Episode Transcript
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He may be seated. Let's turn
our attention to second chronicles, Chapter Fifteen.
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Second Chronicles Chapter Fifteen, this is
part two a three part story about
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King Asa. Second Chronicles Chapter Fifteen. This is God's word. Let's give
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our attention to it. The spirit
of God came upon Azarai, the son
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of obd, and he went out
to meet ASA and said to him,
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hear me, Asa and all Judah
and Benjamin, the Lord is with you,
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while you are with him. If
you seek him, he will be
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found by you, but if you
forsake him, he will forsake you.
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For a long time, Israel was
without the true God and without a teaching
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priest and without law. But when
in their distress, they turned to the
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Lord, the God of Israel,
and sought him, he was found by
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them. In those times, there
was no peace to him who went out
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or to him who came in,
for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of
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the lands. They were broken in
peace. Is nation was crushed by nation
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and city by city, for God
troubled them with every sort of distress.
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But you take courage, do not
let your hands be weak, for your
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work shall be rewarded as soon as
asa heard these words, the prophecy of
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Azariah, the son of Obed,
he took courage and put away the detestable
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idols from all the land of Judah
and Benjamin and from the cities that he
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had taken in the hill country of
Ephrium, and he repaired the altar of
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the Lord that was in front of
the vestibule of the House of the Lord,
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and he gathered all Judah and Benjamin
and those from Ephraim, Manassa and
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Simeon who were residing with them,
for great numbers had deserted to him from
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Israel when they saw that the Lord, his God, was with him.
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They were gathered at Jerusalem in the
third month of the fifty fifteen year of
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the reign of ASA. They sacrifice
to the Lord on that day, from
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the spoil that they had brought,
seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep,
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and they entered into a covenant to
seek the Lord, the God of their
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fathers, with all their heart and
with all their soul, but that whoever
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would not seek the Lord, the
God of Israel, should be put to
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death, whether young or old,
man or woman. They swore an oath
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to the Lord with a loud voice
and with shouting and with sumpets and with
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horns, and all Judah rejoiced over
the earth, over the oath, for
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they had sworn with all their heart
and had sought him with their whole desire,
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and he was found by them and
the Lord gave them rest. All
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around. Even Maka, the mother, or his mother, King Asa,
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removed from being Queen Mother because she
had made a detestable image for Asherah.
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Asa cut down her image, crushed
it and burned it at the book Brook
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Kid drawn, but the high places
were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless,
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the heart of asa was holly true
all his days and he brought into
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the House of God the sacred gifts
of his father and his own sacred gifts,
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silver and gold and vessels. And
there was no more war until the
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thirty five year of the reign of
ASA. May God bless his words to
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us. Well, I said,
here we have the second of three parts
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of ASA's reign, and here,
in this account of a great success during
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Asa's kingdom, we have a story
that tells us something about the past so
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that we can understand what God is
doing in the present. God reve feels
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these things to us in the Old
Testament, not just so that we might
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be interested or here a nice story, but so that we might know something
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of him. He tells us these
things so that we might know who he
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is and the things that he's done
and the things that he's doing even now.
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And so I want to start with
speaking about an ever true promise.
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Then will promise that comes from the
Lord, and then will consider ASA's response,
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a model response, I think,
and then finally we'll finish with an
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assuring action, God's reward and what
he gives to asa fulfillment of these promises.
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So first the ever true promise,
as Ariah comes to King Asa by
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way of God. The spirit of
God, we read, came upon Azariah,
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the son of Obed and now,
as God's spokesman, is what this
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is, what prophets are, he
goes and he goes to King Asa and
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he speaks to him and all jude
and and Benjamin. He speaks to the
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southern kingdom and he says these words. Is we read in verse two.
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The Lord is with you while you
are with him. If you seek him,
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he will be found by you,
but if you forsake him, he
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will forsake you. There's something very
simple about this, but it's also very
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profect sound. There are some things
that we seek that we do not find.
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It's a remarkable thing to say that
if you seek it, you will
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find it. It's often not true. I don't know how many of you
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are searching for your keys before you
came here, I was. I found
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them, fortunately, but there are
often times we don't find the things that
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we're looking for, and not just
possessions, but the big things love,
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peace, meaning or truth, justification, holiness, forgiveness of our sins.
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Some people go their entire lives seeking
these things, hope, promise, salvation,
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something spiritual, something meaningful, something
heavenly, and they seek and they
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seek and they never find it.
