The Type of Christian the World Needs

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My privilege to introduce pastor Bill Brannan

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Let me just bring it up and get ready

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I always like to begin preaching

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before we preach I like to pray And the reason I like to pray is because we need to experience Jesus What’s more important than anything else is that we hear from him

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that we come to know him come to love him and come to serve him

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He really is everything and without him we have no life and really the preaching of the word

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only really

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for you pray Lord that you would just bring your victory that you would bring your breakthrough

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in the hearts and lives of believers so that we would become the kind of Christians that this world needs Lord We just pray that you would reveal yourself to us and in us and through us Lord that you would just shine your light upon this world that you would cause those who are in darkness to see that light that you would cause many who are groping and and don’t know a way forward to discover that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation

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For all who believe we thank you for this in Jesus name

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Amen

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So the title of today’s message is the type of Christians this world needs

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I just want to say that an encounter with God can change the whole direction of your whole life

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And sometimes we have big encounters and sometimes we have small encounters Does that make sense Sometimes it can be just God quickening his word to us in a way that it comes alive and everything in our life is different from then on it can be somebody prays for us or somebody shares their testimony with us And that word is a word from God that just moves us to the depths of our soul And we realize that what God did for them he can do for me

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There’s so many ways that God speaks to us And so really when we talk about an encounter with God we’re not just talking about a one time thing

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we’re talking about a relationship that is daily

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and God can speak to us daily He speaks to us through his word through prayer through circumstances and he speaks in dreams and visions And one of the things that I started experiencing when I was a new Christian over many years was a series of dreams that the takeaway is that the church of Jesus Christ at least in America is structured to keep people in immaturity

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And just that idea that God planted in my soul

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caused me to start asking questions of scripture caused me to um seek answers into His word and to look and to pray

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because when God speaks to you it’s very important He doesn’t just speak to you because it’s unimportant

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And before I get into really a lot of God’s word I see a lot of what we are doing in Christian education as part of the answer

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that God in His mercy opened up to me Because one of the things I was asking is how do we change this culture We’re we’re looking at America we’re seeing a moral and spiritual degeneration that is very real Uh you could call it we need revival That’s a good way to say it in a way Sometimes when you say revival it’s hard because everybody has all kinds of different meanings by the word revival But the idea of revival is that we need to live again

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You know I think it was Finney said a revival of religion presupposes that there has been a deletion that it is declined right In one sense in America And in western civilization there has been a decline of the moral and spiritual fiber

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of society

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And if we can’t see that then Lord open our eyes But it really comes from the fact that we’ve turned away from worshiping and serving the creator and we are worshiping and serving the creature

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And that is absolutely causing a type of culture that is not conducive to human flourishing And that is the understatement of the year

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It’s not conducive to human flourishing But I put it that way because God in his love and his mercy what He wants is for us to truly flourish He created us and he loves us and he wants good for us That’s why God hates injustice He hates tyranny he hates oppression He hates seeing people treat people in ways that really genuinely hurt one another

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Not because he’s a you know petty tyrannical God but because he is deeply loving and merciful and compassionate

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it’s awesome isn’t it

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And so one of the things that really was exciting to me was getting into Christian education because I learned that whenever the church has focused on education that’s when it changed cultures

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You know missionaries once said we will never change the world by piecemeal conversion We need to educate another generation

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Education is so important that our founding fathers after they founded our nation they said our form of government is only made for a moral and religious people Therefore they founded Christian schools I will say that unequivocably They were Christian at their very core They they read the word of God

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they prayed they believe and they didn’t just try to keep it Christian in a holy bubble What they did is they wanted to develop the whole person the whole image of God and man they wanted to grow people to be strong and confident and loving and merciful and gracious to know right from wrong to know and discern good and evil

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They wanted to give their Children an inheritance they wanted to give them a blessing They wanted to pass on a blessing to many generations

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And these ideas are so essential to Christianity in the church and the mission of the church of Jesus Christ

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because we’re called to raise up sons and daughters of God We’re called to be conformed into the image of Christ We’re called to raise people to maturity And so just like when you know Paul talks about Christ or in the church and he relates it to a man and a woman in marriage There’s a deep connection and there’s a deep connection between education and the mission and ministry of the church

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The idea of education is to take our precious Children and to see them to grow up to be successful and mature and have all the skills that they need to flourish in life and to be prepared for this world to bring blessing to it and blessing to others

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That’s not just believing theological doctrines

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it’s about developing the whole person And so we’re going to hopefully we’re going to see there’s a deep connection between this

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One of the things that I really

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like to look at when I’m involved because I’m still involved in Christian education is that education is not just about the curriculum or the content

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It’s about the formation of a human soul And I remember one year as I was pondering how do we really help young people to grow and succeed in this world And I was thinking about it and a lot of the things that people lack is confidence they they lack the courage and the security needed to try things and fail and when they fail to get up and try again and not to give up

