Sufficiency of Scripture – Psalms 119 (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

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Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.
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It wasn't the type of people. We're going to be in Psalms chapter 119.
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Psalms chapter 119. And I'm going to endeavor to do this before the end of next year.
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Let me explain. Psalms 119 is an acrostic.
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Hey guys, make this much bigger. It's an acrostic, which means there are 22 letters in the
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Hebrew alphabet. And Psalms 119 is divided up into 22 different sections with each letter of the
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Hebrew alphabet beginning that particular verse. So today, we're going to start in Psalms chapter 119 verse 9.
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I know that's weird. We're starting there, but you'll see a method to my madness in a few months. Verse 9.
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And that's the letter Beth. The B sound in Hebrew.
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It's called Beth. Actually, the word Beth in Hebrew actually means house.
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Bethlehem is the house of bread. I always thought that was so cool that that's where Jesus was born and he is the bread of life.
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But the house of bread or Bethlehem or Beth is the letter we're focusing on today.
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Now, a few years ago, I don't know if pastors correct me or maybe it was just a year ago.
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I know it was during hunting season, so I wasn't happy. The five pastors here at Witten Baptist Church, in an effort to continue our education and be better pastors for our people went to a class at the
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Mid -America Seminary. What am I trying to say? Baptist Seminary over here.
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And what I took away from that class was this statement. The sufficiency of Scripture.
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Now, I disagreed with his premise that the sufficiency of Scripture is by default meaning that everything else in the world is meaningless.
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He and I disagree on that. I am a complimentarian when it comes to psychological counseling, but I do agree that the sufficiency of Scripture is all the believer needs for the sanctification process that God calls us to.
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You don't need fancy preachers obviously. You don't need all the trappings of modern religion.
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The Word of God in and of itself is all you need, coupled with the Holy Spirit of God, or empowered by the
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Holy Spirit of God, to grow you and mature you in your Christian faith.
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So we're going to look at that starting in verse 9, and I'm going to ask you to read with me
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Psalms 119 starting in verse 9. And it says this,
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How can a young man keep his ways pure? By guarding it according to your
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Word. With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments.
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I have stored up your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
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Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips
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I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies
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I delight, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
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I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your
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Word. The sufficiency of Scripture to clean up our lives, ladies and gentlemen.
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There are some folks in this room this morning who are not just strayed from the
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Word of God. Their life is in crisis. And their life is in crisis and with either ignorance or arrogance, they are pointing to someone or something else for why their life is in crisis.
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You see, your life is in crisis because either A. God is trying to teach you something or B.
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It is the effect of your own causality. Now let me say that again.
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Some of you live in perpetual victimhood. I watch some of your
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Facebook posts and I'm like, oh my gosh. You could be one of those talk shows.
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You are in constant drama about something. And what it is, it's a self -perpetuating need to be at the center of intention and then you can't figure out why your life's screwed up.
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Let me tell you something. If God is at the center of your attention and you are rotating around Him your life, although still may be troubled at times, you will have what you're looking for and that is peace in this life.
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God's Word is sufficient this morning, right now to clean up your life.
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Number one, I want you to notice the desire needed to do that. Verse 9, this person asked the question.
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We're not sure who wrote this. Actually, I think this was written over years. Think of this as an inspired diary of somebody.
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But it says in verse 9, it says this, how can a young man keep his ways pure?
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This is a prayer he is praying. He is praying and saying God, how can
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I not get out of this mess, God, how can I readjust my life to know the righteousness
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I need? The word pure here and you have to understand I'm having struggles because I memorized this verse in King James and so I'm trying to translate it.
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Actually, I think King James is a better translation in this particular passage, but the word pure here is how to keep clean.
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It is a parallel word in the Hebrew with the Greek word righteousness. So this young man, and I'm assuming it's a young man by context, saying how can a young man keep his ways righteous or pure?
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Now it's funny, the word his way, specifically way, is the
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Hebrew word a rock. And it simply means this, it means a rut or a track that was worn into a stone road by a chariot or a cart.
