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hello good morning this is taiva types.com i hope you had a great great time of christmas
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and i hope that you met on the son of god through this season so this morning we're going to talk
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about sifting and i know this is a topic that most of us want to shy away from but it's important that we actually talk
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about it because this is part of our life you know and i'm gonna jump into my intro
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and um say this at the outset as a believer in jesus christ you will
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be shifted one way or four or another it is not a matter of if you will be shifted but when you will be shifted it
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just is part of our lives and scripture clearly tells us that in this world
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we will have trouble but we've also been promised to be given strength to overcome the world and its
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trials and temptations so what we're going to do today is we're going to be looking at the lives of
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several individuals in scriptures who were sifted and then we're going to look at the areas in which they were shifted
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and then we're going to draw some conclusions about the purpose of sifting in our lives as believers so it's
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important that we we touch on this these subjects because i believe sometimes
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uh when you hear some preachers preach it almost seems like when you when you when you believe in jesus or you believe
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in christ everything is gonna be peachy and it's gonna be just smooth sailing that is not reality
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as a matter of fact when you become a christians i think uh troubles amplify even more
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because now you've left the kingdom of darkness and now you're the king in the kingdom of light and you become
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immediately immediately an enemy of satan so i think it's important that we talk about these things so let's jump
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into that so the first person we're gonna talk about is king saul
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and we are going to see what happens in his life so the early days were really great
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but as saul's popularity grew he became comfortable as a king and he began to rely
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on his own abilities and his own devices to run the kingdom and his downfall began
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so when he was anointed by samuel the prophet he was told uh something very important that i want to point out if
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you look at first samuel 10 verse 6 scripture says then the spirit of the lord will rush
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upon you talking about saul and you will prophesy with them and be turned into
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another man now when these things these signs meet you
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do what your hand finds to do for god is with you this is such an important verse
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let's not miss the message here scripture says as soon as the spirit of god came upon him he became
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another man the scripture says thus showing us readers that it is indeed the spirit of god who enables us
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to do that which is right and pleases god i want really to pause on that for a
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second the scripture clearly says when the spirit of the lord rush upon
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you you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man
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regeneration precedes a change of heart and a change in
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salvation basically saul as soon as the spirit of god came upon
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him he became another man meaning the old nature of saul was set aside
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i don't know if set aside is the right word but he became another man because the spirit of god comes and now it is a
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spirit that is working through saul to accomplish god's purposes because without the spirit of god
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we cannot please god i really want to drive this point in we really need to
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understand this is important in the main in our salvation because regeneration precedes our salvation
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first the spirit of god comes upon us and comes in us and then we are changed
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and then we begin to prophesy we begin to speak the words of god we begin to love the word of god we begin to
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long for the presence of god because the natural man cannot do that only the spirit of god does that in a man
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okay now let's fast forward to our first samuel 16 verse 14 to 23 and i want us
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to read that verse and see what happened let's do that so we are now reading
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first samuel 16 verse 14 to 23 this is way after saul became king and now he's
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gotten comfortable let's read what happened so remember he began to he disobeyed the
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lord because he was told to wait for samuel and then he offered the sacrifice which was not lawful for saul to do and
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then his downfall began because he was not he didn't keep the word of god
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so let's see what happened first 14-23 now the spirit of the lord departed from
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saul and a harmful spirit from the lord tormented him and saul's servants say to him behold
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now a harmful spirit from god is tormenting you let our lord now command your servant
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who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in plain the liar and when the harmful spirit from god is
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upon you he will play it and you will be well so saul said to his servants provide for
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me a man who can play well and bring him to me one of the young men answered behold
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i've seen the son of jesse the bethlehemite who is skillful in plain a man of valor
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a man of war prudent in speech and a man of good presence and the lord is with him
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therefore saul sent messengers to jesse and said send me david your son who is with the sheep and jesse took a donkey
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laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young good and sent them by david to his his son to saul
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and david came to saul and entered his service and saw loved him greatly and he became his armored better and saul sent
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to justice saying let david remain in my service for he has found favor in my sight and whenever the harmful spirit
