WEBVTT

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totally.

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And then the workers were like, but they did really good.

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I mean, for no warning.

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I mean, they did good.

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And then when we told them that we were coming back

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the next day, it was like, so.

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But they took over us again the next day.

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So it was really nice.

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So I just figured we'd do that and make it easy.

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But what really makes it easy is everybody shows up and gets

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in line at the same time, because then people

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jump in between.

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And then I'm just like buying other people's meals

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and stuff like that.

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So they got some people hit the lottery last at the marathon.

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So they got their food paid for free.

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So anyway, and then the next day we're

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starting a church plant in Seattle.

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And that is going to be in Renton.

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So it's like 10 miles south of the heart of Seattle.

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We have a church building.

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We've already paid the lease.

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So we're good to go.

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And we're going to start having church services at 6.30 PM.

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So we're starting off with two services a week.

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So the first service will be at 6.30 PM Sunday nights,

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and then Wednesday nights at 6.30 PM also.

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And we have the sowing times listed there for the area.

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And there will be sowing on Sunday nights

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before the church service, and Wednesday nights

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before the church service, and Saturdays at 11 AM.

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So I think brother Neb leads the Saturday sowing time.

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And I thought he said he was going to do this Sunday also,

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but if he's not there for whatever reason,

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we can have someone else fill in for him.

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But Wednesday's brother Robert is going to go up,

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and he's going to lead the sowing every Wednesday,

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without fail, no matter what.

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No, I'm just kidding.

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So I appreciate brother Robert doing that.

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And maybe some of you are surprised to hear this,

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but this is what's happening.

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So I'll be preaching there every Wednesday

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for at least the next three months,

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unless I have something that I have to do,

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and they'll just have somebody else preach for me.

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But that's my plan.

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Only two services a week,

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so it's not too much on our church to handle.

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But if you're a man in here,

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and you're used to being in the preaching class,

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I might ask you to preach.

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I've already asked a couple people to go up there and preach.

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And so if you're interested in going up,

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or just filling in a slot on a Sunday night,

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I'll be preaching up there this Sunday night.

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We had already planned, this is the fifth Sunday,

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so I'd already planned to do Psalm 28,

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a so many marathon before,

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but we kind of changed it from Salem to this.

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So can I get a show of hands of who's planned

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on going to the so many marathon?

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Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

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All right, cool.

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Did I overlook you?

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10?

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No.

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So cool, well that's great.

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And then who's planned on maybe going

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to the first service on Sunday night?

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All right, that's a good amount, that's perfect.

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So, because our, so it's already set up as a church,

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so when you walk in, the chairs are already there,

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the pulpit's already there.

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I haven't actually physically been in the building,

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or physically looked at how it's all laid out and stuff.

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So, but I did make a sandwich board,

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so that we could kind of guide people in.

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But I didn't put an arrow, because I wasn't sure

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which way the arrow was supposed to go, so.

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But I got invites, they're supposed to be here the 28th,

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and that board's supposed to be here.

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And the thing is, so we're renting time slots,

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so we don't have the building all the time,

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we just have them on Wednesdays from six to 10,

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and Sundays from six to 10 at night.

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So we can plan extra activities within that time if we want,

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or have a double preaching service if we want.

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I was gonna have Pastor Mahia,

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I was gonna do this like a couple weeks ago,

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but Pastor Mahia, his wife is, I'd ask him to come,

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but his wife is due any time now,

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and he didn't wanna leave her,

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so we'll have him come up here pretty soon,

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probably on a Friday night or a Saturday to preach for us.

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But hopefully you're excited about that,

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I mean, I'm definitely excited about it,

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so I'm sure the people that have been driving hours and hours

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to come to our church all the time are excited about that.

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And Brother Neb kind of reminded me a couple weeks ago,

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he said, you know, we've been soul-wining up there

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for five years, like he's been steadily and faithfully

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leading a group of guys up there

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to do soul-wining for five years.

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He said since 2018, and I was like, that's faithful.

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So I appreciate that, and so I'm glad that we're doing this,

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I'm excited, and I hope you guys are all for it and all in.

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And if you're ever up there and you just wanna see

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how beautiful Seattle is or something,

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you can stop by the church up there and attend or whatever,

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on your way to see the Space Needle that costs like $75

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to go up into it or something now.

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I remember going up to the Space Needle

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and it was like 13 bucks or something,

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I had dinner up there with my cousin,

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the thing just spins around or whatever,

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but now I don't think you can even hardly get up there,

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especially since the pandemic.

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But anyway, so excited about that,

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that's all happening next weekend.

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And then here at our Vancouver location,

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we're gonna have a men's preaching night.

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So if you were planning on doing the men's preaching night

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and you're not going up to Seattle,

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will you please raise your hands

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so I can see how many people are planning on doing it?

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One, two, three, four, five, six.

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Okay, cool.

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So we'll have plenty for the men's preaching night,

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so I appreciate you guys doing that.

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Don't preach anything weird while I'm gone,

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and that'll be great.

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The Lady's Tea, our annual Lady's Tea,

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is gonna be here at the church building on May 13th,

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which is Saturday, the day before Mother's Day.

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Now, you don't have to be a mother,

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you don't have to be a daughter,

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you can just be a lady, and you can come to that.

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It's for all ladies.

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And ladies only, all right, no dudes.

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But that's the plan, May 13th here at the church building.

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It's gonna be at 12 o'clock,

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and I think there'll be dress-up stuff

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and gloves and hats and all that girly stuff.

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And I think there was a competition or something last year,

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so I think my wife said that we're gonna still do that.

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Speaking of my wife, would you please pray for her?

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She had surgery a couple days ago, and so she's recovering.

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So her right hand is the hand that she's dominant with,

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and that's the one that she had surgery on.

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So she's been having a lot of surgeries,

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but she's recovering, she's doing well.

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I thank you all for your prayers for her.

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Mother's Day is the 14th,

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and we'll have a gift for every mom in attendance.

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And lunch will be provided by the church afterwards,

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so moms, you don't have to worry about bringing anything

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unless you want to.

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I'll try to, if you guys wanna actually vote on something,

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if you ladies wanna actually get something different,

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you better let me know before the event,

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because I'm just gonna start ordering.

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So don't be shy if you say, I want this,

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and if it's catered from Black Angus or whatever like that,

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we might not be able to do that.

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But we can definitely do something nice.

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So give me some ideas if you want some.

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But anyway, and then the last thing on the list there,

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if you notice this building is starting to get transformed

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as some people that are really anti-gay looked up

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and are like, what is this?

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No, I'm anti-gay too.

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Not anti-happy, but you know what I mean.

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So anyway, but this is being transformed for our conference,

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so we're gonna try to make it look like a king's court.

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And so we're gonna get a new banner,

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and we're gonna get some,

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these pillars are now marble pillars, so it's very nice.

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But I appreciate anybody that's willing to help out

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with the decorating.

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And if you wanna help in any way for the conference,

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we'd appreciate that.

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So we're definitely gonna need some people,

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I was thinking just maybe some families,

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or maybe a couple families a night,

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or during the day before the preaching services and stuff,

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will be able to come in and clean up.

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So it sounds like we're gonna have a lot more people

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than I thought we were going to.

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A lot more people have told me

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that they're gonna come to the conference.

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So at first I was like, oh yeah,

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maybe we'll have an extra 50 people or something,

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but we're gonna be bursting at the seams, folks.

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So we're gonna get more chairs and stuff like that.

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I also wanna put some monitors in the back room,

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so if we have to have an overflow back there,

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that people can still watch and listen to the conference

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and things like that.

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So it's gonna get busy around here,

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and we'll need some help just tidying up.

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And so usually at the end of the night,

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some people just wanna do it and then go home or whatever,

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if they were to clean like that.

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But it might be easier to just come in

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before things start, or whenever you want.

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But I'm looking for some families to sign up for,

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make sure it looks good on Thursday night

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before we have our services here,

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Friday and Saturday and Sunday.

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So that's a lot to do,

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but like four families or maybe whatever.

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However many people wanna come on those days

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and just bust it out really quick,

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I'd be really thankful if we could do that.

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The schedule, I've released the schedule

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on our WhatsApp group, but I just put it in the bulletin

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so you can see what nights, what pastors are coming.

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I spelled Pastor Shelley's name wrong, good night.

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I know how to spell it, so don't come up to me.

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Don't email me, no, I'm just kidding.

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But yeah, so that's the,

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and all the pastors are preaching at seven at night

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on Thursday and Friday.

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Saturday is 1030 a.m., Sunday morning, 1030 a.m.,

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that I'll be preaching in the evening.

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So sorry about all the upcoming events there,

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but I just wanna make sure everybody knows what's going on.

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And we're a family integrated church,

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that means the children and infants

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are welcome during the church services.

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Please make sure that you're taking them

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to the mother-baby room or dad-baby room,

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whichever one you need.

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If they become really distracting or disruptive,

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screaming or crying really loud,

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and just take them back there.

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And when they're good to come out,

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just bring them back out.

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Those rooms are for whatever you need,

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changing, feeding, all that stuff.

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They're supposed to be for training.

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We don't want people going wild in there.

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We don't want older kids in there running around,

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throwing stuff and things like that.

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So just keep all that in mind.

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And then, no unattended children

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in the area of the building, please watch your children.

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And please no food in the assembly area.

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Silence your cell phones.

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Escorts are available by the ushers to your vehicles.

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If you're a single lady or just a lady

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here without your husband,

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they'd be happy to do that for you.

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Our donations are at the bottom of the page there

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and will come in so far for the month of April.

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And then Alina Ritchie, she's not here,

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but it's her birthday.

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So happy birthday to Alina.

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And that's all we have for announcements.

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Let's sing another song,

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and then we'll receive the offering.

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All right, our next song will be song number 365,

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our new song, Jesus and Me.

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This was recommended by brother Steven Bauman.

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So if you like it, you can thank him.

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If you don't like it, you can be mad at him, I guess.

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And if you guys have recommendations,

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I'm open to hearing them, if they're good.

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If they're not, I'll probably tell you

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that I'm praying about it or something like that.

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So song 365, Jesus and Me.

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Song 365, let's sing it out together on the first.

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I've traveled alone

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upon this lonesome way.

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My burdens were heavy

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and dark was my day.

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I looked for a friend

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not knowing that he

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had all of the time

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been looking for me.

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Now it is Jesus and me

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for each tomorrow,

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for every heartache

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and every sorrow.

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I know that I could depend

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upon my newfound friend

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and so to the end

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it's Jesus and me.

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The road may be long

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to heaven's curly gait.

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I know that it's narrow,

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I know that it's straight,

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but Jesus is there

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through eternity.

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We'll travel along

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just Jesus and me.

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Now it is Jesus and me

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for each tomorrow,

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for every heartache

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and every sorrow.

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I know that I could depend

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upon my newfound friend

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and so to the end

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it's Jesus and me.

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Forever I'll sing

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of his great love to me.

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Forever I'll tell it

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on land and on sea.

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I'll stay by his side

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contented I'll be

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for all of my life.

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It's Jesus and me.

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Now it is Jesus and me

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for each tomorrow,

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for every heartache

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and every sorrow.

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I know that I can depend

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upon my newfound friend

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and so to the end

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it's Jesus and me.

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Amen. Good singing.

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Brother Robert, could you bless the offering for us?

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Brother and Father, Lord, thank you for a great day in church, Lord.

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Bless all those that came, Lord, and that we bless this offering, Lord,

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and that we help you give us the truth from heart. Bless the services and the faith in the Lord Jesus.

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We pray. Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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All right, go and open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5.

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1 Corinthians 5,

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if you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you.

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1 Corinthians 5.

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1 Corinthians 5.

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1 Corinthians 5.

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The Bible reads, It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you,

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and such fornication as is not so much is named among the Gentiles,

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that one should have his father's wife. And you are puffed up,

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and have not rather mourned that he that hath done this deed might be taken

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away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body,

17:44.500 --> 17:48.500
but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present,

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concerning him that hath so done this deed.

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In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered

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together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,

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that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

18:08.500 --> 18:12.500
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven

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hath the whole lump? Purge out, therefore, the old leaven,

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that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.

