Hold On, Hold On Gently, Let Go Deuteronomy 21:10-14

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thank you

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I don't know

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foreign [Music]

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this is

Isaiah 2:1

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sometimes [Music]

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please [Music]

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all right so we need some kids to the front Shake Your Arms out empty your hands

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we're gonna do some motions maybe I'll get there my goodness there

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we go all right [Music]

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whoa

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[Music]

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welcome [Music]

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you

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[Music]

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know [Music]

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[Music] foreign

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and listening to the Lord throughout your life not just on Sunday morning or Tuesday night bible study but wherever

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you happen to be and then maybe you could come and share with us during this time something that the Lord has spoken to you or something that you've seen he

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said pay attention what do you got yay

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First Corinthians chapter 3 5-11 what after all is Apollo so what is Paul

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

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only servants to whom you came to believe as the Lord is assigned each to each his tasks I planted a seed a palace

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water that the God made it real so neither he who plants nor he who Waters is anything but only God who makes

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things grow the man who plants and the man who Waters have one purpose and each will be rewarded according to his own

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labor for we are God's fellow workers you are God's field God's Building by

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the grace God has given me I laid a foundation as an expert Builder and someone else is building on it but each

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one should be careful how he builds for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid which is Jesus

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Christ Lord I guess you just give me the word spook um so I I don't either give

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these cards but there's magnets or stuff like this but this is helping others overcome in areas of hunger poverty

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loneliness and hopelessness you could be helped someone needs uh the verses do not be overcome by evil will overcome

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evil with good it's got our pantry number and then they can just see in this QR code and then you can get to the

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app this is a really good way to reach out to people you could just say hey how you doing I just want to let you know we have an app and if you get a talking I

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don't know who you're talking to at work or whatever but like I mean give people a chance but you could be like oh you

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like games oh we like games too we want to show people how to honor God with what our passions our stuff you know and

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you can do that with god oh you want to give resources well uh and learn how to honor God the resources we we have

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someone learns a lot of finances and stuff like that and you can do that through everything soldiers of sanctuary you know people that sacrifice life and

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have to come back and be for parents and fathers and work how to how to deal with

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what you've been through and how to come back and be victorious through God I mean we have all of this and then you

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can prepare crafts your Arts your talents oh you do music and worship that's cool hey we have we have a

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Ministry we're teaching people how to be able to use their music not just on Sunday but to glorify God wherever we go

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and it just goes on and on youth ministry yeah we love reaching out to the young kids and letting them know

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that God you can be active in their day every lives and then the kids all the little kids you have to be on that as well and the idea is is we're not

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promoting something because I've because I'll tell you how and I've got to say is I was out 16 years think about it I left

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this place and if this was under three p's a protection preservation and um

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I've always good therapy but for a sec but um those peas are perseverance thank

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you um but those three p's that we were under you guys were under them and that's why God's word has gone forth and

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the podcast is where it's at you know but when I left this place I didn't know you could just go somewhere where you

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could literally deal with unhealthy spiritual convention unhealthy moral truth I had no idea because I never

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would have left I I just thought we all were in this together you know and I'm not making fun

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of anyone because we were still together just thank God what God was doing here and the reason I say that is so when I

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came back I it messed me up the things I heard the people that have tried to talk

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me into stuff the things I listened to evil spirits that could be here but they have no place here because the truth is

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here so it can't be here and we could tell the demons ago but what we have here is so awesome and it's like it's

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everywhere in other churches but I don't know those churches I only know this church I don't promote any other

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churches I say this is a great church come check us out check out our podcast I do want to finish with this is that

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you might have been a superstar when before you were Christ on the field or off the field you might have been able

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to throw golden stars there where they go you land I wasn't I wasn't a superstar I was the other thing I didn't

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want to be a star I wanted to be outcast I want to be left alone I didn't feel loved or welcome by anyone no one ever

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talked to me I would smile no one would smile back I would try to be friendly if I said something nasty people would just

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re insult me and never work with me nobody ever wanted to be there for me that I've dealt with so much pain and

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rejection and so on both sides of the circle we are God's Building we are

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God's fellow workers we're all superstars every one of us here is a superstar in Christ and so I encourage

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you again I said this last year so I burn it into another year is that we need to reach out to each other we will

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always be able to have this foundation and will be always be able to give that word out but here we all have amazing

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gifts and talents we can show each other that we're not perfect that God's working on all of us we've watched

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videos and we've watched things that maybe we could share with each other and we want to be able to be in a place

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where when we're taken like what takes me off like you know whoa I need to

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watch out for that but also what takes me back to God if we're not talking

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about just like telling people not to do this not to do that but tell people you can do this you can do that you're gonna

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make it you can get through this and we all got to do this together we don't have to I didn't have to speak I don't

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get no rewards I'm not making 5.95 if I send my CD out or whatever make no money off this I'm not making fun of anyone

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God blesses them and I don't make a donation no one's going to give back to me it's just I decided God said you got

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to say this so I said it so I just encourage us all we need to come together and work together and then

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that's how we get to know each other because the thing is if God does bring 5 or 10 or 20 or two people and think

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about this just think about it if you had a team do you want all new players or do you

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want to work on your team and then have new players come in if you were in a games anything do you want uh all these

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fresh people to come in or do you want to build a team and then let them come

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in because if they do come in if we can't handle ourselves handle each other deal with each other know each other and

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not going to get it day and night just giving it a chance how am I going to deal with those that come in and it will

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happen and you know that's going to be a lot so I'm encouraging me you all of us to

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once again reach out to each other this is our family anybody comes in it's family too but we're family and we

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should be famous doesn't really have to know each other and be best friends it's out of me I'm just saying because of who

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we are in Christ that we should be reaching out to each other because of who he is amen amen good word anybody

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else I got a song that I wanted to share we don't watch video Yeah lyrics to it

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all right

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yeah we don't want to see notifications it's a nice sunset

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maybe we're gonna see a video

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see my grandpa away my mama they're dancing one day I walk the streets and

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knowing me amazed one day I finally make it home in heaven and all the pain I

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dealt with you're gonna pass away one day I finally make it home in heaven and

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all the pain [Music]

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[Music] amen all right RJ

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okay so there's two things that I really wanted to share about this song and the

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first one is we all have to remember workers if you're if you are a Christian you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your

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lord and savior you know where you're going in the end you're going to heaven so all of the pain all the sorrow all

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the tears all that is going to go away and when we get to heaven it's going to be joy and happiness and love and

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kindness like you're supposed to be now so

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I guess the first thing is is just remember that everything we go through on this Earth is temporarily our time

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here is temporary our time here is just a blip of our existence so when we die we go to heaven to live

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with Jesus and God father for everlasting life

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our life here is so small and so short that even if you live to be a hundred

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years that is a blink of an eye in the time that we're going to spend in heaven and the second thing is

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um it says one day I'll Stand before you Lord and

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fill your presence I'll hear you say Well done my son who kept the faith I ain't perfect but I know I never had to

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be I was once but now I found Amazing Grace so we are not perfect by any means and

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God does not expect us to be perfect and I think that is one of the most humbling things for me to realize is

Isaiah 15:7

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that God does not expect us to be perfect he knows that there's no way we are ever going to be perfect because of

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our human nature our human flesh all the Temptations that we go through unfortunately the only thing we can do

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is we can try and we have to keep that faith and

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one day it'll all make sense when we get to heaven but for now

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we have to keep going knowing where we're going in the end and we have to keep that faith

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because one day we will get to heaven and we will hear God say Well done you

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Captain Philly two questions came to mind I felt prompted as you were speaking and I'm a

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firm believer those who uh meet with me on Tuesday nights for Bible study we we talk about how the New Testament Church

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what they largely did their main activity was disputing so disputing is when you ask a question and somebody

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else gets the answer and then somebody else asks a question somebody else gives the answer so these are the two questions that came to mind as you were

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talking the first one was if we know that um we're going to heaven if we know that

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what goes on then where we wind up and what Jesus did what God does we know

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that the kingdom work is more important why is it that it seems like what's

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going on right now in the moment what we're seeing feeling hearing right seems

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oh kind of like makes itself so important compared to what we know to be true about where

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we're going why is that I'm not answering it unless somebody unless we can't answer it as a group

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why does it seem so important let's say um your car breaks down and suddenly your car breaking down seems so much

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more important you've got to deal with this right now compared to the gospel going to heaven is that

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because it's what we were taught okay so the world programming programs use it that sense of urgency that's a good

