WWUTT 955 Q&A Kanye West, Take Up Your Cross, and the Spirit vs. the Conscience?

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What are these Kanye West Sunday services all about? What does it mean to take up your cross daily and follow after Jesus?

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And what's the difference between the Holy Spirit and the conscience? The answers to these questions when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Thank you, Becky, who is once again not in studio with me.

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I know you're disappointed, but like I said in yesterday's broadcast, which I posted late, we've had some sickness going through our home and it hit me first, surprisingly.

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I think I was the first one to catch it. Usually I'm the last one that gets it or everybody else will get sick with something and then

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I don't get what they get sick with. Sometime later I get hit with something totally independent that nobody else gets.

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I'm on kind of like a weird immune system compared to the rest of my family. Anyway, I did get sick first on Wednesday and it totally knocked me out.

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Like I was on my back all day. I think I just watched TV with my kids was all I did. And then

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Mariah, our youngest, was really sick with it on Thursday and all she wanted to do was cuddle with mom.

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So even at the time that I'm recording this, she's snuggling with Becky and Becky's not able to get away and record the broadcast here.

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So your prayers for us would be greatly appreciated as we get over all this cruddy stuff and hopefully it won't affect the rest of our kids.

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Maybe me and Mariah will be the only ones that get this. It is the Friday edition of when we understand the texts and on Friday we take questions from the listeners.

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You can submit your questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. Typically this program goes about an hour.

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The rest of the broadcast that I do during the week are 20 to 22 minutes. But since I've been sick and there was even a day this week

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I didn't have a voice at all, I am not gonna go as long today. I think I'm gonna stick with that 22 minute format here since my voice is not totally up to speed.

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I probably sound okay, but I can tell where my stamina is at. So this might be a little bit shorter but I still wanted to get to some questions here.

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First to start off, I want to issue an apology. There was an email that I received a few months back and I've not been able to find this email.

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Somehow I got it, I think I replied to it and then I lost it. I don't know if I deleted it or what happened but I wasn't able to find it again.

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Well there was a conference that was taking place in the Philippines. Actually this conference is going on right now.

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It's called Snatch Them From The Flames with Andrew Rappaport and Justin Peters. And somebody had emailed me a few months ago to let me know about this event and said could you plug it on your podcast?

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And I want to say I did respond to that email and said yes, I would love to promote this on the podcast.

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But then I lost that email and I even forgot, like I can't remember the names that were involved.

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I don't remember when and where this was so I didn't mention anything about it.

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And then once I saw Andrew Rappaport posting stuff on Twitter about it, then I was like oh yeah, okay now

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I remember this event and I was supposed to say something about it and totally forgot. Whoever that was that sent me that email,

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I apologize. And I hope that you would accept my apology for my irresponsibility of telling you that I would do this and then wasn't able to do it because I had misplaced that email.

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But in case anybody is getting this now and you're able to attend this event, I wanted to, excuse me,

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I'm choking up. I wanted to mention something to you about it. It's called Snatch Them From the

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Flames. That's taken from Jude 1, 23. Save others by snatching them out of the fire as Jude commanded the churches.

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It is Justin Peters and Andrew Rappaport speaking in Manila at the Sky Dome in Quezon City, Manila, May 25th of 2019.

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Of course that's what, tomorrow in the Philippines? I think it is. And then the other talk is going to be in Cebu, C -E -B -U, is that how you pronounce that?

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That will be on May 28th in Cebu City at the Cebu Trade Hall. Hopefully you're able to look something up online and figure out what times that's supposed to be.

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But that's going on right now in the Philippines. And I know that I have some listeners from the Philippines. We get emails from you guys.

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Love that we have listeners in that part of the world. So don't miss this conference if you are close to it with Justin Peters and Andrew Rappaport from Striving for Eternity Ministries.

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Snatch them from the flames, Manila, May 25th at the Sky Dome in Quezon City and in Cebu, May 28th at the

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Cebu Trade Hall. All right, God bless you guys. And I'll be praying for that event even though I really didn't do much to try to help and promote it.

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All right, let's get to some other questions here. This first one is from Doug and he says,

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Pastor Gabe, hello, we met at the G3 Conference. I'm the wallet guy. Yeah, I remember that.

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I'll give everybody context here in just a moment. Anyway, I want to thank you for the Game of Thrones video that you did.

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I've watched every season and one episode of the final season and I immediately stopped watching after I saw your video, amen.

