Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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You may be seated, and let's
turn our attention to MICA chapter three.
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Mica chapter three is passage of God's
word in which he condemns those who have
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power, who have strength, who
have my and are called to exercise it
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in his name and to exercise it
for good and according to justice, but
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have not. These these evil servants, these people with power who use it
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wrongly, are coming under God's judgment
and, Praise be to God, he
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does not look away, does not
turn a blind eye to justice, as
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false kings and leaders and prophets do. This is God's word of judgment and
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it is also God's word of salvation. I'm going to read from the beginning
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of Mica three through chapter four,
verse five. Let's hear God's word.
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And I said here, you,
heads of Jacob and rulers of the House
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of Israel, is it not for
you to know justice? You who hate
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the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
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and their flesh from off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people
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and flay their skin from off them
and break their bones in pieces and chop
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them up like me in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron, then
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they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them. He
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will hide his face from them at
that time, because they have made their
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deeds evil. Thus says the Lord
concerning the Prophets who lead my people astray,
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who cry peace when they have something
to eat, but declare war against
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him, who puts nothing into their
mouths. Therefore, it shall be night
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to you without vision and darkness to
you without divination. The Sun shall go
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down on the prophets and the day
shall be black over them. The seers
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shall be disgraced and the diviners put
to shame. They shall all cover their
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lips, for there is no answer
from God. But as for me,
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I'm filled with power, with the
spirit of the Lord, and with justice
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and might to declare to Jacob he's
transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear
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this, you heads of the House
of Jacob and you rulers of the House
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of Israel, who detest justice and
make crooked all that is straight, who
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build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with
iniquity. It's heads give judgment for a
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bribe, it's priests teach for a
price, it's prophets practiced divination for money.
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Yet they lean on the Lord and
say, is not the Lord in
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the midst of us, no disaster
shall come upon us. Therefore, because
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of you, Zion shall be plowed
as a field, Jerusalem shall become a
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heap of ruins and the mountain of
the House a wooded height. It shall
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come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the House of the
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Lord shall be established as the highest
of the mountains, and it shall be
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lifted up above the hills, and
people's shall flow to it, and many
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nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain
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of the Lord, to the House
of the God of Jacob, that he
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may teach us his ways, that
we may walk in his paths. For
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Out of Zion shall go forth the
law and the word of the Lord from
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Jerusalem, for he shall judge between
many peoples, he's and and shall decide.
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Excuse me, my page turned here. And shall decide for strong nations
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far away, and they shall beat
their sore words into plowshares and their spears
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into pruning hooks. Nation shall not
lift up Sword Against Nation, neither shall
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they learn war anymore, but they
shall sit every man under his vine and
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under his fig tree and no one
shall make them afraid, for the mouth
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of the Lord of hosts has spoken
for all the People's walk, each in
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the name of its God, but
we will walk in the name of the
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Lord, our God, forever and
ever. Man. This is a truly
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amazing passage. It is one of
the many places in scripture in which we
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are reminded, as C s Lewis
writes, of the lion as land.
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He is not a safe lion.
Right here our God is not tame,
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he is not mild, he is
not to be played with, to be
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toyed with, to pretend as though
he doesn't see his eyelid see and judge
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the children of Man. And as
he sees and he looks down on his
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house, on the people of Israel, he sees disaster, disaster for them
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because of the disaster that is in
them. He sees that the heads and
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the rulers, the people that are
called to leave, need the people oversee
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them, care for them, feed
them, protect them, are devouring the
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people. We looked at that last
time and tonight we look at the section
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after that in which he describes the
prophets, these people that are called to
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reveal the word of God to God's
people to say, as Micah is doing.
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Thus saith the Lord. This is
his word, this is his will,
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this is his way. But these
are not true prophets. Their false
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prophets. What are they doing?
God tells them. He makes he exposes
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their sin in Verse Eleven, when
he says it's prophets practiced divination for money.
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That's also described in verse five,
when he says the prophets are leading
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the people astray. They cry peace
when they have something to eat, but
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declare war when no one's put anything
in their mouths. Will consider that more.
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I want to look at these this
passage in three parts tonight, first
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considering the sins of the prophets,
then considering the just judgment that God gives
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that we might properly fear him,
and then finally, consider God's salvation as
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it comes to us in Jesus,
the Prophet of God, the one who
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speaks the will and word of the
Lord, rightly to us to establish not
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desion in blood and iniquity, but
in righteousness, in truth. So what
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are the sins of the Prophets?
What are these servants of the Lord doing
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that is caused brought about God's wrath. As I read to you. They
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cry peace when they have something to
eat, but they declare war against him
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who puts nothing into their mouths.
You see what's going on here. Their
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message, which begins thus, Saith
the Lord. This is what God says.