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possibility and we also got another thought on that why is it that what we're going through right now seems so

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important all the time compared to the end destination go ahead because we walk by

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sight not by faith that's what we're seeing to Temporary what we could initially see it's that's it yeah and

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the Bible calls us to do the other yeah walk by faith not by sight that's interesting that's Heisenberg before

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you're saying anybody else have something to add

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okay so the journey is because you feel like you have to Journey

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okay that's interesting so you're pressed by the we're affected by the things we have to go through them to get

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to where we're going and that's basically true right that's what yeah and then when it said the Bible says see

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by faith not you know by C instead of what you see with your eyes see by faith right then

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when it gets really urgent and important to realize okay this really urgent important thing is it part of my journey

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to get where I'm going or is it just a bump in the road am I even going to remember this

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10 years from now for example or am I going to let it affect who I am on my journey to wind up where I'm going

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that's very interesting go ahead Ron the things that we're experiencing right now can sometimes be

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a test or a measure of what we're going to look like in the future okay um it's the way we handle situations the

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way we come out of situations basically going to be a picture of what

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our future will look like I definitely think that's true but I

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think along the lines of Warship for you to the Holy Spirit things like that if you're willing to dismiss the things of

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the kingdom of God in order to deal with what you consider to be the problem then maybe the kingdom of God isn't in your

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life like you think it is you know I want to say that's good so then when you are able to handle the things that

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you're facing and knowing your destination knowing what God is doing kind of in light of the Unseen World if

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you will then those things are real for you they're affecting you they're making

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a difference that's awesome that's good stuff and then that tags into the second question that came to mind that I was thinking which is

Isaiah 19:20

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um if if we know the destination and we know where we're going how does that affect the way we handle the things that

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we're going to go through between now and when we get there you know so for example you know you're going to be in heaven let's say and

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let's just pick one aspect of having no more pain if you know that you're going to be in Heaven someday and there is going to be

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no more pain then how does that affect how you handle pain today that's drilling it down just one example

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what's that all right okay not let it stop us living a good life not let us

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stop us feeling good okay doing the things that God would have us

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to do right Practice Things versus disciplines living in a kingdom that kind of thing good the story of the prodigal son is one

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that left and spoiled everything and when he came back to the father he never leave again because he knew who his

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father was and I think there's also knowing who your father's knowing who

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you are but it's kind of churchy because we still live this life but that's the idea is that he knows now he ain't never

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going to go back he could but I guarantee if I never because now he knows he's a son he's royalty how

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important he really is that he didn't see him as a servant um that he you know it was all his in

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the first place you know it he didn't give it to him he's like it was hurt he's like I've always had the wealth but

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I've always had it all right it was yours the first place and then that's good stuff so uh personally in the box

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of my head is uh James okay when he says

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consider apology through all your troubles and trials consider for joining my brother and face all men and trials

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and Physicians okay which is probably the hardest thing to do is to find joy in all your

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problems what does that verse actually saying though

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is it brings perseverance yeah it's not saying have joy while going through those things that

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would be one of the hardest things to do right so I'm facing trials and tribulations for me to go okay I broke

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my life yay I broke my leg I'm so glad I broke my legs

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no that's just ridiculous right that's not what it says it says concert through Joy when you face all mattered trials so

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what's the joy is it that that I have joy despite my trials and regulations that's not what

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the verse is saying it's saying have joy in that you face those trials and

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regulations so when they come look at uh asks a beautiful example let's read it when you get time inside a little bit

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but they like went home praising God because they were allowed to suffer as Jesus suffers you will face no trial in

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this lifetime no tribulation no pain you'll never be persecuted Etc except

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that God gets the glory if as Ron pointed out to us we just keep going

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just keep practicing don't let it stop you just that's the key and so we since we have that and we can know that

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whatever this is that we're going through results ultimately in our good when it comes right so like if somebody

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came to you and gave you a car you'd be like hot car yay now I can get places or I can sell it for money or whatever but

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yay I got a car right because clearly see that getting the car results in the rewards of having a car if you're

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just going to sell it for money right that's what trials and tribulations are like when they come we should be

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rejoicing not because they're they suck because they do right or not getting angry because the Situation's bad or

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whatever but rejoicing that they came because it's our opportunity for God to

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get the glory and for us to arrive where we're actually headed no trials and tribulations you ain't gonna get where you're going

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uh Aaron first because Tony otter talk um I don't remember where I heard this

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somebody told me this 10 years ago something like that that Nevers those trials and tribulations

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come because the enemy sees that we're winning that God is getting glory and so that makes you a Target and so that

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could should give you Joy to know that attorney because yeah it's getting blurry in your life man hey man that's

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interesting it's like when you're playing football and you're up 70 to 10 and the linebacker comes through and hits you harder than he has to to get to

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just kind of like get his last legs in even though he's losing by 60 points and that's what the enemy's like and that brings me to that

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plot of that black knight in a Monty Python searching the holy grail and then watch an edited version of that show I encourage you to do that because it's a

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lot about spiritual warfare but if you're going to watch the whole thing normally you might run into some stuff that you might not be comfortable with but but the bottom line is the guys lost

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both his arms and both his legs come here I'll beat you and that's what Satan's like he's totally lost but he's

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he's trying to get his Last Licks in before we go to heaven and lead him behind forever that's a good word last name this is

Isaiah 24:5

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gonna say imagine watching the movie Story character anyone at the level one and then the level 56 you know they're

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stronger but just imagine at the end of the movie at the end of the game if they go back to level one like they're not as

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strong as they were they didn't get acquired what they were like like they're like a baby they're weak you

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know they're cowardly it's like what was I just watching this for I was waiting for this person to be stronger the

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better that this is it that moment and everything I was going to say the other P was a spiritual provision sorry I was

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trying to I got nervous because I remember the previous provision protection perseverance so okay all

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right so we're gonna pray together at this time we're going to ties an offering uh just a couple more songs and

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children will go to their lessons and then we're going through the words so it's an exciting time uh I'm super

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excited about it so um I'm gonna ask out brother Tim Mitchell this in prayer and we'll pray

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with you okay we're praying with brother Chad let's do it our Lord and father

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we're provided much for us to this partner today

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serve you we love you celebrate Who You Are

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and as we go on to the rest of the service help us to recognize you Lord in our hearts it could be the story

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value

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the state um thank you so much

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excuse me

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thank you [Music]

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thank you so what are you doing

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[Music]

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Rises [Music]

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until I know [Music]

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foreign

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thank you [Music]

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baby [Music]

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like this

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day

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foreign

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[Music]

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foreign [Music]

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thank you [Music]

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who's there [Music]

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praise the Lord whenever we sing that song right before I get up to preach which we've done a

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few times I always worry that when I get up to preach I won't have any voice left because I've sung it all out

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I love that song and I get pretty loud and I probably annoy the music team by sitting in the front row and getting

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pretty loud seeing it but they're they're gentle with me so praise God about that yeah they're used to it yeah

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they put up with me so uh the title of the sermon today which is not on the

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screen up there is hold on hold on gently and let go hold on hold on gently and let go so for

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the note takers in the house if you're a note taker and if you aren't a note taker maybe you think pray a little bit

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about it maybe you might become a note taker wouldn't that be awesome might retain it a little bit more if you write some things down hold on hold on gently

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and let go so if you know what I mean by all three of those short phrases today then you're good you can go ahead and go

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now but it's unlikely that you do and I didn't so here we go all right grab your

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bibles if you would and turn with me maybe a little who to holler amen as we go to Deuteronomy chapter 21.

