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 Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast. If you're seeking a closer relationship with

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 Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you. Thank you for joining us today.

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 You know, three weeks ago, whenever I was preparing the message, I practiced it and it took

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 70 minutes. But I had three weeks to shorten it. So praise the Lord. We're in Hebrews

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 chapter 13 this morning. We're going through the first seven verses. If you have your

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 love, let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby

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 some have entertained angels on a wares. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with

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 them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in

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 honor among all and let the marriage bed be under filed for God will judge the sexually

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 moral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you

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 have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you so we can confidently say, the Lord is

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 my helper, I will not fear. What can may undo to me? Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you

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 the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Lord, we

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 thank you for this word this morning. We thank you that you've been preparing something. You've

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 been preparing our hearts for three cold weeks. So Lord, today as I teach this message, God, I pray

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 that your spirit would just let it do a work. This wouldn't be me talking, but this would just be

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 your spirit moving in our hearts this morning that you would teach us how to walk a life of faith

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 in you. So we just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let brotherly love continue, continue. Notice

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 he doesn't say start or begin, but he says continue. In our new nature as disciples to Jesus, he

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 teaches us, our good teacher Jesus teaches us this first principle which is the principle of love.

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 He teaches us how John 1513, greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life

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 for his brother. He teaches us who and Matthew 543, not just those that are kind to you, but he

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 says to love your enemies. But this love, this principle, it is also what identifies us as disciples

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 of Jesus. Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples by your love for one another.

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 Whenever we are abiding in this love, and first John says that God abides in us, it is an

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 identification, a marker of whether or not we are actually abiding in the Lord. So he is not just

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 go and show love. He is saying, wake up today in the identity of the new nature that God gave you

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 through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Be who I made you to be. That is what the Lord is teaching

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 us through this. This first verse is the hinge for the rest of the seven verses, six verses.

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 It is where everything has to come from, an identity of a disciple of Jesus, which is to love

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 our brothers and sisters in Christ. So it all starts here in verse 1. Let brotherly love continue.

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 Did you know that you were given a new nature, a nature of the Spirit, a nature that is from the

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 Holy Spirit. That is what it tells us in 1 Corinthians. It says in 619, do you not know that your body

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 is a temple of the Holy Spirit? The God who created the universe dwelling in ordinary Christians

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 like you and like me. Not in a temple in Jerusalem, but right here in this room in us.

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 I'm not asking do you know that up here. I'm asking do you know that here in your hearts.

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 Did you wake up today walking in the identity that he gave you as a child of God, as an image bearer?

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 You see, when we actually start to walk in just this first verse, we get to take part in the greatest

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 redemption story of all time. Children of God displaying his image. You see, in the garden when

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 God created Adam and Eve, he said they were created in my image. And when they chose to disobey,

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 when they chose, I'm actually going to take it up, when they chose to walk away and sin and be

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 that God gave them, they were rejecting that image that they were given and they were turning

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 to a new image, the self-image. And boy, have we struggled with that image ever since? In today's

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 age, we are all about creating, building, branding our self-image. Who am I? And how can I love

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 myself better? But let me just say that a life of faith in Christ is a life with no self-image

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 problems because you choose not to have one at all, but rather to take hold of the image of God

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 again. You decide not to love yourself, but to obey what it says in Philippians,

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 and love others as more important than ourselves. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,

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 but in humility, count others more significant than yourself. That's Philippians 2-3.

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 This is why everything that we're about to read hinges here, because if we miss our identity

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 in Jesus as disciples, which he defined as loving each other, our brothers and Christ,

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 our sisters in Christ, loving the body that's right here in this room, then we can't obey

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 verses 2-6. It becomes impossible. And so then we get to verse 2, though. And we take hold of

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 that identity of disciples, of Jesus, of those that love. And then he says, do not neglect

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 to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels.

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 So we take the identity and then we turn it into action. We move outward with it.

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 I was listening to David Guzick. He has a study Bible. You can find it on Blue Letter Bible,

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 if you've ever heard of that. It's a good resource for understanding and knowing the word of God.

