with 95 % of what was said at that conference.
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Again, I don't take anything in toto just because somebody said it. But MacArthur was pointing out that what people are calling prophecy today is very different from what the genuine biblical text teaches us.
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There's a hymn writer. Michael will use some Bob Coughlin songs. And he's great.
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We love Bob Coughlin. Let's see if I can find the quote from him here in just a second.
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He wrote in Worship Matters, the term charismatic has sometimes been associated with doctrinal error.
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You think? Unsubstantiated claims of healing, financial impropriety, outlandish and unfulfilled predictions, and overemphasis on the speech gifts and some regrettable hairstyles.
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All true. So he stopped calling himself charismatic, but he still calls himself a continuationist.
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And by that, he would mean there are things in the scripture that were not just for the first century, they continue to this day.
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Now, we do have to guard against some of these weird excesses. Charles Spurgeon is no less blunt in describing the warning that we must take, the strange fire warning, because there are false and fake spirituality.
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There is false and fake spirituality that masquerades as prophecy, but it's not.
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Spurgeon says, take care never to impute the vain imaginings of your fancy to him.
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I have seen the spirit of God shamefully dishonored by persons. I hope they were insane.
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Who have said that they have had this or that revealed to them? There has not, for some years, passed over my head a single week in which
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I have not been pestered with the revelations of hypocrites and maniacs. Semi -lunatics are very fond of coming with messages from the
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Lord to me, and it may save them some trouble if I tell them once and for all that I have none of their stupid messages.
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So, do you think Spurgeon liked the nonsensical prophecies given in the name of Christ?
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It offended him, and I think his language is harsh, but he's getting across the point that there's a lot of nonsense given in the name of prophecy.
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But Spurgeon wrote an autobiography of his preaching ministry, and in his autobiography, he recounts 12 instances of prophetic words that were given through him in preaching.
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Before I share two of them, what Spurgeon would say is what
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I also agree with. It's what MacArthur said when he said, this passage actually refers to preaching.
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Matthew Henry bluntly said the same thing. He said, this is about preaching. Spurgeon would preach with the expectation that the
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Holy Spirit would be a fire in him and would make applications in the lives of people that go beyond ordinary human understanding.
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Here's one example. Spurgeon preaching at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. All of a sudden, in the middle of a sermon, points at a man and says, you had your shop open last
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Sunday, and you took nine pence and four pence profit.
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Called him to repent and went back to preaching a sermon. After the sermon, that man came to see
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Spurgeon. And said, it is exactly like you said in your sermon. I had my shop open and I would have thought nothing of it until you told me the exact amount that I took in profit.
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Let that be a lesson to not skip church. The next time you come back, you might be singled out by the preacher.
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Wouldn't that be terrifying? You're in the Metropolitan Tabernacle with thousands of people and Charles Haddon Spurgeon points at you and says something like that.
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Listen, I believe that was a little pea prophecy. It doesn't compete with scripture.
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It was a prophetic utterance in the sense that God somehow brought to mind something for Spurgeon to say.
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Maybe he's just making an analogy and it cuts to the heart of somebody present. Like the revelation, the prophecy of 1
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Corinthians 14. What does the scripture say about preaching and spiritual gifts?
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In 1 Corinthians 12, prophecy is set apart as a spiritual gift and we are to what?
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Eagerly desire it. In 1 Peter 4, let him who speaks, and it's referring to preaching, let him who speaks speak as one who speaks the oracles of God.
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In Romans 12, let the one prophesy according to the faith given him.
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And that is distinguished from exhortation and teaching. Here's my point about the passage and then we'll wrap it up why it's so important for each of us.
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The fire of God is a gift of the Holy Spirit and preaching is central to the life of the church.
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Preaching is not just what my natural mind comes up with to say to you.
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I need the Holy Spirit when I'm in the pulpit to say things that will apply to you.
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It's not my job simply to stand here and read 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 16 to 22 and read it 20 times and sit down.
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That would be worthwhile. In fact, Paul tells Timothy to devote yourself to the public reading of scripture.
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That's part of what we do. But preaching is not that. Preaching is applying and compelling the people of God to obey the text of God.
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And I must by the Spirit tell you what God says to you through the word.
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It's not adding to the word. It's applying the word to the congregation as it's gathered.
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This is central to the life of the church. You need to hear that unless you're rejoicing in the
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Lord something's broken in your relationship with God. Unless you're hearing sermons and testing.
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That's what it says after this. Test what is said. I'm not infallible. I'm not the word of God.
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But I speak the word of God as one filled by the Spirit of God compelling you to obey my text.
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And here's your job in verse 21. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good. That's why that's there.
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This is referring to preaching. And so you tell your daughter when you say goodbye at college you need to be in church hearing sermons every
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Sunday. And it better be a Bible -believing church that preaches and exposits the word of God. You need that.
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And you need to be listening to sermons all week long. Christian, you need to hear the sermon on Sunday morning and you need to listen to MacArthur during the week and Joe Foch and Alistair Begg and Votie Bauckham.
