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What do you say we, we stand up? We give God praise. He really deserves it. Psalm sixty two five. Yes.
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My soul finds rest in God, and my hope comes from him. We'll sing, awaken my soul.
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Awaken my soul, come away. To hunger to seek, to hunger to seek, to thirst. Awaken first love. Awaken first love. Come away.
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And do as you did. Do as you did after.
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Spirit of the living,
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spirit of the living God, Come fall fresh on me. Come wake me from my state. Low to the caverns of my soul, board me to overflow, to overflow. Alright. Awaken my soul.
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Awaken my soul. Come
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away
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to worship with all your strength. To worship with
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your strength. Spirit of living God, let's sing it.
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Spirit of living God, come fall fresh on me. Come wake me from my sleep and go through the caverns of my soul for me to overflow,
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to overflow. You sound good. Let's sing spirit fill this place.
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God, that is our prayer this morning. Let your glory now be there. Let's sing that again.
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Spirit, we invite you.
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Let your glory now in there. Spirit of spirit of a living God, come fall fresh on me. Come wake me from my sting. Go through the caverns of my soul, pour me into older
3:44
Amen. Welcome. Y'all can have a seat. We've got a few announcements this morning. Connect hour.
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Y'all know that's between services in the fellowship hall. If you want to connect in between with somebody in this service or the next right down the other end of the hall is coffee and little knickknacks, cakes, and whatnot, even carrots sometimes. So, good stuff for you too. Awana is happening tomorrow night right here in this room, 06:00 in the evening. Kids gather.
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Lots of volunteers also gather to pour scripture into the hearts and minds of children because kids matter to God. That's happening at six tomorrow night. Same time as Monday nights at first beat.
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It is potluck tomorrow at Monday. So, bring a little something to share and we're in Luke chapter six, beatitudes. Good, good, good, good stuff.
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Luke, beatitudes from Luke. Very good. So Operation Christmas Child, deadline is fast approaching on that. The sixteenth is the present wrapping party. So the present wrapping party, it says, it's coming up very soon.
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It is, and that is the November 16, not December, November. So, bring in shoe boxes filled and wrapped to the church office or you can bring in stuff and we'll all get together on November 16 and put it in boxes and send that. Is there a video for that today? There will be next week. Alright.
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Very good. So, Chris, Operation Christmas Child. Do y'all know what that is? Everybody? Okay.
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Good. Next week, you'll get to see a short video about it. Family, faith, family fellowship, and faith. Eric is gonna talk to us for a minute
5:15
about what, Eric? Good morning. Good morning. It's tempting to say that Eric is gonna talk to us about the kitchen campaign, but it's really it's more than that. For several weeks now, we've been announcing that our fund driving is now underway for the remodel to the kitchen and the fellowship hall.
5:39
So, it's more than just nude countertops in the kitchen. We're looking at doing a a a really well thought out and well planned remodel of the kitchen. And it's it's a very important thing, as identified by lots of ministries and members of the of the church here. Matt Litzelman is gonna come on up, and he's gonna there he is. Come on up, Matt.
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He's gonna tell us a little bit about why this is important. But before he gets to that, and if you only listen to him or me, you wanna listen to him. He's got he's got the good stories to tell. This is about the third or fourth time that you may have heard that we are now raising funds above and beyond our normal giving to try to to pay for this project. If you're like me, it takes a couple times that you hear about it and go, Oh, they're raising money for something.
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I'm not really sure what. And then the second time you hear about it you think, Oh, maybe that's something I want to do but I need to talk to my spouse, need talk to my husband and wife. Hopefully, now that this is the third or fourth time you're hearing us say, hey, we're raising money to make this kitchen really equip all the various ministries that use it. That now you should go home talk to your wife or talk to your husband and say, Hey what are we going do? How are we going to participate?
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When you come to a decision, there are several different ways that you can give. The easiest is probably to get a pledge card from the back of the church here and indicate how much you want to give. We're we you don't have to do it all at once. You'll hear for several weeks in a row now that that we're we're raising money for this specifically for this project. But you can give all the way from you know now through into the spring time.
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So if you can, like Colleen and I have done, we'll be giving over some months and that that that helps us out and actually helps the project out. So Matt's gonna talk a little bit about why the kitchen is important to our church body.
