Embracing a Life of Faith and Obedience

Transcript

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You have been declared not guilty.

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All those who place their faith in Jesus.

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You're forever declared justified and not guilty.

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God calls you his son, his child.

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You are heirs of God.

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He's actually made you equal with himself.

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He's caused you to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

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How did all this happen?

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You were bought.

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You needed perfect holy blood, and that's the high price.

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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

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Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us.

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If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.

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That's CityLightNYCcom.

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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds.

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As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by his grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you.

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Sometimes you have to remind yourself that you're saved, in case you forgot, and how wonderful it is that the Lord brought you to him, that he softened your heart and opened your eyes.

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The Bible says that there's none that seek after God.

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That means we didn't seek him out of some innate holy curiosity that we had deep within ourselves.

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There's none that seeks after God.

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We're all, by nature, turning our backs on him and rebelling against him.

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But he came to you, he thought of you and he's the one who softened your heart, softened your heart, opened your eyes to his word, opened your eyes that you would understand that you have a need for a Savior, that you're in need of saving.

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He's the one who opened your mind to understand that salvation comes through the blood of Jesus, faith and his substitutionary death for you.

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Isn't that good news.

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When you remind yourself of these things, you realize just how special you are.

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I think about that.

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Jesus had some just really frightening things like straight and narrow is the way that leads to life everlasting.

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It's a narrow little street and broad is the highway.

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Broad is the way it's a broad way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go down that broad way.

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But he puts you on the straight and narrow and for that I'm eternally grateful.

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Amen, are you ready for the word this morning?

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It's not Christmas, but let's begin in Luke, chapter one, versus 26 through 38.

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I say it's not Christmas just because when I was preparing this message I felt like I had read this verse just a few months ago and probably I have, at least to myself, maybe right here from this pulpit.

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Usually we take it out during the Christmas season.

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It's when the angel visits Mary.

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Now, if you would just that that hand, that's, thank you.

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Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

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The virgin's name was Mary and, having come in, the angel said to her rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.

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Blessed are you among women?

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And just note that that's the longest and most detailed description of Mary that we have in the Bible, that she was highly favored and blessed among women.

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Just saying.

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A lot more was added later.

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But she's highly favored because she was chosen to be the vessel through whom God and the flesh would come through, and that qualifies her.

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To be blessed among women Doesn't say anything about worshiping her or AKA venerating her or praying to her, but she's most blessed among women because Messiah came through her and when she saw this angel, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

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Then the angel said to her do not be afraid, mary, for you have found favor with God.

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And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.

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He will be great and will be called the son of the highest and the Lord.

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God will give him the throne of his father, david, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.

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How many of you can agree?

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This is a lot right now For teenage Mary.

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She was a great man.

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She was a great man for teenage Mary.

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She's having an angelic visitation, not like from a Hallmark card.

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This is Gabriel, so we imagine he had some stature to him, the glory of the Lord radiating off of him.

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She wasn't expecting this.

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She just thought it was another night as usual, and she gets this news that she's the one chosen.

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She's the one chosen to be the one chosen.

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She's the one chosen to be the one chosen To supernaturally give birth to the Savior of man.

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My verse is a bouncing here.

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Did I read the one before that?

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Okay, verse 34, then Thank you.

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Then Mary said to the angel how can this be, since I do not know a man?

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How can this happen, since I haven't been physically intimate with anyone?

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And the angel answered and said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you.

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Therefore, also the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

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Now, indeed, elizabeth, your relative has also conceived the Son in her old age, and this is now the sixth month for her, who was called barren.

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For with God, nothing will be impossible.

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I love that verse.

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That's not a part of my message, that's a whole, separate message.

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But for God, with nothing will be impossible.

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When you really look at that verse the Hebrews excuse me their word for thing was word Because they believed words would become things.

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Word, word, word.

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I said their word for thing was word Because they believed that life and death are in the power of the tongue and that your words become things.

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So you can paraphrase that verse to say for with God, no thing, no spoken word of God will be impossible for him to perform.

