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In chains I was bound, I was a madman on the run

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Through the hills I wandered, I was running from the sun

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But truth found me there, it was in my darkest hour

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I traded my black heart for joy

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For something real, something with power

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Truth set me free

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Truth came to me

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I once was blind but now I see

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Truth set me free

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Oh, oh, truth set me free

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Oh, oh, the truth set me free

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Welcome to Tell the Truth, a weekly podcast about faith, current events, and life in general.

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Brought to you from Mountain View Baptist Church, live every Monday night at 6 p.m. Central Time.

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And welcome back everyone.

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It is nice to be back after having a couple of weeks off for some sickness and other things,

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and really nice to have everybody back with us tonight.

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And Brother Dennis, how are you doing this evening?

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I'm doing good, man.

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I've had an awesome retirement day kind of day.

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I cut down two trees and made a burn pile, just stuff like that.

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It's pretty awesome.

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Hey, that's nice.

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Get a little work done.

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Yeah, I'm sore now.

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Get some of the honeydews off the honeydew.

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Well, I'm the honey, I guess.

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I made the list.

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Oh, okay.

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You're the honey and the do.

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It's just a do list.

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Get it done.

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And Brother Brian, hey, he's looking alive and with us today

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and not like we're playing weekend at Bernie's.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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That's what I felt like for a few days there.

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You know, Sunday I was thinking it might be a little more convincing

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if we had had Dennis come up behind you while you were up there preaching

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and just kind of help you move around a little bit.

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emphasis yes so how are you doing today i'm good i'm good getting a little bit better every day

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feeling a lot better so yeah thank the lord for that he's a he's the healer so i'm in him amen

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amen and uh this week we're going to be uh diving in with chapter two of the book of revelation

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and uh just a quick note to everyone since the audio cut out last time when i went to show uh

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right here's the scripture display and you'll see when you're looking at it we've got uh it has the

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verse the chapter and verse the book chapter and verse right there at the top in bold letters

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and then under it you'll have the new english translation and then under that's the king james

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translation and then under that's the new uh new international version so three versions uh more

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than likely one of those is one that you can either use yourself or one you're familiar with

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and would want to use and want to read. So right there on the screen. And as we go through, we'll

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be pulling those up and you'll be able to hear us talk since I actually added the microphone into the

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scripture scene rather than having it cut out when we do the explanation. So when you guys see that,

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when we go into it, that's what we'll be doing because especially with this, this study,

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it's really important to be able to look at the words as we're talking about it.

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And I know a lot of people might be, you know,

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maybe they're in a room or something where they're watching it on their phone

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or something, or they're not near their Bible for some reason,

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or hopefully you're not driving down the road watching your phone.

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Please don't do that.

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Listen, but don't watch while you're doing that.

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And yeah, we'll be diving straight in.

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It has been a wild few weeks.

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We've had a lot going on praying for the folks up in Minnesota right now, that horrible tragedy at that church.

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We would definitely pray for them and pray for that town because that is a rough thing to go through.

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But it's the state of the country right now that we've – and that's what we're – we as Christians, the way we combat that is truth, love, and showing that to people and showing people that we love them and showing people that we want to pray with them and talk with them and hopefully leading people to Christ.

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And as I pointed out last time, you know, take a note out of Charlie Kirk's book and let's let's try to make heaven crowded.

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Amen. You know, that's that's what we should be wanting to do here here on this earth.

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And also a quick tip, if you're doing studies like this and you're trying to remember and you're like, how do I keep this in my head when we're talking about stuff?

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And how do I remember what we talked about? Write it down physically with a pencil and or a pen and a piece of paper.

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Because when you write things down, you're engaging more of your brain. You remember it better.

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And so it works out really well to do that. So when you're doing studies, you're doing stuff like that.

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So then take notes, just just jot down the stuff as we're talking about it and as we're going through things.

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And it'll help you remember, oh, yeah, that's that's when we said that.

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And that's what we said that. And it'll kind of connect the dots for you a little bit.

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And then, too, if you write it down and you do it in a notebook that you actually can keep and that you actually don't toss in the garbage or something, you can go back and reference it later.

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So you can always go back and know, oh, yeah, I'm looking back at this.

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And you can open it up and add to it and expound on it and transfer it to a new notebook with better notes or different notes or whatever.

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And it's a really, really great way to remember this stuff.

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And because there's a lot.

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There's a lot in this book.

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There is.

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The Bible as a whole, but especially when you get into Revelation, it's like every couple of verses, you're like, oh, wow, that.

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Oh, wow, that.

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Yeah, but it's also a lot like the letter to the Romans, right?

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You're not going to understand it all in the first read-through.

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No.

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You've got to study it.

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You've got to let it soak in.

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You really do.

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You've got to, yeah.

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Yeah, read it, let it soak, take notes, and then go back and rinse and repeat over and over and over.

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And that's how you really get your head around it.

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And, man, I will say that right now I know I'm just lately been praying, Lord, whenever you're ready, just come on.

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Yeah.

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Come on.

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Amen.

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And, you know, the stuff that we get through in here is talking about what that means.

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And I know it's awful for the earth, but, boy, I'm ready to go home.

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Yeah.

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Amen.

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So as we start, we'll just dive on into Revelation chapter 2.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, again, the revelation of Jesus Christ, that's what this is.

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It's just the unveiling of Jesus.

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That's what the book of Revelation is about.

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Let me read those first maybe two or three verses there,

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and then we can kind of just hit on those, discuss those.

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Under the angel of the church of Ephesus write,

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These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,

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Ephesus, chief city of Asia.

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The religious and cultural center of that entire area was completely influenced,

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both East and West, Asia and Europe, by this place.

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Paul had his greatest ministry at Ephesus.

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He really did.

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He had a powerful ministry there.

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But notice that he holds the churches, right, so that Jesus Christ is ultimately in control, right?

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Yeah.

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He's the sovereign judge.

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He is.

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Right.

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And that's kind of, and that's something about, you know, all these letters, just, I guess,

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backward a little bit, but all these letters, they kind of have the same structure, right?

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Yeah.

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He'll describe himself depending on how he's talking to each of the churches, what they

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need to hear.

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Right.

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And he tells Ephesus, I'm the sovereign judge.

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I hold all this in my hand.

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Amen.

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And something I was thinking about today when I was looking at this, you know, there's seven

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churches that he writes to.

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That's the number of completion.

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Right.

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Right.

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And there's different ways to look at these letters.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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You can look at them as the letters of the literal letters of those literal seven churches of that day.

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And they were.

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But it's also a personal thing.

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Right.

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Because it closes every letter with he who has ears to hear.

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Let him hear.

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It's a personal thing.

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It is.

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And we need to be studying these things in our churches more and not work.

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Amen.

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Because there's some good stuff in here.

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And there's another way to look at it is that these may be ages in the church age.

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Right.

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Right.

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Kind of descriptive of different ages.

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Right.

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And an interesting thing I thought about today is that the letters go in order clockwise through these churches in age to minor.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Like a clock.

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Yeah, you're right.

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Right.

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You're right.

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I thought that was kind of cool.

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That is cool.

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That is cool.

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Yeah.

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Absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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And there's words to start with.

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We get down to verse number four in just a minute,

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and we'll see some words of condemnation.

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But here in these couple of verses, we see some words of commendation.

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Yeah, right.

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Number one, we're not saved by works, but after salvation, we are to work.

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Right.

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And he says, good job on your deeds.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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You've done good.

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Thank you for working for me.

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There's labor or weariness that's going on, right?

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That they have taken time to work for him.

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Patience.

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Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, right?

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It's a fruit of the Spirit.

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And the fourth one, would or endure evil.

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And whether this was a progression that the church was going through,

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like we were talking about or whether it's something that you can relate your church to today,

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you know, that you may be going through like churches who are getting shot up here and there,

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you know, and evil that's rearing its ugly head.

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Being tried, being tested, you know, being tested, test every man.

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Born, labor, you've borne this labor, the labor to Christ.

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You've labored hard in this.

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And then the seventh thing is not fainted.

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You didn't grow weary.

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D.L. Moody said, I grow weary in the work, but not of the work.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I'm reading a New American Standard, and it uses a little bit different words, the same thing.

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Yeah.

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But it says, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance.

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You have perseverance and have endured.

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Yeah.

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Right?

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We keep working.

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keep pressing on and that's uh that's a little bit of like uh like what we talked about before

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the promised land right it's it's a it's a rest in your work right yeah right you rest in your work

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amen amen absolutely absolutely and and that's hard for that's hard for on a worldly standpoint

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for us to understand it is that you can rest in your work like you know contradictory i mean

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And it's like, I mean, I can only relate to it in one way in particular

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as pastoring the church or as preaching on Sunday morning,

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preparing for that message and laboring and getting ready for that.

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And you're tired.

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When you get down, you're tired.

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I was telling somebody the other day that their statistics show that

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preaching a 30-minute sermon is the equivalent of working eight hours labor.

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And you can feel that sometimes when you put your heart and soul into it.

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But when you do that, there's also rest in it, right?

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Yeah.

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When you're evangelizing, when you're on the mission field,

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whatever those things are, man, those things can get tough.

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Times can get hard.

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But, gosh, they feel so good.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's like I've always thought of preaching.

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There's like a weight to it, right?

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It's heavy.

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Yeah, heavy.

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It feels heavy.

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But it's not a bad heavy.

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No.

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Right?

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It's a, man, I get to do this kind of heavy, right?

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Yeah, it is.

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It is.

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And sometimes there is that heaviness of you know that something needs to shift, you know that something needs to move, you know that something needs to change, you know.

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And there's that heaviness there.

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But it's also, thank you, Lord, for letting me feel this and know this and give me this.

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Trust in me with this.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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That's awesome stuff.

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Yeah.

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He does.

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He does.

246
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And he begins every one of these letters with this commendation, right?

247
00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:19,140
This encouragement.

248
00:13:19,510 --> 00:13:20,780
He goes, here's what you're doing good.

249
00:13:20,880 --> 00:13:21,500
Well, not all of them.

250
00:13:21,510 --> 00:13:22,240
I won't say that.

251
00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:22,880
Right, right.

252
00:13:23,350 --> 00:13:23,460
Yeah.

253
00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,000
When he doesn't use the word vomit or something.

254
00:13:26,210 --> 00:13:26,340
Right.

255
00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:30,060
Exactly.

256
00:13:30,540 --> 00:13:34,360
But man, how often should Christians be looking at these letters, brother?

257
00:13:34,620 --> 00:13:41,160
You know, it lays it out how we personally are, maybe, right?

258
00:13:41,360 --> 00:13:45,220
or our church or the church age or whatever it is.

259
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:47,200
And it's a checklist, isn't it, for us?

260
00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:47,580
Yeah.

261
00:13:48,950 --> 00:13:50,960
And it gauges, I guess, the temperature of the church.

262
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:51,820
Where are we at?

263
00:13:51,910 --> 00:13:56,840
What are we, you know, are we on the good side of this thing here

264
00:13:56,930 --> 00:13:58,600
or are we on the bad side of this thing here?

265
00:13:59,040 --> 00:13:59,160
Right.

266
00:13:59,540 --> 00:13:59,900
Yeah.

267
00:14:00,740 --> 00:14:07,260
You know, and I think it's so important that verse 2 there,

268
00:14:08,340 --> 00:14:10,740
you know, as he's giving them that praise, he says, you know,

269
00:14:10,820 --> 00:14:15,060
your labors, you know, I know your works, your labors, your patience, your steadfastness,

270
00:14:15,740 --> 00:14:22,420
your endurance. And then he says, and you have put those to the test that claim to be apostles,

271
00:14:22,700 --> 00:14:27,640
but they're not. And you found that you've discovered that they are false. You have,

272
00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:37,440
the King James says, you has found them liars. And it's like, one of the things that I,

273
00:14:38,980 --> 00:14:42,820
Really interesting because I had actually forgotten about this verse when I was thinking about this earlier today.

274
00:14:44,300 --> 00:14:52,520
One of the things that I always can gauge, am I dealing with a pastor or a church leader that I can trust,

275
00:14:53,380 --> 00:15:00,320
is how do they approach Matthew 18 and the story of Elisha?

276
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:06,300
If you remember, there's a story about Elisha where he goes into a town and he preaches and he prophesies to them

277
00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:07,320
And he gives them all this information.

278
00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:13,040
And then as he's leaving, a group of the young folks follow along behind him, making fun of him.

279
00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:14,480
Hey, Baldy, get out of here.