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Good morning. As I'm actually leading the growing commission, I think my knees are shaking suddenly. I'm just going to discuss maybe three parts of what I see as the kitchen remodel affects me personally and one of those is a men's fraternity. Men's fraternity each Wednesday morning at six a. M.
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We've got a team of guys that prepares breakfast for about thirty, thirty five men. That team of guys is a small group in and of itself. They the the camaraderie and ministry that happens there is is awesome. But one of the points I want to make is that in serving the men in this church and in a number of other churches in the community, not only is that a blessing but the kitchen remodel will greatly improve our capability of doing that. Many of the components are wearing out.
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The sanitation is a little bit lower than we would like with not having a commercial type dishwasher, those types of things. So, it'd be a huge blessing for us to be able to to have that facility upgraded. The other part for me personally is a couple of years ago, my dad passed away and we held the funeral service here and the reception in the fellowship hall. It was a huge blessing. I want to thank the body here for serving our family and also it's a great way that we that we serve our community in in that regard.
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So, this upgrade I think will improve those ministry opportunities in an awesome awesome way. So as you consider giving prayerfully, I just encourage you in that and I want to say thank you very much.
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Alright. Thank you, Matt. I think that hugs and high fives and handshakes is next. Thank you very much. If y'all would, just get up and greet one another and we'll bring you back together with another song and hopefully, we can get the sound system working right.
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That remains. This one thing that remains. Let's sing that verse again. And you're higher than the mountains that I face, stronger than the power of the great and constant in the trial and the change, there's one thing that remains. Your love never fails.
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Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love. And on and on it goes.
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And on and on and on it goes. It overwhelms and satisfies my soul. And I never ever have to be afraid. This one thing remains. This one thing remains.
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Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love. And in death and in life, I'm confident.
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And then there in life, I'm confident and covered by the power of your great love. And my debt is paid. There's nothing that can separate my heart from your great love. Your love never fails and never gives, never runs out on me. Your love never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me.
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Your never fails and never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love. At your name, the oceans roll its own. Your Lord of all the earth. We shout your name.
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Shout your name. Really off the sky's wind. And this praise and this praise Yahweh Yahweh. We love to shout your name, oh, Lord. At your name, rejoice.
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Your people cry out, Lord of all the earth. Lord of all the earth. We shout your name, shout your name, filling up the sky's wind. And this praise and this praise. Yahweh Yahweh.
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We love to shout your name alone.
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And there's no one like our God. Let's sing that together.
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Together. There is no one like our God. We will praise you. Praise you. There's no one like our God.
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We will sing. We will sing. There is no one Yahweh Yahweh, we love to shout your name.
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It really is a privilege to just play here and and get together and sing and shout your praises. And this Yahweh, you are who you are. You are the self existent one. You don't need anyone or anything for your existence, but we do. We are you are God, and we are your creation.
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And let us pause. Just take a moment here to recognize you for who you are, our creator, our sustainer, our salvation, our song. And we don't we don't take that lightly. And so with all we are, we wanna offer ourselves to you. And I pray that you'd clear out the the clutter, and you'd make room.
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Make room in our heart. Make room in our life so that we can do what we were created to do, and that is to worship you. I thank you for the hope that you give. I thank you for the peace that you give, and you truly are our hope now. And, Lord, we look forward to eternal life, but in in the meantime, in the here and now, I pray that we give our all and give our best to you.
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Amen.
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And my heart cries holy. Hallelujah. You are. I say I hope it's in him. I hope he's in you, Lord, all the day long.
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I won't be shaken by drowful storm. Beast that passes understanding. Here's my shaken by drowned or storm. Peace that passes understanding is my song and my song. My hope is in you alone.
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And I'll wait on you. I'll wait on you. You were my
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Amen. You can be seated as the frontline is coming forward here and we are participating in worship of giving. I'd like to to just give thanks. God, we do thank you. You are hope, our song, our salvation, and so much more.
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I thank you God for the internal joy and peace and so much more that you offer and I thank you God for just taking care of us, taking care of our needs and as you are generous, I pray that we would be generous back and this is a way to show it and I'd ask that you'd use these these gifts, these offerings to increase our our faith and our trust in you but also God, use them to make yourself known and on and and all the ministries that that point people toward you. I pray that we could just keep on doing what we're doing and doing it with with fervor. In Christ's name, amen.
