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Speaker 1Good morning, everybody. How are you? You're alright? Good morning, everybody. Good morning.
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Let's sing em. Let's sing em in. Would y'all stand with me and we're going to sing a few hymns here and get going. Some of these are shown off. Songs that we've loved for years.
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Let's sing a victory in Jesus.
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Speaker 2There is victory in Jesus. Heard an old, old story of how savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me I heard about his groaning of his precious bloods atoning and I repented of my sins and won the victory oh victory in Jesus my savior forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me air I knew him and all my love is due him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood I heard about his healing of his cleansing power revealing how he made the lame to walk again and cause the blind to see and then I cried dear Jesus come and heal my broken spirit and how Jesus came and brought to me the victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me where I knew him and all my love is due him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood watch for the key change on the chorus heard about a mansion mansion he has built for me in glory and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea about the angels singing and the old redemption story and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory oh victory in Jesus my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood he loved me and all my love is due him He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.
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Speaker 1Amen. Thank you, Judy. We've got our next one is, how great thou art. This was originally in Swedish. Did y'all know that?
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How great thou art was originally written in Swedish? It has about three or four other verses that we don't ever sing. Look forward to hearing those not in Swedish but translated a little bit closer in the next couple of weeks. It's so good. How great thou art?
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Speaker 2Oh Lord my God when I in awesome awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe display then sings my song my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee How great thou art, how great thou art. When through the woods and forest glades I wonder and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou and when I think that God his son not sparing sent him to die. I scarce can take it in.
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That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art great thou on the last when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart then I shall bow in humble adoration bow and there proclaim my God how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my savior God to thee how great thou art how great Amen.
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Speaker 1Got a few announcements. Y'all can have a seat and we'll work our way through em. So, Monday nights at First B, it's kind of a home sweet home. This is an alternative worship time and it's a little different because it's meal, music, and a message every Monday night. Carl is the pastor for that church.
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Carl, what's happening tomorrow night? Justice. Alright. Sounds good. Seek justice.
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Awana happens at the same time. So, this is a Monday night, 05:45 to 07:30. Awana happens starting out in this room. We're pouring scripture into the minds of the children to reach the hearts of the children and there is an age group all the way from two years old up through fifth grade that's covered and it's just a great time. It takes a lot of volunteers to do it but it's well worth the time spent.
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I'm thankful for not just every child that comes but every volunteer that that comes to and last week, I I don't usually because we have Monday nights down the hall. I don't usually come in and see what's going on but I took a a lap around the whole church and it is amazing to see kids kinda study in scripture together with listeners all over the whole church at the same time. It's really cool. Bible studies today in the first service for high school aged boys, girls, and children's Sunday school. That happens during the first service.
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We don't usually do that during the second service. Second service, Jeremiah, excuse me, Jeremiah part one chapters one through 24 is the subject for the Thursday morning, 09:00, nine to 11:30. That is our precept study and that's a good one. You've forsaken me, repent, return. It's a good, good, good word from the Lord there.
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Women read the Bible and pray in Teton Valley, Idaho. Hope that's not a surprise to you. That does actually happen but they are getting together and praying over there in Driggs. That's the address for the Connell, Kurt, and Cecilia Connell's home and that happens 08:30 to ten on Friday mornings and if you need more information, you can talk to me and I can put you in touch with the people. I know that there are some of you that actually we've had somebody come in this morning and said, we just finally got a place and it's over on the other side of the hill and I wanna get connected and that's a good way to do it.
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So, the turning point. Turning point is our pregnancy resource center here in town and one of their biggest fundraisers throughout the year is this, the baby bottle campaign. So, there's some empty baby bottles out in the vestibule and if you would take that empty bottle home, you can fill it with loose change or you can fill it with bigger bills or you can fill it with checks and then bring the bottles back to us and they'll come pick them up. This is Turning Points, one of their biggest fundraisers of the year. So if you would consider helping out people in crisis pregnancies but also in other pregnancies too.
