Sermon
Living Waters of Grace May 20th, 2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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The Holy Spirit lives in each of us today as believers, and He is
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jealous for that relationship with you.
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If there's anything in your life that's causing you to love
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something else more than you love God, it breaks the heart of
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the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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But it says he gives more grace. Therefore, he says God resists
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the proud and He gives grace to the humble.
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I pray today that all of us are in a place of humility, because
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if we're in a place of humility, we're going to receive what God
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is telling us today. Can you imagine our mighty God
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being jealous of anything? The same God who created the
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heavens and the earth, who split the sea and makes mountains
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move. That same God is jealous of your
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love for anything that exceeds your love for Him.
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God longs to be in a relationship with you.
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Today, Pastor Clark teaches you that even through God's jealousy
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and heartbreak, he remains merciful, waiting with
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compassion and longing for you. Humble yourself and receive the
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guidance that God has now. Here's Pastor Clark in
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Revelation chapter 20 with today's edition of Living Waters
Revelation 20 chapter mention
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of Grace. Revelation chapter 20 verse one.
Revelation 20 chapter mention
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Then I saw an Angel coming down from heaven, having the key to
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the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.
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He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is a devil.
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And Satan bound him for 1000 years, and he cast him into the
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bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that
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he should deceive the nation's no more till the 1000 years
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we're finished. But after these things, he must
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be released for a little while. What a glorious day that's going
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to be when the devil is cast into the bottomless pit and
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locked up not to be able to influence or hassle anybody or
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the nation's any longer. I wish that was true for right
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now, don't you? But it isn't.
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The Devil is alive and well. As the old writer Hal Lindsay
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said on Planet Earth, he's working every day to destroy our
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lives. Now we can sit here today as
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people of God and just be proud and tune this out.
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And God help us if we do that because I believe this is
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probably the most important message that the Lord has ever
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put on my heart in 14 years of ministry.
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I really do. Because I'm tired of seeing the
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devil destroy homes. I'm tired of seeing the devil
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destroy marriages and destroy kids and destroy nations.
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A friend of mine lost some loved ones recently says I'm tired of
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seeing people go to hell without hearing the gospel.
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I'm tired of it. And the devil doesn't want any
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of us to be tuned in to what his agenda is.
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He wants us to be complacent and deceived so that we're this
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blind. That I think you're my enemy and
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you think I'm your enemy. That we think our wives are the
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problems, or our husbands are the problems, or our kids are
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the problems, or our job or our employer.
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The Bible says we are not wrestling against flesh and
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blood, but against principalities and powers, the
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rulers of darkness of this present age.
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There will be 1000 year reign. We studied last week and 19 of
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the Lord through his power reigning at the end of the
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tribulation at the second coming that he cast the Antichrist and
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the false prophet into the Lake of fire.
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The devil hasn't been cast there yet in this study, but he will
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be at the end of time. But there will be this great
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White Throne judgment that will occur at the end of time for all
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those who do not know Jesus Christ, whoever's name is not
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written in the Lamb's book of life will be cast into the lake
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of fire forever and ever and ever.
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Now think about this, guys. That's your relatives.
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That's the people you work with. How about the how about the
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person you sit next to in the desk at work?
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Do you realize without Christ they're going to die and go to
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hell? Your neighbor that you're
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friends with, that maybe you hang out with, you watch the
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Steelers game with you have dinner with, whatever.
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If they don't know Jesus Christ, they're going to go to hell,
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they're going to die and they're going to be forever and ever in
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the lake of fire and torment, forever and ever and ever.
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How can we be so remiss not to tell people, hey, you need to
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know something about me and I need to tell you something about
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you? I know Jesus Christ, He's my
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Lord and my Savior. He saved me.
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He died for me. He cleansed me of my sin.
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And I want you to experience that same wonderful privilege.
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But if you don't come to Christ, you're going to die and you're
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going to go to hell. That's the bottom line.
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But the devil doesn't want us to think like that, does he?
