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Speaker 3We're set. Alright. Good morning, everybody. How are you? It's good to see you all.
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You would you like to stand with me and we'll we'll sing together? We'll sing in Psalm. James four, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Let's draw near to the Lord.
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Speaker 2Alright, God. I'm running. Yeah. I'm running for you hard. I'm running for you hard.
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Till I am so long Let me burn for you again. Let for you again. Me return to you again. Running for your heart till I am so on fire. Lord, I'm longing for your ways, waiting for the day when I'm so on fire.
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Deal, I am so on fire. Deal, I am so Deal, I am so on on fire.
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Speaker 1This thing on? Good to good to see you. Is this thing on? Can you hear me? Okay.
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Good. Got a few announcements this morning. Monday night's at first b. What's it gonna Carl?
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Speaker 3We are on tomorrow, meal music message. We have Felix and Guadalupe are are cooking a meal, and then we are in Colossians three, which
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Speaker 1Celebrating Cinco de Mayo and Cinco de Mayo? Yes. Very good. Felix and Guadalupe are cooking.
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Speaker 3Very We can celebrate any occasion of cooking. Absolutely. And Colossians three, the putting off, the putting on old life versus the new in Christ.
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Speaker 1Cool. Thank you very much. What's next? Awana is also happening same time right here and it's bigger than just plain old regular everyday wonderful Awana. Yeah.
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So the Grand Prix, if you do not know what that is, we have often done that on Sunday mornings after the service, but it's gonna be on Monday night, 05:30 start, and then 06:30 it'll be building up to the big race. So very, very good. Looking forward to that. Awana tomorrow night. Precept study still going on on Thursdays, nine to 11:30 in the Fellowship Hall.
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My Sister's Closet is coming up. You'll hear more about that from somebody who knows and can explain it better than I next week. But My Sister's Closet happened in May 18, dollars 10 donation at the door, and then you get in and you swap clothes with people. Okay? Y'all get y'all know that?
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I try to explain this every week, and every week I get a little bit closer. Somebody said, you're not even close. So it's gonna be fun. Plan on being here. Nursing mother's room is downstairs if you need it.
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There's a video feed of the service that's going on. And anytime, there's also a video feed going down that's able to go on down in the hall. They're having a Sunday school class in there right now, we're not doing it right now, but it's available. If you speaking of availability, if you miss a message, you can get back to them. If you hear the message today and you think, man, wish I'd heard what led up to that for crying out loud, you can go back and listen to last week's message and it's on there's a podcast.
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So it's on Facebook, First B Jackson Facebook, and it's also on our website if you wanna go in there. Usually the website lags a week or so behind, but if you wanted to go back for archival purposes, you can do that. Connect hours happen in the day between services down the hall and the fellowship hall. That's a good time. Usually there's I know there's coffee down there or right there, but there's always something good down the hall.
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And welcome. I'm a little nervous this morning. Can y'all tell? Sorry. Let's wait for just a second before we stand up and greet one another.
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Would y'all pray with me? God, we got a lot of people that are hurting, and I think of people who are physically hurting, but I think of people who are spiritually and emotionally hurting. And Lord, I pray that we would help to share their burden. I pray that we would be safe people, a place where people can come and know you, that they might see the body of Christ at work. Lord, that we might be instrumental in helping to transform people's lives, transforming their lives by introducing them to you and to introducing them to Jesus.
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I pray, Lord, that we would be actively about your kingdom's business every day in our businesses, in the normal work of day life. And I pray, Lord, that you would calm our hearts, that you would steady our hand, that you would steady us on the absolute authority of your word, that we would be loving and caring and kind and compassionate, Lord, to everyone who leans, that we would lean towards everyone with that. Lord, I pray we would never, never controvert your word or change it into something that it isn't. So God, today, would you steady our hearts, steady our minds, as we greet one another right now, lord. May we sense a bond in the body of Christ.
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In Jesus name, amen. Y'all can stand and greet one another if you would. We'll bring you back together with a song. Is your is your friend here?
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Speaker 3Did you pass me?
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Speaker 2Glorious, beautiful you are, beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore, beautiful one my soul must see. Powerful, so powerful the glory fills the sky. Your mighty works displayed for all to see. Amen. The beauty of majesty awaits my soul to sing.
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I'm marvelous, how wonderful you are. Beautiful, one I adore. Beautiful one my soul must sing. Sing that again. Beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore, beautiful one my soul must see.
