Tape 4 - Crucified to the World

Park Meadows Church

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Evening? You're quick. Open your Bibles please to the book of Galatians chapter 6.

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Been thinking much about this week and what we want the Lord to do and what we hope the

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Lord will do and confident that he shall do. My prayer has simply been and always is that whatever

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God wants to do he will do. Whatever God's will is that's what I want accomplished in your life and in my life.

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As we said at the very first part of the week God will only do in your life what you let him do. God can do whatever he wants to do.

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I mean God could explode and he can make us a robot but you know love that is forced is not love.

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If God has to force a person to love him that love is not worthy. God wants a love that's given to him voluntarily out of gratitude and expression from the free will that he's given us to express it with and he wants us to love him in some small way or at least in a human way as that great love exists between the

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Father and the Son. Between the Father and the Son and this was the prayer of Christ of course in John 17.

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It's been a good week I've been counting up the number of times we were talking about it this afternoon and at the close of this week

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God will have given us together if we count about an hour and a half each evening we've been doing this for about five evenings then we had

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Sunday evening so you figure up those hours an hour and a half each night for six and then we've been spending about two hours in the mornings.

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The folks have been so patient and we've been doing that and then Saturday morning of course we've got tomorrow morning at 10 talk about King Solomon how he's a picture of the millennium and then

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Saturday morning we'll be talking about the Middle East Lebanon Israel Syria what's going on what's happening and then we'll throw it open and you can ask the questions that you have concerning the

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Middle East situation you can just ask a question about that that you want and what we don't know we'll tell you we don't know but we'll write it down and we'll get the answer for you and we'll get it back here to you.

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We stay very close to that situation of course and I was just down in Corpus Christi whenever Syria began to bring the

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PLO in and I was in about an hour and a half conversation with the Israeli consulate and we do have some information sometimes and I do have some available to me that I will share with you

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Saturday morning that has not been published in the international press at all there is some information that available that we can share with you some exciting things that Christians have been praying about for some 2 ,000 years and they're about to happen and we'll share some things we that utterly amaze you and it's contrary to what you have heard concerning the nation of Israel and the gospel witness and the presentation of the

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Word of God and so you come be with us Saturday morning then Saturday evening we'll have the pulpit removed and we'll have the large table here and we'll have the entire

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Passover table laid out for you and we'll go through it together and we will show you how every element within the

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Jewish Passover celebration speaks very plainly and clearly about the Lord Jesus Christ and so it's a very beautiful portrayal of the life of Christ in a ceremony that was given to Moses back in Exodus chapter 12 and so you'll see it and it'll make the

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Bible come alive to you it'll seal the Old and New Testament together and it'll make the Lord's Supper Holy Communion far more meaningful to you as we participate so we've got a lot of time left together even though this is

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Thursday evening we also have a Bible study time during the Sunday school that we'll be coming back together again and picking up our elements of the cross as we've done all week and then we'll have our morning worship time together on Sunday morning and so we'll have spent some 23 to 24 maybe even 25 hours together which would take you about seven months of Sunday school time to accumulate that much time

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I don't believe it's possible I just don't believe it's possible for you and me or anyone to spend that much time around the cross of Jesus Christ and something not happen

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I just don't believe that and so I believe that God is doing something he's doing something in my life and I trust he's doing something in your life and so we just trust

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God that he'll have the freedom to do and that we will be available to him to do whatever he wants to with our lives whatever that is that he wants to do it'll be good and it'll be pleasing and it'll bless the

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Lord's name and it'll bring praise to the name of Christ and we're going to continue tonight now and talk just very briefly this will be a short one you'll be out quite early tonight it's we're getting it about 727 according to my time and that's the time we go by not yours it always interests me people keep looking at their watches and I never know why because I don't follow your watch you ought to know that no one in a pulpit does and yet you look at you don't sometimes they'll get brave they'll do this

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I mean you know they'll hang it on the aisle you know or something like it's going to affect somebody like it's gonna do something you know time is immaterial isn't it

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I mean time is immaterial in an instant that we restrict God and say Lord you got to work between 7 and 8 why did we ever believe that Sunday morning worship service is from 11 to 12

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I've never figured that out in my mind you know God has to work between 11 and 12 and God forbid that they'd ever go to one and yet Paul preached all night you know he just preached all night long the great brush arbors that preached for two or three weeks four or five preach come in preach all in 24 hours a day people come and go come and go come and go have you ever been in a meeting like that you ever seen anything like that why it just destroys people why what you mean

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I've got sit through preaching all night long some people it takes them that long you know some of you been here all week and it hadn't done anything so I you know

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I can run what 24 hours would do but Paul talks about the cross and that's what we're talking about so let's just pick it up we've talked about many things we talk about the foreshadowed

