Welcome back.
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Want to say just
a little bit more
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about verses 14 and
15, and that is the idea
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here of balance, a
balance on the one hand
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of speaking highly,
thinking highly of leaders,
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on the other hand
holding them accountable,
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its a very important balance.
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Pastor Jon, if anything
more you want to say about it?
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We know, and-- I like
also the balance of, before
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you hold somebody accountable,
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they are not to be in that
relationship, which Paul has.
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Yes. He spent the bulk
of the letter of front part,
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reminding them
about the relationship
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and building them up
and then, the admonitions.
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And so sometimes you
know, we can come at people,
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once my calling to
hold them accountable,
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you know, and I don't
even know the person and then,
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it's hard for them to receive
that, so, relationship is,
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is a big part of
this admonitions.
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Good point. You know,
if you will. Good point.
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Lets move, yeah, lets
move on to verses 16 through 18
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and I'll read those for us.
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Paul says, "At all times
rejoice, constantly pray,
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in all
circumstances give thanks,
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for this is the will of
God for you in Jesus Christ."
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And you notice how
the verb comes at the end,
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I translated these in
such a way, that the cadence
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of the original would be
there, so three things here,
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rejoice, pray, be thankful.
How do you pray always?
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You know, something I've
been challenge in my church in,
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just recently few
months back, and I said,
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you know part of God's will
is for you to pray continually,
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to pray constantly and so, you
know, being aware of God and,
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and having a conversation
with him all throughout the day,
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you know, not just
maybe when I sit down to eat,
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but all throughout the day.
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One of the things I've asked
the church to do is, every noon,
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everyday at noon if people
on our church would just paused
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to pray and know that
they're in conversation with God
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as a community, even
though we're scattered,
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we're not gathered, but
as a church we're scattered
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we pray everyday at noon,
and there are some other things
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that we do, we have active
prayer ministry at our church,
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that is available to pray
with people after the services.
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We have people
praying during the services,
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you know, while I am preaching,
while the worship is going on
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and we see things
happening in people's lives,
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wasn't happening before,
and we gather for prayers
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at church during the
week, once a month just to sit
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at the feet of
Jesus and be together.
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There's so much, so
much that you can do,
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but, you have to be
intentional, because prayer
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is one of those things
that is talked a lot about,
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but I don't
think practiced a lot.
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I read one time that,
that next to the Bible books
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on prayer were
the second highest,
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people want to know about
prayer and understand that,
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but we have to be
intentional in it, as,
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as disciples of
Jesus in doing that.
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One of the things I've, I've
reckon with here is the idea
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that I find when I am
closest to God, there are times
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when your mind is sort of
a nothing, when you just sort
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of checked out a little
bit and when I focus on that,
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I find almost always there's
some kind of spiritual song,
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one morning it was
just Jesus loves me,
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I don't know
where that came from,
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I hadn't thought about that
in years and yet it was like
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a soundtrack in the back of my
mind, I, I didn't put it there,
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I wasn't think about.
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When, when I am close to
God that, that music background
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sometimes is the way the
continual prayer comes in.
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It reminded me of a
statement by my favorite author
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outside the Bible, Ellen
White, in a book Desire of Ages.
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She says, "As a child
Jesus carried into His labor
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cheerfulness and tact.
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Often He expressed
the gladness of His heart
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by singing psalms
and heavenly songs.
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Often the dwellers in Nazareth
heard His voice raised in praise
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and thanksgiving to God.
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He held communion
with heaven in song,
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and as His companions complained
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of weariness from
labor, they were cheered
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by the sweet
melody from His lips.
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His praise seemed to
banish the evil angels,
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and, like incense, fill
the place with fragrance.
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The minds of His
hearers were carried away
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from the earthly
exile, to the heavenly home."
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And I think music can play
an important role to keep us
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in touch with heaven.
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One other thing
is, is thankfulness.
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When did you last
thank God for the air
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you're breathing, where
would you be without that?
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When did you thank Him
for the color of the carpet,
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or the cat or you
know this is-- Right.
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That the wind that just blew
by had this refreshing breeze.
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We have so many gifts from God,
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and we don't
thank Him often enough.
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You know, its God's activity
is around us all the time.