280
00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:18,800
And they're hollering at him and stuff, kind of making out like they're running him out of town is what they're doing.

281
00:15:19,399 --> 00:15:20,860
And he turns around and he curses them.

282
00:15:21,279 --> 00:15:23,460
And a bear comes out of the woods and eats the kids.

283
00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:24,540
It's so wild.

284
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:26,660
You see that.

285
00:15:27,900 --> 00:15:39,280
And when I hear one of the ways that I know I'm dealing with somebody that's probably on shaky ground theologically is when they read that story and they say, see, you should never speak out against the preacher.

286
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:39,760
Yeah.

287
00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:41,900
And I'm like, that's not what that meant.

288
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:42,260
No.

289
00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:44,420
And it's the same thing here.

290
00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:50,360
Right there, we have a church that is being praised for having someone come in claiming to be an apostle.

291
00:15:50,860 --> 00:15:50,960
Right.

292
00:15:51,640 --> 00:15:53,560
And then when they were tested, they were found lacking.

293
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:53,980
Yeah.

294
00:15:54,060 --> 00:15:56,700
And the church went, whoa, you're not telling us the truth.

295
00:15:56,860 --> 00:15:57,520
We're not going to do this.

296
00:15:57,920 --> 00:15:58,980
We are supposed to do that.

297
00:15:59,020 --> 00:16:00,280
We are supposed to test those.

298
00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:06,740
Now, I'm not saying get up and do like those young people did and try to run the person off and yell at them and act foolish.

299
00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:08,960
But test your leaders.

300
00:16:09,300 --> 00:16:10,060
Ask them questions.

301
00:16:10,380 --> 00:16:11,100
Dig into things.

302
00:16:11,520 --> 00:16:14,520
Have them show where they're coming from with things if you don't understand something.

303
00:16:14,660 --> 00:16:20,440
Because if they cannot come up with an answer, it just came to them from heaven and this is a revelation from God.

304
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:21,420
Yeah.

305
00:16:22,180 --> 00:16:23,940
I'm a little hesitant to listen to you.

306
00:16:23,980 --> 00:16:24,500
There's an issue.

307
00:16:24,900 --> 00:16:25,640
There's an issue there.

308
00:16:26,180 --> 00:16:32,760
And the day and time that we live in, gosh, they're around every corner, aren't they?

309
00:16:32,900 --> 00:16:33,000
Yeah.

310
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:34,160
I mean, they really are.

311
00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:34,480
Yeah.

312
00:16:35,620 --> 00:16:38,540
We're just talking about it just right before this thing started.

313
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:53,060
And there's this balance, I guess, that if we can, we have to kind of weigh things out.

314
00:16:53,300 --> 00:16:56,000
Are we spending too much time trying to expose it?

315
00:16:56,060 --> 00:16:57,800
and not enough time trying to preach it.

316
00:16:58,220 --> 00:16:58,880
You know what I'm saying?

317
00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:01,220
Because you can get caught up in that too,

318
00:17:01,330 --> 00:17:09,439
but I think it is our job to warn others of false teaching,

319
00:17:10,340 --> 00:17:12,819
to expose it, to let them know what it is.

320
00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:15,180
But the greatest way that we can do that,

321
00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:21,099
the best way that we can expose a false teacher

322
00:17:21,100 --> 00:17:28,620
is to equip believers themselves to be able to go to the Word of God

323
00:17:28,690 --> 00:17:32,480
and compare that teacher to the Word of God and have the discernment themselves.

324
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,040
Yeah, shine light in the darkness, right?

325
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:36,260
The darkness can't.

326
00:17:37,060 --> 00:17:37,700
Darkness is nothing.

327
00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:38,720
It's the absence of light.

328
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:43,800
When we shine the light in there, and it's a lot like the counterfeit money thing too.

329
00:17:43,940 --> 00:17:44,500
It is, yeah.

330
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:46,980
You don't study the counterfeits, you study the real one.

331
00:17:47,100 --> 00:17:54,840
Yeah, but the problem is, I guess the problem is, and again, this goes back to kind of where my heart is right now,

332
00:17:54,840 --> 00:18:04,700
and I think all our hearts right now is to disciple people and to make sure that they've got what they need to be able to fight these battles,

333
00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:08,880
with the Lord going before them to fight these battles with his word.

334
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:28,660
But what I find is, what I find is when I see these false prophets and I see these false teachers saying things, I see people that should be on the meat, off the milk and on the meat, just, you know, not seeing through it.

335
00:18:28,820 --> 00:18:35,300
And, you know, something that you may read in Dennis and say, oh, my gosh, you know, that's complete heresy.

336
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:43,840
And then this guy over here reads it, and he's been in church all his life, and he's like, oh, that sounded good, you know, because sometimes the heresy's hidden.

337
00:18:44,020 --> 00:18:45,520
Sometimes the heresy's subtle.

338
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:46,220
Yeah.

339
00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:50,460
You know, and we should be able to see those things.

340
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:55,780
Well, people will take little snippets out of the Bible and build a whole theology out of that, right?

341
00:18:55,780 --> 00:18:56,280
Sure, sure.

342
00:18:56,340 --> 00:18:59,560
And we got to be so careful to keep our eyes on the big picture.

343
00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:01,020
You know, who's God?

344
00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:01,800
What's he doing?

345
00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:02,660
Why is he doing it?

346
00:19:02,860 --> 00:19:03,680
What's he want from us?

347
00:19:03,980 --> 00:19:19,060
And if we keep our eyes on that, it helps so much when somebody starts getting, you know, people can be very persuasive with some fancy words and fancy ways to put things together and just fool people.

348
00:19:19,900 --> 00:19:27,820
And here's the thing I've always thought about false teachers is how many of them have actually set out to be false teachers?

349
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:28,700
Right.

350
00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:29,260
Right.

351
00:19:29,620 --> 00:19:30,660
They're genuine people.

352
00:19:31,300 --> 00:19:33,280
They've just gone down a wrong road.

353
00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:34,060
Yeah.

354
00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:34,320
Right.

355
00:19:34,820 --> 00:19:38,240
And we've got to be so careful because these people are absolutely convinced they're right.

356
00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:38,960
They are.

357
00:19:39,260 --> 00:19:39,880
Yeah, absolutely.

358
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:40,620
Absolutely.

359
00:19:41,100 --> 00:19:51,340
And the thing is, you become convinced, generally speaking, a lot of these people become so convinced because either, A, they're preaching a feel-good message, right?

360
00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:52,780
They want everybody to feel good.

361
00:19:53,340 --> 00:19:54,520
And that gets you a response.

362
00:19:54,760 --> 00:19:56,560
And it's a self-reinforcing thing, right?

363
00:19:56,700 --> 00:20:09,580
Because you're making people feel good about living in sin and about ignoring the truth of God, about ignoring, like we were talking about last night at the men's meeting, John 3, 18 and 19 and 20, when he says,

364
00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:11,960
hey, if you haven't believed, you are condemned already.

365
00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:15,740
And the world loves the darkness rather than the light.

366
00:20:15,770 --> 00:20:17,400
And he came to be a light in the darkness.

367
00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:22,020
And when you have people preaching the opposite of that and just preaching love, love, love and preaching,

368
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:24,660
but God loves you and God's going to forgive you and God's going to.

369
00:20:25,020 --> 00:20:28,260
And it's like, yes, all those things are true, but you've got to be the light in the darkness.

370
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:34,260
But it's like I've heard some people pointing out ever since the Charlie Kirk assassination,

371
00:20:34,580 --> 00:20:37,960
people have talked continuously about the fact that one of the things he did,

372
00:20:38,340 --> 00:20:42,800
He had this long conversation with a person one time where he was saying, you know, yeah, we love you.

373
00:20:42,830 --> 00:20:45,100
And yes, I want you to be here and I want you to be saved.

374
00:20:45,530 --> 00:20:46,880
But, you know, and Jesus absolutely.

375
00:20:47,220 --> 00:20:50,700
And he goes back to the woman, you know, the the adulterous woman.

376
00:20:50,730 --> 00:20:53,220
And he says, you know, yeah, he stopped him from stoning her.

377
00:20:53,460 --> 00:20:55,420
He who is without sin cast the first stone.

378
00:20:56,380 --> 00:20:58,560
And then he picked her up and he said, now go and sin no more.

379
00:20:58,780 --> 00:21:08,020
And he said, you know, that's where we and it becomes self-reinforcing because you're preaching to people just the, you know, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

380
00:21:08,140 --> 00:21:10,540
And when that's all you're preaching, boy, everybody feels great.

381
00:21:10,860 --> 00:21:14,020
And they're telling you how good of a preacher you are and they're telling you how good it is.

382
00:21:14,020 --> 00:21:19,600
And you got people getting up and getting excited during church and saying amen and hallelujah and all this stuff.

383
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:21,640
But they're completely missing the point.

384
00:21:21,720 --> 00:21:23,020
They're not actually getting the spirit.

385
00:21:23,740 --> 00:21:29,020
And you delude yourself into thinking, hey, I'm doing what God's called me to do.

386
00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:29,860
Look at their response.

387
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:31,520
Paul calls it being puffed up.

388
00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:36,260
I mean, and you are, not only is the audience you're preaching to puffed up,

389
00:21:36,380 --> 00:21:39,080
but you're being puffed up by the audience that you're preaching to.

390
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:44,120
And we've got to be so, so careful with that.

391
00:21:44,150 --> 00:21:51,260
I mean, you know, we just come off this whole prediction of this guy in Africa

392
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:56,280
who said that the world was going to end or that the rapture was going to happen

393
00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:01,040
on the 23rd and the 24th of this month, you know, one of those days.

394
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,660
I was slightly disappointed we didn't have one last week just to talk about that

395
00:22:04,730 --> 00:22:07,540
because we could have talked about that the day before it happened and said,

396
00:22:07,740 --> 00:22:08,960
hey, guys, it's probably not going to happen.

397
00:22:08,980 --> 00:22:09,580
Not going to happen.

398
00:22:09,740 --> 00:22:10,360
Not going to happen.

399
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:12,000
Well, here they are now.

400
00:22:12,170 --> 00:22:18,640
They're coming out with another date because they're trying to make a big difference

401
00:22:18,910 --> 00:22:22,040
between the two calendars, the Jewish calendar and our calendar.

402
00:22:22,630 --> 00:22:26,320
So now it's going to be, oh, he was right, but it's going to be in October,

403
00:22:26,940 --> 00:22:27,940
like the 6th and 7th.

404
00:22:29,180 --> 00:22:30,360
It just continues.

405
00:22:31,040 --> 00:22:37,640
Yeah, stop. Stop, because you're not going to know that day. You're not going to know that hour.

406
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:41,180
You know, and that takes me to another way you can spot those false prophets.

407
00:22:41,580 --> 00:22:47,020
Number one, if they prophesy something with absolute certainty and it doesn't happen, they're a false prophet.

408
00:22:47,250 --> 00:22:47,360
Right.

409
00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:48,820
That's your first clue.

410
00:22:49,100 --> 00:22:49,260
Right.

411
00:22:49,840 --> 00:23:01,240
But but beyond that, the scripture he used to explain why he thought he was right, he misquotes it from his own translation that he came up with of the scripture.

412
00:23:01,710 --> 00:23:09,160
He leaves out a big chunk of it where it talks about, you know, that the hour is not for anyone to be known, but all of the things that Christ.

413
00:23:09,300 --> 00:23:11,180
Oh, but I've shown you now and I'm telling you now.

414
00:23:13,220 --> 00:23:14,140
And it's like, wait, what?

415
00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:20,820
And somehow he manages to misquote that, flip it on its head and say, but because I'm saved, I know.

416
00:23:20,980 --> 00:23:22,880
And we should all know because we're saved.

417
00:23:23,060 --> 00:23:28,240
But see, and there's not like these are not stupid people that are grabbing on to this stuff.

418
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:36,640
There's intelligent people that are that are listening to his argument and hearing these these predictions and these things that he's laying out there.

419
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,540
And they're saying, OK, well, that sounds like that makes sense.

420
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,000
It sounds reasonable. It sounds reasonable, you know.

421
00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:47,520
But it's not in essence when it lines up against the Word of God

422
00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:52,500
because, again, God didn't meet Jesus on a road somewhere,

423
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,180
and Jesus didn't come and talk to him and tell him these things.

424
00:23:56,120 --> 00:23:59,640
But anyway, we can get so caught up,

425
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,500
and we can get fooled into so many different things,

426
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,320
and then all it does is hurt Christianity as a whole.