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Lamb of God we talked about how the Lamb of God was pictured back in the Old Testament we've talked about the twofold message of the cross how the church has emphasized one part not emphasized the other part the twofold message is what the twofold message is our past sins are forgiven and we have victory over our present sins we can have deliverance over our present sins and that's the twofold message of the cross and then we talked about being crucified with Christ and then we talked about the cross and the powers of darkness and how the cross gives us victory over the powers of darkness and then very basically setting ourselves up for tomorrow night because tomorrow night will be one of the most crucial nights in our time together when we talk about the call to the cross there are five calls to the cross and the scripture and only five five is the

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Bible number of grace and Jesus gave all five of those calls and so you and I will need to be here the tomorrow evening or this week will not have meant what it should have meant to us so in prepare preparation for that and prepare for prepare to it to it we're talking about being crucified to the world and we've already touched on it in so many ways this week but notice with me please in the book of Galatians chapter 6 now

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Paul wrote the book of Galatians for a particular reason he wrote it primarily to prove to the people that we're under grace and not law that the law system does not bother us it's not that God has done away with the law it's just that he has fulfilled the law in Christ and not only has fulfilled it but Jesus Christ has re -amplified re -taught re -clarified the law and put it into such a perspective that it is possible for us to live that grace concept which actually does fulfill the law which brings out the love of God which is the fulfillment of the law as it operates in our heart now notice what

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Paul said in Galatians 6 verse 14 he's spent the whole book of Galatians talking to them about the fruit of the

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Spirit by being under grace and not law and so forth and then he just begins to close it all down and he says but God forbid that I should glory save in except in the cross of our

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Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world now of course we've said that Paul has already passed on to the resurrection side of the cross he came to the cross as an unbeliever as a haughty

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Pharisee and he came to the cross he died to himself he died on the cross with Christ he recognizes

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Christ's death on the cross to him he was crucified to himself now he tells us he's crucified to the world and as he stands and sort of spiritually with the eye of faith he scans the world he sees all of its allurement he sees all the enticements he sees all of the amusements he sees all the pleasures and he looks at everything the world has to offer to him and he's standing there and he's gazing at it with the eye of faith and he just stands and he looks at it and then all of a sudden he looks at the cross with that eye of faith and he sees the light of God streaming from the heavens and shining in glory upon the cross of Jesus Christ and it moves him deeply within his heart and all of a sudden he can constrain himself no more and he just cries out

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God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ I don't care about the world and I don't care about what the world has what the world is doing where the world is going it is not going to take me with it

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I'm not going to get involved in it I'm going to glory in one thing only and that is the cross of Jesus Christ and that's a startling statement because many people many

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Christians in those days were shirking persecution for the cross there were many of them who even denied their faith in Christ so that they could escape persecution you see the cross was an offense in the days of Paul and it's not today you and I don't suffer very much when we tell people we're

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Christians we act like we do we have a martyr complex you know somebody's coughs around us or sneezes or something all of a sudden you know they're persecuting us and we're in trouble and all but we don't understand but in Paul's day the cross was an offense in a very special special way because to proclaim the cross to share the cross or to preach the cross or to teach the cross whatever words you and I want to use in those days meant one thing it meant pleasing

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Jesus Christ rather than pleasing people pleasing him rather than pleasing people may

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I insert something in here for your edification in mind tonight your biggest problem in your life is deciding whether you're going to please people or please your

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Lord that is the biggest question you will be answering time and time again as you walk through your pilgrimage on the planet

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Earth we have to struggle with it day by day and the Apostle Paul struggled with it but you know

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I noticed something about Paul Paul was even crucified to the religious world he was not only crucified to the secular world he was crucified to the religious world it seems to me that Paul saying if I go out and share the cross if I go out and proclaim this cross the way

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God's revealed it to me if I share it the way the risen Lord Jesus Christ has revealed it to me when he went into Arabia for three years in that desert and Christ himself taught him and he said if I go out and share that the greatest possibility is that same cross that cost him his life is gonna cost me my life

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I too will die if I proclaim it the way I know it ought to be proclaimed and let me insert something else that's exactly the reason

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Christians today want to water down the message of God they want to water down the Word of God they don't want to stand on anything and they go through these noble ideas and they're just afraid of conflict they don't want to stand here they don't want to stand there and what they're doing is compromising and watering down the

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Word of God they are afraid of that conflict and a stand that comes from standing on God's Word and what

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God's Word says and so they back away from it and because of that a creeping paralysis has come across Christianity and Christianity is having far less effect today that it's ever had in its history and there are fewer

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Christians on the planet Earth today in proportion to the population than at any time in human history and there are more and more lost people coming into the world every day and few are fewer

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Christians so that one of the greatest pastors who's ever walked the planet Earth made this statement he said by the year 2000 in proportion to the population unless something drastically happens in the numbers field in the numbers game you won't even be able to tell their