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Thank you, Lorraine. Here they go. Children's church is downstairs. Right now. I love that and I'm thankful for all of you.
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I know that some of the children's church volunteers are up here right now and the ones that are volunteering this week are downstairs but thank you for doing that. The ones of you who are involved in Children's Church in Anawana have a huge, huge ministry here in this valley. It's not just within the bounds of the families that go to church here on Sunday morning. It's a great thing. So, thank you for doing that and we're having a little trouble if y'all can't tell.
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The technical difficulties, I'm dodging the hot spots. If you can tell, I'm trying to walk around them this morning. I hope it's not bothering y'all as bad as it's bothering me. So, Romans 14 is what we're up to. And this passage is one of my favorite places in scripture and it's because it feels like this is the way that God has wired me.
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So, I'm I'm going to say it's a comfortable spot for me. It's not an uncomfortable spot. I mean, it's not a comfortable spot for everybody and so, I like Romans 14 a whole lot. I think that there's grace just flowing throughout it and it's a really really good exposition of the heart of God. That's what I feel like and and I like I like this passage on disputable matters and in this particular passage, we're only going to go through the first 12 verses of Romans 14 today.
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I put the whole thing in your bulletin. So, all of Romans 14 is in there but really, all of Romans 14 and half of Romans 15 is the section of scripture that we're kinda going through right now. This is the first out of I think three sermons on it. So, we'll do this one. First part of 14 up to verse 12 is undisputable matters and as I was thinking about it, I just put the scripture up there.
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I don't have lots of pictures, no artwork, anything else. I hope it hits us right, all of us right where we live and I want to say grammatically, it is this, it's one very strong imperative. At the very beginning, it starts out with a strong imperative which is a command and it is y'all, second person plural to all of us. It is all of y'all. Strong imperative and then it's got an important caveat.
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If you're reading in the NI two commands, one and then another but it's an important caveat for that strong imperative. Then, there are two examples. You can count count the sermon down today. Two examples of disputable matters and they're just representative examples. It's not all of em and I think Paul was being intentionally vague with it so that you could apply this to other than just these two examples.
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They're representative examples and then, their application points all along the way. We'll refer back to these application points for the next three weeks. So, next two weeks and just God, would you bless? Not just the reading of your word, lord but would you would you plant it deep in our hearts so that when we see a brother or sister in Christ or someone who claims to be a brother or sister in Christ and their way is not exactly our way. Of doing things, of processing you and who you are and how you are in this community, lord.
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Outside of sin, lord, would you allow us to just accept what they're doing? Would you allow us this kind of a unity and harmony that would be very very attractive. So, God, would you do it in our hearts? We lay before you, lord, willingly and want that transplant from a stony heart of of stone lord to a fleshy, malleable, movable, soft heart that you can change lord. In Jesus name, would you do that?
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Amen. Amen. So, right off the bat and you know, we got into the end of chapter 13. I told you that was the end of an instructive section. All of theology of the first part and then there are these two, three chapters right from 12 all the way through 13.
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It's all instruction on Christian living. It's a great thing. How should we live life? And those commands that were given and those ways what love looks like are all great and then in 14, I think, man, 13, he could've ended the letter right there. It's perfect.
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It's absolutely perfect and then it sounds like he says, now that I've told y'all that, this is the matter for your church, Rome. This is what's going on in your church right now, right there, right now and I think that this is still an ongoing thing. I think it always will be as long as there is a church, there will be this temptation. Starts off in the first part of fourteen one. Now, except the one who is weak in faith.
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Okay. Except the one who is weak in faith. Honestly, in church, I hope that we'll accept anybody, right? When they just kinda come in, aren't we glad to see it? I've been in struggling little churches and whenever anybody walked anywhere near the church, it was like, oh, we'll accept you.
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Whatever. We accept, we'll accept anybody. We're hopeful. We're hopeful that will anybody will come in. I'm from a town of 500 people.