427
00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:06,760
It does.

428
00:24:07,260 --> 00:24:08,040
It crushes faith.

429
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:08,560
Yeah.

430
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:09,420
It's what it does.

431
00:24:09,480 --> 00:24:13,040
And these guys at Ephesus were good at it.

432
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:14,280
They tested people.

433
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:16,020
They called themselves apostles.

434
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,300
And, you know, that was kind of a challenge in that day, too, because they didn't know the faces of all these apostles.

435
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:28,580
Somebody could walk in and say, hey, I'm Matthew or I'm Thomas or whoever.

436
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:30,280
They had to believe them, right?

437
00:24:30,380 --> 00:24:30,480
Yeah.

438
00:24:30,860 --> 00:24:31,920
They put them to the test.

439
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:32,160
Right.

440
00:24:32,340 --> 00:24:32,460
Yeah.

441
00:24:32,940 --> 00:24:37,360
And something else that's important I think we need to mention is there are no more apostles today.

442
00:24:37,740 --> 00:24:37,860
Yeah.

443
00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:38,340
That's right.

444
00:24:38,340 --> 00:24:39,340
The apostles are done.

445
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:39,880
That's right.

446
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:40,980
All 12 of them.

447
00:24:41,180 --> 00:24:43,000
There's 11, and then Paul was added.

448
00:24:43,580 --> 00:24:43,680
Right?

449
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:46,520
And they've all gone to their reward.

450
00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:47,220
That's right.

451
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:47,740
Amen.

452
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:48,780
The office is over.

453
00:24:49,020 --> 00:24:51,440
The office is over, and the purpose of the office is over.

454
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:51,680
Right.

455
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:51,960
Right.

456
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:52,320
Yeah.

457
00:24:52,460 --> 00:24:52,620
Right.

458
00:24:52,700 --> 00:24:52,800
Yeah.

459
00:24:53,060 --> 00:24:55,220
They had to be eyewitnesses of Jesus.

460
00:24:55,410 --> 00:24:58,020
And the only way Paul got in was because Jesus appeared to him.

461
00:24:58,240 --> 00:24:58,320
Right?

462
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,100
And, guys, the things that they were able to do.

463
00:25:01,180 --> 00:25:01,580
Now, listen.

464
00:25:03,060 --> 00:25:03,580
Don't get me wrong.

465
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:05,080
Can God still work miracles?

466
00:25:05,780 --> 00:25:06,140
100%.

467
00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:06,380
Absolutely.

468
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:06,740
Absolutely.

469
00:25:07,250 --> 00:25:07,960
And he still does.

470
00:25:08,250 --> 00:25:08,700
He still does.

471
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,920
I'm not trying to discount the power of God and what he can do.

472
00:25:12,460 --> 00:25:15,900
But that's not the purpose in the man of God now.

473
00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:26,200
They were able to work miracles and do things in that time to be able to show the world that they were representing the Jesus that died on the cross and rose again.

474
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:28,380
There was a purpose in that.

475
00:25:28,380 --> 00:25:29,480
There was a plan in that.

476
00:25:29,920 --> 00:25:35,080
And now they didn't have the word of God sitting before them like we do today.

477
00:25:35,340 --> 00:25:36,400
Not the complete, right?

478
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:38,100
Not the complete word of God, no.

479
00:25:38,700 --> 00:25:42,180
And so and so but we do we do have that.

480
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:53,240
And and so through faith, we believe what the word of God tells us by the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us to explain it as we actually discount that all too much.

481
00:25:53,480 --> 00:26:05,540
We do. But but yeah, I just I see these guys that are all into titles and have these churches and call themselves apostles and this day and bishop, all these different things.

482
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,120
Yeah. So they just want recognition or something.

483
00:26:08,460 --> 00:26:08,620
Yeah.

484
00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:10,420
Well, that's what they're looking for.

485
00:26:10,580 --> 00:26:10,880
Yeah.

486
00:26:11,460 --> 00:26:11,560
Yeah.

487
00:26:12,180 --> 00:26:12,260
Yeah.

488
00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:13,720
Got to be careful with that.

489
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:14,760
Got to be careful with that.

490
00:26:15,900 --> 00:26:18,600
So he gives them a big commendation there, right?

491
00:26:18,740 --> 00:26:19,000
Yeah.

492
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:20,440
And that's pretty awesome.

493
00:26:21,740 --> 00:26:23,320
I would love to hear.

494
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:24,340
I don't know if I would not.

495
00:26:25,220 --> 00:26:27,420
What would he say about our church, right?

496
00:26:27,740 --> 00:26:28,020
Yeah.

497
00:26:28,420 --> 00:26:28,560
Yeah.

498
00:26:29,620 --> 00:26:30,840
The commendation would be awesome.

499
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,180
Could he say this about our church, right?

500
00:26:35,340 --> 00:26:35,480
Yeah.

501
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:38,220
And this is what we need to be looking at when we study this, right?

502
00:26:38,380 --> 00:26:41,880
Every church in the world needs to be studying this and going, what did you say this?

503
00:26:42,260 --> 00:26:47,220
Labor, patience, tried, true, tested, mourned.

504
00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:50,760
And look at our personal lives and what do you say that about me?

505
00:26:50,900 --> 00:26:54,300
Not fainted, kept on keeping on, keeping on, keeping on.

506
00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:54,720
Yeah.

507
00:26:55,460 --> 00:27:00,260
And it should be the thing that keeps us going through trials and tribulations that our church goes through.

508
00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:00,960
Absolutely.

509
00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:01,280
Yeah.

510
00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:01,800
Absolutely.

511
00:27:02,700 --> 00:27:03,720
God's still got a plan.

512
00:27:04,120 --> 00:27:07,560
And I'll tell you one thing right in that same verse there.

513
00:27:08,940 --> 00:27:10,220
You cannot tolerate evil.

514
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:11,440
Yeah.

515
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:13,800
He commends this church.

516
00:27:14,140 --> 00:27:16,060
You do not tolerate evil.

517
00:27:16,180 --> 00:27:16,420
Yeah.

518
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,960
And the way he says it, thou canst not bear them which are evil.

519
00:27:22,100 --> 00:27:25,840
Not just you don't, you just can't.

520
00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:26,380
You can't.

521
00:27:26,620 --> 00:27:26,680
Yeah.

522
00:27:27,460 --> 00:27:27,940
Goodness.

523
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:30,980
And today we give people a pass.

524
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:37,440
We give the evil things and the evil actions and the evil direction that people want to go, and we just go, eh.

525
00:27:37,700 --> 00:27:43,540
This blows so many churches out of the water who they'll even deny that there is evil anymore.

526
00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:44,460
Right, exactly.

527
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:49,680
There's not even sin anymore because of what Jesus did on the cross, and that is a lie.

528
00:27:49,910 --> 00:27:50,200
It is.

529
00:27:50,290 --> 00:27:55,520
It is a complete, utter lie, and Paul writes extensively about don't do this.

530
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:56,520
Don't get involved in that.

531
00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:58,020
These are all sinful things.

532
00:27:58,240 --> 00:27:58,760
Get out of sin.

533
00:27:58,910 --> 00:27:59,660
Put on the new man.

534
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:00,080
That's right.

535
00:28:00,220 --> 00:28:01,540
All these different things he's talking about.

536
00:28:01,860 --> 00:28:05,380
And Jesus is speaking directly to him, saying, there is still evil.

537
00:28:05,660 --> 00:28:06,140
That's right.

538
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:07,060
Amen.

539
00:28:08,100 --> 00:28:09,300
How do we miss this?

540
00:28:09,500 --> 00:28:09,720
Yeah.

541
00:28:09,940 --> 00:28:10,180
Yeah.

542
00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:10,580
Yeah.

543
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:11,720
How do we get around it?

544
00:28:11,820 --> 00:28:13,500
We don't read Bibles is what we do.

545
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:15,600
We leave out what we want to leave out.

546
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:16,080
Yeah.

547
00:28:16,220 --> 00:28:16,320
Yeah.

548
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:18,220
To make the congregation feel good.

549
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,180
Oh, I'm comfortable with that sin.

550
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,020
If you're comfortable with that sin, yeah, you're fine.

551
00:28:24,180 --> 00:28:24,880
Just come on in.

552
00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:26,720
And don't get me wrong.

553
00:28:26,940 --> 00:28:29,680
We want the sinner to come into the church.

554
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:30,040
Absolutely.

555
00:28:30,220 --> 00:28:32,100
But we want them to leave here changed, right?

556
00:28:33,180 --> 00:28:34,300
There's got to be repentance.

557
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,700
There's got to be a turn from that because God does –

558
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:42,620
I posted a little post about this the other day, but Psalms 5 tells us this.

559
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:45,600
Isaiah chapter 5, I think, tells us this.

560
00:28:46,580 --> 00:28:48,440
But God abhors the sinner.

561
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:48,880
Yeah.

562
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:49,860
He does.

563
00:28:50,300 --> 00:28:52,580
But he made a way for the sinner through Jesus Christ.

564
00:28:52,900 --> 00:28:53,040
That's right.

565
00:28:53,100 --> 00:28:54,900
That's what we have to understand, right?

566
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,820
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

567
00:28:59,990 --> 00:29:00,300
That's right.

568
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:00,920
Absolutely.

569
00:29:01,170 --> 00:29:01,500
That's right.

570
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:05,380
And again, it comes back every single time.

571
00:29:05,700 --> 00:29:07,400
Go and sin no more.

572
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:08,480
Your sins are forgiven.

573
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:09,700
Go and sin no more.

574
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:10,980
I forgive you of your sins.

575
00:29:11,140 --> 00:29:11,960
Go and sin no more.

576
00:29:12,100 --> 00:29:13,940
Christ, be holy.

577
00:29:13,940 --> 00:29:14,480
Be holy.

578
00:29:14,620 --> 00:29:15,740
Father in heaven is holy.

579
00:29:15,830 --> 00:29:18,060
And the word sanctification is tied to holy.

580
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:18,680
That's right.

581
00:29:18,740 --> 00:29:24,220
When we're being sanctified in the rest of our lives here after we're saved, that is God making us holy.

582
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:24,680
That's right.

583
00:29:24,980 --> 00:29:29,580
him that's right yeah we got to yield to it we got to surrender to it and how do we surrender to it

584
00:29:29,940 --> 00:29:38,480
stop doing bad stuff yeah and that sounds easy what in the world it's him walk with him abide

585
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:44,020
in him let the holy spirit lead you right yeah i'm not saying you're going to be perfect but you can

586
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:51,299
you have the ability through the holy spirit to walk away from evil to turn your to turn away from

587
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,200
You can 180 it every time.

588
00:29:54,380 --> 00:29:54,500
Absolutely.

589
00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:55,580
Every single time.

590
00:29:55,820 --> 00:29:55,940
Absolutely.

591
00:29:55,940 --> 00:29:57,260
You don't have to fall victim to it.

592
00:29:57,580 --> 00:29:59,320
Not in your own power, but in his power.

593
00:29:59,400 --> 00:29:59,700
Yes.

594
00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:03,080
So what happens if you don't?

595
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:03,980
Here we go.

596
00:30:04,860 --> 00:30:05,540
Verse number four,

597
00:30:05,700 --> 00:30:10,840
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

598
00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:16,400
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works,

599
00:30:16,780 --> 00:30:24,180
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and I will remove thy candlestick out of this place, except thou repent.

600
00:30:26,220 --> 00:30:28,340
So let's look at a couple of things here.

601
00:30:29,980 --> 00:30:31,580
We've seen some words of commendation.

602
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:33,360
Now we see some words of condemnation.

603
00:30:35,119 --> 00:30:42,780
They were not off track in their doctrine, but they were off track in their relationship with Jesus Christ, right?

604
00:30:44,060 --> 00:30:48,060
We need to remember our salvation.

605
00:30:48,500 --> 00:30:50,160
There's some things he's saying you forgot.

606
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,920
When he said you forgot your first love, we need to remember our salvation.

607
00:30:54,180 --> 00:30:55,480
We need to remember who saved us.

608
00:30:55,520 --> 00:31:02,320
We need to remember who keeps us saved we need to remember to study his word we need to remember to pray.

609
00:31:02,900 --> 00:31:07,500
We need you remember to say on doctrine and we need to remember to love right?

610
00:31:07,840 --> 00:31:09,880
We've got to remember to love other people.

611
00:31:11,820 --> 00:31:17,260
Yeah, it sounds like Ephesus was doing all the right things, but they were just doing the motions.

