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Good morning, church. Good morning. Will you please stand up? I'm so excited that I have the privilege again to praise God with you. Amen?
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Amen. And I I choose a wonderful song especially because of this. Glory to his name. This is the reason that I'm here. I'm here to praise God with you.
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Amen? Amen. And I'm so thankful for our wonderful sister Amy that she's here with us playing the keyboard. Oh. We didn't have fun in the name of Jesus.
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Amen? Amen. Let's sing. Amen. Praise be God.
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Good morning, everybody. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements quickly, hopefully, quickly. Connect hour happens between services in the fellowship hall. That is a good time.
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There's plenty of food down there. Food and coffee. Awana is happening tomorrow night. That is at 06:00 every Monday night and it is going on tomorrow night. Monday nights at first B also on 06:00 tomorrow night here down the hall and Carl has a message from the book of Luke.
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Luke. Alright. Very good. Peak Children's Church is happening today. Wednesday mornings at 6AM.
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Y'all see I'm running through these. Wednesday mornings at 6AM is winning at work and at home. That's a men's fraternity gathering. It meets in this room. They watch video, eat breakfast together, and then have some small groups.
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It's a good time at 6AM. Strong coffee. I promise. Operation Christmas Child is happening. We have a video that we'll show next week, but there's a deadline in there, and it is two weeks from today.
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Now I know that that might be scary for some of you. Christmas is not far off. Operation Christmas Child, if you're into that, you can see KC McCooey or Tanya, my wife, Tanya, and she's back there waving her hand in the back. And there are boxes set up on the back table back there, and there's more information in your bulletin. But we've got two weeks basically to get to announce this.
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We'll show a video next week. If you don't know what that is, see one of those ladies back there. Tanya, wave again. That's Tanya. Thank you very much.
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A lot of y'all are excited about it and love to do that. We wanna give you the opportunity. So that is Deadline Fast Approach and bring in the shoe boxes, filled and wrapped to the church, or you can bring in specific items and we will have a present wrapping party nearer to the deadline that's coming up in two weeks. So, Kevin, you wanna stand and deliver here? You can stand next to Ryan's microphone or that's when your hand
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is perfect. I'm live. I'm mic'd.
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Thank you.
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Hey. Good morning, everybody. I'm Kevin Olson. And if you were here last week, you had a chance to learn about our Family Fellowship Faith Capital Campaign. And if you weren't here last week you missed a riveting action packed presentation and so we'll just take a quick second here Ray did you leave this?
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I did. And refresh your memory on the journey we're gonna take over the next several weeks. So we have stepped out in faith as a church leadership team, your board of trustees and elders, to equip our ministries for better service by doing a full remodel of the kitchen and our fellowship hall. And so we're, venturing to raise $250,000 in pledges and commitments over the next eight weeks now because we kicked it off on October 23 and we endeavor to wrap it up on December 23. And as I mentioned last week, we're already out of the gate running.
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We've got $50,000 that's been committed by your church leadership, the board of elders, the board of trustees and also the church savings account to help get this going. So as I mentioned, I will I've already mentioned this. We'll keep on moving in the interest of time. In terms of the timing, what we'd like to ask your consideration and your prayerful thought and also your budgeting to consider how you could come alongside us and help. If you choose to give by cash, we'd like to have the contributions in by December 31.
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If it's better for you to make a pledge, we have pledge cards in the back as you leave today and they're also next to the signs in the lobby that give you a little insight into what the kitchen remodel will look like. And we can use those pledges over a period of time between now and June. We can bill you quarterly or we can send you a monthly reminder. And then we want to begin construction in April of next year. And that is not anything to do with our presentation.
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So what I wanted to do is over the next couple of weeks, we're gonna give you a little slice of life from the ministries that this remodel will enhance. And Carl, I'm gonna ask you to give us a little insight on the worship commission of our church and also how the Monday night services use these facilities.