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It's a pregnancy resource center. It's a really, really, really good organization, institution and we'd love to help out. So, there you go. Community groups. So, we have undertaken to start community groups and there is one that meets on Tuesdays.
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There's one that meets on Wednesdays. So, Tuesdays, I think is over here. Mike and JJ, Demetrius' house. There's one on Wednesdays out at the airport kinda geographically people that are out near near the airport, Northtown. There's one on Wednesdays there.
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There's a Thursday one that meets in Rafter J and I just heard this morning, there's another one of this cohort that have started up over in Victor. So, we've got community groups that we're trying to get there to organically grassroots movement but we're trying to get connected to one another rather than just sit beside somebody really getting to know them. So, community groups have started. Nursery volunteers, thank you for for your service in the nursery during the first and the second service but I'm gonna keep on moving. The we can still use more volunteers because it spreads the load but volunteers always need it.
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Tanya, would you help with this one? Women's World Day of Prayer.
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Speaker 3Yeah, Blake just said he wished I'd done it in the first service instead of you.
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Speaker 1Oh, good. It's good. Okay. I do too actually but.
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Speaker 3I should have said yes. So, the Women's World Day of Prayer is here and it rotates if y'all were here last week and this year is first bees time to host it and it's exciting and and if it has lulled in the periods that we have not had it, it is a joy to bring it back up, to get their fervor back up for us to pray together and in this way, it is not just blank. It's a concentrated, reasonable way to pray because the women of Zimbabwe have sent the things that are closest to their heart and I'm thankful for that and I'm thankful for the opportunity for just for us to be fellow to fellowship together. So, I have I'm armed this week with recipes and I'm going have to tell you I'm a little bit judgmental on the cornbread recipe. That's because we know how to make it where I'm from.
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But if you want a recipes, if you would like to bring their three desserts that the women sent, please see me and I'll just place them out actually back there also. If you would like to come, please come and please spread the word too. Suzanne put posters up last week in various places and I was very thankful for that and the other churches are announcing it. So, I really hope that it's a time for us all to be together and have just a good time together. March 6.
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Friday, March 6.
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Speaker 1Yeah, Friday, March 6. So, it's not that's not this Friday but next Friday. So, Friday week, if you're from the South. Friday week, 03/06/2020, twelve to one. It includes lunch.
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So, that's.
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Speaker 2In moments like these I sing out a song I sing out a love song to Jesus in moments like these I lift up my hands I lift up my hands to the Lord singing
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Speaker 1Let's sing it again.
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Speaker 2In moments like these, I sing out a song, I sing out a love song to Jesus in moments like these I lift up my hands I lift up my hands to the Lord singing I love you lord singing I love you lord singing I love you Amen. He
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Speaker 1is lord. We're going to sing this. It's kind of a chorus. We'll sing it a couple of times and then on the look for a key change in this one too, alright?
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Speaker 2Is lord he is lord he is risen from the dead and he is lord every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord he is lord he is lord he is risen from the dead and he is lord every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord he is lord he is lord he is risen from the dead and he is lord every knee shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord
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Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. Invite the frontline team to come forward. Would you pray with me? God, we thank you for a beautiful, beautiful morning morning. Start to say, morning.
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Lord, where we can praise you. There's not a language where you can't be heard. And your creation declares the glory of God. I thank you lord for the lofty mountain grandeur that we get to take in daily. I thank you for all of this reminder all around us.
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The whiteness of the snow and the promise lord that though our sins be as scarlet, they can be. As white as snow through the blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus for coming and for living out a perfect life and complete submission to the Holy Spirit and dying that perfect sacrificial death so that we might live. I thank you also that when you left, you said, you'd never leave us nor forsake us and you would also send a comforter and you you have. The Holy Spirit of God.
