Sermon
Living Waters of Grace 09.11.25
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is living. Waters of Grace, the teaching
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ministry of Lewis Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary
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Chapel of Westmoreland County in Greensburg, PA.
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Now here's Pastor Lewis as he continues teaching through God's
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Word. Those who don't believe and
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those who do not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ or unbelievers,
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false teachers, the only thing they have to look forward to is
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His judgment. We are the preserved in Jesus
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Christ, those who are believers or the preserved in Jesus
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Christ. So for Him we will experience
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His mercy to escape the wrath to calm.
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We're going to experience His. His mercy to be kept from the
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hour of trial. Mercy to receive salvation and
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not judgement and hope of eternal life.
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When you look at the Bible as a whole, it tells a complete
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story, one that reflects the history of what God has done out
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of his love for you. Because God loves you, he
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doesn't leave you in uncertainty as you wait for his return.
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Instead, He reveals exactly what will happen.
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In today's message, Pastor Lewis wants to encourage you by
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reminding you that God is coming back for his family.
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One day, God will restore everything to its intended
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state, a world without sin, pain, sorrow, or death, but
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filled with joy by his side. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
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book of Jude chapter 1 as he continues his message building
Jude 1 chapter mention
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up yourselves and others. It will cause divisions, It will
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go against what the Word of God teaches, and it will cause
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divisions among the people. And then the last four words
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says this, not having the Spirit.
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And that's what tells us these people weren't saved.
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They're not saved. They professed it.
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They try to make us believe it. They try to act like it.
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They talk like it. I was with this guy for I don't
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know how long, you know, watching him worshipping God,
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watching him read his Bible and talking about, I was about for
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how long? And now you really get a chance
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to hear what's in his heart. And there's no spirit not saved,
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not saved. That's why our prayer is that we
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be unified here, that we be unified so that we would be able
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to watch after each other, to be able to hang with each other,
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spend time with each other and be able to hear what's going on
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in each other's hearts as we pray together.
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Not allow the enemy to come and try to separate us and try to
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catch us isolated and try to overtake us.
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But in order to get to my brother here, you got to go
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through me because I'm going to be I'm going to be ministering
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to him and praying for him and in to get to her.
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You got to go through me because I'm going to be ministering to
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her and praying for her. We pray for each other as
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brothers and sisters. We minister to each other's
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brothers and sisters and we build each other up.
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And it's a lot harder for Satan to come in and bring these lies
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when we are being reminded of the word of God.
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Verse 20 says, but you OK, he just got finished talking about
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the ones who were not saved, right, Because they said that.
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And verse 19 says these are sensual persons who cause
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divisions, not having the spirit.
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These people aren't saved but you, beloved, but you, the ones
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that he said back in chapter 1 who are called because you're
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the church, you're the called, you're the beloved, or you're
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the sanctified and you are the preserved or you're the ones
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that's kept in Christ Jesus. That's what he told us back in
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verse 1 of this very same book. You are the called, you are the
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beloved, you are the sanctified, you are the ones who are kept by
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Jesus Christ. But you, you love it.
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Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the
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Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the
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mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
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He's now giving instruction. This is why I like books like
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this or letters like this, because it gives us some
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practical instructions on how we can avoid these things and not
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just saying, you know, he's not just saying to us.
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They look, watch out for those false seizures and leaving it
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there. He's given us instruction on how
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we watch out for these, for how we prepare ourselves and we
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protect ourselves from heresy. And how do we do it?
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He says, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.
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What does that mean? That means studying the word of
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God, reading the word of God. And we're on our on a frequent
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basis continually to keep the truth in front of you, in front
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of you. Somebody once asked Kobe Bryant,
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why do you do the same drills all the time?
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Kobe Bryant used to do drills where he would come into the gym
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sometimes at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning.
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He would come into the gym and it may be almost an hour before
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he ever touches a basketball because he's first working on
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fundamentals, footwork, setting screens and all this is without
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a ball and without anybody else there but just him.
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And he's going through these things over and over and over
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again. They're fundamentals.
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One of the greatest players, probably one or two greatest
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players that we've ever seen in the NBA.
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And he does the same things over and over and over again because
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it's the building blocks of everything else that he does.
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So we get up in the morning and we read our Bibles or whenever
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it is that we get a chance to read our Bibles and we go in and
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we read it with the intention to hear from God.
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When you come here, we do it with the intention to hear from
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God. We build ourselves up on our
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most holy faith, most holy faith.
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And in doing that we we are constantly keeping the word of
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God before us. David said Your word have I hid
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in my heart, so I won't send against you.
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Your word that I keep before me all times, even on my right
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hand, so I won't send against you.
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Having the word of God as a constant reminder in our lives
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helps us to not be deceived by false teachers.