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Everybody knew where everybody stood on Jesus, you know? And so, to see the spirit move and to see somebody come in, except the one who is weak in faith. When you read that, you go, okay, I get that. Now, the except right there is a very very strong imperative except might not sound all that strong in English. Receive some versions will say but except the one who's weak in faith.
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Receive them. It's very strong. It comes from this long Greek word which is for you grammar nerds. Present, middle, imperative. So, it's a command but it's a command and it's middle tent, middle voice.
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So, when it's a command in the middle voice, it's saying, accept them for your own good. Accept them for yourselves. You, y'all, come on, for your own good, be accepting them. It's an imperative from that and it was made out of these two Greek words, pros. It towards or interactively with like and that word actually intensifies to lay hold of with initiative.
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So, it's like really grab hold and bring them in to you. Now, aggressively accepting sounds funny but that's kind of what it is. It is to aggressively be accepting and receiving with a strong personal interest. So, the Ray McDaniel version might be this. Y'all be doing all that y'all can to be receiving the one who is weak into y'all's fellowship.
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You got it? So that's the that's the groundwork right there, y'all. So, then the strong caveat is this, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. Do you get that? This is an important caveat because a lot of times you'll accept people in and then immediately start saying, oh, you know, we don't wear blue jeans to church or, you know, we don't do this around here.
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I don't know if anybody's mentioned it to you, but that's not generally the way that we do things. It's not to pass judgment on their opinions that you're accepting to men. You're accepting men, and then he'll go on to say more, but it's not for the passing judgment on opinions. Has anybody ever witnessed that happen? I have.
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I probably done it before but I I don't want to. I don't mean to. I think that we do it out of our religiosity and not out of our relationship with Jesus. So, second verse, one person has faith that he may eat all things. That's me.
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Sorry. I took a trip to Louisiana this week. I had more in one day than Michael Phelps does. I'm on a diet again now. Public confessionary freak preaching right here.
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One person has faith that he may eat all types of things. Probably be a better way to translate that but he who is weak eats vegetables only. Now, it is not because he's weak. I don't think that he's I don't think it's weak because he eats vegetables only. Think that he is somebody who out of his conscience believes that he can only eat vegetables.
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Now, we have a guy in the band. Eugene is a vegetarian and I I called him and asked him ahead of time if he minded that. Me, the omnivore, saying that he is a vegetarian. He's not because he does it as a matter of his own personal Christian conviction. Praise God.
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I have nothing bad to say and that's good because this is example number one and the next thing that Paul says is, not Unigine Morning Star. Sorry. Sorry, Eugene. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat. Now have you ever seen some omnivore making fun of a vegetarian?
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How many times have you heard that vegetarian is what? An Indian word for? Bad hunter. Hunter. Yes.
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I don't I'm not saying that for the laugh. I'm saying that that is a constant for Eugene and it's a constant for Eugene even in the Christian community. People look at him and go, well, vegetarians and it might be anything but in that case, it is his deal. So, and the one who does not eat, so that's Eugene, is not to judge the one who eats like me, okay? Whatever.
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For God has accepted him. He's saying that God has accepted us both and it's not on our merit on what we've done anyway that he's accepted us. So, Eugene or Ray, example one, okay? Omnivores, don't make fun of the herbivores, Alright? I was a herbivore for a while.
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I actually went vegetarian for a while and I'm not gonna say anything about it. It was it was good. I'm not making fun of it. I swear I'm not. Y'all can't.
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Tanya was a vegetarian for nine years and so when I was at home, I always ate that because it was a matter of conviction for her. Herbivores don't judge the omnivores. So, that's his first point, his first example but it goes back to accepting the one, accepting the one who is weak. Now, assuming that you're the one studying and reading the Bible, you're probably the one thinking that you're the strong one. You're the one of strong faith.
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So, you could really turn it around the other way. When you think your position is the strong position, you're supposed to accept the other, okay? So, that's the simple application points right there but why not? Why should we not? Why shouldn't we not make fun of them or why should we not judge them?
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First of all, it's a direct command from scripture. Paul says, don't be judging him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? Now, here we get into the, who are you to judge me? That's exactly what it says.