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He wants us to hang out with people, and he wants us not to
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bring this up, right? Because if we bring it up,
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what's it cause? Conflict, right?
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It causes judgement. It causes what?
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Man, You're whacked, or you're a holy roller, or you're like,
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weird, you know, I used to like you, but now that you're telling
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me like what you're really about, I don't really want to
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hang with you anymore. And that's the consequences of
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the truth. It's like a sword.
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It divides and it brings truth against error.
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Satan's going to be in prison for 1000 years.
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All the nations one day will be gathered under the authority of
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Jesus Christ as He rules on the Mount of Olives from Jerusalem
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for that thousand years. And there won't be any
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wickedness taking control during that millennial reign.
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People who were believers in the tribulation that came out of the
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tribulation weren't destroyed will enter into this millennial
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period, but they'll also have children and the children will
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be born like we are as sinners. They'll have our original sin.
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Some of those young people will grow up and want to follow the
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and some of them will not want
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to follow him. And during that thousand year
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reign, there will be plenty of enemies that will be planning at
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the end of that period to get together with the devil at that
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final battle of Gog and Magog, to come against the authority of
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the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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But right now, during the millennial period, he's going to
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be confined and unable to deceive anymore.
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I love the idea of this great chain.
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I have no idea the significance of this particular device, but
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it's so powerful that the devil will not be able to do anything
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as long as this chain is wrapped around him and he won't be able
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to deceive the nations. He won't be able to ruin
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people's lives like he's ruining them today.
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It says about Jesus when he comes back and Zechariah 14
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four, His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of
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Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.
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Christ will descend in the second coming and land on the
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Mount of Olives. The mountain will actually split
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in two. Every eye, the Bible says, will
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see him when he comes, and he'll roll and he'll reign, and I
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can't wait for that day to occur.
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What'll happen is that he'll be cast into this bottomless pit.
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He'll be shut up, they'll set a seal upon him, and that he shall
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deceive the nation's no more. There's two characteristics
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during this time. Christ is going to rule the
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nation's with a rod of iron. That means absolutely and
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authoritatively. There will be no negotiation.
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It'll be his way completely, and Satan no longer will have his
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way. Now, as I said at the beginning
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of the message, that is not true today, is it?
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The devil is currently very much alive.
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First, Peter 58 says be sober. That means don't be drunk, guys.
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And if you're drinking and you're getting drunk, you're a
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fool. The Bible says do not be drunk
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with wine. Where is an excess?
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And I know in any church across America today, we have people
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that are still getting loaded on alcohol.
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I did it for years in my life as a Christian and God have mercy
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on my soul. It almost ruined my marriage.
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It almost destroyed my children. The devil was deceiving me,
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thinking it's OK to have a glass of wine occasionally.
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What I did, it dulled my senses. I had a glass of wine.
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I didn't want to read the word. I didn't want to pray.
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I wanted to have an attitude. I wanted to have a judgment.
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I wanted to have anger. I wanted to have bitterness.
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I wanted to have all the things that go along with being drunk.
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It says be sober. Why does he say be sober?
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Because if you're not sober, you're not going to understand
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what you're dealing with because your adversary, the devil, as a
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roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
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Every one of us are facing the same thing, me included.
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Job, chapter one, verse 7. The Lord says to Satan, where
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have you been? Of course, God knows where we
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all are at any given time. Satan answers the Lord and says
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from going here and there in the earth and from walking up and
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down in it. And today he's going through
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this church. He's walking up and down the
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aisles. He's trying to get your mind not
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to think about what we're talking about today.
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He's trying to avoid you from understanding the situation that
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you're facing. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 27 and
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28 says be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon
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your wrath, neither give place to the devil.
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How many of us in here as men of God have gone to sleep at night
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angry at our wives? Raise your hand, we all have.
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How many of our wives have gone to bed at night angry at their
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husbands? More women have probably done
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that to men. You know why?
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Because the Bible says they harbor bitterness.
