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We are going to, would y'all stand with me and we'll sing in anybody who'll be willing to come in from the vestibule? And we'll gain some ground here over the the next ten minutes. We usually have an incoming group. We're going to hit sing nothing but blood. Hymn number three thirty seven.
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What can wash away my sin? Nothing but
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the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again nothing but the blood of Jesus precious is the flow that makes me white as snow no fountain I know nothing but the blood of Jesus for my pardon this I see nothing but the blood of Jesus for my cleansing this might cleave nothing but the blood of Jesus precious is the flow that makes me white as snow No other fountain. No. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can force sin atone.
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Nothing but the blood of Jesus not of good that I have done nothing but the blood of Jesus oh precious is the flow that makes me white as snow no fountain no nothing but the blood of Jesus this is all my hope and peace nothing but the blood of Jesus Jesus.
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Amen. We do two songs in this service. In the first service, I don't know if y'all know this. We do one and then three and then one. It's like basketball defense.
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One, three, one. In this song, we do a two and two and a one at the end. So, two, two, one. And it throws me about two Sundays a month. So, Jesus paid it all.
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Hymn number three zero five, we're gonna sing another. That's why he never made any basketball. That's one of the that's one of the reasons. Yeah. Jesus paid it off.
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Alright. Alright, let's try it again. It's in there.
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Hear the savior say I for nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim I will wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb Jesus paid it all to him I owe I stand in him complete Jesus died my soul to save shall still repeat he washed it white as snow.
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Amen. Y'all can have a seat. That reminder this morning when you woke up and looked outside and saw that white as snow. It is an amazing thing and it just because after time, 49 degrees yesterday, right? We we started seeing springtime but then having that boom, it's just so bright and so white to think.
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Though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. That's an amazing thing and we get a lot more opportunity to exercise that metaphor here than anywhere else I've ever been. Home Sweet Home, Monday nights. Monday nights at first B happens every Monday night at 06:00. We have meal first and then we have some music and then we have a message.
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Meal, music, and a message every Monday night at 06:00. It happens at the same time, virtually the same time as Awana. Awana starts at 05:45 and goes until 07:30. It's kids club where we pour scripture into the minds of the kids to reach the hearts of the kids. There's an age group from two years old up through fifth grade and it's a good good time.
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Takes a lot of volunteers. Lot of y'all are volunteers and that's nice but it's a really really good program. There were Bible studies today during the first service since you missed those. I'll just pass that slide. They do happen.
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High school boys, middle school boys, high school, middle school girls, and then kids classes. Jeremiah part one chapters one through 24 is a precept inductive Bible study facilitated by Jane Kranenberg there in the midst of that. Jeremiah part one, you forsaken me, repent, return. It's so, so, so good especially if you're studying along with Hebrews which we've been in for the past couple so, that's Thursday mornings, 9AM sharp. There are folks getting together in Driggs, Idaho, the Connell's home.
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Ladies, reading the Bible and praying together in Teton Valley, Idaho, 08:30 to ten at the Connell's Place. If you have more questions, you can ask me and I'll get you in touch with them but it's a great time. It's a little small group that's going. Baby bottle campaign for Turning Point. There are some empty bottles.
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They're not a whole lot of em left out there but if you need one, we'll find you one. Empty baby bottles that can be filled with change or dollar bills or checks in order to bless people who find themselves in a pregnancy, a turning point pregnancy resource center. It's one of their major fundraising campaigns of the year. Community groups have gotten started. Over the last three weeks, we've gotten four different groups started and the idea is that you would be a community of believers gathering together on a smaller scale and be able to talk into each other's lives rather than just listen while you're gathered here on a Sunday morning and really become the community of Christ.
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It is a good good thing. There are three of em meeting on this side and one on the other side of the Tetons that we know of that have just started under this initial push. There are a lot of others that have been ongoing and we're thankful for those. Nursery volunteers, I'll mention it but we're gonna mention it in passing. Nursery volunteers are always needed.
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It would always be nice to have more rather than less. Rise and take up your mat and walk is the theme of this year's Women's World Day of Prayer. The World Day of Prayer is Tanya under the sound of my voice right now. I do not see her face but my wife is the one who is in charge of this event at this church this Friday. So, it's this coming Friday from twelve to one.
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It's just an hour long. If you would like to cook or prepare or help or read or facilitate in any way, you can talk to Tanya and she will put you in a position that would be useful but this was prepared by the ladies of Zimbabwe. It's sort of a unit, a unity thing. We have practices along with four or five other churches in town and we have the opportunity to host it once every five years. So, this is our year.