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Yep. That's a huge part of of who we are here and fulfilling our mission with all we are, loving God, loving people through Christ. And one of those ways is feeding people as they come in the door. And, it really it works. It works.
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And, we're feeding everywhere from 50 to 70 people every week, and it gives us a chance to just connect with one another, food for the stomach and food for the soul. And so it works and but it needs an update. We we are wearing that thing out. And so your support is is key in it, and I just thank you in advance for for helping out.
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Thank you very much, Carl. I think the next slide that was coming up is a video of the ladies retreat from Heart six just a couple weeks ago. It has music. Get into it. Enjoy it.
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It should be about three minutes long. Alright. Thank you to all of those and thank you to all of you. Would y'all stand up and greet one another? And we'll bring you back together with a peppy little song.
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I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. Amen. Let's sing that together. I feel the Holy Spirit in this room, and it's so good. He do my sins and my sins.
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He made his bail. Amen. I'm looking for today. The Honestly, I was waiting for this song because I love to hear the song, the church. You know what?
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Let's do it again. How marvelous with no instruments at all. Marvelous, how wonderful in my soul shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my savior's love for me. Amen.
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It's so good to be here. I'm excited to be here, honestly. Here I am, humbled by your majesty. So beautiful. Wonderful song.
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Amen. We're going to sing one more song. Of course, pastor has to preach.
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We're gonna sing Amazing Grace no matter what comes up on the screen.
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Amen. Amen.
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Line team to come forward. Would y'all pray with me? Lord, we thank you for for this today. This this beautiful gathering. Lord, we gather in your name.
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Come together for your purpose, for your cause, for the cause of the gospel. Thinking of John Newton in that song right there, the life's verse that caught him about was about being a slave trader. And Lord, you convicted him and changed his life through your word. We're praying, Lord, that's what you'll do here for us this morning. God, I pray that you would take these tithes and offerings that people are gonna put in these plates right now and that you would use it to advance the gospel, advance the kingdom here on Earth, Lord, that it would be more like heaven and less like Earth because of the humble obedience of your saints.
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In Jesus name, Lord, would you bless this offering to do your work here in Jackson, in the state, region, country, and to the uttermost parts of the Earth. Lord, in Jesus name, we thank you for your provision and we ask you for your blessing and your multiplication. In Jesus name, amen. So, as I was considering this morning and what to preach this morning, I wanted to do a review of the whole book of Romans. That's what I wanted to do because I feel like today's passage which is Romans thirteen eleven through 14 is the passage.
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Romans thirteen eleven through 14 and so that's the passage and it is wrapping up this section. It's wrapping up the section. It started at twelve one but I started thinking about it and going, there is so much, so much, so much to be thankful for in Romans and I started to go, we've got to gotta go back and think about this whole book. So, it wraps up this section twelve one through thirteen ten but I want you to think about this, the theme of the book is Romans one hundred sixteen and seventeen. It's where Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe, for the Jew first, also for the Greek, and it's about the righteous man living by faith.
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Now, I mentioned John Newton's life verse had something to do. It was from Deuteronomy which is an unusual place to grab your life verse, I think. About slavery and he was convicted of himself having been a slave trader and he went into full on abolitionist mode and he helped to abolish slavery in England and here after that indirectly. And I think of this verse was the one one hundred sixteen and seventeen were the verses that turned Martin Luther on to justification by faith. So, one hundred sixteen and seventeen, he's not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power unto salvation for all who believe, believe, and that the just will walk by faith.
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He also went forward to three twenty one or so and said, three twenty says, by works, no flesh shall be justified but it is by faith that you're justified in three twenty one. So, we've got all of Romans pointing towards gospel, gospel, gospel in the early section. It mentions it. It mentions the pervasive nature of sin from 118 all the way to 03/20 and it's what Douglas Moo calls the universal reign of sin but then, justification by faith in 03/21 moves us forward a little bit. There's hope of a good God and a good gospel and four, he illustrates the fact from life.