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That means if you have a promise from God, you can take it to the bank.

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I've often said I can go through any challenge, any obstacle.

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I can do anything as long as I have God's word on the subject, as long as I can see it in the scripture, and he's reiterated to me in my spirit and he's commanded me to do something.

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In the very word of God is the power to fulfill the obligation that comes along with that word.

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Amen, for with God, no spoken thing, nothing, he tells you, will be impossible for him to perform.

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Verse 38,.

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Then Mary said behold the maid servant of the Lord.

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And here's a frightened teenage Mary who just got the text of all texts.

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What a bombshell of a news event.

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And here's what she says.

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Let it be to me according to your word, god's will be done.

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His word is his will, and this must have pleased the angel so much that he had nothing else to say, but it was on that note that he departed.

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The same angel, gabriel, visited her cousin, elizabeth, who gave birth to John the Baptist.

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He actually visited Zachariah, her husband, and he's just started mouthing off and kind of arguing with the angel and was filled with so much doubt and unbelief that the angel actually struck him to be mute.

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Like you're just spewing so much gibberish and you're going to mess this whole thing up, I got to cause you supernaturally to be quiet, but Mary had the right response.

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Be it unto me, according to your word.

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And so I have a question to ask you Whatever happened to the will of God?

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Here you have a submitted Mary, a Mary who prizes the will of God, and this is when I think of Mary.

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This is the statement I most closely associate with her life.

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Let it be to me, according to your word.

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When I was waiting on the Lord asking him for word for you this Sunday, I actually had the thought if I could, if this was my last Sunday, if I could leave the church with just one last sermon, what would it be, and it's this to bend the knee to Jesus, to surrender to his will, to fully receive the Lordship of Christ in your life.

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Not 50%, not 80%, but 100%, because if he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all.

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And he's asking us for everything.

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It's a fair request, since the Bible says that we've been purchased with a very high price, with the precious blood of Jesus, and he's given us his all and just the time, the time for games.

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It was never a good time for games with the Lord, but now more than ever.

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I'm sorry, I just got PTSD.

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Covid flashback.

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You know how, when COVID started, everything was now more than ever, right now more than ever.

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I understand, I get it, but really now more than ever.

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Let me just go to Philippians, 3.17 through 19,.

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Because it shows Paul warns of a people that are the exact opposite of this.

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Brethren, join in, following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

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Paul says note those, note those who walk in the faith, and it's good to always have people in the body of Christ that you look up to.

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He doesn't just have to be in leadership.

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There's always a time when I have a group of people that I'm just like.

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I love how that person walks in love and how kind they are.

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I want to note them.

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I want to emulate them.

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I like how that person prays.

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They have obviously very passionate, fiery prayer life.

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I note them.

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That person seems to always be walking in faith.

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They're taking risks.

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Their faith is an active faith, it's not a dormant faith.

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I note them.

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He says you have us for a pattern Verse 18, for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

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And then he describes what an enemy of the cross of Christ is, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly.

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This doesn't mean that they're gluttonous and they eat a lot.

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This means that they have traded the authority of God's word, traded submitting to the Lordship of Christ to whatever their own personal appetites are.

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And the warning here is dire.

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And once again, I know this is eternal scripture.

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This was written 2,000 years ago.

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It was true back then, but I dare say that it's even truittier today, more than ever.

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Now more than ever, in a time where people are telling you that 2 plus 2 equals 5.

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Now, when a culture is being so corrupted and that which is evil is being passed by as that which is good, and that which is good is being passed for that which is evil, it is a time to submit to the Lord, to really, truly surrender to his Lordship and say Lord, I just want you, I just want your will, I'll do whatever you want me to do, knowing that whatever he asks you to do, there will be a grace on you to do what he's asking you to do.

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Amen.

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He's not unfair that way where he'll require something of you and then hold back the power to fulfill the need and the obligation.

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Amen.

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He says that God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame who set their mind on earthly things.

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May our church be a church that's fully surrendered to Jesus.

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Hallelujah.

