All Things Together For Good: Chap. 5 pt. 1

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All righty, so good evening. We are now in chapter five of Thomas Watson's little book,

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All Things for Good. The first three chapters, we considered how the best things work for good, how the worst things work for good, and then why all things work for good.

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And then in the last couple weeks, we were in chapter four, and we talked about those who love God, who are the beneficiaries of this promise.

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And so for chapter five, Thomas Watson wants us to consider whether or not we are those that love

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God. He says, as the Bible does, you will know them by their fruit. So the test of love to God is the name of this chapter.

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So let's read this first paragraph here. It said, let us test ourselves impartially, whether we are in the number of those that love

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God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it,

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I shall lay down 14 signs or fruits of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden.

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And so now we're going to talk about whether or not we are the ones who love God, and so he's going to offer us 14 different signs or fruits to see if in our garden those fruits are there and growing.

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Number one, the first fruit of genuine love to God is the musing of the mind upon God.

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He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object of his love. He who loves

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God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. When I awake, I am still with you.

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The thoughts are as the travelers in the mind, David's thoughts kept on the heaven road.

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I am still with you. God is a treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart.

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By this we may test our love to God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think on God?

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Have our thoughts got wings? Are they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory?

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Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God who scarcely ever think of God? God is not in all his thoughts.

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A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as a prisoner thinks of the judge.

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Can I get a glass of water, ladies, thank you. Okay. So, what do we think about this, putting this in our own words, the musing of the mind upon God as a sign of our love to God?

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Comments, questions? Yeah, I guess the first thing that comes to my mind, no pun intended, is how often our minds are on everything else but God.

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You know, whether it be the trials of the day, whether it be something we're really into, whether it be waking up in the morning, what's our first thoughts, going to bed at night, what are our last thoughts?

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I would have to say all too often our minds are not set in tune with, at least as much as they should be.

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And then again, I go back to the whole idea of our thoughts being an eye of the garden.

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I've actually been thinking, again, no pun intended, I've been thinking a lot about this lately, because I'll be driving to work and my mind will be all over the place, and that sucks like that.

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How do I spend my time? No, it's a good question.

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No, it's true. You know, he talks about the person who's in love, their thoughts often go to the object of their love, it's just natural.

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I was thinking, just having preached a Sunday, I'm longing for the pure milk of the Word which sustains us, and through it we begin to taste and see that the

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Lord is good, that is, we experience Him. And in the busyness of life,

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I can hear the objection, you know, it's easier to think of someone we love when we can see them or interact with them.

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Talking about, like, where do our thoughts go? So you might think, well, yes I love God, but you know,

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I love so -and -so, right? But I see them, you know, I can interact with them on a regular basis.

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But what he's saying here is, when we're not around that person, our mind automatically goes to them, doesn't it?

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And as we consider the fact that we can experience God, we can interact with God.

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And I was writing down these notes, and then I get to the next point, and it talks about that exactly, but when we interact with the

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Lord through His Word, and we give Him opportunity to speak to us when we pray, and we are speaking to Him, this will bring our mind to think about God.

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And the more we do so, the more thoughts of Him are going to be in our mind.

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The more we expose ourselves to Him, give ourselves the opportunity to experience Him, the more we will think about Him.

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So there's that. The next fruit of genuine love to God is to desire communion with Him.

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Love desires familiarity and fellowship. My heart and flesh cry out for the living God. King David being debarred the house of God where the tabernacle was, the visible token of His presence, he breathes after God, and in a holy pathos of desires cries out for the living

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God. Lovers desire to be conversing together. If we love God, we prize

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His ordinances, because there we meet with God. He speaks to us in His Word, and we speak to Him in prayer.

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By this, let us examine our love to God. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God? Lovers cannot be long away from each other.

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Such as love God have a holy affection for Him and desire to be with Him.

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They can bear the lack of anything but God's presence. They can do without health and friends.