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I mean the list goes on I call it the in one sense the psychology of education is almost more important than what you’re teaching because if a kid does not believe that they’re smart and intelligent and capable they are they are going to fail I promise you

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And so a lot of times we get these kids in and we need to get them to dare to believe that you created in the image of God that God has given you the capabilities you need to succeed And even if it’s harder for you than somebody else that’s because God has given you a challenge to overcome because of the calling on your life

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But also understanding ideas like your mind is like a muscle that you need to work out And if you haven’t been working it out then you might be behind where other people are It’s not because you’re unintelligent or incapable It’s just simply because you need to work out that that we can learn almost anything that we want to learn

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And and I and I just found that a lot of times when students came in they needed to believe they were capable believe that they were intelligent And they also had to see value in it

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If they didn’t see value in education What’s the point What’s the purpose And these things are deeply gonna connect Hopefully as we start to get through scripture to the mission of the church

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if they didn’t see the value of an education to grow in the image of God to become skillful to be able to go out and be a blessing And to let the heavenly realities of how God governs all things be reflected on earth through whatever vocation God has given us If we if it hasn’t become tied to something rooted in who we are in Jesus Christ then you know you ask many people well why do you go to school

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Well first because I have to

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and then maybe it will be so I can go to college Why so I can get a job And and the whys are always

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not fully satisfying Does that make sense And until we can answer the whys Well it’s totally dissatisfying

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I want to grow into the image of God I want to be able to be a blessing The way I explain it is you know when I talk about education we want to give people the skills to create the world because that’s what being in the image of God one element of it is is the idea to imagine a different world and then to create it to imagine that it’s not fun being in a dark room here on Sunday morning And so we imagine bringing in lighting and we did it

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And that’s because we’re created in the image of God giving you the skills to dream Well to imagine a better world and the skills to bring it to pass And that’s why like also you get rid of all the other kind of weird ideas Every profession is creative It’s not Well I’m an artist and I’m an architect Every profession is creative Every profession beautifies the world Every profession

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is a is a demonstration of the image of God and man

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Isn’t that pretty neat

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But I remember one year I was going around and I was trying to get teachers to understand some of these ideas So I asked one teacher who I knew had a child I said what was the thing that helped your child the most in life

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And she thought about it for a while and she said swimming

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I go what was it about swimming

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Well my son started swimming and was naturally gifted at it and then he swam in a meat and he lost and he was devastated and crushed and totally demoralized and totally wanted to give up

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But then the coach came

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and encouraged him

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and spoke life to him And he continued and he trained and he worked hard and he became a top level swimmer And that experience of of failure that experience of um

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dreams being crushed

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and then getting up and working hard and trying hard to reach a goal was one of the greatest life lessons he learned And I said now how do we bring that lesson into the classrooms for the students who aren’t going to play sports

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And I won’t go into it But there’s many ways But the point is you’re thinking about how do you grow a person

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the image of God and man in a person Do you see how that’s connected to

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the mission of the church to develop the image of Christ and all of us

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It’s not just do we believe certain doctrines it’s about growing into the type of people that can bring life and light and blessing into this world That’s the kind of Christians that this world needs

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Many people today are concerned about what they’re calling a snowflake generation

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The idea is that they don’t know how to handle life they don’t know how to handle adversity they don’t know how to solve problems And I would just ask the question could the problem have begun in the church

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Just a question I want to throw out there Could the problem have begun in the church One of the things that I remember early years in ministry and seeing there’s so many examples if that idea gets into your head that the church is structured to keep people in immaturity that means we need a radical shift of the way that we think about church the way we think about ministry the way we think of how it’s done and what’s important and what the values are

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But I remember early days of ministry and I was watching somebody and I realized their whole ministry was based on a need to be important to other people

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Does that make sense

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Yeah I I I’ve seen it a lot of times I have a need to be important I need to be seen by men A need to feel like I’m a blessing and and there’s some good in that but it was so needy

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that it just kind of misses the mark Does that make sense But then we moving on from there and really that’s just that’s just a form of insecurity

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See so much of this has to do with our identity in Christ

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when I am secure in the love of God in Jesus Christ And I know that he loves me

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and I know that he is for me

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And I’ve fallen in love with him to a level that Lord I just want to be like you and and to serve others like you have served me then you don’t need anything to make you feel better about you because Christ has done it all for you and now you’re free to love others

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But then I see I mean the the issues can go on and on I’ve seen so much ministry that’s about creating dependency

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What do you mean It’s so interesting but expectation

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is so powerful

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What do you expect You’re always going to need me

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because I am the pastor and you’re not the pastor Does that make sense And we do we don’t realize it but we subtly create the holy man of God the holy woman of God And this the normal Christian

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but the normal Christian is a child of God is a son of God is just as much a child and son of God as any other Christian

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Every Christian has the potential to grow up into Christ But we have to have that expect we have to help people to have that expectation Paul never expected to be a backslider

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Does that make sense I mean we need to raise an expectation You know so many of the expectations is I don’t know enough I’m not good enough I’m not holy enough It’s never good enough