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May the Holy Spirit come now and do a deep work in our hearts and make any adjustments that are necessary, and may you be soft-hearted so that you can say yes to Jesus.

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Hallelujah.

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Mary learned such a powerful lesson when that angel visited her.

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John 2, verses 1 through 5, it shows what her life attitude was.

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I was reminiscing last night with Emily, as we were discussing the Lordship of Christ and we just talked about all the times where it wasn't easy to say yes to the Lord, but we said yes anyhow, and how that always worked out.

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And she just reminded me of how I went to Liberia in the summer of 2014, when Victor was just a couple of months old and Liberia was in the middle of the Ebola epidemic.

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I couldn't even get into Liberia.

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Only two flights a week were going to Liberia and one of them was from Casablanca.

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I remember getting excited about that.

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I thought when would I ever go to Casablanca so romantic Except when you land in Casablanca and you realize it's not the movie and all the buildings are brown and gray and everything you eat is weird.

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And you're just waiting for that one flight to take you to where you're supposed to be, which is Monrovia, liberia.

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Amen, you can cross Casablanca.

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It's just side note.

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You can cross Casablanca off your bucket list.

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It wasn't all that.

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No, sam's bar, no, nothing, just people doing their laundry in place like this in a bucket.

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Really, I'm like I can see that back in my own home country.

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I don't need to come to go up a little bit into the mountains.

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It's the whirlpool.

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But I landed there and he had arranged.

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The ministry we were supporting had arranged for somebody from the military to pick me up so I can get in.

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I remember asking how much should I give them?

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How do you know what's a good bribe?

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I mean gift for somebody you never know.

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He said, brother, $100 is plenty.

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I'm like, oh, great Discount rate.

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And I spent 10 days there ministering in the largest churches in Monrovia, liberia, being able to meet government officials.

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Thousands of people came out to hear who's the one crazy American who would come to minister and encourage us in the middle of Ebola.

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And because of City Light Church we were able to purchase a Toyota truck.

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I have to say Toyota because that's like a G-wagon here A Toyota.

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Toyota is indestructible.

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We purchased a Toyota truck for the ministry there, gave away laptops to the ministry there and had an incredibly fruitful week.

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But it happened because I said yes, amen, and really you reminded me of that.

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But I never thought of that as a difficult decision and it wasn't like I was struggling with the Lord, because when you're in the Lord's will, you realize that's the safest place for you to be.

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We had to go and wash our hands everywhere.

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We went in a mixture of bleach and water and everybody was terrified, but the whole time I'm just happy, I'm smiling, I feel like I'm in a bubble of His goodness and grace.

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I feel untouchable.

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The safest place for us, for any of you, is knowing that you're not outside of the will of God, not rebelling against Him, not doing things as it seems right to you.

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The Bible when describing a rebellious people, it talks about those who do whatever is right in their own eyes.

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I don't want to be that person, and when you read the Old Testament, which is written as an example to us, there's a phrase that's often used with the rebellious people and that's stiff-necked.

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You ever have that inflexible friend.

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They always—I hope I don't get husbands and wives in trouble.

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This morning we came to church, we walked out fighting.

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They always got to meet at the same place and used to just the place, and I can tell we're going to this place and it's got to be the time that's good for them, the day that's good for them, and it's like that every single time.

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That's what God said.

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The people who rebel against Him are like.

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They're not flexing, flexible.

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They don't mold them and conform themselves to Him, but they expect God to mold and conform Himself to them.

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And that's one of the biggest problems right now in the culture of the countries that people are making God and turning Him into their own image, changing the Scriptures, twisting the truth of God's Word to suit their own belly.

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Their God is their belly, their own appetites, no matter how wild they are, changing the goodness and the truth and the glory of God to really do whatever is right in their own eyes.

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And the Bible says their way and their end is a destruction.

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I have one soul.

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I'm frankly I'm jealous for it.

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It's not a video game where you get to do over.

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I have one soul.

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I want to finish well, amen, I'm saved.

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I'm saved by grace, not because of anything good that I do, and I stay saved by continually staying in the faith and looking to Jesus and His righteousness to be imparted to me.