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It's not really dependent on what God
says. It's dependent on whether they
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got paid or not. It's dependent
on whether their bellies are full. God's
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of course, not saying that his
servants should go hungry, but he is
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saying that, whether or not they're
paid, whether or not they're hungry,
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they have a duty to declare the
word of the Lord, and that the
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word of the Lord has nothing to
do with their bellies. They are called
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to be his servants and servants of
the people. Imagine, for example,
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if you had to go to the
emergency room and you met a doctor,
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there, only doctor who is there, who is very happy to give you
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good news as long as you paid
him, and that's what he would give
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you, but if you didn't pay
him in full off front, it would
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be very, very bad news for
you, having nothing to do with whether
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you were actually sick or not,
or your arm was falling off or not,
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or no matter what the situation was
good news if you pay, bad
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news if you don't pay. Is
this good for the well person? No.
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Is it good for the sick person? No. It's only good for
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one person, the liar, and
that's what these people were doing. It's
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a disservice to everyone and it makes
them their own gods. It's a reminder
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to us that greed and consumerism are
not uqually uniquely American sins. As it
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turns out, these are things that
are in all of us, temptations to
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be people pleasers, to give people
what they want and what they need,
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not really according to what the right
thing to do is, but according to
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what's easiest for us. Well,
this is just about the worst kind of
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people pleaser you could ever meet,
because they're tying the truth not just to
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what they want, but to the
very word of God, and improperly so.
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The example of the emergency room,
the evil emergency room physician. In
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that case, you might might lose
an arm or a leg or an organ.
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With people that are proclaiming thus saith
the Lord in regard to your soul,
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the stakes are even higher, and
that's why God exposes them. God
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will not tolerate them anymore and he
brings about a judgment on them. Will
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come to that in a moment,
but let this be a moment for us
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to pause and remember that there are
people who do this. There were then
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and there were are now. People
who do this, especially as it concerns
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God's word. There are people who
are happy to give you a good message
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and soothe your conscience as long as
you give them what they want, money,
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power or celebrity or attention. As
long as they get what they're seeking,
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you're going to get all kinds of
good news and you're going to be
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assured that everything's just fine, whether
or not has anything to do with what
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God is actually said. They will
prop up your idols, they will tickle
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your ears, they will make you
proud to know them. But this is
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not what a true prophet does,
because a true prophet of the Lord serves
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not himself but the Lord, and
that is whether or not the people who
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are also being served by the word
of the Lord like it. Notice what
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Micah says in this great confidence in
Verse Eight. As for me, I
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am filled with power, with the
spirit of the Lord and with justice and
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with might to declare to Jacob his
transgression and to Israel his sin. Do
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you think this might create some conflict, especially with people that are very established
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in their sin and love their sin
and want nothing other than to coddle it
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and cradle it and keep it and
maintain it? It will create conflict and
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we have all kinds of stories of
the prophets of the Lord who have done
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the right thing and we're persecuted as
a result of it. Stephen and axe
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makes this point. He says you've
killed them all and then you killed Jesus.
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You remember John The baptist, for
example, being the last one,
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perhaps before Jesus, who lost his
head for the sake of Speaking Truth and
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righteousness to people that are in power, to people that claim that their law
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is the ultimate law. and John
the Baptist was willing to die for it.
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And John the Baptist did die for
it. And of course, Jesus
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himself, the greatest prophet of all, when he stood up, as we
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read this morning, I'm in the
temple and the Treasury people around him wanting
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to kill him. Why? Because
of the things he was saying, things
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that were a coulte in accord with
the word of God. Jesus was revealing
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to them their sins. Remember,
he says, you cannot follow me because
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you don't know me. You don't
Know Me, you Wi won't believe in
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me. You will die in your
sins. Ah, how we hate you,
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Jesus. They hated him for this. It was a hard message.
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It's always a hard message when God
confronts us with our idolatry, when God
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confronts us within our sin, when
God says you cannot stand on yourself,
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you cannot stand on your righteousness.
But to those who accept that word and
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say I want nothing to do with
my righteousness anymore, it's all filthy rags.
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To me, I only want one
and one alone, the one true
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God. He wraps those sinners up
in his arms and he carries them all
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the way to heaven. He Establishes
Zion in his name. He creates for
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us a place of peace. This
is what God does for us, and
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that's why Mica can speak with that
kind of confidence. In Verse Eight.
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Do what you will, this is
my job, he says. Praise be
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to God that he did it.
We all have an opportunity as Christians to
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also speak and teach the word of
God. Not In the same way Mica
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did, perhaps not in the same
way John the Baptist did or others,
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but all of us have been given, as Christians, the word of God
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that we might teach it to people, encourage people with it, sing it
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even we likewise have a responsibility to
treat that well, to speak only what
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has been spoken and to say it
with boldness, to say it with courage.
