Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
would you please do so and turn with
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me, or turn your attention at
least to Romans chapter twelve. Going to
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read a few verses there. Here
in this chapter, Paul is giving us
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instructions on how we ought to live
our lives as those who have been brought
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to life in Jesus Christ. Romans
Chapter Twelve. The verse I'm focusing on
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today comes from this last half verse
twelve, but I'm going to read beginning
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at verse nine. Let love be
genuine. Abhor what is evil, hold
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fast to what is good. Love
one another with brotherly affection. Out Do
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one another in showing honor. Do
not be slothful in zeal, be fervent
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in spirit. Serve the Lord,
rejoice and hope. Be Patient in tribulation,
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be constant in prayer, contribute to
the needs of the saints and seek
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to show hospitality. Bless those who
persecute you. Bless and do not curse
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them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live
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in harmony with one another. Do
not be haughty, but associate with the
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lowly. Never be wise in your
own sight. Repay no one evil for
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evil, but give thought to do
what is honorable in the sight of all.
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If possible, so far as it
depends on you, live peaceably with
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all beloved. Never avenge yourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God,
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for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the
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Lord. To the contrary, if
your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he is thirsty, give him
something to drink, for by doing so
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you will heep burning coals on his
head. Do not be overcome by evil,
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but overcome evil with good. Omen. Please be seated. Sorry,
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Focus. Focus for this morning is
verse twelve. Joe, rejoice in hope,
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be patient in tribulation, be constant
in prayer. Each of these phrases,
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in the other phrases similar to it
here in this passage, have a
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way of speaking in this way.
It's like Paul is saying in regards to
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these is various things here. How
here, is how you should act.
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So in verse twelve, in regards
to hope, rejoice, in regards to
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tribulation, be patient and recard.
In regard to prayer, be constant.
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I think that's an important point because
it reminds us that what we have in
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this section are the marks of the
Christian life. I mentioned this, I
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think, last time to you.
These are things that are true of a
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Christian. These are the things that
happen when you are a Christian. You
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might consider us an animal. For
example, there are things that for a
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Giraffe, that are the ways of
a giraffe. Right when your neck reaches
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a certain height, do this.
When you eat the trees of this such
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and such tree, you do this
or that. There's just these things about
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being a giraffe that are natural to
being a giraffe. And the same is
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true for a Christian. Work a
different kind of animal, however, a
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new one, one that is in
resurrection life, one that is a truly
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great and reborn in Christ and as
that, as those who have been reborn,
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who have been brought from death to
life, we gin to take on
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certain characteristics, not the old characteristics
of the flesh, but the new characteristics
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of the spirit. We take one
and we begin to have in us,
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by the spirit working in us,
a resemblance to Jesus. And so there
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are these things that we that we
have, sometimes more, sometimes less,
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like hope, for example. We
may not always feel it like we have
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great hope, but it is something
that we have, we possess as Christians.
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We have a solid hope, something
God has given us himself and heaven
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tribulation. You have it more,
you have it less. Sometimes in your
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life you may have great tribulation,
sometimes it may meet, may not seem
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like you have much at all,
but it's something that we're promised as Christians
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to always have in some way or
another, and we'll think about that particularly
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this morning. Or prayer. Prayer
is something that Christians do. The spirit
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is in us, interceding for us. The Jesus is at the hand of
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the right hand of the father,
also interceding for us. Our spirit has
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been reborn and desires, as a
child of God, to talk to God,
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and so if you are a Christian, you're one who is communicating with
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him, perhaps sometimes more, perhaps
less, but it's a part of who
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you are, as much as a
long neck, as a part of a
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giraffe. It's natural role in the
sense that it has been born in us
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by God, working in us.
Now this, of course, should cause
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us all to test our hearts a
little bit, maybe even a lot.