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So, Friday at noon, Tanya will have this place decorated and we will have a time for the women of this community that are believers to all gather in God's name together and go over a Bible study that was prepared as a short thing but liturgy almost that was prepared by the ladies of Zimbabwe and pray together as believers for this community and for the uttermost parts. Zimbabwe is certainly one of those. It's almost exactly on the other side of the world from where we are right now. Is there anything else that I've forgotten? I feel like there is.
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I know that there's one from the first service that Amy Lutzeman last week when I was preaching about remembering the prisoners as though you were in prison with them. Amy had gone for a lady to a lady's prison in Pocatello as a part of about 15 person team where they went and they prayed for the ladies of this women's correctional facility in Pocatello. She announced this at the first service and there were there's a push that she was asking people to pray for prisoners specific ones. So, if you would like to do that, get in touch with Amy Lutzelman and there was one other, Blake. It's the, we'll do that right before the sermon.
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You'll remind me of that one again. Okay. Last week, I mentioned Aaron Anderson getting back into Israel and so I'm we'll play something from her in just a minute but that's the shaky shake hand time. Would y'all greet one another? Would y'all stand and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with a song.
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Oh, okay. There we go. I think we know this one. Let's do it. Amen.
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Even if it's an old song, it's good to sing into the Lord a new song, right? It really is. It's good. There's there is a redeemer. Hymn number three zero eight.
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Would you sing that one?
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That's alright.
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Jesus, God's own son. Precious lamb of God, messiah, holy one. Thank you, oh my father, for giving us your son, and leaving your spirit till the work on earth is done Jesus my redeemer name above all names precious lamb of God messiah oh for sinners slain
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your spirit to the work on earth is done Y'all can and have a seat. I'm going invite the frontline team forward Would you thank God with me and praise him? Lord, thank you. We're so thankful for what you've given us, lord, for breath in our lungs and for the sun in the sky for a beautiful day, for that reminder like I've already mentioned of the whiteness of the snow, the brightness that you will make us lighter and brighter. Though our sins be a scarlet, you can forgive them and make us as white as snow.
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Lord, thank you. I thank you that you have advanced your good gospel and it has reached our hearts and for those that you have placed in our life to proclaim the word of God to us that have brought us into a place of trust and lord, I pray that we would imitate their faith as your word says. I pray and thank you for them and and ask lord that you give us insight into what you're doing in this community and in this world that we may be a part of it and in Jesus name, lord, we would go forth every day. I thank you for the resources that you've given us and we give it a portion of that back right now to see your work advance. Show us, lead us, and give us the strength and the walk in the steps that you show us and lead us into.
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Jesus name, have your will and your way here this morning and in our hearts. Amen. Last week at the very end of the first service, I got word. Tanya came up on the stage and whispered in my ear. Yeah.
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Oh, Tanya, I'll get you up here in just a second too. She whispered in my ear that we had a member of this church and a good close friend and a missionary that we have sent forth and she was stuck at a border and the border that she was stuck at is kind of treacherous and so she had been questioned and she was having an issue and so I want Blake to play for you if he will this little clip from Aaron.
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Hey, everyone. As some of you know, as I was flying to Israel last weekend, I got stopped at passport control, and I was detained for further questioning. And pastor Ray prayed for me and at during church, and you guys all prayed for me as well. And what's super crazy about that is you guys were praying for me about forty minutes before I got pulled in to be questioned, and then I was released about another twenty minutes after that. So it's about an hour after church ended that I was, released.
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And I know that I wouldn't have made it without the power of prayer, just because of how intense it was and the questions they were asking and all of that. And so, I just wanna thank you guys so much for your prayers, for sure, and then for texting me and messaging me and just making sure I made it okay and that I was doing alright. I am so, so grateful for my church family back home and just how much you guys support me. And, I just pray that you guys are blessed through this as much as I have been. It's been an amazing week and I'm super excited for the next three months that I'll be here and I will talk to you guys soon.
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God bless. Shalom.
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And I did the announcement but Tanya is more specific. Would you come up and do a little bit more announcement on the World Day of Prayer?
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Yes, I can. I was all the way at the other end of the building when you were looking for me. Okay. So, it's this Friday what we've been talking about and we're really excited about hosting it again the fifth time around. I know 15 women from this church who are going to be out of town on Friday.