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Open my eyes to your wonders anew. You captured my heart with this love. There's nothing on earth as is beautiful as you. Sing that again. Open my heart to your wonders anew.
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Capturing my heart with this love. Because nothing on earth as is beautiful as you. Beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore, beautiful beautiful one my soul must see. Beautiful one I love, beautiful one I adore, beautiful one my soul must see.
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Speaker 3From Psalm 36, it says, how precious is your unfailing love, oh God. All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. Lord, we look for that shelter in the shadow of your wings. We lift our voices to you because you are worthy. Truly, you are worthy of praise, and so we bring ourselves before you.
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More more than that, we bring the our very center, our heart to you, lord. That's that's what you're looking for, not not just acts of service, but but our hearts. We bring ourselves before you this morning. Jesus name. Amen.
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Speaker 2And you are the one that we raise. You are the one we adore. And you give the healing and grace. Our
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Speaker 3Let's pray on that. Oh, just thinking as we sing that song, Lord, you made us to be worshipers. You have. But it's a question of what do we run to? What do we worship?
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And, but you have created us to to worship you, to long for you. And, Lord, forgive us when our, when our passions and desires just get off track. And, would you, God, steer us, toward you that we might love and serve you more and others more. That's that's the whole goal, to love you and to love others. But I pray that that would be what we're aiming for.
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And and again, when we're when we're off track, would you steer us steer us towards you again. Jesus name. Amen.
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Speaker 2How great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountains I could not find. In desperation, I turned to Ana and spoke your name into your mind. And then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross is spoken.
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I am forgiven. The king of kings calls me beautiful savior I'm yours forever Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah.
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Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living. Oh, let's sing that again.
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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord and set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain.
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That sealed the frogs. Your buried body began to grieve. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no pain on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Raise the world and set me free.
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Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name,
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Speaker 1the front line team to come forward. Would y'all pray with me? God, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the time lord to praise and worship you all together. Lord, when we wake up in the morning and we feel the breath filling our lungs, we can breathe it out and say, praise God for another day and we can, lord, tell you flat out.
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We long to do your will and we can go forward but when we get together, lord, there's something special about it. When we get together and we're together with the rest of the body of Christ, we praise you corporately this morning and we ask you lord to use all that we will give for your kingdom's purpose. That's what we do here this morning. I pray that that's the case right now for the resources, the money that's put into these plates. Lord, that it would not be distorted or or sent anyway except for exactly what you would have done.
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I pray, Lord, that it would advance your gospel, that it would advance your good work in this community and in this world. I pray, Lord, that we would always be faithful to do your will. Part of that is right here this morning. Surrendering what you've given to us so that you may help others. In Jesus name, lord, would you bless this offering?
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Would you multiply blessing the gift and the giver. In Jesus name, amen.
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Speaker 2Of your whole world. And take your truth, plant it deep in us, shape and brush in us and the deeds of faith. Speak, oh Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes for your glory. Speak, oh Lord, and renew our minds. Help us grasp the heights of your plans for us.
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Truths unchanged from the dawn of time that we'll let go down to your tyranny. And by grace, we'll stand on your promises. And by faith we'll walk as you walk with us. Speak oh Lord till your church is built and the earth is filled with your glory.
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Speaker 1Alright, there they go. Children's Church is downstairs and we are going to go forward. We're just going forward in scripture. So, we're up to second Peter one twenty. Last week, I introduced the verse and I said, this is one interpretation.
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I gave the NIV's translation of the verse and I said, this is true and I'm sure that it's true. I don't have any doubt about that but I don't think it was Peter's intent. Usually, I don't tell you something. I don't think it's their intent. I don't think I usually do that.
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I try to get at the intent of it. So, I introduced it but let me go back and remind you of chapter one and I want to do this today in particular because first Peter is a very short book. Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter one is the carrot. This is good stuff. Chapter two is the stick.
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This is scary stuff. Chapter three reaffirms both. Are you with You don't want to be though. I can tell. Alright.
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Here we go. Chapter one, we'll look at it. He introduces himself and his readers and then he gets to this. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness, and the goodness, knowledge, and knowledge, self control. This is important, okay?