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Who are you to judge the servant of another? Because if Eugene is a servant of Christ and he is and if I am, then, who is he to judge me for what I do and who am I to judge him for what he does? We have the same master, the same lord. We have the same rule book. But not the same convictions Earlier in one of the last chapters, it says, as a matter of your conscience, for your conscience, this is about your own personal conscience before the Lord.
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Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master, he stands or falls. I do not know. I'm not inside Eugene's head and do not know how God has led him to that personal conviction nor do I need to. He is not inside my head nor does he need to be to know because I'm serving my master.
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I've got one. Lord, that's Jesus and he's serving his master. He has one lord. That's Jesus and it's to his own master, to my own master that I stand or I fall. There's a southern expression.
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I don't know exactly. Maybe I should throw it out there if I don't know exactly what it means. Every tub sits on its own bottom. Have you all heard that before? Not a single one of you.
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Every tub sits on its every tub sits on its own bottom. Like an old wash tub, when you put the wash in a tub, there's water in the tub and it fills up and that bottom has got the hold for that tub. Now, you can take another tub if there's a hole in that one, you put it around it and then that tub but that tub is doing all the work. This other tub is useless. It's not doing it on its own.
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So, that tub actually is the one that gets chunked because it is doc in the Greek. It is not approved. It's not acceptable. Now, the second one is but every tub has to sit on its own bottom. You have to tend to your own tub.
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Does that make sense? You have to tend, watch out for your own behind, your own bottom. You worry about yourself. To his own master he stands or falls. I know when that expression is used all the time around my aunt Laura's house.
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It's hey, every tub sits on its own bottom because she had several kids, four or five of them and said, but so and so did so and so. Listen, every tub sits on its own bottom. I don't care about what they do. You have to answer for what you do. Does that make sense?
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Okay. And he will stand. This goes on to say, to his own master, he stands or fall and he will stand, Paul says, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Now, he may be weak. He may not be what you think he should be but God is able to make him what he should be and he does that through the Holy Spirit, through his own personal conscience, through his surrender, and you can't make somebody surrender.
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Do you agree? Andy Pearson says, yes. You can't force somebody to surrender. Application is throughout. I would say right here, assume that the other Christians around you are doing whatever it is that they are doing out of devoted service to Christ their master.
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Now, that does not stand for sin. If it's outright sin that is outrightly in the Bible, it says that it's sin, it's sin. And in other places, not right here. In other places, Paul says that we are to judge one another when we're in sin and we are to encourage, we are to exhort, we are to call them out. Yes, that's true.
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But if it's outside of outright sin, disputable matters, then, assume that what they're doing, they're doing as unto the Lord, alright? One person regards one day above another. Another regards every day alike. This is example number two. I would almost like to see a show of hands on this one.
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How many people in here who regard one day above another? You're really into celebrating holidays and that sort of thing. You can raise your hands high, it's alright. Even if you know I'm not one of those people. So, yeah, there are there are a lot of y'all.
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You regard one day above another. Celebrations are very important. You may be an event driven person and that's really really important in your life but there are others of us who feel like every day is the same. I actually am the everyday is the same kind of guy in this one. So, I have the same thing.
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Special day people. Do not torment everyday people no matter how Bahambug you think they are, okay? And every day is the same people. Do not judge the special day people for how outlandish you think the preparation is, okay? This one sounds like a personal one for my marriage.
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For those of you who know me. I'm glad that we are actually Paschal is the day person. Neither Tanya or I. We, Tanya is event driven and loves to help plan things and help do that but Paschal really really does think birthdays are special. She really does love Christmas and Easter and all of these special days.
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That's great. I think that that's something that the way that God has wired her and there's nothing wrong with that and I wouldn't judge that or or make fun of it. I I am of the opinion and and I can defend this. Actually, might defend it next week but I the everyday is the same. To me, if you're not celebrating Christmas and Easter in your heart and in your mind and in your life every single day of the year, why celebrate it one or two days a year?
38:33
Right? So, both of em have validity and Paul backs them both up here. Imma leave out a section of that verse and come back to it in a minute. So, it says, one person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord and he who eats, he does so for the Lord and he who gives the for he gives thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and he gives thanks to God.
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He's saying, he's got one master and he's serving his master the way that he needs to and you need to serve your master the way you need to. Now, we also talk in chapter 12 about the different giftings and the way people have been gifted by God's spiritual gifts. Paul mentions it four, five times. Peter mentions it a couple times. It would not make sense for all of us to be exactly the same.