18:20.500 --> 18:24.500
For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore,

18:24.500 --> 18:28.500
let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice,

18:28.500 --> 18:32.500
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

18:32.500 --> 18:36.500
I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators,

18:36.500 --> 18:40.500
yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world,

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or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters.

18:44.500 --> 18:48.500
For then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you

18:48.500 --> 18:52.500
not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator,

18:52.500 --> 18:56.500
or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard,

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or an extortioner, with such and one know not to eat.

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For what have I to do to judge them also that are without?

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Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without,

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God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

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Brother Bill, will you pray for us?

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Amen. We're in 1 Corinthians chapter 5,

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and we're not going to dwell there too long this morning,

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but I wanted to go through this passage.

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The title of the sermon this morning is Biblical Forgiveness and Restoration.

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Biblical Forgiveness and Restoration. Before I get into it,

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I just want to have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the

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scriptures, and Lord, that they teach us how to operate in our

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lives, in our environment, our work,

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Lord, with our families, and Lord, as Christians. And Lord, I pray that we

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would have ears to hear what the Spirit says to the church this morning,

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and Lord, let the scriptures speak to the people, and I pray that you would fill me,

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Lord, with your Holy Spirit, as I preach this message in Jesus' name, I pray.

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Amen. Well, I want to preach about biblical

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forgiveness and restoration, because a lot of times,

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you know, we'll read through these passages and we'll be like, yeah, you know,

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kick those people out or whatever. And we have a

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day where Christianity, we're living in a day where Christianity

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is just really milquetoast and weak, and people won't kick

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people out of church for any reason, and I'm not on a hair trigger to

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throw people out of church. Usually when that happens, they've just kind of crossed

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either a really big line or lines upon

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lines upon lines, and this passage of scripture

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teaches us a very important lesson,

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and it gives us an important example of a person

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who Paul is saying, get this person out of your church,

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and what he's accused of here and what Paul is judging here

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in this chapter, and yes, he's judging, and he's telling people, even the last verse

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that says, therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

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So is it possible to be a Christian and be wicked? Yes, it is.

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Is it possible to fall into really bad sin as a Christian?

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Yes, it is. And the Bible teaches us here how to

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deal with it. Look at verse number one, it says, it is reported commonly that there's

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fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named

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among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's

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wife. So we have a really bad situation here,

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and this guy is a fornicator, and the Apostle Paul is saying

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that this sin isn't even named among the Gentiles. Even the heathen

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don't do what this guy has done. Fornication is bad in itself,

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but to have your father's wife, which is probably his stepmother, I'm guessing,

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then that's really weird,

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and it's really wicked. But let's read on here, it says, and you are puffed up,

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and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be

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taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body,

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but present in spirit, have judged already. See how Paul says, I judged?

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But we have a culture today that says, don't judge. Christians

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aren't supposed to judge. Is that what Paul said? Did Paul judge?

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Well, he was an apostle, but further on down, he tells

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us to judge also. So the Bible's filled with judgment. The word judgment, if you just

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look it up in some Bible software or concordance, you're going to see that

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word or the form of it many, many times. God is a God of judgment.

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Why would he say, don't judge? There's certain things we shouldn't judge

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about, John, but I'm not preaching about that necessarily. Look what it says in verse 4.

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In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you're gathered together in my spirit with the power

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of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such

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a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. So when you throw

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somebody out of the church for doing one of these sins that it's going to list here later

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down the line, we're delivering that person to Satan

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for the destruction of the flesh. So they're outside of the

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congregation. They're outside of the will of God because the will of God is that

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we would gather together so much the more as you see the day of approaching, right?

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So, but it's that the Spirit may be saved on the

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day of the Lord Jesus. You don't lose your salvation when you get kicked out of the church.

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But you know what you do? You lose your honor. You lose

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respect and, you know, obviously we're supposed to do this in

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love, but you just can't have a bunch of garbage going on in

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your church and not deal with it. It has to be taken care of. It has to be

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dealt with. And it says in verse 6, your glory is not good.

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Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

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So when sin is abounding in a church, just say

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one person is fornicating and you just pass over that transgression,

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the pastor knows about it, everybody in the church knows about it, but nobody's doing

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anything about it. That's wrong. You have to address those situations. You have

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to address that sin. And obviously you don't always

24:18.500 --> 24:22.500
have to address it publicly. You don't always have to address it to the whole church.

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That's not, but this person is doing it openly.

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Everybody knows about it. He hasn't stopped yet. So there's some

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things that, you know, people will come to me and they'll say, or they'll have these issues, they'll all have to go to somebody

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and say, hey, give an ultimatum to them. Say, hey, you know,

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I've heard this. Is this true? You know, if it is,

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you can't come back to church until you get this fixed. Things like that.

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But I don't always tell the whole congregation everything that's going on.

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I've preached sermons about that not too in the distant past, but

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we do have to handle it. And we do have to handle it biblically.

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So what Paul is doing is he's getting onto this church because

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he's saying you're puffed up. You're acting like it's not a big deal.

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You're just living with this and just making light

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of it. And he says in verse 7, purge out therefore that

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the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you're unleavened

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for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So we're supposed to

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I mean we just had the Lord's Supper. I kind of went over a lot of this stuff too.

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You know, you don't want this church to be filled with leaven because, you know, when you take the Lord's Supper

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God might kill people. God might put people to sleep permanently.

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He might make them sick or whatever. And it says in verse 8,

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therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven

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of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

25:46.500 --> 25:50.500
I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators.

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You know, because obviously we're supposed to go and preach the gospel and not everybody

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that's fornicators are obviously, if you're a Christian, you're not supposed to be a fornicator.

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So he's going to explain what he means by this. He says, yet not

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altogether with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners

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or with idolaters, for then must your needs go out

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of the world. But now I've written unto you not to keep company

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if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or

26:18.500 --> 26:22.500
an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner

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with such a one know not to eat. So what's the Bible saying here?

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If you're in any of these categories, we're not

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supposed to fellowship. We're not supposed to eat with them.

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We're not supposed to be around them. It says,

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For what have I to do to judge with them also that are without?

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Do not you judge them that are within? See how he's saying that we're supposed to judge people

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within? See that? And it says,

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But them that are without God, God judgeth.

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Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

26:58.500 --> 27:02.500
The Bible teaches that God is going to judge his people. It's a fearful thing

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to fall into the hands of the living God. Judgment must begin

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first at the house of God. So we are supposed to judge

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things. It's not supposed to be a free for all here where everybody does

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whatever they want. People are fornicating. People are getting drunk.

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People are being covetous, extorting people.

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All these people we're not supposed to be around. So when it says,

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Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person, what is Paul saying? He's saying

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get this guy out of the church. He's on this list. He needs to go.

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So, and amen. Amen. That's how we're supposed

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to handle things. Sometimes people need to go. Now what about

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someone that's repentant though? Should they have to go?

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If someone repents and gets it right, should they have to go?

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I mean, to me this, Paul's writing about someone that they know

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is doing this and they're continuing to allow it to happen.

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And the person is not repentant. And so the Bible kind of has this concept

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of throwing people out and shunning them. That's why it says

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don't eat with them. So don't go have coffee with someone that gets kicked out of our church.

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The point is, is they'd be ashamed of what they've done

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and they would get it right and come back. So, you know,

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a lot of times, you know, it's like, yeah, kick them out, new IFB,

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whatever. Because we're kind of one of the only churches that do this.

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You know, the other Baptist churches will just kick people out because they believe like we believe.

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But you can believe whatever else you want, right? But

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at churches like this, you know, obviously, you know,

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we should have the right spirit about this though. We're not just, you know, obviously if someone's a

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heretic, someone's a queer, someone's a sodomite or something,

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a child molester, get that person out of here. They're never allowed

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to come in here or come back once we find out that it's happened.

28:54.500 --> 28:58.500
There are certain things that you would just permanently cast people out for. If they're a false prophet,

28:58.500 --> 29:02.500
get them out of here. They're going to infect the rest of the church.

29:02.500 --> 29:06.500
There are predators coming in here to try to be wolves in sheep's clothing.

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So don't get me wrong. There is forgiveness and

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restoration for people that are thrown out of the church, but

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sometimes there isn't. Okay? So I just wanted to caveat that

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point because, you know, we'll say, well, what about, you know, what if Billy

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Graham did repent right before he, you know, died and went to hell or whatever?

29:26.500 --> 29:30.500
He was a false prophet, folks. There was no repenting of that. He was done.

29:30.500 --> 29:34.500
Once a son of God, always a son of God. Once a child of Belial,

29:34.500 --> 29:38.500
always a child of Belial. Once always a son of the devil. So

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there are people that we wouldn't forgive. There are people that are Trinity

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denying, believe in a false gospel, don't believe

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the truth about very big foundational doctrines that we would say,

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hey, don't come back here. You know, there's other churches you can go to. It's just not ours.

29:54.500 --> 29:58.500
So now, and I'll teach this

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till the day I die that some people just need to go, right?

30:02.500 --> 30:06.500
But there's, you know, there's different judgments for different

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things. And say someone is doing something on this list, I

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go to that person and I say, hey, this is what I heard.

30:14.500 --> 30:18.500
Is that true? And they say yes. So say just in the instance of

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fornication. I would say, well, you've got two options. You can either get

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married right now, not right then at that second, but like

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get married. You've got two, three weeks to get that done. Or you need

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to not come back until you are, right? And so

30:34.500 --> 30:38.500
but I always want to make sure that people have a way

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to live things down. You know, if someone doesn't do something that's just so

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wicked that it can't be named, like say that you go to them and they're like, I don't care.

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Yes, I am doing that and I'm going to continue to do that. They're like, you've got to go.

30:50.500 --> 30:54.500
And if they don't want to go, then you bring it before the church. And you have to tell the church

30:54.500 --> 30:58.500
this person is an unrepentant sinner that needs to be thrown out.

30:58.500 --> 31:02.500
And sometimes it has to be public. And even

31:02.500 --> 31:06.500
then, I would turn the cameras off and not say necessarily some of

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that from the pulpit, you know, to the internet or whatever.

31:10.500 --> 31:14.500
But what about forgiveness? What about restoration?

31:14.500 --> 31:18.500
What about the Christian responsibility to forgive?

31:18.500 --> 31:22.500
This is where sometimes people will just be like, well

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you know, I don't want to be a Christian because they're so unforgiving.

31:26.500 --> 31:30.500
And Christians get that stigma. And obviously

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sometimes people just don't understand the difference between judging sin and not wanting to be involved in sin

31:34.500 --> 31:38.500
and then just, you know, someone

31:38.500 --> 31:42.500
you know, sometimes people need to be judged and

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people will go like, they're just too judgmental at that church or whatever. It's like,

31:46.500 --> 31:50.500
well the Bible tells us we're supposed to be judgmental on sin. If the Bible

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has things that we're supposed to do, commandments we're supposed to live by, you know, protocol

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that we're supposed to follow in the church, we have to follow that regardless of whether that hurts

31:58.500 --> 32:02.500
people's feelings or not. And you can go to any old, you know,

32:02.500 --> 32:06.500
lily livered, pink tee, pink shirt, lavender tie

32:06.500 --> 32:10.500
wearing church that you want to go to. Some back scratching

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shoeshine in church or whatever where they're just going to cater to all your needs

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and hey, what kind of music do you want to listen to? It's like, that's not this church.

32:18.500 --> 32:22.500
You know, we do things according to the Bible to the best of our ability

32:22.500 --> 32:26.500
and that's that. But obviously we're not

32:26.500 --> 32:30.500
going to forgive heathens and reprobates, you know, that

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are just false prophets and weirdos

32:34.500 --> 32:38.500
or whatever. But what about this man? I mean, what

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he did was weird, isn't it? What he did is strange.

32:42.500 --> 32:46.500
What he did was wicked. The Bible says it's wicked, what he did. But what

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about that guy? Isn't that guy a reprobate? I mean, shouldn't we just throw him out forever?