Deuteronomy 21 · chapter mention

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amen thank you very much I hope hope we didn't leave you out there seem like we're pretty much on one page today

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Deuteronomy chapter 21 we have been working through the book of Deuteronomy for uh seven months eight nope that's

Deuteronomy 21 · chapter mention

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not right almost nine months but we took a month off uh are a little less than a

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month off at Christmas time and a little less than a month off at uh at Easter time so we're really just

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right about um five and a half months in and we're at chapter 21. so if you look in your

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Bibles we've got quite a distance to go to finish this uh and I've been excited because the Lord has really spoke to me

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and studying it so I would encourage you to study along you can read these texts and generally account for where we're going next before you ever get here on

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Sunday morning and you will get more out of it if you have already experienced it yourself and especially in prayer and

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listen to the Lord okay I want to remind you that we did look at

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over the last two weeks we looked at two things that are going to speak to this text that we're about to read so some

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folks weren't with us you either work with the children or whatever or you this your first time here today or whatever it might be so just want to

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remind you that at the end of chapter 20 we saw some kind of rules for Warfare

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so when the Israelites would go out and fight and we talked about how there is a different kind of Warfare on the terrain

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that God has given you where you live your life you know your intimate areas if you will

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um your heart and for them that would have been the promised land than there is for when you go outside and you're

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striking out and trying to do something outside that area maybe and for us that might be evangelism or missions or that

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kind of thing um but for them that would be fighting the land surrounding the promised land right and we use that as an illustration

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we brought it forward to present day that's important when we get there today and then the second part was last week

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20 verses 21 chapter 21 1-9 was talking about how if a dead man was found in the

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Open Country they didn't know who killed him what they would do about that and the important part of that is to

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realize that you can have imputed to you you could have blood guiltiness that is

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on you it will not ruin your salvation will not make you go to hell but that is on you you can be affected you can be under the wrath of God even for

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something that you didn't even do okay and I I I've run into this a number of times with folks and I said they're

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telling me about what they've been through and how horrible what they've been through is and some people's story

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just break my heart I had one of those this morning uh that a story that I already knew a little bit about and

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reminded me and my heart is literally breaking for what that person went through and and I've not been through

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the experiences they went through so my heart is breaking for what they went through and not compared to what I went

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to I'm like I mean I had a pretty easy Road comparatively um but

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I've been talking to somebody like that in the past and I said you realize you even though you didn't do this you still

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have to repent of it you still have to repent of your being affected by it repent of what you went through and like

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that to repent does not mean only to turn from sin it means primarily to turn to God in other words you have to say

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Lord I'm going to handle the ramifications of what I've been through in a way that you would have me handle

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it and the main thing is to turn it over to God that's the main thing and let him show so there's no Vengeance you know

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because business is mine saith the Lord um I'm not going to walk around suing in Anger all the time because of what

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happened to me because the word says let go of your anger and so on so we have to turn over those events to God even

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though you didn't do them because the blood guiltiness of those events can be on you even though you didn't do them

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okay and I didn't make that up if you were here last week you you you heard it we studied it you can look at it again

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in chapter 21 verses one through nine but then that brings us up to verse 10. okay and it's going to be an interesting

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sort of turn of events because it's going to have a short short passage today it's just 10 through 14 and then

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uh we just have a couple other verses we're gonna look at in the New Testament put it in context and that's it so it's going to go by quickly so keep your

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thinking cap on verse 10 says this when you go out to battle against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers

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them into your hands and you take them away captive okay so remember

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if they're taking away them if they're taking them away captive okay which enemies are we talking about

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the enemies in the promised land or the enemies where they're striking out like outside the promised land put it in

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context it's the enemies outside if they're taking them captive

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it's the enemies outside what do they do with the ones inside gone destroyed right if they don't run

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before we get there we kill them all no life remains right they're allowed to

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leave if they if they get before they get there and then a lot of times they did they left whole cities behind and the Israelites take over the cities but

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if they refuse to surrender if they refuse to flee then when they get there and we have to besiege them when we win

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The Siege we kill everything that's inside right it's a scorched Earth total Destruction of what on the ground that

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God has given you you deal with conflict inside there that way and we talked about instead of thinking of the enemy

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as stalking us we should be hunting him and you should be looking inside yourself or anything that stands against God any thought that would put itself up

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against God and tear it down and destroy it completely and utterly that's inside but now we're talking about outside it

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says if you go to battle against your enemy so when you're reaching out so for us that would be like evangelism missions reaching out dealing with the

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stuff that's not necessarily in your spiritual realm or given over to you by the Lord when you go out to battle

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against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive sometimes

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you're having some Victory and this could be for example somebody's coming to Christ or you're you're something

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good is happening right having some victory or maybe like our podcast is being heard in now 42 countries all over

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the world we're having some victory right so there's things like that that could become Victory we're having success then verse 11 says and you see

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among the captives a beautiful woman and have a desire for her and would take

38:20

her as a wife for yourself so in other words we've got a successful in bed bless you in battle take in the

38:27

captives and we've looked at oh oh no this is not that's not an ordinary woman she appeals to me I think I might like

38:34

to have her as a wife not just as a servant a housemaid cleaner or whatever but I would like to have her as a wife

38:39

right so it can happen and did happen quite frequently then

38:44

with other countries that that would have they would take them captive and then they'd just take them right they just own them and use them

38:51

for whatever they want but the Israelites are not to be like that there's a different method that God is prescribing here so if you see among the

38:57

captives a beautiful woman and have desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself verse 12 says then you

39:03

shall bring her home to your house and she shall shave her head and trim her nails or have her nails

39:09

done the verb there is more like do her nails and so in this translation they

39:15

say trim shaver head do her nails okay in your house are you thinking

39:21

about you've decided maybe I might make her my wife you bring her home in your house you take care of her provide for her verse 13.

39:28

she shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and More in her father and mother a full

39:36

month and I'm gonna stop there at the semicolon for a second so we make sure we understand the scene is set

39:42

captive success here's a woman she's now going to be a servant to the Israelites

39:47

because those who were captured become essentially slaves right but I don't want her to be a Slave I want her to be my wife so I bring her

39:54

into my house she shaves her head no hair does upper Nails which is you know that

40:01

could be part and partial with mourning a lot of women would have Fancy Nail longer Nails as a decorative thing or

40:07

whatever if they were well or their nails would be messed up from working or from being in captivity or whatever and

40:13

so it's just taking care of her giving her a little something right a little and giving her space

40:20

so that she can mourn the loss of what she had so there's an adjustment period

40:26

she's gonna take off the clothes of her captivity so whatever she was wearing when she was enslaved probably is all

40:31

she has or the the fashion of her people that's that's gone and so instead she's

40:37

putting on common clothes she lives there cared for so she's getting her food and so on and it says

40:43

and more and her father and mother now this woman and the father and mother in question you realize when you're when you're

40:50

dealing with people you're not just dealing with you've probably figured this out already in life when you deal with a person you're not just dealing with a person you're also dealing with

40:55

their baggage Okay so when she's dealing with her father and

41:01

mother she's she's mourning the loss of her house she's mourning the loss of her City she's mourning the loss of her

41:06

Customs she's mourning the loss of her gods right those are all it's all in there so

41:12

she is distancing herself actively distancing herself from the life that she lived under the auspices of her

41:18

father and mother she's given this time to do that says and mourner father and mother a

41:25

full month so for 30 days so we've got a long waiting period here so if if we're

41:30

talking about to put in the first person I want to marry this woman I'm going to bring her home I'm not going to make her

41:35

my wife now in most societies I'd have the right to do you're my wife that's it you don't get to say because I own you because I

41:42

want you in battle so now you're my wife but instead I'm going to do all this for her and give her 30 months or 30 days a

41:48

full month right during this time calmer heads prevail right so it could

41:56

be that I go you know she's beautiful but I see she's got this habit she's got that thing she seems to be having this

42:02

trouble distancing herself from her past she talks back a lot or she's very opinionated or whatever so it could be

42:10

whatever thing could set in during that 30-month waiting period okay or 30 day I'm sorry 30-day waiting

42:17

period a month then it goes on and it says I'll do from this beginning of 13 again she shall also remove her

42:24

clothes of her captivity shall remain in your house more on her father and mother a full month and after that you may go

42:30

into her and be her husband and she shall be your wife now obviously there's

42:35

the possibility of changing his mind he could change his mind but otherwise he goes into her and takes her as his wife

42:42

which was his plan and he's taking care of her and she's mourned and she's had she's grown back some hair though it's

42:47

probably pretty short after only a month and she's had her nails done and she's had

42:53

time to think about all that she came from and how all of that is essentially gone now and this is her new life and he

42:59

goes in and he takes her as his wife 14 and it shall be if you are not

43:05

pleased with her then you shall let her go wherever she wishes now notice that he could be not pleased with her before

43:12

he actually takes her as his wife or he could take her as his wife and then he goes in with her and calls her his wife

43:18

and and then he's not pleased with her either way right she started out as a slave

43:25

she was his servant she was going to clean she was going to have meager clothing meager resources but he decided

43:32

he would make her his wife now whether he makes her his wife or not the results are the same if he decides that he's not

43:37

pleased with her then you shall let her go wherever she wishes now she didn't have that right in the first place