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You have and we can walk in submission to that spirit and we can live obedient lives after our savior. Lord, that's what we're seeking right here this morning as we come to the time of offering. Would love for, lord, everything that goes into these plates, all of the financial resource to be multiplied and used for your kingdom's work here in Jackson into the uttermost parts but lord, we would like for this also be just symbolic of the fact that we're placing our place, our placing ourselves in these plates that we're putting our ourselves into your hands for service. Would you use us in the way you see fit with the people you see fit and lord, maybe walk in the steps of our savior. In Jesus name, lord, we pray that you this.
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Amen. Amen. So, we have been on a quite a ride together. For the last seven and a half years, we've been studying in order pretty much after the gospel of John. We've been studying in order the the books as they were written pretty much.
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John and Acts, we did first and then we've been going through from the book of first and second Thessalonians and James all the way through to Hebrews. We're up to AD about 67 right here, right now. That's what we're studying is written around '67, maybe '68 and we have traveled through the whole book of Hebrews up to the very last chapter. So, this is kind of like when the preacher says and in closing, okay? It's the last chapter of this book.
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It's the last chapter of it and I'm thankful that we have arrived at this because it's been all about perseverance all the way through and it's pretty tough. It's deep mud to walk through. Plotting is the way we've been going and I think that that's good. You just have to kind of keep on going through. It's about perseverance.
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The whole book is about persevering even in the face of what looks like hopelessness and persecution. So, it's difficult and it's been difficult. Now, we get up to this last portion and this is all we're covering today. There are 24 verses in this chapter and we're covering a third of em today. I think we're gonna have three more sermons from Hebrews.
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We'll do a third each time but we're covering up through verse eight and that's what it looks like. That's all of it together. I've got a couple of stories. I don't have as many slides as I usually have but this is what we're gonna walk through together today. God, would you bless the reading of your word and the application of it to our hearts and our lives the way that we walk it out together.
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Amen. So, it is practical advice. Remember saying at the very end of James, the book of James that it was like motherly advice from James. He is given things that will help you practically every single day to live out the faith that he's or the writer of Hebrews, he or she or they better put, says, we several times, the writers of Hebrews have said, here is the theology. This is where Christ is seated in the heavenlies interceding for you.
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He has done all that's necessary. Do not turn away from him although it's there's a temptation right now to go back to Judaism where there's not as much persecution as there is if you're following after Christ at that time. There's a localized persecution that was severe and getting worse and there was an empire wide persecution that was getting worse also and so, when these original recipients got this letter, they would have been thinking along the lines of it would be easier to just go back to what it was like before. Are you with me? Okay, here we go.
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This is the practical advice section. It starts off like this. Well, let love of the brethren continue or let brotherly love continue. Philadelphia love, that's what love is filos type love. Let brotherly love continue.
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Now, y'all heard a thousand sermons if you've been in church for long about the three different types of love. You know, there's brotherly love, there's erotic love, or eros love, and then there is also agape love. This one is brotherly love. He's and the reason that it or what it says specifically is that let love, brotherly love, continue. Y'all doing a good job at that.
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It's a it's a pat on the back. It's sort of an attaboy from the writers of Hebrews. Y'all do a good job of loving one another. Can say to y'all, y'all do a good job of loving one another. It's really good to see a group of people that love one another and the next part of this, not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.
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When a new person shows up and y'all are loving one another well, you don't just circle and say, oh, that's an outsider. No, come on in and be a part of this. Come on in and be a part of this group. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Now, these are imperatives.
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They are commands. Let love of the brethren continue as saying, you're already doing this. Keep on doing it. Good job. Keep on loving one another and loving one another well.
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Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Now, that is always, always a Christian virtue. Hospitality is always a Christian virtue to be welcoming to the outsider. Romans twelve thirteen. I could go into a lot of places in the Old Testament that says, be kind to the stranger among you and the one who sojourns in your land.
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Pray for their peace, right? And help em. Romans twelve thirteen is lifting the hospitality as a virtue. First Peter four does. Matthew 25 does.