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And I have a job and I see every single one of you of the same mind, firmly rooted and grounded in Him, and not playing that hokey pokey with the Lord with one foot in and one foot out and playing games, but saying Lord, I am yours, you are mine, whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it.

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I'll have instant obedience, amen.

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That is maturity in Christ John.

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At the wedding feast Now both Jesus, chapter two, verse one and the third day, there was a wedding in Canaan of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

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Now, both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding and when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him they have no wine.

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Jesus said to her woman which some preachers read woman and really makes Jesus sound so harsh right Woman to his own mother, woman.

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What does your concern have to do with me?

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Keep that verse up.

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Let me just talk about this for a second.

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My hour has not yet come.

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I just want to talk about what a sexist Jesus was.

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No, actually the exact opposite.

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He was the one who broke social norms all the time and invited women to participate in the spreading of the gospel.

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But this is actually Jesus being playful and doing a twist on words.

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She's saying, hey, they have no wine.

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Now, what's wine?

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A symbol of the Holy Spirit.

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And he's playing where there's no.

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She had said they don't have the Holy Spirit and he says, hey, what does this have to do with me?

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My time, my hour, has not yet come.

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Every single time, jesus talks about his hour.

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What is he talking about?

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The crucifixion and the resurrection.

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It was only after the crucifixion and the resurrection that the Holy Spirit was able to come then, on the day of Pentecost, and be given as a gift to the entire world, to whoever would call upon the name of Jesus and receive amen.

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This is a beautiful Jesus.

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She's saying they have no wine and he's essentially saying the wine is coming, but my hour has not yet come.

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But just hang around in the ministry for a few more years and you'll see.

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When I get crucified and I'm raised from the dead, it's going to be new wine for everybody.

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Amen, verse five.

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His mother said but she got the joke, by the way, because she didn't go.

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Boy, you talked that way to me at a wedding in public.

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She got the wink and then she turns to the servants and says she's essentially imparting her own heart of submission and her bending the knee to the Lordship of Christ to the servants.

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They're saying whatever he says to you, do it.

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Whatever he says to you, do it.

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If you were to hear Mary talk today, you know what she would say.

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She would point to Jesus and say whatever he says to you, do it, hallelujah.

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And, by the way, what he said was gather some stone pots, six to be exact.

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Now you just read that.

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You think stone pitcher like a gallon jug of milk, but the Bible is clear.

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Each pot held 20 to 30 gallons.

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He said gather the stone pots, fill them with water.

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You know, the servants were like why are we doing this?

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Because you didn't just turn on the garden hose and fill them up.

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You had to now go fetch the water 20 to 30 gallons.

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Let's use the low end 20 gallons.

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Time six, 120 gallons.

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This was a lot of work and it didn't make sense in the natural mind.

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Why are we doing this?

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I don't know.

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She just said whatever he says, do it.

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And he didn't even have a reputation then, because this is the very first miracle that he worked, which please note also that of all the miracles Jesus could have chosen to be his first.

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It was a miracle of provision that he chose, just winking at us, just letting us know that I, first of all, I'm the God of parties and I'm the God of provision and abundance, and with me there will never be lack, amen.

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But they had a decision to make.

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Do we stop?

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Because why are we just fetching water, something about wine?

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And is he?

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What's he trying to do?

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But they just had to obey.

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Whatever he says to you to do, do it, hallelujah.

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This is why, by the way, city Light Church exists, because people gathered around me who were willing to say okay, whatever he says to us, he'll do, because it made no sense in the natural at all.

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I could barely tie my own shoes at age 26 when I decided to launch and plant City Light Church.

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Yet now, 22 plus years, 22 years, can you believe it?

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In a couple of weeks?

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Amen, hallelujah.

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And it made no sense.

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But there is a reward to obedience, a great reward, amen.

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I want to read 1 Samuel, chapter 15, verses 20 through 26.

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Going back into the Old Testament, king Saul, he was giving some explicit instructions by the Lord through the prophet Samuel and he was about 85% obedient.