For Asa to say, for God,
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to say through Asa, if you
seek me, you will find me,
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is an amazing promise, especially because
God is higher than all of these things
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that we seek, higher than our
possessions, higher than the things that the
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relationships that we might have, higher
than even these great blessings I mention,
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peace and Truth and love and forgiveness
and all the rest. The flip side
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is also true. If you forsake
God, he will forsake you. It's
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a very simple and profound thing.
When we come to the Lord, he
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gives himself to us. When we
leave the Lord, well, we are
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left from the Lord. He gives
us over to our own forsaking, our
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own turning, our own unrepentance.
But here we have this, this beautiful
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promise, and it's a promise of
grace, isn't it? God doesn't owe
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us are finding him. God doesn't
owe us peace and love and truth and
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hope and forgiveness. But that's what
he's promising. When he says you will
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find me, he means find me
in this blessed way. When you read
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about the gods of the various belief
systems, various pagan gods, Astra that
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we as mentioned here and others,
they're not always that predictable. Sometimes there
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are there like a surprise. You
don't necessarily know what you're going to get.
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Maybe one day the God will be
angry with you, maybe one day
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the God will be pleased with you. There's a kind of capriciousness that we
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read in the stories of the gods
desiring appeasement and all kinds of ways.
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It's never predictable, it's never knowable, but here the God the one true
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living God, makes himself extremely predictable, reveals himself in this extremely simple way.
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If you seek me, you will
find me and you'll find him in
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in blessing. It's a promise that
God made in Deuteronomy. I want to
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read to you this. It's similar, but I want to read it to
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you to remind you of the main
point here, that it's an ever true
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promise. So Deuteronomy a chapter four, verse Twenty Nine. Deuteronomy for twenty
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nine. But from there you will
seek the Lord, your God, and
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you will find him if you search
after him with all your heart and with
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all your soul. And then again, listen to God's words. Let Me
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Book Mark My page there so I
can find my way back. Listen to
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God's words in Luke, Chapter Eleven, verse nine. Luke Eleven, verse
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nine, Jesus says, and I
tell you, ask and it will be
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given to you, seek and you
will find, knock and it will open
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to you, be open to you
for everyone who receive, everyone who asks
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receives, and the one who seeks
finds, and to the one who knocks
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it will be opened. And then
Jesus goes on to use this very tender
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analogy. He says what father among
you, if his son asks for a
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fish, will, instead of a
fish, give him a serpent, or
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if he asks for an egg,
will give him a Scorpion? If you,
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then, who are evil, know
how to give good gifts to your
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children, excuse me. How much
more will the heavenly father give the Holy
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Spirit to those who ask him?
These promises are repeated throughout the Gospel.
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There are reminders of of this Great
Truth and there are parables as well.
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I remember the parable of the Prodigal
son, one who was not seeking communion
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with his father, but sus the
opposite. He forsaked his father, he
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left him, he moved away.
But what happened when he decided to turn
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again and to seek his home and
his father? Didn't just find his father,
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his dad was running towards him.
There was no mystery, it was
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no wondering, there is no searching
really, he simply went home and there
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he was, his father running toward
him. And this is the promise of
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God. This is the great and
gracious promise of God. Then, when
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we seek him, he reveals himself
to us. Not It's not a it
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can't be a double minded seeking,
of course, a kind of let's philosophizes
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about esoteric things and maybe something wonderful
will happen. It's not a halfhearted seeking,
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seeking but not seeking, a wanting
to know but not really caring.
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Honestly, but when we go to
the father of Heaven, the one who
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created the heavens and the earth and
has revealed himself in the world in these
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saving ways and says to us,
when you come to me in faith,
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when you seek me with your heart
and your soul, I will be there,
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it's a wonderful promise. It's a
gracious promise, it's a promise filled
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with hope. So that's the promise
of the Lord. How are we supposed
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to respond to that? Well,
you already know. You don't respond to
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a gift like that with ungratefulness.
You don't say never mind, you don't
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walk away, you don't forsake the
Lord lest he forsake you. Instead,
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you do what asa did. ASA
gives us a model response to this ever
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true promise. What does he do? He does exactly what God says is
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to do. He turns with all
his heart and his soul to God.