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You know, it
just His Holy Spirit,
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Him through spirit is always
trying to reach and connect
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with us in so
many ways, you know,
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I love even just this
morning, you know, open up
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the front door and
watching the sunrise,
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hearing the wind
through the trees, you know,
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watching the clouds go
side, no many can do that,
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you know-- only God.
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Just learning to say
thank you God, whenever,
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whenever you touch
base with those realities.
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Yeah, and you know, in
prayer one other things
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that I try to pray more,
we often say God be with me,
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God be with so and so,
but, really my prayer is God
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help me to be with you,
I need to be aware of you,
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help so and so to
be with you today.
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Yes. 'Cause He is always there.
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Yes. Let's go on,
verses 19 through 22.
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Paul goes on to say,
"The Spirit do not quench,
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prophecies do not
despise, all things test,
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the good retain, from
every form of evil abstain."
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Now, couple of things
I want to point out here,
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the words that he
is saying here are stop
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despising prophecy,
stop quenching the spirit.
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Apparently the Thessalonians
were spectacle of new light.
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They were spectacle of messages
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that they hadn't heard before.
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And Paul says, stop doing that,
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so I want you to be
open, here's what you do.
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Some new teaching comes along,
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you know, don't just
check out, test it out.
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The point here is not
about prophets, prophets,
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it's about prophecy,
it's, it's the neutral word.
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He says don't
despise prophecies,
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but rather test them,
test them out, and you know,
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you have to do that,
even when it's a true prophet,
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even when it's scripture, you
have to test how that scripture
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applies to your situation.
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Imagine if a prophet
is writing two letters,
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one letter to a lazy person,
the other letter to a person
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who is a workaholic, what
would the prophet have to do,
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give opposite
advise. Right, sure.
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And if the letters
got crossed in the mail,
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big trouble did you see,
so that's where discernment
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comes in, that's
where testing comes in,
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that you don't simply read
the prophecy, okay, that's it,
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that's what we got to do,
you apply it to the situation.
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You think about it
through the Holy Spirit.
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How you can best use it,
hold faster that which is good
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for that situation.
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So Paul is saying,
be open to new ideas,
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definitely always
be open to scripture.
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I think sometimes we
tend to just go to the Bible
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to support what
we already believe
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or what we already
think, and that's dangerous,
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that's dangerous, but
when we go to Revelation,
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we go to the prophecies,
when we go to what the Bible
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has to say that were open to it,
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but we're also
testing, we're careful.
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We say, don't just
take the first application
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that comes to mind,
but maybe see if God
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has something else in that
text, that you need to hear.
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Yeah. It's not balance,
on the one hand the balance
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between
tradition on the one hand
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and new light on the other,
a balance between revelation
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and reason both of those.
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I think you ran
across a quotation,
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not too long ago that,
that might be helpful here.
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Yeah, here's this saying,
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"Become like
skillful moneychangers,
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who reject much
of what they examine,
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but hold fast to
whatever is genuine."
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You know, that was actually
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an ancient
tradition about Jesus.
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We don't know for sure
if Jesus made that comment,
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but, is very, very possible,
it's, it's a very early
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text that says that.
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And then I think
also, you know all of this,
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that Paul would warn us to
be careful, to be studious,
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to be thoughtful.
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We have many lessons to
learn, many, many to unlearn,
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this is again from Ellen White,
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Review and--
Herald July 26, 1892,
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"Many lessons to
learn, many to unlearn.
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God and heaven
alone are infallible.
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Those who think
that they will never
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have to give up a cherished
view, never have occasion
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to change an opinion,
will be disappointed."
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So as we hold on to
our own ideas and opinions
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with determine
persistency, we cannot have
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the unity for
which Christ prayed.
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Wow, that's powerful.
So, let's go the last verses,
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the time is almost running out.
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All right. Verses 23 through 27.
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"May the God of peace
Himself sanctify you completely,
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and may your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved
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blamelessly at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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The one who calls you is
faithful, and he will do it,
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Brothers, pray for us.
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Greet all the
brothers with a holy kiss.
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I charge you before the
Lord to have this letter
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read by all the
saints, brothers."
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What a great, great scripture.
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Yes, there are couple of things
we want to mention briefly,
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first of all
spirit, soul and body.
