Book of 2 Corinthians - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-18 (04/08/2001)

Park Meadows Church

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2 Corinthians chapter 4, reading the first verse,

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Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we think not.

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We have this ministry that tells us it is done. All other religions tell you to do.

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Do. Do. But we have one that it is done.

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It's not enough to believe that Jesus died 2 ,000 years ago, but he died for your sins.

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Not only did he die, but he rose again. Resurrection.

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But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

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We held nothing back, is what he's saying. We told you everything just as it was and is.

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But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, not to those that are saved or will be saved.

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Only the lost are prevented from hearing it. They're actually prevented from hearing the word.

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Only the lost are prevented from believing it. Not only can they not hear it, they can't believe it.

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The man who preaches the gospel is a holy man, or he should not be in the pulpit.

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We have renounced disgraceful ways, secret thoughts, feelings, desires, underhandedness, methods, arts.

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This is Paul speaking. We refuse to deal craftily or contaminate his word.

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Discontaminating the word, what Satan could not do in direct force, he is doing in watering down the word.

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He gives you a different translation, almost true, but not completely.

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He gives you the truth 90%, but not completely.

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But we state the truth openly, clearly and candidly. And so we commend ourselves in the sight and presence of God to every man's conscience.

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Corinthians 4. Every man's conscience.

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To whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them.

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He has blinded the eyes of the unbelieving only. He has not blinded the eyes of those that will be saved permanently.

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There is a difference between the God of this world and the God of this age. When we say the

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God of this age, it means he is running everything, he thinks.

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Although God is in control, he is...

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Let's talk about that for just a little bit. How can God be in control and Satan do what he does?

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David, enlighten us. The only way that can happen is if Satan does what he's supposed to do.

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He does the job he was... What about the bombing of the

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Oklahoma City building? Those are things that we can see.

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We can't see everything. We don't understand everything, yes? That has to do with the fact that God is giving.

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Well... It's up to God to do his purposes. That's right.

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Yes. Well, I think... When you look at the tragedies of the world in all our...

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There are many, many, many times of death, martyrdom, pain, end results of sin, agony, pain.

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But an overall picture of things is... We turn to God and pray.

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We turn to God and ask for salvation. And we turn to him and repent.

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All those purposes serve our Lord so that we can worship and honor him long term.

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So any result that brings us closer to our Lord is a thing.

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An overall picture. It's hard for us as we're going through that to see it. But I imagine even in Oklahoma...

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There are many, many people who cried out for the Lord and looked and seeked... Cried out and asked why all this pain and agony.

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And they have brought some of them to the Lord that would not have been in other situations. So the result was good, but in short terms, hardship, hurt, agony.

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We can't see all that. God sins to convince you that it's evil.

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That's all he can do. He takes everything and tries to twist it.

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But in the original state, it's good. Now, if we look at everything as good, then we've passed the test.

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If we consider something to be bad, then Satan has won.

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So it boils down to the fact that whether we do or whether we don't, it always depends upon us.

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So when we look at the black bombing in Oklahoma, all we're quibbling about really is

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God's time. We're saying God wasn't... We weren't ready for those people to leave now.

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God wants. And I think that's the only way we can get to the problem.

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That I go out and cross a railroad track and get run over by a train doesn't change what my ultimate fate is going to be or what my ultimate destination is in all the effects of time.

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That's right. Yes. Well, what we should be unhappy with is sin.

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Blame sin that we're aware of. That is not. That's our choice to sin, because that's all we do do.

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So that is not something we would accept happily.

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We should, we should grieve greatly when we feel that we have sinned.

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Right. And we need to pay attention to our own sins and not the sins of the world.

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On that top line, the way you could also look at that, if you're meant to be one of God's children, he's not going to take you before it's your time anyway.

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Because is that not right? That's right. So it goes back to what you said before, what happens?

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It's not a timing like, to us that was a bad timing for everybody. His timing, when each one of us takes it anyway.

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That's right. We need to not only look at the great tragedies in the world, but at the so -called good times.

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I wonder if, if we undergo something real good, do we draw as close to God as we do in something that's a tragedy?