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Does that make sense No wonder we keep failing No wonder why we just can’t seem to overcome adversity in trials and difficulties

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Does that make sense

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And we we make it what we do is we let people stay babies in Christ That was one of the dreams I had I saw a bunch of babies on life support in this room And I was pushing through to break through this room And I was like that was the church

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Isn’t that interesting I’ve had so many of these over the years because so much of Christianity is designed to create dependency and to lower people’s expectation of success But when you just expect people to stand strong and to be mighty soldiers of Christ we need to learn how to build that into one another

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Amen

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And I want to this is that is the type of Christian that the world needs Christians that are able to stand in the day of testing

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and to be a light and be a blessing and to love those that hate them bless those who curse them and do good to those who do them evil Christians that no matter what this world throws at them

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I will praise Him I will worship Him I will follow him He is good He is worthy to be praised He can be trusted a people that can go through fire

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and people can see them going through the fire and say why do they go through the fire and they’re not consumed

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They become a burning bush in this world

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I know Him whom I believe

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he’s good He is faithful He is loving He is worth everything He is that pearl of great price and that treasure hid in the field

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God to think that he doesn’t have that high level of expectation He let the very infant church go through 10 great persecutions

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because he goes I know what’s in you

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even if you don’t know what’s in you

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And I’m going to show the world greater is he that is in you than he is in the world And we need to raise that level of expectation of what a life is of a person who has met Jesus Christ and been filled with the Holy Spirit

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Be it done according to your faith John 5 19 then Jesus answered and said to them most assuredly I say to you the son can do nothing of himself But what he sees the father do for whatever he does The son also does in a like manner I just pull that passage out because there’s a neat idea in there God is a good father right

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And there’s a principle here that Jesus says I only do what I see the Father doing And a lot of times people think well how do I even know what the Father is doing I’m not good at seeing what the Father is doing But when you read scripture from cover to cover you start to see what the Father does

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It really If you say Lord I want to know the things that you do and you start to ask him and you start to read scripture saying Father I want to know what you do

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all of a sudden it will leap off the pages of scripture and you’ll start to discover because all of the great heroes of the Bible

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walked a journey with God

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And when you look at their journeys that they walked with God you’ll see that He let every one of them go through the fire

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You would see that he there were times where every one of them didn’t have a fresh word from God to know exactly what to do in a circumstance or a situation

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He let his people uh make choice Then you can think of the nation of Israel as a whole as a person following God when they were unfaithful How did God treat them when they wanted astray That He gives human beings the choice and free will and let you make mistakes

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and that should be responsible for those mistakes that He doesn’t always bail them out quickly

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God why Because I love you enough that I want you to grow

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I want you to become the kind of Christians that this world needs

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pillars of faith

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mighty men and women of renown

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They were heroes in the land

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but those heroes went through the fire

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they were tested they were tried

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and they said Lord I love you and you are good and I will not turn away and I will not give up That is how God raises up the type of Christians the world needs

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So we should reflect on how God raises his Children

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to begin I wanted to look look at what maturity looks like

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because you know what I said that the mature Christians love those who hate them bless those who curse them Do good to those who do a evil as Jesus said for then you will show yourself to be sons of God in scripture is full

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full of examples of people that have become mature in God and they are beautiful

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and and they all follow the same pattern

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And it all depends on how we respond to adversity

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Genesis

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50 15 through 21 Joseph

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that boy was called by God and he knew it

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and he had dreams from the Lord and he knew it

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and he

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preached righteousness to his brothers

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and he walked with God

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and he thought he probably thought that he was just going to go on this nice journey into greatness

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And then he sold into slavery by his brothers who first thought about killing him

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And then he found himself at Potter for his house serving well And next thing you know he lands in prison

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all because of what his brothers did to him He’s away from his father he’s away from his land he’s away from his mother he’s away from everybody he knows he’s away from everybody he loves He has been out of the fellowship of the saints

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The fellowship of the saints is very is such a priceless and precious Gift but don’t make it But here’s a man that was out of fellowship with the saints but he was not out of fellowship with God

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He was literally all alone and abandoned and forsaken

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He had died to the whole world that he had known

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all because of what his brothers did

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God I thought you could put a call on my life I thought you had a plan for my life Why are you letting this happen to me Why am I going through this This is not what I signed up for

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But his whole journey he held on to God

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He never forsook the Lord

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Oh he was sorely tempted and sorely tested and sorely tried

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But his whole journey you see that he held on to God and not just for dear life he held on as a pillar of faith He is good and I love him and I serve him the God that I serve even when he thought he might be finally getting out of prison because he interprets a dream And now he’s still waiting again

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He walked her dead

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And all of a sudden when the time was right the tables turned on his favor

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and now his brothers are in front of his face

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and he tested them to see if they had changed

Speaker#2:
00:24:59.29 – 00:25:03.66
But at a moment when Judah was willing to lay down his life