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Some people have try
to be really precise,
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you know, psychologically
and simple logically,
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you know, what
part of you is body,
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what part of you is spirit,
what part of you is soul.
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The ancients
were not that precise.
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I think when you see
how these terms are used
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throughout the Bible,
all the great scholars
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would agree that Hebrew
mindset is were whole person's,
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we're not a mind without a body,
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we're not a soul without a body.
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The body is the place where
God has put all of us together,
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and we are whole persons
and so, Paul is saying here
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whole person submission,
just go all out every fiber
00:10:04.20\00:10:08.20
you're being submitted to
God, that's the place, that's,
00:10:08.20\00:10:11.17
that's readiness
for the second coming.
00:10:11.17\00:10:13.51
Yeah. One other thing I
want to point out here is,
00:10:13.51\00:10:15.84
in this text it says
preserved blamelessly
00:10:15.84\00:10:20.58
at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
00:10:20.58\00:10:22.75
In some translations
it suggest that maybe
00:10:22.75\00:10:24.99
at the second coming of Jesus,
people will be more blameless
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than they are now, that
isn't what this text is saying.
00:10:28.32\00:10:31.43
In the original language
it says, preserved blameless,
00:10:31.43\00:10:34.36
now as Paul is
saying, I want you to stay
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where you are now, all
away through to the end,
00:10:36.67\00:10:39.23
the faithfulness where you
are now, yes more and more,
00:10:39.23\00:10:41.94
grow and grow, but
you are faithful now,
00:10:41.94\00:10:44.77
I want you to stay
faithful till the end,
00:10:44.77\00:10:47.68
be preserved blameless,
are these guys messed up,
00:10:47.68\00:10:50.91
yes there, yet he is
encouraging them, he says no,
00:10:50.91\00:10:54.05
he says what you
have is important.
00:10:54.05\00:10:56.58
At every stage of our
life we maybe submitted to God.
00:10:56.58\00:11:00.99
At every stage of our
life we maybe as perfect
00:11:00.99\00:11:03.63
as we can be at that
stage, and I think that's,
00:11:03.63\00:11:06.96
that's what he is
talking about here.
00:11:06.96\00:11:08.86
Well, it's, its
amazing to see how Paul
00:11:11.50\00:11:16.97
calls us to this balance,
this balance of in relationships
00:11:16.97\00:11:22.24
and so forth, but do
you, are you actually denying
00:11:22.24\00:11:27.08
character growth when
you're saying that or?
00:11:27.08\00:11:28.98
No, not at all, the Hebrew
is extremely practical and so,
00:11:28.98\00:11:32.72
he, he gives us very specific.
00:11:32.72\00:11:34.69
The Thessalonians
are in a good place
00:11:34.69\00:11:36.56
in spite of their
problems, but he's also saying
00:11:36.56\00:11:38.93
more and more, grow and
-- grow, and those of us
00:11:38.93\00:11:43.00
who are walking with the Lord,
00:11:43.00\00:11:44.30
we're never gonna stop growing.
00:11:44.30\00:11:45.83
I constantly have to confront,
you know, in my own life
00:11:45.83\00:11:49.47
things that, that
aren't where they ought to be.
00:11:49.47\00:11:53.27
So he encourages
us to be faithful
00:11:53.27\00:11:55.71
to what we have,
but keep on growing.
00:11:55.71\00:12:00.65
Yeah, well, well,
well, this has been rich
00:12:00.65\00:12:02.55
as always with you, Dr.
Paulien always been rich.
00:12:02.55\00:12:05.29
But, we want to
thank you for being with us
00:12:05.29\00:12:08.36
and it's been so great.
00:12:08.36\00:12:09.52
I want to encourage
you, maybe there are areas
00:12:09.52\00:12:11.39
in your life that God
is calling you to balance,
00:12:11.39\00:12:13.86
maybe it's understanding
scripture in the different way
00:12:13.86\00:12:16.03
than you have or how you work
00:12:16.03\00:12:18.00
with your leaders and so forth.
00:12:18.00\00:12:19.87
We want to invite
you to join us next time,
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when we begin
Second Thessalonians.
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Until then God bless you, we
look forward to see you again.
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