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 And David Guzick has a great commentary. And he gave a really good application. I shared it in the

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 car with my wife, actually, on the way here. If you don't know how to be hospitable to strangers,

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 just look around in this room, the chances are there's someone here that you don't know,

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 which makes them a stranger. You can take them out to lunch today and be hospitable.

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 And I don't know a lot of you. So if you want to take my family out to lunch today, then

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 just, this is the word of God, you know. That's not coming for me.

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 We were trying to figure out how do we get a free lunch today?

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 Thank you Lord.

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 All right.

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 Don't just take hold of who you are, but now do what you are called to do.

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 Another identity that God gives us in Scripture is his children. And whenever you're reading

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 through the Bible, you'll notice that there's lots, especially in the Old Testament, there's lots

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 of commandments for his children, for the adults. Let me be more clear. But when it comes

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 to kids, more specifically, children that are young, there's really only one commandment

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 ever given to them. Do you know what it is?

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 Obey. Obey. Well, if we're the children of God, then the commandment is the same for us.

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 Obey. And so take your identity, wake up tomorrow and say, I am a child of God and therefore

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 I'm going to obey. I'm a disciple of Jesus and therefore I'm going to love.

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 There was a story in Luke, the Gospel of Luke in chapter 10, a lawyer came up to Jesus

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 and lawyers and Pharisees and all the other Sadducees. And there's a lot of Cs back then.

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 He came up to Jesus and he's trying to entrap him and trick him and get him to mess up.

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 So that way they could prove he's not so great. He's not who he says he is or claims to be

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 the Son of God. And he comes to Jesus and he says, teacher, what is the greatest commandment?

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 And it's great because in Matthew, Jesus gives an answer to him, but in the Gospel of Luke,

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 he just turns it right on him. And I love it because this guy is a lawyer and a Jewish lawyer,

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 meaning he isn't studying the law of community but the law, the Torah, the law of the Lord, right?

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 And so he should know what the greatest commandment is. And so Jesus turns it on him.

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 It's like, well, what do you think it is? I mean, you're a lawyer for Pete's sake. You should know,

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 he didn't say it like that. He's a lot more gentle. And this is what the lawyer said.

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 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your

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 mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus is like, well done, man, correct. Do this and you will

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 have life. And then it says that the man wanted to justify himself. And so he said, well, who's my neighbor?

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 That's how I always picture these guys talking. And this is where Jesus gives the story of this

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 Samaritan man, which many of you have probably already heard, but I'm just going to tell it to you

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 one more time. The Samaritan man is a story of this guy that is traveling to Jericho from Jerusalem

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 and he's met by robbers and they come to him and they beat him and they steal everything that he

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 has and they leave him bruised and beaten on the roadside. But then comes along a priest,

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 a man that knows the word of God, knows that we're called to love our neighbors. And so what does he do?

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 Well, he actually doesn't do what we might think. He turns and he scurries along and he avoids

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 the man on the side of the road. But then comes another religious man and the same thing.

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 Turns down walks past as quickly as he can. But then Jesus says, then came a Samaritan man

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 and Jesus defines him as a foreigner in the context of what we're reading right here.

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 And this man doesn't scurry by. He actually looks down and he goes over to the man and he cares

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 for him. He cleans his wounds. He puts him on his donkey. He takes him actually to the next town

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 and he puts him in an inn and he pays for him to be there and he takes care of him.

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 So much so that he actually gives the innkeeper money to care for him because he's got a job,

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 he's got things to sell. He's got things to do and he has to keep going. But he's going to come

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 back and he tells the innkeeper, spend whatever you need to care for him and I'll pay you back

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 when I return. And then Jesus finishing this story, turns to the lawyer and he says,

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 which of these three men do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man that was robbed?

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 And this is what he said, the one who showed him mercy and Jesus response,

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 you go and do likewise.

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 Let me just read verse two again, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers

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 or thereby some have entertained angels and wares.