612
00:31:17,380 --> 00:31:18,440
Right, right, right.

613
00:31:18,780 --> 00:31:20,100
Just doing the motions, right?

614
00:31:20,300 --> 00:31:20,400
Yeah.

615
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:21,880
And that's a danger, man.

616
00:31:22,020 --> 00:31:22,560
That's a danger.

617
00:31:23,140 --> 00:31:31,900
I think it's a danger, especially in really liturgical churches where they feel like a worship service where we did all the right things and brought over a great service.

618
00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:33,280
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

619
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:34,440
But did we praise?

620
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:35,060
Did we worship?

621
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:36,880
Yeah, we kept the boxes.

622
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,280
Yeah, and you go through your life the rest of the week, you know,

623
00:31:40,310 --> 00:31:42,320
and you're not focused on Jesus.

624
00:31:42,580 --> 00:31:43,500
You're not loving him.

625
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:47,220
You're not loving other – and that's how we love him is by loving other people.

626
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:48,040
Right, yeah.

627
00:31:48,780 --> 00:31:53,100
But even in an evangelical church like ours, you know,

628
00:31:53,340 --> 00:31:59,280
you can get monotonous in the way that you do things and the things that you do.

629
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:03,960
You know, there's Sunday school, and then we take up the offering,

630
00:32:04,090 --> 00:32:07,000
and then we sing the song, and then we do this, and then we do that.

631
00:32:07,380 --> 00:32:13,940
And we can get so uniform with it that we can just scoot Jesus right out of it.

632
00:32:14,020 --> 00:32:15,560
Because we know how to do this, right?

633
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:16,460
We know how to have church.

634
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,940
And so we just push him right out of it.

635
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:20,340
And he says this.

636
00:32:20,420 --> 00:32:21,800
This is pretty harsh words.

637
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,400
But he says, I'm going to remove the candlestick.

638
00:32:25,540 --> 00:32:26,740
Now, what does he mean by that?

639
00:32:26,860 --> 00:32:29,080
What does he mean by removing the candlestick?

640
00:32:29,220 --> 00:32:34,940
Well, I believe that he means he'll remove the effectiveness of the church.

641
00:32:35,340 --> 00:32:40,080
Your church, not that somebody's going to lose their salvation, right?

642
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:45,820
I mean, if there's safe people in the church, then Jesus is there because he lives inside of us.

643
00:32:47,060 --> 00:32:50,000
But the effectiveness of the church will begin to dwindle.

644
00:32:50,180 --> 00:32:55,660
It will not have the effect that it once had at one point in a period of time.

645
00:32:55,860 --> 00:33:01,960
Yeah, and I believe his audience here is literally a church, a group of believers.

646
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:02,580
Yes, yeah.

647
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:03,660
I agree.

648
00:33:03,940 --> 00:33:05,780
I think it removes your defectiveness.

649
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:08,780
And we've seen that in churches all around this area, right?

650
00:33:08,860 --> 00:33:10,980
Where they just dwindle down and dwindle down.

651
00:33:11,300 --> 00:33:12,880
You've got $100,000 to bank.

652
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:13,860
They're doing nothing with it.

653
00:33:14,020 --> 00:33:17,560
You have to sit there and sit there and sit there, not doing anything to love anybody.

654
00:33:17,820 --> 00:33:18,160
That's it.

655
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:19,940
No outreach whatsoever.

656
00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:21,100
Okay.

657
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:23,020
Doors are closing.

658
00:33:23,460 --> 00:33:23,620
Yeah.

659
00:33:23,860 --> 00:33:24,160
Yeah.

660
00:33:24,660 --> 00:33:26,460
You can put your church up for sale.

661
00:33:26,710 --> 00:33:32,000
And there's literally churches in our area and in the Fort Payne, the Cab County area,

662
00:33:32,140 --> 00:33:34,460
that have shut the doors and have sold out.

663
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:34,940
Yeah.

664
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:36,460
Lost their first love.

665
00:33:36,660 --> 00:33:40,760
Well, yeah, they get away from the work that they're called to do.

666
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:50,380
And then you stop doing the work and you start at some point,

667
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,400
you got to start just hardening yourself.

668
00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:53,180
Yeah.

669
00:33:53,300 --> 00:33:54,300
I mean, that's the truth.

670
00:33:54,580 --> 00:33:56,600
I mean, it's not just that you've walked away from the work,

671
00:33:56,700 --> 00:33:59,580
but you're literally having to harden yourself against the Holy Spirit

672
00:33:59,700 --> 00:34:02,000
that's moving and saying, hey, do this, do this.

673
00:34:02,100 --> 00:34:08,480
do this do this yeah because we're here for a purpose yeah yeah i mean i was thinking just uh

674
00:34:08,980 --> 00:34:15,280
what are some signs that a church has lost its first love and it and to me it i think you can

675
00:34:15,460 --> 00:34:21,419
tell it by the praise and worship happening in the church yeah right yeah you can see the love for

676
00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:25,919
jesus and some people more than others right right and we all worship in different ways i'm not

677
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:30,120
I'm not saying everybody's running laps around the church and jumping into baptistry.

678
00:34:30,530 --> 00:34:30,659
Right.

679
00:34:30,980 --> 00:34:35,480
But some of us are a little quieter and a little more subdued about it, and others are louder.

680
00:34:35,899 --> 00:34:36,040
Yeah.

681
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:38,460
But I think there's a pulse there, you know.

682
00:34:38,460 --> 00:34:38,780
There is.

683
00:34:39,179 --> 00:34:40,000
We kind of know.

684
00:34:40,419 --> 00:34:41,200
Yeah, absolutely.

685
00:34:41,929 --> 00:34:42,040
Absolutely.

686
00:34:42,460 --> 00:34:50,679
Yeah, I think you could probably list several things that shows that that church has lost its first love.

687
00:34:50,850 --> 00:34:54,960
You know, the love of the Word of God, right?

688
00:34:55,010 --> 00:34:55,120
Yeah.

689
00:34:55,399 --> 00:35:05,400
You know, I mean, the time and I'll be honest with you, in the American church, the love of the word of God is, you know, I mean, don't get me wrong.

690
00:35:05,980 --> 00:35:11,660
The singing is a huge part of it and the worship is a huge part of it.

691
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:13,700
And it sets the tone for everything.

692
00:35:14,420 --> 00:35:15,220
And that's what we're doing.

693
00:35:15,290 --> 00:35:16,600
We're giving worship to him.

694
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,880
But you got people who will follow around.

695
00:35:20,140 --> 00:35:24,640
They'll follow singing groups around all over the place just to hear singing

696
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:27,540
and could care less if they ever heard another person preach.

697
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:27,980
Yeah.

698
00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:28,540
You know?

699
00:35:28,740 --> 00:35:31,560
You're getting a doctrine out of these old hymns that may not be sold.

700
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:33,880
Might not be accurate.

701
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:34,520
Yeah, yeah.

702
00:35:34,620 --> 00:35:36,500
I looked all over heaven and tried to find a Savior.

703
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:36,980
Did you?

704
00:35:37,260 --> 00:35:37,400
Okay.

705
00:35:38,980 --> 00:35:41,520
You know, a little prayer wheel turning.

706
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:42,320
Well, Buddhism.

707
00:35:42,720 --> 00:35:42,880
Okay.

708
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:43,760
You know.

709
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,600
You get people mad at us for sure now.

710
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:46,920
Yeah.

711
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:49,720
But that's the thing, though.

712
00:35:50,600 --> 00:36:11,200
Even to go a little further with that, a lot of modern churches here in the U.S. especially, but some of them are international churches, literally have specialized training for their worship leaders on how to create the environment of worship.

713
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:15,020
And we say that, and a lot of people are like, yeah, but that's what we all do.

714
00:36:15,020 --> 00:36:15,780
And we say, no, no, no, no.

715
00:36:16,140 --> 00:36:28,700
I'm talking about they literally structure which songs go where in order to elicit an emotional response from the congregation to make them feel as though the Spirit of God is entering that.

716
00:36:29,060 --> 00:36:34,040
And they literally refer to it as calling down the Holy Spirit.

717
00:36:34,250 --> 00:36:35,700
And I'm like, you're calling up.

718
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:41,980
I'm like, you actually are teaching your worship leaders that they're going to summon God.

719
00:36:42,380 --> 00:36:42,500
Yeah.

720
00:36:42,820 --> 00:36:42,900
Yeah.

721
00:36:43,300 --> 00:36:45,060
Well, first of all, who do you think you are?

722
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:45,280
Right.

723
00:36:45,460 --> 00:36:45,920
Very famous.

724
00:36:46,420 --> 00:36:46,940
Very famous.

725
00:36:47,300 --> 00:36:50,980
And secondly, that's emotion.

726
00:36:51,180 --> 00:36:51,580
That's feeling.

727
00:36:51,820 --> 00:36:53,980
That is nothing to do with Scripture.

728
00:36:54,090 --> 00:36:55,300
That has nothing to do with worship.

729
00:36:55,410 --> 00:36:56,880
That has nothing to do with –

730
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:57,020
Hype.

731
00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:59,040
Yeah, it's just pump.

732
00:36:59,180 --> 00:37:01,920
It's hype, and it's just about the feeling.

733
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:02,720
Boken mirrors, literally, right?

734
00:37:03,230 --> 00:37:03,340
Yeah.

735
00:37:03,530 --> 00:37:06,720
Dim lights and all this stuff, and just pump people up and bring them.

736
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:07,260
Yeah.

737
00:37:07,420 --> 00:37:18,260
I was talking to my son's doing some special training for some of his ADHD stuff, and it's biofeedback training.

738
00:37:18,260 --> 00:37:19,000
It's really cool stuff.

739
00:37:19,120 --> 00:37:23,480
Actually, they read your heart rate and all kinds of things to see if you're getting stressed out while you're doing something,

740
00:37:23,530 --> 00:37:28,600
and the computer will react and make it more difficult until you relax, and then it makes it easier to do what you're doing.

741
00:37:28,650 --> 00:37:34,420
It's a really cool way to teach people to do this stuff, but I was talking to the guy that's doing all that work with him,

742
00:37:35,020 --> 00:37:39,960
And we just got to talking about one day I was telling him about Darren Bram.

743
00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:41,840
I don't know if you guys have ever seen him on YouTube.

744
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:44,878
He's an English, a British magician.

745
00:37:45,620 --> 00:37:46,940
He does a lot of showmanship.

746
00:37:48,160 --> 00:37:52,000
The way he got by for the first 20 years or so of his life, he was a pickpocket.

747
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:55,320
But he took it a few steps further.

748
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:57,060
He learned not just how to be a pickpocket.

749
00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:02,200
He learned the full gamut of mind trickery with people.

750
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:12,160
Like walk up to a on the racetrack and tell them you bet on the winning horse when you don't even have a ticket and hand them a blank sheet of paper about the size ticket.

751
00:38:12,170 --> 00:38:13,020
And they go, yep, that's it.

752
00:38:13,860 --> 00:38:14,840
And hand him cash.

753
00:38:16,080 --> 00:38:16,300
Wow.

754
00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:18,860
And I mean, watched him do it right here in the US.

755
00:38:18,930 --> 00:38:26,800
And he and he he actually describes to people and he does it as a show now of going, yeah, it's actually really easy to trick the human brain and doing things.

756
00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:33,680
One of his last big shows, he did a Netflix special called, I think it was called Miraculous or Miracles, something like that.

757
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:46,260
And one of the things he does is when he started talking, he straight up, it sounds like some of the stuff you'd hear from some of those charismatic style worship services.

758
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:56,280
And all of a sudden he had people in the audience and he's like, yeah, this person thinks that their back problem just quit and their back's not hurting anymore.

759
00:38:56,340 --> 00:38:59,660
And this person thinks that they don't need their glasses anymore because they can see just fine.

760
00:39:00,180 --> 00:39:04,900
Throws up a thing and she starts calling out the letters and he does these same things.

761
00:39:04,910 --> 00:39:07,580
And he says, let me stop and explain to everybody here.

762
00:39:08,220 --> 00:39:09,820
There's nothing religious about this.

763
00:39:10,140 --> 00:39:14,040
What I just did was tricked all of you into thinking this.

764
00:39:14,740 --> 00:39:22,540
And he's like, so if that's the reason you believe something, you've got a problem because I'm not up here doing this in the name of God.

765
00:39:22,820 --> 00:39:24,300
I'm just tricking you.

766
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:28,360
And if you can be fooled by that, you really need to question what you're doing.