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Christians on the planet Earth in the proportion of numbers and you can't even hardly tell it now why because we don't want to stand on the cross of Jesus Christ and Paul just seems to be saying to me that it seems like it'll probably the instrument of my crucifixion as well as it was

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Jesus Christ and so Paul just says I am crucified to the world you see it there in Galatians 6 14 and the world is crucified to me they were dead to each other the world could not pull it

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Paul and Paul was not drawn to the world at all in Christ Jesus all things are passed away listen to me carefully we quote it all the time therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away behold all things become new and we turn right around and make a mockery of that it isn't so my dear people the churches are filled with people that say old things are passed away behold all things become new you still spend as much time in the movie theaters you still spend as much time in the dances you still spend as much time card playing you still spend as much time smoking you still spend as much time criticizing you still spend as much time gossiping your life hasn't changed one bit most of the time they are just words and you do what you believe and the rest is religious conversation excuse me but it's true where is the changed life where is that separation from the world of which the

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Bible speaks for your life in mind you see we struggle with it we don't want to be different we want to be loved and there's nothing wrong want to be loved and who wants to be hated my soul a man's nuts that wants to be hated we all want to be loved but dear people we cannot sacrifice the cause of Christ just to be nice to people just to get people to like us we must stand up on what

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God tells us to stand upon and God will give you those friends he wants you to have and the ones he does give you they'll never leave you they'll never leave you they'll love you for who you are not for what you think they want you to be and what

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I'm saying to you is the new spiritual creation in Jesus Christ is all in all to the

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Apostle Paul nothing means more to him than the new spiritual creation that has come about and such a view of Calvary of which

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I'm speaking right here can only be known on the life side of the cross it is when we pass into that sphere where we begin to walk in the light as he is in the light and you see we stand there in the light of God and we see the cross standing out in all of its glory as the wisdom and the power of God and there is no other way of finding

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Christ except through the cross there's no other way of getting peace with God except through the cross there's no other way of knowing the power the will of God in the life other than the cross of Jesus Christ there just is no way of escaping it and yet as young Christians we become a

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Christian we are born again and what happens we begin to shrink very quickly from the cross and the reason we do that because it makes such demands upon us it seems like when you first get saved it you can't do this and you can't do that and it speaks of separation it speaks of death and it has seemed sort of a dark connotation to it but as we move on and as we walk in intimate conversation and as we walk on into an intimate walk and fellowship with our

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Lord and we begin to grow with our living Lord and he begins to illuminate the message of Calvary and his death upon the cross and we get a heavenly vision of this and we sit with a heavenly eye of faith and God shines his light on it our vision grows more and more acute and we are able to see clearer and clearer and we begin to see into the very depths of the sufferings of Jesus Christ himself and we know that if we suffer the glories will follow there are no glories in life without the sufferings

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Jesus Christ never ascended to glory until he first went through the cross and you and I are never going to know the glory of the

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Lord in our hearts we're never going to know the joy of the Lord in our hearts until we suffer the death to self and the death to the world until we die to self crucified with Christ and also crucified to the world you can't get crucified to self and not be crucified to the world one results in the other it just simply does you can't have

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Christ and play games with the world you cannot have the glory of the Lord in your heart and walk according to the standards of the world it just will not work it will make you a spiritual schizophrenic and it will not work

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God doesn't bless us if we're obedient 80 times in our life and disobedient 20 or you can be obedient 99 times and if you're disobedient once then that breaks the fellowship with the

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Lord God doesn't bless the 99 and overlook the one he just doesn't he wants all that we are given to him he wants us to serve him in our entirety so as we've said earlier this week to Paul the cross to him was a great gulf fixed he just saw it as a great gulf fixed between him and the world anytime

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I believe Paul's mind ever darted back to go in the world he just saw the cross as a great gulf and he knew he couldn't go back and and I'll promise you the moment you are tempted and the moment problems come in your life you just kind of mentally get a picture of the cross and get a good glimpse of it in your heart and you just start thinking about that cross and it's strange it's amazing but I promise you the world won't even pull you

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I mean it just loses its allurement it has no comparison to the cross there's just something about the name of Christ there's just something about the cross of God's Son and so crucified with Christ not only to be delivered from the tyranny of sin and the claims of the law but we ought to be delivered from the world itself and in all of its aspects now listen to me carefully we are not crucified to the world in the sense of worldly things

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I am not talking about worldly things I am NOT even talking about worldly ways that is not what

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I'm speaking of I'm saying you and I are crucified to the world itself not ways or things but the world itself the way the world looks the way the world acts all that's in the world its value system everything in the world it has nothing to do with you this is not your home you just passing through here your home is in a better place and this is a small part of the great program of God's living for you it is only a little bit and that little mound of dirt out there that they call a grave

