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We read the following in 1 Samuel 3
"Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision."
The Scripture tells us that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, there was no frequent vision. Let me ask you a question, when was the last time you can honestly say that you truly heard from the Lord, not your own imagination, or your own thoughts or feelings, but the voice of God.
Today we’ll be looking at the Holiness of God as we zero in on 1 Samuel 2:12-17
The account tells us about the sons of Eli and the bible refers to them as being worthless. I certainly wouldn’t want myself or any of my sons or you to be eternally remembered as worthless individuals. What made Eli’s sons worthless is the object of our contemplation today.
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um before i start um let me kind of call my nerves a little bit
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it's always intimidating to stand in front of a bunch of people to talk about the word of god
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and we're still missing about two-thirds of our congregation so we need to pray okay and we were told this morning that
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gladys espana is not doing too good so we need to go to prayer
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um cassie's mom karen is still not doing too good and we need to pray
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and in our own lives we all have things that we are going through and sometimes we don't want to tell the lord because
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we think well there's other people that have better problems so we're not going to say something now god is
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sovereign he's not just a small god he is the creator of the whole universe so
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he knows what you're going through and we are told in first period cast all your burdens upon him for he
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cares for you so let's go to prayer and uh i'm gonna get to the sermon in a
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minute so lord we thank you again for this morning i thank you for giving me an opportunity
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to share your word this morning but i do want to pray for gladys espana
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and karen and any other person that's struggling right now lord you said that uh in hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 we
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are told to come to the throne of grace with confidence to receive help in times of need and
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this is a time of need they need your presence now we don't have the capacity to help them but we do
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have prayer and the holy spirit the spirit of truth the comforter is the one we are calling upon this morning that
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you may minister to each one of them lord i pray that they will sense your presence that just like we're saying
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just now to feel the holy spirit lord that they will sense it and they will know that god cares
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that you are near that you are not a god as far removed from their lives but you know every single thing that they are
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going through so lord again we commit them to you this morning and we commit this time to you this morning in jesus name amen
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so this the song says i surrender all i wasn't going to talk about it but you kind of robbed me the wrong way a little
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bit because not that i don't like the song but surrender i'm thinking that's my money
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that's my stuff it's not yours so you have to surrender all
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you have to surrender um you know re to the lord cyrus you have to surrender your heider
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to the lord jahan you surrender your talent kasi your talent is the lord's so how do you
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glorify god with everything that you have that's what we are told to do surrender everything so none of the
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things that i have is mine it's all gods so my cell phone is not mine so what i do
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is my cell phone matters to god so what are you watching what are you looking at you surrender
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your eyes to the lord your whole body is the lord you are the temple of the holy spirit and that's what we are
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called to do to surrender everything so with that said um several weeks ago we had the opportunity
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to to kick off 2022 with a time of prayer and uh there was no doubt in my mind
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that the spirit of god was in our midst it was a good time of prayer to kick off
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2022. so at the end of the service i had my uh olive oil so
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i wanted to give it back to pastor julio and he told me no keep it because you're an elder you can use it whenever you go
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somewhere and somebody needs to be anointed so i turned to my and i and i said i
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i uh joked about it i go well or maybe if i need to make an omelette or fry some eggs i can use that oil don't laugh
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it's not funny because um i thought it was funny and uh when we got home jahan told me
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and he told sarah this is what dad said to pastor julio and i told him you guys need to chill
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i'm just joking and uh nothing happened i was i didn't think much of it but then about seven or eight
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days or ten days later i was laying in my bed at night and i said to the lord is there anything that i've done that
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i'm doing now that is offensive to you and then the first thing he brought to my mind is this
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the olive oil that you disrespected that was offensive to me immediately i reached out to pastor julie and i told
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him what i said was blasphemous it was utterly shown contempt to the lord now
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the oil itself doesn't mean anything but what does he represent the holy spirit of god
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so when you talk like that see we have become so flippant in this country we just don't think too much about things
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we just joke about everything people joke about god all the time god is my homie jesus is my homeboy i mean
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we don't understand the gravity of the things that we say out of our mouth so i told possibly i apologize for those
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words because i should have never made such a joke now why am i saying this
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god could have immediately killed me on the spot and he would have been justified because
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i showed no regard to the holy spirit but he didn't now i want to read you first samuel 3
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verse 1. the scripture says now the boy samuel was ministering to the
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lord in the presence of eli and the scripture says and the word of the lord was rare in those days there