32:50.500 --> 32:54.500
Not according to Paul because, you know,

32:54.500 --> 32:58.500
go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 2 because later on, Paul

32:58.500 --> 33:02.500
says we need to bring this guy back. So obviously the guy gets

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right with God and he's allowed to come back.

33:06.500 --> 33:10.500
But Christians do have a stigma for not being forgiving

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and that really should be the opposite of what we are. We should be willing to

33:14.500 --> 33:18.500
forgive people for things that they've done and obviously

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even slights that they've done against you. Maybe they talk bad behind your back and you know for sure

33:22.500 --> 33:26.500
that they did it. You know, we can still forgive people

33:26.500 --> 33:30.500
for the things that they do. We don't have to hold every sin over someone's head

33:30.500 --> 33:34.500
until the day they die. And we can forgive people that have harmed

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us even in this church. You know, maybe there's just someone that's not really your cup of tea.

33:38.500 --> 33:42.500
You know, you don't have to hang out with the person 24-7.

33:42.500 --> 33:46.500
But can you be civil? Can you shake someone's hand and say God bless you or whatever?

33:46.500 --> 33:50.500
I mean, you don't have to be best friends with people, but we

33:50.500 --> 33:54.500
should be still loving and kind to our brethren, right?

33:54.500 --> 33:58.500
So, I think Paul puts, you know, this is obviously

33:58.500 --> 34:02.500
in the Bible because Paul wrote epistles that didn't make it in the Bible, right?

34:02.500 --> 34:06.500
This is in the Bible for a reason. Because it's showing

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how far you can push God and you're still

34:10.500 --> 34:14.500
saved and you're still able to be

34:14.500 --> 34:18.500
re-put back into the church, forgiven, restored.

34:18.500 --> 34:22.500
So, you know, and this guy

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commits a really bad sin, but he's asked, Paul asks him to

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go ahead and let this man come back. So,

34:30.500 --> 34:34.500
but here's the thing. The purpose, like I said, of church discipline

34:34.500 --> 34:38.500
is to make that person ashamed, make them get right.

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That's why you don't congregate with them anymore. That's why you don't

34:42.500 --> 34:46.500
take, I just want to be friends with that person even though they

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were kicked out of our church. It's like, you're wicked. You're wicked for doing that.

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You shouldn't do that because you're not helping them. It's just like family members

34:54.500 --> 34:58.500
when, you know, two people are getting divorced or whatever. The family,

34:58.500 --> 35:02.500
your flesh and blood family is 99.9% times going to

35:02.500 --> 35:06.500
side with the person no matter what they've done. And that's also

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wrong. We have to judge righteous judgment. As Christians, we can't

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do that. It doesn't, you know, blood, they have that term, blood is thicker

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than water, and that's true. But it shouldn't be to the point where you're just willing to

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sin and allow their sin to infest your

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life and infect your life and try to placate them and

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make them feel better about the decision they made. If they left their husband, they need to go back to

35:30.500 --> 35:34.500
their husband. That should always be your advice unless it's like a dangerous situation

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like, you know, the guy is some weirdo,

35:38.500 --> 35:42.500
stalker, murderer or whatever. Somebody that's

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beaten you or forcing you to take drugs or forcing, I mean,

35:46.500 --> 35:50.500
there's some really bad things that obviously you should get away from the situation, but

35:50.500 --> 35:54.500
you know, as a Christian, we should, you know, try to, even if it's our own

35:54.500 --> 35:58.500
flesh and blood, advise them to do the right thing, what the Bible says,

35:58.500 --> 36:02.500
and you cannot be a respecter of persons. The Bible says that over

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and over and over again, and I'm not going to be a respecter of persons.

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It doesn't matter whether it's my family members, it doesn't matter whether it's my friends,

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I have to judge the same way with everybody because if I don't, then

36:14.500 --> 36:18.500
it's just bad. It's a bad look, and people will be

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less likely to trust in my judgment if I'm not going to judge everybody

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with the same judgment. It's my job

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as the pastor here to judge things and to

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make sure things are run correctly. Here in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, look at verse 5.

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It says, But if any have caused grief,

36:38.500 --> 36:42.500
he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I might not overcharge

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you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment

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which was inflicted of many. This is the man that

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Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So he

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writes this letter, the second letter, and this is about

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doing the opposite of what he told them to do. So obviously

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they have already kicked this guy out. They did what Paul said to do

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even though they were resistant to do it at first because that's just kind of our nature.

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We want to let things slide. We want to let people

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just continue to do things and not confront situations.

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And sometimes we have to do the ugly thing and confront people with stuff.

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It's the least favorite part of my job as a pastor.

37:26.500 --> 37:30.500
It really is. And dealing with really severe marriage

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issues. Those are just really hard things, especially

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in the time that we live in. But look what it says in verse 7.

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It says, look at verse 6 again. Sufficient

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to such a man is this punishment, so he got kind of what he deserved,

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which was inflicted of many. So remember he said that they need

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to throw this guy out, right? But it says, so that

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contrarwise ye ought rather to forgive him

37:58.500 --> 38:02.500
and comfort him, lest perhaps

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such and one should be swallowed up with

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overmuch sorrow. So what's Paul saying? Now it's time

38:10.500 --> 38:14.500
he's done. He's paid his punishment, basically.

38:14.500 --> 38:18.500
Now once someone's punished, do you just keep punishing them forever? No.

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As a Christian, we're supposed to not just continue to do that. If they get it right,

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the punishment's over. And Paul's saying,

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obviously he was thrown out, the devil had his way with him

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or whatever. The people shunned him and he came back.

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That's the program for restoring people. If someone sins or falls,

38:38.500 --> 38:42.500
they're out and then they're coming back when

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it's right, when they've basically repented of what they've done

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and gotten it right. So look what it says

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in verse 7 again, that contrarwise ye ought

38:54.500 --> 38:58.500
rather to forgive him. So that word contrarwise

38:58.500 --> 39:02.500
is in the opposite order. So what he told them to do, do the opposite.

39:02.500 --> 39:06.500
Now, instead of throwing him out and not having anything to do with him,

39:06.500 --> 39:10.500
now you bring him in and have everything to do with him.

39:10.500 --> 39:14.500
Don't continue to hold it over their head for the rest of their life and just

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whisper and talk about that person. That's wrong. We should forgive it.

39:18.500 --> 39:22.500
Look, God forgave a lot of our sins. How about all? How about every?

39:22.500 --> 39:26.500
How about the sins of the whole world, including all these reprobates and false prophets? He died for

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their sins too. So

39:30.500 --> 39:34.500
we should be people that are willing to forgive people

39:34.500 --> 39:38.500
and it says not only just forgive him, but comfort him.

39:38.500 --> 39:42.500
So if someone comes back and like, we may

39:42.500 --> 39:46.500
know or we may not know what the details of everything are, but we are supposed to comfort

39:46.500 --> 39:50.500
that person and just say, you know, and I would say that's like, hey welcome back.

39:50.500 --> 39:54.500
Not avoid them and pretend like they don't exist.

39:54.500 --> 39:58.500
And it says lest perhaps such a one should be

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swallowed up with over much sorrow. Now that word over much means

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too much, excessively. So they shouldn't have to

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keep, you know, obviously some sins we commit can have lifelong effects.

40:10.500 --> 40:14.500
We reap what we sow. That is true.

40:14.500 --> 40:18.500
But it doesn't mean that people can't be restored. People can't be forgiven.

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And maybe they will reap those things for the rest of their life. You know, there's some

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decisions we make that just can't be gone back on. You know, you fornicate

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and you get AIDS or you fornicate and you get some disease that lasts for the rest of your

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life. You can't fix that. But

40:34.500 --> 40:38.500
you can fix your heart. You can fix your attitude.

40:38.500 --> 40:42.500
You can be right with God even though you make a really

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bad mistake. So once someone's gone through the punishment

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and they respond in repentance, we should offer the forgiveness

40:50.500 --> 40:54.500
and restore that person. This is the Christian way. This is what

40:54.500 --> 40:58.500
Christians do. And the attitude that if someone

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just leaves our church they're bad, that's not true. I don't believe that either.

41:02.500 --> 41:06.500
You know, I know that we get that reputation and it's just not true. There's people that have left

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our church that I've never said a word about. I won't say anything about

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them. You know, God bless if you're going to go to another church and do

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what's right inside of the Lord. You don't have to go to this church to be right with God. You just have to go

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to a church and a church that's actually preaching the truth would be the best church to go to.

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So, look at what it says in verse 8.

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So, that ye is plural, isn't it?

41:37.500 --> 41:41.500
So he's talking about who? Everybody in the church

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would confirm their love toward them, toward him. Comfort that

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person. Let them feel welcome again to be here because

41:49.500 --> 41:53.500
again, there's people that have left our church and I'd be like, you know, if they

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get things right or whatever, maybe they've said something about me

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in public. I'll forgive that. I'll forgive

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that. And we should too. Now, obviously, if they're

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Judas Iscariot, backstabbing, low life, snake eating,

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dog looking, dirt bag, then that's a different

42:13.500 --> 42:17.500
story. I've already kind of caveated that. I don't know where all that came from, but

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I was trying not to cuss, but just kidding.

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But look at what it says in verse 9.

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Obedient in all things. So this is also not

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only what's right, but it's also Paul testing these people to see

42:39.500 --> 42:43.500
what kind of Christians are these people? Because this church, in case

42:43.500 --> 42:47.500
you didn't realize, has a lot of problems. Like, every chapter is

42:47.500 --> 42:51.500
like, you know, addressing problems and even in the second epistle

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like people are talking about him and saying all kinds of things about him

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and, you know, he's having to get nasty with people a little bit, but

42:59.500 --> 43:03.500
what does he want in this chapter? What's he trying to help him figure out?

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You know, you got it right by kicking this guy out, now restore the man. Now

43:07.500 --> 43:11.500
do what's right. And how do you do that? Well, you bring him back, you love

43:11.500 --> 43:15.500
that person, you comfort that person, and you show your love to that person.

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And it shouldn't be some, you know, you

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have to beg for forgiveness to every single person for all your transgressions or something.

43:23.500 --> 43:27.500
When they come back, then you know they're good.

43:27.500 --> 43:31.500
Right? So, but he

43:31.500 --> 43:35.500
wants to know that there's proof whether they'd be obedient in all things because, remember

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it's contra-wise. You kick them out,

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don't have any company with them, bring them back, that's the opposite.

43:43.500 --> 43:47.500
Bring them back and love them. Okay? So, whether, he wants to know whether

43:47.500 --> 43:51.500
they're going to obey in that thing. They obeyed. They threw them out.

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They shunned them. So, let's see, let's look at verse

43:55.500 --> 43:59.500
10. It says, To whom you forgive anything, I

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forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom

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I forgave it for your sakes, forgave I it in the person of Christ.

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Lest Satan should get advantage of us, for we are not

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ignorant of his devices. So, Paul's basically

44:15.500 --> 44:19.500
kind of going on this concept of forgive anything and I'll forgive

44:19.500 --> 44:23.500
it also. And in Matthew 18, 18 it says, Verily

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I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

44:27.500 --> 44:31.500
Whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So,

44:31.500 --> 44:35.500
Jesus taught about this same concept and I think that this is what Paul's referring to.

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That, you know, if you guys are going to forgive them, I'm going to forgive

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them. You know, if we restore someone here on earth, God restores them

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in heaven also. It's just, that's kind of the concept here.

44:47.500 --> 44:51.500
And obviously not if they're, you know, not doing it correctly

44:51.500 --> 44:55.500
obviously. We have to do things the right way. But look at what it says in verse 11 again.

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Lest Satan should get advantage of us.