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Solomon said when he wrote the great book in the Old Testament he said as far as a human being can see that little grave that's it there is nothing else that's all there is but then amazingly in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 7 he says but when the body returns to the dust the spirit returns unto the

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Lord who gave it there is more to that for a Christian a Christian doesn't look out and say oh the worm and the canker they are thy reward alone it doesn't say like the great port said it's a fearful thing to see the human soul take wing that's not the voice of the

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Christian that's not the language of the Bible the Bible says absent from the body and present with the

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Lord this world just doesn't mean all of that but I find that most Christians are camped out down here they kind of like it down here well

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I believe you ought to enjoy your life sure I mean God's put us here I didn't ask to come he put us here and we ought to enjoy it but dear people there's one thing in doing what

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God wants you to do and there's another thing in falling in love with it there's a big difference now let me ask you a question

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I mentioned this early I don't see if you caught it what is the big thing that people say well I want to be happy I'm here to be happy you're not in this world to be happy you're in this world to glorify

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God and to magnify Jesus Christ and to witness unto him and that's the only reason you'll hear nothing of yourself well we're here to raise a family no you're not that's just an incidental of living

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William Carey the great founder of modern missions they asked me I said what do you do for a living he said

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I witnessed for Jesus Christ they said no you misunderstood the question what do you do for a living he said

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I witnessed for Jesus Christ they said well how do you eat you know kind of perturbed him somewhat well how do you eat fool he says oh

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I'm a cobbler I work on shoes they said what with me he said no I only do that to pay the bills my living is I serve

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Jesus Christ what a difference what a difference what do you teach your children moms and dads you teach them to go to college and university why so they get an education to make them more money that's not what the

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Bible says the Bible says study to show thyself approved unto God a workman who need not be ashamed what so he can rightly divide the word of truth why does a kid go off and be a lawyer so he can win lawyers why does

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God go be a doctor so he can win doctors why is it that's all we're doing that's what it's all about the only education God authorizes is a

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Christian education well you can send them to LSU I don't care send them to Texas it doesn't make a difference they'll come out the same way they'll come out with a bunch of humanism and godliness and agnosticism and everything in their mind turn their mind over to some secular school teacher for eight hours a day and just say here's my kids mind do with it whatever you want and then excuse yourself oh well

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I never could do anything with them that's not what the Bible says you see we love the world we love the world and we love what the world offers and yet we'll sit right here in church night and agree together that this world is not our home we just strangers here we just sort of pilgrims down here well what

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I believe is that we must expect this world to look upon us just like it looked upon God's Son it'll look upon you just like it looked upon him it crucified him and it's not gonna love you and Jesus plainly stated did he not in that great intercessory prayer in the gospel according to John he says the world hated me and it'll hate you and if it hates you don't be discouraged because you know that it hated me long before it ever hated you it hated the master and it will hate his disciples and if you are loved by everybody in this world you're not living for Christ if everybody likes you you're not walking with God because you walk with God the holier you get your life the fewer friends you're gonna have mark it down the closer you get to God and the more you walk in the

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Bible and the holier you get your life the narrow the circle your friends become and if you're a good Joe and like everybody you're not walking in the

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Bible you're a compromiser and you're backing away from God's Word and you won't stand it's just that way it always has been and it always will be it got

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Daniel thrown in the den of lions you got Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego thrown in the fire furnace and all the way down the line you got the

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Christians thrown to the lions and the martyrs you got the apostles killed and you and I are no different except we think different we just not as committed as they were we talk it and we just don't do it nailed with a cross we're nailed there with Christ and we know we're crucified with him we know we're crucified to the world we know we're crucified with Christ but likewise you and I must look at that world from the cross just like he looked at it how did he look at it he said father forgive them they don't know what they're doing and you and I must pray for a world and we must look at a world as a world for whom

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Christ died even though it would crucify us and nail us to the very cross itself even though the world would hate us and care less for what you believe and they are not interested in what you believe you still must love them for what they can be for Jesus Christ that is not a weakness the pseudo love where I know well

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I love this and I love that no a pseudo love is not what I'm talking about a false love is not what I'm talking about I'm talking about a loving people are loving the world for what it can be for Jesus Christ not an excuse for weakness the world system has no value to the

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Christian but as I said there's a religious world that you must be crucified to also there are those

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Christians in the ministry and out of the ministry there are those Christians who are preachers missionaries evangelists conference speakers what have you there are those

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Christians that are deacons Sunday school teachers yeah and even in the WMU and they're all around who are not willing to be crucified in the