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The spiritual gifts themselves demand a little different eating and drinking styles and celebration styles. That's just the way it is. Sorry. I don't wanna change and be something I'm not. I'm not asking for somebody else to change.
39:49
It'd be something they're not. Outside of sin. Now, we're all tempted to sin. We all have different proclivities. We all have a different predisposition towards certain sins and that's something else.
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It's not dealt with in this passage. Sin is sin. It's not disputable. When it says it's sin, it's sin. No matter how culturally acceptable it is, it's still sin, okay?
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So, application points the same. Assume that other Christians outside of sin are doing whatever they're doing out of devoted service to Christ their master. So, Ray, are you saying? It doesn't matter at all what we think or do. No.
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I'm not saying that it does not matter at all. It does matter. In fact, it matters because of that first part that I left out. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. It's a very very strong statement.
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Each of you should be fully convinced of how you are living your life because you do have a master. You should be completely and fully convinced. Now, we have a Bible. We have a rule book. We have the go to for how we should love one another but each of you should be fully convinced in your own mind of how you are to walk out your Christian calling individually.
41:04
That's not dealing with sin. It's dealing with the style of life. Disputable matters. We'll get to a list. I know people struggle for a list.
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Everybody wants a list. I have people call sometimes and say, how much should I read my Bible in a day? I don't know. For some of you, that might mean every other day, you check-in with something looking for new insight and for some of you, it might be, you need to sit there for a while. You know what I'm saying?
41:34
You might need some more revelation than you have availed yourself to. First Timothy two fifteen says, study. It's the old KJV. This is what I grew up with. So, study to shoe thyself approved unto God.
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Unto God. You get that study to show yourself approved to God. Docimas, approved to God. A workman that need not be ashamed for rightly dividing the word of truth or rightly dividing the word of truth. NASB says, be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of truth.
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That's the rule right there. However long that takes, whatever that takes, be diligent to present yourself to God. You're not trying to present yourself to everybody else. You're not trying to get the check mark from the preacher that you did your fifteen minutes this morning before breakfast. We long for lists.
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Is it alright if I do this? What if I do that? How about this? What's the special circumstance around that? I don't know.
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For you. But I do know this because this is scripture. This is straight from James. The one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it's sin. So, should you be living out your life in accordance with your maker's wishes for you.
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Direct relationship with God, answering to him to know to do the right thing and not do it at sin. Even if it's not listed as sin, oh. Yeah. To know to do a good thing and not do it. Not just skipping it.
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Omission right there. That's sin. To him, it's sin. It might not be sin for somebody else. If one of you is thoroughly convicted, each each one of you.
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If one of you is convinced in his own mind that I must do this to help. I heard an example this morning where a guy was thinking of selling a piece of property and he was selling a piece of property somewhere else so that he could bless a church in a different place altogether. Just on his own. And if that's something that's from God and he does not do it to him, it's sin. I don't have any property.
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I can't put up property to help a church. God's not asking me to do it though. It's not sin to me because that's not what he's called me to do. Do you get what I'm saying? It's a very individual thing, your relationship with God.
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So, what are the rules? I think we covered this. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord. He who eats does so for the Lord. It is to do what you do for the Lord.
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Those are the rules. Whatever it is that you do, be doing it for the Lord. You can't be sinning for the Lord. He who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself.
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No man is an island, right? For if we live, we live for the Lord and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's and he's saying that us and we right there because they're all Christians. The Jewish flavored Christians and the Gentile flavored Christians in Rome. Maybe the churchy church folks here in Jackson versus the folks who've been saved as adults that didn't have any real rule book for life before coming to know Jesus and they're adjusting to this new lifestyle, surprised by their own attitudes and how they've changed.
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But the we, this is a good communion sermon. The we is the blood of Christ is what gathers us together as different as we are. The last time I looked, know a lot of y'all's denominational backgrounds. The last time I counted, it was about 30 different denominations are represented in this room on Sunday mornings, most Sunday mornings which is amazing and it's because if we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord.