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So he's sitting there saying how can I do this, how can I keep this rut that I'm in pure?
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A lot of times ladies and gentlemen, one of the first things we need is we need a desire to have a desire.
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I actually had a lady years ago and she's sitting in this room and I love you so much. She said to me pastor,
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I need the desire to have the desire to get right with God.
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Can any of you other people identify with that or are you all good Baptists? Okay. I've been there and I ain't talking about 20 years ago.
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I was there like 4 or 5 months ago where my reading scripture and my personal prayer life, even though it was there, it was kind of like you know, eating
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Suzanne's cooking. You know what I mean? My mother -in -law. I love you very much Suzanne.
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It was bland. It didn't have that kick to it. You've got to remember guys you know,
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I grew up in a household where if it didn't have garlic, Tabasco, salt, pepper you know and cayenne, you didn't eat if you didn't like those things.
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It's my rut got to a place where I was going through the motions.
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I had a desire to be right but I needed a desire to change.
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Christian, let me tell you something. If you've been in that place for years okay, first thing you need to do is quit being self -condemned thank you and you need to pray to the
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Lord to give you the desire to desire. We think sometimes we've got to manufacture desire before God will come and help us.
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That is not scripture. I'm telling you that the very faith that you had to save you came from God.
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The regenerating power of the Holy Spirit found you and called you. You didn't find
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God. And God hadn't changed. His relationship with you is in such that He knows that He's got to be the prime mover of every act of pursuit towards Him that you're going to have.
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Listen to this. How can a young man keep his ways? By guarding it according to your word.
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Now listen. It says His ways. Here's what some of us fail to do in our lives.
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We get convicted of a sin and then we want to repent of that.
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Okay, guys how many of y 'all, don't raise your hands, especially if your wife's sitting right but how many of y 'all struggle with the pornography, you know?
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I know no one in here does, but in other churches, oh my God, Bellevue they got everybody's on porn, you know?
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Come on man, we all struggle, especially when you're younger you struggle with that. Now all my young married men, wives, they don't.
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I'm just saying before they found you, they were struggling with it. Now, no problem. And guys, we get convicted of that sin, but the problem is we so focus on that sin we forget what
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God's really calling us to. He's not calling us to repent of a sin, He's calling us to repent of a sinful life.
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See? If you focus on just one thing you're going to miss everything else and I'm going to be honest with you how can a man purify his ways?
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There's only one thing. That desire that you need is going to come from the same place that the healing is going to come from.
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And that's the word of God alone. Let's look at our defense for a second. He answers the question.
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He doesn't have to ponder about it. He already knows the answer. How many of y 'all said,
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I know what I need to do. I know what I need to do, but I'm not doing it. Well, you're in good company because in Romans chapter 7 the
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Apostle Paul says, why do I not do the things I know I should do and do the things
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I know I shouldn't do? Because you're a big fat stupid loser like the rest of us, man.
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You struggle like the rest of us. But there has to come a time when the stupid stops.
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There has to come a time you married men where you put away the video machines and actually matriculate into being a man.
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You gotta go cut the grass. If your wife is nagging you, it's because you're still living in an infantile state.
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Unless she's one of them drama queen crazy chicks that needs to get her life right. But we'll talk about those some other time.
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Watch this. It says, by guarding it according to your word. What is the standard of purity in God's word?
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Here's what Jesus said in 1 Peter. You be holy as I am holy.
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That's the standard. How many of y 'all are as holy and separated as Jesus is right now?
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Man, I ain't gonna lie. I lost my temper. I lost my temper on vacation.
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Bad. We were in Omaha Beach and I was already emotional.
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I was already emotional because I'm a big girl. At the end of the day, I am. I'll admit it.
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And so we come up over the crest of this hill and there is a sea of white crosses.
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19, 18, 20, 21 year old young men who never got to hold babies, never got to get married.
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Just there. And it was one out of 27 cemeteries along the
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Normandy coast. 10 ,000 young men right there. And as I come up over the hill, there's this chick there from Japan or China or I don't know, somewhere.