767
00:39:28,580 --> 00:39:29,800
And I mean, that was his whole point.

768
00:39:29,850 --> 00:39:33,760
And he's not, he's not, you know, again, British, probably an atheist.

769
00:39:34,390 --> 00:39:37,920
But he's even said like in interviews, he's like, I don't necessarily have a problem with

770
00:39:38,060 --> 00:39:38,220
Christians.

771
00:39:38,460 --> 00:39:42,020
He's like, I have a problem with that group of Christians because I know how they're doing

772
00:39:42,180 --> 00:39:42,600
what they're doing.

773
00:39:42,650 --> 00:39:44,480
And it really bothers me that they're tricking people.

774
00:39:45,020 --> 00:39:51,079
And to see somebody that doesn't even pay lip service do the thing that I've seen some of

775
00:39:51,060 --> 00:39:57,600
churches do i'm like that that kind of that that lit a fire under me where i'm like i need to start

776
00:39:57,700 --> 00:40:02,080
calling that out more when i see it happening yeah yeah because it has no place in the church and

777
00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:06,020
that again goes back to that feel good services you've got somebody up there and i'm not saying

778
00:40:06,100 --> 00:40:09,320
all of them don't get me wrong i don't believe every single one that's out there doing some of

779
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:14,658
this stuff knows that they're doing it they're copying something that somebody else did but i

780
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:20,900
promise somewhere along the way somebody had studied these mentalist tricks and and knew what

781
00:40:20,900 --> 00:40:27,700
to do and used it to to just build people out of their money yeah yeah yeah well what is our um

782
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:35,540
what is the solution jesus gives us here for losing your first love right remember yeah

783
00:40:37,220 --> 00:40:42,860
remember we remember what how he brought us out of egypt that's right how he brought us through

784
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:47,200
the Red Sea, the wilderness, all the things that he's done in our lives.

785
00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:53,280
Everybody listening that's saved, anybody who is born again has an Egypt moment.

786
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:54,000
That's right.

787
00:40:54,060 --> 00:40:57,100
Has a moment where the blood of the lamb rescued you from bondage.

788
00:40:57,220 --> 00:40:57,400
Amen.

789
00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:58,140
Right.

790
00:40:58,310 --> 00:41:00,120
And baptized you in the spirit.

791
00:41:00,420 --> 00:41:00,540
Yeah.

792
00:41:00,830 --> 00:41:00,960
Yeah.

793
00:41:01,140 --> 00:41:03,720
And brought you through things that you never imagined.

794
00:41:04,170 --> 00:41:10,080
And the best way to understand and to get back to him is just like we celebrated communion

795
00:41:10,260 --> 00:41:11,380
or the Lord's Supper, right?

796
00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:17,880
You focus back in on what's the most important thing in the world is that the blood was shed for me and the body was broken for me.

797
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:19,440
That Bethel place, right?

798
00:41:19,700 --> 00:41:24,220
That stone of remembrance that was placed there in your life.

799
00:41:24,460 --> 00:41:24,600
Yeah.

800
00:41:24,860 --> 00:41:25,600
And gratitude.

801
00:41:26,140 --> 00:41:26,360
Yeah.

802
00:41:26,620 --> 00:41:26,740
Yeah.

803
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:27,180
Amen.

804
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:27,940
Amen.

805
00:41:28,900 --> 00:41:29,120
Amen.

806
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:30,780
And it's not only remember.

807
00:41:31,300 --> 00:41:35,160
Remember from where you have fallen and repent.

808
00:41:35,720 --> 00:41:35,920
Yeah.

809
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:36,180
Yeah.

810
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:37,080
Turn from it.

811
00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:37,480
Yeah.

812
00:41:37,660 --> 00:41:38,320
Turn from it.

813
00:41:38,580 --> 00:41:38,840
Yeah.

814
00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:39,080
Amen.

815
00:41:41,800 --> 00:41:43,000
let's look at verse number six

816
00:41:45,010 --> 00:41:53,100
but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the nicolaitans which i also hate so um

817
00:41:54,560 --> 00:42:03,380
nikao the conqueror uh and laos the people that's the nicolaitans uh most likely was a

818
00:42:03,460 --> 00:42:07,820
a priestly order that attempted to rule over the people.

819
00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:10,420
And they hated that, right?

820
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:11,900
They didn't let that happen.

821
00:42:12,100 --> 00:42:12,960
They'd come against it.

822
00:42:14,019 --> 00:42:15,980
And Ephesus hated them.

823
00:42:16,370 --> 00:42:20,320
When we go back and we look at their commendation,

824
00:42:20,430 --> 00:42:24,220
they hated, that was part of the people that they hated

825
00:42:24,230 --> 00:42:26,260
that they were trying to rule over them.

826
00:42:28,460 --> 00:42:28,940
Verse 7,

827
00:42:29,700 --> 00:42:32,700
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

828
00:42:32,980 --> 00:42:37,120
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life,

829
00:42:37,660 --> 00:42:40,460
which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

830
00:42:41,960 --> 00:42:43,640
So he doesn't leave anyone out, right?

831
00:42:43,780 --> 00:42:43,920
No.

832
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:49,960
But just because you have an ear doesn't always mean that you hear.

833
00:42:50,620 --> 00:42:51,020
Right?

834
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:53,600
He that hath an ear, let him hear.

835
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:55,940
Everybody's got an ear, but are you going to listen?

836
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:01,880
In Genesis 3, 22 through 24, go back and read that,

837
00:43:01,890 --> 00:43:07,180
but we're forbidden to eat of the tree of life after the fall.

838
00:43:07,530 --> 00:43:10,980
But in heaven, there'll be no restrictions, right?

839
00:43:11,260 --> 00:43:13,160
He gives us no restrictions anymore.

840
00:43:14,420 --> 00:43:17,420
The paradise of God means the garden of God,

841
00:43:17,510 --> 00:43:22,660
which I believe will make up a lot of what heaven is, right?

842
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:31,960
Most of what heaven is, overall, the church of Ephesus is the church at its best.

843
00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:36,000
That's really what this church at Ephesus has got.

844
00:43:36,240 --> 00:43:37,120
They've got some issues.

845
00:43:37,380 --> 00:43:38,280
They've got some problems.

846
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:44,000
But overall, they're the church the way it needs to look at its best.

847
00:43:44,240 --> 00:43:50,500
Yeah, and another thing about those Nicolaitans is I agree with you.

848
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,440
you know, other, other people believe that it was some group, not, not,

849
00:43:54,820 --> 00:43:59,020
we don't know much about them, but you break the name down and it's conquer the people.

850
00:43:59,380 --> 00:43:59,560
Right.

851
00:43:59,740 --> 00:43:59,820
Right.

852
00:44:00,300 --> 00:44:05,060
And it's, and, and we see that in other, in other letters, that same group,

853
00:44:05,700 --> 00:44:09,320
influencing people. And man, we see that in today's, some,

854
00:44:09,370 --> 00:44:14,560
some of today's churches have just these hierarchies of clergy that just,

855
00:44:14,940 --> 00:44:17,040
everything's got to go through them. Right. Right.

856
00:44:17,190 --> 00:44:21,400
And it's like robbing the people of a relationship with God because they're,

857
00:44:21,460 --> 00:44:26,520
they're stepping between this these people and god yeah that's right that's that's ugly it is ugly

858
00:44:26,980 --> 00:44:32,720
really ugly but yeah the the tree of life man at one thing it's one thing it's really missing

859
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:36,460
out of that picture at the end of revelation when we look at the tree of life

860
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:41,140
there's no more tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's right it ain't it's not there

861
00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:49,018
gone it's been uprooted and burned amen amen yeah and all we know is good at that point that time

862
00:44:49,060 --> 00:44:55,320
right and that's what because and we'll get there later but but every every tear has been

863
00:44:56,020 --> 00:45:03,860
wiped from our eyes our memories of of all the bad that has happened heaven wouldn't be heaven if

864
00:45:03,860 --> 00:45:08,500
we sat and remembered every bad thing that ever happened would it no he's going to take those

865
00:45:08,720 --> 00:45:16,318
things away and he behold all things become new yeah we won't be wallowing in our regrets yeah

866
00:45:16,340 --> 00:45:22,060
I could have been better if I had been more like Paul.

867
00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:29,060
And he doesn't want us to do that throughout all eternity.

868
00:45:30,090 --> 00:45:32,900
So thank God we'll study that too.

869
00:45:32,900 --> 00:45:45,940
But there's going to be a time where all our regrets and all our shame and all our sin and all our heartache and all the death and destruction and things that just wear us down.

870
00:45:46,240 --> 00:45:52,000
in this world are all going to be wiped away yeah yeah can you imagine passing to that moment i don't

871
00:45:52,060 --> 00:45:56,380
know that's i don't know maybe it's kind of morbid let's talk about death i guess but we we got to do

872
00:45:56,520 --> 00:46:04,160
it yeah but imagine the weight you have right now and you're just used to it and then stepping out

873
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:09,660
of that yeah yeah stepping out and going face to face with jesus and all of a sudden every ounce of

874
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,920
The joy you ever imagined is right in front of you.

875
00:46:12,980 --> 00:46:13,420
It's there.

876
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:14,820
Love and peace.

877
00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:15,420
Amen.

878
00:46:15,620 --> 00:46:16,780
All that is right there.

879
00:46:16,950 --> 00:46:17,760
No more worries.

880
00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:18,240
Amen.

881
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:19,760
No more pain.

882
00:46:20,090 --> 00:46:20,940
No more nothing.

883
00:46:21,180 --> 00:46:21,420
Yeah.

884
00:46:21,900 --> 00:46:22,000
Yeah.

885
00:46:22,370 --> 00:46:22,920
Isn't that wonderful?

886
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:23,720
Just floating.

887
00:46:24,020 --> 00:46:24,240
Right.

888
00:46:24,540 --> 00:46:26,520
When I step out of my way, that's going to be a lot.

889
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:27,220
Thank you, Lord.

890
00:46:32,240 --> 00:46:33,340
Praise the Lord for that.

891
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:33,680
Yeah.

892
00:46:33,820 --> 00:46:37,580
But, I mean, this letter to Ephesus is just like the rest of them.

893
00:46:38,100 --> 00:46:44,060
You know, he starts out with a commendation, and he ends it with an invitation and a promise.

894
00:46:44,240 --> 00:46:45,040
Yeah, that's right.

895
00:46:45,410 --> 00:46:45,520
Amen.

896
00:46:46,010 --> 00:46:46,120
Amen.

897
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:49,200
He never leaves them where they are.

898
00:46:49,500 --> 00:46:53,100
He doesn't say, okay, you're here, but you can never be here.

899
00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:53,500
Yeah.

900
00:46:53,700 --> 00:47:01,860
He begins to speak truth into them, and he says, look, he says, this is what you're missing, so fix it.

901
00:47:02,060 --> 00:47:02,260
Yeah.

902
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:03,360
So fix it.

903
00:47:03,390 --> 00:47:03,500
Yeah.

904
00:47:03,720 --> 00:47:10,780
And it's like we were talking about earlier, and like you said, when we look at these seven churches and we compare them,

905
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:20,340
I would say that we could probably pull things from all seven churches that would fit us as a church today.

906
00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:23,320
You know, oh, yeah, well, we do that, but we don't do that.

907
00:47:23,380 --> 00:47:25,360
Oh, we're good at that, but we're not good at that.

908
00:47:25,940 --> 00:47:29,600
You know, oh, we could do more of this, but we need to do less of this.

909
00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,000
And I think that that's what he's given us here.

910
00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:37,760
He's given us this seven is a number, of course, of completeness, right?

911
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:39,700
Not perfection, but completeness.

912
00:47:39,880 --> 00:47:44,400
But he says, here's your checklist, right?

913
00:47:44,780 --> 00:47:47,200
If you want to be the church that I've called you to be,

914
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,820
if you want to be the body of Christ that I've called you to be,

915
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:53,160
then go through and look at the mistakes of these other churches

916
00:47:53,420 --> 00:47:55,180
and learn from them and grow from them

917
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:57,760
and look at the commendations of these churches,

918
00:47:58,040 --> 00:47:59,680
the things that they've done right,

919
00:48:00,100 --> 00:48:02,200
and begin to copy those things, right?

920
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,780
I mean, to live out those things through the Holy Spirit of God.

921
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:06,180
Yeah.

922
00:48:06,580 --> 00:48:07,740
And this is him.

923
00:48:07,860 --> 00:48:09,260
This is a preview of judgment, right?

924
00:48:09,380 --> 00:48:09,480
Yeah.