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Add to your faith, goodness, and knowledge and self control and perseverance because it's all going to be necessary to walk this walk of faith, okay? It's going to be necessary to have goodness and knowledge and self control and perseverance and godliness. Thinking the way God thinks about things rather than the way the world thinks about things is godliness, okay? Proper worship, proper understanding understanding as God sees things mutual affections brotherly love, and then to mutual affection at Agape. This is a frame.
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This is really nice to see on the front side. This is what he says. This is the focal part of the first chapter and he tells you why. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of the Lord. Is it possible to be saved and not be effective and not be productive?
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I think it is. If you are studying along with me and you've read in the chapter two this time and you've dug into any commentaries, there are people who fall on both sides as always of this debate about the sovereignty of God and the free will of man and some people really have to go to some pretty hard Olympics to figure out how to make this make sense within their systematic theology. I believe that Peter gives us both promises from God and points back to other promises from God and he also gives us very real warnings and so we get promises in chapter one and warnings in chapter two and then both in chapter three. Are you with me? Okay.
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If you possess these qualities, goodness and self control and all of those from this last verse, goodness and knowledge and self control and perseverance and godliness and mutual affection and love. If you possess these qualities and increase in measure, they'll keep you from being ineffect and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my goodness. Our Lord Jesus Christ. We often say, Jesus loves you and we think of Jesus just Jesus.
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Yeah, Jesus, man. That's great but if you think our Lord Jesus Christ, the anointed and only one. That's good and that's who are looking to Whoever does not have these things added to their faith though is near sighted and they're blind and they are forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. They're not able to go forward productively and effectively because they've gone back to them. Are you with me?
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This is what chapter one is leaning towards. Chapter two gets into. So, I will always, Peter says, remind you these things even though you know them. I know that you know them already. I'm not trying to be condescending.
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I know that you know em but I'm going to keep on reminding you because we're leaky. People, we forget sometimes or we walk away from things that we know. So, I'll always remind you of these things even though you know them and you're firmly establishing the truth that you now have I think it's right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body because I know that I will soon put it aside. I'm not going to die soon. That's what he's saying.
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As our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me and I will make every effort to see that after my departure, you will always be able to remember these things and I think it's great. We're still remembering these things. He wrote them down. We can see em. We can remember em And he tells us why.
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We did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and power but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Peter says, I had an experience. I had a lot of experiences but this one in particular showed the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That coming right there is about his second coming. It's not his first coming.
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It's his second coming. Are you with me? He's pointing towards a future day of the Lord. For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and power but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying, this is my son whom I love.
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With him, I'm well pleased and we ourselves, Peter, James, John, heard this voice that came from heaven when you're with him on that sacred mountain. We know that as a transfiguration. I did describe it last week. And then we got to this. We also though besides just having our own personal experience, we also though have the prophetic message as something that is completely reliable.
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Peter is pointing to the authority of scripture. He's pointing back to the authority of that which has been written. In addition to your personal experience, the bedrock foundation of our faith is the authority of scripture. We have this prophetic message as something that is completely reliable and you will do well to pay attention to it as to light shining in a dark place. I want to mention right here.
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Light shining in a dark place. If you have a lamp and you're shining that, it's external. The scriptures are external. We can internalize them to some point but most of our society feels like you just have to listen to that light within. Are you with me?
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This is going to come important in the second chapter. You just have to be sincere. You just have to believe what it is that you believe. Sincerely. Believe your own light.
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It's a light shining in the darkness and we all start out in darkness. So, we have this prophetic message. It's completely reliable. You'll do well to pay attention to it, folks. As to a light shining in a dark place because we live in a dark place but we do have a light.
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The light that God is shining in scripture and we have that until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart. Above all, and this is the verse in question, the one I said I introduced last week with one interpretation. I'm going to add two more to it this morning. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. And he clarifies that by saying, for prophecy never had its origin in the human will.
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It wasn't like the prophets decided, looking at history all around me, I will decide what I should write about something that's going to come to pass seven hundred years from now or a thousand forty four years from now. They're moved, it says, prophets, though human, they spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. It's the same Holy Spirit that's still at work in us today. Are you with me? Are you with me?
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Okay. Prophecy never had its origin in the human will. It's important that no prophecy of scripture because you hear people prophesying stuff all the time that is quite obviously from their will. Do you hear it? Okay.
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So, that was one interpretation and that is that it did not originate in the heart of the prophet. It was something that God inspired plenary verbal, inspiration in its fullness to be transmitted and I like Amos when it comes to this. Amos said to the king or he's delivering a message to the king and the king says, the king's servant says, but the king's not going to like that message. He goes listen, dude. It's a paraphrase.