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 Do not neglect. Why did he say do not neglect? Why didn't he just say show hospitality to

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 strangers? Because whoever wrote this and we don't necessarily know who wrote Hebrews,

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 but we know it was a human being that had a nature like you and me

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 that knew that it's easy to neglect people, especially people we don't know.

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 I don't know about you, but it, when I wake up in the spirit of the Lord in my right identity,

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 it's not a challenge to love my wife. It's not a challenge to love on my friends that love on me

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 when they're going through hard times. I'll gladly go and sit with them and be with them and

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 love on them, but there is just something that happens. Maybe you have an experience this,

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 I have a feeling we probably all have though this conversation that starts to happen in our brain

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 when we're walking on the street perhaps and we see that stranger dirty. I'm 25 feet away

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 and I can already smell a stink. And I don't know Lord, please, no. I don't want to go over there

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 and I'm not going to give him money because let's be honest, he is on something right now.

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 If I give him money, he's just going to get more on something and that's not the right choice.

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 Like I don't want to wreck his life even more and he looks young and strong and healthy

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 he could probably get a job and now I'm 25 feet away so it would just be embarrassing to turn around.

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 Does this happen to anybody else? Anybody else have this dialogue?

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 What were you like when Jesus showed you mercy? What did your life look like when Jesus showed you

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 hospitality? When Jesus came to you and said I have new life for you, I have redemption waiting

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 for you. I want to show you mercy. I want to dwell in you. You see all it would take is me to just

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 see that person, that stranger and go and just sit down for a moment and just say hey,

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 my name is Danny and I woke up today and I know who I am. I love by Jesus. I'm a child of God

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 and he is dwelling in me and he has restored me and he has renewed me and he has given me hope for

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 my future and I don't know if anybody's told you this but he wants to dwell on you too

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 and he wants to restore you and renew you and give you hope. A dollar will not change that person's

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 but that will change their eternity. Amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. But it's hard to do and so he says don't

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 neglect it because he knows we will. All right now it's going to be really challenging. He just kind

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 heightens it each verse. Verse 3, remember those who are in prison. Actually let me just

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 pause and go back really quick because that last part thereby some have entertained angels. I'm

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 not going to get into stories with that. There are stories in the Old Testament for example with

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 Abraham where these three guys came to him and strangers but he invited them in and he gave

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 them a meal and they ended up being angels and there's people in in your lifetime that have

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 probably had stories like this. Maybe you have a story like this but maybe you're like me and you

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 haven't had a story like that but God is so gracious in loving that he knows this is hard and so he

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 just puts a carrot out for us to chase. He gives us some motivation like hey if it's challenging

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 for you to show hospitality to strangers just think of it this way. You might be entertaining in

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 angel and do it. Okay now we'll do verse 3. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison

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 with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body. Okay we take verse one we

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 take the identity as disciples of Jesus those that love our fellow Christian and then we put it

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 action and we choose not to neglect showing love and that word by the way for hospitality when

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 it translates from Hebrew it translates as love to strangers that's it but then he takes it a little

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 bit further and not just any stranger. I want you to show that love and take your identity of love

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 and give it to those in the most desperate need. Those behind bars those that have been mistreated

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 and there's really really simple easy lay up application to this if you want to do ministry Jim

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 could you stand so people could just see your face. I'm sorry I know but it's so important because

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 there's so much opportunity in this church to serve and Jim takes people and Isaiah they will

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 take you to a prison and you can actually minister to people behind bars and if you know Jerry Dover

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 you can go to Philly and you can minister to some people that have been mistreated. There's some

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 really easy application but there's other application there's spiritual application here too

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 because I don't know if you know this or not but we live in a filthy world full of sin

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 and people all around us are in prison in prison behind bars of sin that they can't get out of.

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 You see the only thing that unlocks spiritual prison doors is Jesus is the only key into that door

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 and we have him right here to offer to people through hospitality the love of strangers.