43:45

right she didn't have that right she was a slave she was owned she didn't get to go wherever she wished she was going to

43:50

go wherever she was told but because he thought about making her his wife now she has she can go wherever she wishes

43:58

she's free in the world in some sense it says but you shall certainly not sell

44:04

her for money in other words even though you took her in battle she was your slave then thought about making her a wife now if you choose not to make her

44:10

your wife or if you make her her wife your wife and decide you don't want her anymore you can't sell her now no matter

44:15

what okay you cannot profit from this woman having having previously

44:22

owned her once you change your relationship with her 14. it

44:27

says and it shall be if you are not pleased with her then you shall let her go when it wherever she wishes but you

44:32

shall certainly not sell her for money you shall not mistreat her because you

44:39

have humbled her because you have humbled her okay so in other words

44:45

her position has changed there was a change in her position from being a

44:51

slave captured at War to being a possible wife to essentially now being a

44:56

free woman essentially okay that's the text for today so first thing I want you to see in there is the Texas is talking

45:03

about holding on so here is a woman captured in war

45:12

she's brought into the house she's held on to she's cared for right he's deciding possibly to make her his wife

45:18

she's held on to in life we go out on Mission we go out

45:24

evangelistically we go out conquering evil spirits we encounter a demon cast it out of somebody or out of their house or whatever right we go out conquering

45:31

problems we go to a hungry person we provide them with food Etc at that point in time that person

45:39

if you want them to be something more then just an acquaintance or whatever I had a

45:46

man who called us to cast evil spirits out of his house his thought his dead wife was there and she was doing things

45:51

in the middle of the night I was freaking him out and he couldn't handle it and so I went with another man we went over there and ultimately we agreed

45:57

and we cast the evil spirit demon whatever it was out of the house and he had peace for a while and then he came

46:02

back again he called us again and come back and I went over there with another man and I said we can do this but he

46:08

said it's way worse than it was the first time we had a break but now it's way worse and I said we can do this but let's be realistic here

46:14

okay if we keep doing this we're going to be gone it's going to come back and bring friends with it that's what the

46:20

word says and it's going to keep getting worse and worse so every time we cast it out for a while when it comes back it's gonna come back with a party okay so

46:28

what you need to do is you need to give serious thought to the teachings of Jesus Christ basically what I was saying to him was I want you to be something

46:34

more than just a guy who benefits from being under my roof right just the

46:41

guy that I can come and cast out evil spirits for you need to become a Christian you need to give serious examination to what Jesus said that way

46:48

it'll go and it won't come back again and if it comes back again you can cast it out yourself because you'll be a Christian so now you can't get saved in

46:55

order to get that ability but you can listen to these teachings and you can decide and he did not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and we cast

47:02

out the evil spirits and we left and bought two uh it was about four months passed and he called again and he says

47:08

hey we kind of we've got a real problem here so so I went with them and he the second time he was saying was because he

47:14

was a devout Muslim that's why he wouldn't accept Christ it's his family would disown him and everything else and I so when I went back I took an ex

47:21

Muslim with me somebody who knew the Quran knew Muslim religion that kind of thing and I said we'll see about that see if we can win him to Jesus because

47:27

this is somebody who had come to Jesus after being a Muslim so we sit with him and this is the story he told me so you cast out the evil

47:33

spirits then I had a guy come and move in with me he was a professing Christian went to church every Sunday no problem

47:39

evil spirits never came back he lived with me for six months then he went away for a couple weeks and as soon as he

47:45

went away for a couple weeks the house is going crazy stuff's slamming in the kitchen the refrigerator

47:51

was open stuff was spilled on the floor in the kitchen cold feeling in the where she used to sit in the living room all

47:57

this crazy stuff going on he said then the guy came home after he was gone for two weeks and I thought okay now it'll

48:03

get better and then he told me he was moving out so about a week ago he moved out I haven't got a week of sleep since I cannot do

48:10

this so we talked him through the Muslim thing and the guy says the ex-muslims with me he said I'm here to tell you

48:16

you're not a Muslim you're lying I said you can't you don't understand the Quran I'm talking you

48:22

understand you haven't studied the crime you're not a Muslim he said well no my family's a Muslim but I'm not I'm not

48:27

anything I'm not a devout Muslim so the guy prayed to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior ultimately and we talked

48:33

him through how it couldn't be just out of fear or whatever it had to be for real and we were hoping and trying to get him in church Etc

48:40

so we held on to him and now we've we've gone a little further right

48:45

but then he decided ultimately not to pursue his faith not to follow Christ

48:51

accept it like that and instead he had a woman move in with him and then he calls me up on the phone and he says well we

48:58

want we she's got some inheritance and we want to give 23 000 to the church because we really value what you've done

49:04

so what did I say I said I can't do that

49:10

I don't I'm not taking 23 000 I say if you really want to give it you can give it in the offering plate you can give it

49:16

online on the website anonymously you can go to our treasure and set up a different meeting to go do that

49:22

something completely if somebody that's not involved at all so I'm not taking your money right I'm not a paid servant that comes

49:29

and casts out demons the moment you start being that that's not a Christian okay and so

49:36

that's dealing with a person that's dealing with the person I I didn't want him to just be somebody I had met helped

49:43

out took care of I wanted him to become the family I wanted him to become something more I entreated him to do so

49:49

but now once he got to the point where it was clear that he was not going to do so I had to let him go

49:55

and it's the same way with all people that might be in your life you might have a boyfriend or a girlfriend I hope it's never a husband or a wife because

50:02

that's a horrible situation to be in for us God hates divorce doesn't ever

50:08

want to see that come about but the bottom line is if you have somebody you want to be something more in your life you hold on to them and you hold on

50:14

gently you give them all you can you take care of them you sacrifice yourself for them you hold on to them gently But

50:20

ultimately if they just won't be you let them go but it can't doesn't have to be people right it can be actual evil spirits it

50:28

could be teachings that you want to add it can be Hobbies it could be things where you go outside God has listened to me God has not given you

50:36

he's gonna step on somebody's toes as soon as I say it God has not given you the right to own a cell phone

50:43

God has not given you the right to play games God has not given you the right to own a

50:50

car and drive okay now God has set up a world in which those things exist and they are

50:57

blessings but it happens that there are Christians who love the Lord and serve the Lord and lose their ability

51:05

for whatever you might put on that list those things are all all of them outside

51:10

the ground that God here's what God has promised you God has said if you will believe and receive in the name of the

51:17

Lord Jesus Christ you will have heaven for an eternity you have the Holy Spirit presence in you which will flow itself

51:23

out or his self out in fruits of the spirit and your spiritual gift you will have a job the ministry of

51:29

reconciliation so you can share the gospel with people and I will provide you with your basic needs I will always

51:35

take care of you just as I do The Sparrows in the field I'll make sure that you have all and then he said if you will seek ye first the king of God

51:41

all these things will be added unto you talking about sustenance talking about enough money to survive enough money to

51:47

live well maybe even but not rich necessarily but live well taken care of the ability to go out will always be

51:54

made available to you in some fashion you can do all of those things but there ain't no cell phone on that list ain't no car on that list there's no Stakes on

52:01

that list even right those are the promises of God and he'll take all the time trials and tribulation that you

52:06

face and you'll turn them out for your good in the end those are you'll never leave you nor forsake you you're a portion of the kingdom of God is God and

52:12

what he wants to do all the rest of that stuff are trappings of this world are

52:18

they bad No in fact Galatians says enjoy these things they're given for you to enjoy that's fine but if you're going to

52:24

add hear me now I'm going to be very Point Blank for a second if you're going to add a cell phone to your life

52:31

the first thing you need to do is go look at that cell phone go I think I think this has a place in my life

52:37

so you're going to hold on to it you might have to pay a bill you might have to do a little research find out what you want right see what it's got in it

52:44

what it can do you have to learn what apps you're going to have and what apps you're not going to have right then you're going to hold on to it gently in

52:51

the sense that this is something that God has allowed me to have I have it I'm going to use it for the Lord but at the

52:56

point at which it starts to not be for the Lord right this is my cell phone I got it I'm

53:02

strumming through and I start catching myself doing things that I shouldn't be doing it's not godly

53:07

I'm holding on to it gently I'm holding on to it gently and then I'm like okay there's no problem I'm not going to do that anymore

53:14

I'm still holding it but I'm not going to do that anymore it's good that's all out now there's no problem that's taken care of it that period of morning is