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Brother, as you very well described to us last night, if anybody's watching the program,

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Apollo 13, that flight, how the world had given up, said that there was no way they could survive all of the things that had gone wrong with that spaceship.

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Even the Pope asked for a world prayer for those boys. The President declared it a national disaster.

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It was really devastating, you could see. And yet, the

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Lord was not ready. That's right. Neither were we. The Lord showed us

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His time. I think it's so great that no matter how much we fuss and fume, we don't change

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God's timing. Well, the

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God of this age, not the God of the world, although sin is martyred, it still belongs to God.

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Satan's running this age, he runs the United Nations, he runs the amusements, he is running the whole show as far as he can tell, he is the

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God of this age. But then it's only as far as God allows him to go.

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I shouldn't use the word allow. As far as God has for him to go. Have you ever heard someone say,

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I can't understand the Bible? Have you ever heard that? I've heard it all my life and I just don't understand it.

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Satan has blinded them. They come out with new translations to make it easier.

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There's one out that reads just like a newspaper. Boy, if that's not the tool of Satan, I never saw one.

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The problem is not with the Bible, it's with them. If they don't see it, it's because they can't see it.

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For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

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Jesus the Christ, and ourselves your servant. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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It is God that commands the light to shine. It is God who causes the light to shine.

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It is God who shines the light in our lives. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.

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We have this treasure in our body, the earthen vessel, that's this body.

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It is here for a reason. If it were not so, it would do you no good.

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It must be that way for all to hear. God chose this method.

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If Jesus the Christ is not glorified in your testimony, it's not worth nothing.

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Poor English, but good theology. When Gideon and his men got among the

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Midianites, they broke their earthen vessels. If you don't remember that, you need to go back and read it.

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They kept their candle or their light within an earthen vessel pitcher, and no one could see.

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But they broke them all of a sudden. It was then that the light could shine.

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We need for our earthen vessels to be broken. We are troubled on every side, yet we're not distressed.

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What's that mean? David? I guess worry is the easiest sin that I commit.

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I worry, and I shouldn't. The older I get, the less I worry.

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But I shouldn't worry at all. We're perplexed, but not in despair.

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Persecuted, but not forsaken. Debbie, isn't it good that we're not forsaken?

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Now, we read the word. Do we always believe it? Greg? Shouldn't we?

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When we get real quiet and sit down and read the word, I believe it.

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But when something comes up, and I'm running here and there,

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I don't run as fast as I used to, but I do run. I think

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I run. Well, I walk fast. I don't really walk fast.

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I kind of limp along. It just escapes me how we forget.

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But it's because we're in the thought. Yes, that's so true.

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We think of ourselves instead of the Lord. Cast down, but not destroyed.

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Debbie, you can be cast down. What's that mean? All right.

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It means you're broken. But we're not destroyed, even in our cast down -ness.

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We will fight our way out. Always bearing about in the body of the dying of the

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Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.

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Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies.

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Christians, don't be afraid to suffer. Christ did.

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And it is wonderful to follow him. Why is it that suffering is what we try to get out of?

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So we want to get out of it. A problem comes to the

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Lord, we pray to the Lord to remove it. Should we pray for him to remove it?

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No. Give me strength. Yes. Diane.

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I think you can ask the Lord to remove the thorn from your life, but nevertheless, if he doesn't ask for his will, then give him the grace to overcome.

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That's right. And we really ought to go to the last first. He brought it, he'll remove it in his own time.

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We can't pray for God to do something. Yes. Yes. Oh, yes.

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That's right. There's a big difference in grief and worry.

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The people that was involved with us, my brothers and sisters, actually seen the

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Christian side of the death. Even though everybody was broken or my dad had passed away, there was a bright side to the pain.

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Even the ones, like when you're grieving or whatever, a lot of times there's good things that come even from that.

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Because, like the church we was going to, all the real good friends and stuff came down to my brothers and sisters.

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They could see the Christian love that was there even in the time of grief. And I think that all good things from death and stuff like that.

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Well, they do. Good things comes from everything. Yes. Did you start to raise your hand?

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Me? No, Clarence. Thank you.

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Yes. I don't think that asking that, that God is good and God's way is perfect.