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was no frequent vision again i repeat that again and the word of the lord was rare in those days
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just like today
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now when the scripture says that the word of the lord was read it says that there was no frequent
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vision at the time they didn't really have the totality of the scriptures so god spoke through visions
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and things like this so now i want to ask you a question when was the last time you can honestly
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say that you heard from god i'm not talking about well i think god
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is telling me this all i feel a certain way now when was the last time you can say with confidence that i heard
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the voice of the lord i'm not talking about an audible voice so to speak i'm referring to when did you know with
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confidence that god spoke to me
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you see the scripture tells us in uh um the sermon on the mount blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god
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now i used to think what it was the verse meant uh something more in the sense of
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to experience god we have to be blessed in our heart like it's literal because the reason why we don't see god with our
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optics with our eyes is because we are not pure because if we are pure in heart we shall
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see god the scripture tells us no one can see god and leave why because we are sinful people
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that's the reason why we don't see god so the purity of heart and today when we were praying before the service pastor
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julio prayed about holiness and i thought that was fitting because that's what i want to talk about this
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morning is the holiness of the lord now i'm going to look at first samuel 2 verse 12 to 17.
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and the account tells us about the sons of eli and the bible refers to them as being
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worth less the scripture says about the sons of eli they were worthless now
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i don't want to be labeled as a worthless person and i'm sure you don't want to be labeled as a worthless person
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and i don't want any of my sons to be remembered or any of you to be remembered as being worthless but the
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scripture says of eli sons that they were worthless okay
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so what made them worthless is what we're going to be looking at today in the scripture so if you go to
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the scriptures up there so i'm going to read it it's from the esv so i'm going to read the verse 12 to 17.
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now remember the scripture says the word of the lord was rare in those days we need to know why the word of the
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lord was rare in those days scripture says the custom of the priest
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with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice the priest servant would come
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and while the meat was boiling let me get to my next paper
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while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand and he will thrust it into the pen or
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kettle or cauldron or pot all that the fork brought up the priest
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would take for himself and this is what they did at shiloh to all the israelites who came there
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moreover before the fat was burned the priest servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing
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give meat for the priest to roast for he will not accept boiled meat from you but
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only raw and if the man said to him let them burn the fat first
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and then take as much as you wish he will say no you must give it now and
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if not i would take it by force now imagine if pastor julio was being
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like that i just wanted to picture that what's going on or me or elder bill claire or anybody else was
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acting like that in church thus the scripture says the sin of the young man was very great in the sight of
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the lord i'll say it again thus the sin of the young man was very great
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in the sight of the lord for the man treated the offering of the lord
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with contempt now to understand the gravity of the
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sins of hofne and phineas that was their names we need to look at god's instructions to aaron and his sons now
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they were aaron's lineage the levites were supposed to be priest of the lord and they had to follow god's word to the
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letter and he was prescribed in leviticus 3 verse 12 to 17 and i don't think she has
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it so i'm going to read it here because i didn't prepare ahead of time so i apologize for that again
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now the script the scripture says if his offering is a goat then he shall offer it before the lord
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and lay his hand on its head and kill it in front of the tent of meeting and the sons of aaron shall throw its blood
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against the side of the altar then he shall offer from it as his offering for a food offering to the lord
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the fat covering the entrails and the fat that is on the entrails and the two
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kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys
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and the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma now listen carefully here all fat
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is the lord's that's not what often and phineas were doing they were keeping the fat for
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themselves scripture says all fat is the lord it shall be a statute forever
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throughout your generations and in all your dwelling places that you eat neither fat
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nor blood let me repeat that again that you eat neither fat nor blood but huffman and phineas didn't
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do that so in leviticus 7 verse 22 to 27
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scripture says the lord spoke to moses saying speak to the people of israel
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saying you shall eat no fat of ox or sheep or good
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the fat of any animal that dies of itself and the fat of the one that is torn by beast may be put to any other
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use but on no account shall you eat it for every person
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who eats of the fat of any animal of which a food offering may be made to the lord shall be cut off from his people