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What does that mean? Well, if you're not obedient

45:03.500 --> 45:07.500
in these things, if you don't do what's right, then obviously

45:07.500 --> 45:11.500
Paul is saying flat out that Satan will get

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an advantage of us. So, what if we don't act like Paul says to

45:15.500 --> 45:19.500
act in 2 Corinthians chapter 2? What if we don't do

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what the Bible says? What if just every time someone leaves our church we trash

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them to everybody? Or what if, you know, we kick somebody out

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for something and everybody talks about them, they get it right and they come back

45:31.500 --> 45:35.500
and then you just don't act? You don't show your love for that person. You don't

45:35.500 --> 45:39.500
bring that person back the way you're supposed to. Well, it says Satan's going to get an advantage

45:39.500 --> 45:43.500
of us. When we won't forgive our brothers in Christ, when we won't forgive our

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sisters in Christ, and we hold things over their head, that's what

45:47.500 --> 45:51.500
Satan likes to do. He's the accuser of the brethren. Day and night

45:51.500 --> 45:55.500
he's up there accusing us to God and saying, look what this guy did.

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Look what this woman did. And, you know, the blood of Christ

45:59.500 --> 46:03.500
cleanses us from all of our sin. But we don't want

46:03.500 --> 46:07.500
Satan to get an advantage of us when we're not doing church

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discipline right, or we're not doing restoration right, or we're not forgiving

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our brothers and sisters in Christ when we should be. Then Paul's saying, hey,

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do you want Satan to have an advantage of you? Do you want Satan to destroy this church?

46:19.500 --> 46:23.500
That's how it starts happening. Factions start happening. Clicks start

46:23.500 --> 46:27.500
happening. Gossip starts happening. You know, tail bearing

46:27.500 --> 46:31.500
starts happening. And the next thing you know, everybody knows all this story

46:31.500 --> 46:35.500
and you don't even know whether it's true or not. You just heard it from somebody else.

46:35.500 --> 46:39.500
That's why it's so damaging to

46:39.500 --> 46:43.500
be a tail bearer. And the Bible says specifically that God's people

46:43.500 --> 46:47.500
are not supposed to be going up and down as a tail bearer.

46:47.500 --> 46:51.500
Because it's wounding to people and if you don't have your facts right

46:51.500 --> 46:55.500
which a lot of times that seems to be what happens. Sometimes I'll hear

46:55.500 --> 46:59.500
people will tell me a story and I'm like, and then I go to the person that it actually

46:59.500 --> 47:03.500
happened with and it's nothing like what that person told me.

47:03.500 --> 47:07.500
And so we got to be careful when we're just gossiping and rumoring about people.

47:07.500 --> 47:11.500
Look, we should be better than that. We are Christians and

47:11.500 --> 47:15.500
we should be forgiving and we should be willing to let people

47:15.500 --> 47:19.500
live things down that are restored.

47:19.500 --> 47:23.500
Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 18 in verse 15.

47:23.500 --> 47:27.500
And I'm going to read for you, actually I'll wait.

47:27.500 --> 47:31.500
Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter 18 verse 15.

47:31.500 --> 47:35.500
And the Bible teaches this forgiveness attitude that we should have.

47:35.500 --> 47:39.500
But a lot of times we like to hang on to stuff. When people do us wrong

47:39.500 --> 47:43.500
we hang on to that. I'm not saying, I've done it too.

47:43.500 --> 47:47.500
I've been there. There's things that people have done to me

47:47.500 --> 47:51.500
and I still harbor things against them.

47:51.500 --> 47:55.500
But here's the thing. I personally believe that

47:55.500 --> 47:59.500
if someone doesn't ask you to forgive them, you don't have to, but I do believe you should

47:59.500 --> 48:03.500
if you can. Now look at Matthew

48:03.500 --> 48:07.500
18 and 15. It says, Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee,

48:07.500 --> 48:11.500
go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone.

48:11.500 --> 48:15.500
Here's where people fail 99% of the time when they're trying

48:15.500 --> 48:19.500
to get things right with someone. They're not really trying to get things right with someone. They're trying to

48:19.500 --> 48:23.500
talk crap about them to somebody else. You're like, we should

48:23.500 --> 48:27.500
handle this with Matthew 18. Well why don't you start doing that then?

48:27.500 --> 48:31.500
Why don't you start handling Matthew 18 correctly then?

48:31.500 --> 48:35.500
Because what it says is you're supposed to go to that person alone, not tell everybody else and your

48:35.500 --> 48:39.500
friends in the church about it. And it says,

48:39.500 --> 48:43.500
If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. That's the first option

48:43.500 --> 48:47.500
for restoring maybe just a problem in the church because Matthew 18

48:47.500 --> 48:51.500
is talking about people that are having issues and how to deal with them in the church, but it's also talking

48:51.500 --> 48:55.500
about church discipline. Look at what it says in verse 16. But if he will

48:55.500 --> 48:59.500
not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more than in the mouth

48:59.500 --> 49:03.500
of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. So say there's this grievous thing

49:03.500 --> 49:07.500
that two people are fighting about in the church, sometimes

49:07.500 --> 49:11.500
it's required to have witnesses there and

49:11.500 --> 49:15.500
I don't want people just running around with their witnesses confronting people

49:15.500 --> 49:19.500
in this church. If there's something that goes to the level of church discipline, I need

49:19.500 --> 49:23.500
to be involved in that. And it says,

49:23.500 --> 49:27.500
Verse 17, And if he shall neglect to hear them,

49:27.500 --> 49:31.500
tell it unto the church. But if he shall neglect to hear the church,

49:31.500 --> 49:35.500
let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. So there is an issue where

49:35.500 --> 49:39.500
if someone isn't getting something right, they've wronged somebody in a really grievous way

49:39.500 --> 49:43.500
and they won't receive it, they won't

49:43.500 --> 49:47.500
relent on where they're at with it, and the church has already kind of

49:47.500 --> 49:51.500
judged, well, you're wrong. This person's right.

49:51.500 --> 49:55.500
What you've done is wrong. And they won't back down off that, then we're supposed to throw that

49:55.500 --> 49:59.500
because it says treat them as a heathen man and a publican.

49:59.500 --> 50:03.500
That means what? You throw them out. They're not allowed to come back to church anymore.

50:03.500 --> 50:07.500
And then it says in Verse 18, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever

50:07.500 --> 50:11.500
he shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever he shall loose on earth

50:11.500 --> 50:15.500
shall be loosed in heaven. So we bind that person as

50:15.500 --> 50:19.500
being thrown out, we loose that person and bring them back in.

50:19.500 --> 50:23.500
That's the principle there. So look at Proverbs chapter

50:23.500 --> 50:27.500
18 verse 19. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 19.

50:27.500 --> 50:31.500
And the problem really is

50:31.500 --> 50:35.500
with people is that they are very unforgiving.

50:35.500 --> 50:39.500
In general, people are just unforgiving about a lot of things

50:39.500 --> 50:43.500
and if we would just grasp this concept, I think our Christian lives would be a lot

50:43.500 --> 50:47.500
better instead of just holding grudges and just

50:47.500 --> 50:51.500
always wanting that person to fall or have issues.

50:51.500 --> 50:55.500
It says, A brother offended is harder to be one than a strong city

50:55.500 --> 50:59.500
and their contentions are like the bars of a castle. So once you

50:59.500 --> 51:03.500
offend someone, it's hard to win that person back

51:03.500 --> 51:07.500
over. Once you kind of cross the line with that person, it's hard

51:07.500 --> 51:11.500
to win them back over. That's what the Bible is saying right here. But is it impossible?

51:11.500 --> 51:15.500
It says it's hard to win them over.

51:15.500 --> 51:19.500
But in all honesty, as Christians, it shouldn't

51:19.500 --> 51:23.500
be that hard. That's because of the hardness of hearts

51:23.500 --> 51:27.500
that people have that they won't allow themselves to be won over. If someone

51:27.500 --> 51:31.500
apologizes to you, forgive them.

51:31.500 --> 51:35.500
The context of Matthew 18 is how to handle the offenses in the church

51:35.500 --> 51:39.500
and biblically in matters of church discipline. Look at verse 21.

51:39.500 --> 51:43.500
I should have just had you keep your finger there, but go back to Matthew chapter 18. I'm sorry.

51:43.500 --> 51:47.500
Verse 21. The Bible says in Matthew 18, 21, it says,

51:47.500 --> 51:51.500
Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me?

51:52.500 --> 51:56.500
Tell seven times? So what's the context here?

51:56.500 --> 52:00.500
Trespasses between believers, isn't it?

52:00.500 --> 52:04.500
What to do. How to do it. And then Peter asks this question right after

52:04.500 --> 52:08.500
Jesus says the whatsoever shall be loosed and bound

52:08.500 --> 52:12.500
quote right up above it. Now Peter, so

52:12.500 --> 52:16.500
now we know what the context is because Peter asked this question. How oft

52:16.500 --> 52:20.500
shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Tell seven

52:20.500 --> 52:24.500
times? Is seven times good enough?

52:24.500 --> 52:28.500
And we think of that as like, man, if someone did something to be seven times, that would be really hard

52:28.500 --> 52:32.500
for me to think that they were sincerely apologizing about it, right?

52:32.500 --> 52:36.500
But look at what it says in verse 22. Jesus saith unto him,

52:36.500 --> 52:40.500
I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy

52:40.500 --> 52:44.500
times seven. So that's a lot of times.

52:44.500 --> 52:48.500
That's 490 times. And I think that he's just being tongue in cheek

52:48.500 --> 52:52.500
here and just throwing out a big number. He's just saying

52:52.500 --> 52:56.500
when your brother asks you to forgive him, they've done you wrong, you need

52:56.500 --> 53:00.500
to forgive him. And then he goes into this parable

53:00.500 --> 53:04.500
where he explains this concept

53:04.500 --> 53:08.500
and why this concept exists in scripture. Verse

53:08.500 --> 53:12.500
23, therefore is the kingdom of heaven like unto a certain king?

53:12.500 --> 53:16.500
Who's the king? God, right?

53:16.500 --> 53:20.500
Which would take account of his servants. Who's the servants? His people, right?

53:20.500 --> 53:24.500
Verse 24, and when he had begun to reckon,

53:24.500 --> 53:28.500
one was brought unto him that owed him ten thousand talents.

53:28.500 --> 53:32.500
Now, I was looking up some stuff, I got brother Bill here,

53:32.500 --> 53:36.500
maybe he can back me up or correct me if I'm wrong here, but ten thousand

53:36.500 --> 53:40.500
talents modern day would be the equivalent of

53:40.500 --> 53:44.500
over a billion dollars. Is that right?

53:44.500 --> 53:48.500
So a talent

53:48.500 --> 53:52.500
weighs, from some of the information, there's different varying information

53:52.500 --> 53:56.500
but they're about 129 point something, so about 130 pounds each.

53:56.500 --> 54:00.500
Back then, if you remember the story where Jesus

54:00.500 --> 54:04.500
has these people, one person starts and they agree

54:04.500 --> 54:08.500
for the penny, then further on through the day he offers people the same amount of money

54:08.500 --> 54:12.500
when they come in later, right? And one person an hour before

54:12.500 --> 54:16.500
the day was done gives them the same penny and they're all mad about it, right?

54:16.500 --> 54:20.500
What's the penny? What's it represent? A day's wage.

54:20.500 --> 54:24.500
And that's why they're upset because this person only has to

54:24.500 --> 54:28.500
work an hour and they get the same amount as them, right?

54:28.500 --> 54:32.500
So, if you're going by what Jesus' reckoning of it is, then if it's

54:32.500 --> 54:36.500
129 times ten thousand, what is that Bill?

54:36.500 --> 54:40.500
Oh, I thought he was looking up

54:40.500 --> 54:44.500
the information, but he's like the coin guy or whatever, so he knows a lot about

54:44.500 --> 54:48.500
this kind of stuff. I'm just a very bad amateur, but

54:48.500 --> 54:52.500
if you go by what Jesus is saying, that's

54:52.500 --> 54:56.500
a penny. A penny. How many pennies are

54:56.500 --> 55:00.500
in one pound? A hundred.

55:00.500 --> 55:04.500
Huh? It is? Oh, for which number? How many are in a pound?

55:04.500 --> 55:08.500
Well, I'm talking about the British pound, like the

55:08.500 --> 55:12.500
Dang it. Okay.

55:12.500 --> 55:16.500
Okay. Well, according to Jesus, a penny

55:16.500 --> 55:20.500
is one day's wage. So, in the next verse,

55:20.500 --> 55:24.500
well, let me move on here and I'll come back to that.