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 And so we're taking that hospitality not just to the stranger that will benefit my life

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 not just to the stranger that it makes me feel good to help them not just to the strangers in

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 this room but to the strangers that really are in need. Another way that we're talked about

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 as Christians we're talked about as disciples as his children but we're also described as being

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 in a body and Paul talks about this a lot of times and one of his letters he talks about

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 if you had a cut on your body let's say you have a cut on your leg what same person would not

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 tend to that cut what same person would not mend the wound and care for their body even if it's

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 in a peculiar place on your body that it really doesn't affect the functioning of your day-to-day

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 life who would not go and care for that part of the body well we are all in a body right now this

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 is the body of Christ and if there's somebody that is bleeding there's somebody that is hurting

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 and in need it would be foolish of us not to care for our own body you see your problems are

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 my problems and my problems are your problems because we're all in the same body of Christ

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 and there's people out there that are stuck and mistreated and need to feel loved

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 like have you ever have you ever just gone through something hard and

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 no needs are necessarily met in sense of supply comes but sometimes someone will just come and sit

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 with you and pray for you and just love on you and they don't give you anything no financial support

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 no whatever it is that your need is but they just pray for you and don't you just feel like wow

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 someone actually cares for me through this that is so uplifting

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 in one of the epistles of course though it says care for their needs also

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 remember don't neglect and remember

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 there are so many people that feel forgotten that need a love of Jesus and so he calls us to

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 remember them we can do that both in prayer and we can do that in action and if you want to be

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 even more like Christ doing both at the same time

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 and then we get to verse four is where it gets really uncomfortable

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 let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge

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 the sexually immoral and adulterous now i'm a young teacher so talking about sexual immorality is

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 still uncomfortable for me you know it's like oh this is so am i allowed to talk about this

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 but you know what i love at the first part of this let marriage be held in honor among all

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 all why do you say all why not let marriage be honored among the husband and wife of the marriage

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 but now he's saying oh the whole body of Christ the whole church here is the honor marriage

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 not just me and my wife but everybody whether you're married or unmarried

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 we're disciples we're children

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 we're a body and then Jesus gives us another one and Ephesians and he says that we're a bride

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 and Ephesians five i think you know this one husbands love your you can say it with me

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 wives submit to your husbands just as the church submits to Christ he gives us a new picture that

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 we are in a marriage right now if you've given your life to Jesus then you became the bride of

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 Christ and you are in the greatest marriage of all time and so he says honor that marriage

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 that means honor your relationship with God but also honor marriages here on earth because God

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 set up marriage to be a picture of the gospel he designed it to be a reflection of our relationship

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 with him and when we dishonor it we're dishonoring the gospel

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 and if you don't know what I mean by dishonor just read the second half of the earth it's

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 pretty clear but it starts with love and this is challenging isn't it like husbands

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 did you perfectly love your wives this week maybe the wives can answer that one

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 probably not I know I didn't why did you perfectly submit unto your husbands this week

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 probably right yeah

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 of course you did this is really hard it's hard to honor marriage but it's so important because

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 marriage is the pinnacle of the church this is just if you want to test then if you're married

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 and you want to see the church grow in spiritual maturity then start growing in spiritual maturity

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 in your marriage and you'll actually start to see the church around you grow with you

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 and if you don't believe me that's okay just try it take the next 35 years and put it to test

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 thanks Frank I practiced that one a lot

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 when we're walking in our identity and we know who we are

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 this this becomes just an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to honor our marriages

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 and another simple application I mean if you're not married and you're like well how do I do this

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 I mean one don't get in between anybody's marriage don't come flirt with my wife

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 I won't be flirting with your wife

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 but also don't do the thing that God designed for marriage outside of marriage

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 and again just refer to the second half of the verse if you don't know what I'm talking about

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 first five keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have

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 for he has said I will never leave you nor forsake you

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 I think we're gonna be a lot shorter than 70 minutes guys this is going pretty well

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 keep your life free from the love of money okay wait a minute he said verse 1 love verse 2 love

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 verse 3 love verse 4 love verse 5 don't love do not love money there's another verse

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 the scriptures that says you cannot have two masters you'll either hate the one and love the

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 other or love the one and hate the other and then this where it gets good it ends with therefore