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It's prone to be bitter. I have to have these
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conversations with Cindy once in a while because she'll remember
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something 20 years ago. She's still holding against me.
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I've long gone, forgot about it and forgiven or whatever.
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And, and she's saying, what do you remember?
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You know, And I'm like, no, I don't.
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And then she reminds me. And then I do.
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And I say, well, we just got to let this stuff go because this
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bitterness is is poison. Now, you know, I know when the
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Holy Spirit is moving in our church.
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And I hear this many times from the teachers because they'll
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say, I can't believe it. What you started teaching on the
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day is what we talked about in Sunday school.
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And you know, here's Steve this morning and he's up here and
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he's LED. And I didn't call him or tell
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him, you know, where I was going to go with this today, but he
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takes you to James Chapter 4, verse one.
James 4 chapter mention
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Where do wars and fights come from among you?
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Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, That war
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in your members? The Evil 1 works with the lust
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of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
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You lust and you do not have. You murder and you covet.
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You can't obtain, you fight and war, yet you do not have because
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you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive
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because you ask amiss. You ask for the wrong reasons
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that you may spend it on your pleasures.
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And then God, you know he uses these graphic terms.
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Probably one of the worst sins that a husband can experience
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her wife is someone committing adultery against them.
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But God says this is what we've done against him.
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Adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship
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with this world is enmity with God?
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Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes
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himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the
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Scripture says in vain? The Spirit who dwells in US
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yearns jealously. So the Holy Spirit lives in each
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of us today as believers, and he is jealous for that relationship
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with you. If there's anything in your life
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that's causing you to love something else more than you
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love God, it breaks the heart of the Father, Son, and Holy
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Spirit. But it says he gives more grace.
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Therefore, he says God resists the proud and he gives grace to
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the humble. And I pray today that all of us
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are in a place of humility. Because if we're in a place of
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humility, we're going to receive what God is telling us today.
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And God will give us much grace to understand.
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He'll enlighten, He'll illumine our hearts.
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And all of a sudden we'll say, now I know what's happening in
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my life. Now I know why all this stuff's
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going on. I've been deceived, I've been
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tricked, I've been beguiled like Eve in the garden by the evil
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one. It says, therefore submit to
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God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
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So the first thing I pray we do is we're in the study today.
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Say God, I want to give you my heart.
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I want to submit to you. And the good news is if you
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submit to God today, the Bible says the devil is going to flee.
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Draw near to God and he'll draw near to you.
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You have to ask yourself today, are you really drawing near to
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God? Are you really in every detail
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of your life drawing near to God?
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Are you only like when it's convenient?
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Are you trying to draw near to God?
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It says cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart.
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You're double minded. And double mindedness is yeah.
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I want God's will. I want to follow him.
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I want to serve him. I want to be sold out for him.
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I want to live my life for him. But yeah, I want to do all this
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stuff too. I want to, I want to have a
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little bit of fun in the world. I want to indulge my flesh.
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I want to do what makes me feel good and what makes me feel
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happy. I just want to, you know, and
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we're spiritual schizophrenic. So Lord's wanting us to do this
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and the devil's want us to do that.
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And we're like, yeah, no, yeah, no.
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We don't even know where we're at.
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He calls us double minded. Humble yourselves.
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Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
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mourning and let your joy to gloom.
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Sometimes it's important to be broken.
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Sometimes it's important to be contrite and devastated over the
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consequences of where our lives have gotten to.
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Have you ever looked at your Christian life?
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And I know I did at times. Like I started here.
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How did I get way down here? How did I get so far away from
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God? God in my life?
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Lament, mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
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mourning, your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight
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of the Lord and He will lift you up.
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Some of us are so broken because of the devil beating us up.
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The devil has taken authority in some of our lives to the point
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that it's absurd. And we've allowed it because
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we've given the devil a foothold in our life.
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We've given him some space through our behavior and our
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attitude and our actions and our decisions and our compromises in
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our lives. And as a result, we have all
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this stuff happening in our lives.