925
00:48:09,670 --> 00:48:09,780
Yeah.

926
00:48:09,940 --> 00:48:11,200
And he's going to judge nations.

927
00:48:11,380 --> 00:48:12,340
He's going to judge churches.

928
00:48:12,660 --> 00:48:13,520
He's going to judge people.

929
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:14,060
Right.

930
00:48:14,420 --> 00:48:14,520
Right.

931
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:15,780
And perfect judgment.

932
00:48:15,980 --> 00:48:18,420
He'll give each of us a commendation.

933
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:20,380
But I got this against you.

934
00:48:20,500 --> 00:48:20,700
Yeah.

935
00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:25,700
And I think we can even look at different denominations here, too.

936
00:48:25,940 --> 00:48:29,140
You know, and I know that there's some who are heretical and they're so far out there.

937
00:48:29,340 --> 00:48:33,920
But, I mean, as far as a baseline of Christian denominations,

938
00:48:34,460 --> 00:48:38,600
I think there's things that we can take from other denominations that we could say,

939
00:48:38,670 --> 00:48:40,460
okay, our church could do better at that.

940
00:48:42,260 --> 00:48:43,600
Like worship sometimes.

941
00:48:44,140 --> 00:48:46,160
Sometimes our worship might be dead.

942
00:48:46,710 --> 00:48:47,700
We need to look over there.

943
00:48:47,980 --> 00:48:49,420
Maybe the church got down the street.

944
00:48:49,570 --> 00:48:50,860
They don't look dead when they worship.

945
00:48:51,530 --> 00:48:54,320
And if it's real, that's the thing.

946
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,320
And so we draw from that.

947
00:48:58,540 --> 00:49:00,220
Okay, we could work on this.

948
00:49:00,230 --> 00:49:01,920
We could be a little bit more like this.

949
00:49:02,140 --> 00:49:02,240
Yeah.

950
00:49:02,780 --> 00:49:09,140
And even other churches, you know, that the worship don't seem that lively, but they're just digging into the Word of God.

951
00:49:09,240 --> 00:49:09,440
Yeah.

952
00:49:09,690 --> 00:49:09,820
Yeah.

953
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:10,240
Right.

954
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:11,700
That's awesome, too.

955
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:12,440
It is.

956
00:49:12,660 --> 00:49:13,000
It is.

957
00:49:13,120 --> 00:49:13,220
Yeah.

958
00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:15,060
Staying in truth, right?

959
00:49:15,270 --> 00:49:15,380
Yeah.

960
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:22,980
Not getting out there on a rock somewhere in the middle of the ocean and surrounded by heresy.

961
00:49:23,960 --> 00:49:25,360
If there is heresy, brother.

962
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:26,020
Oh, yeah.

963
00:49:26,170 --> 00:49:26,280
Yeah.

964
00:49:27,340 --> 00:49:28,420
Is this a real thing?

965
00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:30,440
I heard heresy might not be a real thing.

966
00:49:30,580 --> 00:49:32,040
I mean, anyway.

967
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:33,900
Wow.

968
00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:34,420
Yeah.

969
00:49:35,120 --> 00:49:35,240
Yeah.

970
00:49:35,620 --> 00:49:39,520
But just had to throw that one in there.

971
00:49:39,620 --> 00:49:41,880
Just a side note, guys.

972
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:46,700
There is heresy, and it is real, and it can't be explained away.

973
00:49:47,360 --> 00:49:47,520
Right.

974
00:49:47,640 --> 00:49:47,760
Yeah.

975
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:49,120
I mean.

976
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:51,500
There's truth, and there's lies.

977
00:49:52,180 --> 00:49:52,900
There is.

978
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:53,620
There is.

979
00:49:53,940 --> 00:49:54,000
Yeah.

980
00:49:55,180 --> 00:49:56,060
There's grace.

981
00:49:56,260 --> 00:49:56,920
There's mercy.

982
00:49:57,140 --> 00:49:57,780
There's forgiveness.

983
00:49:57,820 --> 00:50:04,000
there's hope there's all the things but there's also there's also the other side of it yeah right

984
00:50:04,260 --> 00:50:09,900
there's there's hell there's eternal there's eternal punishment there's uh there's those

985
00:50:10,140 --> 00:50:16,600
things that uh that will drag us down yeah we don't like to think about them but man it's part of

986
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:23,678
truth yeah yeah uh man i i love uh i didn't point this out earlier but as you're going through

987
00:50:24,059 --> 00:50:26,900
the way the New English translation translates that phrase,

988
00:50:27,030 --> 00:50:28,400
he that hath an ear, let him hear,

989
00:50:28,920 --> 00:50:32,620
is to the one who has an ear had better hear.

990
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:33,020
Yeah.

991
00:50:33,280 --> 00:50:34,380
And I love that translation.

992
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:35,480
Hey, you better listen.

993
00:50:35,690 --> 00:50:36,560
You better pay attention.

994
00:50:36,860 --> 00:50:37,860
What does it mean to have an ear?

995
00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:40,200
I think he's talking about spiritual ears here.

996
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:40,840
Yeah.

997
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:41,260
Yeah.

998
00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:43,520
Not the ears on our heads, but he's saying,

999
00:50:44,210 --> 00:50:47,980
listen to me as I speak to you where no one else can go.

1000
00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:50,640
And it's a little bit like the parables that he used, right?

1001
00:50:51,000 --> 00:50:51,080
Yeah.

1002
00:50:51,220 --> 00:50:52,560
It's kind of the same thing.

1003
00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:54,000
He was speaking spiritual truths.

1004
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:54,460
Right.

1005
00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,480
If you didn't have that spiritual ear, you weren't going to hear it.

1006
00:50:57,520 --> 00:50:57,620
No.

1007
00:50:57,760 --> 00:50:58,800
Or not going to hear it correctly.

1008
00:50:58,960 --> 00:50:59,340
That's right.

1009
00:50:59,780 --> 00:51:00,120
That's right.

1010
00:51:00,260 --> 00:51:05,380
And I think it's a problem in a lot of churches, too, and a lot of Christians is they don't have that spiritual ear.

1011
00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:07,040
They're not tuned into the right station.

1012
00:51:07,180 --> 00:51:07,500
That's right.

1013
00:51:07,860 --> 00:51:08,080
Amen.

1014
00:51:08,420 --> 00:51:10,800
And they just misconstrue a lot of stuff.

1015
00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:11,120
Yeah.

1016
00:51:11,540 --> 00:51:11,640
Yeah.

1017
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:12,180
Amen.

1018
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:18,700
Well, we misconstrue it, and we look for – we just – like I say, we go looking for the things that make us feel good.

1019
00:51:18,840 --> 00:51:19,000
Yeah.

1020
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:24,920
We hear what we want to hear and then try to just tune the rest out because, oh, I'm being told that I can't do that.

1021
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,500
Well, we start with our beliefs and then try to back them up.

1022
00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:27,980
Yeah.

1023
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:28,760
Right.

1024
00:51:29,410 --> 00:51:29,480
Exactly.

1025
00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:29,940
Yeah.

1026
00:51:30,140 --> 00:51:32,820
And again, that's, you know, you were talking about the Nicolaitans earlier.

1027
00:51:33,020 --> 00:51:34,280
That's kind of what they were doing.

1028
00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:38,640
That's what they had done was saying, hey, all these things that are, oh, well, you know, it's okay.

1029
00:51:39,000 --> 00:51:39,700
It's okay if you do that.

1030
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:40,480
It's all right if you do that.

1031
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:41,460
You know, that's what they were doing.

1032
00:51:41,570 --> 00:51:45,460
And it was like, you know, and Christ even here says, yeah, I don't like them either.

1033
00:51:46,619 --> 00:51:46,900
Yeah.

1034
00:51:47,800 --> 00:51:48,080
Absolutely.

1035
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:55,160
I mean, goodness, when Jesus himself is sitting here talking to you and he goes, hey, you know, one thing you got going for you is you don't like them.

1036
00:51:55,200 --> 00:51:55,900
And hey, guess what?

1037
00:51:55,960 --> 00:51:56,960
I'm right there with you.

1038
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:59,960
And it's like, oh, he doesn't want people dragging us down.

1039
00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:02,820
No, he wants to protect his children.

1040
00:52:03,460 --> 00:52:05,600
It's just like it's a good father.

1041
00:52:05,840 --> 00:52:13,120
It's a good father that would look at his children and say, if that person is trying to hurt my children, I'm going to stand in the way of that person trying to hurt my child.

1042
00:52:13,580 --> 00:52:16,060
I want to I want to I want to stop that.

1043
00:52:16,220 --> 00:52:18,620
And that's not going to be that that person is not going to be my friend.

1044
00:52:19,260 --> 00:52:21,640
That's the person is going to be my enemy if he's trying to hurt my children.

1045
00:52:22,000 --> 00:52:22,120
Yeah.

1046
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:24,640
Well, and it's not even even take it further.

1047
00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:26,000
It's not just that he's a good father.

1048
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:27,620
That's the one thing he's standing in the way.

1049
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:28,780
He's also our shepherd.

1050
00:52:29,180 --> 00:52:29,960
And we're his sheep.

1051
00:52:30,140 --> 00:52:32,340
And he's saying, you know, think about what the shepherd did with the sheep.

1052
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:39,600
So not only is he protecting us the way a father protects child, he's protecting us the way a shepherd protects the sheep from the wolves, from the bears, from all these predators.

1053
00:52:39,860 --> 00:52:41,300
They're trying to get in here and get a hold of us.

1054
00:52:41,620 --> 00:52:43,620
And he's going, no, back off, back off, back off.

1055
00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:49,180
And, you know, and as a father, he's holding us and he's comforting us and he's telling us that everything's going to be OK.

1056
00:52:49,400 --> 00:52:51,100
And he's telling us, hey, I got this.

1057
00:52:51,380 --> 00:52:52,720
It works out in the end.

1058
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:54,420
You just got to stay the course.

1059
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:57,500
But just like a father, stay the course.

1060
00:52:57,980 --> 00:52:58,600
Just like a shepherd.

1061
00:52:58,780 --> 00:53:02,140
Hey, sheep that are so dumb, you keep trying to run off the edge of this mountain over here.

1062
00:53:02,240 --> 00:53:04,860
Come over here and walk where I'm telling you to walk.

1063
00:53:05,700 --> 00:53:10,100
I've always I've always been a little bit leery of even calling myself a shepherd.

1064
00:53:10,300 --> 00:53:13,260
I know we call the pastor of the church a shepherd a lot of times.

1065
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:15,600
But really, he's the great shepherd.

1066
00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:16,940
He is the shepherd, right?

1067
00:53:17,260 --> 00:53:18,360
We're more like a sheepdog.

1068
00:53:18,980 --> 00:53:20,560
I mean, it's like –

1069
00:53:20,600 --> 00:53:22,200
You're the angel of the church of Mountain View.

1070
00:53:24,380 --> 00:53:24,820
No pressure.

1071
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:26,880
Can I get that on a parking space somewhere?

1072
00:53:30,920 --> 00:53:34,240
But, I mean, you know, you're more like a sheepdog.

1073
00:53:34,440 --> 00:53:36,760
Like, okay, Lord, you know, Lord's like sick them.

1074
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:38,040
You know, do this, do that.

1075
00:53:38,180 --> 00:53:40,360
You know, this is where I'm sending you to to protect them.

1076
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:43,920
But he is the great shepherd.

1077
00:53:44,020 --> 00:53:44,180
Amen.

1078
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:44,700
Absolutely.

1079
00:53:45,060 --> 00:53:46,600
And that's something I don't think we mentioned either.

1080
00:53:46,680 --> 00:53:50,320
You know, when he talks about angel in these letters, he is talking about the pastor of these churches.

1081
00:53:50,380 --> 00:53:50,960
Yeah, he is.

1082
00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:51,340
Absolutely.

1083
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:53,260
He's not talking about an angelic being.

1084
00:53:54,120 --> 00:54:02,700
There's a couple of different theories on that, but I tend to believe that myself, that he's talking about the leadership, the pastor of those churches.

1085
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:03,120
Yeah.

1086
00:54:03,240 --> 00:54:03,520
Yeah.

1087
00:54:03,760 --> 00:54:05,020
I think so, too.

1088
00:54:05,300 --> 00:54:11,800
Speaking about the pastor, and that's the primary, when he says the angel of the church.

1089
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:12,440
Yeah.

1090
00:54:13,260 --> 00:54:21,680
But this is also, you've got to remember that the things that he sends to the leaders, to the pastors, is expected to be shared with the leadership.