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from god was upon saul david took the liar and played it with it with his hand so saul was refreshed and was well
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and the harmful spirit departed from him so we just read the account and we saw
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that as soon as on the spirit of god left paul a harmful spirit came upon him probably a demon or
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it was depression i don't know what it was but something was bothering and tormenting him and then he sent for just
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the son of jesse david who played the liar and every time david played the liar the spirit that was tormenting saul
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left him so basically he found relief in the process so we need to understand
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this and like this is probably the most frightening verse in sacred scripture when i read that verse like
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it frightens you because you see what happens as soon as the spirit of god leaves a person
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okay the spirit of the lord left saul and immediately a demon began to bother him
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to the point where he summoned young david to soothe his spirit as he played sound beautiful melodies to his ears
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with his harp saul was only looking for relief he didn't quite repent it doesn't seem like
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it then the lord because the lord had rejected him from being king only that's what god said i rejected you from being
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king and then he removed his spirit from saul so the anointing was no longer there so
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i believe he was meant to teach saul about his inability to function apart from god but i don't think he understood
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the purpose of god and could not repent he only looked for relief so he had
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david playing the half to serve his spirit there was no actual sign of true repentance
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in this process yet like there were there were like times where he was sorry for pursuing david
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because he eventually wanted to kill david because he realized david was going to be king
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but he went right back to seeking ways to kill him again so there was no true repentance from saul
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and then remember jesus said somewhere that he was at least in the kingdom of god is greater than john the baptist
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because you see in the old testament the spirit of god came and anointed people for work but it didn't rest on the
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people in the sense that they were not inhabited with the spirit what we have today as believers is we have this
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greatest privilege we've been giving like elijah a double portion of the spirit
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because the spirit lives in us she saw as soon as the spirit left him he became insane again so you understand
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how important the spirit of god is in our walk with christ i mean it's almost like it's our bloodline without the spirit of
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god we can do nothing nothing good at all
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let's jump into the next uh story now let's talk about david sifting because david was also sifted so we're
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gonna see what happened so we're gonna read in in ii samuel 11
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verse 11 the scripture says in the spring of the year the time when kings
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go out to battle david sent joab and his servants with him and all israel and they ravaged the
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ammonite and besieged raba but david remained at jerusalem
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david was not where he was supposed to be he got too comfortable and made up use of his power
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he was supposed to be at war because scripture says the time when king go out to battle he was not in the battlefield
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he sent his emissaries he sent his general and he himself stayed home
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and he also entered a time of sifting when he sinned by violating bathsheba
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he committed adultery and he killed her husband he had him killed because he set
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him up for war to war and he sent him out and then he put him on on the front line on the battlefield
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and the man was killed so when when david was confronted by his sin by the nathan prophet nathan the
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prophet unlike saul david didn't run away from god but he ran to god
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and we read on the following in psalm 51 which we're going to read right now so this is david the king after he had gone
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into bathsheba and committed adultery and he had her husband killed so this is what um
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david says when when nathan confronts him he doesn't run away from god but he says this and this is important have
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mercy on me oh god according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy
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blot out my transgressions wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and
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cleanse me from my sin for i know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you
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you only have i sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be
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justified in your words and blameless in your judgment behold i was brought forth
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in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me did you hear that in sin did
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my mother conceive me so you come out of your mother's womb a sinner behold you delight in truth in the
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inward being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart purge me with hyssop and i shall be
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clean wash me and shall be and i shall be whiter than snow let me hear joy and gladness let the
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bones that you have broken rejoice hide your face from my sins and blot out
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all my iniquities and then this is the verses that i want us to focus on create
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in me a clean heart oh god and renew a right spirit within
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me cast me not away from your presence and this is the greatest
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line in this passage and take not your holy spirit from me
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restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit
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then i would teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you deliver me from blood goodness
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oh god oh god of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness oh lord open my lips