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Abraham in five, six, seven, he's talking about how we used to yield to unrighteousness but now, we can. It is possible to yield to righteousness. It's been made possible by what Christ has already done. So, you can access that. Then, we get to seven.
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It's about spirit and flesh, the the warring nature of the flesh. The spirit and the flesh. And he goes into that for about 11 or 12 verses which is kind of infuriating. What I want to do is what I end up not doing, what I don't want to do is what I end up doing. He goes back and forth but praise God who gives the victory through Jesus Christ and then he gets into that great chapter eight.
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So, I know I'm doing this in a hurry but there's a lot of gospel already. The theological underpinnings are all in chapters one through eight. Chapter nine, ten, and 11, we went through a kiosk to construction that was talking about of Israel. It's just a parenthesis about what about Israel? So, what about Israel?
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But even in the middle of that, right in the center of that, he says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is the the Lord, you will be saved because it is with the mouth that you confess. I mean, it's the with the heart that you believe and with the mouth you confess and that leads to salvation. So, that's right in the middle of even the section that's just a question answered and then we get to twelve one and at twelve one, Paul starts, I started to say Carl starts. Carl started this section one and two. He preached that sermon about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and that section starts this section.
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We're going to close today wrapping up with this. Now, I did that in two minutes. I'm going to read this section to you and then we're going to close with the sermon. It's the shortest sermon I've prepared lately. Therefore, I urge you brethren, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, that's your grounding, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
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That's the theme right there. Those two verses. Now, I'm going keep reading. For though, for through the grace given to me, Paul says, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each one of you a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually, members one of another, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly.
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If it is prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith, he should prophesy. If service in his serving or he who teaches in his teaching or he who exhorts an exhortation, he who gives with sincerity or liberality in the new American. He who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness, that is the section about how you serve the church. So, we have serving God, center of the bull's eye, serving the church, next ring out. The next ring out is outsiders.
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Verse nine says, let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice.
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Weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another and do not be hearty in your mind but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
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If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him and if he is thirsty, give him a drink.
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For in so doing, you'll heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. That's chapter 12. Chapter 13 continues right in the same vein and says, every person or every soul is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God.
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Therefore, whoever resist authority has opposed the ordinance of God. That's a tough one. And they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority?
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Then do what is good and you will have praise from the same. For authority, this governmental structures for it is a minister of God to you for your good but if you do what is evil, be afraid for it does not bear the sword for nothing for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection not only because of wrath but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God devoting themselves to this very thing, render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes do, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another.
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For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it's summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law and that's where we left off last week. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
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Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. God, would you bless this this exposition of this closing statement here for this section and would you bless it to our lives so that we apply it, apply everything that I've just read in our normal workday lives. Lord, that it becomes our burning passion to serve you, that all the underlying theology of that first half of this book would play out just as Paul wrote it in chapters twelve and thirteen in our lives. And in the lives of those living around us. Lord, would you have us be a reflection of you to our direct and indirect circles of influence in Jesus name.
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Amen. So, it's a little bow. We're going to tie a little bow on this section right here. Romans thirteen eleven through 14, just four verses and if you read commentaries, I like reading commentaries. I usually try to do my own language study first and then I read what these guys wrote but if you read em, the section titles sometimes are funny to me.
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So, I like that. John Murray says, the approaching consummation. Cranfield says, the eschatological motivation of Christian obedience. Thomas Shriner says, moral urgency in light of the eschaton. I like that one too.
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So, archaeology is a study of first things. Eschatology of study of last things. John Stott, our relationship to the day, living in the already and the not yet. So, these highlighted portions here all have to do with that great and mighty day of the Lord, the last days, the day of judgement, the day when Christ will return and other commentaries go on the same vein. Living in light due to Christ's return.
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The nearness of salvation is a motive to diligence. CK Barrett calls it the urgency of time of the time. Do y'all hear that there's a a real push to make this a part of your life to do something about it. Actually, John James Montgomery boys just said, sleepers awake. Sleepers awake.