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So, at this point, I'm a little nervous that first B won't be able to show up for participating. We invited other churches and I pray that it gets to be a unifying, fun thing to have a whole bunch of friends. So, I'm asking if y'all would just come. If you want to make a dessert, let me know. There are recipes in the back but we would just love your presence and if you could invite anybody you think of, it would be great.
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I want it to be just fellowship, hopeful, praying together. The entire world will be praying the same things as their time zones progress on this day of women that participate in it. The countries are amazing what they pour out into it. So, we're really thankful to be a part of it and and blessed that we can have an excuse to fellowship together. So, I hope that you can be there Friday at noon and if you wanted to make a dessert of any kind or specifically cornbread, drop off just, I don't know, 11:30.
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Sounds good.
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Okay. Alright.
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Thank you. Thank you. So, we have a lot going on. Actually, the little doom dodger is not with me. This this could get long if I don't find this thing.
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Here we go. So, this is what we're on. Hebrews 13 and our study, our continuous study through the New Testament chronologically, we're up to Hebrews 13 and last week, we covered Hebrews thirteen one through eight. I told you a couple times, we're going to the middle of a paragraph. I try not to do that.
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I like to complete the thoughts so try not to stop mid paragraph because sometimes, when you go just halfway through, you don't have the whole paragraph figured out. This one, it's it's similar in the beginning and it's similar at the end and the central statement is where I stopped last week, right? In verse nine, we're gonna go back there by covering these first few. I'm just gonna read through. I'm gonna throw a lot of scripture at you this morning, okay?
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I'm gonna we're gonna really study nine through 16 and think about that but I'm gonna throw a lot at you in different places. I'm gonna try to just read this. Let love of the brethren continue. It means they were already loving each other well. The the first century Jewish background believers that this writer or writers of Hebrews was writing to said, y'all keep on loving each other well.
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You're doing a good job with that. Don't neglect to show hospitality to the strangers. It's not just about you loving the body but love those who are coming on the way to have love for the outsiders and strangers. Show them hospitality for by this, some have entertained angels, messengers without even knowing it. Remember the prisoners.
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Remember the prisoners as though you were in prison with them. There was a serious threat at this time towards believers in Christ that their property would be seized and that their liberty would be taken away and they would be incarcerated. That was a normal thing. So, he's saying, y'all remember the prisoners as if you were in prison with them and those who are ill treated, spat upon, made fun of, Since you yourselves are also in that body and if there's anybody that's hurting, that's a part of our body, we're hurting too. Remember that, marriage and honor among all.
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Keep marriage sacred and honorable and the marriage bed undefiled for fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. To call the holiness, good practical advice. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. Being content with what you have for he himself has said and you can read the he himself as Jesus because he did say that in the New Testament but God the father also said it multiple times in the Old Testament. So, he, God, himself, has said, I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you so that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.
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I will not be afraid. Now, when that young lady that you just saw sideways, by the way, I forgot to tell you, she was going to be sideways. The format that her phone sent that in, the format that our computer thinks in, don't agree with each other. So, she gets to lay down to tell us her message. So, that we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper.
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I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? She had some various penalties. She could have been not allowed into the country. She could have been incarcerated.
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Really? And so, she was able to confidently say, the Lord is my helper and I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? If God puts me in that position, he will give me a call from that position. Remember those who led you, those who spoke the word of God to you.
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Do you remember the ones who led you and spoke the word of God to you? The ones who shared the gracious message of God that he provided a way that you could be saved. Remember those who led you. Remember those who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, your faith, right? You became a believer in Jesus.
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Most likely, there are rare exceptions where somebody reads the Bible alone. Tanya was one of those rare exceptions. She just was reading the Bible completely by herself on the front porch of her house and God saved her but that's rare. Most of the time, somebody is proclaiming God's word to you. Remember those who led you, those who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, you actually believe in Jesus because somebody had the gumption to proclaim the word of God and you received it and it's grown up and now, considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith.
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Do the same things that they did. Internalize the word of God and then spread that seed forth. Imitate their faith. Jesus is the same. Yesterday and today and forever.
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If I think back on the late seventies, early eighties, for me and for some of y'all was a very different time. I was a little kid. I went to a camp. Somebody proclaimed God's word. His name was Durwood Perry.
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I don't know anything else about this man. Nothing. But I know that he was not afraid to stand up and spread the gospel and it was effective and God saved me and I know it and considering the result of his conduct, I'm imitating that. Here I am. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Now, after the Jesus freak movement in the seventies, a lot of y'all get came into the faith, I think, during that and I did too. After that, that's a different time than the time we're living in right now. Do you agree with me? Are things better or worse? Whatever you say, Jesus is the same.