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And she's sitting there right in front of the crosses and she's doing this.
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And people are taking pictures of her. And so I walked up and got about this far from her face and enjoyed that awkward uncomfortableness that I was projecting onto her and just stared in her face until she walked away.
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You may say, well pastor, that deserves it. Well, maybe so. But it should have been done in righteousness rather than in anger.
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Guys, I have the desire sometimes, but I falter and fail.
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How can I keep from doing that? Well, number one, I need to be praying rather than preaching sometimes.
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You see, we sometimes take offense at the hedonism in this world. Them, they.
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Zee, zir. Oh, they're so stupid. But you're a gossiping idiot.
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You see, we're preaching what the world should be doing when we should be on our knees in a level of humility, then go to the world.
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You see, it's according to His Word that the standard needs to be met. It's hard,
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Christian. It's hard sometimes. But when you've reached the end of your rope, I'm telling you, it is the
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Word of God that's going to bring you back. I'm going to move on from there.
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Our desire, our defense, and our determination. And here is the meat of what we really need to hear.
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Listen to verse 10 and 11. Let me just read 10 through 16. With my whole heart, ooh, that's a big problem.
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With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. I have stored up your
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Word in my heart that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you,
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O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
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In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
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I will delight in your statutes and I will not forget your Word. Guys, our defense is the
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Word of God. Our desire needs to be there. But here's where the rubber's going to hit the road for you.
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If you want to change, if you want to clean up the rut that you're in, guys, you're going to have to get determined.
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And what do I mean by determination? I could give you so many sports analogies and military analogies to illustrate this point.
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We could be here all week. But I don't need to. Because if you really are a Christian, you know what's really lacking in your life.
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You know what I mean by determination. That means this. That you're going to do what you need to do before what you want to do.
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You see, there's a sign of maturity. Some of us in this room, no matter what our chronological age, still have not matured to a level where we're getting off the passy and feeding our selfishness.
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We keep wondering what's wrong with our life and why are we stuck in this rut when it really is we're so busy feeding our flesh we forget to do what we have to do.
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I remember, I can remember this. I would not, on Fridays when
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I'd be driving home, I made sure that I had everything
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I needed for the weekend before I went in there. Some of y 'all don't understand what
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I'm saying. In other words, I made sure I had a carton of cigarettes. By the way,
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I used to be able to fill up my truck and buy a carton of cigarettes for 20 bucks. God. I made sure
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I had cigarettes. I made sure I had my scoresbies. I made sure that I had other things so that I would not have to in a state not performing driving a vehicle, get back out again.
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And so I knew that if I got home and I didn't have one of those things I'd be kind of like, man, it's like you can't relax.
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Y 'all know what I'm talking about? Then you all need to be at war this Thursday at 630, okay? If you know what
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I'm talking about, you need to be there. You're determined to feed the flesh, but you need to be just as determined to feed the
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Spirit. Well, pastor, I don't have that desire yet. If you will override the need to have desire and step up to that next level of maturity and do it regardless of your feelings, you'll begin to mature.
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Your life will begin to change and for the better. It says right here, with my whole heart
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I seek you. Man, that's a hard thing to do, but I've seen some of you do it.
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Here's what I've seen, and it's not in the good. Certain folks walked out, they need to be in here to hear this.
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Some of you people are in codependent relationships and your entire life revolves around smoothing out issues and facilitating and enabling someone else or something else in your life to be at peace so that you can be at peace.
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That is a jacked up way for you to live. It will rob you of your youth, it will rob you of your joy, it will rob you of your peace.
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Well pastor, how do I break it? Take your whole heart, instead of pursuing something in the flesh, start pursuing it in the
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Spirit of God. And if you lose that which your mind is focused on, you are in better shape no matter how bad it feels at first.
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For where God guides, He provides. And where He wants you to be in that place of peace,
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He will put things and people in your life who will be real friends to you and actually love you enough to tell you the truth for you to find
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God in a place and strengthen you and edify you to move you along. Or, the other thing is, keep doing what you're doing and expect a different result.