Speaker#2:
00:25:05.42 – 00:25:06.489
for Benjamin

Speaker#2:
00:25:07.26 – 00:25:09.989
Joseph couldn’t take it anymore And he wept

Speaker#2:
00:25:10.739 – 00:25:14.0
and revealed himself to his brothers And in that moment

Speaker#2:
00:25:14.89 – 00:25:16.579
his brothers were terrified

Speaker#2:
00:25:18.13 – 00:25:24.489
but his but his heart just overflowed with such love and such grace and such mercy

Speaker#2:
00:25:25.29 – 00:25:27.43
that all he did was speak words of blessing

Speaker#2:
00:25:29.41 – 00:25:35.29
But now we jump forward to years later a scene in Genesis 50 15 through 21

Speaker#2:
00:25:36.599 – 00:25:38.25
No their dad is dead

Speaker#2:
00:25:40.599 – 00:25:46.949
Maybe he was just he loves dad but not us And maybe he just didn’t want to add grief to dad

Speaker#2:
00:25:47.88 – 00:25:50.65
and now maybe he’s going to pour out his wrath on us

Speaker#2:
00:25:52.109 – 00:25:58.43
When Joseph’s brother saw that their father was dead they said perhaps Joseph will hate us

Speaker#2:
00:25:59.069 – 00:26:03.989
It may actually repair us for all the evil which we had which we did to him

Speaker#2:
00:26:07.8 – 00:26:10.01
That sentence is really hard

Speaker#2:
00:26:10.52 – 00:26:13.569
because it tells you that all these years

Speaker#2:
00:26:14.51 – 00:26:16.78
these men have been living under guilt

Speaker#2:
00:26:17.65 – 00:26:23.0
They had not yet received forgiveness in their own hearts even though Joseph had forgiven them

Speaker#2:
00:26:23.92 – 00:26:42.189
they had not been willing to receive forgiveness in that sentence We see a lot of times we project on others what’s in our own heart and we judge others according to our own character does that make sense And that’s what they’re doing here They’re judging Joseph according to their own character

Speaker#2:
00:26:42.53 – 00:26:54.05
They only see the world as they know the world from their own perspective They don’t know what God has really worked in the heart of this man Their brother they don’t know how different he is

Speaker#2:
00:26:56.77 – 00:27:15.14
So they sent messengers to Joseph saying before your father died he commanded saying thus you shall say to Joseph I beg you please forgive the trespasses of your brothers and their sin for they did evil to you Now please forgive the trespasses of the servants of the God of your father

Speaker#2:
00:27:18.78 – 00:27:19.729
They’re lying

Speaker#2:
00:27:21.31 – 00:27:25.339
They literally sent messengers to lie to Joseph

Speaker#2:
00:27:28.739 – 00:27:38.8
and Joseph since he was still a wounded soul they pushed his trigger How dare they lie to me Liar Shall inherit the lake of fire

Speaker#2:
00:27:41.27 – 00:27:43.439
He didn’t rebuke them for their lying

Speaker#2:
00:27:46.099 – 00:27:50.109
He didn’t rebuke him He didn’t even mention it He wept

Speaker#2:
00:27:51.91 – 00:28:11.67
That’s why the rabbi say that God God’s love for peace is so incredible and love covers a multitude of sins and all Joseph had for his brothers was love because God’s heart had so changed him and so transformed him This is the type of Christians the world needs

Speaker#2:
00:28:13.229 – 00:28:20.939
That’s why I like David I I can never get past that song of the bow It’s the same Like I said every time you see this it is beautiful

Speaker#2:
00:28:22.29 – 00:28:37.52
Saul after all that he did to David When Saul died he grieved and mourned over him Here we see it again in Joseph All he has is love for his brothers And what he’s doing is He’s getting past the legalism and hearing their heart

Speaker#2:
00:28:38.26 – 00:28:50.689
they’re afraid and his compassion is the compassion of Almighty God because he’s not like how dare They lie He’s like they are afraid because they have not received forgiveness in their own art

Speaker#2:
00:28:51.43 – 00:28:55.79
And they’ve been in pain and they’ve been in suffering all of this time

Speaker#2:
00:28:56.869 – 00:28:58.9
in his heart is I want to see them free

Speaker#2:
00:29:00.9 – 00:29:03.469
And Joseph wept when they spoke to him

Speaker#2:
00:29:04.04 – 00:29:11.64
then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and said behold we are your servants And Joseph said to them do not be afraid

Speaker#2:
00:29:12.599 – 00:29:14.78
for am I in the place of God

Speaker#2:
00:29:17.089 – 00:29:32.03
But as for you you meant evil against me But God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive Now therefore do not be afraid I will provide for you and your little ones

Speaker#2:
00:29:32.66 – 00:29:35.969
and he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them

Speaker#2:
00:29:39.93 – 00:29:42.849
This is the type of Christians the world needs