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Whether you think it's better now or worse now, Jesus is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever, he's gonna be the same. So, the same Jesus I put my faith in in 1981 is the same Jesus. The same way offered by God's grace accepted through faith. That's the same.
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Jesus is same yesterday, today, and forever. I ended right there in verse eight last week because it ties nicely between these two parts of this paragraph. Jesus is the same. So, it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian. In this case, we're hearing from a writer about a writer is about sixty seven AD, cross is thirty three AD.
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So, thirty four years later, temple in Jerusalem is still standing. It's written to Jewish background believers that were being tempted to go back to this religious system that is a shadow of the truth, Jesus. The one who atones, the one who is the way, the truth, the life. All of that was pointing towards this and their temptation was to go back to that religious legalism that they had known and the shadow of what was real. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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So, yeah, it feels like how long is this going to last before something else happened before he gets back thirty years ago and we can say that from two thousand years ago but Jesus is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. So, do not be carried away. Don't be carried away is the way it starts and this is where we're starting today. Don't do not be carried away or don't get carried away by buried and strange teachings.
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Okay. Just from a show of hands, in the past two years, has any of y'all heard any buried or strange teachings? Okay, was it from me? No, I'm just kidding. I hope not.
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I try to stick real close to exactly what it says so that I don't get tempted to move away into various and strange teachings. It's really easy to miss the point or God forbid that this ever be the case. We get tired of saying the same thing. We get tired of spreading the grace and the love and the mercy of God and so we get inventive with it and we add to the word or we take away. That's the temptation too.
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Some people have taken away. You don't have to worry about holiness. Jesus paid it all. He paid for that. Do whatever you want to.
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That's not good. That's not true. This is a call to holiness. The practical advice is, hey, fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. That's in there.
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We're looking for the solution for the legalistic stuff and the solution for the licentious stuff is both the gospel and it's not for that to become more legalistic. It's not for that to become more sinful. It is both of them to trust in Christ and here we go forward. Do not be carried away by buried and strange teachings. Now, the words there, buried, poikilice, poikilice, is various or of different colors.
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Many striped would be a good way of saying that. You know what a variegated plant is? Where it has different colored leaves or whatever like a variegated spider lily. It is of different colors. It's varied.
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Diverse. Properly, it is of various kinds and manifold and you will hear different varied teachings that say, you must do this in this way, at this time and you'll hear others, no, man. It's cool. Everything's cool. However you want to do it.
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It's no big deal at all. You'll hear varied teachings and both of those things are strange from the actual gospel. Strange is that which is alien. It's new, novel, strange, or foreign. When I was in art school, now of all the places, art school is one of those places that's in the avant garde.
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You know, they're always pushing the edge. I had a professor that insisted on this and said it all the time. He said, novelty is not to be sought. I like that. This is what this teacher is saying.
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For Hebrews two, don't be carried away by varied and strange teachings. Those things which are foreign to the gospel. Do not impose on the text something that it doesn't say. So, are there other similar warnings in the New Testament? Where it says, don't be carried away.
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Don't get caught up in buried or strange teachings. Are there other similar warnings in the New Testament? I thought of about 40 of em just like that thinking this. We're constantly being warned to drift. In the book of Hebrews, we've already seen it about seven or eight times.
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I'm going to do a rapid fire succession. I'm going try to just read them rather than preach em but listen to these in Canon order, okay? In Matthew and Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in my name, claiming I'm the Christ and they will deceive many. Many will come.
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Acts, I know. So, that was Matthew, Jesus saying it, Matthew, writing it, Acts is Luke writing it. I know that after my departure, wolves will come in and among you and will not spare the flock. This is Paul speaking to the Ephesian elders on the beach at Miletus. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them.
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Romans, Paul says, now I urge you brothers and sisters, keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned. There is good gospel based grace centered teaching that is good and it's going to be misrepresented and distorted in many different ways. Keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learn and turn away from them. Stick with the truth. Paul's in the middle of a rant in second Corinthians 11.
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He's just about to go into the body analogy of chapter 12 and the love chapter of chapter 13 but in chapter 11, he is rolling and he says, why? Because I don't love you. I'm God knows I love you but what am I doing? Or what I what I am doing, I'll continue to do so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they're boasting. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
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No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it's not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end will be according to their deeds. He's talking about people who are profiting from God's word and distorting it. Galatians, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him, Jesus, who called you by the grace of Christ or God who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. Gospel means good news.
