Sermon
Living Waters of Grace 01.21.2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
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Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
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County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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And even our leadership did it in 2015 and drape the entire
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White House with the rainbow for gay pride.
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God have mercy on us. Have mercy on us.
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And then again, even with the chance to transgenderism, if we
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go to Genesis, back in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27, it's
Genesis 1 chapter mention
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very clear. In my opinion, it's very clear.
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Gender and sexuality are topics that are leading in culture
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today, being discussed often. The world has a very specific
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opinion about these topics. Gender is fluid and sexuality is
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whatever you decide it is. But is that what the Bible
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teaches? No.
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God created men and women distinctly, and sexuality is
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meant to be enjoyed in the context of marriage between one
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man and one woman for life. Pastor Lewis reminds us of this
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biblical truth today and encourages us to stand strong no
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matter what our world says now. Here's Pastor Lewis in the Book
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of Second Timothy, Chapter 3, with today's edition of Living
2 Timothy 3 chapter mention
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Waters of Grace. Let each of you look on not only
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he says not only he's not saying that you never look on your own
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interest, but he says don't look only on your interest, but also
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on the entrance, on the entrance of others with this self love,
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this pride. It's it's love instead of
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worshipping and loving God, OK. When we love ourselves instead
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of worshipping and loving God, what they do is that they love
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themselves and make gods of themselves and become users of
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people for their benefit. And that's one of the dangers of
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loving self because we begin to instead of loving people, we use
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people, we use people for our own benefit.
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The next one he talks about, he talks about the lovers of money,
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lovers of money. And when you love money, it be
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you become covetous because you want what money can give you.
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And that's a part of self love. Become lovers of money.
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You go out and go get the things that give you pleasure, the
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things that feel your lusts. And instead of using things like
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money, which is provided by God to provide for our own needs,
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instead of using them for that, or use them to glorify God, or
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use them using money to bless other people, instead of using
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it that way, we love money and make idols out of the money and
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the things and often things. But we use people instead of
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using money. We instead use people instead of
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loving people. So it's a misplaced love there.
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It's a misplaced love. We should be loving others, but
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instead we love things and we use others.
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We get it backwards there. We get it backwards there.
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And what Paul is saying that in these last days people will
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misplace their love. They'll love themselves and
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things instead of loving God and loving others and using things
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for God's glory. The next one he says is
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boasters. He talks about these boasters.
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Boasters. This is vaunting and praising
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themselves. If we are to boast.
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The Bible tells us that if we do boast, we are.
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We should boast in the Lord and not in ourselves.
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The boasters are people who like to make I statements.
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I statements. I did this, I did that.
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I have this or I have that. I have this ability or I have
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that ability. I'm I'm this and I'm that.
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It's a lot of I statements enjoy telling you things that they've
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done to help somebody else or things that they have done that
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promotes themselves. It's vaunting, it's prideful,
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and these things come directly. This boasting comes directly
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from Satan himself. If you look back in Isaiah
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chapter 14, verses 13 and 14, I'll just read it to you.
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You don't have to turn there, but it says, for you have said
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in your heart, I will ascend into heaven.
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I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.
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I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest
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sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights
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of the clouds. I will be like the Most High all
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these I statements I will, I will, I will, I can, I can, I
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did, I did beware of these I statement These are people who
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are full of pride, full of pride.
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Psalm 32 and two says this my soul shall make its boast in the
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Lord and the humble shall hear of it and be glad and I just
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also want to read for you Jeremiah.
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This is one of my favorite verses actually, when it talks
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about boasting and talks about who we should boast or how we
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should boast. But in Jeremiah 9 and 23, he
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says, Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his
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wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the
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rich man glory in his riches. But let him who glories or let
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him who boasts, let him boast in this that he understands and
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knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness,
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judgement, and righteousness in the earth.
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For these things, in these things I delight, says the Lord.
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If we are to love somebody, we're to boast.
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If we're to glory in anything, it should be in the Lord,
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because no matter what it is that we have anything of any
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significance, anything that's any good, it comes from Him.
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We don't have anything of our own, anything.
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It all comes from him. So where are we able to boast?
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In Second Corinthians 10/17 it says, But he who glories or he
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who boast, let him boast in the Lord.