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that means shall be completely cut away from his people banned
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but othnie and phineas were supposed to be priests they were supposed to lead people but they did the very thing that
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god told them not to do and the scripture says moreover you shall eat no blood whatever whether fowl
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or if of any animal in any of your dwelling places whoever eats any blood
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that person shall be cut off from his people so this is what the orphanage and phineas
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did they were not supposed to eat the blood as we see in leviticus but they did it anyway
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they didn't care about the offering of the lord the scripture says that the fat was supposed to be god's it came as a pleasing aroma
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to the lord and there is something about blood the scripture tells us that there's life in the blood so there is some kind of a
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god has respect for it because we know that jesus christ gave his blood for our life
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so there is some type of respect and huffing and phineas who were supposed to be leaders
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didn't do that they didn't care so now eli who was the high priest was
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told about it and let's find out what eli did now eli on numerous occasions he heard what
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his sons were doing but he failed to restrain them he didn't do anything
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he did something but he wasn't like sharp enough let's find out why what he did in um verse 22. i'm going to
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read it so the scripture says now eli was very old so he was old and what happens when
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you get old you don't really want to rebuke anymore you kind of just want to live your life and just chill
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so eli was very old and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all
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israel and how listen to what they did also how they slept with the women we were
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serving at the entrance of the ten of meeting i mean just think about it this is the priest that is doing this they don't
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only disrespect the offering of the lord but they added to that even more vile actions they slept with the woman that
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was serving at the entrance of the tent of meeting [Music]
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grave grave sin this is terrible and eli say to them
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why do you do such things for i hear of your evil dealings from all these people
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know my sons it is no good report that i hear the people of the lord spreading abroad if someone sins against a man
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god would mediate for him but if someone sins against the lord who
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can intercede for him but listen to what the scripture says next but they will not listen to the
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voice of their father for it was the will of the lord to put them to death
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we live in a day and age where we think god is like santa claus he doesn't kill
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he kills when you sin against him and we'll find out so eli
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when he heard what his sons were doing what do you think he should have done
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eli should have probably told him you are done serving as priest
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you are no longer considered worthy of this job but he just went ahead and said come on guys don't do this you have you
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know that's not right he wasn't sharp in his rebuke he didn't really enforce the law the law said they
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were supposed to be cut off from the people but he honored his sons above god
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and he allowed them to continue to do that and the scripture tells us the word of the lord was rare in those
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days why don't we hear from god we need to look inside
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how do you live your temple your body is the temple of the holy spirit if you live in a certain lifestyle that
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is not consistent with the scripture you are not going to hear from god you may hear something that may make you feel
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good but your own voice maybe but are you how are you living on a daily basis what are you watching what
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do you allow in your head we are told in romans 12 present your bodies as a living
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sacrifice holding on to the lord this is your spiritual act of worship
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so this is important now in verse 25 the scripture says if someone sins
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against a man god would mediate for him but if someone sins against the lord who can intercede
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for him see what if i sin against my brother pastor julio then i can go to myself
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forgive me and god can intercede but if i sin against god directly
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in such a way that i violate the very thing that's supposed to intercede for me there is nothing left for me for my
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atonement so that verse when i read it it should send
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chills down your spine but we don't take god too seriously these days we think god like i said he's
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like a grandfather who's always ready to just just give you a wink at our sins oh it's okay
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just do whatever you want no no no it's not like that so
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um i want to uh so what eli's sons were doing
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was that they were showing contempt to the lord's sacrifices which were meant to make atonement for
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their sins so the very thing that they disrespected was what's supposed to be used to make atonement for the people
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so how are you gonna ask god to forgive you if they want the the very thing that you're supposed to use to forgive you is
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what you are disrespecting so god was done with them and the scripture tells us
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that it was the the will of the lord to put them to death so even when their father spoke to them they would not
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listen to the the voice of their father they were beyond redemption
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but we don't tell people that these days we allow them to continue telling them it's okay god is patient god understands
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no that's not what i see in scripture warn them because god
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is a holy god we need to understand that we need to tell the people that we love
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i'm not saying go around and be one of those uh that always points fingers that's not what i'm saying