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If you read through these sections of
God's word, if you're reading through these
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verses in Romans twelve and you say
none of this describes me. I don't
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have hope, I don't have tribulation
and I never pray. Well then you
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might not be a Christian. It's
something to think about, think about very
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seriously. If these are the marks, if this is what makes a Christian,
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or rather what ide how you identify
a Christian. If none of the
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identifying characteristics of a Christian or in
your life will, then you may not
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be a Christian. But if you
are a Christian, then there's a call
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to exercise these particular qualities that you
now have in a particular way. You
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have been given, for example,
a great inheritance. This is something we
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talked about last time. With rejoicing
in hope. God has given you this
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great inheritance. Should you shove your
hands in your pocket and be upset about
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it to know that Jesus Christ has
died for you and given you all things
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for necessary for life in this world
and for the next? Do rumph and
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be unthankful and do things that are
according to the flesh and not according to
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the spirit? No, if we
are Christians and we have this hope will,
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then how should we act? Well, we should rejoice, is what
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Paul says. We should praise God, be thankful, we should celebrate the
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things that he has given to us. If we are if we have been
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given access into the heavenly throne room
to speak to the father, to speak
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to God who has created us,
to speak to the king of Kings,
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if we have prayer, how should
we act in it? Should we stand
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on street corners and pray in such
a way that everyone can hear us,
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so that people can say, wow, what a great person, aren't they
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amazing? Of course not. Instead, we pray to our father, who
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is in heaven, and we should
be constant in it. Is Paul's instruction
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here, but of course makes sense
when you consider what God has done.
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The responses to it fit perfectly hand
in glove. And the same is true
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for the middle of these instructions,
in verse twelve, in Tribulation. Be
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Patient. In tribulation, be patient. That's the one I want to focus
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on today, but I don't want
to focus on it too exclusively, because
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this middle one is sort of links
its arms with these brothers on either side.
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To be patient in tribulation is to
rejoice in hope and is to be
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constant in prayer. Tribulation a mark
of the Christian life? Absolutely. Why?
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Why is tribulation a mark of the
Christian life? First, remember what
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tribulation is. It's this kind of
pressure. It's distress. You might think
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of a rag that's being twisted,
squeezed, moved. It's the feels like
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that when we are being tried,
when we are under a tribulation. It's
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a challenge, it's a difficulty,
it's pressure from outside it. It's often
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a hurtful it hurts us. I
mean it brings pain, frustration, anguish.
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Why does that need to be a
part of being a Christian? Why
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is that an essential mark of belonging
to Christ? It's an essential mark of
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being a Christian. It's an essential
mark of belonging to Christ because there's something
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very large at play when we are
a Christian, when, as Christians,
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we have this relationship with God,
and that's true, but it fits into
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this very big context, a large
story in which God has sent his champion
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and his only son into the world
to wage war. Jesus Christ came into
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the world not to pick flowers and
teach nice lessons and sit around on hillsides
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and just spend the days relaxing in
nature. Jesus Christ came to defeat sin
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and death. That requires a war, not only because these are great and
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terrible things, but because there is
a person, namely Satan, and many
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other fallen angels, evil spirits,
unclean spirits, that do not want this
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to happen. Ever since the very, very beginning, when God placed man
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and woman in a garden and said
this is my kingdom and I wanted to
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be righteous and I wanted to be
lovely and I want it to be united
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and I wanted to be lived out
under my authority. Satan squirmed his way
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in and said, let's see if
I can tear this apart, let's see
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if I can destroy this, and
that's exactly what he did. He lied,
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he deceived, he said did God
really say? He questioned the authority
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of God, he broke the relationship
between God and his people and in so
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doing he brought sin and death and
to the world. These people brought sin
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and death into the world through their
fall. That battle is still going on
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and and God promises to wage that
war immediately after the fall, when he
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promises to the woman, I will
give you a son who will crush the
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head of the serpent. From then
on it's game on. And now,
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from that point on, Satan it's
done everything he could possibly do, as
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far as God will allow, done
everything he can possibly do to make sure
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that that child was not born.
He incited people to sin, even the
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very first two brothers. Here evil
give you some children, and now all
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of a sudden they're killing one another. He's a murderer and a liar from
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the beginning. And he brings this
into humanity. Not He tempts us to
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it, he calls us to it. He loves IT AND INSPIRES IT,
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and of course we love it too. We go along for the ride.
