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Real life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with

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intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the

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saints and impact our culture.

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Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at

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hand.

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Jesus said that.

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People get all nervous about the word repent.

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Repent for what?

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They get all uppity about it.

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Oh, just stop.

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It's an old English word.

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It means turn around.

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Isn't that great?

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You could say it this way.

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You're going in one direction, do 180 degree

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turn.

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You're going that way, stop.

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When you hear this message, the kingdom of

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God's at hand.

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Salvation is available to you.

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God wants to forgive you of your sins.

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The next question should be from you.

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What do I do?

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Answer, repent.

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You can get the outlines of this podcast

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by going to Jackhibbs.com slash podcast.

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Today, if this podcast lifts you up and

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encourages you to live a more fulfilled life

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in Christ, then make sure you leave us

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one of those five star ratings.

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To us, that's like saying amen or yes.

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Then that rating will encourage others to listen.

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Now open your hearts to what God's word

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has to say to you.

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Here is Jack Hibbs.

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Romans 14, Romans 15, Romans 16.

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A great section of the scripture that is

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speaking directly to the believer about their walk

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with God, making it real because everything about

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Jesus is real.

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And in that, the reality, and I think

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the authentic faith of a true believer cannot

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be denied.

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When I say things like that, I think

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of the man, Stephen.

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Remember Stephen in the book of Acts?

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Stephen was a man that was full of

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the Holy Spirit.

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You really don't know much about Stephen, but

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his great moment of the hall of faith,

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I would say, of course, is when he

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was a guilty of loving Jesus, guilty of

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proclaiming Christ.

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It's interesting to note that where Stephen was

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stoned to death for his witness of Christ,

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being full of the Holy Spirit, what did

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he do?

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He proclaimed the gospel, and one of the

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eyewitnesses to that, and he was actually the

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man orchestrating the stoning and the killing, he's

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the man responsible, was a guy by the

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name of Saul, a Pharisee from Tarsus, a

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Jew, who no doubt, Stephen's stoning to death,

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Stephen's last words is, "'I see the Lord

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standing at the right hand "'of God the

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Father.'" And Stephen uttered those words just as

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Jesus.

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Father, do not hold this against them.

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Forgive them.

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Isn't that amazing?

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That's big grace, people.

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You can't do that with human power.

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And Paul saw that, and I'm convinced that

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that led to Paul's great conversion on the

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road to Damascus.

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That had to be haunting him and preparing

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him all along the way, a great witness.

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So church, getting real with God and man

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requires us to know who we are, and

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it means that we must together love first.

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And he starts out when he tells us

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in verse seven, "'For none of us lives

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to himself "'and no one dies to himself.

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"'For if we live, we live to the

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Lord, "'and if we die, we die to

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the Lord.

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"'Therefore, whether we live or die, we are

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the Lord's.'" He's speaking to the fact that

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the believer, if we're living or if we

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die, we are the Lord's.

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Isn't that amazing?

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When we hear the word die, for the

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believer, we must be clear on this.

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When we die as believers, we don't die.

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Jesus said, if you believe in me, though

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you die, you're not dead.

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That kind of freaks some of us out.

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You say, wait a minute, he's laying right

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there.

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The guy is dead.

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No, the guy is gone.

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The Bible tells us to be absent from

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this body is to be present with the

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Lord.

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And Jesus is the Lord over the living,

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that's all of us here right now, and

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those who died in faith.

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Imagine, as you sit here this morning, those

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who have died in faith are standing before

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him in eternity based on the blood of

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the everlasting covenant.

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And based on that fact that, as Paul

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has been teaching us, who are we to

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judge another man's servant?

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And who are we to say this or

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that about the celebration of any particular day

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that you might hold sacred to God versus

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someone else holding some other day?

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We're not to judge people on that.

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The bottom line was, whatever you do, if

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you eat or if you do not eat,

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if you drink or do not drink, if

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you pick this day or that day, bottom

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line, do it unto the Lord, give God

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the glory, honor his name.

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And I love the grace that's involved in

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that.

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Grace to be victorious in Christ.

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What a great liberating truth.

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And the fact is that I am not,

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I cannot live my life to myself.