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but because you love somebody you want to be able to tell the truth in love now love as you will see later it
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doesn't mean that you kind of soft spoke and that's not what you mean necessarily to love god is to obey god
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the scripture tells us this is how we show love to one another if we love god and uphold his holiness
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so if i come to you and i'll live in a very in a very wretched life and you you're trying to tell me listen brother
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this is not how you're supposed to live in if i get mad at you i'm not really getting mad at you i'm getting mad at
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god because i'm saying i don't care what you say to me so when i say that to you
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jesus tells us whoever does not receive you does not receive me and whoever does not receive me does not receive the one
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who sent me so we need to remember that so god will not be mocked
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so god decided not to save those two people he killed them so the scripture says that it was for
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the will of the lord to put them to death so his judgment was final and this verse like i said should send
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chills down our spine because they blaspheme god now when i
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disrespected the olive oil i thank god that he didn't let me
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go on because i thought when they were johan and sarah was speaking to me i was like you guys are too serious
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but it took the holy spirit to convict me that night so he softened my heart so repentance is also a gift
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from god we can't even repent unless god allows us to repent so i'm thankful that he
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brought that to my attention because in that time my heart was hard i didn't care what they were saying to me i'm like you guys i'm just i was just joking
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and not in god's eyes that was not a good joke it was a terrible joke
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so at least he allowed me to repent and i'm thankful so if you go to first samuel 2 verse 27 to
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31 listen to the judgment of god on those two people the scripture says this is god speaking
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on that day i will fulfill against eli on
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i have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end and i declared to him that i'm about to
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punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because
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his sons were blaspheming god and he did not restrain them i want to pause for a
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second his sons were blaspheming blaspheming god and he did not restrain them that
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means eli did not do his job see we have been commissioned as elders
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to be like sheep dog that's what pastor julio told me one time so our job is not
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always pretty you know and pastor julio is the senior pastor so
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he is the head of iraq we are supposed to be doing our job so i told him last week
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that one thing that i've learned to do is trying to stay in my lane and my lane is doing what i'm doing
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right now i'm not a preacher but if god opens my eyes to something then i need to speak it and not be
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afraid of the consequences regardless of how people feel so i'm not saying that i want to hurt people's feelings but we must speak the
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word of god with boldness we can't we can't be weak we can't care so much what people think
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we are not called to do that we are called to share the scripture and if the scripture says something we need to stay
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consistent and we need to keep our integrity when it comes to the word of god regardless of how we're going to get
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treated because jesus himself you see how they treated jesus even though he was sinless
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so the scripture says therefore i swear to the house of eli that the iniquity of eli's house shall
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not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever
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so they were done in god's eyes so as far as god was concerned these two people are going to hell
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and it's not something that i want to i don't want to talk about stuff like this you know it's not it's not very
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interesting because they're going to be damned forever they're going to suffer the wrath of god for an eternity there's
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no stopping it it's not going to happen in one year two years 100 years they are going to be there forever
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and we need to remember that every time we go out we are watching people
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we don't know where they are headed that could be their last day are we do we have an urgency to share the gospel or
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are we just too comfortable with acquiring stuff for ourselves remember the song i surrender all so do you
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surrender your daily life to the lord you get up from six in the morning to like you go to sleep at ten what do you
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do within that time frame are you so concerned with your own stuff acquiring stuff
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traveling or doing whatever you want to have fun and keep those memories yes you may gain the whole world but
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you're going to lose your soul what's important the temporary benefit now or
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living with god forever and eternity i'm not saying don't have fun you know if you're that type of christian that
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every time somebody says something you want to be biblical i don't want to stay i don't like that type of christian either we we should have we should be
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normal people but in the norm in the is it world normalcy i don't know normalcy of our lives we should be able
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to to understand that every single hour because the scripture says whatever you
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do whether you eat or you drink do it all for the glory of the lord so
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even when you're eaten you're supposed to be glorifying god when you are spending time with your wife it's supposed to be glorifying god
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when you are playing games it's supposed to be glorifying god so if your your daily life is not doing that
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you're not going to hear from god the word of the lord will be rare in your life you're just going to be drifting along
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so so my final thoughts like eli sons were deemed as worthless