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Actually, Titus and Timothy both say that elders should be hospitable, always practicing hospitality to outsiders. They should have a good reputation among outsiders because of that. So, hospitality is always a Christian virtue. Don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by this, some have entertained angels without knowing it. If I were going back to this right here, I I didn't expect to use this example because I hadn't, it hadn't happened until just the other night.
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So, Friday night, leaving from here and heading home and passed by Wendy's in the bank and there were three folks hitchhiking. I'm not saying all of y'all pick up every hitchhiker always but I love em.
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Speaker 2I love
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Speaker 1hitchhikers. So, I I usually do. If I can, I usually do? So, I saw and there are three of them and I had three open spaces in the car and and so I I hid the commentaries because I want to sneak up on em. You know, I'm a Baptist preacher.
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No, not really. I I I did. I was riding by and I thought, oh, it was and it was cold. It was below zero, you know. 07:30 in the evening a few nights ago, riding down and saw them and thought, well, I'm gonna turn around.
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So, across the five lanes of traffic, turn around there at the Shell Station, come back, turned around at the Wendy's parking lot there and then coming through and they had started walking at that point and I and I stopped, pulled over there at the computer place, the Grand Design, carpet place, whatever and said, hop on in. So, they jump in. They're all dressed in skiing apparel and I thought, well, usually, skiers around here know you can get on the start bus. There, that didn't seem odd but they're hitchhiking. Hey, man.
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We're broken down. Several miles south of town. I said, oh yeah, no problem. He said, where you headed? I said, I'm going wherever you're stuck and he said, alright.
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So, went down there with him and as we're going, we get to talk and as we're talking, you know, I've done a whole lot more mechanic and then I have preaching and so I'm listening to the diagnosis and I thought, they said it's a sprinter van. It's a diesel. I said, okay, cool. Grant Galloway, head of the Teton County School District. I know this guy.
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He's a diesel mechanic, Troy Smith. Know him? He's a diesel mechanic south of town and both of those guys have been very generous in the past. Hospitality strangers, No lots of people who could help but the further we got down the road, it sounded like, well, when we woke up and it was 14 below this morning, battery was dead. Well, it's 14 below.
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That's what happens to batteries. And so they said, we had we tried to jump it off but I thought, okay. So, keep talking. We keep talking about what's going on and I've got a really good set of jumper cables. Really good ones and I say, get a good set of jumper cables because the cheap junk that comes in a little packet, you know, of roadside emergency stuff.
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They're never any good and so much, somebody tried to jump em with that smoke the cables. It's a diesel. It's cold, you know? And so, as we're riding, I'm listening. I'm like, I got two or three people that I could call and and then I thought and I got the good jumper cables back there.
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So, we go, we stop, hook it up, and we're still talking. We get the opportunity all the time to talk and as we're going, it's charging the battery and then he says, what what should I do now? We got folks on the, you know, sitting on the ready to come for Rigby. That's two hours and then they're gonna put us up at night there and then bring us back to ski in the morning. I said, just try it.
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Cranks right up. It's so great. What a blessing. Now, I mean, to them, yeah, whatever. It's a huge blessing to be able to help somebody.
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Do not neglect showing hospitality to strangers, you know? It's good. It's good for us. It and you don't know. You might entertain some angels.
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Angels means messengers but there, you might get a message from those folks. You might get a message from those folks that you hadn't hadn't even thought about but in blessing others, there is a blessing. It was the other night for me, I thought thought about that this morning while I'm going through. By this, some have entertained angels without even knowing it and that is probably referring to at least two places in the Old Testament but it it it also still works today. That was my point.
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Remember the prisoners. So, I've mentioned that these people were being persecuted. Earlier in the book, it says, some of them have had their property seized and some of them have been arrested and these folks that the letter is written to were also under the threat of having their property seized and possibly being thrown into prison and their temptation. Therefore, was to go back to something that didn't have as much persecution or to just drop out altogether and blend in with the society around them and then, they wouldn't be facing that sort of thing. The writer of Hebrews is saying, remember the prisoners.