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And then he and then he talks about this, this pride, this
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pride, these the next one is proud.
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These people are proud, they're arrogant of themselves, they are
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wise in their own hearts. And pride actually leads to
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rebellion against God all the time.
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Pride leads to rebellion against God and and pride, you know,
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what pride mostly comes in at is in our reluctance or in our
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neglect to pray because when things are going well, we feel
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like we got it. We got it.
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You know, I'm Lord, I got this now.
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I don't need you man, not for this.
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So we don't pray, we stop praying.
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Praying is one of the most important parts of our humility.
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It shows our humility. If there's anything that shows
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our humility, most it's it's our prayer time.
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When we go into prayer and we surrender to the Lord and we let
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Him know how helpless and powerless we are and how great
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and how mighty he is, that's where our prayer time is about
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in many cases. And and when we don't pray, it's
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a sign of our pride. The arrogance to think that we
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can handle things on our own or the Lord is the last one that we
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do go to for prayer. When we pray, we look at every
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other Ave. look at every other resource, everything else, and
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then we go to the Lord. It's like, well, this is my last
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resort. It shouldn't be our last resort.
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It should be the first thing we do.
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This should be the first thing that we do.
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So pride does lead to rebellion eventually reach it leads to
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rebellion against God and against his word.
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There's some biblical examples of this rebellion, you know, for
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example, the Tower of Babel, that is an example of rebellion
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against God. When God opened the the door of
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the ark and he let Noah and his three sons out, he told him to
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be fruitful, multiply and spread it over the earth, go out
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throughout the whole earth, fill the whole earth.
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Don't just go to one place, He said, fill the whole earth.
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But then these people came to Babel, Shinar, which is
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basically Babylon. He came there and, and, and
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instead of doing what God told him to do, they said we want to
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stop here and we're going to make a city here and we are
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going to build a tower here that's going to go up to the
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heavens. Because we can do anything of
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ourselves if we just stick together and we put our minds to
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it. There's nothing that we can't
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do. We don't have to obey that
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commandment to go spread out that let's all stay together.
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Let's be of one language. So Tower of Babel, we're not
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going to do it, Lord, we're not going to spread out.
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We're not going to go out. We're going to all stay
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together. But God is God.
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If you don't submit to his will, He will make you willing to
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submit to his will when he desires to.
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And that's exactly what he did with them.
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Pharaoh. That's another example of
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someone who just wanted to rebel against God.
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Let my people go. No, I'm not letting your people
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go. Who are you, God?
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Who is your God that I should listen to him?
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Total rebellion. Pharaoh thought he was a God
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himself. Total rebellion, and God had to
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humble him as well. Well, we're seeing a lot of
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rebellion today. We see it also today.
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Look at the rebellion that we have in the sexual immorality of
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our life. You know, people, you know, God
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said this is marriage and this is where sex belongs.
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It belongs in marriage. It's the marriage bed that is
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honorable and undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers,
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God will judge. It's what the Scripture says in
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Hebrews. But today we have people and I
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did it. I was in rebellion against God.
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At one point I thought, I don't need to get married.
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I could just live with this woman, I love her.
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God said no, no, it was in rebellion.
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And today it's in rebellion. When people live together as
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opposed to get married, I can. It's basically them saying I
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don't have to listen to God's command.
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I can do what I want to do. I can be with who I want to be.
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I don't need some piece of paper to tell me that I'm married.
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I don't need to stand before God and make a commitment to him to
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say that I'm married. Well, it's God's institution.
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Yes, we do. He make this institution.
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He put this institution in place.
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We didn't do it ourselves. It's rebellion against him when
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we don't do it his way. It's also rebellion with this
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gay, with this, this marriage of, of gay pride in this
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marriage even in fact, they even call it gay pride.
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It's them. It's, it's them being prideful
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and basically saying, God, I'll tell you what, my God, no, God
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said marriage is between a man and a woman.
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It's between a man. For this reason, shall a man
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leave his wife and be 1 flesh? I mean, I'm sorry, a man should
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leave his mother and his father and be joined to his wife and be
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1 flesh for that reason only. A man leaving his wife and every
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wife is a woman, every wife is a woman leaves his man leaves his
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wife and and and leaves his family and goes to be joined
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together with his wife. But now in our society we say we
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don't have to do it that way because you say it.