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Our, our marriages really aren't what they need to be.
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There's a lack of intimacy, there's a lack of mutual
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respect. There's a lack of honor and love
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and cherishing and, and our kids, I mean, we put up with our
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kids. We tolerate our kids instead of
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discipling our children. Why?
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Because we've become proud. But if we're so broken, and I
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know some of you are very, very broken, at this point in your
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life, you don't know how you're going to make it another second,
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let alone another day, a week, a month, a year.
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You're tired. You can come here with a smile
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on your face and act like everything's OK.
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But down deep inside, maybe some of us here today are thinking of
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even taking our lives. Have you ever gotten to the
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point in your life of being so distraught and so devastated and
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so depressed that you just want out of here?
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We all have it for honest and the devil wants to kill your
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life. He wants to destroy it.
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But it says if we humble ourselves in the sight of the
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Lord, He'll lift us up. Oh, Lord, how we want you to
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lift us up today. Father, do not speak evil of one
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another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother
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and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the
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law. But if you judge the law, you
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are not a doer of the law, but a judge.
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There's only one lawgiver God, who is able to save and to
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destroy. Who are you to judge another
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person? So my job today isn't to judge
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you and your job isn't to judge me.
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We let the word judge us, right? The word of God, and we deal
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with what the consequences of that word is.
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First, John chapter 3 verse 8 says he that committeth sin is
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of the devil. Now, whenever you make a
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decision to commit willful sin, you never think you're making
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this pact with the devil. But the Bible is real clear.
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If you're committing sin, you're of the devil.
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For the devil sent us from the beginning for this purpose.
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The Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works
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of the devil. That's why Christ came, to
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destroy the authority and the power of the devil.
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That's why the gospel has power. The gospel is the power of God
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to save. We preach Christ and Him
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crucified. I don't care who it is who's
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sharing the Word. When you share the Word, it has
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authority to accomplish the purpose for which God sends it.
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It's what breaks the lies, it's what manifests the truth.
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It's what puts the darkness out. We overcome by the authority of
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Jesus Christ and Him alone. Colossians chapter 2 verse 15
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says having spoiled principalities and powers, He
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made a show them openly triumphing over them in it.
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Please pray for me as I teach this.
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This is very, very difficult. I, I sense the energy, you know,
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I'm saying the energy trying to shut me up, trying to just get
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me mixed up and confused. When Christ died on the cross,
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he displayed openly that the forces of hell in darkness have
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no more authority over our lives as God's children.
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When it says we wrestle against flesh and blood, yeah, we do.
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But the principalities and powers don't have that same
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power they had after Christ died and rose again.
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Amen. So why do we walk under the
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burden in the strongholds of the evil 1?
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I believe it's because we don't understand fully what Christ has
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come to do for us. It talks about the Wiles of the
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devil. We don't wrestle against flesh
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and blood as the Scriptures say, but against the principalities
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and powers. Our defense is only the armor of
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God, and the only way we can stand against the Wiles of the
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devil is with the armor of God. In verse 11 of Ephesians 6 says,
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put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand
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against the Wiles of the devil. This is a definition of Wiles.
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It's a trick. This is a noun, the trick, a
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strategy meant to fold, to trap, to entice.
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Art. 4 begaling behavior. The verb is to deceive, to
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entice, to lure away from, into distracting you from the person
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of Christ. How many of us are facing
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distractions every day to move you away from being focused on
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Jesus Christ? Every one of us.
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It's a maneuver, a military strategy to trap us, to destroy
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us, to ruin our lives. What the devil does?
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He exaggerates the pleasures of sin while minimizing the true
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nature and outcome of sin, right?
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He makes sin look so alluring, so great, so attractive, but he
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never tells us about the horror and the outcome of the
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consequences of our sin. The devil sees an opening in our
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lives through our emotions and moods.
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The husband's upset, he's bummed out, he's complaining, he's, you
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know this at his wit's end with everything and all of us guys,
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we've been there and maybe are today.