Speaker#2:
00:29:44.069 – 00:29:58.81
says the whole world is groaning waiting to be delivered from bondage waiting for the sons of God to appear on the earth Who are they They are people like this that have been so transformed by the love of God that they act like this

Speaker#2:
00:29:59.459 – 00:30:01.719
instead of their buttons being pushed

Speaker#2:
00:30:03.0 – 00:30:11.849
It’s because He went through all of this adversity and all of these trials and they drew him closer to God not away from God

Speaker#2:
00:30:14.599 – 00:30:18.38
How we respond to adversity is the key to how we grow up in Christ

Speaker#2:
00:30:20.75 – 00:30:26.739
We started by looking at how God deals with his Children he lets us make choices

Speaker#2:
00:30:27.469 – 00:30:30.349
He doesn’t intervene in our choices

Speaker#2:
00:30:30.89 – 00:30:31.949
very often

Speaker#2:
00:30:32.54 – 00:30:38.619
Sometimes he can be very persuasive and use a little of his sovereignty to help direct us a little bit

Speaker#2:
00:30:39.959 – 00:30:45.319
But every day we make choice after choice after choice and he doesn’t intervene

Speaker#2:
00:30:46.41 – 00:30:48.439
And a lot of times he lets us

Speaker#2:
00:30:49.02 – 00:30:52.02
experience the responsibility for our choices

Speaker#2:
00:30:55.75 – 00:30:58.479
He lets his Children struggle through adversity

Speaker#2:
00:30:59.77 – 00:31:01.119
It’s all through scripture

Speaker#2:
00:31:02.0 – 00:31:03.469
He often

Speaker#2:
00:31:04.199 – 00:31:09.26
doesn’t act to bring deliverance or intervene until they ask for help

Speaker#2:
00:31:23.3 – 00:31:30.56
You do not have because you do not ask you hear the voice of the people that have walked with God who understand these things

Speaker#2:
00:31:32.829 – 00:31:34.66
He doesn’t always make things clear

Speaker#2:
00:31:37.01 – 00:31:43.199
He does not always make everything clear to us and that’s on purpose

Speaker#2:
00:31:47.319 – 00:31:54.219
You know as they talked about the psychology of education there there’s a psychology of successful Christian living

Speaker#2:
00:31:55.4 – 00:31:57.439
We do need to know that we are loved

Speaker#2:
00:31:58.579 – 00:32:11.64
that we accept forgiveness That sounds like you know like it sounds so simple to say but it’s not Joseph’s brothers had not received forgiveness even though it was freely given to them

Speaker#2:
00:32:13.52 – 00:32:29.089
And as Christians if we do not receive forgiveness if we do not accept the forgiveness that Jesus is giving us it will choke the very life out of you You can never be the type of Christian this world needs unless you accept the forgiveness he freely gives

Speaker#2:
00:32:29.969 – 00:32:52.869
There’s no way I can May the Lord give revelation to everybody And if we’ve all fully received his forgiveness then Lord give us revelation to help this world There are so many people in the world and I meet them there’s Christians and I meet them regularly who cannot seem to accept that Christ has forgiven them truly in their heart and it’s still robbing them of life

Speaker#2:
00:32:56.349 – 00:32:58.619
We need to have security and identity

Speaker#2:
00:33:01.65 – 00:33:03.209
We need to be mature

Speaker#2:
00:33:04.13 – 00:33:13.4
I always like to talk about one of the big differences between maturity and immaturity is responsibility Little kids don’t have a lot of responsibility

Speaker#2:
00:33:15.069 – 00:33:20.05
But when we take responsibility instead of pointing blame

Speaker#2:
00:33:20.8 – 00:33:34.41
we become the type of Christians This world needs these little things that I’m saying May the Lord give us revelations we take responsibility We say Lord let me feed your sheep and saying Lord feed me

Speaker#2:
00:33:35.38 – 00:33:48.449
Does that make sense What I mean by that is so many people are offering what is in it for me What can I get What are people doing for me Why are people do what I’m judging God by what other people do for me

Speaker#2:
00:33:49.55 – 00:33:54.54
That’s not the kind of Christians This world needs it needs the kind of Christians that said Lord let me feed your sheep

Speaker#2:
00:33:55.849 – 00:34:06.17
Joseph did not look at all of the faults in his brothers He loved them and he had compassion on them and he fed the sheep

Speaker#2:
00:34:06.77 – 00:34:12.76
feed my sheep feed my sheep become someone that feeds his sheep

Speaker#2:
00:34:13.5 – 00:34:20.82
The mature feed the sheep They don’t need to make excuses and they don’t need to point blame They feed the sheep

Speaker#2:
00:34:22.398 – 00:34:23.54
Isn’t that awesome

Speaker#2:
00:34:28.678 – 00:34:41.398
scripture And and I want to say that to help us become mature scriptures often frame the experiences of our lives in a way that can genuinely help us to grow

Speaker#2:
00:34:43.418 – 00:34:50.07
I’ll start with James 1234 My brethren Count it all joy