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I can be in love with whoever I want to be in love with.
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I'll join myself to whoever I want to join myself to.
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I don't have to listen to you God concerning that.
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And he already he told us that in Genesis chapter 2 and he told
Genesis 2 chapter mention
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us again, Jesus even said it. And I, you know, I, I, I
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shouldn't, I shouldn't and I admit it that I shouldn't.
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But I do get a little annoyed when I hear people say Jesus
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never talked about gay people not being able to get married or
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not being able to be together. He most certainly did in Matthew
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19 when he repeated the same thing that God his father.
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He said it back in Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis 2 chapter mention
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For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother
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and be joined to his wife. What is Jesus telling us?
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Marriage is between a man and a woman, and anything else that
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people want to call marriage other than that is in rebellion.
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It's in rebellion and even go as far as they call it gay pride.
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They admit it. It's our pride that we do this
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out of rebellion. And then it goes even further.
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They took the rainbow that God gave to Noah as a sign that he
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will not destroy the earth again by water.
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They took that sign, that covenant sign that was from God,
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and they put it on their banner. And even our leadership did it
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in 2015 and draped the entire White House with the rainbow for
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gay pride. God have mercy on us.
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Have mercy on us. And then again, even with the
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chance to transgenderism, if we go to Genesis, back in Genesis
Genesis 1 chapter mention
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chapter 1 and verse 27, it's very clear.
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In my opinion. It's very clear, He says.
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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God.
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He created him, male and female. He created them.
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Now I've looked and I've searched and I've still have not
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been able to find where he created them.
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Male, female and transgender. I haven't found it yet.
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Don't think I will. Again, that is in rebellion to
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God. You don't tell me, God, whether
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I'm a man or a woman, I tell myself it's based on how I feel.
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Rebellion, total rebellion. And this is the world we're
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living in. This is the world we're living
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in. So when you say the last times,
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boy, it sure sounds like it, doesn't it?
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The last days sure sounds like it.
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I think you've heard me enough on that one.
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OK, blasphemers. And I think I make this one last
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look. Like I said, we can't.
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I want to take my time and go through these because I don't
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want to rush to them because there's so many messages in
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this. But blasphemers is are those who
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speak contemptuous and bitter words against others.
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It's acting or or causing slander, revelling or showing
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lack of reverence for God, showing opposition to the
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authority of God and of God's word is blasphemy, blasphemy.
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And we're going to see a lot more blasphemous people or
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people who are blaspheming God in the later days.
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We're always starting to see some.
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We're already starting to see some.
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Anyone who goes against the authority of God, heresy.
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All that is blasphemy and it's in First Timothy 6 and one it
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commands against that behavior that blasphemy should that that
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you know anybody who any behavior that blasphemes the
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Lord First Timothy chapter 6 and verse one talks against that and
1 Timothy 6 chapter mention
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this is what it says it says let as many bond servants as are
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under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor so
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that the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.
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We don't do anything against God, anything against His word
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or his doctrine that would be blasphemous against him.
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And I'm going to do one more. He talks about disobedience to
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parents, and this is the last one I'm going to do today.
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But when you talk about disobedience to parents, it's
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really disrespect for parents. And when you disrespect your
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parents, if you, if you can do that and disrespect your parents
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and do that continuously, then you're not going to have any,
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any respect for anybody else. If I don't respect my parents,
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who should I respect? I obviously don't respect God
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because he's the one that gave us that 5th commandment, right,
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that says honor your father and your mother so that your days
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will be long upon the earth. He's going to give us that
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commandment. So if I disrespect or if I don't
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honor my father and my mother, that I'm already in disrespect
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to him. I'm disrespecting my parents.
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I don't honor them. I'm not in obedience to them.
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So then who will I obey? I'm not going to obey anybody,
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not going to obey anybody. And this is what this is talking
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about. In the last days, there'll be
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people who just won't have any obedience to any authority.
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They'll just do whatever they want to do, no boundaries, Just
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do whatever they want to do, whatever pleases them,
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regardless of who defends, regardless of what laws it may
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break. Don't care, don't care.