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He turns to God as the true
God and he puts away all the idols,
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he takes them out of Judah and
Benjamin, even this one that his
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own mother made, a detestable image
reread in verse sixteen for Astra. He
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cuts it down, crushes it,
Burns it at the Book Brook Kid Drawn.
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It's pretty dramatic, right. Asa
makes a statement and perhaps a hard
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thing to do. I'm not sure
who knows what his mother was like,
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but then you imagine any family situation, that even the lowest level, and
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I think you can imagine that these
things would not be easy. But now
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we're talking about someone who is described
here in our passage as the Queen Mother.
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And he doesn't just do he doesn't
just destroy this image and cut it
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down and crush it, etc.
But it says he removed her from being
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the clean mother. Obviously she's always
his mom, so to speak, put
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in that informal way, but this
title that she held, this place in
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Israel. He says you're done because
of this thing you've you have done.
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He does what Jesus says sometimes happens
when we come to the Kingdom of God
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and are faithful in it. We
have to forsake even our family them to
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follow after the Lord and encourage.
That's the word that is used by the
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Prophet. Take courage, he says
in verse seven, and that's the word,
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that's the very action that asa takes. In Verse Eight. He took
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courage and he put away the detestable
idols. Following after the Lord sometimes takes
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courage. Following after the Lord,
seeking him that he might be found,
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is not always easy. Sometimes we
see it seems like such an easy choice.
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We think of the Prodigal Son.
Say you're eating slop with the pigs.
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Why in the world would you not
go home to your heavenly father?
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And yet, when we're often in
those same situations, we have hundreds of
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reasons why we don't want to do
the thing that would seem so right to
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do, so obvious to do.
What are the consequences? All? All
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be embarrassed, I don't know how. What if he's not there? And
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on and on and on. We
have fears. There's a very real fears.
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Sometimes it's very real consequences attached to
those. But we're called in faith
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to trust the God who has made
the promise. That's where the courage comes
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from. It's not just from some
kind of in word strength it's from trust
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in the Lord. He takes courage
because he believes with the spirit of God
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has said through has a Riyah.
He believes what the Lord had said and
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promised to Solomon, his promised to
Solomon in his prayer and David in the
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Covenant and Moses Back in Deuteronomy.
And he takes that courage, and it's
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not only a personal one, but
as king as leader of his people.
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He eliminates false idols, he turns
away from them and then he calls his
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people together to renew the Covenant with
God. And they do that. We
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read and verses ten and following.
They gathered in Jerusalem in the third month
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of the fifteen day of the reign
of asa and they sacrifice to the Lord
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on that day, from the spoil
that they had brought seven hundred action oxen
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and seven thousand sheep and they enter
into a covenant to seek the Lord Asa.
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Or, I'm sorry, as a
Riah says, a said Judah Benjamin,
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this is what you must do.
And they all stand together and they
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say that's what we're doing, that's
where we're going, that's the direction we're
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heading, full speed ahead. Take
down the idols, take down the Ashra
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Poles destroy them in the cities and
they make a covenant. They make sacrifices
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with all their heart and soul.
They even declare that whoever would not seek
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the Lord would be put to death. They are serious, in fact,
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they're so some they're so committed in
this way that they swear an oath with
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a loud voice and shouting and trumpets
and horns. Can you imagine the fervor
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of the moment? We were reading
in our men's Bible study or reviewing some
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chapters and acts and from the Ephesian
City, and there in these stories,
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and I think it's an axe twenty, there's this great uproar, there's this
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huge crowd and commotion going on.
This riot in ephesis so bad that people
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didn't even know why they were there. You see the exact opposite having happening
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here at this Covenant Renewal Ceremony.
They say isn't a riot. It's loud,
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but it's not a riot. They
are all there with singleness of purpose
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and of mind, before the Lord
to seek after him. And you know,
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they do in some ways what the
Christians and ephesis did, when the
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Christians in ephesis turned to the Lord. What did they do? They compiled
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all of their magic books, their
sorcery, all of it together, and
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they burned it. They put it
away. It was expended and s of
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yeah, it was worth a lot
of money. Yeah, but who cares
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when it comes to knowing the Lord
and seeking after him? Their response,
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ACE's response, Judah's response, Benjamin's
response, these are the responses of faith
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and when you hear the promise of
the Lord, it should be your response
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as well. When we come to
the Lord, we should seek him with
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all of our heart, all of
our soul, and turn away from everything
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that's false. Don't kind of cling
on to the old garbage, wondering if
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there might be some use for it
in the Kingdom of God. Maybe this
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idol might still approve helpful somehow,
maybe these old sins might serve some purpose
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in the service of the Lord.