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And the devil sees the mood. He sees the emotions.
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This is an opportunity for me to really 'cause some havoc here.
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See, the devil can't read our hearts.
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Only God knows our hearts. But the devil can see the
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outcome of our attitudes, our actions.
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He's able to distinguish our intentions as we move in our
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attitudes. He uses other people to lead us
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astray. That's why the Bible says have
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no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
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but rather reprove them. Light and darkness can't walk
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together. The Bible says don't.
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Don't be unequally yoked. So if you're with an unbeliever
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and you're a believer, that unbeliever is going to lead you
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astray. The master marketing agent in
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the world today is the devil. He packages sin and need
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attractive bundles. He makes things look so good and
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so exciting. It tells us in Second
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Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11, lest Satan should get an
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advantage of us. For we are not ignorant of his
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devices, his devices, his plots, his schemes, or his clever ways.
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Are you ignorant of Satan's devices?
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Raise your hand. We all are.
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We all are ignorant of his devices.
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That's why we need the word to show us what the deal is.
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If you're not in the word, you're going to be trapped,
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you're going to be deceived, you're going to be taken out.
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And you got to ask yourself today much time am I in the
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Word? How much am I hungering for the
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word? How much am I thirsting for
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righteousness? How much of my time in my daily
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life, Monday through Sunday am I before the Word saying God give
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me wisdom, give me light so I don't get deceived by the
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darkness of the enemy. Help me to understand so that I
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can protect my wife and my children.
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Help me to understand so I can help my brothers and sisters not
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fall victim to the consequences of the lives of the devil we're
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told to have on this armor of God in Ephesians 6.
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And many of you are familiar with it.
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We had to memorize that in Bible college years ago, that whole
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book of Ephesians, and I memorize it, but I didn't have
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the foggiest idea what it was talking about.
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That's why, you know, understanding the Bible is just
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part of it. The Bible says we're to do the
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Word or we deceive ourselves. But when He tells us to have
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this armor on it, just to break it out in terms that might make
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more sense, we're supposed to have this belt that's girded
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about the belt of truth, and that means that our life is to
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be surrounded by the truth. That's why it's important to be
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in church on Sundays, to be in the Word whether you want to or
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not, whether you feel like it or not, you come because God's
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going to speak to your heart. He's going to show you what you
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need to know and He's going to get you back on track.
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That's why we have Wednesday studies.
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That's why we have intercession. You know, God bless Dave and
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Janine. They're usually the only two
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down there praying. And Steve, you wonder where he
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goes. He's up there in the balcony
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praying for me as I'm preaching. And Gary and Kathy out in
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California at the time that I'm preaching.
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They're interceding for this service that the word of God
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would go forth because the flesh profits nothing only the spirit
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gives life. But the more we pray and the
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more we seek God, the more we're aware of the lies of the devil.
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Charles Spurgeon people would come up a wonderful man preacher
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of God and the Lord moves in that church in Metropolitan
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Tabernacle and many, many people were saved and and their lives
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were transformed and and they would come to Charles after the
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service and ask, you know, what is the deal here in this place?
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Where is the power coming from? How's all this stuff happening?
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And Charles, come on, I'm going to take you down to the furnace
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room. And they think a furnace room.
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What's he talking about? The place where the heat and the
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fire of God is took him down into the lower parts of the
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church. And there was many, many people
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on their knees praying for the Word of God as it went forth.
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Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.
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We're in the Book of Revelation, and we find it fascinating how
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influential and involved the angels are in this book.
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They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
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do, but it's through their actions that much of the
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judgements come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
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God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
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throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
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purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan too.
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God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
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and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
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God. God would love more than
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anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
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but he wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
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This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
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giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
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about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
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calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
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then find the link for what we believe.
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We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
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through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
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touch with us or submit a prayer request.
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We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
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and Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
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share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
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Stay tuned for that. And make sure to mention this
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radio program to others. Invite them to tune in to Grace
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FM 91.7 FM and they can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
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This has been living waters of grace.