55:24.500 --> 55:28.500
Thanks, brother Bill. Appreciate you very much. No, I'm just kidding.

55:28.500 --> 55:32.500
So, it says in verse, let's see,

55:32.500 --> 55:36.500
verse 26.

55:36.500 --> 55:40.500
Or no, verse 25. I'm sorry. So, he owes ten thousand dollars to this

55:40.500 --> 55:44.500
man who is actually the king, and that

55:44.500 --> 55:48.500
represents God. One of his servants owes him ten thousand talents.

55:48.500 --> 55:52.500
So, it's a lot more money than we have.

55:52.500 --> 55:56.500
And it says, for as much as he had not to pay, the Lord commanded him to be sold.

55:56.500 --> 56:00.500
And his wife and children, all that he had in payment to be made. Verse 26,

56:00.500 --> 56:04.500
the servant therefore fell down and worshiped him, saying, Lord,

56:04.500 --> 56:08.500
have patience with me and I will pay thee all. Then the Lord of that servant

56:08.500 --> 56:12.500
was moved with compassion and loosed him

56:12.500 --> 56:16.500
and forgave him the debt. Now, what does this big debt represent?

56:16.500 --> 56:20.500
It represents a debt that you can't pay. And when Jesus

56:20.500 --> 56:24.500
died for us, and he saved us, he forgave us

56:24.500 --> 56:28.500
of all of our debt, past, present, and future.

56:28.500 --> 56:32.500
And it's a debt that we could never pay. We could never pay this back.

56:32.500 --> 56:36.500
And even though this guy is like, hey, just have patience with me and I'll pay it all,

56:36.500 --> 56:40.500
he doesn't, he can't pay that. That's what the story

56:40.500 --> 56:44.500
is trying to convey to us, that this man, you know, was forgiven a debt

56:44.500 --> 56:48.500
that he could have never paid off. So, he forgave him.

56:48.500 --> 56:52.500
And it says, but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants,

56:52.500 --> 56:56.500
you know, one of his brothers and sisters, right?

56:56.500 --> 57:00.500
Which owed him a hundred pence. So, if you're going

57:00.500 --> 57:04.500
off the parable, that's a hundred days worth

57:04.500 --> 57:08.500
of labor. So, a hundred days worth of labor,

57:08.500 --> 57:12.500
you know, for the average laborer, I'm not sure what that is,

57:12.500 --> 57:16.500
but it's a pretty penny, literally.

57:16.500 --> 57:20.500
So, a hundred pence is a hundred days worth of

57:20.500 --> 57:24.500
labor, okay? And that's a lot, too. But

57:24.500 --> 57:28.500
what is it compared to ten thousand talents?

57:28.500 --> 57:32.500
And it says, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat

57:32.500 --> 57:36.500
and said, pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant

57:36.500 --> 57:40.500
fell down at his feet the same way he did to God, right?

57:40.500 --> 57:44.500
And besought him, saying, have patience with me and I will pay thee all.

57:44.500 --> 57:48.500
And so, what does he do? And he would

57:48.500 --> 57:52.500
not. So, this is a picture of what the Christian that's been

57:52.500 --> 57:56.500
forgiven for everything they've ever done. When they went to God for mercy,

57:56.500 --> 58:00.500
he gave it to them, and then one of their brothers and sisters in Christ

58:00.500 --> 58:04.500
did something that was not even close to the wickedness that they've even

58:04.500 --> 58:08.500
done in their own life, and they won't forgive?

58:08.500 --> 58:12.500
It is wicked, and that's what the story is trying to help us to understand.

58:12.500 --> 58:16.500
If God will forgive you of all this sin that you've done, why can't you forgive

58:16.500 --> 58:20.500
somebody for something they've slided you on? Why? Because

58:20.500 --> 58:24.500
it is wicked. It's very wicked. So, I guess my math was

58:24.500 --> 58:28.500
off. Bill has some shape. No, I'm just kidding. He's fine.

58:28.500 --> 58:32.500
But, like, it still holds up. One penny, one day of labor.

58:32.500 --> 58:36.500
That's a lot of money if you're talking about a hundred days.

58:36.500 --> 58:40.500
So, and what I looked up was

58:40.500 --> 58:44.500
a penny, was a pound, was a hundred pence or pennies?

58:44.500 --> 58:48.500
Oh, since 19. Okay, so that's why I came up with the math.

58:48.500 --> 58:52.500
But it fits for the dollar, doesn't it?

58:52.500 --> 58:56.500
Okay, that makes sense. So, but if the talent back then was

58:56.500 --> 59:00.500
130 pounds and there was 10,000 talents, there's

59:00.500 --> 59:04.500
13,000 days of labor compared to, you know,

59:04.500 --> 59:08.500
13,000 days of labor is a lot, right?

59:08.500 --> 59:12.500
And the math I came up with, which probably is wrong, but that's 130

59:12.500 --> 59:16.500
million days of labor if you count it for a penny, right?

59:16.500 --> 59:20.500
Because the 13,000 days

59:20.500 --> 59:24.500
if it was a pound, one talent, but that doesn't

59:24.500 --> 59:28.500
equate with what it would actually be in pennies, okay? So, it

59:28.500 --> 59:32.500
does work out to be more money than we could ever come up with in our life, okay? That's the point of the

59:32.500 --> 59:36.500
story. So, I knew I was going to mess this up, but anyway, verse 30.

59:36.500 --> 59:40.500
Dang it, Bill, why'd you have to show up today? No, I'm just kidding. But

59:40.500 --> 59:44.500
I'm glad if I'm wrong. I just want to make sure I'm right. But

59:44.500 --> 59:48.500
Matthew 18, verse 30 says, and he would not, but he went and cast

59:48.500 --> 59:52.500
him into prison until he should pay the debt. So, what is that picture?

59:52.500 --> 59:56.500
It's picturing that in your mind, that person needs to

59:56.500 --> 01:00:00.500
keep paying for what they've done. And you're not going to forgive

01:00:00.500 --> 01:00:04.500
them. You're not going to lose some of the debt. You're not going to

01:00:04.500 --> 01:00:08.500
treat them like you should. You're going to cast them into prison until they should

01:00:08.500 --> 01:00:12.500
pay the debt. So, when his fellow servants saw

01:00:12.500 --> 01:00:16.500
what was done, they were very sorry and came and told

01:00:16.500 --> 01:00:20.500
unto their Lord all that was done. Then his Lord, after he had called

01:00:20.500 --> 01:00:24.500
him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant.

01:00:24.500 --> 01:00:28.500
So, again, this is picturing God, and he's saying

01:00:28.500 --> 01:00:32.500
you're a wicked servant. Why are they wicked? Because,

01:00:32.500 --> 01:00:36.500
he's going to explain it to us. I forgave thee all that debt

01:00:36.500 --> 01:00:40.500
because thou desirest me. You asked me. You asked

01:00:40.500 --> 01:00:44.500
me to forgive it. I did it. Shouldest not thou

01:00:44.500 --> 01:00:48.500
also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had

01:00:48.500 --> 01:00:52.500
pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth

01:00:52.500 --> 01:00:56.500
and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him.

01:00:56.500 --> 01:01:00.500
So, likewise, shall my heavenly Father do also unto

01:01:00.500 --> 01:01:04.500
you, if you from your hearts forgive not every one

01:01:04.500 --> 01:01:08.500
his brother their trespasses. That is a very powerful verse.

01:01:08.500 --> 01:01:12.500
And it should really speak to our hearts as a Christian. You know, are there people

01:01:12.500 --> 01:01:16.500
in your life right now or people even in this church that you

01:01:16.500 --> 01:01:20.500
should get right with or that you should forgive for little small slights that they've

01:01:20.500 --> 01:01:24.500
done to you, a dirty look, you know, an offhand comment or whatever.

01:01:24.500 --> 01:01:28.500
And look, here's the other thing is that God doesn't make us

01:01:28.500 --> 01:01:32.500
remember every single sin we commit and forsake that

01:01:32.500 --> 01:01:36.500
individually to him. There's some things that we do that

01:01:36.500 --> 01:01:40.500
we don't even realize we're doing wrong because we're so sinful. There's

01:01:40.500 --> 01:01:44.500
sins of omission, you know, there's sins that we don't, you know,

01:01:44.500 --> 01:01:48.500
sins of ignorance, you know. There were sacrifices for these things in the Old

01:01:48.500 --> 01:01:52.500
Testament, you know. Cleanse me of secret faults.

01:01:52.500 --> 01:01:56.500
Cleanse me of these secret sins. Cleanse me, you know, of

01:01:56.500 --> 01:02:00.500
the sins that we've done ignorantly and God does that for us when he forgives us

01:02:00.500 --> 01:02:04.500
for all time, right? But then for us to go around

01:02:04.500 --> 01:02:08.500
and act all holier than thou and high and mighty when someone

01:02:08.500 --> 01:02:12.500
asks us to forgive them or maybe even they don't ask. Maybe that person

01:02:12.500 --> 01:02:16.500
doesn't even realize that you thought they were giving them a squirrely look.

01:02:16.500 --> 01:02:20.500
You know, like they were just looking at you like this and like, did you see how so and so was looking at me?

01:02:20.500 --> 01:02:24.500
I'm never going to talk to them again. It's like, why do we act

01:02:24.500 --> 01:02:28.500
like that? It's just, it's wrong, you know, and we should

01:02:28.500 --> 01:02:32.500
get this right. And, you know, I'm not like coming down on

01:02:32.500 --> 01:02:36.500
anybody. I'm just saying that if you're, if you have this attitude

01:02:36.500 --> 01:02:40.500
of the person that grabbed the guy by the throat and you want him to pay

01:02:40.500 --> 01:02:44.500
till the end of time, you want to throw that person in prison and just throw that person

01:02:44.500 --> 01:02:48.500
away, they're worthless to you. They're not somebody

01:02:48.500 --> 01:02:52.500
that you even want to entertain forgiving. We ought not to be like

01:02:52.500 --> 01:02:56.500
that because, you know what, Satan's going to get an advantage of us that way.

01:02:56.500 --> 01:03:00.500
That's for sure. So it's not only a sin

01:03:00.500 --> 01:03:04.500
to not forgive them when they ask, but a wicked sin,

01:03:04.500 --> 01:03:08.500
you know, it's a sin to just not forgive, but it's a

01:03:08.500 --> 01:03:12.500
wicked sin to not forgive your brother or sister in Christ if they ask you to

01:03:12.500 --> 01:03:16.500
forgive them. I mean, that's even another level. Because people are prideful.

01:03:16.500 --> 01:03:20.500
People will not ask. Even if someone

01:03:20.500 --> 01:03:24.500
wants to get right, sometimes people are just too embarrassed, but I mean

01:03:24.500 --> 01:03:28.500
embarrassed is really kind of just a shield to say prideful.

01:03:28.500 --> 01:03:32.500
Like, you don't want to be vulnerable to that person. And sometimes people

01:03:32.500 --> 01:03:36.500
don't respond with the right way when you try to

01:03:36.500 --> 01:03:40.500
make things right with them. They don't respond the right way. But does that mean

01:03:40.500 --> 01:03:44.500
you shouldn't go to that person? No, you still should go to that person

01:03:44.500 --> 01:03:48.500
and you're responsible for what you do. You can't be responsible for

01:03:48.500 --> 01:03:52.500
what that other person does. You can't. Let's look at Luke

01:03:52.500 --> 01:03:56.500
chapter 6 verse 38. Luke chapter 6 verse 38.

01:03:56.500 --> 01:04:00.500
I feel like I'm missing something here.

01:04:00.500 --> 01:04:04.500
Oh, yeah. Luke 6 verse 31. I'm sorry.

01:04:04.500 --> 01:04:08.500
It says

01:04:08.500 --> 01:04:12.500
I think I passed.

01:04:12.500 --> 01:04:16.500
Let's see. I messed up here.

01:04:16.500 --> 01:04:20.500
Let me start over.

01:04:20.500 --> 01:04:24.500
Where did I have you turn to last?