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because the scriptures say they did not know the lord now we need to understand what that means that they did not know the lord it
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wasn't like they did not know god they knew god but this knowing is meant to convey what
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intimacy and reverence see they knew god but they did not care
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to do what pleased god so in god's eyes they don't know him you can claim all
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you want i know god yes i respect god do you do what he says in his word
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scripture says if you love me you obey my commands if you're not doing that you don't know god i don't care how much you
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name the name of jesus you don't know him if you don't keep his word
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you don't know him that's what the scripture said if you know me you'll obey my commands
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now it's not calling for perfect being perfect but he's saying is there a desire in you
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to uphold the holiness of god to uphold his righteousness in your daily life
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because if you don't do that you don't know god and you are deemed as worth less in his
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eyes it's not there's no um middle ground with god either you are with him or you are not with him that's
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not why he's right there somewhere no no no you don't know god or you don't know god so i submit to you do you know god
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you gotta look at your own life i can't tell you that it's the holy spirit that will bring those words to your life and say do you know god
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or do you pretend to know god in the meantime you are walking to the
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broad road that leads to what tradition and help it's serious stuff
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now how did he get to that point you see people take god's patience for granted
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i'll do it too we did it when we were younger you know when your dad says don't do this and and you do something
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and he goes if you do it again i'm going to punish you so the first time you're scared the second time you go where did
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i know that he's not going to do anything and then next thing you know you don't have any fear anymore because you already played this so many times
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that you get so comfortable and that's what happened to often in phineas and we find out what happened
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if you go to leviticus 10 the scripture tells us there's another account
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now nadab and abayhu the sons of aaron each took his sensor
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and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the lord which
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he had not commanded them and fire came out from before the lord
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and consumed them and they died before the lord then moses said to aaron
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this is what the lord has said among those who are near me meaning his holy servants
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i would be sanctified i will be glorified and before all people i will be glorified
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and the scripture tells us aaron held his peace now just i just want to put it in
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perspective to you imagine either me or pastor julio we have sons that are also serving with us
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and god tells us this is how i want you to set up my fire and being young boys they wanted to
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experiment with new worship and god killed them
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so moses comes to me or i'm using myself as an example and go type don't you know
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you knew and aaron the scripture tells us aaron held this piece meaning aaron said
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nothing his sons were just killed by god
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i'm sure aaron was thinking god i served you all these days why'd you do this to me those are my
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sons god why because they did not do as commanded by the lord
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and they died before the lord so what happened see the account of nirvana who has been recorded to remind
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us of the holiness of god and his moral perfection see scripture says that the soul that sins shall die
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but most people when you read this story they think to themselves that god's wrath was too severe
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that in the sense that these two young men were just being boys don't we say that they just been boys come on
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now when it comes to the things of god don't play around with it
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they meant no harm people who say but they knew the holiness of god and they knew the
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commands of the lord so they had no excuse see i was our excuse today we get away
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with so much so what happened is this hoffny and phineas and the rest of the people at that time
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didn't get dealt with right away by god so they took it for granted see if god was still acting the way he
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did with nedap and abalo today i wonder how many people will be left in our pews
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we'll be all dead i would have been dead that day i said i'm going to make anomaly for the olive
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oil i would have been killed god shows us mercy and grace we abuse it
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and we do whatever we want because god is love that's the narrative
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you know so we are told in the scripture that god's patience is meant to give us time and room for
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repentance but unfortunately people take it as a weakness and a license to indulge in sin
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see how many times have you heard that god is love and patient that his
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mercies are new every day now i'm not saying that's wrong it is true that god is slow to anger and abandon love or we
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will all be dead it is true that his mercies are new every day but the question is what do you do with those
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two statements it's an important thing like do you does it drive you to your knees
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or do you use it as an excuse to do whatever you want because god is loving patients that should drive us to our knees
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but because we are sinful people we use it as an excuse to do even worse because we've been told
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god loves us i remember one time i was listening to 91.9 and this girl called the radio station
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and she was talking to the lady on the other end and goes i'm living with my boyfriend do you think god is mad at me