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He says, listen I was neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet I didn't have any stake in this whatsoever. Don't make my living this way. I was tending my sycamore figs and mining my goats but the word of the Lord came to me and this is what he said and he said, deliver that message to the king. You're the king's guy. I'm delivering it to you but the king's not going to like that message.
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That doesn't matter. Are you are you with me? God has got a word. He's going to send the word. He's going to use the messenger.
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Okay. So, that was last week. ES version of that same thing, the same passage is knowing this first of all or of utmost first importance is this, that no prophecy of scripture really comes from someone own interpretation Does that different than the prophet's interpretation? It is. So, it doesn't come from someone's own interpretation.
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For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The word for whether it's the prophet's own or someone's own or his own is this, it's ideos, ideos, properly. It is uniquely one's own, peculiar to that particular individual. Idios is stronger than the simple possessive pronoun own. It's an emphatic adjective that means private or personal specific to that person.
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Does anybody know what an idiosyncrasy is? An idiosyncrasy comes from this. It's some quirky little quirk that someone has that's just their own. The way they do a certain thing. We also get our word idiot from this word.
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Okay? An idiotic, it comes from this word. It is something that's so quirky that it's someone's particular thing. So, this knowing this first of all. So, we've got, it's either the prophet didn't make it up on his own like a novelist might, cleverly devised story, Peter's already mentioned, or so far I've presented that one individual might take it and go, I kinda like that and I'm gonna say that this means that for me because I'm an idiot.
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I'm I'm sorry because I because I feel like that's what it means, okay? That's the two options that I've given so far. There's one other one I I reject but I wanna present it because it's a common one that comes up. It is that no one person, it's not your own person that is able to do it but the church determines what is or what is not and that one has been used by churches over the years. Lots of different ones.
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It's been used by churches over the years. So, we are the ones who are holy. We decide what the prophecy means. And we collectively, in a sense, we've got the best chance when we're together and the body of Christ together is better than each individual apart. I get that but when it becomes about the authority of man to control other people.
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That's a problem, okay? So, it's either the prophet's own or it's our individual own hideous, ideals. We know that both of those are true. I just want you to concentrate on. If I'm reading it, the point that Peter is making is it has a purpose that was designed by God.
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It was transmitted through the prophet and is to get to us. If I hadn't completely worked out this analogy. I hope it stands the the test of me getting through it this morning. If you're behind enemy lines and you're stuck, you're a leader of people and you've got your little band of people with you and you get a message and it's an encoded message. It's an encoded message from your commanding officer and you're stuck and you don't have a way out.
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And then you get this encoded message, and you take it, and it's encoded. Now you have training. All of you use the same codes and you know it. It's real and it's a message and you trust that it's from the one that is protecting you, your commanding officer, the one who should know your best way out, right? And he transmits that in this code and then you get it.
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Do you immediately make all copies for everybody and say, what do y'all think? And then flip a coin about what it means or do you you trust your training and you go, okay, this means this, this mean this. He is saying that if we go this way, we will successfully navigate our escape. Are you with me? So, we've been given this message.
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It was by our commander It was through his agent that it got to us. It got to us in Hebrew and Greek and maybe a little Aramaic and we speak English. Don't speak Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic, most of us and then, what we are tasked with doing is figuring out how to get that Hebrew or that Greek into a language we can all understand and then, follow that so that we get out of the dangerous situation we're in. Are you with me? Okay, it did stand up good.
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So, it's not just up to you to decide, okay Well, I know that in training, we said this would do but I don't think that's that looks kind of scary to go that way. That looks hard. I think I'd rather go the easy way. Let's just go the easy way. You're going to get killed.
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You're going to get pummeled. You're going to get dragged down. Are you with me? Okay. Alright.
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Idiots. No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man. No prophecy of scripture. It says the verse above it. No prophecy is ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit and then chapter two starts and says, but there were at that time also false prophets.
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There were guys who saw, hey, they're believing those guys who are prophesying. Maybe I could get in on this game. If the king doesn't want to hear his message, maybe he'll want to hear mine. I've got a pretty good message for the king. Yeah, everything good.
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You're going to do great. Give me a little kickback on that message, right? I'm delivering a message from God. Can you help me out here? There were false prophets among the people just as Peter says, there will be and he means this forever.