01:04:24.500 --> 01:04:28.500
Was it Matthew 18? Okay, I'm sorry. Matthew 5. Turn to Matthew 5.

01:04:28.500 --> 01:04:32.500
Sorry about that. So listen, we don't

01:04:32.500 --> 01:04:36.500
have to right every wrong. Everything that someone does

01:04:36.500 --> 01:04:40.500
to us, we don't have to, there doesn't have to be some reconciling.

01:04:40.500 --> 01:04:44.500
That's why Matthew 18 is a serious deal. It's not something, you know,

01:04:44.500 --> 01:04:48.500
the first level of Matthew 18 is easy, but the other two parts are hard,

01:04:48.500 --> 01:04:52.500
aren't they? The other two parts are for big, grievous

01:04:52.500 --> 01:04:56.500
situations. It's not for every single time, you know, if somebody

01:04:56.500 --> 01:05:00.500
says something that you don't like, well, I'm getting my two witnesses and I'm going to come

01:05:00.500 --> 01:05:04.500
and talk to that person. Like, that's ridiculous. Are you that much of a baby?

01:05:04.500 --> 01:05:08.500
You can't just deal with things on your own? And here's the thing, and I've talked about

01:05:08.500 --> 01:05:12.500
this a lot, we need to be able to be straight up

01:05:12.500 --> 01:05:16.500
with people. You know, the more straight up with people we are, and

01:05:16.500 --> 01:05:20.500
that hurts people's feelings sometimes because we're in a lying society that just wants to

01:05:20.500 --> 01:05:24.500
gloss over everything and not just tell people straight.

01:05:24.500 --> 01:05:28.500
And we have a tendency to do that because we don't want to

01:05:28.500 --> 01:05:32.500
be in conflict. Really? That's part of it.

01:05:32.500 --> 01:05:36.500
And you don't have to be in conflict all the time. You can just say, you know what, whatever,

01:05:36.500 --> 01:05:40.500
they were having a bad day, you know, let me just let this pass over.

01:05:40.500 --> 01:05:44.500
Because we don't have, you know, God passes over our transgressions, doesn't He?

01:05:44.500 --> 01:05:48.500
You know, the Passover? When I see the blood, I will

01:05:48.500 --> 01:05:52.500
pass over you. It's not like they didn't have transgressions, they had transgressions.

01:05:52.500 --> 01:05:56.500
When Jesus cleanses us from all of our sin, He's

01:05:56.500 --> 01:06:00.500
passing over all of our transgressions, so why can't we pass over other peoples?

01:06:00.500 --> 01:06:04.500
So, even if someone doesn't ask to forgive you,

01:06:04.500 --> 01:06:08.500
you can still forgive that person.

01:06:08.500 --> 01:06:12.500
Because, what, we're supposed to be like our Savior. We're supposed to be

01:06:12.500 --> 01:06:16.500
like God. So, Matthew

01:06:16.500 --> 01:06:20.500
chapter 5 verse 21 says,

01:06:30.500 --> 01:06:34.500
So, you know, us being angry for no reason at somebody,

01:06:34.500 --> 01:06:38.500
it's a sin, isn't it? Skip down to verse 23.

01:06:38.500 --> 01:06:42.500
It says,

01:06:46.500 --> 01:06:56.500
So, you know, obviously we don't have altars anymore.

01:06:56.500 --> 01:07:00.500
That was the Old Testament. Jesus was living in the Old Testament at that time.

01:07:00.500 --> 01:07:04.500
But He's saying, hey, if you're going to do service for God and do great things for God,

01:07:04.500 --> 01:07:08.500
or you're going to do work for God, you're going to make sacrifices for Him.

01:07:08.500 --> 01:07:12.500
You know, and you remember that you've got a problem with one of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

01:07:12.500 --> 01:07:16.500
Well, it's the same. That you should make

01:07:16.500 --> 01:07:20.500
that right. Right?

01:07:20.500 --> 01:07:24.500
It says, first be reconciled

01:07:24.500 --> 01:07:28.500
with thy brother. What does that mean?

01:07:28.500 --> 01:07:32.500
That you make things right. You reconcile.

01:07:32.500 --> 01:07:36.500
So, if you do that, you're doing well.

01:07:36.500 --> 01:07:40.500
Look at verse 26.

01:07:40.500 --> 01:07:44.500
It says, actually, in verse 25,

01:07:56.500 --> 01:08:00.500
Well, what's that have to do with it? That if you're supposed to agree with your adversary,

01:08:00.500 --> 01:08:04.500
how much more should we agree with someone that we love in Christ?

01:08:04.500 --> 01:08:08.500
And, you know,

01:08:08.500 --> 01:08:12.500
an adversary is someone that's against you. This is like probably talking about someone

01:08:12.500 --> 01:08:16.500
trying to sue you. Try to agree with them if you can.

01:08:16.500 --> 01:08:20.500
And that's what Jesus is telling people to do. Look at Luke 6,

01:08:20.500 --> 01:08:24.500
verse 31.

01:08:24.500 --> 01:08:28.500
While you're turning there, I want to read Proverbs chapter 18, verse 19. Proverbs 18, 19 says,

01:08:28.500 --> 01:08:32.500
a brother offended is harder to be one than a strong city.

01:08:32.500 --> 01:08:36.500
But look what Jesus is saying. See, the Proverbs are telling us

01:08:36.500 --> 01:08:40.500
that a brother that's offended is harder to win than a strong city.

01:08:40.500 --> 01:08:44.500
But what's Jesus saying here? Obviously, both are the word of God,

01:08:44.500 --> 01:08:48.500
but as Christians, it should be easier for us to be forgiving.

01:08:48.500 --> 01:08:52.500
Right? Because we have that picture of God forgiving us because

01:08:52.500 --> 01:08:56.500
it's not just a picture, it's reality. It's reality, folks.

01:08:56.500 --> 01:09:00.500
Luke 6, 31 says,

01:09:00.500 --> 01:09:04.500
To you do ye also to them likewise.

01:09:04.500 --> 01:09:08.500
When you screw up, don't you like people to be lenient with you,

01:09:08.500 --> 01:09:12.500
forgiving with you? When you upset your wife,

01:09:12.500 --> 01:09:16.500
don't you want her to forgive you quickly? You know, because we're sinful,

01:09:16.500 --> 01:09:20.500
and we're around our spouses all the time, and we transgress each other all the time,

01:09:20.500 --> 01:09:24.500
I'm sure, in one way or another. But, you know,

01:09:24.500 --> 01:09:28.500
we should do to them like we want done to us.

01:09:28.500 --> 01:09:32.500
What's the principle here? Well, you know, if you're forgiving to other people,

01:09:32.500 --> 01:09:36.500
then they're going to be very forgiving with you. We should do

01:09:36.500 --> 01:09:40.500
like Jesus says here. Look at verse 32.

01:09:40.500 --> 01:09:44.500
For if you love them which love you, what think have ye?

01:09:44.500 --> 01:09:48.500
For sinners also love them that love them.

01:09:48.500 --> 01:09:52.500
So, what's he talking about here? Well, you know, if we're doing good to people

01:09:52.500 --> 01:09:56.500
that aren't even family, they're not even other Christians, you know,

01:09:56.500 --> 01:10:00.500
Jesus is kind of telling us this principle is that we should love people even that don't love us.

01:10:00.500 --> 01:10:04.500
We should do good to people that don't do good to us.

01:10:04.500 --> 01:10:08.500
We should be really quick to forgive things.

01:10:08.500 --> 01:10:12.500
And if you do good to them, verse 33,

01:10:12.500 --> 01:10:16.500
which do good to you, what think have ye? For sinners also do even the same.

01:10:16.500 --> 01:10:20.500
And if you lend to them who you hope to receive,

01:10:20.500 --> 01:10:24.500
what think have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners

01:10:24.500 --> 01:10:28.500
to receive much gain. But love your enemies

01:10:28.500 --> 01:10:32.500
and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again

01:10:32.500 --> 01:10:36.500
and your reward shall be great. And ye shall be the children

01:10:36.500 --> 01:10:40.500
of the highest, for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

01:10:40.500 --> 01:10:44.500
So apply this to, I mean, this is applied to our enemies.

01:10:44.500 --> 01:10:48.500
What about our brothers and sisters in Christ?

01:10:48.500 --> 01:10:52.500
Shouldn't we apply this even more so?

01:10:52.500 --> 01:10:56.500
It says judge not that ye be not judged, condemn not that ye be not condemned,

01:10:56.500 --> 01:11:00.500
forgive and ye shall be forgiven. But if you

01:11:00.500 --> 01:11:04.500
don't have a forgiving heart, then what did it say in the other Proverb?

01:11:04.500 --> 01:11:08.500
That he's going to not forgive you. Now, obviously

01:11:08.500 --> 01:11:12.500
all of our sins are forgiven if you're saved, but that doesn't mean

01:11:12.500 --> 01:11:16.500
he's going to pass over all your transgressions here on earth and if you're not willing to be forgiving here

01:11:16.500 --> 01:11:20.500
on this earth, then he's not going to be very forgiving to you on this earth either. So whenever

01:11:20.500 --> 01:11:24.500
you screw up, see people that live in glass houses

01:11:24.500 --> 01:11:28.500
shouldn't throw rocks. Have you ever heard that term before?

01:11:28.500 --> 01:11:32.500
If you've just got all kinds of problems and you're just attacking everybody else for what

01:11:32.500 --> 01:11:36.500
they do, what about you? What about your problems? What about your things?

01:11:36.500 --> 01:11:40.500
What about your transgressions? Verse 38,

01:11:40.500 --> 01:11:44.500
Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure pressed down

01:11:44.500 --> 01:11:48.500
and shaken together and running over shall men give to your bosom.

01:11:48.500 --> 01:11:52.500
For with the same measure that you meet withal it shall be measured

01:11:52.500 --> 01:11:56.500
to you again. Now, this is applied to giving

01:11:56.500 --> 01:12:00.500
and tithing and all that stuff a lot of times, but apply it to

01:12:00.500 --> 01:12:04.500
how forgiving you are. How forgiving are you?

01:12:04.500 --> 01:12:08.500
Well, whatever measure you meet, however

01:12:08.500 --> 01:12:12.500
forgiving you are, it shall be measured to you again.

01:12:12.500 --> 01:12:16.500
So, if you want to be forgiven for all

01:12:16.500 --> 01:12:20.500
the stuff that you do and all the mistakes you make, then be more forgiving

01:12:20.500 --> 01:12:24.500
and willing to overlook other people's mistakes.

01:12:24.500 --> 01:12:28.500
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 1.

01:12:28.500 --> 01:12:32.500
Now, here we've got

01:12:32.500 --> 01:12:36.500
a situation where believers are suing

01:12:36.500 --> 01:12:40.500
each other. They're taking

01:12:40.500 --> 01:12:44.500
their causes to the unjust judges, the heathen.

01:12:44.500 --> 01:12:48.500
And we should be able to judge things in the church. Look what it says in verse 1.

01:12:48.500 --> 01:12:52.500
Dare any of you having a matter against another go to the law before the unjust

01:12:52.500 --> 01:12:56.500
and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints shall judge

01:12:56.500 --> 01:13:00.500
the world? There we are judging again. And if the world

01:13:00.500 --> 01:13:04.500
shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest

01:13:04.500 --> 01:13:08.500
matters? You get into a little fender bender out in the parking lot.

01:13:08.500 --> 01:13:12.500
Are you going to go sue your brother and sister in Christ?

01:13:12.500 --> 01:13:16.500
Well, I took it to, I got the estimates, $5,000 to fix that

01:13:16.500 --> 01:13:20.500
bumper. It's like, come on, mate. Sort yourself

01:13:20.500 --> 01:13:24.500
out. That's ridiculous. But there's

01:13:24.500 --> 01:13:28.500
people that are like that. I hit

01:13:28.500 --> 01:13:32.500
somebody's car that had a brand new truck in our church parking lot, and I was really,

01:13:32.500 --> 01:13:36.500
I was willing to just go and pay for it and whatever.

01:13:36.500 --> 01:13:40.500
But I was, you know, I just said, hey man, I hit your car. And it did

01:13:40.500 --> 01:13:44.500
cause a little like ding on it. And he said, don't worry about it.