53:21

over the cell phone let me use this language if I may the cell phone has decided to leave behind its nature and

53:29

become something akin to who I am in Christ something that would be something that I like something that God wants to

53:36

use so I've I've now translated it from its normally let's be realistic the world uses this to bring Satan and Hell

53:43

into the households of everybody the world uses it so you've got two

53:50

choices you can go I'm not going to use it I refuse the world is using that tool so I refuse to use that tool I'll not

53:56

have a cell phone I'll not take a phone call I'll not text I'll not look at YouTube I'll not do anything I'm not

54:02

gonna ask what's that that's a thing you can do okay however that is not a thing

54:07

that's not what this text about this is not what Paul said right it's permittable for you to pick this up and

54:12

go I think I want this it's created in the world I think I want it I'm gonna hold it kind

54:18

of gently and figure out is it good for me does it work can it be used for Kingdom has it gone through its

54:24

appropriate morning period so now it's trans it's become something that can be used for God has that happened

54:30

wait I'm looking at this and I realized it that has not happened

54:35

I let it go right or your car or your house or your

54:42

friends or and he goes on and on it could be that yourself was perfectly fine but it's YouTube in particular

54:48

right or Tick Tock in particular or whatever now and these are things that only exist in our day it wasn't even a

54:55

problem but it could be every Wednesday evening I go over to my

55:00

friend's house and we eat and play games together and then after a few years yeah this is working for me I'm

55:06

witnessing to them we talk about Jesus while we're there they don't do anything ungodly and then pretty soon somebody's

55:11

bringing in six packs of beer and alcohol is not only being served and they're drinking it and acting kind of weird but on top of that it's being

55:17

pushed at me right you gotta you brought it into your life you brought it to be a more intimate thing you're bringing it

55:23

in now you gotta hold it you gotta hold it gently so we're processing it does it work does it not work it's permittable

55:30

but does it work okay now I've discovered it doesn't work I'm sorry I won't be able to come anymore not as

55:35

long as this is what it's going to be like right and there you go so this same

55:40

tactic applies to everything but I want you to understand that it's starting with someone who was a slave

55:47

did you catch that this woman was a slave she was totally and utterly submitted to God's people because God's

55:53

people were victorious in God's service the armies went out to conquer they took

55:59

to slavery the things so they went out and they said

56:05

it's mine I'm going to use it for the Lord that's it that settles it but wait

56:11

there are some other attractive features maybe I want to let this be something more maybe I want to use this you know

56:17

in creative ways maybe I want to use it to placate my inner feelings for entertainment or I could do more with

56:24

this and then hold on and then it's true it's moving past that it was my I was in

56:30

control of it I had completely conquered it to now it's attached to me

56:35

and now when I feel that it's become something that's unpleasing when I realize it's going against what then I

56:42

have to let it go and guess what you know what will happen to this phone if I never touch it again

56:49

if I literally put the cell phone down and never touch again for about two and a half days

56:54

it will go on representing me on the internet it will do things without me it will

57:02

receive notifications and messages in some cases it'll send some things back on my path it'll continue to have a life

57:09

without me until its battery dies and that's what

57:14

God was explaining you can go out on behalf of the Lord come and you start in

57:19

a position of Victory the moment you got saved you won every single battle in the

57:26

spiritual realm until you your body dies and you win the final battle and go to heaven for an attorney and there will be

57:32

no more battles right the moment you got saved you won

57:37

them all but somewhere along the line sensory yes things we enjoy things we're

57:43

pleased with things we like we go hey there could be more here this could be something I'm going to let

57:50

this become an intimate thing I'm going to let this become part of my personality right

57:55

now I'm going to be very transparent about my personal Journey here first I can give you a specific example I happen to be a role player some of you don't

58:03

even know what that means exactly but I run role-playing games and I run a role-playing game campaign that I've run for 35 years in June

58:11

okay now when I got saved I was doing that and previously getting saved I was

58:16

doing it and there were times when I was in high school in college where I was doing it sometimes five or seven days a week

58:22

so I would work get off Radio Shack at nine I'd get home about 9 20 and there

58:27

would be cars lined up in front of my house waiting to play a game okay so when I became a Christian I said well

58:34

you know I don't I don't think I'm going to have time for that anymore I don't think that God's saying God's changed me

58:39

I gained Victory right and so I began to Edge it out I've been saying I don't

58:45

think I'm able to do that anymore and then there was a moment of time I was living in Michigan I had pretty much moved away from everybody and that I

58:52

played with here and so on and I thought you know what I don't think I'm going to do it anymore at all it was just gonna

58:58

stop because it just doesn't seem like there's really a place or a use for it so I moved from this is who I am to this

59:06

is who I mean if it's a question of God or this then I have to let it go

59:12

okay and then I was prayerfully considering I was talking to the Lord and whatever and the Lord said

59:19

here's the thing I didn't tell you let it go what I said was if it's ungodly or if it

59:26

if it's not going to work for the kingdom it's not profitable it's got to go

59:32

and on top of that he said if it's not going to be profitable and for the kingdom

59:38

then you can invest your time in something else that will replace it

59:43

so I got on the phone with my pastor and I got talking and I talked this dilemma through that I was having and I I had decided

59:49

essentially I wasn't going to do it much anymore and what my pastor and I concluded was God was leading us to make it a Godly

59:57

thing now over the years there are eight or ten salvations people who have

1:00:02

accepted Jesus Christ as their lord and savior that I can specifically attribute to that hobby except it's not really a

1:00:09

hobby I'm honest with you I'm married to it it's part of who I am it's become part of my personality and if you go I

1:00:16

can't I can't understand that you're gonna have to sit in to understand it if you want or or sit

1:00:21

back and judge me do whatever you want to do it's up to you you're free to do whatever you choose to do but for me I

1:00:27

had to go through a process of taking hold of it holding it kind of gently and going like

1:00:32

Lord I can let go of this or it can be part of who who I am right and I got to the point where I was

1:00:38

ready to let go of it and then the Lord said no we're going to use it all right you're going to hold it hold

1:00:44

it kind of gently and then ultimately if it won't mesh if it won't come in if

1:00:51

it won't be part of who you are in Christ then you let it go see the process is like that but remember it

1:00:57

starts with a slave you were already winning and then you thought ah and then you start ah and then you

1:01:04

thought hmm and you have to let it go hold on hold on gently

1:01:11

if you want to unleash this servant into your life to you know wives and slaves

1:01:18

not the same thing okay if you're a man in the room and you're a husband and you

1:01:23

think your wife is a servant to you okay if she's a servant to you that is done out of because she's a follower Lord

1:01:29

Jesus Christ she's serving Jesus so she serves you right otherwise your wife is not a servant

1:01:35

that's not the way it works if you're a woman in the room men they're not your servants if your husband serves you he is doing that out of the goodness of his

1:01:43

heart or he's trying to manipulate you or hopefully he's following Christ and serving Christ and thereby serving you right people are not naturally servants

1:01:51

they were created to be servants but lost we've become not servants your wife is not a slave so you promote

1:01:58

you're thinking about promoting this person or this thing whatever it is to an intimate status

1:02:04

and somewhere in the process you realize no this is not going to work for me for Christians that should line up with who

1:02:11

we are in Christ all right we're going to look real quick at a new testament text and we're already

1:02:16

approaching the conclusion of this sermon all right so go with me if you've got your Bible you follow along the

1:02:21

First Corinthians chapter 6. First Corinthians chapter six

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

1:02:32

before I read from here I want you to understand that in the New Testament Church there was a problem

1:02:38

and the problem was there were things in the world that they were participating with and they didn't know how to

1:02:43

handling one example was eating food that had previously been dedicated to idols so

1:02:49

they sacrificed the food the idols and the Idols are taking the food but really it's the priests right the cultists coming out

1:02:56

taking it off the offering they take it in the back room and then now they've got all this food that people gave to well whatever his name was who cares and

1:03:05

they take down all that food and they take it to the marketplace and they sell it all right now the thing about food is

1:03:11

when it's a little bit prepared you can kind of tell where it came from right if you uh walk into the

1:03:17

New Heights cafeteria and there's a pot of spicy chili there you can immediately rule out some people in our church who

1:03:24

probably didn't make that and you could probably narrow it down to about four or five and if you look in the pot and you

1:03:29

see just meat and beans and sauce and it's spicy nothing else you can kind of

1:03:35

start to I think I know where this came from right so you have your signature dish you want to give something to your false god you're going to make your