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It was at that time and it will be forever. Unfortunately, this is the case. Just as there will be false teachers among you and this is what sets Peter off. This is where the stick comes out right here. He says, there are false teachers among you and there are going to be and he has some really harsh words for those false teachers.
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James says, let not many of you be teachers because you will incur a harsher judgment. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies. These false teachers will secretly, they don't do it in the light. They don't do it openly. They're kind of sneaky about it and that's the way the enemy and evil one works.
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They will introduce destructive heresies. This one is one of em. It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere. That's I mean, that's American as it can be. Don't get me wrong.
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Freedom of religion says, it doesn't matter what you believe. We will protect your right to believe whatever you want to and that's fine. That's American but that's not Christian. It does actually matter what you believe. It does matter.
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Add to your faith, goodness, and all this stuff but you can't just do that stuff. Willy nilly, the faith is one of those things that there's a content of the gospel, the knowledge of God, and his plan is important and you need to know it and you need to trust in it and then he will add those other things. It does matter what you believe. Destructive heresy is it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere. And then if I really had to name our society our society's favorite heresy, it would be this, the pluralist's heresy.
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It doesn't matter what you believe so long as you believe it doesn't really matter. Are you with me? Because if you really believe the gospel, there is a heaven and there is a hell and wide is the way that leads to destruction and narrow is the way. There's but one way to get to heaven. No matter what society is telling us, it's our duty to carry that in mind and to know that Christ is the answer.
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Christ is the way and if you really believe that, it will begin a fervor in your heart and it will change the way that you live and it'll get really uncomfortable for people who are not all in. Are you with They will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the sovereign lord who bought them bringing swift destruction on themselves. There are folks who have accepted Christ and they begin their walk and they begin going and they're all different external pressures, world flesh, devil that are working on them to get off the path. They're not even aware of the destructive here that they're taking in in a lot of cases and then they start to spew them and when they get to be popular, it's really hard to stop then. The rest of this chapter, I'm not going to go all the way through it all today but the rest of this chapter gets into exactly what they act like and really it comes down to power or sex or money which was first century, twenty first century still the same.
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They secretly introduced destructive heresies even denying the sovereign lord who bought them. Bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of the truth into disrepute. Have you seen that happen in in my life? I can think of a lot of scandals.
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A whole lot of big scandals with guys who started out and were preaching God's word and it was pretty pure and then at some point, it it was no longer about the purity of God's word or about helping and loving their neighbors as themselves but it became about something else. Usually, power, money, or sex. Many will follow after their depraved conduct because we have these desires already in our life for influence and money and or hardwired for sex and desire Many will follow after their depraved conduct because it's the easier way as the world sees it, right? He goes on to say, whatever it is that's mastered you, you're enslaved to that. So, it could be anything.
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I'm not going to get specific in it today. I was only planning on going to verse three but I think I'm going to 10. In their greed, these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. It ticks Peter off because these teachers are among them. Does that make sense?
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This is God's little flock. The ones that Jesus said, do you love me? He said, yes. He said, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.
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Tend my little sheep, lambs, right? Tend my lambs. And he sees that among them are people who are taking the gospel and using it for selfish gain and they're pushing people down. The whole prosperity gospel, I always say it's hogwash. If I were to stand up here and say, listen, God wants you all to be healthy.
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He wants you all to be wealthy and he wants you all to be wise and the best and wisest step that you can take right now is to give me just a little bit of that money that you've got. If all of you just gave $7,
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Speaker 2oh God would bless you indeed.
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Speaker 1That's wrong and it is a destructive heresy. I do not know whether the path for you is riches and generosity or whether it's poverty and great witness. I don't know. In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories and their condemnation, their condemnation has long been hanging over them and their destruction has not been sleeping. That is a stick, people.
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That's a hard word especially for somebody who is a teacher or a preacher. And then he goes into a paragraph describing the judgment of God. For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned and there were some angels that sent, okay? They were. Lucifer, Satan and those who followed after him in their pride.
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If God did not spare those angels when they sinned but sent them to hell and put them in chains of darkness to be held for judgement. If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people but he did protect Noah but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness and seven others and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. If, if, if these things are true, he said several times. Now, if it is that God has done these things to the ungodly and if he rescued Lot, it's not just ungodly. He does rescue.