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Watch this, everybody.

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We don't, listen, we're not far from Hollywood.

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It's all about self.

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Everything is about stardom.

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Everything is about the idol worshiping of the

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performer, so to speak, right?

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And if that's such a great thing, why

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are not those people fulfilled and content and

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happy?

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Instead with, so to speak, owning the world,

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they're drugged out, they're drunked out.

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They often end their lives in suicide.

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The Bible makes it very clear right here

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that for you and I to love one

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another and even love our enemies is the

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fact that you and I must realize that

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none of us live to ourself and we

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do not die to ourself.

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You're not an island, no matter what Paul

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Simon says.

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You're not an island.

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No, I'm just gonna live my life to

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myself.

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You can't do that.

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Listen, there's a big craze going on in

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our new world.

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I was speaking to an expert on this

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last night in Arizona and this stuff of

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AI and now a shocking poll.

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I don't know who did the poll.

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You can Google it later, but there's a

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poll that's out and young people today are

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choosing.

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They want to have a synthetic relationship with

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AI friends rather than actual humans.

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And their argument is this.

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It's too complex to have a relationship with

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another human.

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Too much drama.

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And you can literally go and you can

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engineer through AI.

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You can make your friends.

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You can create your friends.

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Listen, this is freakish, this is sick and

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it goes in a thousand different directions.

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But listen, today with AI, your kids are

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creating friends in their own image.

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And it's not a joke.

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You can't tell that these things are not

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real on the screen.

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They look exactly real.

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And by the way, sad to say it,

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but it's not just friends that you communicate

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with.

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They actually carry on conversations and dialogues.

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I don't know if you've seen this stuff

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going on, but you can ask AI all

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kinds of stuff.

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And if you ask in a rude manner,

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tone of voice, I don't know about you,

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but you can say a nice word with

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a wrong tone.

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Didn't sound good.

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Did you know AI knows this?

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It has tone.

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It's very convincing.

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Problem is it's not real.

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It's not real or is it the new

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real whereby I think demonic powers are gonna

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seize upon such things.

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Hey, why pray when you can ask AI

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for the answer?

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Hey, what should I do about this or

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that?

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Think about that.

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The discipline of prayer is hard, but you're

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gonna get your answer from God.

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People don't wanna deal with that.

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No, I want an answer in the next

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3.5 seconds.

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And it's been said today that kids don't

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even know how to learn now.

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All they know is how to search for

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the answer.

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But you can now create a world around

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you that's synthetic and it's not even real.

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And people are choosing that, but there's no

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love.

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It's fake.

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It's false.

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Oh, but it's convenient.

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Look, you're in church right now.

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And I know I'm gonna get mail on

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this.

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I always do.

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If you ever since COVID have gotten into

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the habit of not getting together with believers,

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because it's what?

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It's what?

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It's convenient.

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It's convenient to stay home.

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And we do church in our jammies.

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You're not doing church.

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You may be listening to a Bible study,

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but you're not doing church.

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Church is where you have to fight over

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seats and dive in for the parking spot.

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Be nice to let people out of the

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parking spot.

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Church is having to bump into people.

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Church is having to deal with stuff.

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We want it.

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Oh no, we want a synthetic world.

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And you'll never be able to love other

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people in a synthetic world.

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Maybe I see it differently or maybe more

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vividly, or maybe I've thought about this a

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long time, but my God did not send

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an angel to reveal who he is.

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He came himself.

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He didn't even lean on an angel.

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No.

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He came in human skin to reveal himself

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to you.

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Real love that can be experienced.

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And the scripture says, if we live, we

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live to the Lord.

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And if we die, we die to the

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Lord.

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Therefore, whether we live or die, we are

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the Lord's.

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We are to be his example.

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First Corinthians three, verse 13 says, then each

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one's work will become clear for the day

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will declare it.

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Because listen, it will be revealed by fire.

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This is the judgment of Christ, the judgment

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of God.

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And the fire will test each one's work

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of what sort it is.

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If anyone's work, which he has built on

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endures, I'll come back to this in a

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moment, he will receive a reward.