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They can be happy without a full table. But they cannot be happy without God. Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the grave.

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Lovers have their fainting fits. David was ready to faint away and die when he had not a sight of love.

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They who love God cannot be contented with having ordinances unless they may enjoy God in them.

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That would be to lick the glass and not the honey. What shall we say to those who can be all their lives long without God?

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They think that God may be ignored. They complain they lack health and trading, but not that they lack

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God. Wicked men are not acquainted with God. How can they love Him who are not acquainted with Him?

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Nay, which is worse, they do not desire to be acquainted with Him. They say to God, Depart from us.

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We desire not the knowledge of your ways. Sinners shun acquaintance with God. They count His presence a burden.

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And are these lovers of God? Does that woman love her husband who cannot endure to be in his presence?

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So, thoughts or comments on that? As I was starting to talk about our thought life, and does our thoughts go to God?

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And my mind went to, well, if we read His Word, if we spend time in prayer, that will bring our mind directly to God.

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And even when we're not in the moment reading or in the moment praying, the more we expose ourselves to God and His ways, the more we're going to think about Him.

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And so, our thoughts can bring us to prayer and bring us to Scripture reading.

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And Scripture reading and our prayers can bring us to be thinking about Him. And so, it is sort of tied together.

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The more we interact, the more we have fellowship with Him. Other comments on that?

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Yeah, I just want to... Go back to before? Yeah, just, I think it bears noting that there is a difference between thoughts about God and godly thoughts.

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Right? We are not to be focused, and just hear me out when

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I say this, we are not to be focused on God 24 -7. How do we love our neighbor if we're focused on God and we're thinking about God?

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Or let's say Bob's doctor is working on his eye and says, Boy, divine simplicity, how does this work?

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You know, we're supposed to be focused on those things, but with God permeating those thoughts.

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So the focus does not have to be God Himself, but we can have godly thoughts about other people.

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Functioning in our jobs, in our love towards neighbor, towards community, towards our relatives.

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So, we're not to be fixed on theology, but we're to have the

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Word of God in us. God, David, hides His Word in his heart that He may not sin.

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So the Word is in us, we have these godly thoughts towards other people, and we see God in everything.

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And there's a time and a place, obviously, to focus specifically on God, but then there's a time and a place to focus specifically on our wives, husbands, neighbors.

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Those things that He tells us to love and to care for. Now, that's an important distinction. I've heard of people who, there used to be a saying,

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I don't know if it's still around, maybe, that someone is so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good, and I've heard reports of conversation where someone is trying to talk to someone about something, anything, in life, and they're like, oh, no,

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I don't want to talk about that, I only want to talk about, I only want to talk about the Lord, I only think about the

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Lord, that stuff is just, it's all other. But God should be flowing through all of that.

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He gives us this world, but are we thinking about it in His reflection? Go ahead, Doug. Well, I have thought from before, but I'll get to that in a minute.

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To Anthony's point, I remember one time hearing a commentator comment on Paul, and that his view was through the

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Scripture. It was Christ -centric, because it was viewed through the Scripture. So, to Anthony's point, if we're viewing things through the

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Scripture, if our thinking is because of the reading of Scripture and prayer and such, which

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I'll make a comment on in a minute, if we're viewing things through that, then we are, you know, we're doing both.

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We're loving our neighbor, and we're keeping both parts of the Ten Commandments, both pathways.

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So, I agree, but that's something that takes some, I want to say training, the

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Holy Spirit is the one that does it. Now, with regard to reading of the Word, and this is my own personal experience, there's a lot of times

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I don't want to be doing it. You know, for whatever reason, I'm too tired in the morning, or I have other things that I'm concerned with, but I more or less have to force myself on those days.

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But once I'm into it, that's when God starts speaking to me. And then you get excited, and then it's like, why didn't

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I want to do this? And then you fall into that lapse again, because humanly speaking, our minds are like a ping -pong game, you know, going back and forth between the things of the world.