Speaker#2:
00:34:50.6 – 00:34:52.148
when you win the lottery

Speaker#2:
00:34:54.78 – 00:35:06.649
No count it all joy You know when something good happens to you in life no Count it all joy When you fall into various trials

Speaker#2:
00:35:10.159 – 00:35:34.739
Can you repeat that James Right James I think you you gotta screw loose buddy No that’s what he says Count it all joy when you fall into various trials how do I obey that Commandment Wait a minute Scripture teaches us how to become the kind of Christians this world needs So when we fall into various trials

Speaker#2:
00:35:35.189 – 00:35:44.659
wait say that again when you fall into various trials because they are coming and they will not stop coming

Speaker#2:
00:35:45.87 – 00:35:50.01
When you fall into various trials count it all joy

Speaker#2:
00:35:51.419 – 00:35:55.79
Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience

Speaker#2:
00:35:57.139 – 00:36:03.27
testing of your faith produces patience It’s like gold refined in the fire

Speaker#2:
00:36:04.1 – 00:36:05.81
We want to shine like gold

Speaker#2:
00:36:15.149 – 00:36:16.75
Complete lack nothing

Speaker#2:
00:36:20.0 – 00:36:29.179
First Peter 4 12 going Let’s hear Peter We heard James He says it a little nicer I think at the beginning but we’ll just wait

Speaker#2:
00:36:30.36 – 00:36:39.03
Beloved Do not think it’s strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened to you

Speaker#2:
00:36:41.939 – 00:37:02.659
later But this one this is really where I really like it because it’s a bigger passage First Peter 13 through nine scripture framing the experiences of our lives in a way that causes us to grow So Peter does a brilliant job here helping us to develop the kind of mindset

Speaker#2:
00:37:03.25 – 00:37:30.439
that we need to develop It begins with blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled And that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time

Speaker#2:
00:37:32.8 – 00:37:57.959
And I can fill that in with a multitude of other words of encouragement He’s saying praise the Lord Hallelujah God is good Look what he’s done You’ve been born again and you’ve received an inheritance and you have a home in the heavens You have eternal life Your name is written in the book of Life that he’s just trying to get you to see all of these good things And remember those things first

Speaker#2:
00:37:58.689 – 00:38:03.179
get your eyes up out of your circumstances and remember reality

Speaker#2:
00:38:04.02 – 00:38:10.469
get your eyes up out of the mud and lift your eyes to the heaven from where your help comes from

Speaker#2:
00:38:12.729 – 00:38:33.35
I mean that’s really what he’s doing here Get your eyes off yourself get your eyes off your circumstances get your eyes off your problems for a second And remember reality what Christ has done and who you are in Christ and this genuine inheritance that you have remember what really matters

Speaker#2:
00:38:36.26 – 00:38:38.57
And then he continues and he says

Speaker#2:
00:38:41.3 – 00:38:53.37
in this you greatly rejoice though though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials

Speaker#2:
00:38:54.149 – 00:38:57.409
That’s a plural form of trials

Speaker#2:
00:38:58.379 – 00:39:06.32
You’ve been grieved by trials meaning they were not pleasant they were not enjoyable

Speaker#2:
00:39:09.34 – 00:39:10.489
But then he goes on

Speaker#2:
00:39:11.0 – 00:39:36.02
that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to praise honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ whom having not seen you love though Now you do not see him believing you rejoice with joy and expressible and full of glory receiving the end of your faith the salvation of your souls

Speaker#2:
00:39:37.56 – 00:40:02.51
I I’m really pulling out a lot of scriptures and really driving this home because the we hopefully through Joseph we got a picture of the kind of Christians this world needs And now we’re seeing the way that those Christians are created or or formed or educated or raised up or disciple fill in whatever word is the most meaningful to you Does that make sense

Speaker#2:
00:40:03.899 – 00:40:20.189
because really a lot of Christians they don’t know how to endure trials and tribulations and difficulties They don’t know how to deal with the hardships that life throws at them in a manner that they draw closer to God

Speaker#2:
00:40:21.389 – 00:40:27.79
and look back and say wow God you were really with me and you were faithful and you were good and I trust in you

Speaker#2:
00:40:30.429 – 00:40:33.409
first Corinthians Paul likes to chime in as well right

Speaker#2:
00:40:34.439 – 00:40:37.639
He just wants to he actually talks about ok

Speaker#2:
00:40:38.8 – 00:40:42.01
this is a more interesting version of dealing with it

Speaker#2:
00:40:42.6 – 00:40:46.58
No temptation has overtaken you except such as a common demand

Speaker#2:
00:40:47.459 – 00:40:53.149
Hey what’s the big deal You are not going through anything that other people haven’t gone through It’s not as very nice Is it

Speaker#2:
00:40:53.929 – 00:40:57.36
maybe I can try to read it in a nicer way

Speaker#2:
00:40:59.52 – 00:41:05.11
I just want you to know that no temp no temptation is overtaken you except as common demand