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 you cannot love both God and money and money is it's something else isn't it

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 it's like one of the only things in here that is always attested to the opposite of the thing

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 that we're supposed to love like we're supposed to only love God and it's constantly being brought

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 up as the other thing that we find ourselves loving there's another time in the gospels where

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 Jesus is giving a parable it gives the parable the sower which you may have heard he talks about this

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 farmer he was actually called a sower but I don't know that means I'm just putting it in modern

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 day he's a farmer and he's out throwing seed and it says that he throws his seed on three

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 different types of soil the first soil is rocky soil and the seed goes into the ground and it grows

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 up but because it's rocky and there's not good strong firm foundation there the sun comes out

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 scorches it and it withers away and then he sews it on soil that is surrounded by weeds

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 and thorn bushes and this one takes hold of the ground and it gets probably a strong root

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 but it grows up and the thorns and the weeds choke it out and then finally he sews it

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 good soil and the good soil the seed goes in and it grows and it creates a beautiful harvest

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 and the disciples of Jesus like me are kind of like hearing this parable and they're like wow that's

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 a good story what in the world does it mean and so they turn to me like Jesus what does this mean

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 and lucky for them and us he actually tells them exactly what it means and he says the first soil

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 rocky soil is when we sow the seed of the gospel and it's recede with much joy but then hardship

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 comes and their faith withers away because they were a rocky foundation not a firm foundation

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 and then the soil that was or the weed and thorn soil is when the gospel is given and it's received

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 but this is what Jesus says and I want you to just focus on this part but the worries of this

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 and here it is and the deceitfulness of riches choke them out so why love love love love but don't

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 love money why do we have to keep ourselves from this because there is nothing that will choke out

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 faith in Jesus faster than a love of money because it is deceitful we go to it to comfort us

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 assuming that our identity can be found in it but every time we turn to it we're turning away from

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 the first identity that he gave us the image of the Lord and we're going to receive

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 comfort instead of going to our comforter I don't know like we're in a really prosperous country

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 I know it doesn't always feel that way but like go to Turkey and quickly you realize my wife and I

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 spent time in Indonesia and there's this beautiful lady that would come and watch our daughter

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 and she had no kitchen for how many years was it five years no kitchen she had just it's just

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 the houses there are just basically cement blocks with no roofs and I mean I don't even make a lot

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 of money but we were rich over there because we're American and we have great prosperity here even

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 if you're poor you're rich here compared to the rest of the world and we can be so caught up in

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 it and so disillusioned by it to think that we don't need God because our needs are met

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 all right half of that

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 what's the antidote how do we then keep ourselves free from loving money well he tells us

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 and this isn't easy to do but it is how you do it be content with what you have

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 I am far too young for this but any of you guys remember Sears catalogs

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 yeah I don't but we had when I was good they Amazon was already up and running and so we had

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 Amazon catalogs basically it's not really called that but trying to relate to you guys

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 um but there it's yeah it's a magazine and and we'd sit there as a kid and you probably

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 remember this you just flip through those pages and you look at all the things you want for Christmas

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 well here's the problem we're still doing it as grown adults aren't we

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 not through a Sears catalog or a Amazon magazine we do it on our phones all the time

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 we look at the better life that somebody has the expensive vacation the car the house

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 the job the income the relationship and it gets so easy to want and want and want

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 so you know what wanting what everyone else has is how we find ourselves discontent

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 was what we have so if you want to start being content we have to practice

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 not wanting Jesus actually said don't worry about anything I'll care for all your needs

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 that's really hard to live out I'm still trying to figure that one out but he said it

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 and when we understand this he highlights this verse right here I will never leave you

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 nor forsake you when we can understand that and bathe ourselves in that and wake up every single

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 day knowing that we have a God that will not leave us or forsake us then being content

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 becomes so easy because I don't need anything God's going to take care of me he's not ever

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 going to leave me you know he only forsake one person and that person died on the cross for you

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 and he's not forsaken anymore and he's never going to forsake you

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 and when we get to walk in this this is our identity guys this is the identity of Jesus Christ