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So, to the point of what you're saying and what's being said here, the more we put ourselves in the position of study, whether we want to or not, it becomes more desired in our lives, in our hearts.

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Yeah, it's a, one second Steve, it is a spiritual discipline, reading the word, and you can have the same people compare it to going to the gym, like,

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I don't want to go to the gym. But once you get there, like, oh, I'm glad I did, the blood's flowing and the endorphins and everything like that.

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This can even be in relationships as well though, because it's not going to the gym to be with your Lord, right?

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But if you've been married a length of time, do you want to have that conversation at the end of the day? Like, I'm tired, can we talk tomorrow?

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And we do the same with our Heavenly Father at times, our Savior. We don't love the way we ought to love, you know?

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I mean, I mentioned this before, I'm going to mention it again, but we get these commandments in Scripture about what we should be doing because it's primarily those things that we struggle to do.

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It's the things that kind of, our flesh is like, ah, I don't want to. But we should pursue it and continue to pursue it and seek to grow in it.

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R .C. Sproul was relaying a story, he was talking with someone and they were dealing with guilt and trying to figure stuff out, and he says the commandment is to love the

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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He goes, do you think you've ever been able to do that? I mean, it's something this is what we're told to but it doesn't come naturally to us, we still struggle with the flesh.

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Steve? Just to add, whatever you do in Word and deed, do all in the name of the

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Lord Jesus. It's in Him that we live and have our being. We have things to do.

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We have families to raise or we have businesses to run. We can do all of that with God in mind and how can

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I please Him in this? Absolutely. In that way, we're both loving our neighbor and loving the

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Lord our God. Yeah, and that's important. We want to have the understanding that we are not in sin or loving

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God less than we ought to if we're living life the way we're supposed to.

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Trying to live and conduct ourselves the things we think and say and do in a manner that glorifies the

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Lord. But we can also have thoughts about Him as well.

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When you think of the Psalms that are written just praise His name and just reflecting on the goodness of God.

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We also want to leave room in our minds for that when we're looking at different things, when we're considering our circumstances and we recognize a blessing that maybe we've been taking for granted or something new that comes up.

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Do we give God the glory? Do we give Him praise? Romans 1 says not only do we look at creation and know there's a creator, but those who are wicked and being given over, they didn't want to honor

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God or give Him thanks. So we want to be a thankful people who do have godly thinking and godly thoughts.

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Does that make sense? Everyone's tracking? Mike? I think it's also to say there's a difference between loving things that God gives us as blessings and loving

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God Himself. To know the desire of God is

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Him. Right. We talked about that in chapter 4 as far as loving Him. King Alexander was saying,

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I have these two friends and one loves me because I'm King Alexander and one just loves me because I'm Alexander.

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We want to love God for the goodness He is. You know, just the fact that He's God and He's worthy and we want to give

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Him our love and not just think He's a genie. You know, what can we get from Him?

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Of course, we first interact with Him because He has set His love on us and He gives us His mercy and His forgiveness.

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But as we grow in our relationship, we learn to love Him for all that He is and not just the gifts that He gives.

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Right? Okay. Other questions or comments before we move on to number 3? Alright, so we have musing of the mind upon God, the desire of communion with God and number 3 is grief for sin.

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Where there is love to God, there is grieving for our sins of unkindness against Him. A child who loves his father cannot but weep for offending him.

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The heart which burns in love melts in tears. Oh, that I should abuse the love of so dear a

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Savior. Did not my Lord suffer enough upon the cross? But must I make

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Him suffer more? Shall I give Him more gall and vinegar to drink? How disloyal and hypocritical have

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I been! How have I grieved His Spirit, trampled upon His royal commands, slighted His blood!

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This opens up a vein of godly sorrow and makes the heart bleed afresh. Peter went out and wept bitterly.