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And Saul said to Samuel but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back Agag, king of Amalek.

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I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites, but the people took of the plunder.

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Now, he wasn't supposed to do that.

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They took of the sheep and oxen.

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Some things were just too luxury and too good to burn down the best of the things, which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord, your God and Gilgal.

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He said we didn't want to destroy these things, but we took these great things so we could sacrifice.

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Now there's a problem here.

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He wasn't supposed to do that.

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He's anointed as king.

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He has a mandate to be a king, not a priest.

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He stepped outside of his boundaries.

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He stepped outside of his mantle.

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The mantle was on the priest to offer sacrifices, not the king.

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Verse 22,.

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So Samuel said has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

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Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.

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Many of you have heard this verse.

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You know what it means.

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Under an old covenant he's literally talking about obeying is better than sacrificing when it's not your job to sacrifice.

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But today that could mean it is better to obey, obey the voice of the Lord than any other external religious work that you can present to him, even if it seems like a good external religious work, like coming to church every Sunday.

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He would much rather have your heart, the fullness of your heart.

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Then you will not only come to church each Sunday, but he'll have your entire heart.

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There are some people.

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They make a decision to tie this like payoff money for God.

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They give him a tenth of all their income and they feel that then they can do whatever they want because they send protection money up to heaven.

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They're gonna be okay, people who pray.

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But God is after your obedience, first, your whole heart, you to say yes to whatever he asks of you.

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And why am I preaching all this today?

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Because I do.

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I believe that the challenge to say yes to him is only gonna increase.

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We're gonna watch old shows and go wow, that was.

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We thought it was tough to be a Christian back then.

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It was actually so easy.

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I mean, everyone thought I was.

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I was crazy 30 years ago for being a Christian, but today they think I'm utterly insane.

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They don't even know they're constantly being programmed with an anti-Christian sentiment.

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Being a pastor in New York City was never popular.

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That one of the worst questions I hate.

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When someone asked me what do you do?

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Because I know I've done it already hundreds of times what do you do?

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I Give away life insurance for free.

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No, I tell him, I'm a pastor, I'm a pastor.

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Tell him, and then you can just see, though, because they don't really know what they're Trying to find.

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What compartment to put you in the head is spinning and it's never, ever good and you, it's never, ever.

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Do you meet someone who?

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I'm a pastor?

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Oh you.

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And now there's such an anti-Christian sentiment and a temptation to hide your Christianity.

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Don't do it and attempt and attempt to Change the truth of God's word in order to fit in.

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Don't do it.

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I Mean it would seem crazy just a few years ago to suggest this, but now it's not crazy that one day, what you believe will be labeled intolerant hate speech?

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Because Jesus said something not very tolerant.

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He said I am the way, the truth and the life.

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No one can come to the father except through me.

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That's not very tolerant.

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Jesus said there is no other way to heaven except through me, because I am the only one who's going to give his life in exchange for yours.

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My clean and perfect life Will be punished as though you were me, and your sin will be punished in me, and I will, with my own holy blood, purchase your salvation.

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That's why, look, if there was another way or other ways, then Jesus died in vain.

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Jesus would have stayed in heaven and said look, if being a nice person and playing with crystals Could get the job done, he'd be still with the father.

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Go and let him have at it.

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But he did what he had to do Because he had to do it, amen.

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So can you imagine and I can the way culture is going, where it's just labeled that to believe in John 3 16 or to believe in John 14 6, where Jesus I am the way that that really just is too triggering for too many people and really hurts their feelings and Makes them feel like they're on the outside, and that's not nice when people don't feel great about themselves all the time 24-7.

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And so therefore, john 14 6 is hate speech.

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Nah, not here, not in America.

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But I'm preaching to city light as though that they may come, because I don't want that day to surprise us.

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And we have a bunch of weak Christians who are terrified of the world and terrified about taking a stand.

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And Let God be true.

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The Bible says in every man a liar Hallelujah.

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And the people in your life you would compromise the word of God for you have yet to learn they don't care about you at all.