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If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer

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loss, but he himself will be saved, yet

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so through fire.

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Listen, talking about loving one another, you and

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I could perform miracles.

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That doesn't matter.

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You hear me?

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Listen up.

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People are gonna, Jesus said it over and

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over again.

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The disciples, the apostles said it.

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In the last days, there's gonna be times

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of great deception done by miracles.

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So that's not the defining point.

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The defining point is true love.

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Actual love that God puts within your heart

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to minister to other people.

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Because let's be honest, miracles are fantastic if

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they're done by God.

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You say, what do you mean if they're

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done by God?

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Because the Bible makes it clear that when

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Pharaoh encountered Moses, Moses, remember the serpent?

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Pharaoh's magicians had their staff, their rods, and

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that they turned them, Satan turned them into

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snakes.

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And then Moses, it's so awesome.

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Moses all by himself, he's standing there, old

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man.

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You gotta see all these young punks.

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They got their, they're the counselors, they're the

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priests of all these various Egyptian Gods.

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And they put down their staffs that are

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snakes.

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And you just gotta see Moses standing all

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alone.

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It's just like, yeah.

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I bet everybody else is going, snake, that's

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amazing.

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And Moses throws down his staff and his

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staff turns into a snake and eats up

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all the other snakes.

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It's just like, listen, miracles, miracles are tied

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to a message.

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And there'll be miracles being performed in the

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last days by religious people who are not

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preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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They will deny the fact that Jesus died

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on the cross for their sins and rose

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again from the dead.

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They'll be inspired and empowered by satanic influences.

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And you gotta watch out for that.

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We live in that kind of an age.

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But the Bible tells us that we as

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believers, whatever we do, 1 Corinthians 13 tells

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us it's gotta be done by love.

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If you have all the gifts of the

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Holy Spirit and you operate them, the bottom

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line is they're junk without them being operated

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by the love of God.

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Think of that for a moment.

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The simplicity of God.

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And yet it's impossible for us to obtain

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without his miraculous touch upon our lives.

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And so we move on to this.

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We continue on in verse nine, it says,

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to this end, Christ died and rose and

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lived again, that he might be Lord of

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both the dead and the living.

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This is the Jesus of the Bible.

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People often argue, how is it that you

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worship God?

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You say Jesus is God.

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Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God manifested in

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three persons.

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Explain that.

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I really can't.

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And don't talk to me about ice and

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vapor and the egg and the shell and

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the yolk and the, it's beyond us.

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But that very truth is found in the

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very first verse of the Bible.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and

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the earth, and that word is Elohim.

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Singular, El, Elohim, singular, one God in multiple.

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And the Bible tells us that Christ was

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the architect builder if you want to put

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it that way in Colossians and in the

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book of Hebrews as well.

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But doesn't the Bible tell us that it

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was the spirit of God that hovered over

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the waters at creation?

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Just in the very first book of the

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Bible, the Trinity is there.

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But Jesus Christ died and rose again.

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That is the message.

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Whatever religious pursuit you may be flirting with,

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if you don't know Christ Jesus, you don't

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have what we have.

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What do you have?

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We have a risen Savior.

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His resurrection proves everything the Bible says.

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And on top of it, the Bible said

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in advance that this is what he would

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accomplish for us, that he would in fact

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be resurrected from the dead.

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Matthew chapter three, verse two says, repent, this

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is the gospel.

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Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at

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hand.

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Jesus said that.

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Repent, change your mind.

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We all get weird, I mean, we shouldn't,

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but people get all nervous about the word

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repent.

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00:15:05.810 --> 00:15:07.350
Repent, well, what?

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They get all uppity about it.

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00:15:09.390 --> 00:15:10.150
Oh, just stop.

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It's an old English word.

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It means turn around.

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Isn't that great?

396
00:15:15.450 --> 00:15:17.110
You could say it this way.

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You're going in one direction, do 180 degree

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turn.

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You're going that way, stop.

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When you hear this message, the kingdom of

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00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:26.070
God's at hand.

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00:15:27.070 --> 00:15:28.370
Salvation is available to you.

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00:15:28.690 --> 00:15:30.190
God wants to forgive you of your sins.