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When Peter thought how dearly Christ loved him, how he was taken up into the Mount of Transfiguration where Christ showed him the glory of Heaven in a vision, that he should deny

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Christ after he had received such amazing love from Him, this broke his heart with grief. He went out and wept bitterly.

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By this let us test our love to God. Do we shed the tears of godly sorrow?

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Do we grieve for our unkindness against God, our abuse of His mercy and non -improvement the talents which

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He has given us? How far are they from loving God who sin daily and their hearts never smite them?

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They have a sea of sin and not a drop of sorrow. They are so far from being troubled that they make merry with their sins.

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When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice. O wretch, did Christ bleed for sin and do you laugh at it?

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These are far from loving God. Does He love His friend who loves to do Him an injury? That's strong.

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Thoughts If we love

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God, we are grieved over our sins against Him. To recognize His kindness towards us, the suffering of our

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Savior on our behalf and our love for Him will cause us to mourn our attitudes and behaviors.

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Watson points to sin as unkindness against God, abuse of His mercy and non -improvement of the talents

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He has given us. These are sins of both commission and omission. Zach There's a parable where Jesus is talking about the master who gives each of his servants a number of talents and some go and they earn more with the talent.

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We think of talents today as gifts and abilities which it can still mean but talent specifically in Scripture was actually a certain unit of money and so there were those who

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He gave money to and said, okay, they were His stewards. Go and be responsible for this. Be productive.

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Be fruitful with it and some went out and they earned more. Some earned a lot.

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Some earned a little bit and one took and hit it in the ground and did nothing with it and the

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Lord judged him for that. Like, this was your responsibility. We are ultimately stewards of everything that God has given us.

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He's given it to us. We didn't earn it. We think I went to work and I earned it. He gave us the breath in our lungs to live the health to go out and to work

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Everything we have comes from His hand of blessing and that includes our ability to earn a living but also every believer has at least one spiritual gift that is meant for the edification of the body to build them up so if God has given us things and said okay, be fruitful, honor and glorify me in it and I just say

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I'm going to sit on my couch and watch Netflix until the Lord comes that would be a modern version of non -improvement of talent and so that is, it's sin.

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We think of sin as oh I went and stole or I cursed or I hurt someone Sin is not doing what the

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Lord has called you to. So yes that would be what he's referring to there and so these are the ways we sin.

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Erica Sin severe sin is right or wrong

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Well the punishment is supposed to match the crime right? If you if you injure someone under the

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Old Testament law you know, to make sure that they gave just retribution and didn't exceed it, you know, the punishment was supposed to fit the crime and so that's our understanding of a punishment should fit the crime, you know, it shouldn't be some wild exaggerated response to it.

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As far as sorrow So I was just thinking about Right, the worldly sorrow that Paul talks about You know, where it might be sorrowful but it's too much

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Yeah There's a worldly sorrow where you know, lots of people experience that, they've gotten caught there's a punishment that's coming with it or they might just be because their reputation is so damaged you know, their pride can be like they're broken up over, not because of what they actually did wrong not because of their offense against God but because of the impact it's having on them, whether it's consequences for their sin or their crime whether it be a punishment or just the fall from grace in front of in the eyes of everyone else

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If you have a situation where you're saying someone, you know, presumably a believer is just feeling condemned you know, because they've sinned, that could be something of pride weaved into it or not a full understanding of the gospel and so that's one of those areas where if I'm counseling someone in that sort of situation,

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I say, well you have sinned but Christ has paid for that sin, you know, your responsibility is to confess it repent of it, you know seek

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God's forgiveness if you've wronged someone, seek their forgiveness if you've done them harm in some way, seek to make it right if you've stolen, return it those kind of things, you want to make it right but the idea that you can somehow send yourself to hell you know, and so you feel condemned that's it,

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I've lost my salvation I would try to help you understand the gospel better to recognize