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 that he offered to us new life and then we get to verse six which is really exciting because when

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 we start to walk all of this out and we understand that he's never going to leave us

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 we get to have confidence or a Chris said a couple weeks ago Godfidence confidence in the Lord

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 and so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper I will not fear what can man do to me

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 they can beat you and they can rob you but they can't take your eternity

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 now how do we do this we're going to wrap up with this last verse

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 time really flies when you're standing up here I'll tell you what it's dangerous

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 keep looking at that clock I like oh boy

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 remember your leaders those who spoke to you the Word of God consider the outcome of their way

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 of life and imitate their faith how do we wake up every day knowing and walking in this identity

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 of love because it's hard it really is a challenge well this is how we do it we remember we

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 consider and we imitate we look at people that have walked the life of faith ahead of us

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 and we actually slow down enough to consider what the outcome was and then we emulate that kind of

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 faith and I'm going to finish with a story and the worship team you can come forward

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 this is a story about a husband and wife Jim and Elizabeth Elliot you guys know them

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 they were incredible we had this room growing up it was our family room home school family of

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 eight kids and this family room it was the room that everything happened in school wrestling

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 blowing things up but also reading we had a library on the back wall and on the left side we had

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 all these encyclopedias which are you guys remember encyclopedias incredible a bunch of information

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 that you'll never need or use and then on the other side was all these biographies of people

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 that had given their life to Jesus and a walked out faith and one of those was the story of

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 the Elliot family is he Jim and four other missionary families had determined in their heart

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 we're going to go to South America there's a tribe there that have never received the gospel

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 and we're going to give them the gospel there are tribe known by war and hatred but Jim had this

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 vision from the Lord that someday they're going to be marked by peace and so with determination

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 and might they did this they went down and they made contact over it took years and months

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 but finally they made contact and Jim and four other missionaries took their little

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 piper plane and they landed on the river bank and they met with two Indians that came out

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 and they actually hung out with them for two days and they shared the gospel with them

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 and they gave them Bibles and then those two men went back to their village to get the leaders

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 and I'm reading this story as a little boy and it said that Jim as they started to come out of

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 which ran to them with a smile on his faith with joy and excitement to welcome them to show them

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 hospitality but it wasn't a welcoming party if you know this story those five missionaries were

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 murdered that day there's a movie called the end of the spears and that's exactly what happened

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 they died at the end of spears that day and now if you're reading verse seven and you're going

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 remember Jim Elliot and consider the outcome of his way of life and imitated faith I don't

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 know about that Danny I mean his outcome was bloody death on a river bank in South America I don't

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 want that outcome I don't know maybe you do but I don't really want that outcome in my life

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 but this is a story about a husband and a wife not just a husband you see Elizabeth Elliot

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 I was listening to a talk that she gave in the late 70s and she said that she was at the funeral

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 of her husband and Ephesians 5 came up and she knew in her heart to submit to her husband

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 she needed to finish what he started and over a series of two years she forgave these people

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 and she actually made contact with them and this time she was welcomed in to the tribe

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 and she shared the gospel with them and she baptized them and there were other missionaries that

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 came and they discipled them you know that tribe is marked by peace today and their gospel

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 barriers now in South America there's a picture that I have if yeah let's throw that up this is

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 Elizabeth Elliot giving a haircut to the man that murdered her husband after forgiving him

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 that's the outcome of Jim's life you see Jim understood what it meant to wake up in the identity

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 of Christ he understood there's a verse that'll finish with he understood John 1513 greater love

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 has no one than this that's suddenly down his life for his friends Jim woke up and he knew who he was

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 and he wasn't afraid to lay down his life one life for a whole group of people to have eternal life

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 so I pray that you know who you are in Christ and I pray that tomorrow you wake up in your new

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 nature and if you've never given your life to Jesus I just want to say my name's Danny and I woke

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 up today and I know who I am I'm loved by Jesus and he has restored me he has renewed me he has

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 Amen

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 Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word don't

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 forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube

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 be blessed and have a great day