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This sanctifying process is truly amazing and thank you for your ministry. Well, I'm glad that video was able to influence you,

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Doug, in understanding that that is not the kind of entertainment that Christians should be watching. I mean, really, any of these shows that are done by HBO, they're porn shows with a certain theme going on, like the

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Sopranos would be a mobster theme, but there's a lot of porn in that show. The Westworld show,

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I don't even really know that much about it except for the film that was done back in the 70s, I think it was, with Yul Brynner.

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This was a movie long before it was a HBO porn show. Anyway, that was like a,

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I think everybody was going to some sort of theme park, a Western sort of an atmosphere and all the characters there were robots.

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So they've done that same thing with this HBO show, but of course they've added all the sexuality you can expect from HBO is in there.

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Then there's also been the Sex and the City show that was from HBO. A True Blood, which is basically a porn show with vampires.

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Anything that is on HBO, they're going to have explicit sexuality in it, fit with whatever theme or element is going on in that particular show.

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And in Game of Thrones, it's sort of a knight's theme. So it draws people in to want to watch the medieval stuff that's going on in the fantasy with the dragons and magic and all sorts of stuff that happens in that show, but also the explicit sexuality.

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And HBO does that because they can, and you get desensitized to it and you become, and HBO knows, hey, we put that in the show, you're still going to come and watch it anyway.

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And plus they can draw those people in that love to see that kind of stuff in the shows. So as long as you keep watching it, they're going to keep putting it in there.

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You're going to be desensitized to it. In addition to the fact you are participating in sexual immorality when you watch it.

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Doesn't matter what you think the condition is in your heart that you think you could just watch it and appreciate art or a good storyline.

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No, you are participating in the sexual exploitation of actual human beings when you watch it and absorb it and therefore also pay for it.

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This is not okay for Christians to be involved in. And by the way, I'm going to call him out even though he doesn't listen to the podcast, shame on David French for continuing to promote this trash and write the reviews about it that he has and celebrated on Twitter in front of all of his fans the way that he does.

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And in case anybody's curious, I have contacted David French about that. I don't know that he's seen what it is that I've written. Nevertheless, Doug, I'm glad that it was impactful for you that what video that I did on Game of Thrones and that you stopped watching the show.

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Indeed, Christians should not have anything to do. Let me just put it to you more broadly, specifically and broadly at the same time.

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Don't have anything to do with anything on HBO. There you go. That's a pretty safe,

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I think, standard to set on yourself when it comes to the kind of entertainment that you consume.

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Whatever it is that you're watching, don't let it be something that has been produced by HBO. Doug had a

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PS at the end of his email. He said this, PS, have you seen this weird cult -like thing that Kanye West has been doing?

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He calls it Sunday service. It's on YouTube. I would love to hear your take on it. I have watched a few videos on it.

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I had not heard of this until Coachella because I guess all the Sunday service stuff that he's been doing, which he started back in January and has been doing it every

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Sunday ever since, it culminated with this event that he did on Easter Sunday at Coachella.

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And that was when I first heard of it because that started trending on Twitter. So then I started looking it up and finding out, well, this was a regular thing that had been going on.

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And it's a Sunday praise gathering that is even pretty star studded. There will be some pretty famous persons that will come and attend the

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Sunday services that Kanye West has been doing. And as far as I can tell, it's just music. I don't think anybody's getting up and delivering a sermon unless Kanye West himself is saying something about himself,

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I suppose. I mean, honestly, if I had to speculate on what his motivation was about this,

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I would think that he's promoting a new album. I think that all of this is ultimately self -serving, knowing the ego that Kanye West has.

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And he's probably pushing this musical endeavor that he's doing now, which he calls Sunday service to promote some sort of future album project.

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That would be my guess. If I was a betting man, which I'm not, if I had to put money down on it, that's what

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I would think that Kanye West is up to. But as for the content of the Sunday services themselves,

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I don't really know what's in them. Like I said, I've watched a few videos, but they're short clips, they're just singing.

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And the singing sounds great. And by the way, that choir that's singing with Kanye West in these

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Sunday services, that's a hired choir. That's not like a group of people that just showed up there and everybody there sounds that fantastic.

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He flies that choir in. There's been a lot of money that has been poured into these

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Sunday services that he does, which is one of the reasons why I think this is like building up to some sort of future album project that's probably gonna be very gospel themed.

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Some of the songs that they sing at this Sunday service, some of the songs are

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Kanye West songs that have just been gospelized. It just sounds like the black gospel choir sound is really what he's going for there.