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Lord they refuse and resent it and it smacks of heresy or self -righteousness to them and they love the chief places they love the chief seats they love the salutations in public places they are those who say and do not and they seek after and to do all their works to be seen of men the love of power and the praise of people is contrary to the spirit of the cross the love of power position popularity and prestige and the love of the praise of man is totally contradictory to the spirit of the cross of Jesus Christ all the elements of this present evil world were gathered at the cross it hasn't been any different what was at the cross all the fleshly element everybody live for the flesh they were there the criminal element they were there oh yeah they were there the criminal the wise the intellectuals they were there to cross they came back they quoted to him they snapped at him they were there debating oh yes and also the traditional religious they were all there every one of them they were gathered there together all of them joins forces with the evil one as they cast him upon the cross nailed him to the cross and were revolt against him whenever he was given his life on their behalf and once again those who stood by the cross were a very small band and you know how they knew them they call them what an

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Antioch Christians followers of the cross what do they call you and me we

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Baptist we Methodist we Presbyterian we Fisker failed Roman Catholic charismatic phone are we all that yeah

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Christian doesn't mean the same today as it meant then when you claim to be a

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Christian then and somebody called you a Christian then you had the stamp of death on you and they knew they knew may

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I share this with you I happen to be a Southern Baptist and I don't apologize for that to anyone but whenever I first became a

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Christian whenever you saw a person who called themselves a

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Southern Baptist person you know what there were two things you know about them one is that they love the Bible and they walk with God but today we just like any other denomination we just like all the rest of them now all the rest of you know why there's a man

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Jack Kennedy is pastor the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church the great church has started evangelism explosion in Florida stood in Texas the great convention there he spoke to the pastors from all over the great state and he says you people as Baptists are now making a decision where we

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Presbyterians made it years ago you are now deciding whether you're gonna follow the Bible or not follow the Bible we decided not to and we've never recovered we've never recovered anytime you go to a

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Southern Baptist convention and you got to spend a whole convention deciding whether you believe the Bible or not you're in trouble you're already in trouble you're gone you're gone and it's very difficult to recover but dear people you and I both know that there is no neutral ground at the cross of Calvary we come to the cross and we let

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Jesus Christ be Lord we don't have to worry about the trivialities of life if we'll just let him be

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Lord of our life turn with me please to Colossians and I want to point out something about the elements the elements of the world that creep into the

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Christian life and these things you know so well all I'm trying to do is just to to bring back to your remembrance things that you already know quite well in Colossians chapter 2 verse 20 wherefore there's what

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Paul says watch him carefully wherefore if ye be dead Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are you subject ordinances touch not taste not handle not which are all parish to after the using after the commandments and the doctrines of men these things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility they look humble oh they look spiritual and neglecting of the body not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh suffice it to say that the

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Galatian Christians were in danger of going back into reliance upon the works of the law for their growth in their

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Christian experience that's where the Galatians were going but the Colossians were being drawn aside as I mentioned the other evening by another movement there were the

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Gnostics and the Gnostic says you've got the gospel but we got the full gospel we've got the message you've got it but we got some more and that's nothing new it is nothing new under the

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Sun they're saying yes you're saved yes you've done this yes you've been baptized yes you're walking with the

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Lord but we got some new information and it was traditions of men it was philosophy it was their own thinking it was their own surmising and it had no foundation in the

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Word of God whatsoever it was just leading the people off into the areas that they wanted them to go and Paul wrote that Colossian letter and said if you have

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Jesus Christ in your heart you have everything you will ever need you don't need anything else and I find people running around looking for everything under the

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Sun when they've got the Son of the Living God in them and the life of God in them you have God in you dear people you can't get any more than that God lives in you by the third person of the

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Trinity there is nothing else available but that there is no more all you gotta do is be available and let him use you just open up and let him take control that's all that's necessary out of the innermost being flow rivers of living water it doesn't come from out here in it comes from within out it's what the scripture says let's get things in priority let's get them in order to both the

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Galatians what would answer how would you answer all this would you debate them Paul well Paul could do it why

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Paul won't you debate them I'd like to have Paul handle my debates Paul you come and handle the

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Colossians you know what he told them both he said go to the cross just go to the cross look at Jesus if you want your life who you gonna picture your life at be like Paul you're not supposed to be like Paul you're supposed to be like me you're not supposed to be like me

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I'm not supposed to be like you you're not supposed to be like the Corinthian Christians you're not supposed to be like the Colossian Christians you're not supposed to be like these you're supposed to get

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Christ's character in your life he's your standard he's the one we want to be more like than anyone else he's the one keep your eyes on him get your eyes off of people

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Paul he never pointed about him he didn't say do like me he said go to the cross look at Calvary this is what he's telling us look at Colossians chapter 3 you know what

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Paul asked him he said if you died with Christ why are you acting like you still living in the world if you died with Christ he says why are you going back to the childish lessons that's what he's saying in Colossians 2 20 why are you going back to those childish babyish things lesson of outward things vainly puffed up in the fleshly mind and not holding fast to Christ listen to me carefully sweet people instead of being occupied with cutting off exterior things getting this out and getting that out well don't drink don't smoke don't cuss don't you don't hang around people that do and all that stuff instead of worrying about all of that stuff this is not what