01:13:44.500 --> 01:13:48.500
It's like, okay. But how many

01:13:48.500 --> 01:13:52.500
people do stuff like that and then they never tell people?

01:13:52.500 --> 01:13:56.500
That's wrong. But people sue each other and

01:13:56.500 --> 01:14:00.500
when Christians do it, it's wicked. Because you're

01:14:00.500 --> 01:14:04.500
taking someone to an unjust judge, a heathen that's an unbeliever, to judge

01:14:04.500 --> 01:14:08.500
something that should be able to be judged in the church. Obviously we can't judge murderers

01:14:08.500 --> 01:14:12.500
and we can't put forth what God's law says

01:14:12.500 --> 01:14:16.500
to do unto them in those situations. We only have limited power.

01:14:16.500 --> 01:14:20.500
But if someone steals, if someone causes damage, if someone

01:14:20.500 --> 01:14:24.500
does something like that, those are things that we can judge in the church and we should.

01:14:24.500 --> 01:14:28.500
And obviously, you don't walk in and go, I ding

01:14:28.500 --> 01:14:32.500
someone's car. Judge me now. It's not like that. You can

01:14:32.500 --> 01:14:36.500
just handle that stuff between the two of you.

01:14:36.500 --> 01:14:40.500
But Paul says, know ye not that we shall judge angels?

01:14:40.500 --> 01:14:44.500
How much more are the things that pertain to this life? He's talking about just things in this

01:14:44.500 --> 01:14:48.500
life, not necessarily even spiritual things. If then you have judgments of things

01:14:48.500 --> 01:14:52.500
pertain to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.

01:14:52.500 --> 01:14:56.500
I speak this to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise

01:14:56.500 --> 01:15:00.500
man among you? Know not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

01:15:00.500 --> 01:15:04.500
But brother goeth to law with brother

01:15:04.500 --> 01:15:08.500
and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there

01:15:08.500 --> 01:15:12.500
is utterly a fault among you because you go to

01:15:12.500 --> 01:15:16.500
law one with another. Why do you not rather take wrong?

01:15:16.500 --> 01:15:20.500
Can't you just like let it go?

01:15:20.500 --> 01:15:24.500
Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

01:15:24.500 --> 01:15:28.500
And obviously this has like a

01:15:28.500 --> 01:15:32.500
monetary term behind it, the defrauding.

01:15:32.500 --> 01:15:36.500
But also when you defraud yourself in your marriage, you're holding

01:15:36.500 --> 01:15:40.500
back something that you shouldn't be holding back. You're holding back from something

01:15:40.500 --> 01:15:44.500
that belongs to them. So when someone

01:15:44.500 --> 01:15:48.500
wrongs you in church, apply this

01:15:48.500 --> 01:15:52.500
and be like, well can I take this wrong? Is it really that big of a deal? Do I

01:15:52.500 --> 01:15:56.500
really have to go to their husband? Do I really have to make this a big

01:15:56.500 --> 01:16:00.500
to do? You don't have to. But I'm not saying to never

01:16:00.500 --> 01:16:04.500
go to people. I'm just saying that you don't always have to right every

01:16:04.500 --> 01:16:08.500
wrong. And look what it says in verse 8.

01:16:08.500 --> 01:16:12.500
Nay, you do wrong. You do wrong.

01:16:12.500 --> 01:16:16.500
And defraud in that your brethren. So is

01:16:16.500 --> 01:16:20.500
it wrong to defraud your brethren? Absolutely it is. But we should

01:16:20.500 --> 01:16:24.500
also be willing to just suffer ourselves to be defrauded.

01:16:24.500 --> 01:16:28.500
Not necessarily in every case, but do you think God's going to bless you if you do?

01:16:28.500 --> 01:16:32.500
Absolutely. Look at Galatians 6.1.

01:16:32.500 --> 01:16:36.500
Galatians 6.1. The Bible says in Galatians 6.1

01:16:36.500 --> 01:16:40.500
it says, Brethren, if any man be overtaken in a fault, ye

01:16:40.500 --> 01:16:44.500
which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.

01:16:44.500 --> 01:16:48.500
So the title of my sermon is

01:16:48.500 --> 01:16:52.500
Forgiveness and Restoration. So we are supposed

01:16:52.500 --> 01:16:56.500
to work to restore those that have

01:16:56.500 --> 01:17:00.500
gone away or they're kicked out or maybe they just left church because

01:17:00.500 --> 01:17:04.500
they just wanted to live a worldly life or whatever. This isn't just handling

01:17:04.500 --> 01:17:08.500
every situation where someone's kicked out. It could just be someone just left the church.

01:17:08.500 --> 01:17:12.500
Maybe it was on bad terms. Maybe they're mad or whatever.

01:17:12.500 --> 01:17:16.500
We should still, now I'm not saying go to the person that's kicked out and

01:17:16.500 --> 01:17:20.500
have coffee with them. That's not what it's talking about here. But if you can help restore

01:17:20.500 --> 01:17:24.500
that person in the spirit of meekness that's overtaken in a fault, this is talking about

01:17:24.500 --> 01:17:28.500
like when you're just having issues with certain things in life.

01:17:28.500 --> 01:17:32.500
But you don't want to fall into their, if they have a problem and they start

01:17:32.500 --> 01:17:36.500
drinking again or something, don't go over to their house and say, hey I brought this bottle of Jack Daniels

01:17:36.500 --> 01:17:40.500
I thought maybe we could just talk about this. I mean obviously that's really

01:17:40.500 --> 01:17:44.500
silly. Or to go to a bar and try to coax them out of it or something. If you had a

01:17:44.500 --> 01:17:48.500
problem with alcohol you should probably stay away from it. Whatever sin problem

01:17:48.500 --> 01:17:52.500
you've already had a problem with you should stay away from that sin and not put yourself in that

01:17:52.500 --> 01:17:56.500
situation. But look at verse 2 it says, bear ye one another's

01:17:56.500 --> 01:18:00.500
burdens. You know if someone's having an issue maybe they've come to you and just said, hey

01:18:00.500 --> 01:18:04.500
will you pray for me about this? That's not you going, well so and so

01:18:04.500 --> 01:18:08.500
is having a problem. And I don't want to say who, but brother Bill, I mean

01:18:08.500 --> 01:18:12.500
you know

01:18:12.500 --> 01:18:16.500
I don't want to give this person away, but

01:18:16.500 --> 01:18:20.500
I'll just give you their initials, Sheila Jackson.

01:18:20.500 --> 01:18:24.500
She's just really having this issue. Look if someone comes to you

01:18:24.500 --> 01:18:28.500
obviously be there for them, try to help restore them in the spirit of meekness,

01:18:28.500 --> 01:18:32.500
but don't, you've got to consider yourself lest you be tempted.

01:18:32.500 --> 01:18:36.500
But we should bear one another's burdens and

01:18:36.500 --> 01:18:40.500
we've got to understand that in verse 3 it says, for if a

01:18:40.500 --> 01:18:44.500
man think himself to be something when he's nothing he deceiveth

01:18:44.500 --> 01:18:48.500
himself. Don't start thinking you're the high and mighty Mr. Spiritual

01:18:48.500 --> 01:18:52.500
either, because take heed lest you should fall. 1 Corinthians 10

01:18:52.500 --> 01:18:56.500
verse 11, we'll go right there. It says

01:18:56.500 --> 01:19:00.500
now all these things happen unto them for in samples

01:19:00.500 --> 01:19:04.500
and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.

01:19:04.500 --> 01:19:08.500
Guess what, that's us. And you know

01:19:08.500 --> 01:19:12.500
the Bible has lots of stories and things that actually happened, they're not

01:19:12.500 --> 01:19:16.500
just stories to help us figure out our morality, they actually happened.

01:19:16.500 --> 01:19:20.500
But we're

01:19:20.500 --> 01:19:24.500
given these examples for us to help us in our daily

01:19:24.500 --> 01:19:28.500
lives as Christians. Look at verse 12, wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth

01:19:28.500 --> 01:19:32.500
take heed lest he fall. See, anybody can

01:19:32.500 --> 01:19:36.500
fall. And you can sit there and go, well I would never do

01:19:36.500 --> 01:19:40.500
what this person did. You don't know that. Take heed lest you

01:19:40.500 --> 01:19:44.500
fall. And the Bible says in verse 13 there's no

01:19:44.500 --> 01:19:48.500
temptation taking you but such as is common to man. But God

01:19:48.500 --> 01:19:52.500
is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but with

01:19:52.500 --> 01:19:56.500
the temptation also shall make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So, you know

01:19:56.500 --> 01:20:00.500
maybe your temptation, maybe you're having a problem forgiving people.

01:20:00.500 --> 01:20:04.500
Well, you know, let God help you with that thing. Because

01:20:04.500 --> 01:20:08.500
we are all tempted to do all manner of sins that are

01:20:08.500 --> 01:20:12.500
normal. Let God help you with that.

01:20:12.500 --> 01:20:16.500
He will help you and help you to overcome sin. We have the Holy Spirit folks.

01:20:16.500 --> 01:20:20.500
The world does not have that. You know, they can try to

01:20:20.500 --> 01:20:24.500
not sin. They can try to repent of all their sins all they want, but they're never

01:20:24.500 --> 01:20:28.500
going to be able to conquer sin like a person that's a Spirit-filled person.

01:20:28.500 --> 01:20:32.500
And obviously we're not going to be able to overcome all of them, but we can overcome some

01:20:32.500 --> 01:20:36.500
of them. You know, we should really overcome and work hard to overcome

01:20:36.500 --> 01:20:40.500
not on our own account but have God help us with this thing

01:20:40.500 --> 01:20:44.500
of not being forgiving, not willing to restore people. Look at Proverbs 24 verse 17.

01:20:44.500 --> 01:20:48.500
I'm almost done. Proverbs 24 verse 17 says,

01:20:52.500 --> 01:20:56.500
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine

01:20:56.500 --> 01:21:00.500
heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it

01:21:00.500 --> 01:21:04.500
and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath

01:21:04.500 --> 01:21:08.500
from him. You don't want God because you're just like, ha ha

01:21:08.500 --> 01:21:12.500
that person, I knew they were going to fall. I knew they were going to do this. I knew this was going to happen.

01:21:12.500 --> 01:21:16.500
And you're just like gloating about it, rejoicing about your enemy that

01:21:16.500 --> 01:21:20.500
falls. And it says that if you're like

01:21:20.500 --> 01:21:24.500
that, and this is talking about your personal enemies obviously,

01:21:24.500 --> 01:21:28.500
and the Lord could see that and it displeased him and he turned away his wrath

01:21:28.500 --> 01:21:32.500
from him and then maybe focused it on you. Because it's

01:21:32.500 --> 01:21:36.500
sinful to have that kind of attitude. Look at 1 Samuel 24 verse 12.

01:21:36.500 --> 01:21:40.500
I've got three more places to turn and I'm done.

01:21:40.500 --> 01:21:44.500
1 Samuel 24 verse 12, the Bible says

01:21:44.500 --> 01:21:48.500
and this is the thing, when I've had

01:21:48.500 --> 01:21:52.500
arguments with even fellow pastors

01:21:52.500 --> 01:21:56.500
or someone just is coming at me and there's nothing I can do,

01:21:56.500 --> 01:22:00.500
nothing will appease them, nothing will fix the argument,

01:22:00.500 --> 01:22:04.500
this is what I've said to people before and this is what

01:22:04.500 --> 01:22:08.500
David said to Saul. The Lord judged between me and thee and the Lord

01:22:08.500 --> 01:22:12.500
avenged me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee.

01:22:12.500 --> 01:22:16.500
And when we're dealing with brothers and sisters in Christ that have really wronged us and

01:22:16.500 --> 01:22:20.500
harmed us and there's nothing else that can be said, nothing else

01:22:20.500 --> 01:22:24.500
can fix the situation, sometimes you just have to kind of let God be the one that judges.

01:22:24.500 --> 01:22:28.500
Because sometimes we think, because we always think we're right.