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and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or i will give it you will not be pleased
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with apparent offering the sacrifices of god are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh god you
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will not despise do good to zion in your good pleasure build up the walls of jerusalem
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then will you delight in right sacrifices in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings then booze will be
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offered on your altar i want to suggest zero in verse 11 cast me not away from your presence
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and take not your holy spirit from me i mean this is just
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like incred so you see what david realizes he saw firsthand what happened we saw
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when the spirit of god left saul so any and immediately he desperately asked god to not take his spirit away
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from him because he saw what happened with saul and he split into the lord saying please
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cast me not away from your presence and take not your holy spirit away from me he repented and acknowledged his sin
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before the lord and scripture tells us that blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted
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see god granted david repentance because it was the lord who led nathan to david
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when god confronted david by nathan the prophet and he repented of his iniquity
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there is a reason why god said david was a man after god's own heart the sifting
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led david to repentance and full reliance on the spirit of god you see that
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now let's jump into the next person the sifting of job this is probably
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the toughest account i've ever read in scripture beside
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the lord jesus and his sufferings and this is pretty much i mean when i read i avoided the book of
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job like i don't like reading it because it's just
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you you get gripped with fear because it can happen to you we can be shifted like that
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and we have been shifted a lot of us have been sifted and we know the pain of sifting
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and i just want to read this it's like i'm just gonna read the first uh
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set of tragic events in in his life so we're gonna go to job one verse six to thirteen and read that
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so let's start verse 6 to 13. now there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the
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lord and satan came also among them and the lord said to satan from where
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have you come and satan answered the lord and said from going to and fro on the earth and
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from walking up and down on it and the lord said to satan have you considered my servant job that there is
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none like him on the earth a blameless man an upright man who fears god and
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turns away from evil then satan answered the lord and said does joe fear god for no reason
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have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side you have blessed the work of his
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hands and his possessions have increased in the land but stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will
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curse you to your face and the lord said to satan behold
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all that he has is in your hand only against him do not stretch out your hand
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so satan went out probably very happy and he went out from the presence of the
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lord so now let's let's take this verse and now we're gonna we're gonna see what
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happens so we are talking about the purpose of sifting now we just saw what just happened with
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job and he's gonna keep amplifying because he went from he lost his his entire family he lost
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everything basically his possessions his body began to break in sores and he had
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all kind of calamities fall upon him and then his three friends come and
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today for i guess for a week or two weeks they kind of mourn within the cry with him and then
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after that they begin to question on job and they question his integrity and job defends himself in front of his
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friends he tells them how he is righteous and how he has not sinned against the lord and and he goes in
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through i guess in the beginning he begins to defend himself he got to the point where he got so
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frustrated and he began to question the goodness of the lord in the process so i'm going to pick up from job 33 and i'm
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going to read what happens in that time so eli who elihu he's a young he's
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younger than job's friends and for the entire time he's not mentioned in the account until
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job 32 33 because he's been watching this thing unfold and he's seen how job's friend
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trying to accuse job and they could not successfully accuse him and he's also seen job defending himself and kana
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promoting his own self-righteousness and now eli who rebukes job he says
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but now hear my spirit o job and listen to all my words behold i open my mouth and the tongue in
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my mouth speaks my words declare the uprightness of my heart and what my lips know they speak
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sincerely the spirit of god has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me
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life answer me if you can such a words in order before me take
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your stand behold i am toward god as you are atu was pinched off from a piece of clay
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behold no fear of me need terrify you my pressure will not be heavy upon you
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surely you have spoken in my ears and i've heard the sound of your words you say i'm pure without transgression i'm
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clean and there is no iniquity in me behold he finds occasions against me he
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counts me as his enemy he puts my feet in the stocks and watches all my paths he's talking about how
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job is promoting his old self-righteousness okay he's saying to job
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you're saying all this thing about yourself that you have no inequity that god is coming as his enemy
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that god is just making your life miserable behold in this you are not right i will