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And he's even gone to Africa and the sound that he has been producing in the Sunday service has been influenced by some of the native

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African music. There was an interview between Jimmy Kimmel and the

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Kardashian sisters and Kanye West's wife is Kim Kardashian West.

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So she was among the Kardashian sisters in this interview with Jimmy Kimmel. Don't ask me how

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I know this interview exists. Some of you are probably wondering what in the world does Gabe watch that he even knows this is out there.

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I won't go into explaining how I came into this interview, but anyway, Jimmy Kimmel does ask

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Kim Kardashian if Kanye West is kind of starting his own church. Kanye, has he started a church or what's going on?

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Because I see that there's a church now that he's going to regularly. Yeah, we didn't really have a name for it because it's more of just a healing experience.

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It was something that Kanye - It looks like fun based on the videos that I've seen. It is, it's so just like emotional.

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The music is so, it really is this healing experience for anyone that just is -

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You all go to this? It's really uplifting and you feel excellent. We have so many friends that maybe feel a little too judgmental when they go to church or something like that.

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When they come here, they feel so free and safe is what everybody says and you have a great time. It's a beautiful way to start your week.

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Can you feel just love and happy? It's just a musical experience that is pretty moving. Do you pray to Kanye or to God at this church?

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There's actually, there's no praying, there's no sermon, there's no word, it's just music and it's just a feeling.

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But it's Christian. It is, yeah, but there is some theme because otherwise it's a concert, right? Yes, it definitely has -

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It's a lot of gospel songs. It's very, yeah, there's the choir, it's gospel music. It is -

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Sing Jesus Walks. Yeah, so it's kind of a mixture. Thank you, Courtney, thank you. So you hear from the

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Kardashian sisters there, there's no preaching, there's no word, there's no prayer, but it's

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Christian. How can that be? How can it be a Christian service if the word of God is not there?

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And they're actively avoiding that. So it's just not like, well, we didn't really put it together for that.

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No, there's not going to be any preaching prayer or the declaration of the word of God. It's just a feel good service.

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So who is this service for? Well, it's for the people who are there.

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I think namely it's for Kanye West. So all of this is about Kanye. It is not at all about God.

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There is a certain flavor to the music as though it were a certain style or fit in a particular genre, but it isn't itself

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Christian. It's acknowledging God with their lips, but their hearts are far from God because they don't even gather there to worship

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God. Just to have a feel good experience. Jesus said in Mark 8 38, whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father and with the holy angels.

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That's pretty serious. And to not want to preach the word there at all is to be ashamed of the word of God.

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They don't want to do that because they don't want anybody to be offensive or anybody to be offended. Now is exactly the way the explanation started there.

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Some people stay away from church because they don't want to be offended by anything. Well, it's because they're in sin and they don't want to hear the truth.

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That's why, that's why they don't go to church because they don't want to hear the word of God say to them, you are a sinner and you need to repent and you need to follow

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Jesus or you're going to go to hell. Rather, they still love the music and they want that gospel presence, that good feel to kind of placate themselves, make themselves feel good for a little bit and kind of give them some energy to go through their day or their week or whatever and to justify themselves.

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Because you heard one of the Kardashian sisters say that they sing Jesus walks.

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Well, that's a song from Kanye West and it's a very blasphemous song. So they'll sing some songs about God being with me and being empowered by God, but all of this is very self -serving.

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It is not at all in praise to the one who gave his son to die for our sins and by faith in him, we have everlasting life.

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That's not what these services from Kanye West are about at all. So lots of people are being misled by this and it's a star studded event.

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It might as well be a church of Scientology gathering. There would be no more

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Christ in that gathering than there is in Kanye West's gatherings.

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Thank you for your question, Doug. We go to the next one here from Zachariah. He says, hi,

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Pastor Gabe and of course, Becky. I hope I spelled everything right. Yes, you did. You got my name right and Becky's right.

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B -E -K -I, remember she's got the unusual spelling that she chose for Becky.

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Anyway, my question is what are some practical applications to taking up your cross daily and denying yourself?

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I find myself struggling in this area because of pride and lack of love. Any answer you could give would help.

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Thank you so much for your work and we all appreciate it, solo Christos. Some practical ways that you can take up your cross and follow

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Jesus. Well, in 2 Corinthians 10, verse five, the apostle

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Paul says to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. And that is another way of saying, take up your cross daily and follow after him.

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Our thoughts need to be conformed to the mind of Christ so that we may worship him the way that he has said he is to be worshiped.

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We may honor him in the way he has said he is to be honored. And we would walk in such a way that a

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Christian is supposed to walk in this world. So think about what you want and crucify that and instead do the will of God.