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Paul is talking about well should we go there should we not go there should we do this or should we not do this what

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Paul says you should have been doing is you ought to have your mind on heavenly things now look what he says in Colossians 3 if ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God and the closer you and I can get to the

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Lord you don't worry about those you've kept your eyes on the

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Lord you've tried to walk with God's Word you've tried to be faithful in your home you've tried to be faithful in the church you try to be faithful on the job is it not true that those little things that everybody talks about they don't even interest you anymore

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I mean it's foolish to who cares about smoking drinking dancing all those things don't bother somebody walks with God these things don't bother a

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Christian who walks with the Lord they just fall off of themselves because darkness can never hang around light it just can't the light gets too bright and they just don't pull at us they just don't tear at us anymore and Paul says you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God they were severed from their old life so that they could share that new life with Jesus Christ and through that new life they can make dead their body they can make dead their members so that they would not be enticed by the world or eluded by the world and they learned the secret of deliverance from the indulgence of the things of the flesh but you and I are so quickly influenced by the teachings of men we are so quickly influenced by the precepts of people especially those that we love and respect and esteem in the ministry we are so quickly influenced them but the cross of Christ is the message and it is the remedy for every difficulty it is the remedy for every solution the cross of Jesus Christ you and I need to consent with all of our hearts that we are crucified with Christ and it will not be long until you will discover that the world is crucified to you

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I shared this with your pastor I didn't have shared he already knew it but we were just talking in conversations as we do and and you know it as well as I know it you don't have to worry about all these things if you and I will learn to just walk with the

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Lord and walk with God the world won't have anything to do with you you don't have to worry about not having thing to do with it it doesn't want to be around you lost people won't want to be around you you got to go hunt them up they'll say here he comes you go probably quote your scripture

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I look at Mary got his Bible there's carrying a Bible in a restaurant there she goes again we don't like to be around people do like no it's kind of hard to sin you got a

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Bible in your hand kids go to school I know kids go to school and they just lay a

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Bible on their tray sit down in school eat lunch that cools the conversation

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I mean you know it holds it down it can be done it just makes a difference it just makes a difference and this is what we talk about the world loses its power to attract us and even in its religious aspect it will not influence us and I walk for Christ I never think about this city

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Baton Rouge Louisiana without thinking about the church that I mentioned the other evening quite a few years back about 1969 or 70

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I think it was I was invited to this city to preach a meeting at Parkview Baptist Church in the little red building sitting over there two girls wrote me a letter and they said we are students in the high school

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I don't even remember which high school they went to they lived over in that area whatever school it would be in and they said to me they said we're praying that God will do something in our school when you come and so I didn't know

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I just wrote them and encouraged him and I said I'll be in prayer with you and I came and I preached just a revival effort not conferences like this we don't

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I don't preach many revivals anymore we just do conferences and and teach people God's Word but and try to minister the word but I announced on Friday night that I was gonna be preaching on the family and I was gonna preach to moms and dads

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I don't preach kids you get moms and dads straighten out you have a few problems with the kids you know kids they just follow leaders you know and moms and dad are good leaders and so we've taught them well and so I announced that and what happened was these girls went and invited the senior class to come to the revival now you know how absurd that is go to high school and say we'd like for the senior class to come to our church let some

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Jew preach to them tonight well you know what the response would be but God had been moving in those girls lives and they've been praying and what

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God did was he got that senior president to move that meeting up one hour so they could come and I unknowing to me

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I walked out on the platform that night their pastor had resigned and they had an interim pastor he passed away a couple of years ago an older gentleman and I walked out on the platform that night and I looked and that little order

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Tom was filled and there were 252 visiting teenagers sitting in that church and I preached to moms and dads but you know it's amazing how

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God works you preach to one people God meet the need in somebody else's life and I gave the invitation and I just gave the invitation as I normally do and I just back away from the pulpit so that to me that's symbolic of letting

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God I have nothing to do with it and I just began to pray and I heard the interim pastor he speaking but it seemed like he was further away from me and I could hardly hear him and so I looked up and he is standing all the way back out of the church and those kids 249 of them were kneeling all over the place all up and down the aisles they went out that night and came back the next night and brought a hundred and twenty more into that church now let me ask you a question why because I was there

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God forbid because two girls cared enough to get on their face before God and for weeks and weeks and weeks prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed that is what

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I remember about this city as much as anything I've ever learned it had a tremendous impact upon my life and one of them when

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I was at Lanier Baptist Church last year came to the meeting and spoke to me spoke to me a young married girl now and living successfully and the

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Lord I just say that to say this not in comparisons or anything else I'm just saying that if you and I want