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Don't just forget about them. Remember em. Just as though you were in prison with them and remember those who are ill treated. Ill treated and prisoners. So, I was thinking about this today for our context in this society.
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Occasionally, you hear somebody that's persecuted for their faith. Occasionally, you do. You don't often hear somebody who's jailed for their faith. It doesn't happen very often. It could.
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There are couple of places where it could. Some some places here might have. More often than that, you'll be ill treated or disregarded or people be condescending, that sort of thing because of your faith. In our society, it's not as common. So, I try to think of the exact parallel for prison these days which is, you know, prison being all of the sudden because of your faith thrown in to a mix where you can't get free when you want to.
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You're surrounded by people of questionable character. You're surrounded by people that maybe bullying you or looking after you and you've got a savior that says to turn the other cheek. So, remember the middle schoolers. Remember the high schoolers. Remember people who are going through a situation that probably is not of their desire.
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They are stuck in a situation and trying to make the best of it. Don't get me wrong. I know a lot of prisoners who try to make the best of their prison. Term. But remember those who are suffering and ill treated.
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Just as though you were there with them. Do you remember what it's like to be picked last on the team? Do you remember what it was like? To be bullied. Remember them as if you were right there with them.
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Remember those who are ill treated. Since you yourselves are in the body. If if you're a member of the body of Christ and there is another member of the body of Christ that's hurting, it hurts you too, right? That's that's the that's the truth. And it's saying, don't just neglect them.
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Don't put them out of your mind. Pray for em. Take care to pray for em. If God's lead, you help em. Do what you can.
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So, the body metaphor is very strong. If one part is hurting, then the whole body is hurting. We are whole beings and every part of our body matters and then, as the body of Christ, this metaphor, every part of it matters and so, be paying attention to it. It goes on. Practical advice and some of these, it looks like there's a list and they don't necessarily have anything to do with one another.
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Let love of the brethren continue. Don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Remember the prisoners just like you were there with them. Remember the ill treated marriages to be held and honor among all. Okay?
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Keep marriage honorable. Marriage is to be honorable among all. Actually, if you see italics words in the New American Standard Version of the Bible, the italics is there for it to make sense better in English in sentence form but I want you to hear the Greek straight up here. Marriage in honor among all. Keep it in honor among all.
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You might even hear a pastor say that in the opening remarks for a wedding where they'll say, throughout antiquity, you know, dearly beloved, we're gathered here today, celebrate this. Jesus went to a wedding. You know, marriage has been held in high esteem among virtually every culture forever. Marriage is to be kept that way. In our society that has started to erode or continue to erode.
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In this one, it was. So, marriage and honor among all and bed undefiled. So, if you're thinking, well, what what exactly does that mean? The marriage bed, yes, that makes sense to go in there with it. It's to be undefiled.
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Marriage and honor among all and that bed, undefiled and if you're thinking, I wonder if that means for fornicators and adulterers, God will judge. Anything outside of any sexual practice outside of committed marriage, man and wife is covered by these two, fornicators and adulterers. God will judge. So, keep marriage in a special place. Keep that commitment special.
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Don't follow after the society you're in. Says the writer of Hebrews and so, we should be saying too. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. That's the next thing on the list. It just keeps going.
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Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. I mentioned the lists in Titus and in Timothy about serving as an elder. It says, they should not be greedy or seeking after filthy lucre. They should not be seeking after. It's the love of money, not just money because it's not a sin to be wealthy.
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It's not a sin to be to have money or to invest well. That's not a problem but the love of money is the root of all evil. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with whatever it is that you have. Now, the writer of Hebrews is saying this to people who have lost their homes to the government taking them over or to people kicking them out. This is this is hard truth right here.
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Be content whatever you have. Paul says, elsewhere, I've learned to be content in whatever whether I'm in want or whether I have a plenty. It is my task to learn to be content whether I'm well or whether I'm sick. It is my task to be content. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money.