1:03:41

signature dish you take it to the false god you put it on the Altar and the next day it's gone yay he took it

1:03:47

liked my phone my my stuff that I made right and then you go to the marketplace the next day and guess what's there your

1:03:53

pot of stuff that you made for bahubala right on purpose was purposely not using the names of any false deities all right

1:03:59

so the purpose there it is it's in the market oh that's my thing that I gave the behold of right I can't buy and eat

1:04:05

that now because I get and I'm gonna tell all my family don't buy that I've dedicated that to bahumala right so

1:04:12

that's the problem people were going to the marketplace and figuring out that the food that was supposed to be disappearing on the altar wasn't

1:04:18

disappearing was being sold in the marketplace now if you're a Christian

1:04:23

and you go to the marketplace and there's food being sold and it's being sold for a pretty good price by the way and Joe that lives down the street from

1:04:30

you says don't eat that don't buy that I sacrificed it develop

1:04:35

what do you do you could buy it cheaper than you could buy almost anything else it's being sold fairly inexpensively right

1:04:42

well you know and I know that boom love is nothing or maybe is a demon or an

1:04:48

evil spirit right and so then can I eat food that was dedicated to an evil spirit that he can I eat his leftovers

1:04:55

that was the world they were they had to figure this out right and so the truth is they were free

1:05:02

to buy and eat the food but they couldn't buy and eat the food with somebody they could like have a guest over there I'm gonna talk to them about

1:05:08

Jesus and then say Oh by the way this food was sacrificed to be homeless and they're all going to go oh wait a minute

1:05:18

right and so they had to work through that problem Paul essentially says this I'm summarize

1:05:25

it for you none of that a boy I was going to say crap I'm just going to say it none of that crap means

1:05:30

anything okay that doesn't mean anything it's all junk don't worry about it now if you're eating with somebody who's worried about

1:05:36

it be gentle right where does that fit in hold

1:05:42

gently great be gentle be kind with that person be compassionate them because they

1:05:47

obviously have a problem with it but you you're free to do whatever you want

1:05:53

and go to First Corinthians chapter six and verse 12. and he says this he says

1:05:58

all things are lawful for me in other words nothing that I could do in Christ

1:06:04

would be breaking the law eating food sacrifices even God forbid lying right though I

1:06:13

wouldn't do it because I understand that a liar this is in the text above doesn't wouldn't inherit the kingdom of God

1:06:18

right so I'm not going to do that but technically it's lawful for me because if I sin now my sins are paid for

1:06:25

could I pay a price in this lifetime sure but ultimately I'll still go to heaven all things are lawful for me

1:06:31

but not all things are profitable for me all things are lawful for me

1:06:38

but I I will not be Mastered by anything in other words all the stuff that you

1:06:45

see wherever you go whatever you think you might like it's all lawful for you eat a ton of carbs if you want that's

1:06:51

not going to affect your salvation no matter what they make you fat right but it won't it won't mess with your salvation watch rated R movies if you

1:06:59

want that's not going to affect your salvation it may mess with your head make it hard for you to see straight

1:07:04

make it hard for you to walk in faith rather than by your Earthly desires but

1:07:09

it's okay right all things are lawful but notice not all things are profitable

1:07:16

and you must not be Mastered by anything so we go back to the analogy of the cell phone your cell phone is fine

1:07:23

the world has cell phones being like the world's not a problem in a sense your tattoos world has tattoos it's fine if

1:07:30

you have tattoos it's lawful it's no problem your hobbies whatever they might be it's all fine somebody comes to you

1:07:37

and says a Christian can't do that you can't do that if you're a Christian you just tell them all things are lawful but

1:07:43

be prepared when they say back to you yeah but I don't think that's profitable okay so then you have to ask them it's

1:07:49

lawful it's fine I can do it but do I want to give it a place in my life does it line up with who I am in Christ

1:07:57

is it willing to be separated and I'm talking as if these things were intelligent and I submit to you in many

1:08:02

cases a lot of things are intelligent that we don't understand are intelligent okay they have a role they're playing a role I'm not saying uh

1:08:09

um a food thinks like a person I'm not saying that but will this food fit in my

1:08:15

body my processes my kingdom following my spiritual warfare will it fit is it

1:08:23

able to be divorced separated from what it was before where it fits in over here

1:08:28

right and I submit to you the first piece of chocolate cake can be

1:08:34

the whole cake not so much now you figure out yourself what that looks like if you look at a cake and you

1:08:41

go like yeah can I eat this cake it's perfectly fine for me to eat this cake you eat the whole cake that's the

1:08:48

problem but you eat a little bit of the cake that can be divorced from the whole you can eat it you can digest it you can

1:08:54

be fine after the fact but you eat the whole cake now you got a problem cell phones are a lot like that

1:09:00

if you won't make a decision about what you can or cannot do with it it probably does not have a place in your life

1:09:05

because eventually it's going to do something all on its own and you're going to have to

1:09:12

stop it you're going to have to be intentional about that and if you won't it's just going to keep doing that to

1:09:18

you over and over and over again just like that slave woman who was living in your house that you decided to make your wife and she starts doing things that

1:09:25

you know don't line up with God she was supposed to leave her false gods behind but she clearly has not she was supposed

1:09:30

to leave the life that she still she's had a month or more but she's still always talking about her mom and dad and

1:09:36

how unjust it was that the Israelites came in and took their city right she's she's always got this issue

1:09:43

I can't have her be part of my heart part of my life part of my stuff because

1:09:48

she won't be separate from what went on before and she won't live now in the Kingdom with me and whether it's a cell

1:09:55

phone or a hobby or a dessert or whatever you were a Victor in the first place and if now if you let it come in

1:10:01

and be part of who part of your intimate being you lose you're intentionally

1:10:07

choosing to lose at that point so what do you do you hold on

1:10:14

here it is I see it then you hold on kind of gently okay God I'm going to take this I'm going to use I'm going to let it become part of who I am part of

1:10:20

myself Part of Me part of my life part of my kingdom effort okay this is not this it's not working very good it's not

1:10:27

working out great I see it's not profitable for the kingdom it's not profitable for who I am

1:10:32

in Christ I let it go is it going to go on without you yes are you supposed to kill it no

1:10:40

can you sell it no right when I was a young Christian

1:10:45

living in Michigan I one of the man named Terry Hill became a good friend of mine a brother in Christ Terry was not a

1:10:51

pastor he was The Apprentice leader of our Apprentice Shepherd of our Bible

1:10:56

study group so he was training to become a facilitator of Bible study but he

1:11:02

hadn't become so he just became my friend we're driving in the car and he talked to me about rated R movies and how he and his wife made a decision to

1:11:08

eliminate all rated R movies and tvma didn't exist at that time but he said in all things like that that have a lot of

1:11:14

violence nudity gross language evil depicted things like you said we just decided to call out because we realized

1:11:20

the Bible says Focus what's on focus on what's pure and you'll be okay right and that's not pure so I shouldn't

1:11:27

focus on so he said we're gonna cut all that out and I said that spinner and I was cut to the quick because I knew and my rack at home was all these rated R

1:11:33

movies that we owned and there was violence and Sherry's favorite actor used to be Steven Seagal you can't get 15 minutes into the movie he's not

1:11:38

snapping somebody's arm right that was her favorite actor so we had all that stuff and I went home to Sherry and I said you

1:11:45

know um I think maybe there's not really a place for it and we should let it go and so we prayerfully with that process

1:11:51

and together I didn't eat I didn't put hand down in edict she's not my slave we decided together to let it go right and

1:11:59

we got we went through the movies and we found the movie The Patriot and and that's got some great Christian message but one of the first sermons I ever

1:12:05

preached was based on that movie it used an illustration from that movie but it's rated R and it's got quite a bit of

1:12:10

violence and War type violence right and I'm prayerful I said Lord am I supposed to get rid of this movie even though I knew that I had used it for a sermon I

1:12:16

might want to use it again and God spoke to me through it and I said Lord and he said no he said no get this he said no

1:12:21

you can keep that one so what I'm saying to you is it about

1:12:27

the fact that the movie's rated R is it about the fact that your cell phone can bring things into your life that woman

1:12:33

was a worshiper of false gods before she was a slave that woman lived in a society a completely different social

1:12:39

mores and rules before he said hey I like her I think I'll make her my wife no it's about whether or not the thing

1:12:46

that's being brought in can be used to glorify God can be used as part of the kingdom of advance so it's about whether

1:12:52

or not it's profitable all things are permissible she's hot I want her as my wife I take her and she Morris for 30

1:12:58

days I don't care her and I gonna get busy every night for the next month right this is going to be awesome I

1:13:04

don't care I'm enjoying this even though I see it's not profitable for my household it's not good for the kingdom

1:13:09

of God she doesn't belong here she refuses to let go of her false gods she continues to say all kinds of things and

1:13:16

then when she's raising the kid she's she's not going to be a good mother Etc but but I I don't care because man when

1:13:21

her and I are alone it fulfills my physical desires no

1:13:28

might be permissible you can take her as your wife that's your option but when you realize it's not profitable

1:13:35

you let it go all things are lawful for me Paul says

1:13:40

but not all things are profitable all things are lawful for me but I will not be Mastered by anything

1:13:47

and then one more in First Corinthians 10 23 very similar verse

1:13:52

First Corinthians 10 10 23.