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It will help us to know it right away.
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The red flags will go up immediately because we're in the
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Word of God and the Holy Spirit is revealing truth to us
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constantly. So we're building up ourselves
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on a most holy faith. That's exactly what they did in
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the old church back in Acts chapter 2.
Acts 2 chapter mention
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That's what they did back in Acts chapter 2 around verse 42.
Acts 2 chapter mention
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It says that steadfastly. They continued steadfastly and
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the apostles doctrine steadfastly, continuously,
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frequently in the apostles doctrine.
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They weren't reading magazines and things coming from that
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place and things coming from somewhere else.
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They were in the apostles doctrine.
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They kept that before them all the time, steadfastly.
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And not only were they in the apostles doctrine together, but
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they were also fellowshipping together.
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So now I'm taking what I learned in the apostles doctrine, and
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you and I are talking about this thing.
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You're showing me how it applies to your life.
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I'm showing you how it applies to my life.
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And we're building each other up in these things.
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Not only that, but they also broke bread together.
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You get a lot done over a meal. You get a lot done over a good
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meal. That's why we like to eat.
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We don't mind church going. Folks don't mind eating.
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It's spiritual to eat. And I'm just joking.
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I'm not I'm that's not in the word.
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That is not in the word, but it's a blessing when we can
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fellowship with each other over food and break bread.
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They did it on a consistent basis in the early church.
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And of course, the other thing they did together was pray, was
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pray. They were an apostle doctrine.
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They fellowship with one another.
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They broke bread with one another and they prayed with one
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another. That's why it was very difficult
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for somebody to bring in a heresy.
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And just like it should be here, very difficult for somebody to
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bring in a heresy. Amen.
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Building ourselves up in our most holy faith.
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And not only do we build ourselves up as we, as we study
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the central word of God, but we also add to our faith.
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Peter said We don't just be comfortable with the fact that
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we're saved, but while we are saved, we continue to grow in
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our faith and we add to our faith over and over.
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In second Peter chapter 1, starting at verse 5, he says add
2 Peter 1 chapter mention
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to your faith, add virtue, that moral excellence, add that to
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your faith and then you add knowledge.
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Learn more about this God that we that we're serving.
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Learn more about it. Add that to your faith.
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Add self-control. Learn how to control yourself.
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Control those fleshly urges. Learn how to control those
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things. Control our temper, control our
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attitudes, control those things that are moved by our flesh.
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self-control He's to add perseverance.
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You know, you got to be able to endure because it's going to get
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rough. The circumstances are going to
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be tough. The enemy's going to throw
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different things before you and try to stumble you, but you got
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to endure with perseverance, perseverance after perseverance.
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You got to add godliness, Godliness, God likeness.
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We got to walk this thing out the way.
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He does obey the word of God, not just be hearers, but doers
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of it. And as we do that, we begin to
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become godly. As opposed to what he says here,
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they were walking to a according to their ungodliness because God
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wasn't in there. He wasn't in their speech, He
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wasn't in their hearts, She wasn't in their actions.
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But we add godliness. So godliness comes out of our
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conversation. Godliness comes out of our out
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of our heart and the things that we do, it's our actions, our
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godly actions. Our thoughts are more godly
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thoughts. Now.
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We need the Holy Spirit to help us with these things.
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These are things we can do on our own.
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But then he also says to the godliness, you got to add
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brotherly kindness. We got to care about each other
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and treat each other kind, treat each other kind.
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And when we don't treat each other kind, the Holy Spirit lets
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us know that. Let's go back immediately and
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make it right. Brother, I'm sorry.
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I said something to you the other day and the Lord brought
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to my attention that it was wrong, it was offensive.
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Or if he comes to me and tell me, you know what, man, you said
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something to me the other day that really offended me.
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I'm sorry, brother, I'm sorry. Let's take care of those things
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immediately. Let's not let them fester.
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We need brotherly kindness. We got to treat each other kind,
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treat each other kind with kindness.
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He said by loving kindness have I drawn you.
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And then we add to our brotherly kindness, we add love.
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That is the big foundation, the umbrella under which everything
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else comes. If I love you, I am not going to
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hurt you. Not purposely.
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Not purposely doesn't mean that I want to offend you.
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Because there may be things that I do or say that may offend you,
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and I'm not even aware of it. That's why you got to love me
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enough to let me know it. Speak the truth to me in love.
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Don't come and snatch me up, you know?
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Hey, looks, I got something to say to you, brother, You know,
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you know, let's be kind, Let's be kind.
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Let's love one another so we add to our faith and that helps us
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to be built up in our most holy faith.