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answer you for god is greater than men why do you contend against god or him
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saying he will answer none of my man's word for god speaks in one way and in two though man does not perceive it
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so basically he's saying to job why are you contending against god and you're saying to god that is not
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answering your words and he says to joke for god speaks in one way and in two though man does not
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perceive it in a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleeps falls on man while they slumber
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on their bed then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings that he may turn man aside from his deed
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and conceal pride from a man he keeps back his soul from the pit his
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life from perishing by the sword man is also rebuked with pain on his bed
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and with continual strife in his bones so that his life loves bread and his appetite the choice is food his flesh is
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so wasted away that he cannot be seen and his bones that will not stick seen stick out
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his soul draws near the pit and his life to those who bring death if there have been for him an angel a mediator one of
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the thousand to declare to man what is right for him and he is merciful to him and says deliver him from going down
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into the pit i have found a ransom let his flesh become flesh with youth let him return to the days of his
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youthful vigor then man prays to god and he accepts him he sees his face with a
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shout of joy and he restores to man his righteousness he sings before man and says i sinned and perverted what was
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right and he was not repaid to me he has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit and my life shall look upon the
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light behold god does all these things twice
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three times with a man to bring back his soul from the pit that he may be lighted with the light of life pay attention o
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job listen to me be silent and i will speak if you have any words answer me
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speak for i desire to justify you if not listen to me be silent and i'll teach
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you wisdom now do you see the rebuke do you see what god is doing do you see
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all that we've been told what god does to restore a man allow sufferings allow sifting this is
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incredible let's jump onto more passages now the lord himself now speaks to job and let's see what god tells job
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then the lord answered job out of the world wine whirlwind and said who is this that darkens counsel by
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words without knowledge dress for action like a man and i will question you and you make it known to me
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where were you when i laid the foundation of the earth tell me if you have understanding
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we determined its measurement surely you know or we stretch the line upon it on
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what way his bases sunk or who laid his cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the
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sons of god shouted for joy i was shot in the sea with doors when he burst out
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from the womb when i made clouds his garment and thick darkness is swaddling brained and
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prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far you shall come for and no father and here you
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shall your proud waves be stayed have you commended the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know
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his place that he might take hold of the skirt of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it i mean god is
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questioning job he's asking him question i mean it's incredible when i read this you trembled
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with fear because you don't want to be in that position because you contend against god and he begins to question you and god lays out
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before job god's own purposes what god has done from the beginning he's asking him
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questions about the the creation and the crea the creatures that he created it's incredible let's keep going
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and the lord said to job this is job 40 verse 1 to 5 shall a fault finder contained with the
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almighty he who argues with god let him answer it he is talking to job directly
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and job answered the lord and said behold i'm of a small account
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what shall i answer you i'll lay my hand on my mouth i've spoken once
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and i will not answer twice but i'll proceed no further job
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kept his peace he realized this is much more than i asked
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god is holy and listen to god's word in verse 2 shall a fault finder contend with the
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almighty can you contend with almighty you see job had to be stretched to that
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level let's see why this happened see job 33 17 says
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that he may turn men aside from his deed okay and concealed pride from a man
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so somehow job thought that his righteousness was the result of job's
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own inherent righteousness let me repeat that again job thought that his righteousness
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was the result of job's own inherent righteousness job thought he i am
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righteous by my own self and his shifting led him to recognize that the only
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reason why he job could do anything good at all was and it's because of god
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and the reason why you and i can do anything good at all is because of god
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and i know that this is a very short summary of the book of job but i'm trying to show you a pattern
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okay and then we're going to jump to the next set of people they have false prophets so this is going to take us to
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uh first let's understand what was said of ahab in first kings
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chapter 16 verse 30. and ahab the son of omri did evil in the sight of the lord more
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than all who were before him this is the most
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evil king in the history of the kings of judah and israel aha was
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the worst out of all of them because his wife also led him to do evil stuff and his wife of