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Being content with what you have. And then it gives a rationalization for why. For he himself has said, I will never desert you nor I will I ever you. Now, you know Jesus said that. We know Jesus said that but he's just continuing with the character of God.
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It's mentioned multiple times in the Old Testament. How God says, you will be my people and I will be your God and I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. Look to me for your provision. Look to me for your provision. I will make a way.
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I will never desert nor will I ever forsake you. Low, I am with you always, Jesus says. So that we can confidently say. So, going on from what Christ has said and going on from what God has said in multiple places, Deuteronomy and Exodus and Old Testament, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid.
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What will man do to me? What is it that man has over me? Jesus says, why is it that you worry so much about what man can do when all they can do is harm the body? God is the one who is the the measurer, measurer of souls. He is the one who takes full stock in the whole whole being.
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The Lord is my helper. If he's on my side, then who can be against me? Our everlasting souls being in the hands of God, our maker. The Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid.
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What will man do to me? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and we should be able to go forward knowing that. So, we go on from here to remember those who led you. In the first service I mentioned, for me, seeing this, I think of those who led me when I was little, that includes aunts and uncles and grandmother and pastor Don Boyles. Don Boyles was the pastor when I was a little kid and he was there for eleven straight years from the time I was about two till about 13 and he was a faithful man of God.
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You know, really really good. It says, remember those who led you. He did lead us and who spoke the word of God to you. Oh, when we we're gonna move to the mission field and I got a word from him. He said, oh Ray, Psalm 100.
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Psalm 119. Remember this, he was still every time that I would talk to him. It would be an encouragement from God's word and a leading. It's a really really good thing and the writer of Hebrews is saying, y'all remember the ones who led you. Now, it says the ones who led you past tense here and it says, the ones who are leading you in verse 17, we're not gonna get there today but there's an implication that this maybe people who have passed on.
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Since he says, you have not shed your own blood. There's a possibility that some of these folks were actually murdered for their faith and he's saying, remember them. He's already given us the whole hall of faith and remember all those all the way back to Abel but remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct. My ministry life here right now and today has a lot to do with Don Boyle's ministry in a town of less than 500 people in the seventies and eighties. It's it has a lot.
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Considering the result of their conduct, he relied heavily on Jesus and on God's word and because he did that, I know who Jesus is and I I can trust his character because I've seen it played out. Now, I'm not saying for us to depend wholly on a man or men or women that have been good following after God but it gives us an example that we can see, right? It gives us an example we can see. So, remember those who led you, spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct. Imitate their faith.
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Paul says, follow after me as I follow after Christ. He also says in a different place, be imitators of God. Therefore, as dearly beloved children, looking up to and following after the examples, the good examples that we have. Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. If there was someone who spread the seed and someone who planted the seed in your life and it meant something to you, then imitate that faith and do as they did looking to Christ and to his spirit.
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And then it closes with this, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. That's a middle of a paragraph but I wanna say why this is here. It keeps on going from here but the second sermon is gonna get into a can of worms. I didn't wanna open today. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Is our society the same today as it was ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, forty, fifty years ago. Is it the same that it was in '67? There are a lot of similarities but our society not the same but is Jesus the same? He is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever.
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He can be trusted to be God. Amen. So, that's the close of what we're going to go through today. I want to read it all again and I got a couple stories to throw in there. We're way short of time.
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Let love of the brethren continue I thank y'all for loving one another well and being so warm and receiving with strangers. We have a greater opportunity in this place than most churches. You know why? Because nobody goes to Shiloh, Georgia on vacation. Nobody.
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How many visitors do we have through here last year? 5,500,000. 5,500,000 and you get a chance to bless those folks if you won't neglect that chance. Neglect, don't neglect to show hospitality to strangers. So, I got a a little story right here too.