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When you sit with your children around
a dinner table, are you sit
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with your friend in a coffee shop
during a hard situation, let this confidence
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be yours, because that spirit that
Mica has is a spirit that you have.
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It's a power you have as well, because you stand in Christ's name,
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and that's why ordinary Christians all over
the world are willing to, and
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even do regularly die for the word
of the Lord, because they know they
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serve something greater than the powers and
authorities that are around them, someone that
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is greater and can actually give true
life. When you have an opportunity to
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know the Lord and know his word, learn it, know it, study
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it, dwell in it and you
went out of you have an opportunity to
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speak it, be confident and courageous, trusting in Him who strengthens us.
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Well, this brings us to God's
judgment. Then we see God's judgments in
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these evil prophets. Is Fair and
it's just. He is going to make
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it so that when they go to
the well, so to speak, it's
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going to be dry. He's going
to take he uses this, this excellent
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metaphor of vision. Right, they
are able to see things that other people
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are not, not anymore. The
lights are going off. Remember what he
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says in verse, Verse Six.
Therefore, it shall be night to you
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without vision and darkness to you without
divination. The Sun shall go down on
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the prophets and the day shall be
black over them, and this is going
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to result in shame and disgrace.
And Verse Seven, the seers shall be
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disgraced and the diviners put the shame. They shall cover their lips, for
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there is no answer from God.
This reminds me of one example. You
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remember when the Lord first brought the
plagues on Egypt. Remember who did those
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who brought about those plagues? Moses
of course, but also the Egyptian magicians,
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turning the Nile to blood and so
on. I think there was two
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or three miracles that they were able
to do, and then suddenly the lights
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went off and they had no power, and they say, surely this is
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the I think they say finger of
God or hand of God. They can't
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do anything anymore. It's all up
to them, though they had all this
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power in themselves, though they served
themselves, so they thought. Ultimately they
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came to realize that God is the
one who supplies all things. And they
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were done and they were disgraced and
in taking away their abilities, they will
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be ashamed and embarrassed because the thing
that gave them power, the thing that
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was there, God, will be
taken away, the power that they abused
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will be removed and instead of celebrity
and money and whatever it else it is
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that they wanted, the people will
turn away from them. They will be
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objects of shame and disgrace, and
this is good news. It's good news
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because it reminds to us that God's
judgment is fair and it's protective. God
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Judges Fairly these prophets who are sinning
against him and against the people, and
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inclosing their mouths and closing their eyes, he protects those who are being hurt
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by by them. So in all
this we see how good our God is,
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in the terror of his might and
in the terror of his wrath,
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we see exactly how much he loves
justice, how important it is to him
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that righteousness is upheld, that the
law is upheld, that humanity is found,
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that that his people, that this
humanity of his people is founded up
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not upon blood and iniquity and power
grabs and false prophecy and all of this,
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but it's founded on him, on
goodness, on righteousness that the people
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are founded on. Are Not Loving
Evil and hating good, but loving good
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and hating evil. This is also
a good reminder to us because we have,
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if you've read any bit of history
or had any experience living in your
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own body, though, know by
now that this kind of of life that
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God wants for us is something we
cannot bring about. You can read.
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I took a class in college one
time about Utopia and we read five or
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six different books, all different philosophers
and people's these stories about people wanting for
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and dreaming for and promising Utopia.
Right this land, this kingdom, this
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people, this place, a history
and age in which everything is finally fine.
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If you do this things, if
you follow this plan, everything will
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be okay, all people will be
at peace, the rule of law will
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be established for freedom and not for
tyranny. There will be bounty and goods,
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friendship, fellowship, Brotherhood, wealth. And yet what have we always
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seen? Over and over and over
again, this promise is always way out
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of reach. We never get off
the ground. They're people that keep promising
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it, people that will promise you
anything. Will promise you that if you
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follow their things and you do their
steps and you adhere to their philosophy,
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everything's going to come out right.
It's all going to be perfect. But
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these people are always without qualification,
confused or crazy or liars, maybe all
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the above. And the reason is
is because, as long as the curse
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is in us, this is what
we do. You can't remove sin and
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greed and lust for power assembly by
trying harder, by establishing more good rules.
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Here is the Kingdom of Israel under
God. Right they have God's own
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law, delivered from Mount Sin I, after being rescued out of Egypt.
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Right, hopefully, at this point
the fear of God was in them,
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after seeing what just happened to Pharaoh. There's this mountain booming and thundering and
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shaking. They're so afraid that they're
like Moses. You Go. They're all
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afraid they're going to die just being
there receiving this law. And then they
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make a golden calf. Again and
again and again, here they are,
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the Prophets of the Lord coming to
them again and again and again. Repent,
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repent, repent nothing. We're fine. You hear it? Listen,
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it's right here the verse eleven.
It's heads give judgment for a bribe.