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Christ has taken away your sin I mean, if you've heard me either counsel or in several studies one of my favorite things to bring up accounts to bring up if someone is struggling with guilt because listen, we're sinners, we've done some horrific things, you know, we've hurt other people in various ways and we should feel guilty for it but once we have that forgiveness in Christ we have to give it up and to hold on to it and stand condemned, we're actually thinking more highly of ourselves and our sin, and not giving

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God the glory and the power that he has, that it'll actually keep us from being fruitful but when someone's really struggling with their sin, something they've done in the past their guilt,

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I bring them to David and Bathsheba when Nathan comes and confronts him and Nathan lays out for him, this is exactly what you've done, you've taken another man's wife, you've killed that man you've brought reproach on the name of God and unlike Saul, who's making every which excuse for not doing what the

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Lord commanded him when Nathan gives him everything he just says, I've sinned against the

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Lord, and Nathan says those beautiful words and the Lord has taken away your sin he was an adulterer, he was a murderer many of us don't get to that level of, you know, humanly speaking sin it's pretty serious and he's taken it away and he has mercy on him, yes there's consequences, but when when you're forgiven, you're forgiven that's it, and we glory in that, we rejoice in that you can read through Psalm 51 and recognize the brokenness over sin, but then rejoice in the salvation that we have in Christ, so yeah if someone's really struggling with it that's where I take them to remind them to keep it in check, they should repent they should recognize their sin it's good to take it seriously but not to remain condemned and you can't move forward you can't be fruitful for God at that point you're giving more power to your sin than you are to Christ, who takes away sin so we want to be careful about that Mike?

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Other comments or questions?

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I was going to say that I'm reminded of Martin Luther the way he used to punish himself basically and drive the other priests basically crazy for his confessions he basically was useless to the kingdom and it wasn't until he realized that by grace he was saved that he didn't need to do anything of his own ability to earn the kingdom of God that's a good point he'd spend hours in the confessional to think of every little thing he'd possibly done when you're struggling with a sin that you committed and you think that you've lost your salvation or there's no way

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God could forgive me for that, it's actually arrogance because what you're saying is you are more powerful than the blood of Jesus on the cross the blood of Jesus on the cross can forgive and atone for every and any sin you can do, or it can't if you think you've outdone

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God that's another sin, you'd better step it back okay, go ahead

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Mike James 4, 8 -11 I've drawn you to God and he has drawn you to him clasp your hands to his centers and purify your hearts and double them up be wretched and mourn and weep that your life should be turned to the way of the joy to come, humble yourselves before the

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Lord and to yourself you don't need to grieve, mourn, and wail but on that point humble ourselves

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God will lift us up and give us assurance of salvation yeah, there's a sense there where James is talking to people who are being a little bit hard hearted and so he's using some strong language with them as Pastor Anthony you've heard him say it in praying

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Lord, afflict the comfortable and then comfort the afflicted if someone is hard hearted they need the truth of the law brought down on them to help them to see where they stand before God but once you're there and you're broken we have the gospel that provides the comfort from the

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Father of mercies so yeah it's there's a ditch on both sides you know grieving too much in one sense and having a little bit of arrogance and thinking that your sin is just too much you're just too wicked for Christ to save, you know, when the

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Apostle Paul says I'm the chief of sinners how many Christians did he play a part in putting them to death and seeing them put to death most of us we just haven't got there you know, and praise

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God for his grace to hold us back from that kind of sin and from having some of that guilt to go with us, but he takes away all our guilt but if we do love

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God we should grieve our sin brother so we want to make sure that we have a balanced perspective on it but good questions and insights, thank you number four another fruit of genuine love for God is courage love is valorous it turns cowardice into courage love will make one venture upon the greatest difficulties and hazards the fearful hen will fly upon a dog or serpent to defend her young ones just so, love infuses a spirit of gallantry and fortitude into a

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Christian he who loves God will stand up in his cause and be an advocate for him we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard he who is afraid to own