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But then he tells us, he says praying in the Holy Spirit, that
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praying in the Holy Spirit be means being LED, being LED in
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prayer by the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit.
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Sometimes that could come in moans and groans that you can't
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even utter. I mean, you don't even know what
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you're saying. You just moaning and groaning.
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You know, you, you, you know, you have a heart for God, but
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you just can't put it in the words what you want to say to
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him. And the only thing you can do is
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just lay on your on your face or on your knees and you just moan
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and groan. But the Holy Spirit searches all
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things, even the deep things of God.
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He knows because your spirit bears witness with his Spirit.
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He knows what's being said and then sometimes it could be
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praying in tongues. Now I know that that gets abused
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and people don't like to talk about praying in tongues, but
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tongues is a legitimate gift. It is a legitimate gift.
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Then people that are in the in the church that does expository
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teaching, they don't run away from talking about the tongues,
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but it is done decently and in order.
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If I'm in the church service with all these people, I'm not
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going to stand up here and start talking in tongues because I'm
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going to confuse most of you, going to confuse myself.
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I won't even know what I'm saying.
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And without an interpreter, it's not clear.
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But if I'm praying by myself in my own prayer closet, I can pray
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in tongues as much as I feel the Holy Spirit leading me.
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Paul said, hey, listen, there's nothing wrong with praying in
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tongues. I wish you all spoke with
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tongues, He said however, but to prophecy is better and
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prophesying just simply means sharing the word of God, He said
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it's that's better because prophesying we can do that with
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knowledge. We know what's being said.
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We couldn't understand what's being said.
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But if someone is praying in tongues, we don't know what's
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being said, Paul said. I'd rather I'd rather speak 5
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words with understanding than 10,000 words in tongues.
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You can find that over in First Corinthians chapter 14.
1 Corinthians 14 chapter mention
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He talks all about speaking in tongues, but it is a legitimate
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gift and it should not be neglected.
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However, we do all things decently and in order.
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So it could mean praying in tongues.
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And then he says looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
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unto eternal life. So that's looking for the return
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of Jesus Christ coming back and His mercy that He shows us.
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You see, we as God's people, those who are believers, when He
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comes back, we're looking for the mercy of Him because we're
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going to get mercy when He comes back.
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Those who don't believe and those who do not obey the gospel
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of Jesus Christ or unbelievers, false teachers, the only thing
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they have to look forward to is His judgement.
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We are the preserved in Jesus Christ.
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Those who are believers are the preserved in Jesus Christ.
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So for Him, we will experience His mercy to escape the wrath to
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come. We're going to experience his,
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His mercy to be kept from the hour of trial, mercy to receive
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salvation and not judgement and hope of eternal life.
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And that's why I pray that there are those who or may have be a
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false teacher or those who may have confessed Christianity, but
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in their hearts they know that it's not real.
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We can still repent. We can turn and repent and ask
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for God's salvation, ask for God's forgiveness of sins if
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we're caught in them. That's the mercy of God.
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Once we humble ourselves and we speak, we confess our sins and
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our need for Him, which is really what it comes down to is
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confessing our need for Him. He hears us and He forgives us.
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So now we go on 22 and on. Some have compassion, making a
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distinction, but on others saved with fear, pulling them out of
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the fire, hating even the garment, defiled by the flesh.
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So now Jude is talking about different people who may have
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been persuaded or deceived by these false teachers or false
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Christians. Some of these people who when he
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says that they, you know, they're making a distinction
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that means that they're wavering, they've heard some
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things and they're questioning their faith.
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So they're now wavering. They're doubting their faith,
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doubting what they believed for years because they've heard some
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things that they felt logically goes against it.
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And their flesh says, well, I'd rather believe that than to
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believe this. But you said with those, the
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church is full of different people mature in different ways
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in the church, they mature different levels.
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Everybody doesn't mature in their faith at the same rate.
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So with those who may need a little bit extra care because
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they're wavering in their faith, because they've been deceived or
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because they're now doubting, we need to be compassionate with
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them. Have compassion.
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Not just judge them, not just be condemning, but to have
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compassion and lovingly and patiently walk them through the
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Word of God, disciple them, but not make them feel like they're
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already judged and condemned. And he said with some pulling
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out with fear, and maybe these may be those who have slipped
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back into sin and they're now practicing sin again.
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You know, with those we have to be like a, a fireman going into
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a burning building and snatching people out even when they don't
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want to come out. I think about lot when the
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angels came to lot to take him out of to take him out of Sodom
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and Gomorrah, God was ready to burn that place up and lots
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tiptoeing around, oh, wait a minute, I got to go do this.
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Wait, I got to go do this. Some angels say, man, come on,
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get your get out of here. It's time to move.