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Which is really not good news. It's not another gospel. There's not another gospel. Only there are some who are disturbing you and they want to distort the gospel of Christ, strange and various teachings but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that's contrary to that which we have preached to you, he's to be a cursed. The gospel is the gospel.
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The gospel of Christ. Receiving the penalty for sin and by grace. Sanctifying anyone who puts their trust in him. That's the gospel. Don't add to it.
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As we have said before, we say again, now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel that's contrary to what you received, he is to be a cursed. Ephesians four fourteen, as a result, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by the waves and carried about by every wind of new doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness, and deceitful scheming. Ephesians five, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. Don't get carried away by strange and various teachings.
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Colossians two, four, and eight say this, I say, this so that no one will, no one will delude you with a persuasive argument. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of man, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. Second Thessalonians two, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if it's from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. They were being taught in Thessalonica that they had missed the second coming of Christ. If you listen to the most religious voices surrounding you right now, you will be told that you missed a coming of Christ.
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In in our society, It's a different gospel. When works are added to grace, it is no longer grace. Let no one in any way deceive you. First Timothy says this, but the spirit explicitly says in the latter days, the later times but the spirit explicitly says that in the later time, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with the branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
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We'll get back to that about the foods because that's coming up in the passage today but there are varied and strange teachings all around us and in times where the church is weak and does not present and live the word of God, there will be deceitful spirits that take over and people will follow after buried and strange teachings. First Timothy also goes in chapter six like this, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with these sound words, those of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine that is conforming to godliness, he's conceded and he understands nothing but he has a morbid interest in controversial question and disputes about words. I will say this too, often times when people fall into varied and strange teachings, they'll be tempted to say, oh, what we have right now in the church really isn't the way God intended it. Way back when, this is the way that it was and the line was interrupted by some problem and now, we need to fix this. We need to do this.
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We'll get to what the scripture is about. The central point of scripture is coming in the next few slides but he's conceded and understands nothing but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy and strife and abusive language and evil suspicions and constant friction between men of a depraved mind and deprived of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Oh Timothy, verse 20 adds, guard what has been entrusted to you. The gospel of grace. Oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.
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Avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. So, those are all things we've covered together. Everyone of those is from the New Testament and we've covered it in the last seven years. These black slides with yellow writing, we haven't covered together but it keeps going. First John is what we're going to study together next.
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First John four says this, beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they're from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Don't be deceived. Don't get carried away by strange and various teachings. Jude, which is coming after first, second, third John. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, this is for believers.
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I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith. Don't be carried off by various and strange teachings. But contend earnestly for the faith. This faith which was once for all time handed down to the saints for certain persons have crept in unnoticed. Those who are long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only master and lord, Jesus Christ.
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So, like I said, it's not just legalism that is drawing us away. There's lamentiousness that's attempting to do the same. Jude 12 goes here. Again, there, these are the men who are hidden reefs. This is a seafaring analogy.
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If you're riding in a ship and you're on good waters and you don't see anything coming, it says that these men are hidden reefs that will rip the hull of your boat out and cause shipwreck. These men are hidden reefs in your love feast, communion. When they feed with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, and uprooted. So, are there similar warnings in the New Testament? They're everywhere.
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They're everywhere and as a pastor, as a preacher, really, I understand that if I get up here and I keep on presenting the gospel and I keep on presenting the word as it is without doing any kind of monkeying with it. I just say what it says. I realize that that for y'all, you're only hearing me say the same thing every single week from a different text but it's the same gospel every week. So, there is a temptation when you're in my position to, hey, man. Let's do something new this time.
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Let me add a little or let me take a little away. God forbid, I pray that it would never be. There are plenty of warnings. So, this is the message. Do not be carried away by buried and strange teachings for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace.
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Amen. The central message of the Bible is God's grace. Grace is central. Grace, God's grace must be central to any good and pure theology. God's grace must be central.
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Anything else is behavior modification or hedonism. God's grace must be central. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Grace is opposed to not by foods. It says, specifically here.
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So, at this time, there were laws and rules and regulations that certain people followed over there and maybe some followed by pagans over there about how exactly you are to eat. For it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods. Foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. There are plenty of things you can do which are not really helpful. There are plenty of religious things you can do that are not really helpful.