1:13:59

hmm it's not 23. oh yeah okay so we gotta back up we'll

1:14:05

go back we'll take a run at it uh because he's in the middle of a sentence or a thought process so we'll

1:14:11

go back here so 20. and to the Jews that became as a Jew that I might win Jews to those who are under the law as under the

1:14:17

law though not being myself under the law in other words free but I'm going to behave by the rules of

1:14:23

society even even so even though I'm free to do whatever I want is not profitable for me to break

1:14:29

all the rules and people see me as a rule breaker though not being myself under the law

1:14:34

that I might win those who are also who are under the law to those who are

1:14:39

without law as without laws in other words when I go to people who are not Jewish I don't bring up the rules of all

1:14:46

the Ten Commandments and stuff right I behave without all that jewishness in order

1:14:53

that I can win them 21. to those who are without law as without law though not being without the law of God but under

1:15:00

the law of Christ that I might win those who are without law to the week I became weak that I might

1:15:06

win the week I've become all things to all men that I may be all by all means save some and I do all things for the

1:15:14

sake of the Gospel that I may become a fellow partaker of it do you realize he says at the end there and I do all

1:15:22

things for the sake of the Gospel you need one simple principle if you hold on to it it

1:15:30

better have to do with the gospel if you hold on gently it better have to do with the gospel if you don't let it go

1:15:37

if you don't let it go it better have to do with the gospel he says and I do all

1:15:43

things for the sake of the Gospel why that I

1:15:48

may become a fellow partaker of it this is Paul

1:15:54

witness missionary stoned and whipped within an inch of his life at one point in time claws taken from him were

1:16:00

miraculously healing people preached to late hours a night a young man fell asleep fell out the window and

1:16:06

died in the street and he ran down and brought him back to life and he said I do all things

1:16:13

for the sake of the Gospel so that I may become a fellow partaker of it

1:16:20

so you go out in Victory and you're winning and then something

1:16:25

appeals to you and you think I might want to bring that into my life a person a thing uh whatever an idea I think I

1:16:31

might want to bring that into my life I might want to make it part of who I am hold on to it long enough to figure it

1:16:38

out hold on gently don't take a firm grasp and say this belongs to me I'm keeping it right and then when when and

1:16:46

if you figure out it cannot be a part of you it cannot be a part of a you that is dedicated to God a you that promotes the

1:16:53

gospel a you that drives the kingdom forward with all the gifts that God has put in you

1:17:00

if it can't Let It Go is it permissible that you take them

1:17:05

take that thing take that person take whatever into your life and you keep it there and you make it an intimate part of who you are sure it's permissible

1:17:13

but it's not profitable and if it's not profitable then you're risking the

1:17:18

second half of that verse that I just read where he says I make

1:17:24

all things and I do all things for the sake of the Gospel that I may become a fellow partaker of it do you want to be

1:17:31

a partaker of the Gospel heck yeah because when the time comes and Jesus asks how did you get in here

1:17:38

you aren't dressed quite right you don't fit in with all these other Holy Rollers

1:17:44

who really are living for God and and whatever and he says how did you even get in here you don't want to be like that guy who looked at him and says I'm

1:17:51

not I and says nothing you want to be the guy who says well I got in here because Jesus blood paid for

1:17:57

my sins I got in here because Jesus is my Lord and Savior and I have lived to the best of my ability even though I've

1:18:03

screwed up a hundred or a thousand or a million times I've lived to the best of my ability for him and when I encountered something that I thought

1:18:09

well this would be cool I want this to be part of my life I always first held on to it

1:18:16

kind of gently at first and sometimes I found out I had to let

1:18:21

it go and for that reason I am here I didn't earn these Robes of white my

1:18:27

salvation is not because of anything that I did but because of who Jesus is and I live my life to be a partaker of

1:18:34

it maybe maybe you've already added some things to your

1:18:39

life allowed them to become intimate allowed them to become part of Who You Are

1:18:45

and right now you're thinking well you know I'm not holding on gently I got a pretty firm grasp on a few

1:18:52

things that maybe really don't belong and I don't want to let them go and God is calling out to you now and

1:18:58

saying you need to let them go if you cannot use that for me then it

1:19:03

has no place in you in your life in your Realm

1:19:09

if you're holding on tightly to something that doesn't belong you're giving up your victory

1:19:19

you're not living for Jesus if you're running around snatching

1:19:25

the fruit of the world and the trappings of battle for yourself

1:19:33

instead you're placating your flesh fulfilling your desires

1:19:39

well that didn't work out very well for Aiken he took a cloak and some silver

1:19:45

and he is in his entire family were put to death by the Israelites ultimately after God caused them to have a horrible

1:19:52

loss why because he took things that were under the ban are you taking things that

1:19:58

are under the ban are you taken to yourself things

1:20:04

that cannot be for God at least demote them back to holding

1:20:10

them gently until you figure it out for sure give them an opportunity to be separate

1:20:16

from the things of the world give them an opportunity to come be part of Who You Are

1:20:23

or if you're not going to do that and cut it off in the first place

1:20:28

remember she was a slave and he decided to take her as a wife I submit to you if there was a slave

1:20:35

woman and I thought what am I like to have her as my wife and then I thought

1:20:42

but it's going to be hard to look at her every day as a slave if I don't take her

1:20:47

as my wife because she's pretty hot I wouldn't have taken her home at all

1:20:53

but now I've taken her home and I think I would I think I'd like to make her my wife well now I know how to get there I

1:21:00

hold on to her I hold on to her gently and if it cannot be

1:21:06

then I let it go and yes she's gonna be free

1:21:12

because I tried to make her my wife I humbled her I tried to separate her from her beginnings

1:21:19

and I didn't or I couldn't or wasn't God's idea wasn't the way God wanted it to go but now I realize that and I let

1:21:26

it go Let Her Go we have the praise team to come forward and lead us in a closing him at this

1:21:32

time if you are in that position where you're taking things into your life

1:21:37

and you know you need to let something go then you let it go right now before we start singing

1:21:42

if you're in a position in your life where there's something you're debating about

1:21:48

you're holding the gently you're trying to figure it out and right now you say to God God is this something I gotta let

1:21:54

go or is it something I can make something out of can I use it for your glory can I use it maybe to win people

1:21:59

the Jesus or or to advance my kingdom knowledge or my ability to make

1:22:04

decisions or whatever it might be is it profitable if it's not profitable

1:22:10

and God says it's not profitable can be prepared to let it go it's

1:22:16

entirely possibly the whole month in there for that woman it's kind of possible that you're in a place that you just don't know yet so you're looking at

1:22:22

something in your life and you're just not sure does it belong in its stay will it be a long-term thing or someone you

1:22:29

say Okay Lord I realize that's where I'm at to hold a chicken for now that's at any

1:22:36

point you told me to let it go then I'll let it go maybe you're in the room today and you

1:22:42

say you know what I've never truly turned my life over to the Lord well that's the case and you do that

1:22:48

today let me see but there's this person or this thing perhaps such feelings about

1:22:54

this or I went through this or whatever Jesus was there he saw it all there is

1:22:59

no excuse you 100 for Jesus he's 100 for you

1:23:05

already are you saved and then from that point on something new comes in you're already

1:23:11

the Victor and that's how you handle it when it comes in you start thinking part of who you are you think I like that I'm

1:23:17

adding that who I am first hold it gently get verification from God whether it's

1:23:23

okay and ultimately it's not you let it go

1:23:29

you stand with me and sing this song and if the Lord is urging you to come forward or share some decision or maybe