Speaker#2:
00:41:05.629 – 00:41:14.409
what you’re going through Other people have gone through and you could hear their testimony and they could encourage you Maybe that’s more the spirit that he was saying But the other one is a little more funny

Speaker#2:
00:41:16.449 – 00:41:43.32
but God is faithful who would not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able Isn’t it funny how you can make scriptures completely different by bringing our own little attitude and spirit into it So it really is like like yeah you know that probably wasn’t how Paul was I’ll be honest he probably was really trying to encourage and build up um not tearing down because other things show us that that kind of way only hurts people and doesn’t help them

Speaker#2:
00:41:44.729 – 00:41:51.28
But he is saying it’s almost like hey other people’s testimonies I just want you to know you’re not alone

Speaker#2:
00:41:52.01 – 00:41:56.35
I want you to know that you are not alone you’re not the only one

Speaker#2:
00:41:58.03 – 00:42:01.379
And for a lot of people that means a lot to know that they’re not alone

Speaker#2:
00:42:02.03 – 00:42:15.879
It really does And he says that but the temptation with the temptation God will also make the way of escape that you’ll be able to bear it He won’t let you be tempted beyond what you can bear

Speaker#2:
00:42:17.399 – 00:42:18.669
Isn’t that awesome

Speaker#2:
00:42:19.419 – 00:42:48.58
It’s awesome And what a word of encouragement when people are going through the fire when people are going through fiery trials and various trials that scripture obviously was not the way that I first read it because that scripture has probably been one of the greatest lights in the darkness for people going throughout trials throughout the ages Because when the fire of that trial is burning deeply in their life and they are wondering am I going to make it

Speaker#2:
00:42:48.939 – 00:43:08.07
Am I going to be able to endure it That scripture comes through like a light in the midst of darkness and says he will not tempt you beyond what you can bear So if I am in the middle of this trial Then somehow God knows I can bear it but he knows it and I don’t

Speaker#2:
00:43:09.11 – 00:43:18.189
But really that is been one of the greatest encouragements for people going through trials throughout the ages Just that knowledge that this thing will end

Speaker#2:
00:43:19.26 – 00:43:22.86
and it’s going to bring forth a far greater weight of glory

Speaker#2:
00:43:25.34 – 00:43:29.659
This is how you deal with your Children God yes because I love them

Speaker#2:
00:43:30.36 – 00:43:32.5
and I want to see the best for them

Speaker#2:
00:43:33.6 – 00:43:35.06
and the best for them

Speaker#2:
00:43:35.699 – 00:43:38.409
is to be conformed into the image of Christ

Speaker#2:
00:43:39.37 – 00:43:42.949
to be sanctified to become like him

Speaker#2:
00:43:43.489 – 00:43:44.959
to grow in love

Speaker#2:
00:43:45.6 – 00:43:53.629
There’s no other way If you were listening closely to these scriptures it said when not if

Speaker#2:
00:43:54.229 – 00:43:56.07
do not be surprised

Speaker#2:
00:43:56.729 – 00:43:59.199
because this is the way

Speaker#2:
00:44:00.37 – 00:44:03.3
Jesus said take up your cross and follow me

Speaker#2:
00:44:05.09 – 00:44:09.659
Narrow is the way that leads to life This is the way

Speaker#2:
00:44:10.449 – 00:44:15.02
God I want to live for you God I want to serve you God I want to be used by you

Speaker#2:
00:44:15.57 – 00:44:17.77
This is the way

Speaker#2:
00:44:19.1 – 00:44:23.02
this is the way to develop the type of Christians this world needs

Speaker#2:
00:44:25.3 – 00:44:29.929
you know recently I wanted to share a dream with Leah and ask her permission for this

Speaker#2:
00:44:31.129 – 00:44:32.129
But we commit

Speaker#2:
00:44:32.699 – 00:44:42.07
she didn’t and she doesn’t even know this I never even told her this but she came to me and told me a dream that she had And at that time I was actually asking God

Speaker#2:
00:44:42.62 – 00:45:01.949
because a lot of you know I have a lot of hope because I believe in the power of the gospel with all of my heart But when you know that the church is designed to keep people in immaturity and there’s a lot of immaturity in the church in America It begs the question Is there hope for America if the church is immature

Speaker#2:
00:45:11.81 – 00:45:12.52
nation

Speaker#2:
00:45:13.679 – 00:45:20.75
and that and and and see what happens is the revelations from God change your life forever Because at the end of the day

Speaker#2:
00:45:22.379 – 00:45:25.399
the covenant of redemption is between the father and the son

Speaker#2:
00:45:26.949 – 00:45:37.02
ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance But but he’s when there was a dialogue in the profits between the father and the son about the atonement

Speaker#2:
00:45:37.56 – 00:45:47.52
and and he said and the father offered him Israel and Jesus said is that all you’re going to give me And he says I will give you all the nations If you lay down your life