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Trouble, we need to center focus back on. Yes. Let's get through it.

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I don't think it's wrong to ask the Lord to remove the source of your problem.

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Paul did that. He prayed that the wound would be removed.

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Even Jesus, as he was leaving and going to the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed that the cup might be removed.

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But he followed up that by saying, nevertheless, ask for God to remove that thing which is hindering you.

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But I think that it's valuable for us to recognize that whether it's removed or not, that doesn't affect our ultimate destination.

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It should not affect our ultimate fragility. That's right.

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If we do not stop in the removing, if we do not pray,

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Lord, remove this and stop. And be offended when it's done.

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Yes. Because it's a petition that we're making, not a demand. And if it's

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God's will that He remove it, then it's okay for us to make that petition.

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But it's not within our province to make a demand. That's right. But know everything has come for a purpose.

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Now, change the subject just for a minute. Does God ever get bored? No. Who's talking?

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What? I said God's had plenty of time to be bored, but I don't think He ever does. Well, then you would agree that He, yes.

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I don't think He gets bored, but He's bored for the entire life.

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He's lost interest in something, and I don't think He does that. All right.

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Then what is it that God has made He does not need? Everything.

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Everything in existence? Everything He's made He doesn't need. That's like painting a picture.

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Did He make it for His pleasure? Then did

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He have a need of pleasure? She said it's like painting.

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It's like an artist painting a picture. That's a good example.

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Did He need to paint it? Then God didn't need pleasure?

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No. Then why are we here? Okay, so He made us even though He doesn't need us, and He enjoys us even though He didn't need the joy.

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I thought she gave a great answer, but you came back with it. The fact is what happens is a figure of four.

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There are a lot of... Eventually you will come up with a situation where you can find zero human examples of what

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He's done. That's right. You know the human artist is a great thought.

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Deeply enough, he's a sinner, and if he sits around doing nothing, he's going to get in trouble.

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That's right. So you can't think of a human example. You're going to come up with a place where you can't answer.

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Here we've done it again this morning. We always come to that point. Diane? In Job 42 .3,

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He said, Who is He that hath counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understand not things too wonderful for me which

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I do not. Job in his own pride, I guess it is, wanted to know and understand all these things.

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That's right. So just the fact that he accepted it, that God kindness is powerful knowledge, and He does what

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He pleases when He pleases, and it's even too wonderful as He were to express it, became his repentance and brought him back to joy.

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Everything is already finished. I say that hurriedly, but Fred, it is.

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Everything is already finished. So why should we pray to change something?

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We can't. There's one more thing to study.

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In science we study. We have a reality we try to study. But we never study the reality.

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We're not capable of understanding the reality. We create models. And we try to approximate our models to be as much like what we're trying to study as we can.

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And the closer our model approximates what we're trying to study, the better our answers are. And I think as theologians, that's what we're doing.

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We're trying to create a model that we understand about how God is. And we try to approximate that model as close as we can to what

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God is like. But we've got to always bear in mind that it is the model that we're studying.

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And the model has our imprints on it. It's got our fingerprints on it. So it's never what

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God really is. But that doesn't mean that you don't try to get your model as close to what

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God is like as you can. I think that's what David is alluding to.

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No matter what kind of example we give, we have to model it with our fingerprints on it. And we can't ever look at God straight in the eye and know what

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God is like. There's no more we can kind of understand about it. Absolutely. Absolutely.

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And there are those that are using the same model or almost alike.

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There are those that use different models. For we which live are already delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.

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We are already delivered. That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

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Now we are already delivered unto death. Greg, everybody is going to die or change.

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This life comes to an end. Why does it surprise us so?

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He might be strongest when you suffer for Him. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

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Now every one of us is going to die, yet we are alive. Those in Christ are alive.

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Why can't we look at that instead of the old body? We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written,

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I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, we all work alike, knowing that which raised up the

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Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall be present and shall present us with Him.

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Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up also by Jesus.

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Now who was it that raised the Lord? God the

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Father. He shall raise us up also by Jesus.

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Now does that mean beside Him, with Him, or from Him? What? Through Him.

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Paul did not consider that death was the end. It's not.

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We die and we hate to see others die. Death is merely one of the experiences that we have.