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And here's what you're going to be. At 50 year old, 60 year old, 70 year old, you're either going to be that old hag in the back row who is never satisfied with anything.
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By the way, if that's you, where you're critical about everything, you need to check your spirit. Because that is not the fruits of the
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Spirit. That's not what the Word of God says. If you want to be known as one of those people about,
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I can tell you how to cow -eat the cabbage, you need to get saved. Because you are not submitted to the
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Lordship of Jesus Christ. If you're one of those folks who need that place in your life of peace,
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I wish I could tell you there's another way other than the determination with your whole heart to sacrifice anything and anyone to rip out of your life, no matter what drug it is, no matter how hard it's going to be, the people in your life that are holding you down, rip them from your life.
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Cry out to God. Say, God saved me. And as He says in Psalms 43, I heard
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His cry and I lifted Him up out of that miry, sticky clay and I set
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His feet upon a rock. Man, you know what freedom is? Freedom is falling face -first by faith into the hands of Almighty God.
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Knowing with your whole heart you're going to be made free. It says this, with my whole heart
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I seek you. Let me not wonder from your commandments. Watch this.
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If you think determination on its own is going to get you to where you need to be, you're on crack.
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Okay? Let me tell you something. And by the way, 630 War Thursday. Be up there. But anyways, listen to me for a second.
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I know there are things in my life that are too powerful for me.
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They're too powerful for me. My wife and I were in another hemisphere.
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No accountability whatsoever. No accountability whatsoever. And my wife acted like a godly wife the whole time.
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I was worried about her. I was. Getting away from you people, you know, her family. My wife run buck wild, man.
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She'd be up in some French honky -tonk, you know, doing wild things. But she stayed godly the entire time.
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We went to church. We went to church. Why? No one would see us.
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You see, because the Word of God says here, you will keep me from wandering.
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I have to rely, not just on my determination, I also need to know and take peace that if I truly submit, the power of the
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Holy Spirit will come in your life. Something that you will both see and feel.
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And it will empower you like nothing else. No stupid sermon from a dumb, fat, bald pastor is going to motivate you like the presence of God Almighty and His Spirit transforming your life as you offered up onto His altar.
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And man, when you do that, son, He will keep you from wandering. I promise you. That drink won't taste as good.
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That sin won't be as pleasurable. The affirmation of that codependent individual will start to sound stupid in your ears as you're constantly in God's Word and the truth of God's Word starts slowly changing your life.
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Look at this. It says, I have stored Your Word in my heart that I may not sin against You.
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Let me see it in King Jimmy. Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You.
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Suzanne, I picked on her for her cooking. Let me pick on her for something awesome. I have five children and a lot of you that when they were this big, they sat under Suzanne.
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And you know what Suzanne did? She taught them to memorize Scripture every week.
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They would come home and say, Daddy, I learned this. I'm like, how did you learn this? Because that lady sacrificed her time to put into my children the
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Word of God. And I'm eternally and everly thankful for it. And I think
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I am seeing the results of that sacrifice. You see, listen to me.
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And I know some of you people, let me just go ahead and get this out of the way. Well Pastor, I struggle with Scripture memorization.
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Okay. Struggle don't mean you quit you Nancy. Okay. Take the dress off, find your spine and actually put some work into it.
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Richard McGee is 134 years old. He is older than dirt.
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I actually saw his name inscribed in some of the Roman walls. Richard was here, right?
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And he spent two and a half years. How old are you for real, Richard?
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74. Oh, 74. I thought you said 74. Richard is 72 years old.
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Spent two and a half years in a class where only in the last 25 years only 10 % of people have graduated.
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10%. Richard, what college did you go to? Did you actually graduate?
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From Memphis State? Well, I'm just asking because you tasted ice cream for a living.
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I tasted Coca -Cola for a living too. I could just sit and listen to him all day.
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I tasted Coca -Cola too. I didn't know there was a
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Coca -Cola tasting bachelor's degree, but maybe there is. Richard spent two and a half years in a class of younger folks learning the
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Word of God, memorizing the Word of God. September 8th, we're starting it again.