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Christ has but little love to him Nicodemus came sneaking to Christ by night, he was fearful of being seen with him in the daytime love casts out fear as the sun expels fog fogs and vapors so divine love in a great measure expels carnal fear does he love

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God who can hear his blessed truth spoken against and be silent he who loves his friend will stand up for him and vindicate him when he is reproached does

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Christ appear for us in heaven and we are afraid to appear for him on earth love animates a

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Christian it fires his heart with zeal and steals him with courage questions, comments about that Jake a couple examples come to mind one on the positive affirming this and one on the negative the first one would be

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David Goliath David's courageous zeal for the Lord and his his love for God is what spurs him on to go and fight this

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Philistine this giant and dreadful and he does it without a second thought in his mind and then the other one would be

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Peter when he denies Christ three times and he cowers in fear for being associated with Christ and so we see on this two different sides of the spectrum that love that's being talked about you think of Goliath and just how big this guy was and here was

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King Saul and one of the reasons he was looked upon by the people he's a head taller than everyone else and he's terrified all their valiant soldiers are terrified and in comes the shepherd boy this guy he's defying

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God it wasn't David looking at his own strength I've been working on some grappling techniques

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I think I can get him just get him on his knees and take him down no, he's trusting the Lord to give him the victory and on the other hand

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Peter who was all talk I'm willing to die for you and he didn't want to be associated with him when everything was going against him and here when we think of persecution in America sometimes even to name

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Christ knowing that people will think poorly of us they won't take us seriously or they'll speak disparagingly about us is enough for us to hold back from sharing the gospel we're not even being looked at like you're on the cross next buddy that's where Fox's Book of Martyrs and how many saints went to their death and all they had to do was renounce their faith they said take everything if we love

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God we will have the courage to stand up and to speak the truth and not shy back um

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I think there's actually one more part to this no, there wasn't where do

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I hmm

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I feel like I'm missing a part of it I probably did, it's mine

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I feel like there was something you know maybe it's later on in the thing

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I just thought of it there's times where I'm thinking some of the thoughts and then he'll bring it up later on because all these things are connected in a way

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I put here about um turns cowardice into courage, love for God makes us willing to stand for his cause, to be an advocate even a martyr

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I think he talks about martyrdom later on so maybe that's what I was thinking I was thinking of another paragraph but I said that the willingness to be a martyr yeah, definitely brought it up later on I wrote more about it too the idea of you know, there are those who said they would die for Christ but we don't live for him um

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I was, Facebook or something there was a picture of these folks at a football game right, big stadium and they are covered in snow

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I mean it looks like someone needs to shovel them I mean they're just completely covered, and I said if the church was faithful to show up, you know um, but that's later down the line okay, uh, questions or comments besides that Jake, thank you, that's a good point in pointing out the two opposite ends of the spectrum yes, no okay, fairly uh straightforward, right uh, number five the fifth fruit of genuine love to God is sensitiveness.

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If we love God our hearts ache for the dishonor done to God by wicked men to see piety and morality broken down and a flood of wickedness coming in, to see

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God's name dishonored, if there is any love to God in us, we shall lay these things to heart

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Lot's righteous soul was vexed with the filthy lives of the wicked the sins of Sodom were as so many spears to pierce his soul how far are they from loving

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God who are not at all affected with his dishonor if they have but peace and trading they lay nothing to heart a man who is dead drunk never minds nor is affected by it though another is bleeding to death by him just so many being drunk with the wine of prosperity when the honor of God is wounded and his truths lie a -bleeding, are not affected by it.

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Did men love God? They would grieve to see his glory suffer and piety itself became a martyr become a martyr.

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Comments about that? If you don't understand what he's saying how do you put it in your own words?

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Mike. I'm just, uh, just grieved by, um, how people just let them take the word stand in vain.

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Um, specifically at work, and it's just, uh, I think there's a time and a place to go say something about it.

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Um, but also, like, what is there to say when you take the word stand in vain.

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So it's just, uh, it is something to be grieved about. You know, the hearts of stone would be many parts of flesh.