Of course not. No, we go
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to the Lord, rejecting all that
belongs to the Kingdom of the evil one,
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all that belongs to the world,
the flesh, the old way of
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the life, and we go to
your way. We go to the God
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of our fathers, we go to
the one who has made these promises again
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and again, and you know what
happens? Exactly what the Lord said would
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happen. He gives them peace.
We read in Verse Fifteen. The he
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was found by them and the Lord
gave them peace all around, just like
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he did with Solomon. It's like
he did with David, just like he
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does with Jesus. When we come
to the Lord, when we seek after
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the Lord, he gives us peace, he answers his promise, he confirms
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that he fulfills it. God doesn't
leave us hanging. He doesn't offer a
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thing halfheartedly and say, never mind, I changed my mind. He says
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he will be found, and to
find the Lord means to find peace.
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We read in Verse Nineteen. There
was no more war until the thirty five
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year of the reign of ASA.
If you under why the thirty five year
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business, well, you'll have to
come back next time. But here we
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have an assurance of God, we
have this confirmation of his promises, this
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moment in history where God promised one
thing and he fulfilled it. And this,
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of course, isn't the only time. God does this over and over
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and over and over again, and
these is why these things are recorded for
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us in the Old Testament and in
the new testament as well, God fulfilling
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his promises again and again and again, so that we might remember them,
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that we might call these stories in
our minds and in our hearts and follow
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after the Lord, remember his promise, remember that he fulfills them, that
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he stands firm a by them.
And of course he does this in Jesus,
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the Great King, much greater than
a so much greater than any King
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God ever raised to the throne of
Israel, the once and final king who
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comes to create a reign and a
rule of peace forever. He does this
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first in our own hearts, by
reconciling us to God. This is what
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Paul says in Romans. He says, therefore, you now have peace with
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God, you who were once enemies, you who once fought and we're combative
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and pushed against him and wanted your
own way and went after other idols.
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You now have peace with God through
Jesus Christ. Jesus sought after the Lord,
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he sought after the will of his
heavenly father. He came to do
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all that he was sent to do, and everything was found. Jesus took
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courage, Jesus acted as the perfect
king and through him he secured our and
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by his works in Him we have
a peace that is secured for us forever.
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Nothing changes about the promises of God
that those who seek him will find
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him. But Jesus tells us and
teaches us. God teaches us by his
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spirit in his son, the here
is how we come to the Lord.
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Here is how we seek after him, through the king, through the savior.
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We all into seeking after the Lord. Need to come under his rule
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and his reign. To come to
the Lord, to seek after him isn't
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to find someone other than Jesus or
in addition to him, it is to
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find Jesus himself. and Jesus secures
this peace for aught for us, on
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between us and God, and he
does it forever through his blood and his
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work on the cross. And that
spiritual peace that we have with him and
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the bond of peace that we have
with one another through communion with him will
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one day be a political one.
Is Well, not here on earth and
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these kingdoms, but when the Kingdom
of God comes in consummation and with power
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and with glory, we will have
peace forever and ever. The kinds of
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victories that God gave Israel over her
enemies were modeling, were typify, were
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foreshadowing that peace that we would have
and the Kingdom of Heaven forever. The
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resurrection is proof of these things.
God's rising victorious over his enemies. Death
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could not hold him, the enemy
could not hold him, our sins could
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not hold him. Jesus is victorious
and he secures our peace and so beloved.
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That's why we go to him.