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00:15:30.630 --> 00:15:31.930
The next question should be from you.

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00:15:32.050 --> 00:15:32.770
What do I do?

406
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Answer, repent.

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00:15:34.710 --> 00:15:35.550
What does that mean?

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00:15:36.470 --> 00:15:37.430
Turn around.

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00:15:38.930 --> 00:15:41.210
Stop thinking about Jesus the way that you

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00:15:41.210 --> 00:15:42.790
have been and think differently.

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00:15:44.890 --> 00:15:47.010
Stop running from him, run to him.

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And please, please think about it.

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00:15:50.610 --> 00:15:52.450
Oh, I can't run to him.

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00:15:52.530 --> 00:15:53.350
I'm such a sinner.

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00:15:53.530 --> 00:15:54.450
No, you don't understand.

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00:15:55.030 --> 00:15:56.730
If you are such a sinner, you're the

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00:15:56.730 --> 00:15:59.550
one that can bring him greater glory.

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God loves sinners, but don't stay that way.

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God loves us enough.

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00:16:08.850 --> 00:16:10.850
Listen, people will say, I love you just

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00:16:10.850 --> 00:16:11.610
the way you are.

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00:16:11.890 --> 00:16:12.510
Well, of course.

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00:16:12.610 --> 00:16:13.390
Okay, that's nice.

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00:16:13.850 --> 00:16:15.490
God loves us just the way we are,

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00:16:15.490 --> 00:16:17.430
but God loves us so much, he won't

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00:16:17.430 --> 00:16:18.570
leave us the way we are.

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00:16:18.890 --> 00:16:20.990
He changes us by his power.

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00:16:21.290 --> 00:16:23.330
And all that requires of us is to

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00:16:23.330 --> 00:16:26.870
repent, that is turn around, realizing, knowing that

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00:16:26.870 --> 00:16:28.610
the direction I'm going is the wrong way.

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00:16:28.690 --> 00:16:29.410
You know that inside.

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00:16:29.530 --> 00:16:30.750
Every human knows that inside.

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00:16:31.030 --> 00:16:32.730
They're convicted by the Holy Spirit.

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00:16:33.170 --> 00:16:36.430
Believer or not, Jesus said so, that the

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00:16:36.430 --> 00:16:39.290
Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin.

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00:16:39.890 --> 00:16:40.690
Why does he do that?

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00:16:40.730 --> 00:16:41.290
To be mean?

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00:16:41.890 --> 00:16:44.970
No, to get you to change your course

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00:16:44.970 --> 00:16:47.210
and to come to him.

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00:16:49.650 --> 00:16:52.430
The scripture goes on, Mark 1 15.

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The time is fulfilled.

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00:16:54.270 --> 00:16:55.530
The kingdom of God is at hand.

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00:16:55.830 --> 00:16:57.990
Repent and believe in the gospel.

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00:16:59.170 --> 00:17:01.410
The gospel that Christ died for you.

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00:17:01.750 --> 00:17:03.010
And he rose again from the dead.

446
00:17:03.230 --> 00:17:05.530
And by putting your faith in him, he

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00:17:05.530 --> 00:17:07.290
issues to you the free gift of eternal

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00:17:07.290 --> 00:17:07.710
life.

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00:17:09.710 --> 00:17:12.410
And you may be here today, or you're

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00:17:12.410 --> 00:17:14.650
watching right now, and you're thinking, yeah, I

451
00:17:14.650 --> 00:17:15.510
don't know, I doubt it.

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00:17:17.150 --> 00:17:17.829
You know what?

453
00:17:17.930 --> 00:17:20.010
You're just going to stay in that condition

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00:17:20.010 --> 00:17:22.089
unless you taste and see that the Lord

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00:17:22.089 --> 00:17:22.990
is good, folks.

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00:17:23.770 --> 00:17:25.069
Can you imagine this?

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00:17:25.109 --> 00:17:28.550
You've become so accustomed to living in some

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00:17:28.550 --> 00:17:30.850
form of mitigating your shame.