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In fact, if you're trusting in those things to earn favor with God, they are actually not just not helpful. They're actually damaging and harmful. God's grace must be central and grace, if you don't know a good term for it is, it means a leaning forward, a leaning forward. I'm not going fall off the stage right there. Yeah.
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I scared a few of you. A leaning forward, putting oneself in peril to lean forward with unmerited favor. God's unmerited favor must be central in our ideas. It's not that we deserve it. If we ever think that we deserve it, we're missing it.
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We're missing it altogether. God is leaning towards us with his unmerited favor. God's grace must be central. There may be all manner of other sincere religious practices that are really not beneficial at all. God's grace must be central and just to make this point, grace.
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Great. God's riches at Christ's expense. Jesus paid it all. He didn't pay most of it. He didn't pay just as much as you lack.
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No. Jesus paid it all. All to him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain and he makes it as white as snow. Grace must be central.
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Now, we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For us, in this day, that reference goes like, What? What's that all about? For them, those first century Jewish background Christians knew everything that there was to know about the sacrificial system and how it's supposed to be done and everything about it. There were atoning sacrifices.
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There were other sacrifices and tons of different kinds but this reference for them would have been easily picked up. We have an altar from which those who serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat. Now, we can say we have an altar right here with the communion on it and that would be fine. What we are doing right here is representative of the life well lived and the innocent bloodshed on our behalf for those who put their trust in him. This is a representation of what Christ has done and we could say that that's the altar we're talking about which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat and that would be fine and fine analogy for today but what this was talking about to those people was this, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place.
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This is the atoning sacrifice that happened one day a year. It was done by the high priest only. They tied a rope around his foot so that if he went in unworthy and not prayed up and God struck him dead in the Holy of Holies, they would be able to take the rope and pull him out of there because they would not dare enter into that Holy of Holies. That guy with much fear and trepidation and prayed up would go in and he would offer the blood of the atoning sacrifices and those bodies of those animals, the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, the atoning sacrifice. Those bodies are burned outside the camp.
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Now, for us, we think, oh, I thought that the priest got to eat the meat of those, not that one. There are some other sacrifices that are given. The red heifer is given and that one, those that were killed in the sanctuary for the remission of blood, not in the Holy of Holies. Those, yeah, the priest ate those bodies. It was meat for the priest and their and the attendance but the atoning sacrifice was not that way.
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It was different. It was so holy and it was not supposed to have any benefit for any human being as far as the flesh was concerned. That was to be taken outside and consumed by fire. So that no one received any earthly benefit for it. It was pointing towards a spiritual reality of Jesus and we're going to turn that corner here in just a second.
47:40
For us, I feel like I have to go out of the way a little bit to say, that's what this means. The bodies of the animals whose blood was brought into the holy place that once a year on the day of atonement by the high priest as an offering for sin. Those bodies are burned outside the camp and therefore, Jesus was playing a lot of roles while he was here. He is our savior but he's also our sanctifier and those are slightly different roles. It's fulfilled by the same person but those sacrifices, some of those sacrifices were for sin and other sacrifices were for dedication or transformation or sanctification.
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Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood. Now, the saving part he did. And the sanctifying part he is doing. Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood. He suffered outside of the gate.
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Now, if you've been to Jerusalem, it is outside of the gate of the city where he was crucified. It's outside of that and he suffered out there. He was beaten in town. He was jailed in town but when he suffered, he suffered outside of the gate. So, this says, let us go also outside the camp with him.
49:03
So, let us go out to him outside the camp. I'm gonna read something from the Old Testament here. An oblique reference, it's not a quote from but this is what I thought of when reading this. I'm gonna do a translation of the Septuagint. Septuagint is the Bible that this writer or writers of Hebrews is using every single time and this is the translation from the Septuagint and Moses took his own tent, not the tabernacle, the big tabernacle but Moses took his tent and he pitched it outside the camp.
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You know, when he did this? It was after the revelry when God was given Moses the commandments on Sinai, when he was given them the law and they were down there breaking every one of em around that golden calf. After that, Moses came back in and and safety in numbers is a common thing especially when you're in the wilderness, right? And so to be in the midst of a camp was a safety feature. It was also saying, we're one people and we follow after but after that, Moses took his own tent and he removed himself some ways away from that camp at a distance from the camp.