1091
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:25,160
And he's saying, hey, there's other people in here that you've got to get on them too.

1092
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:28,820
And y'all, like you say, the sheepdog, hey, go get them going the right way.

1093
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:31,080
And then hopefully everybody else falls in line behind them.

1094
00:54:31,220 --> 00:54:36,940
Yeah, and something really important to remember, too, the stars that are in his hand are the angels of those seven churches.

1095
00:54:37,180 --> 00:54:39,680
So he's got those angels in his hand.

1096
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:40,460
Yeah, absolutely.

1097
00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:41,540
It's protected.

1098
00:54:41,660 --> 00:54:42,320
He's protected.

1099
00:54:42,900 --> 00:54:43,780
He's holding them.

1100
00:54:44,060 --> 00:54:44,760
Yeah, amen.

1101
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:46,560
That's an exciting thought.

1102
00:54:46,860 --> 00:54:47,280
Amen.

1103
00:54:47,780 --> 00:54:52,100
It is, because I'm just thankful that he's holding me and I'm not holding him.

1104
00:54:54,900 --> 00:54:56,600
You're getting carried around a little bit here.

1105
00:54:56,780 --> 00:54:59,660
Yeah, I'm giving him a challenge.

1106
00:55:02,359 --> 00:55:07,940
just don't jump man don't jump yeah don't don't shake anybody else it's gonna be bad

1107
00:55:09,720 --> 00:55:12,960
you know and and that's one of the things you say that but

1108
00:55:14,260 --> 00:55:19,380
here here christ is using this symbology and using this symbol of carrying these these angels

1109
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:24,017
what happens when one of the angels start jostling with all the others

1110
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:30,900
He's having to really fight to keep, and that's what he does.

1111
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,280
He's like, guys, why are you trying to jump out of here?

1112
00:55:33,460 --> 00:55:36,100
You keep trying to get back in here.

1113
00:55:36,740 --> 00:55:40,740
I've got you right where you need to be and just stay here, stay here.

1114
00:55:41,020 --> 00:55:43,780
And I think a lot of times that's what happens.

1115
00:55:44,100 --> 00:55:47,700
Churches want to come out from under, and sometimes they're led that way.

1116
00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:53,020
A false teacher is going to lead the church out from under the protection of God's hand.

1117
00:55:53,200 --> 00:55:53,460
Yeah.

1118
00:55:53,700 --> 00:55:54,980
That's what they're going to do.

1119
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:58,760
He's going to leave it, and then he's going to lead the church away from it, too.

1120
00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:07,440
And it's just like a shepherd leading or a sheep dog herding the sheep up and heading towards a cliff together.

1121
00:56:07,700 --> 00:56:09,660
All of them go that way together.

1122
00:56:09,740 --> 00:56:16,020
I was like, well, okay, George is going that way, so me and Bobby and John, we're going to go that way, too.

1123
00:56:16,260 --> 00:56:18,480
Yeah, and that's the heaviness of preaching, right?

1124
00:56:18,700 --> 00:56:19,220
Yeah, yeah.

1125
00:56:19,460 --> 00:56:21,980
It's making sure you're on the doctrine.

1126
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:24,120
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

1127
00:56:24,440 --> 00:56:26,540
And we should take that.

1128
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:28,440
It was so serious.

1129
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:29,640
I mean, so serious.

1130
00:56:31,100 --> 00:56:34,200
And just pray, God, don't let me misspeak.

1131
00:56:34,700 --> 00:56:40,280
Don't let me say something that would shoot somebody towards

1132
00:56:40,320 --> 00:56:41,800
or push somebody towards the cliff.

1133
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:43,500
I don't want to do that.

1134
00:56:44,700 --> 00:56:45,980
Yeah, it's a burden.

1135
00:56:46,620 --> 00:56:46,860
It is.

1136
00:56:47,260 --> 00:56:47,700
It's a burden.

1137
00:56:47,740 --> 00:56:48,880
It's that heaviness.

1138
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:50,000
Like you said, it's a burden.

1139
00:56:50,100 --> 00:56:57,600
And it is a thing that, again, and you've talked about this before, it's something that you have to be called to.

1140
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:01,500
And when you step in there and you're not, that's when things go bad.

1141
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:01,740
Yeah.

1142
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,960
And James tells us that not everybody ought to do this, right?

1143
00:57:05,060 --> 00:57:06,000
There's a stricter judgment.

1144
00:57:06,140 --> 00:57:06,340
Yeah.

1145
00:57:07,580 --> 00:57:07,980
Yeah.

1146
00:57:08,320 --> 00:57:08,540
Yeah.

1147
00:57:09,640 --> 00:57:10,040
Yeah.

1148
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:12,500
We need to really think about those things.

1149
00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:13,800
And again.

1150
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:15,260
We're not trying to bring you down, brother.

1151
00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:22,240
But I mean, that's where a healthy fear and reverence of God comes from, right?

1152
00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:30,240
And that's where we need to pray for our pastors, that they don't get puffed up, that they don't get arrogant,

1153
00:57:30,540 --> 00:57:38,180
that they don't get to a place where they say, boy, I mean, I can preach, you know, like nobody else can preach.

1154
00:57:38,220 --> 00:57:39,640
and you pray

1155
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:40,280
insights.

1156
00:57:40,980 --> 00:57:41,540
I started saying,

1157
00:57:41,640 --> 00:57:43,200
you pray that God sends

1158
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,180
the pastor's friends

1159
00:57:46,500 --> 00:57:47,400
kind of like Dennis over here

1160
00:57:47,540 --> 00:57:48,580
that'll work to keep you humble

1161
00:57:48,620 --> 00:57:48,980
a little bit.

1162
00:57:49,040 --> 00:57:49,120
Yeah.

1163
00:57:51,700 --> 00:57:52,620
No, I'm talking about,

1164
00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:53,420
I'm just talking about like

1165
00:57:53,540 --> 00:57:54,240
you're sitting here,

1166
00:57:54,340 --> 00:57:55,280
you're kind of poking at him.

1167
00:57:55,380 --> 00:57:56,560
You're having a,

1168
00:57:56,680 --> 00:57:57,160
I mean, you know,

1169
00:57:57,280 --> 00:57:58,600
I know you're not being serious with it,

1170
00:57:58,900 --> 00:57:59,700
but I know,

1171
00:57:59,960 --> 00:58:01,680
I know that if Brother Brian

1172
00:58:01,900 --> 00:58:02,500
ever got up

1173
00:58:02,660 --> 00:58:03,860
and really started pushing

1174
00:58:04,060 --> 00:58:04,700
something at Mountain View,

1175
00:58:05,140 --> 00:58:05,820
you'd be one of the people

1176
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:06,240
that would say,

1177
00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:06,740
hey, brother,

1178
00:58:06,900 --> 00:58:07,580
let's talk about this.

1179
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:08,580
And you pull them off.

1180
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:10,540
That's what you pray for, for your pastors.

1181
00:58:10,820 --> 00:58:11,900
And the God's leadership.

1182
00:58:13,260 --> 00:58:14,480
You'll just put him on blast at public.

1183
00:58:15,220 --> 00:58:16,180
You see what I mean?

1184
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:17,100
Keep him on it.

1185
00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:19,800
And that's the thing, too.

1186
00:58:19,810 --> 00:58:23,260
You pray that the church, the leadership team of your church is the same way.

1187
00:58:23,400 --> 00:58:25,520
They need to be willing to sit down with your pastor.

1188
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:26,200
That's what's happening.

1189
00:58:27,559 --> 00:58:27,980
That's it.

1190
00:58:28,240 --> 00:58:30,180
You got to sit down and have those conversations.

1191
00:58:30,460 --> 00:58:37,520
And, hey, if you're in the leadership of your church, again, you better make sure you're called.

1192
00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:40,760
You better make sure this is something you prayed up on and you didn't just jump into.

1193
00:58:41,650 --> 00:58:48,060
Because part of your responsibility is if something's going on with the, if the pastor's not there, it's your responsibility to step in for him.

1194
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:55,320
I have seen what it will do to a person that steps into one of those positions and places when they're not called to be there.

1195
00:58:55,740 --> 00:58:59,620
And it will eat them, chew them up, and spit them out.

1196
00:58:59,780 --> 00:59:00,000
Absolutely.

1197
00:59:00,480 --> 00:59:06,440
Because, and again, not because there's anything good about me or great about me.

1198
00:59:06,860 --> 00:59:09,680
but because he's holding me in his hand.

1199
00:59:10,700 --> 00:59:13,780
And without that, I could do nothing.

1200
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:15,320
I could do nothing.

1201
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:15,880
Ground up.

1202
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:17,060
But I will say this.

1203
00:59:17,840 --> 00:59:21,020
If you want to take the position of keeping me humble,

1204
00:59:21,460 --> 00:59:23,240
you'll have to fight Michael George for it.

1205
00:59:25,960 --> 00:59:28,500
Michael's been doing that for the last 20 years,

1206
00:59:28,540 --> 00:59:29,580
and he's always told me,

1207
00:59:29,980 --> 00:59:31,840
that's my job, preacher, to keep you humble.

1208
00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:35,200
And he's just done so well.

1209
00:59:35,300 --> 00:59:36,440
And that's the thing, though.

1210
00:59:36,560 --> 00:59:36,840
You do.

1211
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:46,860
You've got to have – if you're a pastor and you've got nobody in your life that will every once in a while just kind of give you that little tap, kind of catch your attention, find better friends.

1212
00:59:47,140 --> 00:59:47,200
Yeah.

1213
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:57,100
No, a lot of people think that, well, if we're going to go search for a pastor and he's got to be somebody with a really good voice, he's a good-looking guy, he's very charismatic.

1214
00:59:57,460 --> 00:59:58,340
At least you got that.

1215
00:59:58,700 --> 00:59:59,980
Well, we got all that.

1216
01:00:01,280 --> 01:00:07,140
But I mean, it's like they just want somebody that presents well, but may not know the Word of God.

1217
01:00:07,420 --> 01:00:11,640
They may end up going down these roads of speculation that just lead everybody astray.

1218
01:00:12,180 --> 01:00:19,080
And man, if anybody's searching for a pastor right now, test them on the Word of God before anything else.

1219
01:00:19,420 --> 01:00:21,740
Man, this could be the ugliest dude in the world.

1220
01:00:21,940 --> 01:00:25,480
He might be preaching the gospel in a way that you'd never heard.

1221
01:00:25,700 --> 01:00:27,860
Well, not that you never heard.

1222
01:00:27,940 --> 01:00:30,280
I don't want to say he's speculating and making stuff up.

1223
01:00:30,580 --> 01:00:32,340
But he's solidly grounded.

1224
01:00:33,140 --> 01:00:33,820
Yeah, absolutely.

1225
01:00:34,600 --> 01:00:34,740
Yeah.

1226
01:00:35,780 --> 01:00:37,680
Find those sections like I was talking about tonight.

1227
01:00:37,900 --> 01:00:46,440
You know, find those passages of Scripture that are a little bit rough and a little bit hard and that are easy to get somebody off on and say, hey, what's your thoughts on this?

1228
01:00:46,880 --> 01:00:47,460
Just ask them.

1229
01:00:47,700 --> 01:00:50,380
Ask them straight up because you find out real quick.

1230
01:00:50,520 --> 01:00:50,720
Right.

1231
01:00:50,760 --> 01:00:55,140
And not to trip them up, but to just say, hey, you know, how do you feel about this?

1232
01:00:55,480 --> 01:01:01,760
Don't go picking a random verse out of the book of Zephaniah and it's some obscure something that was telling, you know.

1233
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:02,420
Quote this.

1234
01:01:02,660 --> 01:01:03,400
What does this mean?

1235
01:01:03,460 --> 01:01:07,540
Tell us how big the chalice in the temple was out of Chronicles.

1236
01:01:08,040 --> 01:01:08,240
Yeah.

1237
01:01:11,180 --> 01:01:12,180
Well, that's not a book.

1238
01:01:12,380 --> 01:01:12,520
Yeah.

1239
01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:17,040
Don't be trying to trip them up, but go to these things that are common things.

1240
01:01:17,120 --> 01:01:22,080
Again, that Matthew 18 thing, the story about Elisha and things like that.

1241
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:23,800
Go to him and ask him.

1242
01:01:24,060 --> 01:01:28,440
And if you've got somebody sitting there saying, oh, yeah, that means that under no circumstances, do you ever stand against the pastor?