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We serve him, so much so
that Paul says that in our fallen nature
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we are children of Wrath, sons
of the devil. This is our father,
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this Satan. After the fall mankind
finds our we put ourselves on his
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side instead of on God's side,
from the moment we decided to believe him,
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from the moment Adam said and Eve
said, yeah, we'll go with
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that. And Satan continues this work
through the all through human history he's been
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trying to destroy the seed, destroy
the seed, destroy the seed and yet
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God keeps preserving the seed, preserving
the seed, preserving the seed, through
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the flood, through the Covenant with
Abraham, through David on the throne,
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and even as that kingdom is falling
apart, you have the prophets saying that's
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all over and God will judge you. And yet one will be born,
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a son will be born, a
great king, the Promised One, the
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anointed one, the Christ, the
Messiah, is coming and he will make
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things right. The valleys will be
lifted up, the hills will be brought
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low, the paths will be made
straight. This great and conquering king will
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come. And when he does come, what happens? When Jesus is born
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into the world? Satan and his
troops go full throttle Herod. We see
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him a trying to destroy all of
these children, a genocide of of these
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little boy is all throughout his kingdom, why to destroy the seed. Throughout
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Jesus Ministry, there are people constantly
conspiring against him, to destroy him.
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And finally they're able to do this. They put him on a cross,
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they crucify him and they bury him
and it would seem that the victory is
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one on the side of evil,
but Satan is not God. Satan is
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a creature like we are, a
powerful one, true, made by God
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and one whom God rules over.
And God would not permit this dog of
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a spirit to overrule his plans for
the world. And Jesus Christ was rose
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again, was resurrected from the dead
itself, putting death to death, having
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victory over the grave, God brings
this a champion into the world. And
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in light of this big story,
you can see, then, that there
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is a war that has been going
on and in many ways there still is
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a war. I want to read
a few verses to you to highlight some
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of this from the pages of scripture, beyond just suggesting it or finding you
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of it. Consider Psalm twenty four, for example, where ask this question
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who shall ascend the hill of the
Lord? Who shall stand in His holy
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place? WHO shall in other words, who's going to be the one who
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will go up to this holy,
holy place and stand there with confidence and
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enthronement? The answer is he who
has clean hands and a pure heart,
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who does not lift up his soul
to what is false and does not swear
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deceitfully. He will receive blessing from
the Lord and righteousness from the God of
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his salvation, such as the generation
of those who seek him, who seek
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the face of the God of Jacob. Lift up your heads, oh gates,
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and be lifted up, oh ancient
doors, that the king of glory
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may come in. Who is this
King of glory, The Lord Strong and
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mighty, the Lord of Mighty in
battle? Lift up your heads, oh
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gate, so lift them up,
oh ancient doors, that the king of
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glory may come in. Who is
this king of the glory, The Lord
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of hosts? He is the King
of glory. When God sent his champion,
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he did not send a mere human, he didn't send just another creature
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to do this work. Instead,
God himself became man, so that the
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one who would ascend the hill,
who on, who would go up on
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Mountain Zion, and who would rule
and be in communion with God and a
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mediator for his people, would be
God himself. The Gates would open for
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the Lord of hosts, the King
of glory. This, we read in
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the New Testament, is, of
course, Jesus himself. Listen to Ephesians
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one, Ephesians One, Chapter Twenty. When he raised Jesus from the dead
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and seated him at the at his
right hand in the heavenly places, far
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above all rule and authority and power
and a dominion, and above every name
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that is named, not only in
this age but also in the one to
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come. And he put all things
under his feet and gave him his head
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over all things, to the church, which is his body, the fullness
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of him who fills all in all. This is the great rise, the
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great enthronement of Jesus, and it
makes him powerful over the world and it
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makes us Christians who are in him, to rise with him, to be
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enthroned with him and to be at
war with him, of victorious war.
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Listen to how Paul goes on in
Ephesians. He says in Ephesians two,
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verse eleven. Therefore remember that at
one time you gentiles in the flesh called
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the uncircumcision by what is called the
circumcision the remember that you were at that
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time separated from Christ, alienated from
the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the
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covenant of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world. So
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you see what he's saying. He's
saying the rejoice and hope part that he
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Paul Mentions in Romans Twelve Nix,
that no hope apart from Christ, no
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hope apart from Christ, a follower
and of the flesh, doing the things
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of the flesh, in the flesh, alienated from the Kingdom of God,
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the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to
all the gracious promises of the Covenant.