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And it was called the tent Of Testimony and it came to pass that everyone that actually really sought after the Lord didn't take their safety in numbers from inside that camp. There's a remnant that always is going to be believing. It came to pass that everyone that sought the Lord went forth to the tent which was outside the camp. As time progresses, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As time progresses and as opportunities arise, there are things that are going to call us to the edge of the camp.
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We can't just be stagnant. We have to be leaning forward. Now, doctrinally, we must be pure. It must be about grace. We must be using God's word and internalizing it and allowing it to do its work in our life but there could be new challenges and new opportunities for spreading that.
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So, let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. That literally was the case at this day. They're being persecuted if they call upon Christ, if they call the name Christ. They're having their property taken away. They're having their people jailed and some of them would be killed.
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Hadn't happened yet according to this letter but it was going to happen to this body that received the letter. Let us go out to him outside the camp rather than retreating into this which you've always known. Bearing his reproach, Jesus's reproach. For here, we do not have a lasting city. If you remember back the last chapter, chapter 12, it said that everything earthly would be shaken.
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Everything earthly would be shaken. Do you all hear the building crack? I'm sorry. It's it does that. Every time I say shaken, I notice it.
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But everything earthly will be shaken but that which God has actually, let me go forward but we are seeking the city which is to come. That in Hebrews 11, it says this, by faith Abraham, when he was called obeyed, may that be said of you. May that be said of me. By faith, Ray, when he was called, obeyed. By going out of the place, out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance, that city whose foundations are made of God.
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It's what we are to receive as an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going. Outside the camp, another reference there. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise for. He was looking for the city which has its foundations whose architect and builder is God. Amen.
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Through him then, through God then, through Jesus then, let us continually offer up what we have a sacrifice of praise to God rather than praise of self. Let us then continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. May we always be praising God and thanking God even in the midst of difficulty. That's not to say it's not difficult. It is to say we trust the one who is in charge.
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Psalm 50. I think Psalm 50 is pertinent to this text in a lot of different ways but listen to it. God is speaking when it starts off. God is speaking. It's a Psalm of Asaph.
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Psalm fifty twelve through 15 says this, if I were hungry, God says, if I were hungry, I would not tell you. A lot of other pagan gods, they were constantly pouring out libations, drink offerings to em. They're constantly burning things so that this God would be satiated but God says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you for the world is mine and all that it contains shall really eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats. This is all, this Old Testament. This is 1,000 BC and it's pointing towards crisis and they were already doing all these sacrifices of bulls and goats.
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Shall I really eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of male goats. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the most high. Be thankful that God has saved you because it's not something you deserve. And be thankful and pay your vows. If if you say, I want to live after Christ.
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Do it. Even when it's uncomfortable. Pay your vows to the most high and call upon me in the day of trouble and I shall rescue you and you will honor me. That is a very, very, very, very sincere thing to do is when you hit the end of your resources, call upon the Lord. What he says he will do is rescue you and that will cause you to honor him.
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If you don't know where you want to turn or you try everything else, you're going to come up short and honestly, in your mind, God will come up short. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I shall rescue you and you will honor me. Through him then, let us continually be offering up a sacrifice of praise to God that that is. The fruit of lips that give thanks to his name and this is ending where chapter 13 began.
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Do not neglect doing good and sharing. Take care of one another. You're part of the same body. Don't neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices. God is pleased.
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How many of you want to please God? Two hands, right? Amen. If you wanna please God, praise him, be thankful, do good, and share. So, here it is.
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Without all of the references that y'all don't and I don't really understand the Old Testament stuff. Don't get carried away. By various and strange teachings but because of Christ. Because you are saved by God's grace and sanctified by God's grace, do be ready to go outside the camp. I love that we are missionary church.
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They're sending people but the truth is after the benediction every Sunday, when we send y'all out, you're going into the mission field. Be ready to go outside this little gathering outside the camp and because of Christ. Do continually be given to God. What he desires and deserves. The praise and thanksgiving that he deserves.
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Do good to one another and share and I say in really fine print there. Call upon God in the day of trouble. Call upon God in the day of trouble and he will rescue you and you will honor him. He loves it when we do that. He's not like, ugh, again with the trouble.
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Call upon him in the day of trouble. He loves it when you do that. Call upon him in the day of trouble and he will rescue you and you will honor him. He loves it. We do that.
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That I've accidentally put in there. That's actually Martin Luther's own handwritten New Testament notes. He was translating New Testament and that's that's what God called him to do. What is it God's calling you to do? To get outside of the camp.