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she said no he loves you oh okay click you just destroyed that woman's life
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by telling her that god loves you yes he does love you but he hates what you're doing
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he absolutely hates as a matter of fact i won't even say he loves god hates sinners in a sense because he's going to
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send sinners to hell he's not going to send their sin to hell sinners are going to be in hell
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so when you make yourself an enemy of god by living the way you live don't expect things to be good in the sense
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that you are cutting yourself away from god this is why you don't hear from god this
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is why i won't hear from god if i'm living in such a way that is not pleasing to him so
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my question is the grace of god isn't without effect when god graces upon you there's going
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to be change don't believe what people tell you you can't be you can't make jesus your
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your savior not your lord now he's your lord and savior
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he's not just your savior and then i'll do what i want but he's my savior no no no because if you go to ezekiel 36 verse
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25 to 27 listen to what the scripture says i mean when i read it the first time i never
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knew about the scripture i'm like how come we don't hear about this kind of scripture
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scripture says i will spring clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your
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uncleanness now let me pause for a second and and then and say something here god is the one that cleanses us so no
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matter what you've done in your life i'm not going to tell you it doesn't matter it matters because that that's what nailed jesus on
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the cross but god is also good that he's willing to cleanse you from all unrighteousness he's not going to leave
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you in your sin it's going to cleanse you and then he goes and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all
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your idols i will cleanse you i surrender all your idols in your heart surrender all of that
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and i will give you what a new heart that's so key
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he's gonna give you a new heart another heart of stone that you had before but a new one
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i'll remove the heart of stone from you your flesh and i give you a heart of flesh i would put
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my spirit within you that's key because without the spirit of
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god worthless i will put my spirit within you and listen to the next thing and cause you
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to do what to walk in my statute and be careful to obey my
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rules so don't tell me that you can be a christian and continue to live in sin
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that's not what the scripture says he says what i will put my spirit within you and do what causes you to walk
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in my statute and be careful to obey what my rules nobody likes rules oh we are new we are now we know we're
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no longer living under under the law so we can do whatever we want no no no the spirit of god loves the law of god so if
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the spirit of god lives in you guess what you're gonna love the things of god automatic because he promises i'm gonna
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give you a new spirit i'm gonna give you a new heart he can be a christian and continue to do the things you do before
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now i'm not talking about an immediate change it may be gradual but your taste buds are going to change
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your boy called you hey come on let's go out i don't feel like doing i don't i don't want to go to the body i don't want to do that anymore come on man no
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no i don't want to do that because what god is changing your desires your desires are going to change you're going
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to want the things of god you want you're going to want to be holy you're not going to want to be the same
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way you were before because the spirit of ghana is in you and the spirit of god loves the things
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of god but there is a battle as we see in galatians 5 the spirit and the flesh are still battling but guess what god
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says the spirit that he has caused to live in us is greater so we're going to have ultimate victory
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so we have that assurance that yes the sins are going to be there but we are going to have victory so there's no
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excuse to live in sin and say well i'm i'm a weak i'm a fleshly christian that's a word that people have created
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that's i don't see that in scripture if you live in the flesh you may not be a child of god
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you need to examine yourself so the promise that god gave in ezekiel was for the house of israel but we can
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apply this to us because we are now we have been grafted in so we have that as well so we also can be called the
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children of god by adoption so the spirit that god has put within us
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causes us to walk in the statute if you find yourself resisting the words in scripture
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and if your life as of now doesn't run parallel to what the bible teaches then i will
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invite you to examine yourself we have to do that constantly examine yourself
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there's no paul talks about it jesus himself talks about it why should we shy away from saying examine yourself
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so there's nothing worse than believing that you're a christian when indeed you are not
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so maybe you are deceiving yourself maybe i'm not i don't know because i'm not i'm not the spirit of god
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so i'm not here to preach like brimstone and judgment but we have to examine ourselves
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and if you believe the lord has put those words in immediately to give you then i'll say pay heed to those words
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so now for the leadership i think we we we need to as leaders daniella me pastor
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julio elder bill tatiana all the elders and all the leaders brother guillermo
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everybody is we need to speak the word of god boldly and we need to lead by example
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hoffney and phineas didn't lead by example so what i do in my personal life matters
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it matters a lot you know when when pastor julio asked me to be an elder i had to think twice i'm