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He only was covering that first verse 11 but I like that too. So, sleepers awake starts us off today. Romans thirteen eleven says, do this. You see the do is an in italics. That's an additional word.
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It's made to for it to make sense to us in English. Do this. Knowing the time that it's already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. It actually says literally and this. So, it has given you everything that I just gave you in my introduction.
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All of the whole book of Romans plus the application from these last two chapters and the way he closes out says, and this, do it. Really? I mean it. Knowing the time that it's already the hour for you to awaken from your slumber or your sleep. I think of Jonah.
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I'll come back to him at the end of the sermon but when you think about people in the Bible who are asleep, there are lots of different metaphors in the Bible using sleep. When someone dies, they say they are asleep in Jesus and they're just awaiting the awakening. Jonah was asleep down in the hull of the ship. I think of Jesus's Jesus being asleep in the hull of a ship. I think of Peter, James, and John and I will share this one right now.
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They came to a place near Gethsemane named Gethsemane. Now, this was the night that Christ inter instituted the Lord's supper. So, it's the first Lord's supper. That we will commemorate today. It's right after that, they came to a place named Gethsemane and he said to his disciples, sit here until I have prayed and he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be very distressed and troubled and he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.
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Remain here and keep watch. So, he asked them to stay awake, right? Remain here and keep watch and he went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass by him. And he was saying, Abba, father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me.
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Yet, not what I will but what you will. This is arguably the most anguished of Jesus's life. And he came and found them sleeping and he said to Peter, Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation.
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The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. All appalling theology is grounded in the medical tradition, right? Jesus's tradition. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and again, he went away and he prayed saying the same words. Remove this cup from me but yet not my will but thine be done and again, he came and he found them sleeping for their eyes were very heavy and they did not know what to answer him and he came the third time and he said to them, are you still sleeping and resting?
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It's enough. The hour has come. Get up and let's be going. There's a little more to that but you get the sense of there was an urgency to what was going on. It was the center point of all human history anyway.
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It was this moment just before the crucifixion, trials, crucifixion and they fell asleep. And so, when we get to Romans thirteen eleven and Paul says, do all this. Make sure that this matters to you. Pay attention to not just the theology but the application. Do all this.
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Knowing the time that it's already the hour for you to awaken from your sleep. Get up. Let's be going. For now, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. Now, now, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed is the way the NASB translates it.
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A very good other translation that it also notes in the margin is our salvation people is nearer than when we believed. Well, that maybe just too logical a statement for you but if you believe when you were 10 years old and you're now 45 years old like my case, I'm 35 closer to that great mighty day of the Lord. So, as I get closer and closer to my ultimate glorification, I want to be living more and more the life that Jesus would have me live. He says, the night is almost gone and the day is near. Now, the day from all of those section titles and pretty much everybody that reads it.
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Thinks that the day is not just any old day. It's the day. That great judgment day, the great and mighty day of the Lord as the Old Testament would put it. The day of his returning. The night is almost gone and the day is near.
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Therefore, as a motivation, he gives that time is marching on. Have you not gone on long enough in your slumber? The night is almost gone. The day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor or the weaponry of light.
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Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor or weaponry of light. Augustine. Y'all know who Augustine is? I say Augustine because at this point in the story, he's not a saint, okay? Augustine was born in North Africa.
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His dad was a guy renowned for his rhetoric and kind of a lawyer type guy and he was a pagan, not a Christian. His mother was Monica. Monica was a Christian. Monica prayed every day for her son to become a Christian and she raised him to know about Christ and know about the Bible and to understand what it was that she believed and she wanted for him to accept it all along. So, was a he's a good little boy.