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You need to listen to these sermons and be fed the word of God. This is prophetic preaching.
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It's so important. It is huge in the Christian life. Test everything. Hold fast to what is good.
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I'll give you a couple examples of recent prophecies. This is not the word of God and it may have error in it but when
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Votie Bauckham wrote fault lines he was speaking prophetically to an evangelical church that had begun to wander.
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And he's calling us back to the scripture. This is a book by Rusty Thomas that someone gave me when we were out at the abortion clinic preaching the gospel.
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Biblical Strategies to Abolish Abortion. I do not agree with everything in this book.
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It's post -mill theology. I believe in pre -mill theology. And some other errors that I think are not heretical but a mishandling of the text.
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And yet I would say God has used this man for 30 years on the front lines at the gates of hell.
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And he's telling the church you are too apathetic about the murder of 70 million babies.
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And he's saying to us, to me you need to contend for the lives of these children.
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And you need to call politicians to account like John Knox defended the lives of the
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Christians who were being slaughtered by Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary killed 270
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Protestants. 270. The Bloody Marys of our culture have 60 plus million dead babies at their feet.
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Where are the preachers like Rusty Thomas prophetically calling the church to speak out?
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There is a fake spirituality that many have.
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In fact, how many of you guys have been watching the confirmation hearings for Judge Katonji Brown -Jackson?
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She opened it by talking about her faith saying the only way I could be here is by faith.
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In truth, many people reach the highest positions of power for the exact opposite reason.
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The only reason is because they compromise against the word of God. She touts her record of quote -unquote reproductive justice.
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Minimal sentencing for the worst sex offenders. Everything that is contrary to the scripture she couches in spirituality and so -called social justice.
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Where are the voices preaching that the murder of babies is against the word of God?
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Every pulpit should be saying it right now. Every pulpit should be saying it. There was one senator who asked her what is a woman because of this whole transgender movement and a man masquerading as a woman competing in women's swimming and other travesties that are harming the children of this land including the introduction of hormones that block puberty which is child abuse.
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So the question matters, what is a woman? And her answer was I'm not a biologist.
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She doesn't know. Someone needs to ask her what is a human? A baby made in the image of God in the womb of a mother.
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Is that life human? Invaluable? We know the answer is yes.
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Prophecy then would be for all of you and for me to go say it. A prophetic word to our culture like John Knox to his the preachers must be willing to speak the truth to preserve life.
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And that's one issue of many in the culture in which we live. So lastly, the final exhortation is abstain from every form of evil.
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Doctrinal error, rejecting that but also other things that would quench the spirit.
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What you put before your eyes the sins of the flesh your inheritance is to have a burning fire in you.
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But if you quench that spirit with evil, forms of evil you find yourself dry and brittle.
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And before long you'll find yourself faking it faking a
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Christian walk because the real thing is long gone. So in closing this passage this is what
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I would say to my kids one day, I dread the day but it's what all of us need to hear in that staccato fashion short words, the economy of words just underscoring how important each one is.
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Church, you need to rejoice always pray unceasingly be giving thanks all the time you need to be stoking the fire of the spirit listening to sermons and discerning what's true and what's a lie abstaining from every form of evil.
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Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much that you meet with us here every
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Sunday. As a preacher, I confess that if I brought only my intellect and my thoughts into this pulpit it would be empty and fake like every false religion in the world.
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But I thank you, Lord Jesus that you meet me here with your fire and you've given me words to say for your people.
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Help us, Lord, to hear them to heed them. God, we pray for the fresh wind to blow over the fire of your people fan us into flame.
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I pray that all of us would have a real spirituality a real fire in our hearts a desire to go let other people know about Jesus Christ an unstoppable joy that no one can touch or take away from us.
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Help us to pray all the time to be alive to you and awake to you and help us to preach,
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Lord not just this preacher in this pulpit but every man and every woman a preacher.
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Give us prophetic words to the culture and especially the gospel.
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Put a fire in our hearts that cannot be quenched. In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen. Let's stand. He's our hope in life and death
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Christ alone, Christ alone What is our only confidence
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That our souls to Him belong
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Who holds our days within His hand
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What comes apart from His command And what will keep us to the end
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The love of Christ in which we stand
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Christ our hope in life and death
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What truth can calm the troubled soul
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God is good, God is good
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Where is His grace and goodness known In our great
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Redeemer's blood Who holds our faith when fears arise
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Who stands above the stormy trials Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
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Unto the shore, the rock of Christ Oh, sing
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Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess
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Christ our hope in life and death Unto the grave what shall we sing
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Christ He lives, Christ He lives
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And what reward will heaven bring
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Everlasting life with Him There we will rise to meet the
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Lord Then sin and death will be destroyed
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And we will feast in endless joy When Christ is ours forevermore
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess
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Christ our hope in life and death Oh, sing
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Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal
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Oh, sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess
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Christ our hope in life and death We close with words from the book of Revelation, chapter 1.
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John says, Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me
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And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man
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Clothed with the long robe and with the golden sash around his chest The hairs of his head were white like wool, like snow