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He goes on to add, though, that God has done something, he
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says, but now in Christ,
Jesus, you, who are once far
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off, have been brought near by
the blood of Christ. You have been
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brought near by the blood of Christ. Or, if you go back to
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the beginning of Ephesians, chapter two, he says you were dead in your
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trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world,
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following the Prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that is
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now at work and the sons of
disobedience. That's the mark of those who
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aren't Christians, following the great serpent, following the Prince of the power of
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the air, the one who is
now at work in the sons of disobedience.
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This is how we used to be. But God, in verse four,
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being rich in mercy because of the
great love with the which he loved
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us, even when we were dead
in our trespasses and sins made us alive.
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Together with Christ. By grace,
you have been saved and raised us
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up with him and seated us with
him in the heavenly places. In Christ,
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Jesus, you see what he's saying. He's saying you used to be
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on the wrong side of this battle. You used to follow the Prince of
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the power of the air, you
used to be a son of disobedience,
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you used to belong to all the
fleshly sinful things of this age, in
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this world. But in the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, you have been raised
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up to the heavenly places and are
no longer down here in that world,
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but are up here with Jesus in
this world. This is the great these
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are the great things that we are
told about, the great battle that is
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going on. This is why there
is tribulation, because Satan and all those
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who are aligned on his side are
fighting against God and all those who belong
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to him, all those who are
seated in the heavenly places through Jesus Christ.
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This relationship between us and Jesus and
the Resurrection, in this battle and
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all of these things comes to a
very practical point in Ephesians a chapter ten
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in a Feesi. I'm sorry if
the chapter aren't senten chapters. In chapter
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six, verse ten, where he
says finally, be strong in the Lord
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and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God
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that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil, for
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we do not wrestle against flesh and
blood, but against rulers and against authorities,
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against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of
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evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God
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that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and, having done
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all, to stand firm. Stand
firm. That's another way of saying be
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patient, isn't it? Be Patient? In tribulation, things are there is
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a battle going on, there is
fighting going on, but you aren't caught
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in the middle of it. That's
the thing you've got to remember. It's
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not like you have the the old
cartoon of a you know one angel on
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this shoulder and another angel on this
shoulder and you just don't know. As
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Christians, you are belonging to the
resurrection. You are not caught in the
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middle, you are on the side
of Christ. That's why he can say
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one there's going to be tribulation because
there's fighting ongoing, but he can also
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say be patient, trust in the
Lord who is your strength, because the
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battle is one, the war is
one. There is fighting that US ongoing
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until all things are brought into subjection, till unto Christ. But until that
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time all you have to do is
be strong in him, be patient in
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him, rejoice in him, pray
to him and in him. This is
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why we face tribulation. It's why
Peter says in First Peter for don't be
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surprised when the fiery trials come upon
you. Don't be surprised at these things,
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because that's the reality in which we
live. We shouldn't be people that
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sort of stand back and say,
why the all is happening to me?
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Of course it's happening to you.
You are caught up in the grandest story,
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the story you belong to the great
history of the world as it's being
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played out, and God is the
play right, God is the will director,
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God is the hero and God is
the victor, and you belong to
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him. Do not be surprised at
the fiery trial when it comes upon you
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to test you as though something strange
were happening to you. But rejoice.
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Here the apostles speak with one voice. This is Peter. Rejoice in so
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far as you share Christ's sufferings,
that you may also rejoice and be glad
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when he is glory is revealed.
You struggle and you have tribulations because you
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are in Christ, and that is
a great thing. If you are suffering
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because you've done bad things, well, that's not so good. That's means
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you've been foolish and you need to
learn better. But if you are suffering
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because of who you are in Christ, well that's a whole different story.
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Peter goes on to make this point. If you're insulted for Christ's name,
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you are blessed because the spirit of
glory and of God rests upon you.