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We've got we've got something that binds us together and it is this, scripture and the gospel. For to this end, Christ died and he lived again that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you, again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? So, that's back to those examples one and two. It's saying the two things you can do is either judge em like, really ought to be doing so and so or ridiculous.
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Look at this guy. Okay? Either one of those extremes are bad. Why do you judge your brother? Again, why do you regard your brother with contempt for we will all stand before the judgment seat of God?
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So bring thought. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall give praise to God. So, it's an individual thing. You're not going to get in on coattails. You're not going to get there except through your master and your master matters.
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It matters. Your relationship with your master matters. If he's telling you to do something, you're not doing it, it's sin and it's wrong. Are you digging in? Are you studying to show yourself approved?
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Are you going through the fire? The actually the approved word right there, documas is the is the approved and that was a stamp that they used to put on the bottom of clay pots. When they take a clay pot, they make it and then they put it into the furnace and it goes through a very very high temperature and as it's going through that temperature, they take it out of there and they stamp it either documents, it passed the test or ah documents and they chunk it, break it up into shards. Okay? So it's either you are, but you go through the fire and prove that.
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So study to show yourself approved and realize it is individual. Every tub sits on its own bottom. Every clay pot is to be tested. So, then, each one of us is to give account of himself to God. Alright.
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So, I know that there is a range of Christian orthodoxy and it can go, you can look at the spectrum a lot of different ways. We, I preach a lot on balance between the ditch of legalism and license and I don't go as far into Calvinism versus Armenianism and a lot of those things but if I do, it'll always come up to we need to balance that. We need to balance that. We don't need to look at the Bible and go like this to some things or this. We need to look at all of it and before God, know that we're responsible for how he leads us.
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So, each of us will give an account of himself to God. So, takeaways, I think are fairly obvious. It it stated in that first verse. Be aggressively accepting people and bringing them in. You worry about yourself.
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Why you're
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not yourself? Why you're not
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Can I help? No.
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This dad is trying to help this little girl get in her car seat.
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You can help one more LTE. Okay?
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You can help me when we're
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out eat. When
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we're out You to play?
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You can help. Do
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you have
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this, Sisi? Probably.
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It's just
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You want me to help, Ross?
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No. Thank you. No. Thank you.
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What do you want me to do?
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What about yourself? About yourself? I'll do this one. So I'm gonna do that. You drive.
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Wait about yourself. Go drive. Stop. Yeah. Worry about yourself.
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That's it. You drive. You worry about yourself. You drive the car. You worry about yourself.
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I'll get this thing on. Now, maybe dad can't drive till she gets that thing on. He's trying to hurry her up in her pursuit and I think as Christians, a lot of times we're trying to hurry one another up in our pursuit of holiness and godliness and the law. We're trying to get ourselves up and so we're trying to help other people when they have not asked for our help. She said, you can help me when you get to the restaurant.
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There are some things that you can help me with but this is not one of em. Do you all get what I'm saying? So there's a range of churches around here, and you're never gonna hear me blast anybody because I believe that every pastor that's in town is seeking to do the will of God the best way that they know how. Praise God for that and there's always going to be in the Christian community. There's always going to be a difference of opinion theologically.
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So be it. That's just the way that it is. I don't know how far away from the center you have to get for it not to be true anymore but we're all aiming for the sinner and I've talked about this with every pastor in town and so, we are trying our best to get here to the center of the gospel knowing that it is not us who's earning or meriting the favor of God. It is because of the grace of God because all of us, all of us, all of us have to answer to him. So, can you think of any modern examples of disputable matters?
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I'm I'm here. I'm listening. The election. Good example. Politics, patriotism is one.
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Any political involvement at all in the government, whether we should have any involvement at all, participation in war, capital punishment. That's a disputable matter. And you can have a very deeply held Christian conviction and your brother, literal brother, or your brother in Christ could have a very different Christian conviction. Do you get that? That's that's hard truth but it's truth.
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Law versus grace, that's not a disputable matter. It's grace, okay? Your adherence to the law and exactly how you do that. First ones I always think of are worship wars. Worship wars.
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Should we have electric guitars, basses, all of that sort of stuff. Absolutely. Yes. Or should we have just hymns? How many of you grew up Church of Christ?