1243
01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:29,520
Do you ever call him out on stuff?

1244
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:33,380
You've got to make sure you just go with him no matter what.

1245
01:01:33,420 --> 01:01:34,420
You say, oh, thanks.

1246
01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:34,960
Have a nice day.

1247
01:01:35,160 --> 01:01:35,220
Bye.

1248
01:01:35,819 --> 01:01:40,760
I would say we put way too much emphasis on looks and charisma and stuff.

1249
01:01:41,360 --> 01:01:48,160
And we've got a guy like Paul who said he was like – Corinthians accused him of being like small in stature and nothing.

1250
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:51,500
Quiet, but he's big in his letters, right?

1251
01:01:51,820 --> 01:01:52,080
Right, right.

1252
01:01:53,280 --> 01:01:55,040
Paul set the world on fire.

1253
01:01:55,280 --> 01:01:55,840
Yes, he did.

1254
01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:57,400
With the word of God.

1255
01:01:58,300 --> 01:02:02,500
Yeah, not because of something that who he was or what he was.

1256
01:02:02,860 --> 01:02:16,560
Now, God did use his personality, I think, to be able to have that heart to fight, you know, to put the word of God out there at all costs.

1257
01:02:16,650 --> 01:02:19,560
I think that was part of his personality.

1258
01:02:19,670 --> 01:02:21,540
And it wasn't a lot of eloquence either.

1259
01:02:21,690 --> 01:02:21,800
No.

1260
01:02:22,060 --> 01:02:27,380
He told the Corinthians, he said he wasn't smart, but he's like super smart.

1261
01:02:27,760 --> 01:02:27,880
Yeah.

1262
01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:28,420
Yeah.

1263
01:02:28,770 --> 01:02:34,420
But he said he decided to know nothing except Christ and him crucified among you.

1264
01:02:34,490 --> 01:02:34,620
Right.

1265
01:02:34,880 --> 01:02:35,320
That's it.

1266
01:02:35,490 --> 01:02:35,640
Yeah.

1267
01:02:35,860 --> 01:02:38,160
The gospel is the power, not the person given.

1268
01:02:38,540 --> 01:02:39,980
Well, and go back to John the Baptist.

1269
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:42,960
Talk about somebody that didn't look good.

1270
01:02:43,340 --> 01:02:43,820
I mean, goodness.

1271
01:02:44,200 --> 01:02:50,980
You know, he looked like he'd been rolling around in the dirt for three days and then come walking in with stuff hanging out of his hair and his beard a mess.

1272
01:02:51,180 --> 01:02:52,140
And he's going, repent.

1273
01:02:52,810 --> 01:02:56,560
He probably spent an hour every afternoon chasing down locusts to eat, right?

1274
01:02:56,980 --> 01:02:57,980
Running through the field.

1275
01:02:59,260 --> 01:03:01,900
I mean, people saw him coming and thought, man, he's crazy.

1276
01:03:01,950 --> 01:03:02,480
And what did he do?

1277
01:03:02,490 --> 01:03:06,800
He came in and he said, hey, there is one coming that is greater than me.

1278
01:03:06,920 --> 01:03:08,440
There is one coming that is from God.

1279
01:03:08,550 --> 01:03:11,720
There is one on his way that's going to just tear this world up.

1280
01:03:11,730 --> 01:03:14,080
And everybody was like, hey, that dude's crazy.

1281
01:03:14,680 --> 01:03:18,960
And then this guy, this random carpenter comes up to him one day and says, hey, I want to be baptized.

1282
01:03:20,540 --> 01:03:23,120
And then it's the most amazing baptism anybody's ever seen.

1283
01:03:23,790 --> 01:03:25,460
A voice starts speaking from heaven.

1284
01:03:25,510 --> 01:03:27,280
The spirit descends like a dove.

1285
01:03:27,720 --> 01:03:30,620
And everybody standing there is going, what is going on?

1286
01:03:30,700 --> 01:03:33,400
And this guy's the spirit of one of their biggest heroes, Elijah.

1287
01:03:33,740 --> 01:03:33,960
Yeah.

1288
01:03:34,060 --> 01:03:34,600
Yeah.

1289
01:03:35,020 --> 01:03:35,080
Yeah.

1290
01:03:35,540 --> 01:03:41,040
I've always thought of John the Baptist being like the professor on Back to the Future.

1291
01:03:41,360 --> 01:03:41,760
I don't know.

1292
01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:42,860
Wild hair.

1293
01:03:44,900 --> 01:03:46,260
Really smart, you know, guy.

1294
01:03:46,420 --> 01:03:46,900
Real smart.

1295
01:03:47,180 --> 01:03:47,720
He's out there.

1296
01:03:47,830 --> 01:03:48,260
Real crazy.

1297
01:03:48,440 --> 01:03:48,520
Yeah.

1298
01:03:49,180 --> 01:03:50,440
Yeah, no, no.

1299
01:03:51,380 --> 01:03:54,040
Probably pretty skinny, too, eating locusts and honey.

1300
01:03:55,120 --> 01:03:56,520
But, you know, that's the thing.

1301
01:03:56,680 --> 01:03:59,560
That's what we need to be looking for is that grounding in the Word of God.

1302
01:03:59,720 --> 01:04:04,080
And again, just that, you know, those first seven verses there,

1303
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:08,460
and for the church at Ephesus, that's exactly what it was talking about.

1304
01:04:08,620 --> 01:04:10,880
He's praising them for doing that, and then he's saying,

1305
01:04:11,000 --> 01:04:12,320
but get back to your first love.

1306
01:04:12,520 --> 01:04:14,960
Get back to doing the things that you did at the beginning

1307
01:04:15,500 --> 01:04:18,980
and repent of not doing it, and let's get back there.

1308
01:04:19,060 --> 01:04:20,080
and you guys are going to be fine.

1309
01:04:20,180 --> 01:04:23,880
And I mean, that's such a great message to the church today.

1310
01:04:24,080 --> 01:04:26,640
We started off kind of talking about it a little bit.

1311
01:04:26,920 --> 01:04:31,880
Hey, we need to get back to our first love, which is, like you said, it's Jesus, Jesus,

1312
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:34,100
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus plus nothing.

1313
01:04:34,340 --> 01:04:35,520
That's where your salvation come from.

1314
01:04:35,860 --> 01:04:37,400
You should be focused on Jesus.

1315
01:04:37,520 --> 01:04:40,440
You should be focused on what he did for us and how amazing he is.

1316
01:04:40,780 --> 01:04:45,660
Let's get back to that and then get back to the deeds that you did when you first started.

1317
01:04:46,020 --> 01:04:46,860
Let's get back to working.

1318
01:04:46,980 --> 01:04:47,920
Get back to telling people.

1319
01:04:48,040 --> 01:04:51,420
Get back to doing things in your community because that's what he's called us to do.

1320
01:04:52,419 --> 01:04:54,040
And he says, you do that.

1321
01:04:54,690 --> 01:04:56,020
Okay, we're on the right track.

1322
01:04:56,640 --> 01:04:58,180
So let's do that.

1323
01:04:58,580 --> 01:05:05,900
This week, let's take those seven verses and, hey, go back and reread them three or four times and really commit that to your heart because that one's a good one.

1324
01:05:06,180 --> 01:05:06,900
Let's commit it.

1325
01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:07,820
Let's go out.

1326
01:05:07,940 --> 01:05:10,480
And, again, I'm going to start using this phrase all the time.

1327
01:05:10,520 --> 01:05:11,720
Let's make heaven crowded.

1328
01:05:12,500 --> 01:05:17,880
Let's try to just do what we can to bring as many people because the thing is, and it's not you.

1329
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:21,920
It's just you putting the word out and letting the Spirit do what it's going to do.

1330
01:05:22,260 --> 01:05:22,500
Yeah.

1331
01:05:22,890 --> 01:05:22,980
Amen.

1332
01:05:23,580 --> 01:05:23,700
Yeah.

1333
01:05:23,940 --> 01:05:24,180
Amen.

1334
01:05:24,520 --> 01:05:26,800
And I think that pretty well brings us to the end of it for this week.

1335
01:05:26,960 --> 01:05:27,160
Yeah.

1336
01:05:28,460 --> 01:05:29,340
We've got one church.

1337
01:05:29,410 --> 01:05:31,760
It's going to be a seven-week church study right here.

1338
01:05:32,060 --> 01:05:33,160
You got that right.

1339
01:05:33,620 --> 01:05:36,220
I think one of them down here is a little bit quick.

1340
01:05:37,000 --> 01:05:38,080
The next one is pretty quick.

1341
01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:38,580
Smyrna.

1342
01:05:39,000 --> 01:05:39,160
Yeah.

1343
01:05:39,500 --> 01:05:39,600
Yeah.

1344
01:05:39,720 --> 01:05:40,720
Some of these aren't too bad.

1345
01:05:41,740 --> 01:05:41,920
Yeah.

1346
01:05:42,010 --> 01:05:45,940
And we're going to see a lot more just plain old evil coming up with some of these.

1347
01:05:46,080 --> 01:05:46,540
Yes.

1348
01:05:46,870 --> 01:05:47,340
We sure are.

1349
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:49,940
Well, Brother Brian, if you'll pray us out.

1350
01:05:50,340 --> 01:05:52,900
And next week, we look forward to seeing everybody back again.

1351
01:05:53,100 --> 01:05:53,320
Amen.

1352
01:05:53,520 --> 01:05:54,040
Good Lord willing.

1353
01:05:54,300 --> 01:05:54,500
Amen.

1354
01:05:55,140 --> 01:05:55,940
Father, we love you.

1355
01:05:56,320 --> 01:05:59,940
And God, we are in love with your word.

1356
01:06:01,340 --> 01:06:09,560
God, how it speaks to our hearts, how it convicts us and changes us and gives us hope beyond this world that we live in.

1357
01:06:10,500 --> 01:06:13,440
Lord, I just pray for each and everyone that's listening.

1358
01:06:13,520 --> 01:06:24,220
God, it's not so much about the amount of people who are listening to us, but God, for those who are, I pray that you would penetrate their hearts and change their lives.

1359
01:06:24,460 --> 01:06:27,000
And God, draw them closer to you.

1360
01:06:27,220 --> 01:06:29,960
Give them more of a burning desire for your word.

1361
01:06:30,010 --> 01:06:38,280
I pray that, God, that your Holy Spirit would open up some truths to them that maybe they've never heard before or realized before.

1362
01:06:38,580 --> 01:06:39,760
God, I pray for that today.

1363
01:06:40,360 --> 01:06:42,680
I pray, God, that we would be successful.

1364
01:06:42,740 --> 01:06:49,460
God, not in a way of man's success, but successful for your kingdom, successful for reaching

1365
01:06:49,740 --> 01:06:54,060
souls for Christ, for changing lives, for for equipping the saints.

1366
01:06:54,480 --> 01:06:58,580
God, I pray that that's what we'd be able to do here on this program that we're that

1367
01:06:58,680 --> 01:07:03,160
we that we meet and talk about your word each and every week.

1368
01:07:03,640 --> 01:07:06,920
God, go with us, lead us, guide us, direct us, protect us.

1369
01:07:07,420 --> 01:07:11,840
And Lord, most of all, we lift up the name of Jesus Christ, the name above all names.

1370
01:07:12,300 --> 01:07:15,160
And we ask these things in that name, in Jesus' name.

1371
01:07:15,370 --> 01:07:15,520
Amen.

1372
01:07:15,860 --> 01:07:16,080
Amen.

1373
01:07:19,360 --> 01:07:28,980
Special thank you to Carter Pridmore, Brian Harris, Waverly Henderson, Tatum Harris Spears, and Josie Partain for our theme song, Truth Set Me Free.

1374
01:07:29,720 --> 01:07:31,760
I've been Tyler Goza on production and audio.

1375
01:07:32,370 --> 01:07:35,800
We hope you can join us live next Monday at 6 p.m. Central.

1376
01:07:36,560 --> 01:07:37,260
Thank you for listening.

1377
01:07:37,540 --> 01:07:48,440
But truth found me there. It was in my darkest hour. I traded my black heart for joy, for something real, something with power.

1378
01:07:50,440 --> 01:08:01,580
Truth set me free. Truth came to me. I once was blind, but now I see. Truth set me free.

1379
01:08:02,440 --> 01:08:07,600
Oh, oh, truth set me free

1380
01:08:08,440 --> 01:08:13,600
Oh, oh, truth set me free

1381
01:08:17,279 --> 01:08:19,020
You're the only one who's