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But I want to say this, I want to say this in closing, and then
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we can pick this up again next week.
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But I want to say this, that in order for a child to be
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disobedient, there must first have been instruction.
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There must first have been commandment.
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There must first have been guidance.
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Johnny, don't do this. Don't do that.
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That must have been spoken first.
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Because if our children don't have any guidance, if they've
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never been given instruction, if they've never had any
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expectation of what to obey, how can we call them disobedient?
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They can only obey what they've been given commandment for, what
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they've been given instruction for, and that comes back to
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parents. But if you have parents who are
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disrespectful and not obedient to their parents, how would they
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raise theirs? That's why it's so important to
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be in a place of teaching where you can be under the word of
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God. So that young parents, I applaud
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you young people who are bringing your children and
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they're seeing you come and sit under the word of God.
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Those of you who are teaching your children at home the word
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of God, they understand discipline, they understand
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authority, they understand that you are under authority.
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And you are the first example, just like Jesus Christ was an
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example of that for us. He was under the authority of
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his Father when he walked upon this earth.
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Because I only do what my father does.
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My father says, I only do what my father says.
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I don't do my own thing. Even when it came to going to
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the cross, he said, Lord, I don't want to go, but not my
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will. Your will be done.
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I'm not going to disobey you. I just want to know is there
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another way I can do this? But I'm not going to disobey
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you. I'm not going to dishonor you.
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He's our example, so we must be an example.
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Forget if they see us that we are submitted to God, that we
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are submitted to his authority. We're submitted to his leading.
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Then when we give direction to them, we're not telling them to
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do anything that we're not doing ourselves.
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And that's important and that's important.
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So we want to close there with disobedient to parents and we
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come back, we'll go into unthankful and unloving and all
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of those, you know, it's such a blessing because as we read
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through these, we see how Jesus was in almost every situation
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was just the total opposite of all those things.
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And and I don't know about you, but even as I look at some of
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those things, I think about it. So you know what some of those
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things actually was me and some of those things are even me now.
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Sometimes I get off, I get off cue.
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I still need the Lord to help me to not fall into these things on
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a regular basis. I still need the Lord to give me
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direction, to give me instruction, to give me those
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boundaries. I still need the Lord to do that
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for me and to work in my heart so that I'm not disobedient, so
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that I'm not lovers, a lover of myself, so that I don't become
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in love with money and what money can do.
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I don't want that to be me. I don't want to be proud.
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And there's times that I can be. I can be those things without
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the help of God. I can be all those things.
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So Lord, I need them. I need you.
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I need you to help me with this all the time.
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And as I think about Jesus Christ, he was our example.
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He was our example of what to be here in the Earth realm, and he
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walked in a way that was so selfless that it took him all
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the way to the cross. That's why he gave his life for
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us, because he was selfless. If he was a lover of self,
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there's no way he would have gone to the cross for us.
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But he was selfless. He came to be a ransom for us
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and we knew deserve it. Thank you for tuning in to
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Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Louis Harrell.
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We're currently in the books of First and Second Timothy.
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Some of the things included in these New Testament letters from
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Paul are that the young and newly established Pastor Timothy
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was being encouraged to hold fast to what was true.
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He was challenged to confront and address the false teachers
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that were rising up. He was also reminded to accept
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his calling to the ministry with gratefulness and to address the
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happenings going on in the Ephesian church.
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Paul was imparting his experience and knowledge to the
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next generation. Timothy was receptive to
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learning and gleaning what he could from Paul's wisdom.
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This is how it should be in ministry across multiple
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generations. Those who have lived a little
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more life should be open to sharing their successes and also
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things they've learned along the way that we're not a wind.
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The younger generations coming up can learn and appreciate much
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from those ahead of them and perhaps avoid some of the same
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pitfalls that their mentors work through mentoring.
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It's a beautiful relationship when the hearts are in the right
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place to learn and grow. You trust that you're in a
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community where this is happening.
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Older ones providing advice and wisdom and each side learning
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and growing from one another. This certainly was the case for
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Paul and Timothy as they were comrades for the sake of the
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gospel. For more information on where
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this teaching came from, go to calvarychapelonline.com.
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There you can also learn about our service times to join us in
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person. This has been living waters of
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Grace.