57:45
We've got communion right here. So, I'll invite the frontline team to come forward. If there are elders present, would you come forward to with them? Got Gary and Mark and Ray. Kristen, I'll sing something if that's alright with you.
58:00
I'll just sing something. Is that okay? And Suzanne are going to come forward and as they distribute this, I'm going to actually sing Cleanse Me. I've been thinking about this day. Psalm 51, you know, David's convicted of his sin and he then goes to God this great.
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Psalm 50, we just covered. Psalm 51 is next and it's cleanse me. Search me, oh God, cleanse me. I'll sing that as they distribute this. Would you pray with me first though?
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Lord, thank you for this. Representative sample. This representative of your blood. It's Welch's grape juice in a plastic cup. These crackers, lord, are representative of your body, that body which lived out a perfect life and complete and total submission to the spirit of God, humble and obedient to the father but acting out on our behalf, a perfection that we're not able to perform on our own.
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Thank you lord that he did that, that he by his blood and by his stripes were healed and lord that by your grace, we're able to walk and follow after that example in submission to your spirit. Lord, would you do your will and your way as we consider this right now? Ask you lord to cleanse us of all of our unrighteousness and lord that you direct us into the steps that you'd have us take to be doing good and sharing what you have given us to those around us. In Jesus name, lord, we pray would you bless this as we distribute it. Amen.
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Search me oh God and know my heart today. Try me, oh savior. Know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me cleanse me from every sin and set me free. I praise thee lord for cleansing me from sin Fulfill thy word and make me pure within.
1:00:34
Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame. Grant my desire to magnify thy name. Take my life and make it holy Fill my poor heart with thy great love divine take all my will my passion, self, and pride now surrender lord in me
1:01:51
I'm so thankful that what God says he does with our sin when we confess it, when we ask him to forgive us, it says that he does. First John one nine says, if you are confessing your sins, I, God, am faithful and just to be forgiven your sins but he doesn't stop there. He says, and cleansing you from all unrighteousness. Thank you, Jesus that on the same night you were betrayed, you took bread after supper and you broke it. After giving thanks, you said to your disciples, this is my body which is given for you.
1:02:27
Your whole life was well lived and it was given on our behalf. Thank you for that perfect record. This is my body. Take this and eat. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.
1:02:45
Thank you for that life that was so well lived but thank you for that blood that was so preciously spilt at exactly the right time. For all of those Old Testament saints that were looking forward to the provision you would make. For all of those bulls and goats that were slaughtered ahead of time, lord, that were representative and looking forward to the blood that you would spill. That's the only blood that saves. We look back to that now.
1:03:12
You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Lord, would you impress upon us how much your blood means for us today? In Jesus name, I ask that you'd bless this cup. It's contents as we distribute it. May everyone that receives it, lord, be strengthened by it.
1:03:34
And lord, may everyone here who is not able, they don't believe in you and they're not gonna let that they're gonna let that cup pass. Lord, for everyone that's here that doesn't believe, may you transform their life by the way we live ours. In Jesus name, we ask for your blessing on this. Amen.
1:04:02
Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and true with thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you. Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary pure and holy tried and true with thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you
1:05:19
I want to come back and sing together the last verse of in just a minute. I want to come back and sing the last verse of that search me, cleanse me. We'll do that after we get in the same manner that he had taken the bread, he took the cup after supper and he said to his disciples, there with him and still says to us today, this is the new covenant. This new covenant is in Christ's blood. The old covenant says, it's all on you.
1:06:24
Do the best you can. There's really no way out. That old covenant though pointed towards this new one and the new covenant says, it's all on me. Jesus said that to his disciples, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink it in and do it as often as you will in remembrance ance of me.
1:06:50
The apostle Paul says that as often as we do that, we proclaim Christ's death until he comes again. Would y'all stand with me and we're going to sing Cleanse Me Are you on the last verse of that, Blake That's it This is the going forth. Thank you, Scott. Come on up
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revival comes from
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thee
1:07:59
Amen. Colossians two six and seven says this, therefore, just as or in the same way that you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so be walking in him by his grace. Okay, it's his grace that saves and it's his grace that sanctifies just as you receive Christ Jesus lord, so be walking in him, rooted and built up in him, and establishing the faith just as you ought. Don't go for buried or strange teachings. Abounding in Thanksgiving.
1:08:32
God, we thank you and we ask that you would go with us when we go forth into this mission field beyond those doors and that you would use us the way you want to to accomplish your purpose. We thank you when we get a glimpse of it. Amen.