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We're starting again. And hey, if you're going, well, I'll never be able to pass that class, you're the kind of loser that I'm talking about to you today.
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You can do it. The same Spirit of God that's in me is the same Spirit of God that's in you. I'm nothing special.
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I'm just a big schmooze. That's all I am. So are you. Vicki could do it even. She's a government employee.
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And if a government employee can do it, you can do it, right? Thy Word have
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I hid in my heart. How much Scripture do you have memorized? Seriously, how much
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Scripture do you have memorized? Oh, she's there. Oh, she's so cute.
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Oh my God. Give me a Scripture. Give me a Scripture. Everybody started looking down.
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Give me a Scripture. Too late. Give me a Scripture. What's John 1, 1 say?
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. That's pretty good.
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That's pretty good. Evie? Give me one in Spanish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Moses, give me a Scripture. He who began a good work will carry it on to completion and to the day of Christ.
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Right here, baby. Right here, baby. Good job. Yeah, I see you looking away. Give me a Scripture, church boy.
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Uh -huh. Uh -huh. Give me a Scripture, Lisa. What's that? You need another cigarette?
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Psalm 19, what's it say? Guys, you can do this.
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Scripture memory is not to get a gold star on some stupid church Sunday school report. It says right there,
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Thy Word in my head and my heart that what? Well, pastor,
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I keep struggling with this sin. Well, how much Scripture are you memorizing? None. But I'm really struggling with this sin.
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Well, memorize some Scripture. Okay, I will. Pastor, I'm really struggling. Well, what Scripture? None. So, God gave you the answer.
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You want another answer but what God gave you that's easier for you to do. I don't know, maybe go to your doctor and get another pill.
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Maybe that'll help you. Or, actually do what the Creator who created you and wired you together actually do.
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He wrote the Chilton's You young kids know what that is. He wrote the
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YouTube video because He did it. Right? My old man knows what a Chilton's is, don't you?
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Yes, sir. 350 Chevy. Guys, you got to come to a place where you're actually applying what
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God's Word says. And you're saying, well, pastor, I can't do it. That's part of the determination and the obedience for the sanctification presence that you really want.
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And guys, it's self -perpetuating. Once you get over that first hump, man, you're like, oh,
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I can do this. Oh, I can do this. I can do this. Guys, sit down at night instead of watching
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TV. Fathers, get the Word of God out and memorize it together with your family.
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I have guys that say, I want to do that. But it feels so awkward. The reason it feels awkward is you feel like you're a hypocrite.
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Guess what? You are. So am I. So are the rest of us. So go ahead and give it a whirl anyways.
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And let's see what happens. You see, we can actually start obeying and seeing the benefits of obedience in Christ.
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All right. Let me close out. Blessed are you, oh Lord, teach me your statutes.
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Here's the difference. A statute is, it's an engraving.
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Okay? Think the Ten Commandments. Those are statutes. I know we always call them commandments, but they're statutes in the
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Hebrew. You have statutes. You have precepts. I wrote it down on your papers. You can study it later.
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But it says, teach me your statutes. With my lips, I declare all the rules of your mouth.
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In the way of your testimony, I delight as much in all riches. Who's excited about some
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UT football? Huh? Yeah, sister, I know you are. Come on, yeah. You got a smile, man.
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If the lights at Memphis airport go out, we'll just shine a flashlight. I can see her smile all the way up from here. Thank you, brother.
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I got one person going to heaven. Anybody else? All right. You're going to hell, boy.
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I watch who we recruit throughout the year. Hey, we got a five -star pick here.
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Hey, we picked up this guy here. And I start thinking about the rankings and the possibilities of what is happening.
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This guy is sitting here saying, I meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes to your ways.
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Guys, if you want to get to point B, you're going to have to start meditating, thinking.
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The word meditate means to take it and look at it three -dimensionally.
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So when it tells us to meditate on Scripture, it's not just memorization. Thy word have
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I hid in my heart that they may not sin against me. Thy word. Not my word. Not pastor's word.