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Mm -hmm. Zach. I have a question. Sure. Like you said, so my dad, you know, like, does that constantly.

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Mm -hmm. And, like, if I try to, like, rebuke him, or, like, if I try to tell him it's wrong, um, he just, he thinks that, like, me going to church is, like, awful.

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You know what I'm saying? Mm -hmm. Like, he was, like, the type of guy that, uh, when he was younger, his mom would go into church, and, like, he would wait in the car.

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Oh, wow. So, like, what do I say? I don't know. I would ask, like, how do

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I get him to believe me? That just seems too far -fetched. Uh -huh. Or, like, how do I get him to realize, like, what he's doing is, like, is, you know, what do

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I say to him? You can't. Yeah. I'll give you the good news.

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Um, and it's good news in the sense of, you know, here, particularly, you know, we hold to Reformed Theology, Covenant Theology, and one of the overarching understandings is that God is sovereign.

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He is sovereign in everything. everything. Specifically, we think of, you know, soteriology.

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How is a person saved? How do they come to believe? God has to do a work in their heart. Now, of course, we have to share the gospel.

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We're not what they would call a hyper -Calvinist or something like that. We're like, oh, you don't even have to share the good news.

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You know, God will save whoever He's going to save. He does it through us, but, um, all we're called to be is faithful.

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We're not called to be successful. And so, you have no way of knowing if He's going to respond in repentance and faith to the truth that you share.

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Um, and you're not, it's not your obligation. You're not honoring

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God if you're trying to, like, hammer with Him every time you talk to Him, either. You have to know when to pick and choose your battle, so to speak, and just when to have those conversations.

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You know, when the Lord Jesus is sending His people out to preach the gospel, you know,

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He gives them some instruction about, you know, if they receive you, great. If they don't receive you, you know, you knock the dust off your shoes.

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Um, you know, you take your peace with you. He tells them, don't cast your pearls before swine.

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There are times where you don't know, you know, where they're at, but, you know, some context might not be the right context to even attempt to try to talk to someone about the gospel.

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Other contexts, there's probably most of them where you might have an opportunity to, but you can't just keep hammering them and hammering them and hammering them.

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You know, um, when Peter is trying to encourage in a family situation, in the case of a spouse, you know, a wife with an unbelieving husband, he says, make your conduct in such a way that maybe they'll believe without even a word, because they're gonna see how you behave, and that's what the

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Lord is gonna use to convict them, to bring them to repentance and faith, because he's gonna say, look at how it's changed, you know, this person in my life.

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I had a young man I knew, I knew his father who was a deacon, so I knew him through his father, but, you know, he was coming, he was giving a talk with some kids, and he said he'd gone to college, did four years, and um, he heard from a friend, like one of the roommates or something at the dorm, uh, who called him up and said, hey, you know,

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I wanted you to know I got saved. He said, well, that's great. He said, I want to know, I was watching you for like, however long, a year or four years or whatever it was, and he never talked to him about the things of the

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Lord, but he just kept watching him, and he knew he was a believer, and it left an impact on him, and then later on down the line, he came to know

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Christ. So, you can say, hey, you know, taking the

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Lord's name, or hey, you know, you can share, maybe a conversation come up, and it'll give you a chance to ask a question or make a comment, but don't try to force it.

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Just keep praying for him, because you and your own power can't. As much as we'd love to see our loved ones saved, parents, siblings, you know, children, family and friends, we can't save them.

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We can share the truth with them, but we pray that the Lord would work in their heart. Jerry? A comment

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I was going to make, and it kind of goes right along with this, now that you've said what you've said.

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The taking of the Lord's name in vain is not always a verbal thing. Okay? It's those of us who are believers, and we don't live the

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Christian life. We don't walk the walk. We might talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. You know, it kind of reminds me of the

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Good Samaritan, although he obviously was considered, I can't think of the phrase, but a person not to be associated with.