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When Paschal was 3.5, she's 3.5 years old. We were between being here and being and you know, I came out here to be a carpenter and then seminary starts up and it was in a tiny little window between leaving Jackson and getting to South Carolina. We stopped by to see my folks in Georgia and Country Barbecue has a five K run. Now, I have said before, I am not a runner but I do like barbecue and if you finish the five K run, you get free barbecue. So, I I went in for this five ks run and it's called the Midnight Express.
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Georgia in August, it is hot as blue blazes. You know, and it's so hot that you can't really do this sort of stuff in the daytime. So they started running the five ks race. Midnight Express is at midnight. So, they have a cannon, pretty good sized cannon.
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And at midnight, they blast the cannon and that's the start of the race and then it's a five ks from boom, boom, boom. Through a residential neighborhood and in that residential neighborhood, there are folks that have planned on it probably napped all day long so they could stay up at the night and they have bands set up in the front yard and they have people standing by the roadside handing out little cups of water to the runners. This is supposed to be fun, not a tearjerker but it it gets me. And so, as you're running by and you feel like, I'm not a runner. And somebody says, go, go, go, you can do it, you can do it.
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I should've used this for the great cloud of witnesses around us a few weeks ago. It's so much easier to to go when there are people who are cheering you on, you know, and you can do it. You can do it. You can do it. Makes you feel like, you know what?
46:24
I can do it and you go and so, Pascal and I and Tanya all ran this race together. We weren't the only ones. There are thousands. It's kind of like old bills but bigger because it's a bigger city. In the residential part of the neighborhood.
46:40
It's fantastic. No problems. You're running Auburn Avenue, Mercury Drive, you're running, running, running, and then you hit over near Hardaway High School and Richard Middle School. There's a high school on one side of the road, middle school on the other. It's the longest and only continuous uphill run of the thing and there's nobody.
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There's no residences around. It's a school on one side and a school on the other and as you're running, it's slow and it's dark and there's there are some lights, you know, but there's street lights and you're running in the dark and nobody's cheering you on and it's the hardest part of the journey. So, Paschal, when we start off, boom goes the cannon and we take off. We're kind of mid pack, you know. By the way, Columbus, Georgia is where Fort Benning is and Fort Benning has the Rangers.
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So, the one hundred and first airborne, eighty second airborne, rangers are there and they start off in the back of the pack in formation and their Rangers and they start, they clean up their fight songs, make em a little more family friendly. Their cadences and they start when the cannon goes, they start singing and they run-in formation for the whole race. Pretty cool. They start at the back of the pack and they plot and they do know how to pace themselves because they do this every morning, you know. I don't ever do this ever.
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But it's fun and we've done it probably two or three times before Paschal was born and and she's running and I could see her and Tanya could see her that she's 3.5, you know? 3.5, five ks is a long way. So, she starts running and you can see her shoulders starting to slump her her arms are still moving like she's running and she's kinda doing this, walking. And then she passes somebody's driveway and they've got music and they've got speakers and they've got people out there with glasses of water and they're saying, go, baby. Go.
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You can do it, little girl. Stranger. They don't know her, you know, and she could. She get get a fresh wind and go. A little encouragement goes a long way and so she's going and going and I was noticing, I'm languishing too, you know, But I could do that when when people were cheering me on but man, that going through high school and middle school, it's tough.
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Really? Metaphorically, it's tough but I mean, really, it's tough. It's a long uphill run and during that time, it got to where she just couldn't go. She couldn't keep going forward and she was getting to where she was drooping. She's three and a half and skinny, you know, little bitty and I'm huge.
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So, I I picked her up and I put her on my shoulders and I started running and just about the time that I felt like I can't do this anymore. We're back in the neighborhood coming back home. We passed halfway point. We're getting on up probably four out of the five ks and as we're running there, cheering us on and then they're cheering us on because it's cool. Daddy's got a little girl on shoulders, you know?
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As we're running, we get closer to the end, I'm able to put her back down and she's able to cross with gusto, you know, and it's awesome. Loving one another well, allowing dad to carry you. Allowing others to carry you while they can. I I would have worn out at some point, right? But crossed together, it was fantastic and it was because of the hospitality of strangers that we were able to keep on going.