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Not stupid church's word. Thy word. Okay. Thy word. Have I hid in my heart?
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What's it mean to hide? It means to hold sacred and secure. Hid in my heart. Heart like bump, bump, bump.
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No. The inner part of myself that I may not. So there is this is this.
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This is the effect of the benefit of this. Sin against you. Not against the world. Not against morals.
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Not against religious institutions. Ultimately my goal is to be as pure as Christ. That's what meditation means.
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That's how you should read Scripture. If you're sitting there every morning going, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believe,
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Amen, Lord, help me today. I just don't feel close to God. Because you ain't.
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Because you're not meditating, memorizing Scripture. And then this last thing, I'll say this. In the music people can come do whatever you need to do.
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It says this. I delight in your statutes.
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I will not forget your word. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. One of the things that helped me.
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I had a nervous breakdown. I was a pastor of a huge church.
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When I got there, there was eight people. And bar none, Wyoming, they paid me 25 bucks a week.
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I actually started out as a youth pastor of one youth. And we started a martial arts ministry.
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Man, that thing blew up. It grew and got biggerist and biggerist and biggerist. And I was actually preaching things to people that I wasn't experiencing.
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I don't know if this is ever, probably none of you are this big of a loser, but I was. The joy of the
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Lord is your strength. And I'm dying inside. Man, God loves you so much
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He will never forsake you. God, am I even a Christian anymore? I've gone too far.
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Here's the one I always did. I blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Oh my gosh. I'm on my way to hell.
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And I lived out my life in constant fear and doubt.
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And here's why. I never felt worthy of the love that God was giving me.
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Any of y 'all struggle with that? I'd like to get some coffee cake and a little support group together to help me with that.
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High five man. I felt like that. Here's the funny thing.
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I never understood that I could never appreciate the sweetness of God's grace without first knowing the deficit of my sin.
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That it was God's transforming act. It was
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God's teaching moments for me to actually understood not just theologically the word grace but actually know it in my heart.
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I usually tell a story right now that I'm not going to tell. I know Josiah's happy. But I actually had to learn through losing my mind that God has never left me or forsook me.
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Listen to me for a second. If you're struggling, you can come talk to Pastor Jeff.
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You can talk to Pastor Jeremiah or Pastor John. You can come and wait for the music to build you up and then here's what's going to happen.
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I'm just going to tell you, the music's going to stop. The preaching's going to stop. You're going to walk out that door and you're going to be right back to the same boat you are.
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Guys, I'm nothing special. I can't come up and go, somebody stole my Honda and you're like, oh, I'm going to fall out on the ground.
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I can give you a right hook to knock you out, but I can't. I don't know how to do that.
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God never gave me that look up here, gift. Okay? Personally, I think it's full of crap, but that's another sermon.
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But what I can tell you is this. I can tell you there's your answer.
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I can point you to the same grace that God gave me. I will not forget ever
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His Word not from an intellectual theological understanding before it changed my life.
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Rehab did not change me. Pep talks from guidance counselors.
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Jeff, you have so much potential. Did you all hear that speech? Oh, you have so much potential if you would just apply yourself.
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Yeah, I don't care what you say. I don't care what you say. All that stuff that I wasted and failed.
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God never let me go. The Word of God is hidden in my heart, not just from an intellectual accountability sake.
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I know God more than I know His Word now. Do you understand what
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I'm saying? I have a personal relationship with the author of that book.
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That will give you determination and drive and a defense.
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It will give you a peace that you are desperately searching for. We're going to have a hymn of invitation here.
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Listen to me. Listen to me. If you're on the struggle bus, if anything
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I've said today hits you in the eyes, you've got two choices. Stay where you are and walk out the door the same way you walked in or actually humble yourself.
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Get rid of your pride and ask for help. I can't fix you, but I can show you the
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God who can. If you need a church home, if you need some accountability, if you need to be baptized, if you need to truly get saved, now is the time to do it.
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I'm going to ask you to stand and as the pastors come down, if God has spoken to you today, you come this morning as God leads.