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the notorious jezebel now we're going to go to first kings 22 and
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verse 1 to 23 and we're going to read this account so jehoshaphat comes to
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ahab and they're getting ready to go to war but let's read the account for three years syria and israel
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continue without war but in the third year jehoshaphat the king of judah came down to the king of
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israel and the king of israel said to his servant do you know the realm of gilead belong to us
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and we keep quiet and do not take it out of the hand of the king of syria and he said to jehoshaphat will you go with me
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to battle a rim of gilead and jehoshapha said to the king of israel i am as you are my people are your people my horses
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are show horses and jehoshapha said to the king of israel inquire first for the lord the
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word of the lord then the king of israel gathered the prophets together about 400 men and say to them shall i go to battle
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against them of gilead or shall i refrain and they said go up for the lord will
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give it into your hand what yahushua said which is interesting
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is there not here another prophet of the lord of whom we may inquire
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because he realizes immediately these are false prophets these are these guys are telling this
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dude what he wants to hear but guess what uh this is what ahab says in verse 8 and the king of israel said
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to jehoshaphat there is yet one man by whom we inquire of the lord maike the son of imla but i hate him
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for he never prophesies good concerning me but evil and jehoshaphat said let not the king
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say so then the king of israel summoned an officer and said bring quickly my
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care the son of imla now the king of israel and jehoshaphat the king of judah were sitting on their thrones are red in
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their robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of samaria and all the prophets were prophesying before
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them and zedekiah the son of janana janana made for himself horns of iron and said
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thus says the lord with this you shall push the syrians until they are destroyed
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and all the prophets prophesied so and said go up the rim of gilead and triumph the lord will give it into the hand of
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the king and the messenger who went to summon my care say to him behold
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the words of the prophet with one accord are favorable to the king let your word be like the word of one of them and
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speak favorably but my care said as the lord leaves what the lord says to me
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that i will speak and when he had come to the king the king said to him my care shall we go to them of gilead to
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baru or shall we refrain and he answered him grow up in triumph the lord will give it
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into the hand of the king he is being sarcastic but the king said to him how many times
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shall i make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the lord
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and he said i saw all israel scattered on the mountains a sheep that have no shepherd
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and the lord said these have no master let each return to his home in peace and
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the king of israel said to jehoshaphat did not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me but evil
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in my care said therefore hear the word of the lord and this is important this
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next chunk of my words are so important
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i saw the lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his
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left and the lord said wu will entice ahab that he might go up
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and fall at rim of gilead and one said one thing and another said another
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then his spirit came forward and stood before the lord saying i will entice him
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and the lord said to him by what means and he said
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i will go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophet and he
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said you are to entice them and you shall succeed go out and do so
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now therefore the lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these you these your prophets
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the lord has declared disaster for you i mean when i read this the first time
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you realize that nothing that is goes on on the physical realms is actually like a result of just change
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all has been decreed in the heavenly realms the realm that we don't see you see we see people do crazy stuff we see
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all these things happening now with the kovi 19 with the election all this is in the heavenly realm we
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don't know what's taking place there i mean the scripture even tells us
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that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities are things that we don't see you see that the
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people were saying that these kings were saying this thing and the prophet was speaking right in the heavenly realms
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you have those demons coming and the angels and that means just things that we don't see is it's crazy stuff so
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nothing on the physical it's like i don't even know what kind of words to use but everything has been
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isn't in heavenly realms everything that we see now it's like it goes in the spiritual world
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you know and and some some of us want to be intelligent we want to say well this is just crazy stuff i don't want to think i mean
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this is exactly what takes place you see these demons were speaking and they were
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given permission by god to cause havoc
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but we see that oh there were we go to war and it's not this is all in the heavenly realms this is this is crazy
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so we need to be in tune with the lord now let's let's uh dive into understanding what's going on here more
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let's do that so in this case we see that the sifting
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brought god's judgment on ahab and his false prophet see they were given over to their