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So rather than chasing after the passions of your flesh, desire to do the things of Christ.

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If you have bitterness toward somebody else, you have a grudge that you're holding against somebody and you might even be completely justified in that grudge.

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They did you wrong. And if you lay this out before other people, they're gonna say to you, you're right, that person did wrong to you.

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And so you're right to be angry at them. In fact, you should even do more than you're doing. You need to go on Facebook or you need to go on Twitter and you need to say this, that, and the other about them or whatever, all right?

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That might be the desire in your flesh, but is it the thing that honors God? So you must take the desire that you would have in your own human sinful mind and you must put that to death.

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You must crucify it and you must instead have the mind of Christ and think about how to respond to those situations in a way that Christ would.

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And we understand from what Peter said in 1 Peter 2 23, that when

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Jesus was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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In Matthew chapter six, right after Jesus gives the Lord's prayer, he says in verse 14, this is

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Matthew 6 14 and 15. If you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

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But if you do not forgive others, then your father will not forgive your transgressions.

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So doing the will of Christ in a circumstance such as this, where you would have a grudge towards somebody else, instead you should forgive.

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And as Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, that we need to pray for our enemies, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

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That is the reaction that we should have to those who would do us wrong. That we would instead show them kindness.

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That instruction also in Romans 12, when your enemy is hungry, feed him. When he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

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For in so doing, you will be heaping hot coals upon his head. So these are just some examples.

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This is just one example. I guess I've given one scenario here of a way that you take up your cross daily and follow after Christ.

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We have been called to die to ourselves and live for God.

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And as Paul said to the Galatians, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer

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I who live, but Christ who lives within me. So you take an example from Doug, who sent the first email in that I had read.

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He loved Game of Thrones. He watched every episode of every season of Game of Thrones up until the last season, he watched the first episode.

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And then upon hearing that what he was doing was participating in sin and opening his mind up to all kinds of sexual immorality, he was convicted by that, by the

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Holy Spirit, because that video was not just saying, hey, stop watching Game of Thrones. There was also a lot of scripture behind that as well.

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Like Philippians chapter four, where we read starting in verse eight, finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

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And Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, that if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, it's the same as if you committed adultery with her in your heart.

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All the sin that we do on the outside comes from a sinful heart. And if your heart is polluted, then you're gonna start acting those things out on the outside as well.

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And so Doug, in hearing the scriptures and realizing that what he was doing was displeasing to God, he was convicted over this and he stopped doing it.

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And he put to death the desire that he had in his flesh to continue watching this sinful show and instead commit his mind to things that were more honoring to God.

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And that is one way that Doug found a practical application of taking up a cross daily and following after Jesus.

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We are to die to ourselves and we are to live to God. The old man is gone.

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And so as Paul illustrates with the Colossians, we must take off the old and put on the new, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator.

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And so we must be pursuing the things of God rather than the things of our flesh. There are many, many other ways in which this goes, but the taking up your cross daily means how am

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I going to live for Christ today? Not live for myself, but what am I gonna do in my life that I can be honoring to God in all that I say and do?

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Speaking kindly to your neighbor, finding ways that you can even show generosity and kindness to someone else.

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Not just waiting for something to come your way, but you're actually looking for ways that you can show kindness to others.

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Forgiving others, as I've already mentioned, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. Think of the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self -control.

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Not giving into the reactions that you might have in your humanness, in your flesh, but instead submitting yourself wholly and completely unto

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Christ and responding according to ways that you know would be honoring to God.

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This is just examples of way that we die to ourselves and we live according to Christ.

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Then there are gonna be some more extreme ways. I'll kind of tack this on to the end of my answer here.

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Like for example, instead of living in the luxury and comfort that you have in the

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United States of America, which is a pretty comfortable living experience when compared with the rest of the world, instead of enjoying the comforts here, you know, called by God that you're to give up all of this and go into some third world country so you can preach the gospel there, that's definitely a way that you would take up your cross and follow after Christ.

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You would be willing to die for Christ today. What would it cost you to live for Jesus?

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There are some examples of taking up your cross daily and following after him. Remember that the cross is an instrument of death.

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So we're putting something to death when we take up our cross and follow

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Jesus. I suppose at the start of my answer, it would have been good for me to read that particular passage, right?

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Romans 9 .23, sorry, not Romans, Luke 9 .23. That's where we get this take up your cross daily from.

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Jesus said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it.

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But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?

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For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the father and of the holy angels.