That's why we seek this king and
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this king alone. That's why,
when we seek after God, we can
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be assured that he we will find
him, because he's given to us,
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because he's given himself to us,
even in his very own son, all
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the various moments of fulfilled promises throughout
the ages come to this consummation in Jesus,
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and so go to him, seek
him, knock, ask and you
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will find him. You will find
peace and God and all the things that
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people seek apart from him, love
and forgiveness and hope and salvation and truth,
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justification, forgiveness, all of these
things that people seek apart from him
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you will find in him and you
will know it forever, not for a
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decade, not for a few decades, not just for your earthly life,
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but for or ever. You will
know the Lord Amazing Grace, how sweet
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the sound that saved a wretch Mike
like me. I once was lost,
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but now was found. Was Blind, but now I see. We don't
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just find the Lord, but he
finds us and he blesses us very much
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in him. So let us pray, let's thank him, Lord, as
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we consider your promises, your great
promises of grace and your warnings that those
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who turn away from you will be
rejected by you and will find only curse
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and wrath and slavery and and and
and great terror. These two truths we
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hold as everlasting, as something that
is always been true, ever since you
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first promised it, and always will
be true, and we ask that,
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while there is yet time for you
to be found, that each and every
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soul here would seek you and would
find you. We pray, Lord,
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for our lost friends, family members. We lift them up to you,
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and we asked that you would work
in their souls, that by your spear
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right, you would bring about a
seeking in them, a courage in them
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to flee from the wrath that is
to come and instead find the peace that
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we know, the peace that we
love and enjoy each and every day,
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peace that passes even understanding what a
joy it is to know you. Lord,
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we lift up our particular prayers this
evening and asked that you would answer
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them according to your wisdom, your
will and your grace. We pray for
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summer's grandparents. We asked that you
would bring them salvation, that you would
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comfort them in their failing health and
that they would know that every grace and
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every good gift, every breath they
have, comes from you. We pray
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the same for Cora, though she
is young. Lord, we ask that
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you would teach her to number her
days, that you would cause her to
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continue to seek after you. We
thank you that she continues to join us
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and come among us and desires to
know water. This in her Lord,
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continue to work in her and bring
her to salvation, that we all might
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praise your name and call her a
sister. We pray for Charlie and Ian,
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and they are salvation. We asked
that you would convict them of sin,
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that you would draw them to yourself, that you would teach them where
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peace in truth may be found.
We pray for our sister, Elysia.
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We thank you for her and the
gifts that you have given her. The
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blessings that we received through her.
We asked that you would heal her and
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continue to help her to be well. We look forward to worshiping with her
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again soon. We pray for Tory
and we ask that you would help her
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as she moves her dad here to
Tucson. We pray for that transition.
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We asked that you'd heal him of
his pneumonia. May She and and and
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him as well see your grace and
your movement and in their lives. We
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pray for help and ask that you
would help her tonight, even now.
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Would we ask that you would comfort
her soul, that you would assure her
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of your promises. We also I'm
hear her prayer request and join our hearts
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with hers. As we pray for
president trump, we asked that you would
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be with him and his cabinet is
new administration. We asked that you would
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give him wisdom and God that he
might guide the country and in wisdom and
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in Godliness. We asked that you
would work your saving power in him,
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that you would draw him to yourself, that you would work mightily in his
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life that he might know the goodness
of your grace. We ask that you
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would keep him well and secure,
that you we pray for our entire nation
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and we asked that you would,
you would be with us in whatever times
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we find ourselves. We Lord,
as we wonder about the future and we
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think about the difficulties that we might
face. We asked that you would give
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us courage and perseverance, that you
would teach us that we may not be
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afraid, knowing that you are king
and God above all. We pray for.
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We pray for Vannie's cousin, UNICE. We asked that you would be
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with her at the end of her
days, bring her your comfort and encouragement.
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We pray for Rachel and Christopher.
We praise you for their desire to
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marry. We asked that you would
help them with their plans, the upcoming
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plans, and that you would prepare
them for a long life together, of
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enjoying one another and growing in godliness
together. We also pray for Harold.
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We asked that you would be with
him and his upcoming heart procedure. Please
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help us to find ways, very
practical ways, to encourage him and Carol.
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We asked that you would help us
to provide for their every need while
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he goes through this heart procedure,
that you would watch him, over him
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and bring him through that well.
Finally, Lord, we we consider the
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great sadness the way in which the
unborn are treated in our country, that
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the most a fragile and helpless and
weak and those who don't have a voice
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are murdered so cruelly, so thoughtlessly, so terribly. We asked that this
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as something that would change. We
thank you for the progress that has been
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made in this area. We thank
you for the people that fight to overturn
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this decision and work against it.
We ask that this great evil would be
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put away from us. We asked
that you would do this by your grace,
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in that you would be with all
those who feel the the great consequences
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of this, that there would be
forgiveness and joy in knowing your grace.
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Our heavenly father, our comfort is
in you. Are Only Comfort is in
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you. All blessing is in you, and so we seek you and we
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ask that you may show yourself to
us. We pray this in Jesus name.
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Let's stay