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He, if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless. For that righteous man living among them day after day, he was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. I don't want you to raise your hands but how many of y'all are tormented by the deeds that you see and hear? That Lot was living amongst them but he wasn't like them It bothered him Actually, if you read all about Lot in the scriptures, it I wonder how he called him righteous but he did look to God. He did trust in God.
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We know that. He's called righteous here. He's called righteous in Hebrews. Because he looked to God and the things that he saw disturbed him, tormented him. If this is so, if it is so that God brought judgement on those who deserved it and he mercifully, mercifully, mercifully saved those who look to him for their salvation like Noah and Lot, their families.
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If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials The word trials there is ephesus. It can mean either trial or temptation and that's very important God knows how to rescue you from your trials if you're going through a trial but God knows how to rescue you from your temptations too Submit your will to his will and you will not be enslaved by the things that tempt you. Are you are you with me? So, if this is so, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement. There is judgement coming and then 10 says, this is especially true of those who follow after the corrupt desire of the flesh and they despise authority.
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Primarily, right here, we're talking about the authority of scripture in our lives. The prophets and apostles, Peter will say later on in this chapter. The foundation of the prophets and the word of Jesus through his apostles. Are you with me? This is a terrible place to stop but I promise you, I can go for another chapter and a half to get to the end of the message, the end of the book.
50:11
It's going to be the same thing. God can and does rescue. He rescues us from the sins that we've committed in the past and he transforms and deliver us from the things that enslave us. He can and he will do that. But if we choose to go against him and thwart his word or worse yet, use his word to justify ourselves and our desires and we say, it's okay.
50:41
It doesn't really matter how you live. This is an early form of gnosticism that says, oh the spirit is where everything's at. The spirit is everything's at. As long as you have trusted in Christ in your spirit, your body, you can do whatever you want to. That is a destructive, destructive heresy and it'll tear you apart from the outside in.
51:00
This is especially true to those who follow the corrupt desire. Is that it? Is there anything I can click through and get to something? Hey, happy, happy. This is where it's going to set.
51:09
This is where it's going to set. I'm going try to skip Mother's Day and do a really happy, happy Mother's Day message. But trust me, this is where we are. This is where we are in our society and it is just as important today. There are some destructive heresies among us.
51:24
There are some of y'all who are absolutely all in and I know it and you know it and you're just looking for God show me the way and I'll walk in it and then there are others of you who think, well, these people are nice and they don't really challenge me and I feel better around this than I do the rest of the stuff around me but I don't know how they it worries me when people believe too much. Do you know what I'm saying? Doesn't matter what you believe as long as you don't really believe it. As long as you believe it doesn't matter. It matters.
51:55
Christianity, Christ matters. So, I'm available this week to come talk to him. Y'all can walk the aisle right now if you want to. It hadn't happened yet. I've been here seven years.
52:06
I had never seen anybody walk this aisle. But please, the the altar is always open. We created some extra space up front this morning. If y'all wanna come forward and just say, God, show me what it is that you want me to do and I'll do it, you can do that. If you wanna say, God, forgive me for whatever it is that I have done and I'm walking away from, you can do that.
52:25
You can just come down and pray for someone else if you want to. Altar's always open, and I'm always available if you'll contact me or contact Carl. We'd love to talk to you about it. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you apply this message to our lives today? May we never teach your word falsely and may we ever never go for false teaching.
52:48
In Jesus name, we ask that.
52:51
Speaker 3We'll sing one more song together from verse three. Sweetly echo the gospel call, wonderful words of life. Offer pardon and peace to all wonderful words of life.
54:32
Speaker 2Beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words alive. Sweetly echo,
55:34
Speaker 1So I talked about, at the beginning prayer, I talked about people who are hurting physically. And I think that's what was going on with Paul when he said, God, would you please remove this thorn in my flesh? It's killing me and I can't stand it any longer. I'm just hurting, and it's awful. A lot of people think that was physical.
55:50
I think it was physical, but it could have been spiritual. It could have been something that Paul was just struggling with over and over and over. I don't know. I think it was physical. But God's answer is right here.
55:59
He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness. Therefore, Paul says, and I am saying and I pray that you'll be saying, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. In Jesus' name, Lord, I pray that your power would rest on us, that you'd set us free, that you'd break the power of canceled sin and set the captives free, Lord, and we would be able to express to others what happened and point them towards you and your mercy and grace. In Jesus' name, would you live it out among us this morning? Amen.