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It's time to go now. And sometimes with people who we
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see that they're on that path because they've now been sinking
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into sin and they're on that path to, to hell.
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Sometime we have to be like the angels or we got to be like
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those firemen and just basically snatch them out of the flames.
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We got to be more aggressive with our approach with them to
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really just give them truth. Look, this is leading you into
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judgement, man. And to be very direct, but
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loving, hating even the garment. But we got to do it.
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That means that we do it with fear, and that fear means that
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we do it cautiously because you might have some people that's
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caught up in a sin that may be a sin that you used to be caught
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up in, a sin that you may have been weak to at one time.
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So when you go to rescue them, you got to make sure and be
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cautious that you yourself don't get caught up.
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Or as the Word of God said, when you do it, you do it with
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meekness. But considering yourself, unless
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you get caught up in that sin. Look, if you weak the drinking,
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you know, don't go to somebody and sit in the bar with them and
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try to talk to him about about the word.
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If you if you're into sexual immorality, don't go into a a a
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strip club and sit down and want to talk to him about the word of
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God. If somebody is is into gossiping
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and you weak the gossiping, you know, don't sit around at the at
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the table and then listen to them gossip for an hour and
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didn't want to talk to him about the word of God.
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We have to be able. To be cautious when we pull them
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out of the fire and then we come to the close here says now unto
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him who was able to keep you from stumbling.
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He's not only able to keep you from falling, he's able to keep
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you from even stumbling. You know, we listen to some of
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these things and and and and people get deceived and they
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start to stumble and to move closer and closer to that sin.
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But he says, look, I'm even able to keep you from stumbling.
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Not even falling, but just from stumbling period.
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Praise and worship team, please come forward.
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Proverbs 323 says you will walk safely in your way if you listen
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to wisdom and knowledge and your foot will not stumble.
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He able to keep us from stumbling and present you
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faultless before the presence of his glory.
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What a beautiful picture that is.
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What a beautiful picture that is over in the book of Ephesians in
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chapter 5, he talks about how the husband or Jesus Christ
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presents the church faultless before him and how the man of
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God, you know, when he's when he's the the husband or he's
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the, the head of his household as the man of God, we present
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our wives faultless, blameless before Christ.
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And we do that with the washing and the cleansing of the Word,
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not with the beating and the, and the, and the controlling of
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the word, the washing, the cleansing and the sanctifying of
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the Word. And here he, he gives that
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picture that Jesus himself is able to present you faultless
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before the presence of his glory.
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Are we faultless? No.
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Are we blameless? No.
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But because we're covered by the blood of Jesus, when God looks
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at us, he sees us as being faultless.
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Blameless just as he did with the children of Israel and the
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Passover. All of them weren't faultless,
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but because of the blood that was attached to the door, the
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Bible says the death Angel went past them because they were
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covered with the blood. And so are we.
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So are we. We're covered with the blood of
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Jesus. What a blessing that is.
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And he does that with joy to God our Savior.
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And in the Hebrew, or I'm sorry, in the Greek, it's the only God
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our Savior or the true God, who alone is wise.
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Be glory and majesty be glory. Glory is the sum total of
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everything God is and all that he does.
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It's glorious. It's glorious.
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I know in my life when I look at the things that He's done, it's
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been glorious. The things in here that He's
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done has been glorious. I see it in your own lives, the
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things that He's done in your lives has been glorious.
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And it says the majesty that means the greatness and his
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magnificence there is none greater than He is none greater.
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And dominion, that's His sovereign rule over all things.
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His rule over all things because of how small or large they are.
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He's ruled over heaven and earth and everything in them.
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There's nothing that he doesn't have rule over.
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He has authority over everything.
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He can speak a word and whatever He wants to be done is done.
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And power, that's his authority and the right to use his power.
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He has the right always to use His power, both now and forever.
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Amen. You've been listening to Living
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Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harrell at Calvary Chapel
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Westmoreland in Greensburg, PA. As Pastor Lewis continues to
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preach through the book of Jude, he wants you to realize that you
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can't be a part time Christian. You're going to follow Jesus.
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He is going to ask for your undivided loyalty.
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If you try to serve your own interests while following Jesus,
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you find that you can't do either one successfully.
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But if you run after Jesus with everything you have, you'll be
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amazed at how He provides for you and sustains you on the
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journey, even when you have no idea of where your provision
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will come from. If today's message has
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encouraged you, we'd love to hear your feedback.
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You can visit [email protected]
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where you'll find our contact information as well as links to
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our social media pages. And while you're there, we ask
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you to consider giving to support the ministry of Living
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Waters of Grace at 91.7. Grace FM continues to minister
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to our community in Westmoreland County.
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Your gifts help us keep the gospel on the airwaves, reaching
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