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I read that already, didn't I? Yeah, I read the Mark version. All right, next question comes from Lisa in Bristol, Tennessee.

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Hi, Pastor Gabe, thank you so much for your ministry and giving listeners the opportunity to ask questions. I especially look forward to each

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Friday's Q &A. How would you respond to someone who asks, what is the difference between the conscience and the

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Holy Spirit? I would like to be able to answer this question with more than just everyone has a conscience, but only

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Christians have the Holy Spirit. Thank you in advance for what I know will be a sound biblical response.

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Well, I appreciate the confidence that you have in me, Lisa. So let me start there with a couple of Bible passages, both of which are in 1

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Timothy. So this is 1 Timothy 1, starting in verse three. The apostle Paul tells

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Timothy, as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

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The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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So there Paul is talking about the difference between true teachers and false teachers. And the true teacher has a good conscience, whereas by contrast, the false teacher would not.

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All right, same book of the Bible, 1 Timothy. Let me go now to chapter four and I'll begin reading in verse one.

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Now, the spirit expressly says that in later time, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

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So here we have conscience used in two different ways. You have a conscience, a good conscience described of those who love and preach and know the truth versus the person who listens to liars and deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, they have a seared conscience.

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So what are we talking about when we're making this reference to conscience? Well, a conscience is something that has been given to us by God.

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Every human being has it. And our conscience is for us to be able to evaluate right and wrong.

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What is the right thing to do? What is the wrong thing to do? Our conscience helps us to make that decision.

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So even a person who doesn't believe in God has a conscience and though what they believe in is right and what they believe is wrong is wrong, that makes sense.

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So they're wrong on what they think is right or wrong, but nevertheless, they do believe that there is a right or wrong.

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There is a system of morality that we should adhere to though they might have their center of morality off placed, or I was gonna say off center, but then

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I would be using the word center twice. Anyway, where their basis of morality or their worldview is off kilter, they're not able to rightly discern what is good and what is bad because their conscience is seared.

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It has not been informed by something fixed, something objective, something unmoving, something that is the same for every person.

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It is an absolute truth for everybody regardless of what they think is right or wrong.

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So is your conscience being informed by something objective or is it just what you decide is right or wrong in which case your conscience would be informed by something subjective?

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Your conscience is a servant to your system of values. Your values inform your conscience and your conscience informs your values.

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So there has to be something that we are fixed upon that guides the conscience. And in the case of the

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Christian, that fixation is the Holy Spirit. Now understand, I did not say that the

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Holy Spirit speaks into your mind and then you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and you know what's right and wrong.

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That's not what I said. And that kind of takes out the confusion of, well, how do I know if the voice that I hear in my head is the

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Holy Spirit or if it's my conscience? Well, you don't know that. That's the problem. See, once you start listening to the voice in your head, then you are listening to something subjective.

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It would not be possible for you to know whether or not you're just hearing your own thoughts or you are hearing

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God speaking to you. In fact, I'll just tell you, God is not speaking to you in that way. The way that God speaks to us is through his word, through the

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Bible. This is how the Holy Spirit communicates, through the word of God.

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So our conscience is informed according to the scriptures and our minds are shaped to be more like Christ, have the mind of Christ, as Paul said in Philippians 2 .5,

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and we do that when our mind is shaped and conformed to the word of God that is given to us in the

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Bible. The apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 2 .13, we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

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In the book of Ephesians, remember that the apostle Paul talks about the armor of God, right? That's in Ephesians chapter six, put on then the full armor of God.

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What's the one weapon that we have in that armor, in that setup of armor? Ephesians 6 .17

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says, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

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What is the sword of the spirit? It's the word of God. So how do we know what the Holy Spirit says?

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By what is said in the pages of scripture. It's in second

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Peter chapter one, that the apostle Peter says that we don't follow cleverly devised myths and no prophecy of scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

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Second Peter 1 .21, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God has spoken through his word, through the

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Bible. And this is how we know what the Holy Spirit has said. He doesn't speak into your mind.

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So when you know the difference between right and wrong, it's because you have a fixed point of reference and that is the word of God, the

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Bible. And you have gone to that fixed point and you have read what right and wrong is.

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And now your conscience is informed rightly. It is fixed rightly upon the word of God.

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So now when you are faced with a decision between right and wrong, you know the right thing to do because of what you know the

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Holy Spirit has told you through the word of God, the Bible. Now, this not only applies to when you're facing a situation of right and wrong, this also applies in just knowing how to live.