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God's blessings you can get them if we want God to work he'll work but you got to pay the price they were ridiculed and criticized but God blessed it now listen to me carefully turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and let me quit here in a moment the cross

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God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of Jesus Christ in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made nigh made near by the blood of Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one both

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Jew and Gentile one and hath broken down the middle wall of petition between us look at verse 16 and that he might reconcile both unto

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God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby if the cross is the severing power of God between a child of God and the world it is equally the uniting power of God for every person who claims to be a child of God if it is the power of God to separate us from the world it is equally the same power that brings

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Christians together in Jesus Christ it is the unifying factor in Christianity it is only on the resurrection side of the cross the life side of the cross that blood -bought children of God really understand something about the body of Jesus Christ until then we only know about a little local church and I believe in the local church with all my heart

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I believe in it with all my heart I know that a hundred and fourteen times in the New Testament the

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Greek word ecclesia does refer to a local gathering of believers I believe that but I also believe that there is that universal body of Christ made up of Christian people where they be black yellow brown where they're in Africa India China Mexico America Canada it doesn't make any difference but you see we don't recognize those things until we move out onto the resurrection side of the cross and understand that God is doing something far beyond the little circle in which you and I live and we are just a small part of the whole but we are important to the whole because every

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Christian has a job to do within the body of Christ every Christian has something to do and the message of the cross is proclaimed to a sinner as the ground of reconciliation but emphatically it needs to be proclaimed that is the rallying point of all

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Christians that we come together at the cross of Jesus Christ and it's neutral ground it is level ground

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God is no respecter of persons may I quickly inject this ladies and gentlemen you may know more than someone else

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I may know more than you in some areas and you may know more than me in some areas knowledge is relative it only depends upon whom you are comparing it to you see you and I could take a nine or ten year old kid and boy we know all while that kid he'd be dumb

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I mean we've got all this information and we could just don't but you go out there and get to build a sandcastle with him you let him go out there and play his little army games like that he'll whip you every time he can get an

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Atari in his hand and he'll drive you bananas you let him get on pac -man and he'll send you up the wall it's all relative we are at all different stages of Christian growth we are some old

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Christians some young Christians some mature Christians some carnal Christians but we are all growing

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Christians you may know more than another Christian but if you and I ever believe we are more spiritual than somebody else that is self -righteousness and that is not of God you and I never to believe that we are more spiritual than someone else is that is not a fruit of the

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Spirit it is pride and arrogance and haughtiness and it violates the spirit of the cross of Jesus Christ knowledge is only an instrument knowledge is only a tool whereby we may spread the message of a blessed

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Savior what am I saying I'm trying to say to you that the cross is the gateway into life and it is the gateway of the life and it's

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Paul's constant theme wherever you read his blessed writings Paul constantly talks about the cross the cross the cross and writing to these

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Colossian Christians that we read a moment ago he tries to impress upon them you have died with Christ he died for you and you died with him therefore you ought to live in a different sphere you ought to live in a sphere where the distinctions and divisions of earth do not matter anymore have you ever heard this in your church or have you ever heard this in a church let me give you some room have you ever heard this in a church so I don't like to talk about a churches and the churches and those churches because that's not where I am we down here you know this is the church but if you ever heard this

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I've heard so many times pastor I need to speak to you please we have a little problem in our

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Sunday school class we have a lady that she's wanting to come into our class but I really feel like she'd be happier in the other class she won't be happy and I won't you just could it be all right even though she's not in that particular group we could just kind of let her going in instead of just being honest and saying pastor if she comes in here she'll break up my click pastor she comes in here she's gonna get some of my power pastor she comes here she's gonna interrupt that little thing

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I got going in here have you ever heard anything like it you think anything like it you think there could be possible that in the average

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Christian church they might be some clicks look at who you and I hang around someone well -educated who do they hang around well -educated people but I believe that any

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Christian ought to be willing to go in the home of any Christian and if they have an apple cart for a table if they have a stool for a bed if they have dirt on their floor a child of God ought to be comfortable sharing with that brother and sister in Christ no matter who it is with God there is no rich or poor there is no educated or uneducated there's not wise or unwise

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I believe you ought to be as best educated you can I believe you ought to make all the money you can make as long as you do it honestly and as long as God is first if God wants to give you ten homes nine cars eight swimming pools and three trains it doesn't matter to me as long as Jesus Christ is first in your life

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I ask this all the time have you ever seen a U -Haul hearse behind a I'm a U -Haul trailer behind a hearse it seems to me that people put all of their they might as well make them one talk about a

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U -Haul hearse that'd be a good name for them or they'll haul anything but you know isn't it true that you and I have difficulty with each other because we get our eyes off of Christ they criticized him because he was with the lowly group he wasn't with the