50:03
Some have entertained angels, messengers without even knowing it. Remember those prisoners. I got another story about prisoners. So, prisoners, when I went to seminary, I went to Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina. It is on the West, no, East Bank Of The Broad River, East Bank Of The Broad River and then upstream about less than half a mile within vision, you could see it from our campus.
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You could see the Broad River Road Correctional Facility. It's a state pen. The state penitentiary for South Carolina is right there across the river. It's a big wide. It's a broad river.
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So, it's a broad river but you could see it still and on the first day, when parents were bringing their kids in to drop em off for orientation, you know, be on the campus at this time and everybody's gonna be there. It's gonna be the time when you say goodbye to your kids. You got their dorm all set up the day before. Everything's hunky door. We're getting together for one big kinda last hurrah before the parents go home and four prisoners broke out of the Broad River Road Correctional Facility and where they broke out was on the river and the next thing downstream on the other side but it's still the next thing downstream is that campus.
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They locked down the campus on the first day during orientation. Oh, the parents. Lot of these Christian parents who had homeschooled their kids. They drop em off at college with a prison at break but that same prison though because of proximity and because of this where it says, remember the prisoners, it's not just remember the prisoners that are Christians that are persecuted for their faith. It's remember prisoners.
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They're stuck somewhere, you know? Remember the prisoners just as though you were in prison there with them. A lot of our professors and some of us as students while we were in seminary, while they're teaching in seminary at CIU, they also were teaching the same classes they were teaching us. They were teaching about that Broad River Road Correctional Facility, teaching the prisoners. There was one caveat.
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Anybody could come to the classes if they were allowed by the by the system but the school would allow them to earn a degree. Their masters of divinity, same degree I was working on. They allowed them to earn that degree but they had to fit two stipulations. One of them is they had to be a lifer. Life with no chance of parole.
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And they had to be willing to go wherever the prison system would send them. And so while I was there, the first four or five guys graduated with their masters of divinity and they were committed followers of Jesus that were sharing Christ in one of the most difficult places and they're willing to go wherever the prison system and God would send them. It's pretty cool and they're earning their degrees. That program is still going and I think it's a great great thing. I had talked to some of y'all this week who are in prison ministry.
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Shane Basie that went to church here until he moved to Sheridan is still involved in prison ministry. Remember the prisoners just like you were there with them. And middle schoolers and high schoolers too. You're in the same body. Marriage held an honor among all and the bed undefiled, fornicators, and adult God will judge.
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Make sure that your character is free from the love of money. Not just money is the problem. It's the love of money. Make sure your character is free from the love of money. Being content with what you have.
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For he himself has said, I'll never depart you nor will I forsake you. I am with you through the difficult stuff. You may not understand why but he's asking for you to be content, find your contentedness in him. So, we can confidently say, the Lord is my helper and I will not be afraid. I will not fear.
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What will man do to me? Remember, those who led you, those who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. God, would you help us with our contentment? Would you help us?
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Godliness with contentment is great gain. God, would you help us? The fellowship of the sufferings of Christ is where we often find ourselves. Lord, would we take this practical advice and live our lives out looking to you for all that we'll need. In Jesus name, amen.
54:26
So, Judy, you can come on back up. What are, what's our last song? I think I put my songs away. My Jesus, I love this. This is perfect.
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Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He hasn't changed though. Everything else around us is shifting sand. He's the rock. We can count on it.
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Hymn number 79. Would you stand with me and we'll sing?
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Speaker 2My Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine for thee all the thee because thou hast first and purchased my pardon on Calvary glittering crown on my brow my Jesus is now Amen. And for
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Speaker 1our our benediction this morning is gonna come up right here. It's may the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and into Christ's perseverance. He knows what it's like to suffer and he kept going, submitted to the spirit, trusting in God continually trusting in God. He kept going forward. That's the way he was able to do it and he has made that way available to us.
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May we do