01:22:28.500 --> 01:22:32.500
That's the problem. And maybe we're wrong about some of the things that we're arguing

01:22:32.500 --> 01:22:36.500
with him about and there's wrong on both sides.

01:22:36.500 --> 01:22:40.500
But I think it's a good thing to say, when you just can't figure things out,

01:22:40.500 --> 01:22:44.500
just like, let God avenge me. If this person's wronging me,

01:22:44.500 --> 01:22:48.500
instead of taking it into my own hands to destroy this person, that's my brother.

01:22:48.500 --> 01:22:52.500
David could have killed Saul multiple times,

01:22:52.500 --> 01:22:56.500
but he didn't. Someone cut the skirt

01:22:56.500 --> 01:23:00.500
of his robe, one of his soldiers, and it smote him in his heart

01:23:00.500 --> 01:23:04.500
that he did that. And so he tells Saul,

01:23:04.500 --> 01:23:08.500
I don't understand, both times he was kind of yelling and he'd go

01:23:08.500 --> 01:23:12.500
far distance away so Saul and his men couldn't catch him. He was just yelling at them

01:23:12.500 --> 01:23:16.500
like, Saul!

01:23:16.500 --> 01:23:20.500
Here's your skirt or whatever. Here's your spear.

01:23:20.500 --> 01:23:24.500
But David wouldn't put forth his, stretch forth his hand

01:23:24.500 --> 01:23:28.500
and destroy the Lord's anointed. And you know what? If you're saved today, you're anointed

01:23:28.500 --> 01:23:32.500
by the Holy Spirit of God. So we should just be really

01:23:32.500 --> 01:23:36.500
leery of going after people that are our brothers and sisters

01:23:36.500 --> 01:23:40.500
in Christ, even if they do do bad things to us. Because not everybody

01:23:40.500 --> 01:23:44.500
that does bad things to us is some reprobate. Sometimes they're just

01:23:44.500 --> 01:23:48.500
really misguided and really wrong and have heart issues.

01:23:48.500 --> 01:23:52.500
But in verse 13 it says,

01:23:52.500 --> 01:23:56.500
wickedness proceedeth from the wicked

01:23:56.500 --> 01:24:00.500
but mine hand shall not be upon thee.

01:24:00.500 --> 01:24:04.500
So David's just telling him, even though you've done all this wrong to me,

01:24:04.500 --> 01:24:08.500
I'm not going to return that wrong. And that's how David is a lot like

01:24:08.500 --> 01:24:12.500
Jesus. That's why he's a man after God's own heart because in situations

01:24:12.500 --> 01:24:16.500
where he had to deal with these types of things, he did the right thing.

01:24:16.500 --> 01:24:20.500
He could have killed Saul. Would he have been justified in doing it?

01:24:20.500 --> 01:24:24.500
Would he be justified in doing it? He would have been, but

01:24:24.500 --> 01:24:28.500
God blessed him for the things that he did with Saul and for just

01:24:28.500 --> 01:24:32.500
not trying to right the wrongs that he did to him.

01:24:32.500 --> 01:24:36.500
Ephesians 4 verse 32,

01:24:36.500 --> 01:24:40.500
the Bible says, and this is how we should be,

01:24:40.500 --> 01:24:44.500
this is what Paul is saying also, be kind

01:24:44.500 --> 01:24:48.500
one to another. Tender hearted, that means the opposite

01:24:48.500 --> 01:24:52.500
of hard hearted. Forgiving one another, even as

01:24:52.500 --> 01:24:56.500
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

01:24:56.500 --> 01:25:00.500
And that really is the bottom line of this whole sermon. How should we be

01:25:00.500 --> 01:25:04.500
well kind one to another? How should we be tender hearted,

01:25:04.500 --> 01:25:08.500
willing, pliable, ready to forgive one another

01:25:08.500 --> 01:25:12.500
because you know what? God, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, has done it

01:25:12.500 --> 01:25:16.500
for us. And that's how our attitudes as Christians should be. We should be willing to

01:25:16.500 --> 01:25:20.500
forgive and restore people when the situation

01:25:20.500 --> 01:25:24.500
is correct. And the last verse is Matthew 5

01:25:24.500 --> 01:25:28.500
7. You don't have to turn there if you don't want to. I'm just going to read it. It says, Blessed

01:25:28.500 --> 01:25:32.500
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. When you're

01:25:32.500 --> 01:25:36.500
merciful to your brothers and sisters in Christ, when you're merciful to other people in general,

01:25:36.500 --> 01:25:40.500
you're going to be blessed because of that. So never think like

01:25:40.500 --> 01:25:44.500
you get this street view of yourself like, well I would have just done this.

01:25:44.500 --> 01:25:48.500
I feel like that sometimes. I feel like, man, if this was gangster days,

01:25:48.500 --> 01:25:52.500
there's some of these people that have really pissed me off would be

01:25:52.500 --> 01:25:56.500
dealing with a different person. But I'm a Christian.

01:25:56.500 --> 01:26:00.500
That's not how I handle things. And even though sometimes I feel like

01:26:00.500 --> 01:26:04.500
handling things like that, I just don't do it. Because you know why? Because

01:26:04.500 --> 01:26:08.500
I'm a Christian. That's why. I haven't been in a fight since I've been saved because I'm

01:26:08.500 --> 01:26:12.500
a Christian. That's just not what Christians do.

01:26:12.500 --> 01:26:16.500
And so when we can be merciful, let's be merciful. Let's have that

01:26:16.500 --> 01:26:20.500
love. Let's have our heart tuned to that instead of just always willing to condemn

01:26:20.500 --> 01:26:24.500
and talk bad about and tail bear and all that

01:26:24.500 --> 01:26:28.500
other garbage, the unforgiving attitude that people have.

01:26:28.500 --> 01:26:32.500
That ought not to be the way our church is. Obviously when it's

01:26:32.500 --> 01:26:36.500
time for wrath, when it's time for judgment, yes, sometimes we have to

01:26:36.500 --> 01:26:40.500
carry that stuff out. You have to be balanced. It can't be just all

01:26:40.500 --> 01:26:44.500
love and no hate. It has to be

01:26:44.500 --> 01:26:48.500
balanced out. So there's times

01:26:48.500 --> 01:26:52.500
to be wrathful. There's times to be all this. But let's have a

01:26:52.500 --> 01:26:56.500
forgiveness in our heart for those that sin and offend us.

01:26:56.500 --> 01:27:00.500
Don't just live in bitterness and unforgiveness because that's when the devil

01:27:00.500 --> 01:27:04.500
is going to get the advantage over you. And then you're going to be bitter

01:27:04.500 --> 01:27:08.500
and you're going to die bitter and you don't want to be like that.

01:27:08.500 --> 01:27:12.500
And we'll be better for it. We'll be better for that

01:27:12.500 --> 01:27:16.500
attitude as opposed to having just the attitude that we're never going to forgive people for stuff.

01:27:16.500 --> 01:27:20.500
I don't want to be in a church like that. I don't think our church is like that.

01:27:20.500 --> 01:27:24.500
But I don't want our church to be like that. So hopefully this is

01:27:24.500 --> 01:27:28.500
some things that could maybe help some people. Maybe people are holding on to some anger that

01:27:28.500 --> 01:27:32.500
they shouldn't be or not forgiving people that they should. And let this

01:27:32.500 --> 01:27:36.500
let the scripture speak for themselves. I wasn't taking things out

01:27:36.500 --> 01:27:40.500
of context. I was wrong about some of my numbers. Thanks Bill.

01:27:40.500 --> 01:27:44.500
No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, who's right

01:27:44.500 --> 01:27:48.500
in this situation? Sometimes it's hard to tell. But you know what's right?

01:27:48.500 --> 01:27:52.500
Forgiving. Having a tender heart. Being merciful.

01:27:52.500 --> 01:27:56.500
Those things are good. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for

01:27:56.500 --> 01:28:00.500
the Bible and how it just teaches us every way we should go. Lord, let us walk in your

01:28:00.500 --> 01:28:04.500
truth. Let us be guided by your light. Pray that you just help us

01:28:04.500 --> 01:28:08.500
Lord in our day to day life and help us to not be hard-hearted, Lord. It's so easy to do.

01:28:08.500 --> 01:28:12.500
In 2023 about all the just things that are going on around us

01:28:12.500 --> 01:28:16.500
and Lord, sometimes life is hard. But I just pray that we would have

01:28:16.500 --> 01:28:20.500
a heart that's filled with joy and the fact that we're

01:28:20.500 --> 01:28:24.500
saved and that we win and that we're the ones that inherit everything.

01:28:24.500 --> 01:28:28.500
And just pray that you'd help us to have that attitude because sometimes it seems

01:28:28.500 --> 01:28:32.500
like we're losing when we're really winning. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

01:28:38.500 --> 01:28:42.500
Alright, last song we saw, number 70.

01:28:42.500 --> 01:28:46.500
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

01:28:46.500 --> 01:28:50.500
Song number 70 in your

01:28:50.500 --> 01:28:54.500
blue hymn books. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

01:28:58.500 --> 01:29:02.500
Song 70. Let's sing it together on the first.

01:29:02.500 --> 01:29:06.500
Holy,

01:29:06.500 --> 01:29:10.500
holy, holy,

01:29:10.500 --> 01:29:14.500
Lord God Almighty.

01:29:14.500 --> 01:29:18.500
Early in the

01:29:18.500 --> 01:29:22.500
morning our song shall rise

01:29:22.500 --> 01:29:26.500
to thee. Holy,

01:29:26.500 --> 01:29:30.500
holy, holy,

01:29:30.500 --> 01:29:34.500
merciful and mighty,

01:29:34.500 --> 01:29:38.500
God in three

01:29:38.500 --> 01:29:42.500
persons, blessed

01:29:42.500 --> 01:29:46.500
Trinity. Holy,

01:29:46.500 --> 01:29:50.500
holy, holy,

01:29:50.500 --> 01:29:54.500
all the saints adore

01:29:54.500 --> 01:29:58.500
thee, casting down

01:29:58.500 --> 01:30:02.500
their golden crowns around the

01:30:02.500 --> 01:30:06.500
glassy sea.

01:30:06.500 --> 01:30:10.500
Cherubim and seraphim,

01:30:10.500 --> 01:30:14.500
falling down before

01:30:14.500 --> 01:30:18.500
thee, rich

01:30:18.500 --> 01:30:22.500
Word and our head,

01:30:22.500 --> 01:30:26.500
evermore shall be.

01:30:26.500 --> 01:30:30.500
Holy, holy, holy,

01:30:30.500 --> 01:30:34.500
all the saints adore

01:30:34.500 --> 01:30:38.500
thee, casting down

01:30:38.500 --> 01:30:42.500
their golden crowns around the glassy sea.

01:30:42.500 --> 01:30:46.500
Holy, holy,

01:30:46.500 --> 01:30:50.500
holy,

01:30:50.500 --> 01:30:54.500
all the saints adore

01:30:54.500 --> 01:30:58.500
thee, casting down

01:30:58.500 --> 01:31:02.500
their perfect

01:31:02.500 --> 01:31:06.500
power in love and

01:31:06.500 --> 01:31:10.500
purity. Holy,

01:31:10.500 --> 01:31:14.500
holy, holy,

01:31:14.500 --> 01:31:18.500
Lord God Almighty.

01:31:18.500 --> 01:31:22.500
All thy words shall praise

01:31:22.500 --> 01:31:26.500
thy name in earth and sky

01:31:26.500 --> 01:31:30.500
to thee. Holy,

01:31:30.500 --> 01:31:34.500
holy, holy,

01:31:34.500 --> 01:31:38.500
merciful and mighty,

01:31:38.500 --> 01:31:42.500
God in three

01:31:42.500 --> 01:31:46.500
persons, blessed Trinity.

01:31:46.500 --> 01:31:50.500
Amen.

01:31:56.500 --> 01:32:00.500
.

01:32:00.500 --> 01:32:04.500
.

01:32:04.500 --> 01:32:08.500
.

01:32:08.500 --> 01:32:12.500
.

01:32:12.500 --> 01:32:14.960
.