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Yet, he loved his neighbor more than the others that passed the neighbor by. And our neighbor is the pagan down the street, as well as it is the

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Christian that lives next door. So, this is far more than just saying, you know,

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God, blankety blank, or, you know, using God's name, you know, in a way of cursing.

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It's also how we live our lives. You know, whether we're upholding his character in our lives.

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That goes along with what you were sharing with Zach, because how Zach lives his life is going to speak volumes,

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Lord willing, to his father. I had a situation, I wasn't going to bring this up, but it got me kind of thinking about it.

43:30

One of the presidents of one of the divisions of the company, I joke with him every once in a while, he sent me this whole list of puns, right?

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You know, he says, to brighten your day, but then he also put maybe you can use it in one of your sermons.

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And I'm like, where did he get this from? But then I realized he sees me every morning doing my

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Bible study. But you can keep that correct, because I'm going to go in and ask him, and say, man, what do you mean by this?

43:57

Maybe it'll open a door. But my point being, what you said, it's what they see, not always what they hear.

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Yeah. We do want to share those things when we get the opportunity. Some people said, you know, preach the gospel always, when necessary, use words.

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Don't use that. Use words. Gospel is good news. You can't mime out good news, because sometimes even

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Mormons and others can be very moral and, you know, of good character, humanly speaking.

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So we do want to share. But he knows you're going to church, and he's laughing now, but I'm sure there's probably a few people here who could tell you about people who kind of laughed at them or gave them a hard time, but when things get tough, they're asking for prayer.

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They know you're the person to go and talk to, because you're the only one in their life who is doing something very differently.

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And so when we we're walking in it, we're seeking to be obedient to it, and when we blow it, we're asking forgiveness.

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That's something we have to recognize that as Christians, we're not just an example by doing everything right.

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The times when we blow it, it's strange to people to have someone go and apologize to them or ask that forgiveness for something that would otherwise, if they were in your shoes, they'd be like, we'll just squash it.

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Sorry about that. But to go and say, I was really out of line before, I'm sorry,

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I lost my temper, will you forgive me? Even that's going to make a difference to them.

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And right along with that is when people ask you and you say,

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I forgive you. You don't say, oh that's okay. It's not okay, but say I forgive you is very different than how everyone else would react.

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There's a contrast there. So you have a number of different ways that you're going to be able to reach someone who might be even hostile at this point or mocking.

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But you look for those opportunities, you pray for them, and you just keep praying for that person.

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We've mentioned here about taking the Lord's name in vain, and that's certainly one way that people dishonor him.

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By speaking, professing to be one thing and then not being consistent with it. I was thinking of Paul walking through Athens and his soul was provoked by the rampant idolatry.

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He couldn't wait to start talking to them. Because he's just like, ah, you're supposed to be worshipping the one true

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God and you're worshipping everyone else. But you've got this one statue here, let me tell you about him. Let me tell you about the one true

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God. When we love God, we are sensitive to his mistreatment. We are sensitive to the fact that this whole world is going sideways.

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And we know it's because they're rejecting God. They're showing hostility to him. And so that should break our heart.

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We should be praying over this, praying that we would see repentance. And then, as God gives us opportunity to share the gospel, to do good work so that people would see and recognize.

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But those who love God are sensitive to that. Those who have peace and prosperity and they don't have love for God, they don't care about any of it.

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They're thinking nothing about God and nothing even about their neighbor if they have what they need. It talks about having a drunken person who has no concern for someone who's bleeding out right next to him.

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And our society is a lot like that. As long as I have me and mine taken care of,

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I don't care about anyone else. And so that's that one.

47:51

We are past time. I was going to try to get a couple more in, but we'll pick up with number six next week.

47:58

So we'll close. Well, let me ask. I don't have the slide yet. It was a couple slides down. Questions? I know you need the slide.

48:07

Any questions or comments before we wrap up? Yeah. Yeah.