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But let none of you sufferer as
a murderer or a thief or an evil
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doer, as a meddler. Yet
if anyone suffers as a Christian, let
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him not be ashamed, but let
him glorify God in that name. You
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see what he's saying? He's saying
to be caught up with Christ in the
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heavenly places, to be a part
of that resurrection life, to be waiting
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for the glory that is to be
revealed. That's all blessing. To be
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on the winning side of the battle, even though you're still facing some tribulation.
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That's a blessing. To be on
the side that not only has won
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that victory but is guaranteed to crush
every single aspect of that rebellion. That's
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a blessing. And this is true
when tribulation comes from outside of us,
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which is largely what I've been talking
about, but also when it comes from
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inside of us, when that flesh
that's still a part of us is waging
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war against the spirit. The Apostle
tells us be patient, stand firm,
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don't give up. Why? Because
the tribulation is not a sort of neutral
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tribulation, like I was saying earlier, being caught in between. The tribulation
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is because you are in Christ and
because you are in him, because the
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flesh and the spirit are waging war
and in your soul and because the the
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devil, is waging war against the
Kingdom of God in this world and this
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age. Because that's the tribulation that
we're talking about. You can be patient
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because Jesus is the winner Jesus is
the victor. Jesus is the unfailing champion,
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promised since the very beginning, who
is now come and promises to come
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again and bring all things into consummation. This is why we take these two
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other things on either side of our
arms. When we are patient in tribulation,
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we don't just stand around stoically waiting
for fate and Karma or whatever else
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to do its thing. We're not
patient in tribulation because, well, what
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else can you do? We're patient
in tribulation because of what God has done.
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You understand that. And that's also
why we grasp an arm with rejoicing,
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in hope, because of what God
has done. And it's why we're
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constant in prayer in the middle of
our tribulations, because we're not standing by
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ourselves waiting for faith to just sort
of grind us through the machine. We
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stand in Christ and the arms of
the father who promises to never let you
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go, and so we talked to
him. Our patients has this quality of
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rejoicing and of prayer. Sometimes it's
weeping, sometimes it's calling out, sometimes
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it's saying how long, but it's
a call of faith, isn't it?
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That's a Christian call anyway, a
call of faith, is trusting in Jesus
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and what he has done. It's
looking at the Cross and saying that victory
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is mine, given to me freely. I want to close by reading to
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you a few verses from Hebrews that
brings some of these various ideas together.
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In Hebrews chapter ten, versus thirty
two through thirty nine, he talks about
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the author talks about suffering. He
reminds us and the people he's writing to
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that these tribulations that we face as
Christians sometimes are not abstract at all or
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hypothetical. He tells them Verse Thirty
Two of Chapter Ten. Recall the former
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days when, after you were enlightened, you endured, speaking of after the
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knowledge of Christ and faith in him
came into you. After that happen,
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you endured hard, a hard struggle
with sufferings. What did these believers have
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to go through after becoming a Christian
or becoming Christians? He explains a little
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bit in verse Thirty Three. Let
me start again, but recall the former
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days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,
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sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and
affliction, and sometimes being partners with
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those so treated. For you had
compassion on those in prison and you joyfully
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accepted the plundering of your property,
since you knew that you yourselves had a
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better possession and in buy and an
a and an abiding one. Therefore,
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do not throw away your confidence,
which has a great reward, for you
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have need of endurance so that,
when you have done the will of God,
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you may receive what is promised.
You see what he's saying. He's
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saying when you became in Christians,
the people he's writing to. He says,
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when you became Christian, do you
remember? It was hard. It
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was hard because some of you were
ashamed, some of you were afflicted in
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various ways. And if that didn't
happen to you, well, then you
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joined arms with someone who was.
You visited those people in jail, you
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went to them and you said,
these people that society is despising, I'm
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with them because we are in Christ
you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.
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That'd be a hard thing to do, but they did it because they
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knew they had a better possession,
and abiding one. Not Things that can
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destroy or be lost, but things
that would last forever. This word that
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the author rights to the Hebrews is
the word that Paul speaks to us today.
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It's the word God is speaking to
you today, and he says to
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you, beloved, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant
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in prayer, not because these are
just nice things to do, but because
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of what God has done for you. Trust in him, endure and you
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will be saved. Let's pray.