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He loves his mom but as he grows up, he knows all about Christianity and he knows all about his dad. His dad is pushing him into education and rhetoric and pushing him towards being a famous speaker. Some in some cases, he was a lawyer because he had a very persuasive manner and so, Augustine's growing up and he knows Christianity and he knows his mom and he loves her but one of his most famous prayers is presently, presently, when he felt the spirit was moving to draw him into accepting Christ fully, he said, presently, presently, like, I'm almost there. I'm almost there and he said, what is it, Carl? Exactly.
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Lord, make me virtuous but not yet. Lord, make me virtuous but not yet. He was profligate with his sexuality. He was womanizer, I guess, would it be a modern kind of term for it. He was somebody that really really enjoyed sin and he said so in a book later that he wrote called Confessions.
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If you have not read it, it is way past PG 13. It is fantastic though because he spends a little time talking about how he was and he talks about the God that changed him and then he went on to write theology that really beyond the guys who wrote by dual authorship, the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Augustine probably did more for early theology than just about anybody else and it was because he was dramatically saved, dramatically saved. By these next few verses. When I mentioned John Newton's life verse and I mentioned Luther's life verses one hundred sixteen and seventeen, Augustine was actually studying the Bible.
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He had been studying the Bible with one of his friends. I can't pronounce his name. Starts with an A also and Augustine and this guy were studying the Bible together and he just was frustrated with it. He was frustrated with study. He was frustrated with trying to get through and he was probably frustrated because he's praying.
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Lord, make me virtuous but not yet. He was not fully committing to this thing we call Christianity or to Christ. And he went frustrated and he went to another side of the garden from where he had been sitting and studying and he heard, take up and read, take up and read. He said, I know not whether it was a boy or a girl. It sounded like the voice of a child and they said, take up and read, take up and read was kind of sing songing it.
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I've heard different versions of this where the child was on a swing set. I don't know. Take up and read. Take up and read. And so he went back and he opened up.
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Now I don't recommend opening up as the best way to study the Bible where you just go what do you have for me today Lord? Anyways, a good way though. In his case, the way that he was living his life, he took up and read this, let us behave properly as in the daytime. Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. Now, the first two and the the last one, those those sections, carousing and drunkenness and sexual promiscuity and sensuality probably are thought of to be sins of the night, right?
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Strife and jealousy maybe not so much but trust me, fourteen and fifteen are going to get into the strife and jealousy, okay? He's leading us into that but all of it is improper for the Christian. All of these things are improper for someone who has committed their lives to Christ. Wake up, sleeper. Haven't you been sleeping long enough?
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Let us behave properly as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy but rather in place of all of that, put on the Lord Jesus Christ as you would put on a cloak, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lusts. Make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust and it was at that moment that Augustine fully committed and said, save me now and Christ did. He always answers the prayer of faith. That to me is the difference in Augustine and Saint Augustine. So, that's the bow.
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Like I said, that's the shortest sermon I've prepared in a long time. I do have Jonah to deal with still. Think about this. People living in America today, okay? Jonah.
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The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amatai, saying, arise and go to Nineveh, the great city and cry out against it for their wickedness has come up before me. Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish which is the opposite direction. He went up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So, he went down to Joppa, found a ship that was going to Tarshish, paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. All he wanted to do was get away from God and he's a prophet of the Lord.
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The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then, the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his God. And they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship. He lain down and fallen sound asleep.
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So, the captain approached him and said, how is it that you are sleeping? Get up. Call on your God. Small G, that captain didn't know God. Perhaps, your God will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.
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He's looking to save his skin but he definitely didn't want anybody on that boat sleep sleeping. They had done everything that they can do. Each man said to his mate, come, let us cast lots so we may learn on whose account this calamity has struck us. So, they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah and they said to him, tell us now on whose account has this calamity struck us. What is your occupation?
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And where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you? They had lots of questions for him. Might think, well, they're mighty superstitious.
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They were right in this case. Jonah agrees with him right here. He said to them, I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord God of heaven who made the sea and the dry land and then the man became extremely frightened and they said to him, how could you do this? For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. He was trying to get away from what God had for him to do because he had already told them.