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How am I supposed to conduct myself today? How am I supposed to treat this person? Just like we were talking earlier about what it means to take up your cross daily and follow after Christ, taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ.

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All of these things are in submission to the Holy Spirit of God, which is over the person's life who is the follower of Jesus.

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Everything that they say and do would be under the governance of the Holy Spirit for the

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Spirit has been poured into our hearts. Romans 5, 5, hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And I also love this passage in Titus 3, 5, one of my favorite verses.

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He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our

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Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

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These things are excellent and profitable for people. And as I said earlier, the

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Holy Spirit of God, the way that he informs our conscience shows us not only the difference between right and wrong but also the way that we should go.

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How am I gonna do this today? How am I gonna live a life that is gonna be more pleasing to God today than I was yesterday?

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How is it that I am growing in the Spirit? How can I take this situation or this circumstance and give glory to God in the midst of it?

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We go through suffering so that we might even rely upon God more fully and we are assured of the promises of God that have been given to us in the pages of Scripture and we continue to hope in him and in his promises.

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And we know that he is faithful to deliver to the very end and we are able to endure in the midst of trials and suffering.

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We're able to do all of this because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our confidence in the

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Lord God. And going back to what I had read to you earlier this week, I guess this was last week from John chapter 14,

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Jesus saying, if you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will ask the

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Father and he will give you another Helper, capital H, to be with you forever.

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Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

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You know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. And again, the

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Holy Spirit is not just some subjective voice that we have speaking into our mind. He is an objective point of reference, fixed and unmoving, something that is, well, he's outside of ourselves in the sense that he is not ourselves, but he is in us in the sense that God has poured the

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Holy Spirit into our hearts. But it is the Holy Spirit that guides us in all truth, just as Jesus said that the

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Holy Spirit would do for them when he promised the Holy Spirit to his disciples. And we are his disciples, if we are followers of Jesus.

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The unbeliever has nothing but their own subjectivity. Remember that Proverbs 21 .2 says, every way of a man is right in his own eyes.

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So the person who does not have the Holy Spirit, he also has a conscience, but his conscience is not being informed by anything objective, only subjective, only what he decides is right and wrong.

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And he continues to stumble around in darkness while he follows his own blindness. Whereas the person who has the

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Holy Spirit of God walks in the light as he is in the light and is guided in truth according to what

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God has said in his word. So Lisa, I hope that that helps you in explaining this answer, the difference between the

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Holy Spirit and the conscience. I don't know how long that took me, 20 minutes? Maybe you're able to take that 20 minutes and compress it down into something shorter.

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But I hope that that was helpful to you in the meantime. Thank you so much for your question.

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Well, that's gonna bring me to the end of this broadcast. I managed to make it a little bit longer than my promised 22 minutes here, but that is gonna have to be the end for now.

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So thank you so much for listening. Be in prayer for our family. Hopefully Becky will be able to get back on with me next week.

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And I'm waiting for my voice to get back up to speed again. I can do a few more what videos, which I haven't been able to do all week because of my looming congestion.

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But I'm starting to clear up now in my voice, able to gain a little bit more strength. Thank you so much.

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God bless you all. Let me pray real quick. And then we'll be back on the broadcast again Monday, God willing, starting in John chapter 15.

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We're ready to move on to 15 now. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day. And we thank you for another opportunity that we can find ways to give glory to God in the midst of all of the circumstances that we're gonna face today.

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Whether they are good things or bad, all of these situations have come about in our lives to make us rely more upon God who raises the dead.

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And we have confidence in your promises and what you have said to us according to your word.

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And we are able to understand your word because you have given us your very spirit who dwells within us.

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And knowing that we have the Holy Spirit of God inside of us, we are not put to shame.

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We do not fear the condemnation of any man for we have been forgiven by God and accepted by you.

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And the Holy Spirit in our hearts just affirms to us the unity that we have with you. You are never going to separate yourself from yourself.

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So therefore we know with confidence having the Holy Spirit that we are not going to be separated from God.

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And we are never too far away from you because you are with us with your Holy Spirit inside of us.

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Lord, I pray for my wife and I pray that you keep her healthy and that my kids would be healthy as well and that this sickness would get past us.

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I pray also for those who have sent these emails into us today. And I pray that the answers that have been provided for them help to open up the scriptures all the more and we may live according to your word in ways that are pleasing and acceptable to God our savior.

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God gave his son for us so that we might live. Having been bought with a price, may we die to ourselves and live to Christ.

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We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours. But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.

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Find a good gospel teaching Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend and join us again Monday for more