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Anybody? Was it with the instruments, without the instruments? Second service, that would've gotten a lot of hands. None in this one, not one. We fight over things that don't matter.
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Do you agree with me? Stop fighting over things that don't matter. Assume that other Christians are doing what they're doing out of conviction. Now, some of them may be dead wrong. But they have to answer for that, not you.
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If you can go to them lovingly and say, brother, I think what you're doing is not a disputable matter. I think it's sin. It may well be and you will have done your judging based on the other passages in Paul that say that. If you feel like it's a it is a conviction that what he is doing is sin, by all means, share that. But realize that a lot of what we're putting out there is repelling people.
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Do you agree? There is an exclusivity to the gospel. That exclusivity, that chasm is there and it's related to the gospel. For those who believe, for those who believe, it's the power of God unto salvation but for those who reject, That's the chasm. The chasm is between the world and God and Christ has made a bridge between those two.
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Now, if we move that bridge further out, and we say, oh, you can't wear blue jeans to church. That's a, I had a guy one time before Tony and I moved to the mission field. He was, he said, oh yeah, we'd love to support you. Great. I said, okay and that this was unsolicited.
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Oh, we'd love to do that. So, tell me how you feel about this, about the virgin birth. Oh, yeah. Virgin birth, sure. How do you feel about the necessity of the cross?
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Absolutely. Everyone needs to be saved that way. It is the way. Oh, man. Fantastic.
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Well, and he just went on and he and the less kept going and after the first four of em, I thought, well, that's Christianity right there and then, he said, does your wife ever wear pants? I'm not joking. And I said, well, yeah. Yeah, she does. He goes, oh, man, I'm sorry.
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We can't have that kind of Christianity spreading. I'm not joking. Yeah, wow. Be not conformed to the world. I'm going to I'm going to read something.
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This is straight from a church. This is straight from a church from their practices and policies, okay? How be not conformed to the world is the scripture that they cite and it says, members shall not indulge in the world's message of pleasure seeking amusements and entertainment, patronizing, or taking part in fairs, parades, circuses, moving picture shows, theaters, dramas, public bathing resorts, organized contesting ball teams, dancing, card parties, races, various forms of gambling, scavenger hunts, mystery suppers, hay rides, and the like. In as much as our automobiles as well as our possessions or gifts from God, they should be in keeping with biblical modesty and separation and use of them, use of them should always glorify God. More expensive cars, cars with contrast and color schemes, sports cars, as well as sports features on regular cars.
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All the striped tires shall be avoided. The appearance and use of all of our vehicles shall be consistent with these principles and regulations because of the effectiveness of the radio to propagate evil and increased end time deception thereby destroying true spirituality in the home and church. It is its use is not permitted. Because of the evils of television, those who are responsible for the sale or use of the same forfeit their membership. Video cassette recorder, this is a little dated.
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Entertainment systems shall not be used. We likewise sense the dangers of news media such daily papers and magazines in the home and many quotes Psalm one zero one three and Psalm one two. Now, according to these standards, most confessing Christians are living in conformity to the world and violating that principle but that's not what that verse says. Be not conformed to the to the world does not say, don't do anything that the world does. You stand before God and you have to answer for what you do.
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That scripture. So, take that in. This list for the guy, I'm assuming, that wrote it, if he feels deeply convicted about that, this is the way he must live his life. You know what? I'm not to make fun of him and I'm not to have contempt for him because he's doing what he's doing as to the Lord.
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Now, when he spreads it out there for other people to do, I think he's stepped over the line and I'll I'll I would have to have a talk with him about that. I think that's it, Carl. I don't think there's another slide. Anybody have another disputable matter we wanna talk about for a minute? There are a lot of them.
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And some of them come to the level of of breaking fellowship. And if you must if you must leave for that reason, that's a really, really hard thing. You draw the line on disputable matter in between disputable matter and sin in a different place. But the chasm, that great chasm that's fixed, it's around the gospel and the gospel alone. So if you've never trusted in Jesus, do so.
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By all means, please do so and then listen to him. Amen. You're sing it by yourself?
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I'm going to sing about myself.
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Would you stand up and sing with us?
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Alright. Would you be free?
1:00:15
Amen. But thanks be to God because he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