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It's priests teach for a price,
it's prophets practiced divination for money. Yet
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they lean on the Lord and say, is not the Lord in the midst
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of us? No disaster shall come
upon us, we're protected, we're children
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of Abraham. Isn't God in our
midst? We can do whatever we want.
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That's the kingdom that man establishes,
when man establishes it in his supposed
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strength. But what is God promising
here? He is undoing this tower of
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Babel, he's undoing this kingdom.
He says in verse twelve that because of
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You, Zion shall be plowed as
a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap
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of ruins and the mountain of the
House of Lord a wooded height. The
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land is going to return. Instead
of from this civilized kingdom, it's going
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to just turn back into earth.
But then, immediately after that, Chapter
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Four, the very next word say
it shall come to pass in the latter
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days that the mountain of the House
of the Lord shall be established as the
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highest of the mountains. It shall
be lifted up among the hills and the
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people shall flow to it and the
nation shall come and say let's go,
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come, let us go up to
the mountain of the Lord, the House
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of God, of Jacob, that
he may teach us his ways, that
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we may walk in his paths.
For Out of Zion shall go forth the
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law and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. You see what God is
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going to do. He's going to
not depend on us and our sinfulness to
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establish his kingdom. Instead, he's
going to do it himself. And because
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God does it, you know that
it's going to be done perfectly. And
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that's why God sends Jesus, God
the Son, into the world to establish,
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through the words of the Prophet,
Jesus, Our prophet, also priest
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and also king, these three here
mentioned in Mica. Three, Jesus being
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all of these things, holding all
of these offices, does all the opposite
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of what mankind has always been doing
and of what the people were doing at
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this moment, and instead of being
a for all for himself, he submits
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himself to the will of the father. He dies for US unworthy sinners and
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establishes this very kingdom that God is
talking about in Micah for to see these
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things kind of coming together. You
can get this from many, many places,
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but one wonderful places Luke for,
where Jesus goes into the synagogue and
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he opens the scroll of the Prophet
Isaiah. He enrolls the scroll, he
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finds the place where it's written.
This, this is verse eighteen of Chapter
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Four. Here the similar language to
the words in maca. This is from
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Isaiah. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he has anointed me
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to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty
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to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind and to set at liberty
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those who are oppressed, to proclaim
the year of the Lord's favor. And
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he rolled up the scroll and gave
it back to the attendant and sat down
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and the eyes of all in the
synagogue were fixed on him and he began
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to say to them. Today this
scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,
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and all spoke well of him and
marveled at the gracious words that were coming
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from his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph Sun? And
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he said to them, doubtless you
will quote to me this proverb. Physician,
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heal yourself. What we have heard
you did at Copernham, do here
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in your hometown as well. Truly, I say to you, no profit
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is acceptable in his hometown. But
in truth, I tell you, there
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will be many widows in Israel.
In the days of Elijah, when the
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heavens were shut up three years and
six months and a great famine came over
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all the land, and Elijah was
sent to none but them only, but
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to only, but to Zarafif in
the land of Sidon, to a woman
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who was a widow. He goes
on to describe the basically the going out
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of the prophets and the word of
the Lord to the gentiles. This they
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could not tolerate, and we read
in Verse Twenty Nine that they rose up
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and drove him out of town and
brought him to the brow of the hill
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on which their town was built,
so that they could throw him down the
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cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away, as John put
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it in another situation. His hour
had not yet come. Nevertheless, you
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see the the rumblings of the work
of the Lord and the Kingdom of God
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being established the mountain, the sort
of getting ready to burst forth into this
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world when Jesus reads these words and
say today in your hearing, this is
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fulfilled, and it's true. It's
true for anyone who longs for the thing
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that we all long for, peace
and brotherhood and safety and security and wealth
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and and riches and belongingness and all
of these things. There's nothing wrong with
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this utopia that we want, although
our visions of it are not often very
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good, but they'll the good parts
of that. The desire for these things
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like peace and safety and beauty and
Truth and righteousness, nothing wrong with that.
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The problem that we have is the
way that we always get there,
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in our own strength, in our
ways, making ourselves God. God will
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judge all who do that. But
he's also promising us, and Mica three
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and four and throughout all the scriptures, a different kingdom, one that's not
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established on blood and iniquity, blood
of murder, but one that's established in
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the blood of his son. A
murder, yes, but one that often
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all, ultimately, is a sacrifice
in which our sins are atoned for,
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in which forgiveness is given, in
which now we have peace with God and
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with man. When you have those
longings in your heart for something better,
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don't strive in the strength of your
power, don't strive according to your own
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will and your own ways. Rest
in the kingdom that God gives to you
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through his prophet and even son,
the Lord and our God, Jesus Christ.
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In Him we have all the things
that he promises to us. Let's
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pray