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depraved minds and god allowed them to be deceived by demons she there certainly heard like false
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reassuring words from the demons and the odds against my care were like 400 to 1. yet he was proven to be right
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because the spirit of god was upon him god and one man is the majority
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sometimes god and one man is the majority sometimes you see all these other
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prophets the false prophet they heard a voice they heard something but it wasn't the voice of god and but they used they
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say what the lord say you're gonna go and win this war they heard demons
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you see this is really dangerous because a lot of people
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have these weird things they say well god told me to do this god told me is it
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consistent with the spirit of god it's what you heard consistent with the word of god this is
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why we need to move cautiously don't just say
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god told me see the prophet shanana said thus says the lord you will kill this with these horns of i and he made all
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these things and you know like he heard something but it wasn't the voice of god he was the voice of demons
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because the demons were given permission by god they were allowed
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because guess what ahab did not want to hear the word of god my care told him if you go to war
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there's going to be disaster but he did not want to listen because he he wanted to hear what he wanted to hear so he
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surrounded himself with false prophets so the sifting
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brought god's judgment upon ahab and is for his false prophets
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lastly we are going to look at the last person speeder shifting which a lot of us are familiar uh with we're going to
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read the story so we're going to go to luke 22 31-34 and matthew
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26 30-35 so the scripture says in luke 22 31-34
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simon simon behold this is jesus speaking satan demanded to have you that he might
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sift you like wheat but i have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and when
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you have turned again strengthen your brothers and peter said to jesus lord i am ready to go with you
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both to prison and to death and i put in parenthesis self-confidence and jesus said to him i tell you peter
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the rooster will not crawl this day until you deny three times that you know me now let's go to matthew 26 verse 30
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to 35 and when they are sung at him they went out to mount off the mount of olives
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then jesus said to them you will all fall away because of me this night for it is written i will strike the shepherd
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and the sheep of the flock will be scattered well after i'm raised up i will go before you to galilee
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and peter then though they all fall away because of you i will never fall away pride again peter you see
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he said those who fall away he's talking about the rest of the disciples even if they fall jesus i'm not gonna fall
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basically he's counting on his own self-confidence he's just like really saying listen i'm not like them i'm
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loyal i can do this jesus he is kind of himself
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and jesus said to him truly truly i tell you this very night before the rooster crows
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you will deny three times that you know me and peter say to him if even if i must die with you i will not deny you
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and all the disciples say the same so he was talking all that
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and then the rest of the disciples also they heard peter say the same but they also say yes we also won't fall we we
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will do we will be with you and what happened
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what can we learn from peter and the shifting first here's the thing we need to
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establish at the outset that satan and his demons they are not free agents
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they can't just do whatever they want they are on a tight leash and they have
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to ask for permission prior to causing havoc in our lives
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meaning whenever things happen in your life it's not like god is like caught by surprise oh no no
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the demons have to ask for permission in job's life
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satan went and he asked for permission and god granted him permission and god also gave him restrictions in peter's
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life the same thing and in ahab's case we see that is the same thing as well because they didn't just they were not
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free agent they can't just come and cause havoc so before these things happen god knows it's gonna happen he
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allows it because he has a purpose so why does god allow them to torment us
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like this and we see that those whom the lord loves he disciplines in order that he
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that the discipline might lead them to righteousness see we i'll read that again we see that
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those whom the lord loves he disciplines in order that the discipline might lead them to righteousness
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we are told in hebrews 12 that no discipline is pleasant at a time more later
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it leads to a harvest of righteousness for those that have been trained by it that's the key
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those that have been trained by it you see david jobe and peter
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learned from their sifting peter learned that he could not rely on himself
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his self-confidence and pride were shattered under pressure you saw he denied jesus
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he gave him to fear and denied his lord but jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail and he was restored and
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then his experience humbled him so he could strengthen his brothers because they too ran away and were
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scattered so god humbled him so he couldn't brag to the others about his ability to stand against opposition
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remember he even went as far as saying that he that even if the others deserted jesus
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he would remain loyal and david and joe were also humbled by their sifting so they could fully rely
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on god and god alone for without faith it's impossible to please god this sifting was meant to do away with