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Pharisees and the Sadducees all the time and one of the sweet things that can ever happen in your church is when you and I can learn to accept each other for just who we are you got problems and I got problems but we've got to live together forever we're gonna have to live together in an eternity and one of the great things about Christianity is when a

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Christian can go to another Christian and say I want you to forgive me because I have this this this this or you can go to that person and say you know you've transgressed against me you've hurt my heart and I want to share with you about it

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I don't want to be critical I don't have bitterness in my heart towards you could we just pray and seal our relationship back to where it was and then forget it that's one of the beautiful things about the life of the church because that's what it's for the

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Bible says confess your faults one to another but we don't dare confess them in the church because we know many times they won't be kept secret they won't be kept secret but the church my pastor says and I believe it is a spiritual hospital of sinners saved by grace and we're here because we're sick we're trying to get well and we're walking in the

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Lord we're walking in the Lord and I believe the cross of Christ Paul says that Jesus Christ abolished he abolished in his flesh the enmity that which causes divisions and that which separates believers in himself and he himself is become the peace and that's a glorious message to me it is the message of Calvary and from the cross the

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Christian Church has sprung and it didn't come from any other source except the cross of Jesus Christ that's where the

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Christian Church came from and that is our source it's our root it's our foundation it's not Nashville it's not an organization it's not promotion it's not

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Baptist it's not Methodist although I am a Baptist and I don't care to be anything else that doesn't bother me one way or the other but our root our foundation is the cross of Jesus Christ and as long as we stay close to the cross we'll be all right and if we ever get too far away from the cross they'll lose the

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Jew and everything he knows and everything he can ever do I'm not gonna hang around people I'll hang around the cross it's through the cross that was so marvelously illumined to the

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Apostle Paul and it was taught to him by the risen Lord that Paul's own faithful preaching to the people and he shared it with you and me and he's written it in his books so that you and I understand that we are fellow members in the body of Christ we are fellow partakers of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ we are fellow partakers of the promises of Jesus Christ in the marvelous cross now

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I ask you that pertinent question for this particular moment I believe that you love the

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Lord with all of your heart I do not ever question that I don't question your love for the

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Lord I don't question your commitment to the Lord I just want to ask you a pertinent question who is it who is it that you have resentment in your heart against what

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Christian brother or sister do you have resentment in your heart against who is it do you have resentment in your heart against your husband is their resentment against your wife is there resentment against a deacon is there's something against of godly pastor wouldn't be resentment against a

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Sunday school teacher you see I understand And listen to me carefully, resentment is maybe a strong word, let me rephrase it.

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Well, I don't want to talk about her, but. And then it becomes constructive criticism.

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But if she says something about me, it's destructive criticism. Could there be?

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I don't know. Hope it isn't. But if it is, why wouldn't you just write where you are? Just while you still look at me, it doesn't matter.

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In your heart, you could just say, dear Lord, oh God, this is wrong. And I don't want it in my heart.

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God, I confess it to you that it is wrong, it's unholy, it's ungodly, and I just release it.

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I want it out of my life, Lord. I just confess it to you. I thank you, you've forgiven me of it. And then you can go to that person later and say, right in the service,

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I prayed and took God's forgiveness for that. Now I must have your forgiveness for that.

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And I promise you, dear people, you're talking about a peace that comes into your heart. You're talking about guilt getting off of your life.

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And you're talking about physical problems erasing. And you're talking about mental anguish and the little emotional upheavals that disappear.

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You get your life right with your brothers and sisters in the Lord after you get it right with God. And it's amazing, the peace that comes in.

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It's amazing, the peace that comes in. What has God told you to do this week that you still haven't done?

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May I go another step further with you? I'm just getting you to answer questions in your own heart. Think back when you first got saved with me for a moment.

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Now just pause, let your mind go back. Think about where you were when you got saved. Now think for about the first year of your

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Christian life when you got saved. Think of all the things you gave up. You knew they were wrong.

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You said, I'm not going to do this anymore. That's not of God. I'm not going there. Now think about what you've taken back in your life that you once gave up.

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Think about what you've let come back in. You said you weren't going to gossip anymore.

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You weren't going to spread rumors anymore. You weren't going to make covenants and break them. We said we weren't going to do all those things.

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See, we always think of murder, robbing, and stealing. No, that's not problems for you and me.

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Our problems are attitude problems. Our problems are response problems. Our problems are self -righteousness, egotism, self -centeredness.

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We are so egocentric and materialistically oriented. And if everything doesn't function just like I think it ought to function, then that's not the way it's going to be in the church.

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If the church is going to be right with God, then it'll go in the direction I want it to go. It's going to do what I want to do. If I vote no, they better vote no.

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What is it in your heart tonight that if you made that right,

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God's blessings would really be yours? Is there something that you are really struggling with in your heart?