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Anyway, it's true, jesus will always be there for you, but to care what people think?

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People, these are the people in the Bible.

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On Sunday they said Hosanna, hosanna, and they greeted Jesus with palm, palm leaves and King of kings and Lord of lords.

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By Friday they were shouting crucify him.

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That's people In the book of Acts.

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He didn't even take five days, took one day.

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Paul and Barnabas were preaching so good that they said the gods have come to us in the forms of men.

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That's a super fan.

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Right there the next day they picked up stones and stone them.

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That's how quickly human emotions will turn from loving you to hating you, and some of us live an absolute fear of what people will say.

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What people will think.

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They really don't think.

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They're too busy thinking of themselves to think anything about you.

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You think they're thinking about you, but that's only because you're the main character in your own movie, but they're not thinking about you.

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They're wondering what you're thinking about them.

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To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

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Now listen to this Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, because you weren't obedient to King Saul, he also has rejected you from being king and this is where the anointing the mantle of the king was stripped from Saul.

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This happened to be an example unto us now, thankfully.

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But we can fall and the blood of Jesus is still on us and we can get right back up again.

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But this should still serve as a warning.

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Now I'm not gonna lose my salvation through one act of disobedience, but there are things in the natural that if I just do whatever is right in my own eyes, I will mess up.

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I Can.

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I can hurt my relationship with my wife or with people who are close to me, or with the church through one act of rebellion, one act of disobedience.

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They could hurt it, cripple it for years, maybe forever, on this side of heaven.

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So to walk in wisdom and there should be a healthy amount of the fear of the Lord it's like we have to be broad enough in our thinking to both understand that he loves us and we're the apple of his eye and at the same time I Walk around the things of God with fear and trembling Because I know, left up to my own devices, I will make a mess so quickly.

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So, lord, I walk in the fear of the Lord, hallelujah, hallelujah.

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First Corinthians 620.

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Oh, did we finish that out?

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Okay, let's go to first Corinthians.

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We had two more verses.

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Let's read them now.

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Therefore, please pardon my sin.

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Verse 25, oh, verse 24, you were right, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, in your words, because I fear oh yeah, I fear the people.

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Why did he do it?

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Because of everything we just already talked about.

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He didn't submit and fully obey the voice of the Lord.

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He did a nice 85% partial obedience, which always comes out to be total disobedience.

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And he actually reveals the root of why he did this thing he feared the people and obeyed their voice.

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What a weird dance we have to dance as Christians, where we are to love people and then, at the same time, absolutely not care what they think about us at all.

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Seems a little one-sided huh.

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Only through Christ can we have that kind of grace.

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I really love you, not in a closed way, but I give my heart to you, and if you slap me in the face, I'm like, ah, I can't take it personally.

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How do you do that?

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You only do it if you're receiving mega doses of the love of God through prayer and worship every single day, hallelujah.

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Now, therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord.

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But Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

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Everyone say this obedience is better than sacrifice.

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Obedience is better than external religiosity.

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Ha All right.

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1 Corinthians 620.

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In the NLT, for God bought you with a high price.

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When this is real to you, when this is real to you, then you realize you have been bought.

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The whole reason you know that you'll be in heaven forever with him.

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The whole reason you know that all of your sins are completely forgiven you and that there is therefore now no condemnation for you.

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Do you understand?

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You have been declared not guilty, all those who've placed their faith in Jesus.

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You're forever declared justified and not guilty.

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God calls you his son, his child.

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You are heirs of God.

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He's actually made you equal with himself.

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He's caused you to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

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How did all this happen?

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You were bought.

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You needed perfect holy blood, and that's the high price that the Bible speaks about.

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I'm not my own.

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That's actually where my confidence comes from.

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To face the future, to think of eternity.

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Do you ever have a moment where you think this might be it?

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I've got to admit I've had a couple of those on an airplane where you actually think, where you start to think like, like you're really confronted with eternity.

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It was actually a plane ride to Ethiopia.

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Embracing a Life of Faith and Obedience

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