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So, they said to him, what should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us? For the sea was becoming increasingly stormy and he said to them, pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you for I know that on account of me, this great storm has come upon you. However, the men rode desperately to return to land but they could not. They didn't want to do that.
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He was saying, it's me. In humility, I think, saying, it's me. I should've known better. They didn't wanna throw him over, but the sea was becoming even stormier against them and then they called on the Lord. Now, this is a capital L.
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These pagans, because of Jonah's witness, simple witness, in his disobedience. They called on the Lord, capital L, and said, we earnestly pray, oh Lord, do not let us perish on account of this man's life and do not put innocent blood on us. For you, oh Lord, you have done as you have pleased. So, they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging. Then, the men feared the Lord greatly.
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Those men feared the Lord greatly and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. Okay. Americans, I don't usually make the application for us but if you have been sleeping, if you are not awake in your duty that God has had for you and you are sleeping in the hull of the boat right now, the storm is raging around us. Take the fault that you can for it. Do you know what I'm saying?
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Take the fault that you can. Lord, forgive me for my slumber but wake me up. Now, not presently, presently. Wake me up right now, lord. I'm ready to do as you show me.
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We're working towards. Remember this chart? We're working towards this ultimately saved the the great and mighty day of the Lord right here. God chose from the beginning how he would do this. He has laid Christ work out there.
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Perfect life, perfect, sacrificial death, burial, resurrection, session. He's seated at the right hand of the father. Praying for us. The gospel witness has gone forth. From the place that you believe, God saves.
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He says that. It is by belief. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of unto salvation for all who believe but this unto salvation is working its way in here. When you go to sleep, you go downhill. Wake up.
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Wake up and do what it is that he has for you as we move closer and closer to that great and mighty day of the Lord because the gospel is still true. It is still the power of salvation. For everyone who believes. So, amen. Would I, can I get the elders to come forward and we're going to go into a time of communion?
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So, I think of those disciples asleep at the watch and today, considering that. After we leave here today, after we've taken communion together, after we have considered that it is the blood of Christ that brings us together, that saves us, and makes us one family, one body, one baptism, one spirit that brings us together. It will be the temptation just like for Peter, James, and John to just go to sleep instead of being watchful and praying. So, I'm praying today. God, make me watchful.
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Wake me from my slumber. So, lord, would you please bless as we distribute this bread? Lord, would you bless each one that partakes? If there's somebody here who lord has never accepted you, never put their trust in you, I pray that they like those sailors on that boat would see a humble Christian response that admits I have been asleep. I have been acting just like the world.
57:22
I have been doing whatever I wanted to do. Going whatever way I wanted to go. Lord, in our awakening, would you awaken those around us to the truth of your good gospel? Lord, we thank you for your perfect, sacrificial life well lived in Jesus name. Amen.
57:44
Lord Jesus, we thank you for the life that you live, the inspirational life that you live, every action every word, every thought. We thank you for that. Lord, it is inspiring but without your blood sacrificially given for each of us, lord, it would be just inspiring. Lord, I thank you that it is salvific. It is the gospel.
58:09
Salvation for everyone who believes, Lord, in that shed blood that was shed on our behalf. So in Jesus name, Lord, would you bless this reminder, this cup as we distribute it in Jesus name. Amen. And then same way that he took the bread, he took the cup after supper and he told his disciples, his followers that this was the new covenant in his blood. Praise God for that new covenant and he told them to take and to drink and to do it each time that they would in remembrance of him.
58:55
Lord Jesus, we thank you for your blood. I thank you for the blood of the covenant and God, I thank you that that is what binds us together. In Jesus name, would you wake us from our sleep? Amen. Now, would you stand with me and I think we're just going to close with the doxology.
59:11
How about that? Okay. Praise God from whom all blessings flow praise him all creatures here below Amen. Amen.