1:23:35

even right where you are you can raise your hand and say hey I need to say something we don't really need the part of the room so we just need to respond

1:23:42

to God at this time if there is a response in your heart then make it known as we sing foreign

1:23:53

[Music]

1:24:16

Jesus [Music]

1:24:23

Jesus

1:24:34

[Music]

1:24:46

we believe that Jesus is real

1:24:53

[Music]

1:25:01

we believe

1:25:10

that it is

1:25:18

thank you oh we believe

1:25:29

[Music]

1:25:37

we believe and we have life [Music]

1:25:51

We Believe [Music]

1:26:04

Jesus

1:26:12

we believe that Jesus

1:26:18

[Music]

1:26:29

saves us from sin We Believe

1:26:38

[Music] so it occurs to me it happens to me I've

1:26:45

seen it I've seen the lives of a lot of other people that sometimes when you hear the preacher preach or hear the

1:26:50

word from the Bible that it's easier said than done

1:26:55

easier said than done the problem with that in this case is

1:27:02

that we start out as the victors and we sort of give them that up

1:27:07

to go after something that looks good to us but understand that God fully knows

1:27:13

right he knows what he created in fact the word says that he knows that we are

1:27:19

about dust you know so he's fully knows and you will deal with the lust of the

1:27:24

eyes the lessons until you're physically no longer here so it he fully knows

1:27:31

that's why he says all things are permissible once you get saved and follow Jesus you can do all those things you can break the rules

1:27:39

um you can lie without ever becoming a liar see a lost person uh

1:27:45

a dead person right anything they do that's sin it becomes their identity a person who lies

1:27:52

is a liar a person who steals is a thief a person who murders or has anger in their heart toward a brother is a

1:27:58

murderer right but once you're a Christian and your

1:28:04

righteousness is imputed by Jesus so Jesus's righteousness is what God sees when God looks at us now if you lie

1:28:12

it's just heartbreak it's just bad right it doesn't change your identity in Christ you're still because you weren't

1:28:18

getting your righteousness from your choices in the first place you're getting it from Jesus's choices you like he didn't lie it doesn't change the fact

1:28:24

that he's getting his imputed righteousness right you're still righteous so it's permissible

1:28:30

and it's not going to create a change in your end destination however

1:28:35

there should be conflict in here you should go a lot I see that as something so this is just the process on how to

1:28:41

handle when there's some conflict and when a question arises

1:28:46

it's not as complicated as it sounds you'll now know now that you've been

1:28:52

here and heard this you will see things like something new will come into your life so I'm going to invite you to play

1:28:58

a game invite you to a a hobby circumstance or you'll you'll watch a new team that you like or again the

1:29:04

sports uh or a new sport a new new physical thing that you like to work out or

1:29:10

you'll eat a food that you've never ate before and you'll go okay I see this is what we're talking about I'm still alive

1:29:16

I'm still encountering new and how do I handle this hold on to it if you like it

1:29:22

hold on to it but hold it kind of gently and then if it's a problem

1:29:27

for you so it becomes a problem in your faith probably the human walk it's not benefiting the gospel let it go see it's

1:29:33

not as complicated if you where it's complicated is we've already blown it we've already made the decision

1:29:40

to add something to us that we shouldn't have that's where it's complicated but if you were there at your the moment

1:29:46

of your own salvation did you know that God dealt with everything before that point and God will do it again

1:29:52

so that's where you need to turn back to the Lord now and say okay Lord I realize I've got stuff I got stuff that I did

1:29:58

not bet I did not go through the process of determining whether this belongs here or not and you start systematically looking at

1:30:04

the stuff and it might be overwhelming at first but if you every time you think about something does it belong you

1:30:09

return you repent and turn to God and ask God for wisdom and James 1 5 says you'll give it so you go okay

1:30:15

unfortunate I like this a lot but it is no benefit to me in the king of God it does not describe the gospel

1:30:21

therefore as much as I like it It's gotta go because it's no benefit

1:30:28

and I submit to you that when you're 90 or 100 I hope we all make it to that depth a lot of the things that today you

1:30:35

really love to do really like to participating whether they'll be gone so you can foresee yourself for example

1:30:43

not watching sports you can foresee yourself not reading fantasy fiction or not playing games or not going shooting

1:30:50

or not going hunting or not building things or not mowing lawns or not

1:30:56

operating Machinery all of that at 90 100 years old you can see that time down

1:31:01

on the road so if there's anything that you're doing now you just kind of go well

1:31:08

this doesn't benefit me in the Kingdom I really wasn't holding it all that in jail I kind of just took it

1:31:14

but now I see anything to Let It Go it's not that complicated because at the moment you've got accepted use pressure

1:31:21

oil and savior he dealt with everything and you can do it again encourage you to use this process in

1:31:27

your life as a protection from getting stuck with stuff that you don't want

1:31:33

to close in prayer I think a couple hands go just we'll encourage you anybody or if you don't have an inner

1:31:40

person or inner circle of someone that you can call or you know maybe have your wife that's awesome you know somebody to

1:31:45

pour into but you don't have to go to bed angry or offended or deeply hurt and

1:31:51

it may not just be you it could be just somebody finally all over you this world is caught in depth Despair and depravity

1:31:58

everybody goes through it and it might not even be you or you don't know how to handle this person or as a Christian if

1:32:05

you need that call me or text me because that way you know you don't have to go to bed because the idea is when you go

1:32:11

to bed wake up the next day it was never dealt with his mercies are new every day but

1:32:19

that's the idea because it's a new day but if you went to bed without dealing with it you're still living in the past

1:32:26

so I encourage you if you don't have that hey you don't have my phone number which you also have my phone number you

1:32:32

know if you need that you know just reach out and I'll I'll be there unless

1:32:37

people all the time if they're dealing with stuff you know so feel free to call me or text me

1:32:44

oh so something that really sticks out to me because my sermon is

1:32:51

the Letting Go aspect um something that I've been struggling with a lot

1:32:59

really like really bad over the last couple months is

1:33:06

letting go of the worldly teaching of what a man is supposed to be

1:33:12

and I know what God wants me to do I know

1:33:17

how God wants me to be I at least I think I do because

1:33:22

I think I do but when you look at the world

1:33:28

the man's supposed to be the strong one the one that's supposed to provide and

1:33:33

protect and that's similar to what the Bible says

1:33:38

but I need to realize and let go of the fact that I don't have to do it all by

1:33:44

myself and I think that's really the hardest thing for me right now that I've been

1:33:49

dealing with a lot is letting go of the fact that I don't have

1:33:54

to do it upon myself even though me as a person I feel I should because I was

1:34:01

supposed to be the man I'm supposed to be the one to carry my family

1:34:06

but I can't do it by myself and I've been trying and trying and trying and

1:34:13

there's so many things that happen that just make me feel like I'm not

1:34:18

I'm not worth it I'm not it's not worth it you know I'm not doing enough I'm not

1:34:24

being strong enough and I'm not providing for my family the

1:34:31

way I should and like I said a lot of that comes from me growing up in a non-Christian home

1:34:39

and just that being drilled into me as a person through my parents

1:34:44

and it just it's causing me a lot of problems I I'm struggling sleeping again

1:34:51

I last night I got like four hours of sleep because I

1:34:57

woke up from a bad dream and couldn't go back to bed because I was honestly terrified to go back to sleep

1:35:05

so I need to just let that go and

1:35:10

I guess really just not put so much pressure on myself and

1:35:15

understand that there's help out there and

1:35:22

I don't have to be the super strong one all the time

1:35:30

and I think as long as we think we've got all our stuff together we'll never get our stuff together too you know it's

1:35:35

an arrogance the world is very arrogant but ironically the world says what you said about men but then if you look at

1:35:41

men in the world that's not what they do which is Romans 1 right it says they set up rules for

1:35:46

themselves very same rules that they set up so

1:35:52

so we we just need to do it God's way that's the fencing and turning to the Lord

1:35:57

and uh and we learned to be dependent on him and that's the key good stuff anybody

1:36:04

else real quick come once all right brother Mike Brewster would

1:36:10

you pray for us in closing we'll pray with you oh it does again I think this time this place can come together

1:36:17

worship you God want to thank you for our pastor gave them

1:36:23

Terry don't fall on idle ears in our daily lives

1:36:29

yeah again be with us guide us these things probably

1:36:36

yeah two hours and fifty minutes it's 50 seconds and counting bye