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That's the way of getting out of this life. It's the way of graduating. We are joined to a living

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Christ. He who raised up our Lord will raise us up also.

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Debbie, you believe that? He who raised the Lord will raise us?

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Sure. For all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redundant the glory of God.

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For which cause we think not, but through our outward man perish, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

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Greg, you're getting older. I can see it in your face.

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You're getting older. Why is it that you think everybody else at a class reunion has looked...

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Why do they look so old? But why do they look so old?

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You think you're the only one that hasn't changed? It's because you live in the

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Spirit. The Spirit doesn't age. This is strange.

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We feel closer to the Lord today than we did yesterday. If you don't, you've wasted it.

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When I was 35, I didn't care so much for the Lord. I thought I did. I loved

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Him as much as I possibly could. But now it seems like nothing. But the older I become, the more

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I care. I think that's normal and natural with every Christian. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

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Now, let's look at that. For our light affliction, which is for a moment.

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What is our light affliction? What is affliction?

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Pride. Style. Did you say style?

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Trials. Style. All right.

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Our trials are for a moment. That's this life.

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Everything in it is a trial. You're on trial. You go to school.

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You graduate someday. Worketh for us more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

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Did you realize that what you do here, what you think here, what you have in your heart here, is what you'll be like in heaven?

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We tend to think this is the only life. When I die, it's gone. That's not true.

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Your work goes on. I'd hate to think that when I die, my work stopped.

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While we look not at the things which are seen. So, David, quit looking at everything you see.

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But at the things which are not seen. So, just look at the things not seen.

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For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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David, can you get through this life and not look at things? All right.

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Down here, to have a lot of trouble, mine does seem like a long time, doesn't it?

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It seems so hard. But when we begin to measure it by the weight of glory that's coming someday, it is light afflictions compared to the weight of glory.

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There's no way that you can measure your good life, your bad life, your weight of troubles and trials here with glory.

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It just won't wiggle this needle on the scale. At eventide, it'll be light.

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At eventide, it will be light. We are not to fix our gaze on things we see.

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These things that we see all around us are passing away. Only the things that are not seen are eternal.

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I can truthfully say, I'm looking for another city one built not with hands.

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And the closer I get to it, the more I look for it. I think back over my life.

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Thirty -five, I wasn't looking for that city. Oh, I was, but I wasn't because I had it in my whole life ahead of me.

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Did I know that, David? No. All right, is there anything from anybody?

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Have you learned anything today? Do you wish you hadn't come?

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Call David with his hand up. It's a bad time for that.

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We're supposed to. You at the same time, as you do that, you can be seated in the heavenlies in Christ while you're doing it so that your heart's affection is up there.

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It's not down here. So from a pragmatic point of view, while praying without ceasing,

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I have an attitude of being... That's right, absolutely.

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Brothers, I don't want to talk too much today. But if you could see just how closely you showed up and the things that were going on there, it would warm your heart and your spirit tremendously.

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Just one example. As they were preparing themselves to die, and I don't mean just partially, probably, but they were freezing to death.

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It was so, you can't imagine that.

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But this man who was in charge, they named every one of the astronauts that we have.

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There are still five. So I'm not too sure the name of the man who was in charge of this, but I think it was

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Buzz Oliver. But he was dying, and yet he knew that his companion there,

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Ship number three, was dying as well. And he put his own arms around him and rubbed him, transferring some of the heat from his body to that man, and finally breathing him, because that man needed two degrees or something to keep on living.

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And he got him through that. And when that was finished, he said,

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I'd like to take a minute to tell you all what a privilege it has been for me to be with you on this mission, and what a gift from God I have received from both of you, because I know that we were going to a better existence.

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It was to have a better life.

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Burge, we've even found that the book of Esther applies today. Anything else?

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Then we'll stand and Greg will dismiss us. Father in heaven, thank you for this great pleasure.

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Thank you for working with us now to keep our eyes on your strength, and we want to help you.

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We have to go off the mark as bravely as we always do. Help us with this struggle.

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Help us always to be doing what you want us to do, and wanting to do those things.

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Let it be a flavor for us. Bless us now as we go into our resurrections.