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pride on the other hand we see that ahab and his prophets were destroyed by the
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sifting it was meant to bring god's judgment and wrath upon them because they found no
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room to repent so one group was disciplined unto righteousness
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and the other was judged unto condemnation and one group was shown grace and mercy
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and the other received justice so they were both deserving of death but
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as the scripture said jacob are loved he saw a hated we're gonna go to romans nine and read that again because we need
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to understand that this is important i'll start off with verse 13
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as it is written jacob i loved but he saw i hate it what shall we say then is there
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injustice on god's part by no means for he says to moses
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i will have mercy on whom i have mercy and i will have compassion on whom i have compassion so then it depends not
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on human's will or exertion but on god who has mercy for the scripture says to pharaoh for
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this very purpose i have raised you that i might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the
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earth so then he has mercy on whoever he wills and he hardens whoever he wills
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see job peter and and david could not brag about their own
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righteousness see they were shown mercy and grace and ahab and the false prophet
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received justice now for saul i don't want to pronounce any judgment or anything because i don't know what
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happened with saul did you repent before he died i don't know scriptures doesn't say so but i'm not gonna make it a call
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here because i have i don't have enough evidence to say anything about saul but ahab and his false prophets they were
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judged they received justice so the sifting for the believer
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is to do it with pride and to bring us to a place of full reliance on the lord
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but for the unbeliever is to bring judgment and the sifting also brings us
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to the point where our righteousness begins to shine forth because god is doing away with all the cruddiness and
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all the junk in our lives so the excess junk all these things that we've accumulated over the years he does away
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with it through the trials so as we go through this hard time do not give hope
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give up hope even right now i'm struggling i mean it's incredible you know i'm struggling
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and i know a lot of people who are struggling my sister-in-law is struggling she had coveting and she she
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uh she she got healed from it but the aftermath is is crazy it is
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taking a toll on her but one thing that she's saying is this this has been this has been bringing her closer and closer
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to the lord because she had some form of self-confidence that's been
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has been shattered now and she now relies on the lord you see like all these things happen the
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sifting is to bring us closer to the lord because we have so much pride in us
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that he has to allow these things to happen to do away with the pride in our lives
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i won't go back and read my conclusion so ultimately one of
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none of us can stand apart from god and his shifting is meant to strip away our pride
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and to humble us to humble us in order that we may fully rely on god and strengthen our brothers
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we've comfort we ourselves have received so
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um the the sifting is meant to do away with pride in our lives okay because a lot of
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us get so full of ourselves especially when you live in an affluent place like the usa
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i mean if you want something bad enough you can go out and work hard and get it
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and then you begin to to stay where i've earned this thing you know this is just my own doing and then you forget that
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your abilities are god-given because paul understood it paul said i am what i am by the grace of god see all our
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thinking all our smartness all all the intelligence that we have everything that we have the ability the physical
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gifts that we have the intelligence that whatever you have is the gift of god because he's the one that
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concocted your dna to be who you are when we forget it we begin to
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self-glorify we think we've we've acquired this thing by our own strength
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and for the believer god strips away our pride by allowing the safe thing to happen
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so i'll encourage you to seek him in this moment of um trials if you're going through one right
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now and also what i wanted to say is this um i started types.com for the purpose of
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talking about difficult questions about the christian faith and you really tackling these things
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that some of us shy away from and uh this is what i do so if any of these messages has
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encouraged you if any of the things that i've said has encouraged you and you find purpose in what i'm doing please if you
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have been led by the lord your support is is greatly appreciated check the link in the description if you
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can support this this uh the work that i do then i'll truly appreciate it okay and uh i'm looking forward to
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speaking with you again about something else have a wonderful day and before we go into 2021
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i don't want to be cliche with the new resolution and all these kind of things that people do
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but what i want to wish you is that you find your joy in
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god and the word of god as you spend time reading scriptures and diving into
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scriptures i pray that you see the face of god and that what you see there transforms you
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because the transformation is the work of the spirit so let the spirit of god himself enable you to see his face
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through the word of god and have a wonderful day thank you