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00:17:33.100 --> 00:17:35.460
You think maybe no one's gonna find out

460
00:17:35.460 --> 00:17:37.400
about it, or you've covered all your tracks,

461
00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:40.140
and maybe you have, but down deep inside,

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00:17:40.280 --> 00:17:44.000
you know, there's this nagging presence that God

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00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:44.540
knows.

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00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:47.100
And do you know what he wants to

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00:17:47.100 --> 00:17:47.300
do?

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00:17:47.620 --> 00:17:49.100
He wants to go to the heart of

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00:17:49.100 --> 00:17:49.440
the matter.

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00:17:49.800 --> 00:17:50.900
He wants to go to the core of

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00:17:50.900 --> 00:17:51.280
it all.

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00:17:52.120 --> 00:17:53.740
And he wants to touch you right there

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00:17:55.310 --> 00:17:57.070
and expose you.

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00:17:57.390 --> 00:17:59.730
Not expose you to the world, expose you

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00:17:59.730 --> 00:18:00.470
to yourself.

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He already knows everything about you.

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But what we do as humans, look, we

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learned this from Adam and Eve, mom and

477
00:18:06.730 --> 00:18:06.950
dad.

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00:18:07.030 --> 00:18:08.090
They taught us this.

479
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Hide, sow fig leaves, do whatever it takes.

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Cover it up.

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00:18:14.840 --> 00:18:16.800
And you could see Jesus come along and

482
00:18:16.800 --> 00:18:18.340
just pull one little thread.

483
00:18:20.020 --> 00:18:21.120
Hey, what is that?

484
00:18:21.260 --> 00:18:23.060
He pulls on the thread and the whole

485
00:18:23.060 --> 00:18:26.300
garden falls off of you.

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00:18:27.580 --> 00:18:28.720
And you're exposed.

487
00:18:29.180 --> 00:18:30.740
And you say, Jack, that's terrifying.

488
00:18:30.940 --> 00:18:33.380
It is terrifying, but that's not all.

489
00:18:34.760 --> 00:18:38.720
You're exposed before him who is mighty to

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00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:39.140
save.

491
00:18:39.780 --> 00:18:42.120
And he says to you, you are now

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00:18:42.120 --> 00:18:43.620
naked and open before me.

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I know everything about you before you were

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00:18:46.760 --> 00:18:47.460
ever born.

495
00:18:47.740 --> 00:18:49.160
And I've seen it all.

496
00:18:50.440 --> 00:18:52.420
And I'm speaking to you and I'm asking

497
00:18:52.420 --> 00:18:54.080
you, you come to me, you bring me

498
00:18:54.080 --> 00:18:57.100
your shame, your guilt, your sin.

499
00:18:57.920 --> 00:18:59.200
I'll take it away from you.

500
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If you've never experienced Christ, you are still

501
00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:06.500
living under a cloud of shame and you

502
00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:07.880
need not live like that anymore.

503
00:19:08.540 --> 00:19:10.200
Let Jesus take it away.

504
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Let him remove it.

505
00:19:13.520 --> 00:19:16.960
One of the great, beautiful, liberating strengths about

506
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:19.320
being a follower of Jesus Christ is the

507
00:19:19.320 --> 00:19:22.980
stuff that in my memory, my mind, I'm

508
00:19:22.980 --> 00:19:25.400
embarrassed of and I'm ashamed of.

509
00:19:26.260 --> 00:19:29.660
And some of those things, nobody knew about

510
00:19:29.660 --> 00:19:29.980
them.

511
00:19:33.080 --> 00:19:35.300
And then Jesus knocks on your heart and

512
00:19:35.300 --> 00:19:36.400
it's like, oh my goodness.

513
00:19:38.040 --> 00:19:39.920
And instead of him saying, sit down while

514
00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:43.880
I beat you up, he says, stand up

515
00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:45.540
and I'll make you whole.

516
00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:48.200
He does this.

517
00:19:48.500 --> 00:19:49.640
Let him do that to you.

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00:19:54.280 --> 00:19:56.960
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519
00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:00.020
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520
00:20:00.300 --> 00:20:02.860
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521
00:20:02.860 --> 00:20:03.540
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00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:07.980
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00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:08.840
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