Speaker#2:
00:45:48.61 – 00:46:02.61
the father is giving the son all the nations as a reward of his sacrifice It tells us that God the father is putting every enemy under the feet of Jesus Christ

Speaker#2:
00:46:06.62 – 00:46:07.919
He’s overcome

Speaker#2:
00:46:08.77 – 00:46:25.439
he is victorious it is finished it is established We can be secure in this We can be confident in this but it’s OK to ask God questions and wrestle with this And that’s what I was doing I was wrestling with God knowing there’s an infant church

Speaker#2:
00:46:26.86 – 00:46:32.199
Is there hope for American with an infant church And I was asking God those questions and Ali had a dream

Speaker#2:
00:46:33.3 – 00:46:40.479
and I’m going to tell her the whole thing if you don’t mind She nodded and said yes this is one of those mornings where a lot of people get surprised

Speaker#2:
00:46:41.86 – 00:46:44.11
and she said I have this awesome dream

Speaker#2:
00:46:44.86 – 00:46:48.75
and of course you can ask her because I might not get it perfectly right because she had it But

Speaker#2:
00:46:49.29 – 00:46:50.649
what I remember

Speaker#2:
00:46:51.189 – 00:47:05.229
of her dream was that she saw this land that was filled with like darkness and there was like this woman on a horse that was like governing over all these people that were kind of like in bondage right

Speaker#2:
00:47:05.76 – 00:47:27.37
And there was a little child there was a little girl there and she knew she was a Christian Leah knew she was a Christian and that woman was mocking and ridiculing ridiculing and trying to destroy her And this whole area was had this it was walled in with this giant giant wall Like was it about 40 ft would you say Or bigger

Speaker#2:
00:47:28.649 – 00:47:32.699
Yeah she yeah just huge She couldn’t me She didn’t have a measuring stick

Speaker#2:
00:47:34.01 – 00:47:36.409
And she knew that that was a little Christian

Speaker#2:
00:47:37.02 – 00:47:54.149
And she said all of a sudden she said she heard this mighty noise of something slamming down in the wall and it was a gate and it was like a stained glass window And the moment that came down they were all screaming in terror and fleeing away

Speaker#2:
00:47:54.889 – 00:48:00.84
And she said she was screaming but not in tear but in awe and was running to see what it was

Speaker#2:
00:48:01.409 – 00:48:12.01
And when she saw what it was it was Jesus on a white horse re rearing up on its back two legs And then she said Jesus came out of that gate

Speaker#2:
00:48:12.79 – 00:48:14.54
and took away that woman

Speaker#2:
00:48:16.09 – 00:48:17.649
Isn’t that a while

Speaker#2:
00:48:18.719 – 00:48:44.28
And I was like I tell her but I to me administered deeply to my soul because I was like there was a a an immature Christian woman and we know the church the bride of Christ I was like there’s the immature bride of Christ in a foreign hostile land covered in darkness That’s why she said the sound of it was like chains breaking these giant chains breaking

Speaker#2:
00:48:44.879 – 00:48:46.56
And I just thought you know what

Speaker#2:
00:48:47.6 – 00:48:50.0
the love of God is so strong

Speaker#2:
00:48:50.639 – 00:48:54.879
that he could bring deliverance even for an infant church

Speaker#2:
00:48:55.449 – 00:48:59.36
because he’s not ashamed to say you are mine

Speaker#2:
00:49:00.78 – 00:49:02.669
and I’m taking ownership of you

Speaker#2:
00:49:03.62 – 00:49:05.12
and you belong to me

Speaker#2:
00:49:08.239 – 00:49:09.879
It’s powerful isn’t it

Speaker#2:
00:49:11.76 – 00:49:18.479
Jesus said I will build my church in the gates of hell will not prevail

Speaker#2:
00:49:19.31 – 00:49:25.36
He said to Paul Saul on that day on the road to Damascus Why are you persecuting me

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He is not ashamed to identify with his church

Speaker#2:
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Should we be ashamed to identify with it

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He’s not ashamed to serve his church

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These things are powerful and moving aren’t they

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The type of Christians this world needs In the book of Daniel we see

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a time people will all interpret it differently But the principle there was a time where the whole world is falling apart

Speaker#2:
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the whole world has gone to pot

Speaker#2:
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the whole world seems covered in darkness and like there is no hope in the middle of all of that It says those who do wickedly against the covenant shall corrupt with flattery

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But

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and so many people only focus on that first element and they miss the glorious revelation afterwards But the people who know their God

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shall be strong

Speaker#2:
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and carry out great exploits

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Those are the type of Christians this world needs and those are Christians that have walked through the fires and come out the other end closer to Jesus loving him seeing the draws burned away like Joseph loving his brothers even when they’re lying and helping setting them free from their inability to receive forgiveness

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and blessing them regardless of whether they do or don’t

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I mean just the more you look into the beauty of holiness it is beautiful it is beautiful and our cry out Lord let us be

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those type of Christians that the world needs

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in jesus’ name