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like i don't know if i qualify because i've read the qualifications i'm like i don't know
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so now when i post something on it on on my my i actually ended up my facebook because i was posting
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crazy stuff sometimes that thought i was funny i was like no you are an elder now i'm not saying
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um don't put it in public but then live a secret life no what you do behind closed doors matters
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as much as what you do in the public so i have to remember that i'm an elder
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that i'll lead i need to lead by example because people are watching so why should they listen to me if my life
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doesn't reflect what i'm saying i mean might as well just be talking to the air
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so and then we need to love the brethren enough to rebuke them when necessary
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so we need to do that as leaders when we see our brothers not living rightly we need to be able to
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be bold enough because we love them say that's not going to fly
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not in the house of god now for the congregation it's a call to be holy
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in all your conduct this is only possible by the holy spirit you cannot do that on your own you fall
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so we have to constantly rely on the spirit of god because jesus tells us remain in me and i remain in you that's
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the only way and so the scripture tells us that this is why we love the brethren by loving
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god and obeying his command so to show one another that we love each other we must uphold the holiness of god and his
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character before each other with integrity so don't be one way in the church
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and another way elsewhere so be the same way everywhere you go in front of your children because they are
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watching they are really watching you know i was telling johann two days
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ago that i wish i had a godly father when i was growing up i'm not saying that my dad was bad
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in the eyes of the world he was the best dad because he gave me everything but he wasn't a christian he didn't know
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anything about the so i grew up with a dad i didn't have this background that i have today
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so all the decisions that i made were based on what he taught me which were good stuff work hard don't be but
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there was no life in there it's dead there's nothing to it
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you know the kids they you guys have the opportunity to know the things of god
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that should be your priority seek you first the kingdom of god and his righteousness forget all this other
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stuff first know god what is this that's the most important thing
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i wish this is the kind of doubt that i had that taught me the things of god so maddox thank you your your dad because
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he he teaches you a lot i had some conversations with maddox he's amazing the things that he says
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all because he had a godly father that taught him the things of god so don't
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underestimate what you teach them and how you live that's important don't don't be that
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kind of parent that goes well you do what i say and then you yourself are living in such a way that's now now
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so before we have peace with god we need to take a good inventory of our own life so have you truly understood
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what the price of peace was it took what the death of christ
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so if yes then we truly have to mourn over our sin because scripture says blessed
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are those who mourn for theirs is the kingdom of god i don't know if i quoted that right but
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i think that's right so don't treat the grace of god with contempt because i don't think this is how and
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then i don't know what the consequences are gonna be because eventually god's patience will run out
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he's not just gonna let you get away with it and i found that out like the hard way in 2017
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i was doing my own thing until god came and just blasted me completely and everything turned upside down
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but i'm thankful for that because without his discipline i wouldn't be where i am today i thank him for the hard things that
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happened the afflictions the pain the tears the blood that was shared all that
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i thank god for it because in my afflictions he delivered me from my own self
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you know and i you know it's funny because i thought at the time that i was i was a christian i think i was
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but i would say that i had a form of godliness but i denied its power and
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that's where a lot of christians are today you have a form of godliness but you deny the power thereof
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so we need to pay attention so i'll leave you with uh first second corinthians 13 verse five to six
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the scripture says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith
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test yourselves you don't have to do in front of anybody you talk to god
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or do you not realize this about yourself that jesus christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test
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so i will invite you to test yourself to see whether you're in the faith it's important to to to uphold the
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righteousness of god and to to remember that we are children of the light not children of darkness
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okay so let us pray lord i thank you again for this morning and i pray that um as we leave and then
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go to our own businesses that you will um remind us of who we are in you lord for those that are still struggling with
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certain sins i pray that they may come clean before you and say lord i've sinned against you
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and holy spirit i pray that you may work in us both to will and act according to
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your purpose because you came so that we may have life we are not talking about just mediocre life but a life that is
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pleasing to god because we are vessels of righteousness again robbie thank you again for this
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morning and i ask this in jesus name amen
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according to the power that works in us today to be the glory
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